Dreaming Our World Into Being

By Meg Beeler

Visioning helps us step closer to what the Navajo call "the beauty way." Dreaming the world into being, we feel our true power; we find our paths and our individual destiny. The energies of imagination are more fun than the energies of complaining (think of a child in those two states). And as we feed the collective matrix with our visions, we help shift the "probability threads" into a weaving that nurtures and sustains all life.

As the Old Ones said, dreaming affects the collective. Reality follows our expectations and our visions. We do create what we perceive. When a vision is magnificent, our hearts sing with the universe and each other, and we are empowered to live more fully. When a vision is terrifying, we learn how to let go of outcome and focus on doing all we can; and it takes us into deeper communion with the original creative energies of the cosmos.

In Courageous Dreaming, as Alberto Villoldo writes, "The dreamtime, the creative matrix, does not exist in a place outside of us. Rather, it infuses all matter and energy, connecting every creature, every rock, every star, and every ray of light or bit of cosmic dust. The power to dream is the power to participate in creation itself...dreaming reality is not only an ability but a duty, one we must perform with grace and love so that our grandchildren will inherit a world where they can live in peace and abundance."

To make change, we need courage. We need to believe it is possible to shift our energy, alter our beliefs, nudge the consciousness of a people, a country, a world.

We know (or at least have been told) that we attract what we think about, focus on, and put energy into. Yet most of us don't find it easy to articulate a clear vision of what we want, for ourselves or the planet. This happens — our vagueness, our difficulty with visioning — because most of us have been taught that we cannot create what we want, and we often lack the tools or support to move forward. How do we change such beliefs and circumstances?

Indigenous people who went on vision quest faced some of the same challenges we do. How can we let their experiences guide ours in daily life?

The first step is to set an intention and make space for a vision by leaving the ordinary. Jesus went to the desert for 40 days. The Oglala Sioux fasted and prayed on a mountaintop. We can find modern people who will guide us on quest; or we might have a day of ceremony, of meditation, or of hiking alone to create such a space.

The second step is to let go of what stands in our way. In traditional quests, people fasted (food distracts us); left familiar environs and responsibilities; and went into nature (no cell phones, IPods, or email). We might ask "What do I need to let go of?" "What blocks me?" "What habits feed my anxiety/fear/powerlessness?"

The third step, after setting intention and letting go, is to seek the vision. In a vision quest, people watched for signs and synchronicities to guide them; prayed and asked for assistance; opened themselves to the universe with no expectation of outcome. One often had to quest many times before the vision was clear. We, too, can pay attention to signs and synchronicities; can ask our spirit helpers; can ask to be shown. And once a quest begins, it often becomes a lifelong focus, with the universe providing guidance whenever we ask (and often when we do not!)

The fourth step, once the vision manifests, is to feed it with attitude and action. This meant making whatever changes were required. It meant believing the vision was possible, no matter how outlandish, unimaginable, or difficult it seemed. It meant acting as if the vision could and would happen. It meant feeding the vision with ceremony, offerings, and prayer.

To help ourselves vision in these times, it feels important to seek each other out, to strengthen individual intent with collective entrainment and the power of group intent. We'll be exploring the invisible matrix of creation together, in Sonoma, on three separate days of visioning over the next half-year.

Creating the world we want is a much more subtle and powerful mode of operation than destroying the one we don't want.
                                  —Marianne Williamson

FEEDBACK: CLICK HERE to email comments and feedback. Please note the title of the article or the author's name. Include your own name or type "name withheld" by request. Thoughtful responses will be published in our next edition.