One of the beautiful gifts of art is that it gives us a platform to express our dreams. I believe that we are all striving to return to a state of love. The dream realm is one place you can go to for guidance on how to navigate between the hearts true home and the practical reality of our mundane lives. Dreams help us to see our natural power which frees up our expressive ability in life.
This past weekend I was lucky to volunteer at the New Orleans Dream Caravan, a convention of dream workers, healers, spiritual artists and dreamers of all sorts. I went to informative panels and lectures, touched all the sparkly things on the vendor tables and enjoyed the chill and grounding vibe of the event. I even got to see a bit of Monica McIntyre strumming dreamily on her cello.
One of the talks I went to was called “The Dream and Kabbalah”. The speaker, Rodger Kamentez, talked of the how Kabbalah, a branch of Jewish mysticism, teaches a vision of the universe as an ongoing creative process that encompasses everything that lives and dies. The Torah, one of the main books of the Kabbalah belief system, says that the universe was created specifically in a way to revel the heart of wisdom.
In Kabbalah the dream space is navigated through the three dimensions of space, time and soul. Mr Kamentez shared that dreams give us an image of where our soul is and how it is feeling. Dreaming, he said, is a place where we get to participate in creation as this space encourages us to grow and evolve our earthly relationship with our soul. I walked away from this talk with an greater understanding of how dreams teach us to live with awareness.
Another panel I attended was called the “Environmental Imagination of New Orleans” which involved some architects and city planners, a fantasy fiction writer and an activist. The conversation was complex and challenging as New Orleans often has dream-like delusions of the reality of living within its ever-threatened water management infrastructure. My biggest take away from this talk is that the people dreaming up New Orleans future are privileged and not considerate of the minority population which builds and maintains the “dream of New Orleans culture”. Land is a scarce and disappearing commodity and if we want to ensure an environment where everyone can dream of the future we need a balanced economic reality.
As I walked towards home and away from this day of communal communion with the art of dreaming I felt peaceful and happy. I had a satchel of herbs with which to make a tea to stimulate lucid dreaming from the Wild Seed Collective, who also had a lovely selection of poetry zines and art altars. I enjoyed getting to mingle with the people from the New Orleans School for Esoteric Arts and almost got a tiny book of shadows from Fleur de Libris Books. I passed on getting an aura photo and joining in on the tea ceremony in the back yard but I enjoyed the playful mystical ambiance they added to the event.
Much gratitude for Kezia Vida and all who helped put on this great event. Im excited to dream of what next years caravan will unveil…
 |
| I got this lovely necklace which had a quartz crystal and a living terrarium!! I have to feed it water every few weeks. It makes me feel sooo magical. |
