Category: Denise

These clay pieces are based on four dreams, the first of which appeared in July of 2014.

Dream 1: “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”
On my way to the sacred Black Hills, I meet a man who lives inside of a neolithic mound. “Hey, happy birthday,” he says. He has long white hair and is dressed in Merlin’s star-sprinkled blue cap and gown, but he tells me his name is Harry. He has a twin who also warmly greets me. Harry is extremely loving and provides me with deeply poetic information about the ecology of the earth. After the wizard departs from my dream, I go shopping, searching for clothes on a circular wooden display filled with scarves and a single brown leather purse. I discover that Merlin/Harry has placed a magician’s hat on my head.

Dream 2: “Black Wolf”
This dream occurred when I was in Glastonbury, England, for my 60th birthday during Beltane in 2017. I learned about Jill Purce from her husband Rupert Sheldrake’s 2015 email newsletter. I decided to participate in her Tantric mandala and overtone chanting ceremony at Earth Spirit Centre, an eco-retreat on a medieval farm 5 miles from Glastonbury. I stayed in an old stone cider barn next to pastures full of beautiful sheep. The Tor (an ancient sacred hill) is visible from Earth Spirit. Jill and Rupert have two sons, one named Merlin. The Arthur legend is very prominent in Glastonbury, as are two ley lines named The Michael and Mary Lines (Archangel Michael and Mary Magdalene). At the closing of the mandala we all wore white silk scarves provided by Buddhist monks.

The second night of the retreat, I dream I am on my ancestral lands, my grandmother’s farm on the prairie near Wabasha, Minnesota, home to my Irish and Dakota ancestors. I am searching for plants alongside the sandy drive. I spy a black wolf loping over the grassland and I move away as secretly as I can. I cross the gravel county road into a shallow ditch. There is a galvanized steel culvert at my back. The wolf sees me and runs at me, attacking with open jaws. I stand firm, grabbing him by the teeth.

Dream 3: “Black Wolf Romeo”
I shared the Glastonbury black wolf dream in Victoria Rabinowe’s 2017 morning session at the Anaheim IASD conference. Two days later, I dream that the black wolf and I lie together, blissfully. I gently stroke his fangs. We are in love.

Dream 4: “Black Wolf Romeo Joins Me In My Manor House”
In this recent dream, Romeo is a glistening spiritual presence in my new family home.

After the third dream, videos began showing up on my YouTube app about a black wolf named Romeo from Juneau, Alaska. He loved to play in the local dog park with his domestic cousins. There are many videos of this charming beast.

(Thursday, January 25, 2018, Virginia Woolf’s 136th birthday) moon first quarter Taurus

I awaken at 2:30 in the morning with a sore throat and slight congestion in my chest. I believe that I stay awake. I look at the clock periodically. At one point, I sense a long furry animal sneak under the covers and rest gently, warmly on my throat. Somehow I know that the fur is black. The creature is larger than a mouse or squirrel but smaller than Lola. A ferret?

The animal is related to the illness in my throat. I feel the need to tip my body over the side of the bed to shake away the furry one. When I do this, I realize I’m in the middle of a false awakening. And then I really do wake up.

I continue to lie in bed for hours with my eyes closed. I experience the same vivid shamanic imagery behind my eyelids that I saw all week in Glastonbury. The color yellow is prominent, again, but the moving shapes also remind me of surrealist paintings and animations. What an interesting dose of flu.

Day notes:

Ferret can help uncover hidden blocks and energies (throat chakra). To ferret out is to track something hidden and bring it to light. Skillful tunnel hunters. Cheerful, playful, cunning and focused.

Virginia Woolf and F. Scott Fitzgerald were for years my favorite writers. I read every book. Woolf Woman. Yesterday I had dinner with Amy Wolf. Her husband’s name is Richard Wolf, which was my favorite uncle’s name too. Tomorrow I fire Black Wolf Romeo and Mary-Mary-Quite-Contrary (aka Black Sheep).

(Wednesday, January 10, 2018) moon waning crescent Scorpio / tarot High Priestess

I lie in bed, pulling together pieces of a dream when suddenly the terrifying memory of a second dream, the most recent dream of the night, hits like a freight train.

The early dream takes place in my clay studio. Bonnie in her most fierce, powerful aspect is lecturing me. A group of small sculptures are resting outside on a bed of deep brown wood mulch. “Bring those inside! Bring those in NOW,” Bonnie snaps at me. I follow her instruction. I place them on top of my little black bookcase, nestled in mulch. They are safe.

In the second dream I am also at home, but upstairs, looking out of the living room picture window. A global event, perhaps a hurricane but probably a nuclear explosion, erupts before my eyes. Everything dissolves. Reality has the appearance of noise on an old television screen. I sense myself as a living, conscious entity in three dimensional reality but see only the grey noise. I understand that the electrical grid of the planet has been completely destroyed, and I realize I will have to find food in the natural environment. Blind as I am. Grocery stores, refrigeration, modern human culture have been wiped out in the blink of an eye. I make a telepathic connection with Cullan. He is on his way home on his bicycle. I am relieved and grateful.

Day notes:

This dream made me fragile all day. The last time I dreamt of a nuclear explosion was the day that North Korea tested their first atomic weapon.

I think the first dream is about being careful and accurate in the way I pack my clay pieces, if indeed they are accepted for the 2018 dream gallery.

The week of this dream (Sunday) there was a false missile alarm in Hawaii that terrified the community. Today, January 25, the Doomsday Clock moved to two minutes: apocalypse.