Not for tea any more
A sweet childhood memory linked to a dream I had recently.
I was upstairs in the far room in the double bed with the iron railings and brass knobs. I was alone, hardly awake. My father was in the kitchen putting turf into the fire and bringing the kettle to the boil. He intended to make tea and a slice of toast for me, from my mother’s home make bread, when this fire produced coals hot enough for the job. After the coals were red, he put a long slice of brown soda bread on to a carving fork and held it toward the heat. He waited until it was golden on one side before turning it around on the fork. He then buttered it with his own yellow homemade country butter and placed it on a tray for me. He made tea in the battered metal teapot, poured it out and laced it with two spoons of sugar and two of cream, stirring in love as it swirled around in a tin mug. When I had finished, I felt marvelous. I knelt up in the bed and shouted as loud as I could “I want more.” It is a long fall to the kitchen to be ignored.
Drawing of the dream
The Dream – I will bring it to you. I had the following dream after I meditated toward the morning when it was getting bright. I was in front of an altar again and a priest, black-haired and in red vestments, was behind the altar which I approached. I had a man behind me to my left. As we approached the altar, wanting to participate, I went up first. The priest stopped what he was doing and came toward me and said kindly into my face, as he put a hand on my arm, “ no no, I will bring it to you.”
Associations
Because the first chakra is associated with red and the priest is wearing red vestments I think my dream is linked to the first chakra, a place in the body represented by the pelvic bowl, my roots. From Revelations, the first chakra is the place of the roots of the Tree of Life, The Church of Ephesus, which has leaves for the healing of the nations, and fruits, a different one for each month of the year. How I live my life affects this first chakra. It is where I am remembering “my first love” my connection to God, and when I am not, I am using the gift of the white light from God “our daily bread” for my own selfish reasons. The priest, representing the Angel of the First Chakra, is ready to bring me something from the unconscious, a gift, “I will bring it to you.”
From the Unconscious
Other associations. When I was in India, I participated in the spiritual rituals regardless of which religion they belonged.
No body of Holy Water was safe from my baptizing others and myself. I dunked thirteen times, saying prayers. I was in the water at the beautiful and holy Golden Temple saying my christian prayers. When the song said “I go before you always” I noticed, with a laugh, that I want to be the one out in front. That may be the original sin. I have to be carful that I am not in “ I want more mode” when it come to the spiritual. This red priest will bring it to me, if I am patience. Wait in meditation. It is a promise to me.
Angel watercolor
Active Imagination
Active imagination is a way of letting the dream images talk to you. The conversation here is between the Priest and me.
I…“Priest in Red… What is your message for me?”
PIR… It is ready, and you are ready. Wait, be about your spiritual business, and wait on the Lord. If there is a hesitation about doing something, go with the instinct and do not do it. Your routine of staying at home, spending the day in your own rhythm, is what is helpful to bring you what you need.”
Rose… I try my best with the silence and waiting but am scattered in my thoughts.
PIR…No need to worry about the thoughts. As time goes by in silence, the stillness comes down on you, in your seeking. You have this experience coming through to you. It is being brought to you. When you drop down into the silence, this attention brings you to a higher dimension, and from there you receive what is prepared. The light touch of a feather is all you need. Turn yourself over in meditation, into Dao, into your spiritual side. It is from where you can sing and write and paint and listen and the activities of the day will have what is prepared in them.”
From lead to gold
Conclusion
The above active imagination is meaningful for me, as I write and pull my new “retired” life together. The impatience of wanting a practice full of people, of wanting a business, of getting kudos for what I can do with dreams, needs to be replaced with patience and silence. I have to be in the silence, until there is a flow that comes from the spiritual dimension. It comes distilled out to me from the unconscious. I am grateful for this little bit of insight.
May you find your own altar and your angels and may they bring you to your silence, so that you get the waterfall of green jade, ready to flow out of you and touch everything you love with smoothness beyond all. Waiting and Ready when you are. When I am not waiting in meditation, in writing, painting and concerned with the inner life, I love to see you. I can be reached through the navigation bar above.
Blowing in the wind in Coney Island. Picture by Frances Longworth
Rose Longworth Counseling 