Ornithology Dream Lab

Last Friday night, I dreamt of a beautiful bird, it was not one I had ever seen before. It was distinct in its coloring and form. When I woke I carried the dream vision of it in my psyche- a large bird in flight that turned into a small bird when it landed.  I puzzled over the meaning of it.  Dream guidance from author, Robert Moss says, "We should view our dreams as more real and our waking life as more symbolic."  I have been keeping that advice in mind as I walk through my days lately and I find it to be most helpful. 

 

After reading an essay by another teacher, Jose Stevens, about the nature of the energy of animals and birds in the universe, I thought my dream was a sort of further lesson on that. In it, Stevens' says: Shamans understand that there are two ways of knowing. "One way of knowing utilizes the rational mind via the brain and the other one uses inner knowing via the heart and the brain. Inner knowing is related to Essence, so almost anything that one wants to know about the universe can be known or glimpsed this way. This second way of knowing is also the one that other intelligences use to communicate with us." 

Later that Saturday, the day after the dream, I found myself passing by a place where there are three man-made fishing ponds, an area families frequent to fish and to picnic.  As I drove by, I noticed a large bird flying low over one of the ponds- I had never seen this bird before, neither in a photo or live.  I pulled over and grabbed my binoculars quickly, in order to gaze closer and unbelievably, this bird looked just like the bird in my dream. As beautiful, as remarkable to my eyes as anything I have ever observed.  A different beauty than the Great Blue Heron, or the elegant White Egret I saw today, none-the-less awesome to witness in flight. Once home I surfed the net until I found him: a Black-Crowned Night Heron!  The small photo at the site reminded of my dream, first flying large, then landed, small.  

In my childhood home, I was raised more in the consciousness of "no-ing" than in knowing, if you get my drift. There was a long suffering, fear-based, teaching that one should say "no" to life more often than "yes."  If a joyful opportunity to do something new arose, in my family there would usually follow a litany of reasons not to do it.  The idea of inner knowing via the heart is something I am learning anew each day.  Thank you Black -Crowned Night Heron for entering my dream laboratory and offering me the possibility to recognize you in real time.  You have taught me that dreams do come true, that winged ones communicate with humans in many ways. I am enlivened by your flight into the realm of my inner knowing.