The Call of Our Courageous Hearts

Guest Post by Karin Vanhinsberg, Retreat Attendee/Mentor & Circle Member

I have felt the stirring to Spring clean, to make room for new happenings and people and ways of being that I have a sense of arriving; and, to gather together the threads of what I have already collected. In doing this I am noticing what is ready. What is ready to move on, and what is ready to be shared and braided into a stronger present so that I may flow forward into the unknown.

This dream from  a Soul Pathway’s gathering in 2015 is now ready to be shared. I have always called it a template dream, feeling it offers specific help for any difficult decision, problem or leap of faith that arises upon the steps of our soul’s path.

In the dream, something has just unfolded, a surprise realization and recognition that I have just met my beloved. We recognize it together and a mutual friend is witness to the Knowing. We are all so very much concerned because this knowledge, the happening of this- will break apart the beloved’s relationship.

There are Ancestors who keep calling to the mutual friend. They are hovering in the corner, on the sidelines of the room, they are urgently wishing to speak with my beloved and myself. We are in a community hall and there is a presentation going on and so we keep saying, “yes, soon but we have to wait until the presentation is over.” They ask again but I awake.

In a journey to the Ancestors I understand the dream. The Ancestors wish to be invited in to help in this tremendously difficult situation. They wish to be called in at the very first step onto this new part of these souls’ pathway. They offer the template of sitting in the circle of the medicine wheel, each person calling in their own Ancestors to sit with them and be present when the Truth is told.

The Ancestors understand there is a sacred holding, a sharing, a discerning, a witnessing, a listening, a grieving, an encouraging and a supporting for each soul in this way of action.

I love the vision of the medicine wheel with each person taking their rightful place in a sacred direction : the Beloved, the former Partner, the Dreamer (me),  and the Mutual Friend ( the soul friend, the Anam Cara) who holds space and witnesses and guides the sharing of the Truth along with each of the Ancestors. In the medicine wheel template, each person is held and heard while they sing their soul’s song of love and grief: as they take their leap of faith to stay on course with this unexpected turning of  their soul’s path.

In this courageous, clear, accountable process, each soul is capable of stepping forward from here.  Our soul is not alone on this journey,  as we heal and stretch our growing edges so do our Ancestors; and in turn we all leave our foot prints for our ascendants to follow.

This dream bubbles to the surface another dream from a year ago: In the dream I am with a group of people, I no longer remember what we are doing together as a group. There is one scene I can recall of myself on board a cruiseship and I am in a cabin with my parents. I am trying to help them ‘recognize’ the people and ‘ways’ of the group. The girlfriend of the CEO comes to the room and invites us for dinner. I donot get a chance to explain the CEO is not here with his wife but his girlfriend. There is a point at dinner in which this concern no longer matters.

The scene switches to the strongest part of the dream. I am carrying a piece of molded wood. It is not heavy but it requires my constant care and attention as I carry it down many flights of stairs and around corners. I am awake enough now to know I am carrying “my piece” and continuing to the place where my piece fits into the whole structure- each piece being carried by someone who holds a piece of a particular big dream or big picture.

In the movie Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, 3 people eventually come together to manifest a very  Big Dream. They realize that not everyone at this point in time is ready to believe in their particular dream. After some soul searching and heart break, they choose to be with the people who are in alignment with their piece, their part, their vision of holding the dream they wish to manifest.

The keys I notice in this dream are about carrying my piece, staying present to it; and, having to spiral deep through the layers- leaving the other dream, the cruise ship behind to look for those pieces that go with mine. The movie is a visual version of the medicine wheel dream in which we can watch the characters being called to this big dream and going through the formidable task of letting go of the relationships, jobs and homes that are not in keeping with their big dream.

What would the movie have been like if the characters had sat in circle with their Ancestors and spoke of their dream, their souls’s paths? In a dream only a few days ago I was able to experience what it feels like to be held in a sacred space in preparation to face something formidable. In the dream, my friend is with me, in the next room it seems there is something formidable that I will have to face, a frightening  enormous unknown. He smudges me with a feather, in ceremony after ceremony. All night I dream of this series of ceremonies and connection with a caring friend. I feel loved ,I feel held in sacredness, I feel heaven.

I envision how this medicine wheel template sounds like when I hear this beautiful Sami song which was created by Jon Henrik Fjallgren when his best friend Daniel died. Although I do not understand the words, I  know I hear the Grief and the Love soaring through it.

Big Love, Karin

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Home practice

What would it look like to invite my Ancestors in to my every day worries and cares?

How could I feel nourished by their loving answers?

How could braiding a strong connection of conversation with my Ancestors astonish me?