Sacred Dreams

 

The following dream came to me recently.  It offers us living images, scent, melody, intuitions.  It points toward a way of seeing humanity’s fresh hope: a return to the feminine principle of relationship with all beings.

 

 I am with a group of people somewhere in Asia.  It is the time of ceremony.  The Empress is to have her feet washed; the gilt basin is ready.  I have been chosen to enact this ceremony with her, and am informed of the immense importance of this honor.  She waits regally. 

 

I am given a large water vessel but at my approach, she playfully pulls her feet up under her robes.  Now we are twinkling and quietly laughing together.  Amidst coaxing and playfulness, she slowly lowers her feet to be washed in the warm clear waters.

 

A smaller bowl is now given. It is a rich composite: frankincense, precious minerals, black deep-prairie soil.  I am to pour this into the pristine water.  As I wash her feet, I watch the elixir spiral around the basin:

I see

clouds   

wave patterns

fractal’s swirl

orbiting interplanetary dust,

I see

evolution emerging

in generative waters

 

The foot-washing cleanses, blesses, and nourishes everyone.  We are given wafers now, to immerse in the germinating elixir, to eat and thereby absorb grace.

 

this is Her body,

this is Her blood

this is a new

Holy Communion

 

Now, the washing finished, I turn to bring her shoes.  Upon return I see

 

her feet bare

unbound

even by silken shoes.

She steps down and,

arms outstretched,

runs lightly away from

glistening marble

ornately carved wood

 

away from the prison

of separation.

Hair unclasped

flowing free behind her

lustrous in forest’s green light

she runs home

as a thrush sings in

the scented woods.

 

 

I offer this spring wish to you: fresh hope for humanity’s return to the feminine principle of relationship with all beings.

 

Come visit my website Wild Graces where you will find many resources to explore these life-giving practices of respect, relationship and responsibility ~ for yourself, your family and the community.  https://www.sharifaoppenheimer.org/more-ways-to-connect

 

This dream is excerpted from my book of poems A Litany of Wild Graces ~ Meditations on Sacred Ecology. 

 

Photo: Kuan Yin of the Southern Sea. This eight-foot painted wooden statue, carved in China in the years 907- 1000 is a stunning representation of Kuan Yin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.  She resides in her own small temple, inside the Nelson Museum of Art in Kansas City. Although this photo is filled with beauty, to sit quietly within her temple and feel the power and grace of the feminine is a great gift, indeed.