March Newsletter

Dear Dreamers,
This is for those of you who say you never dream - or for those of us in a dream desert.  Good news!  Your unconscious seizes on things all the time to offer the metaphors you need in waking life.  You don’t have to be asleep to access dreamlike wisdom:  all you have to do is pay attention to whatever insists that you see it.

For instance.  Sometimes I tune into the classic country station, because I do like a good ballad.  Last week I tuned in twice and both times I heard that old song “Mercury Blues” sung by Alan Jackson.  Really?  This felt odd. During that second airing I said to myself, Why this song now?  I asked that question in the same way I coach dreamers to ask, “Why this dream now?”  We don’t often get an immediate “aha,” but the question makes us focus on the intersection of dream life and waking life, which is where the action is.
 
It took a day or two of listening to that line in my head (Crazy bout a Mercury, Lord I’m crazy bout a Mercury) before I realized – Oh!  Mercury! Yes I am crazy about Mercury.  As in Hermes/Mercury, the Greek/Roman god of thresholds, trade, travelers, and communications.  As the messenger between gods and humans, he also brought dreams from Morpheus, the Greek god of Sleep, to human dreamers. 
 
So now I’m holding curiosity and openness for growth about my own relationship with “Mercury” energy.  For one thing, I’m abysmal at social media.  My challenges, which would make any fifth grader snort with disdain, slow me down for weeks.  So on one level, “Mercury energy” means hiring a helper (job description below). 

One another level, as a dreamworker, I'm continually cruising in a Mercury.  I'm driving along the road between Self and Ego, integrating wisdom from the inner source with insight from waking consciousness. So on this level, I'm reminded of all those ways I struggle to connect and attach to the physical world: bringing ideas, feelings, insights, and beliefs into grounded presence is often a challenge for me.  Like you, I know that practical dreamwork is Mercury in action.  So today, how can I express or embody a nonphysical reality in physical form?  I can anchor a dream with Energy painting (see Tips). And I can serve up some love by making lasagna for my wild, wonderful teenager. 

As Mercury drivers, we can offer a ride to others. Any time you listen to someone else’s dream, you show them that their dream matters. You can help them know that it holds practical wisdom as well as a glimpse into mystery. 

There's more.  We can interpret, translate, and transpose dream wisdom for others to share.  We can phrase our understandings in terms consistent with Jungian psychology or the languages of traditional faith or natural spirituality.  Knowing different ways to name a common experience offers hospitality and gives rise to various understandings of the depth and significance of the dream.  Would you rather speak of the Self, the Imago Dei, the Dreamgiver, Wisdom, the Christ Within, or another name? And whoever's ridiing shotgun with you - how would he or she language that sense of Source? There's room for it all in the Mercury.

 And one more thing: dreamers have a different roadmap. When you listen to another’s dream or share your own, you’re also opening new thresholds between the individual consciousness and the collective unconscious. Riding in that ‘49 Mercury convertible, you can navigate territories of mythic otherness: it's your Wardrobe, your Platform 9 and 3/4, or your Subtle Knife.  
As new vistas open, feel the winds of change whipping through your hair, and hear the music spilling into the widening world -  "Lord I'm crazy bout a Mercury!"
 
Travelin mercies,
Laura
 
Two Mercury Things:
-Please follow me on Facebook: I’ll try to post updates about dream events without blowing up the internet:    https://www.facebook.com/firebynightdreamwork/.  
 
-Job! I need someone excellent at social media to help put out newsletters and Facebook posts, and to give my website a facelift. Email  [email protected].  Knowledge of Mailchimp needed.