I keep a dream journal. I have kept one for as long as I can remember. There it sits in the top drawer of my nightstand, ready for my frantic morning scribbling. Sometimes it’s like chasing water down a drain as the memory of the dream dissolves and I pursue it with my pen.
Most of my dreams are ordinary and seem to address emotional issues around being lost and losing something. I am either hopelessly lost in an unfamiliar place, or I’m desperately searching for a lost person or precious item. The experts say that these kinds of dreams denote anxiety and frustration. I can buy that.
Every once in a while, though, there are dreams that seem to come from a higher place. I don’t know if that place is inside me or outside. Over my lifetime I’ve had premonitions that came in dreams. Although fascinating, they usually come years out-of-sync and are often ordinary-bordering-on-boring.
I have come to question just what it is we do, and where we go when we’re sleeping. Yes, the brain and the body are being refreshed and reset, but where does the soul go?
Although I can count them on one hand, I’ve had some dreams that seem to step completely out of line. These are dreams that loom large and feel important. These are dreams that grab you and won’t let go. These are dreams in which you feel completely aware and shaken to your bones by the enlightenment they offer. These are dreams that haunt you.
The Paranormal Oracle came to me as a result of such a dream. With the completion of my book, Paranormal Ponderings: A Memoir, I was at a crossroads.
The year before had been the most devastating of my entire life with the loss of my home, pets and all my material possessions to fire. I was groping for the next step.
I knew that the moving forces had cleared the boards of my life for a purpose. I just didn’t know what it was…
Then the dream. The beginning of the dream is lost to me in the way that most dreams are. It seems that we only ever catch the ending. That’s how this one played out too.
In it, I am traveling with a large group of people. It feels like a traveling company of performers. I find myself sitting at a table in a massive cafeteria-like setting. The faces at the table are a blur except for one religiously garbed man.
My attention is drawn to floor where I see a single card laying face up. The card depicts a circular holy well like the ones I’ve seen in Ireland. Looking up at me from beneath the water, is a young man’s face. I am struck with sudden recognition. I know this face so well, yet I don’t know who this is. He is silently mouthing words at me, but I don’t understand. The whole connection feels holy and intense. I am struck to my core with emotion and inexplicably, bliss.
I look up in time to see three young people observing me. They were colorfully and amusingly dressed.
For some reason, I asked:
“Are you Fae?”
At this, they grinned and giggling, ran out the door. These three have peopled my dreams before, although always in different guises. I think they are what we think of as guides.
Turning my attention back to the card, I found that it had become an entire spread of cards, laid out across the floor. Each card depicted a moving image, much like Harry Potter’s newspaper, The Prophet.
I tried to examine the images but suddenly the cards themselves began moving around and it all became a smear of color. Then I was back in this world.
It seemed a silly dream at first but I couldn’t shake the profound feelings associated with it. I knew it carried a message for me, but I just wasn’t getting it. My mind kept going back to those cards – they were mesmerizing. The feeling they gave me was exhilarating. I couldn’t let it go.
Then one morning, weeks later, it came to me in one fell swoop: I wanted to make my own cards. As a writer, artist, and a person who loves all kinds of divination cards, it wasn’t that big a stretch. I’d even spent some time as a professional Tarot reader. I’d taught myself (thank you, internet) Photoshop for the illustrations in my book and I loved working with it.
I knew I wanted it to have a paranormal/spiritual theme because… well, just because… That was pretty much all I knew at that point. So, one day I sat down with a thick notebook and a pen. I said to no one in particular:
“If you want me to do this, then you’re gonna have to help.”
That’s where my collaboration with “whatever it is,” began. I basically just took dictation until my hand was about to drop off. When I was done, I had sixty paranormal/spiritual topics and their deeper esoteric meanings. I just added a short description of the topic and my artwork.
I have channeled before and truth be told, it’s something that I think we do all the time without even realizing it. Anybody who writes or paints can tell you about this. Even athletes talk about getting in the “flow,” where things just unfold like clockwork before you in perfect completion.
Making the cards was not an easy task but every step was enjoyable and the whole process was painless and breezy.
It makes me wonder why I don’t rely more readily on these pushes from that truthful place. I know that I’m not alone in resisting things that don’t seem to have a tried-and-true earthly origin. Every impulse or decision is generally put through the wringer of practicality, conventionality, and acceptability. Maybe we’re meant to fly above those things sometimes.
Have you ever taken action based purely on intuition or a message from spirit?
