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Dream Voyaging: Am I Dreaming?

There is a power that comes from the Dreaming to the little children who dream at night. It is said their dreams keep all the wishes of the world alive. They dream doorways of possibility and pathways of hope, opening new worlds and realities to those of us trapped in human form. The purity and innocence of these children allow them access into a space unfamiliar to most ordinary human beings called "Dreamtime." It is a place of power and magick, of manifestation where dreams become reality.

The entrance to this space is gained through specific pathways of consciousness bringing the dreamer to an altered state characteristic of that space, coupled with a certain type of rhythmic breathing governed by the emotions. A good way to understand this relationship is to retrieve a memory from your past with a lover. Think of a time when you were intimate. This space likely brought an arousing experience, causing your breathing to become very deep and heavy. Now think of a time when you were angry. This space likely brought an upsetting experience, causing your breathing to become shorter and faster.

In essence, we can think of a space as holding a number of attributes seemingly separate from ourselves; however, the way we chose to interact with that space defines our experience. An experience with a lover can be filled with love or anger or a host of other emotions. It is multi-dimensional and defined by the participants. In the Dreaming these interactions work the same.

The emotional state of the dreamer plays a significant role in how one navigates in and out of the Dreaming. The heart serves as the compass; it is our navigational instrument determining our direction relative to the dreamspace. A compass on earth shows the direction relative to earth’s magnetic poles, whereby the voyager can move by the four directions—north, south, east, west. In the Dreaming we move spherically like the hummingbird—forward, backward, leftward, rightward, upward, and downward.

To gain access to Dreamtime a dreamer must first know how to find the stillness and expansiveness that comes during the hypnagogic state, the space between wakefulness and sleep. This in-between space is where hallucinations and the sensation of falling originate. At one time or another, most of us have experienced a startle response of the body jolting us awake. Known as hypnagogic jerks, they happen when we begin to fall asleep. The key is to bypass this reaction by transcending the space, not by "falling awake" but by "falling awake" into the dream. A trick used to help a dreamer achieve this effect is to ask oneself, "Am I dreaming?"

 Chuparrosa is a Dreaming Woman who inherited the sacred art of the ensueño (Dreaming) from the Yaqui Queen of Dreams, Heather Valencia. She has also been training and closely working with Koyote, a Toltec Man of Knowledge, integrating the art of invocation with her academic training in psychology. Chuparrosa works her dream weaving by unifying worlds and mystical visions, using her body and words to sensually integrate, rearrange, and transform.

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