Reaching Through the Dream

Last night I dreamed of two juvenile whales emerging from the sea, while two playful black dogs swam around them. The whales approached and nuzzled gently. In the dream, I vividly saw my own hand tenderly caressing the faces of these playful giants, and I felt such a deep stirring of love and connection.

The night before I dreamed of a pure white stag, with deep black eyes. He presented his forehead to touch mine, and I saw my hand, close up, gently stroking his antlers.

Last week I dreamed of carrying a young salamander eft to a safe place in a small wetland, and then feeling a gravitational pull from a giant tulip poplar towering over the wetland. I saw a closeup of my hand touching the rough ridges of the bark of this giant tree, and it felt so vibrantly alive beneath my touch.

For humans, our hands are connected to our incredible technology. The "opposable thumb" that differentiates our primate species from our forest-dwelling cousins. These hands do the delicate work that our complex neocortex dreams and imagines. Our hands connect, create, care, tend, and also destroy, the world around us.

The dreaming world has called to my hands these past two weeks, in the energy of this new moon. Capricorn is the builder, the one whose ambition creates the structures that uphold the world. Whale, stag, tulip poplar, pull my hands to them, show me my capacity for care and tenderness, connect my hands to my heart, not just my mind. They remind me that we are capable of so much love, connection, and creativity in relationships that span species, language, time...

They seem to ask if we can bend our will, our technology, to serve our hearts and not just our minds. The sun has ingressed into Aquarius, followed by a parade of the personal planets that have just moved through Capricorn. From the ambitious, stable, entrepreneurial, solitary sign of the mountain, to the innovative, collectivist, eccentric, mentally active sign of the water bearer. The sun rules our hearts. This season of Aquarius is a time where the warmth of our hearts integrates with the innovative brilliance of our minds, to serve the greater community of beings to whom we belong.

The family of kin with whom we share this beautiful world are also part of our community of belonging. The whales, imperiled by warming seas and whirrling motors and giant islands of garbage and microplastics. The stag who more and more finds his family bedded in suburban backyards as his ancestral forest home is leveled for more suburban sprawl. The tulip poplar and salamander, ancient spirits of the northeastern forests where I live, becoming more and more rare. I have seen one salamander here in this forest in the almost 10 years we have lived here. I have never seen a turtle, despite having a stream course through the property. Despite several attempts to grow a tulip poplar sapling here, none have rooted, though there are many elder tulip poplar higher on the hills above us.

Feeling my hands on these wise, ancient, powerful members of my Earth family stirs a deep responsibility and love in my heart. I hope they are visiting huge numbers of us humans, the youngest of the primates, relinking their hearts to ours through the thin veil of the dream.