Our earliest dreamers and poets were shamans…

Last updated on: May 19, 2013 at 6:52 am by Kelly Sullivan Walden

Our earliest dreamers and poets were shamans… 2013-05-15T19:56:40-06:00 Kelly Sullivan Walden

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This ladder: a spire

Sketchy interpretation, Jacob

Reaching toward infinity, the stars, the sun.

If you make it up, and back,

You’re golden.

~Joan Gelfand

Our earliest dreamers and poets were shamans. Today as in the earliest times, true shamans are poets of consciousness who know the power of song and story to teach and to heal. They understand that the right words open pathways between the worlds and draw closer the gods and goddesses who wish to live through us.

My dear friend, colleague, and dream ambassador, Joan Gelfand, inspires us to look to our dreamtime as the fodder for our most inventive creative writing. Check out her book, “A Dreamer’s Guide to Cities and Streams.” I dare you not to be inspired!

Another dream ambassador, guide, and personal dream mentor of mine, Robert Moss brings this ancient bardic tradition to life in a collection of poems and stories that stream directly from dreams and shamanic adventures in the world-behind-the-world in his new book, Here, Everything is Dreaming (Sunny Press).

Robert has a knack for carrying readers into a reality where everything is alive and conscious, where tigers and bears can lend you their forms and ravens and hawks can give you their sight, where the ancestors are talking, and the gates to the Otherworld open from wherever you are.

With the inspiration of Joan Gelfand and Robert Moss, take a dream, a dream snippet, or dream wisp and wax poetic in your dream journal. Don’t think twice about whether or not it rhymes or will make sense to anyone else.

I find when I do this, I discover elements of my dream that would otherwise get lost if I recorded them as I normally do. Poetry has a the effect of shining a light on the most vital aspect of the dream…sneaking out the back door of our conscious mind…and slipping through the cracks of our flimsy rational mental constructs… transporting us beyond the beyonds of who we think we are…and who we think we can be.

Share a poem, a poetic phrase or snippet from last night’s dream.

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Excerpted from It’s All In Your Dreams (Conari Press). Once you buy your copy, click here to receive $4,000 worth of fr*ee dreamy gifts throughout the month of May.

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Join the conversation! Post your dream on Dreams Cloud, then tweet it using #DreamChallenge.

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