Author: Denise

(Sunday, June 9, 2013)  My upcoming beach vacation must be seeping into my dreams:

I am at the Santa Barbara beach with Trish (my friend since junior high). The sky is very dark. There is a pool under the waves made of concrete blocks. She is walking along the edge, facing out toward the ocean and beckons me to follow. “I can’t,” I say, “I’ve had vertigo.”

She laughs and continues to coax me, and I continue to protest, even though the Observer Me knows that my balance is nearly completely restored.

I realize I am naked; my body is young and vital and beautiful, so I have no shame about being uncovered. But people in my party retrieve my bathing suit and ask me to put it on.

In the second dream, I am swimming alone in the pool where my sister Jo and I learned to swim, at the junior high school (now called a middle school). Again I am naked. When the others in my party show up to swim, I am at the midpoint of the pool. They ask me to put on my suit. It’s a long, sleeveless dress with a beautifully complex blue/green pattern woven into the fabric. People wonder how I can swim in such a costume. It’s effortless for me: I swish my legs like a mermaid.

I’m swimming in the deep end of the pool when I notice that the other half, the shallow end, has completely frozen over. I see my sister Jo below the ice. She is struggling to the surface, wearing ice skates. I worry: how can she swim with those blades on her feet? But she breaks the surface of the ice and takes a deep breath.

Day notes:

In my morning Tarot meditation I drew the seven of cups. The Julie Cuchia-Watts deck shows a naked young woman seated at the edge of a bathing pool, looking at her reflection in the water. Seven urns are scattered at the bottom of the pool. (Image below is by the painter Waterhouse.)

(Friday, June 14, 2013)  Trish and Jo are both Cancers (a water sign): Trish was born on June 28 and Jo on June 25.

When Trish and I were at the Santa Barbara boardwalk, we watched a sea lion swimming in an enclosed area of the pier. I felt an immediate connection to her and I understood how human-like her skeleton was beneath her skin. Her legs were hidden, but perceivable. I could also see why sailors once mistook sea lions for mermaids: in the flesh they look very different from any nature video I have seen on TV. You realize when you see a bear standing on its hind legs that bears are brethren. Same with sea lions.

Bathing suit: Card suit (hearts/cups, diamonds/wands, spades/pentacles, clubs/swords). Suit of armor. Suitor. It suits me, it fits me. Business suit. Legal suit.

Pool: collective unconscious

Balancing on (concrete) blocks, breaking through the ice. Those images have similar meanings for me. Skates require balancing on a thin metal blade. Both actions rely on coordinated movement of my feet. Feat. To state the obvious, breaking through an emotional/spiritual block using my flippers/feet.

I was born with two webbed toes on each foot.

 

(Saturday, May 25, 2013) I started firing my large clay head Thursday night. The kiln ran till 2:30 this morning. The piece is based on my dream “Black Sow.” For some reason Claudia decided that the sow’s name is Edie, based on my earlier dream about a witch/herbalist from Cornwall of that name. Yesterday I ran into Lakewinds Co-op for a few items; Bonnie’s sister-in-law Edie was behind me at the cash register, so we had a pleasant, short conversation.

Is it Edie or is it ET?

(Friday, May 24, 2013)  Over a year ago I picked up a book at Garrison Keillor’s bookstore by Gwen Westerman, Bruce White and Glenn Wasicuna called “Mni Sota Makoce, the Land of the Dakota.” I opened it to an image of my ancestor, Wabasha II. Of course I bought the book, but only began reading it last night.

So many things I did not know! The Dakota say that their origins are in the Milky Way (Star People, Wicahpi Oyate) but came to earth at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, at Mendota (Bdote):

“When the world was created, Kunjsi Maka, Grandmother Earth, was just a rock, and she was chosen to hold life. The moons, the planets, the stars and the sun agreed to help her with the task she was given. Before the earth was made there was water everywhere; no land was to be seen. The Creator then made the animals that have fur and those that swim in the water. This was the beginning of everything.

“When the world was still covered in water, the Unkthi, a powerful water spirit, sent some of the animals down into the water one by one to reach the bottom to find some clay. Many animals tried but were unsuccessful and died. The muskrat took his turn, dove into the water, and after a long time surfaced with a paw full of clay. From this small amount, land was made and placed on the turtle’s back.”

The legend is that Unkthi lives under the water at Mendota, near the sacred sites of Oheyawahi (Pilot Knob) and Mni Sni (Coldwater Spring).

My ancestor attended the 1851 treaty negotiations in Mendota, held at the Faribault house, which is now part of Fort Snelling State Park. He refused to negotiate.  The house sits in a hollow at the north edge of Mendota, a favorite snowshoeing spot for me and my coworkers this winter.

In the past 25 years, I have been employed at either Mendota or Shakopee (present-day home of the Wabasha clan and the Mdewakanton Dakota). I used to think this was completely by chance. My family also owned a log cabin on Mille Lacs when I was growing up; this is another sacred site (Bde Wakan, Spirit Lake).

I am stunned by the creation story most of all. My Big Dream of the muskrat (several years ago now) has Dakota origins; the only muskrat creation story I had been able to find up until this point was Ojibwe. I need to post that dream!