(Thursday, February 19, 2015, Lunar New Year, Year of the Wood Sheep) New moon in Pisces / tarot: four of wands
I often have to sit with my dreams for a day to tease out an order of events. Maybe dreams happen in a single moment and the illusion of linear time is added in waking memory. I’m still unsure of the sequence of images in the following dream:
I am visiting Bonnie’s new house with Cullan and Alea. Bonnie first shows us the kitchen, which has two rooms: a butler’s pantry and the preparation area containing countertops, sink and appliances. I am surprised that the house is smaller, cozier than was suggested by the photos I have seen. Even the appliances are the reduced size common in my childhood. The refrigerator is black.
The interior colors are warm and earthy. Floor tiles of polished quartz crystals explode underfoot in complex patterns like starry mandalas. I am mesmerized by their beauty, but I also notice sticky areas on the tiles and I try to polish them clean with my feet. Bonnie’s students must be raiding the kitchen and making messes.
Bonnie is teaching an art class to very lively young children. I can’t locate the exact space where class is being held. Sometimes it seems to be in a large studio next to the kitchen. Sometimes it seems to be in the upper floor, next to the bedrooms. Sometimes it seems to be in the barn next to the house. There is a glass patio door in the kitchen where the kids can run in and out. They are creating costumes from found objects. One child has made a nun’s or witch’s habit out of two stacked black plastic waste baskets: the top is a hood and the bottom is a cape. I think the effort is lazy and brilliant at the same time.
Cullan, Alea and I walk upstairs to see the sleeping loft. We surprise two young lovers in bed. I assume it is Kelsi and her boyfriend, yet both of the lovebirds are black. Very beautiful with large doe eyes. He is an actor I recognize, and she is his exact twin. Kelsi is a little sheepish and I can tell she does not want me to say anything to her mother. Maybe I wink at her, gently.
The three of us, Cullan, Alea and I, head out to the barn. We pass a triangular field of thick, waving grass. The root system is so ancient and deep that it rises several feet above the dirt road. Almost like a salt marsh or a hedgerow.
We notice paper litter strewn in the grass. Cullan and Alea pick it up and put it in a large metal trash container. But they leave a roll of black plastic sheathing in the grass, maybe in their hurry to get to the barn.
And the barn is certainly worth the trip. The barn IS a trip. Taking up a large corner of the stone floor is a potter’s kiln that is breathing huge orange breaths, in and out, in and out. Shaped like a sea urchin, round and squat, covered in furry sweetgrass, it’s on fire and alive. Like a character out of a fairy tale by The Brothers Grimm.
Cullan and Alea stay for a long time, observing this surrealistic creature, but eventually turn back to the house to sleep. I cannot leave the presence of the kiln. I sit alone in the dark for many hours, watching it breathe. When the fire finally ebbs, I reluctantly leave and walk outside, into the peaceful night. On my way to Bonnie’s house I pick up the neglected plastic debris and put it in the waste bin.
Day notes: Where to start? Bonnie has loaned me a wonderful book called “Braiding Sweetgrass.” Sweetgrass is a sacred plant to NDNs. It has reminded me of the potter Amy Sabrina, who lived at Sweetgrass Farm in Dalbo before she passed from breast cancer. The book is a powerful inspiration to respect all of creation, both organic and inorganic. Two mothers and two young couples. Double triad. Six is the number of partnership, marriage, creative collaboration and balance. Union of internal opposites. People whose skin is black (grounded, of the earth, ancestors), black refrigerator (chill? preservation? sustenance?), black plastic (artificial, transformation from organic to inorganic material). Hamilton says there are two kinds of black: that which is distorted/unconscious and that which veils the hidden light. A black plastic sheath could be used to veil light, I suppose. Waste containers are used in the costume/art project, and for holding debris. Cleaning the floor (the ground of being), removing waste (what is not essential), purification of old “habits” and karma. Letting go. New house, new life phase coming into being. Bonnie’s art classes at the IASD are held in multiple locations. The Kiln God has great power! Many potters create a little creature from clay called a kiln god which is used to bless each firing. I made a kiln witch to guard my pieces. Kilns transform earth into stone. Kitchens transform plants and animals into meals, sustenance. Art is transformative, alchemical. A critical point in the firing process happens at 1063 degrees, called quartz inversion. Silica (sand) molecules transform into quartz crystals. Quartz crystals are a recurrent theme in my dreams lately. From wiki: Quartz belongs to the trigonal crystal system. The ideal crystal shape is a six-sided prism terminating with six-sided pyramids at each end. The grass-covered kiln is reminiscent of a muskrat house, a sacred portal revealed to me in my muskrat dream a few years ago. (From Hamilton) mandala: alchemical symbol, balance of the four elements as well as the masculine and feminine. Pat agrees that Terri Peterson’s breath-work is transformative. The interior of the Salt Caves where she holds her Soul Breathing sessions is full of Himalayan salt crystals which glow orange in the light. It feels to me like being inside the body of a working kiln. Terri is doing a workshop at Peace Valley Sanctuary in Arkansas. The site holds an Earthkeeper Crystal and was the area where Caddo and Tula tribes lived. Guests are invited to dig for diamonds and quartz crystals. Nearby Lake Ouachita flows over quartz crystals. The Sanctuary has a loft and a barn. Maybe I am being summoned …