North Star

Week "N" of the Pagan Blog Project 2013

Several months ago, my friend Ann recalled a dream she had about the North Star. Ann is a gifted musician and teacher, and my " go to" elder in the Pagan community. She is a bright, funny,sassy, and smart crone who's not afraid to speak her mind. She is most often right. This dream, however, perplexed her.

The other night I had my own dream about Ann's dream. I've been interested in dream interpretation for nearly 30 years since I was involved in a Jungian analysis group sponsored by CenterPoint. I've used the information from that group as the springboard for most of my analytic work. This is the first time I've actually dreamed about someone else's dream. I lay credit for that directly to the work of Scott Cunningham in his book Dreaming the Divine [http://www.amazon.com/Dreaming-Divine-Techniques-Sacred-Sleep/dp/1567181929].

Sleep is indeed sacred. We enter an altered state of consciousness known only to our psyche. I believe that during sleep we connect most truthfully and easily to our higher self and Shadow, unimpeded by any attempt to influence what is personally true through masking by the psyche. In the state of regenerative sleep, we are free of any interference from mind chatter.

Back to Ann's dream about the North Star...

In the dark firmament of the heavens, the North Star is at a fixed point ( in the Northern Hemisphere; in the South, of course, it is the South Star). Navigators have used the North Star for this purpose. It is a reliable reference, a constant. Regardless of whatever else changes, the North Star is always there when we need a grounding point, or someplace from which to start. Ann herself is much like this. She is a reliable life resource, a wise woman and elder. Her opinion is respected by those in our little earth-centered spirituality group. A wealth of information on many subjects and traditions, she is our very own Crone Priestess-although I suspect she is blissfully humble about this. A master magickian, she has taught me to apply simplicity and patience to my workings. Whenever any of us feel adrift, we find ourselves wondering what Ann would say about whatever it is we're discerning.

Ann doesn't know that she is the North Star; I believe it's something she should come to own in the future. Her dream presages her gift of constancy and presence in the community as an elder. We have far too few like her, both in her discernment and ability to nurture. I aspire to this as I stand at the doorway to my own Cronehood.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Star