“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”
Dear Dreamers,
After six months off from leading retreats so I could focus on getting married and moving into our new home in upstate New York, I was honored to return to leading a retreat this past week for a group of women exploring the way of the heart on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
We danced through the medicine wheel of releasing the past with the archetype of the serpent. We asked for grace and the courage not to force what we're not ready to release, but instead to honor our grief and gratitude for what is already gone. We traversed into the archetype of jaguar, trusting our instincts to navigate the shadows as we travel between the physical tangible world and the world of spirit. We invited the sweetness of hummingbird medicine which offers the discernment to notice the nectar that is the most nourishing and celebrate it. After hummingbird, the next archetypical energy is eagle, where we take some time to dream. However, we don’t dream what’s just in front of our face; we rise up to an eagle’s perspective to dream bigger dreams and see the big picture. Sometimes that means expanding your dream 100 times bigger than you would normally dare to imagine. It can also mean asking, “What is the highest destiny of my soul?" and humbly move towards its fulfillment with inspired action.
As we danced with the theme of Believing in Miracles following the Way of the Heart, I shared that the definition of a miracle in a Course of Miracles is a shift in perception from fear to love. We return back to the heart, the space in which our miracles manifest.
Dreaming bigger dreams takes courage. It also takes sisterhood. It’s normal to want to protect your heart and think, “What if my huge dream doesn’t come true, and I feel like a fool for dreaming?”
To trust in yourself and the divine support of your life means you can dream without limits while knowing if your dreams don't come true in the exact way you imagine, you won't be devastated. You trust that you will be able to see the blessings alongside the challenges of life. I've personally lived to be grateful for so many big dreams that didn't manifest the way I wanted. For example, I feel extremely blessed that all my past relationships didn't work out so that I can now embark on this new life of adventure with my husband! I didn't always feel this gratitude, but I did feel trust. Following that trust, the way of the heart, has led me here. (I wrote a whole book about it!)
Our courage to dream strengthens as we cultivate the ability to find the golden thread in whatever happens in life. If we can feel as grateful for the challenges as we are for the blessings, eventually a golden alchemy happens. We dream from a place of co-creating with the world without grasping at a specific outcome.
Dreaming is tender because it reveals a fundamental belief system about your relationship to love and life. I think of the lyrics in the song "Glorious" by MaMuse when they sing:
“Oh what a day, glorious, it’s a friendly mystery.”
Of course, when we are in our trauma or trigger points, it doesn’t feel friendly! That’s real. Sometimes dancing helps, breathing helps, and looking at the light on the water helps.
Mother cultures understood that we need to take time to dream our reality into being. They describe these times as living in a dream drought in which so many have forgotten the creative power within them. Another way that it’s been explained to me is that you want to be a queen on the chessboard of your life, able to move in any direction, and if you don’t take time to dream and co-create your reality, you become a pawn on someone else’s chessboard of their vision.
Here is an invitation to take time to dream today. When you put your attention on things, they grow. Sometimes you get what you ask for, but you rarely ever get it the way you think you’re going to get it.
Beyond just dreaming, it’s also helpful to focus on what the dream feels like, which makes me think of The Desire Map by Danielle Laporte, which we read in Qoya teacher training. When you have a desire like “I want a new car!” also ask the question, “And if I got a new car, how would that feel? I would feel relaxed because I be able to trust my transportation was dependable.”
The next question is to ask: how else can you feel relaxed? “Well, when I do yoga on Tuesdays and Thursdays, maybe I could stay in Savasana 10 minutes instead of 2 minutes. Oh, and I just moved into a place that has a bathtub, so maybe I could take a bath once or twice a week.” You start to realize that what you really want is the feeling. Dance what your big dream is, with a prayer that all the dreams that are aligned with our path may come true - and - know that the feeling of your dream is not far away. Chances are, you can do something to find that feeling NOW (spoiler alert: dancing helps).
Esther and Jerry Hicks talk about the creation cycle. First, you desire, then your dream manifests, then there is a celebration of sweetness, and finally there is a new desire. Try not making yourself wrong or bad about having dreams, instead recognizing that they are a natural and inevitable part of the cycle of life.
One of my favorite things I have learned about dreaming is to be aware of when dreaming is painful. When you think, “I don’t have this now, and it hurts that I don’t have what I want,” pay attention! Ask the question: can you start to enjoy the dreaming? A playful example is of a woman who really wants to go to on vacation somewhere warm with an ocean, but can’t get the logistics of childcare, finances, time off, etc., so she stops wearing bras and underwear and wears a bikini under her clothes to work. Instead of regular lotion, she puts on suntan lotion. Finally, she listens to ocean sounds and enjoys her dream instead of suffering from it. On this Full Moon in Leo, how can you become what you seek?
Our resident astrologer, Virginia Rosenberg, shares:
The Full Moon in Leo on January 31, 2018 (8:26am EST) is a Feminine Lunation. It is also a Lunar Eclipse. Eclipses are like reset buttons, or portals of fate. The moon will become cast in red shadow for a bit over an hour at the height of this eclipse. Crossing the threshold of this lunation, we can be more of who we really are. “When we are hungry, we must become bread.” In other words, we can become what we seek. Humanity is asked to adapt, to evolve, and to become more of what it’s meant to be. We are here to be each other’s keeper. To protect and feed one another, to provide shelter and companionship within our human family. To radiate from the core of our being and deliver our gifts. This Moon celebrates the feminine and women in many phases: girl, lover, wife, mother, provider. The luminaries highlight two major asteroid Goddesses: Ceres and Juno. Ceres is the Grain Goddess. The Earth Mother. Her name means “to feed, to satiate, to bear, to bring forth, to grow and produce.” Her name means bread itself. What is feeding you? And what are youfeeding and bringing forth upon this Earth? Make offerings to Ceres. She is content with little, as long as the contents are pure. The Sun during this eclipse is conjunct Juno, Queen of Heaven, the Divine Consort. She presides over marriages and unions, conception, pregnancy, and birth. She governs contracts of all kinds. We are familiar with the term “patron saint,” denoting protection or guidance by a virtuous figure. These asteroid goddesses are Matron Saints, Virtuous Mothers. Welcome their influence. This eclipse is our pathway between the sacred and the mundane. If our humanity bars us from fully being Goddesses, we will embody them as virtuous femmes. Not for the sake of goodness, but for True Love, and for the liberation of all beings to become more of and experience who and what they really are. When we are hungry, we become bread. We thank you, Mother Earth. We thank you, Queen of Heaven. We embody your medicine and we bow to you.
Shall we take some time to dream today? I love the lyrics of this song:
“Take some time to dream, cause your dreams might save us all.”
Alacazamshazam is part remembered ancient Goddess practice and part modern magic-making. Over the years, many dreams that were once dreams have come true after this dreaming practice which we do often in Qoya classes.
These videos were made as an additional resource for our Qoya teachers. However, I feel so strongly that this movement practice is the best way to honor this unique event in the sky is with the movement practice of Alacazamshazam! The last combination of eclipse, blue moon and super moon happened over 150 years ago!
Please watch the videos here to learn how to do the practice. and find someone to do it with you! It could be on the phone, on Skype, on FaceTime, or in person!
Who would you can become your dream? To embody it through movement? To become the bread that feeds you?
Shall we find out?
With a prayer for a new dream,
Rochelle
Classes with Rochelle Schieck
The superpower of being a woman is that you can feel contrasting emotions at the very same time. Astrologically speaking, there's a LOT to feel in February, so come get more grounded and aligned with your feminine superpowers so that you can ride the waves of this time with authenticity and wholeness.
I was just interviewed by, Christina Miglino, on a free series called, “The Millennial Spirit: How To Clarify Your Dream, Unleash Your Full Potential, And Make Money While Living Your Purpose.” Christina speaks with over 21 major influencers coaches, entrepreneurs, artists, healers, and best-selling authors about how to access that which is deeply within us in order to bring it out and share it with the world.
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