# 34 - Grouse - Sacred Spiral accompanies Lizard today.
36
Lizard
Dreaming
Lizard . . . will you dream with me?
Travel across the starts?
Beyond the place of time and space,
There live visions from afar
Lizard sat lolling in the shadow of a big rock, shading himself from the desert sun.
Snake crawled by, looking for some shadow to coil up in and rest.
Snake watched Lizard for awhile as Lizard's eyeballs went side to side behind his enormous closed lids.
Snake hissed to get Lizard's attention.
Slowly Lizard's dreaming eyes opened and he saw snake.
"Snake! You sacred me!
What do you want?"
Lizard calmly replied..
Snake spit his answer from his forked tongue.
"Lizard, you are always getting the
best shadow spots in the heat of the day.
This is the only big rock for miles.
Why don't you share your shade with me?"
Lizard thought for a moment, then agreed.
"Snake, you can share my shade spot, but you have to go to the other side of the rock and you must promise not to interrupt me."
Snake was getting annoyed.
He hissed, "How could I bother you, Lizard?
All you are doing is sleeping."
Lizard smiled knowingly.
"Oh Snake, you are such a silly serpent.
I'm not sleeping.
I'm dreaming."
Snake wanted to know what the difference was, so Lizard explained.
"Dreaming is going into the future, Snake.
I go to where the future lives.
You see, that is why I know you won't eat me today.
I dreamed you and I know you are full of mouse."
Snake was taken aback.
"Why Lizard, you're exactly right.
I wondered why you said you would share your rock."
Lizard laughed to himself.
"Snake," he said,
"You are looking for shade and I am looking for shadow.
Shadow is where the dreams live."
Lizard Medicine is the shadow side of reality where your dreams are reviewed before you decide to manifest them physically.
Lizard could have created getting eaten by Snake if he had so desired.
Lizard is the medicine of dreamers.
Whether dreamers smoke you or dream you,
dreamers can always help you see the shadow.
This shadow can be your fears, your hopes, or the very thing you are resisting.
But it is always following you around like an
obedient dog.
If Lizard dreamed a space in your life this day, it may time to look and see what is following along behind you.
It is your fears, your future trying to catch up to you, or is it the part of you that wants to ignore your weaknesses and humanness?
Lizard may be telling you to pay attention to your dreams and their symbols.
Make a dream log and record all that you remember.
Be sure to pay attention to each individual symbol or recurring pattern.
If you do not remember your dreams upon waking
in the morning, set an alarm for 2:00 or 3:00 Am, or drink a lot of water before you go to bed and allow your bladder to wake you up.
Dreams are very important. Pay attention to
them.
If Lizard has turned up in the contrary position, you may be having a nightmare.
This is a sign of inner conflict.
Look to the nightmare for a clue to the nature of this conflict.
What are the feelings your nightmare causes?
Breathe through these feelings and let the sensations flow out of your body.
See the truth in what your nightmare is suggesting.
It could be the simple message that you are confronting your fears and therefore do not need to experience nightmarish events in your day-to-day life.
Another message of Lizard reversed is that you may need more sleep or dreamtime.
It could also imply that you have a lack of dreams for your future.
Imagination is the door to all new ideas and creations.
As you examine the dreaming process, you will find that the subconscious is processing all of the recorded messages it hold concerning the events you experienced during the day.
These messages can be suppressed feelings bringing inner conflict, or they can be new ideas or goals, other dimensions of awareness, future events, warning signals, or desires and hopes.
In one sense, contrary Lizard is insisting that you look to your imagination for new experience.
This is necessary when life becomes dull or full of boredom.
On the other hand, contrary Lizard may also apply to those who dream too much, refusing to use the dreams as tools to manifest that same vision in their lives.
All levels of awareness are accessible through dreams. Remember, life is not always as it seems.
Are you the dreamer?
Or are you the dreamed?
The lizard is a creature found in shady areas during the heat of the day, and is symbolic of the shadowy side of reality - the plane where that is coming into manifestation is being fashioned.
This plane is sometimes referred to as the "Dreamtime" - the astral plane of constantly changing patterns and shapes.
Lizard is concerned with your dreams of the future and of formulating what you want to become physical realities.
Lizard is thus connected with your subconscious mind, and your hopes and fears.
It can help you to identify those recurrent problems that follow you around like your
shadow; they must be confronted before they will depart from you.
Your aspirations must have emotion breathed into them to make them manifest.
Next time you encounter Lizard on your journey, look carefully behind you.
Record your observations in a log and note especially any symbols and signs so that you
can identity those that are recurring.
Ask Lizard to help you to understand what you see.
Keep a dream log, too, so you can become aware of what is occurring both in your dream state and your shamanic state of consciousness.
Make your dreams come true.
Rekindle lost goals or desires.
Expand your vision.
Honour messages in your dreams.
Source:
Sams, Jamie and Carson, David.
Medicine Cards
Santa Fe: Bear and Company, 1988
34 |
Sacred Spiral
Grouse . . . of the Sacred Spiral
Leading us on,
To reach the everlasting heights,
Where we can live as one.
Grouse once flocked in abundance throughout North America, but now, even on the plains, where these birds were so plentiful, there is an absence of them.
Many Plains Indian tribes dance the Grouse Dance to honour these birds.
The movement of the dance follows a spiral, which is the ancient symbol of birth and rebirth, the ribbed tunnel of
eternal return.
The Sacred Spiral is also one of the oldest know symbols for personal power.
When you think of Grouse medicine, visualize a whirlpool or even a tornado, for the Sacred Spiral will take you to the Centre.
The spiral is a metaphor for personal vision
and enlightenment.
Many initiates on Vision Quests paint spirals on their bodies and believe that the Great Mystery will favour them with visions of power and purpose because of this symbol.
The whirling dervishes of certain Sufi orders are masters of the spiral dance and can transcend to higher states of awareness through the repetition of this sacred movement.
It is said that dervishes can travel to the centre of the spiral and return with any magical power they choose.
In the dervish state, on enters the Great Silence and has direct communication with the Creator.
By spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise, the
dervish draws or repulses specific energies.
Sufi dancing is a system which connects one with the Divine Source through ritual treatment of motion.
If you have Grouse Medicine, undertake a meditation on the various qualities of movement within your world.
Begin by visualizing the sun as one member of a huge group of stars swirling in the massive pinwheel shape of the Milky Way.
Then draw yourself out of this pinwheel of light and into the spiralling of your own DNA's double helix, an arrangement similar to a rope ladder coiled like a corkscrew.
Analyze the way you move through your world.
How do you picture yourself in the act of locomotion?
What kind of reaction do you create with the energy you send into the universe?
What words would you use to describe the way you move through both the material and spiritual worlds?
In the final analysis, is your movement compatible with your greatest desires and goals?
Many spiritual disciplines ask that you cease all external movement in order to recognize the inner life. Grouse medicine, however, is an invitation to the dance.
Grouse celebrates the Divine Source through its sacred spiral dance, and offers this dance to you
as a gift.
You can spend a lifetime learning Grouse's lesson on how to harmonize your dance with Mother Earth's cycles, and how to offer the dance as a creation of selfless beauty.
Drawing the Grouse medicine card in the reverse position signals a dissipation of energy and lack of control and discipline.
It is symbolic of a lost connection to the Source, and signifies a lack of clear intent behind an outpouring of energy.
You may feel like you are in a tailspin or going down the drain.
Confront confusion either in yourself or in others who may be in the picture.
Examine the way your energy may be causing
friction, sparks, or a convolution of a situation that needs clarification.
Work towards harnessing your energy and directing it towards clearly defined goals.
Such is the nature of the Sacred Grouse Dance.
In using this sacred dance as a tool to right contrary Grouse, you may also find that it is a tool to centre or ground you.
In grounding, you are once again connecting to
Mother Earth and balancing out the spinning in your head.
If you have become so involved with an idea or problem that you are no longer seeing it clearly, you may feel dizzy or lacking in concentration.
This is a sign that you have entered the thought universe and are not connected to physical reality.
You need grounding if this occurs.
Dancing or walking will put you back in tough with Earth and your body.
Grouse may then teach you how to notice the energy flows that put you in harmony and balance
with body, mind, and spirit.
Find your rhythm.
Honour the synchronicity.
Spiral into your potential.
Sams, Jamie and Carson, David.
Medicine Cards
(Santa Fe: Bear and Company, 1988).
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