{"id":174,"date":"2010-12-14T11:10:34","date_gmt":"2010-12-14T11:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/the-language-of-the-birds.html"},"modified":"2010-12-14T11:10:34","modified_gmt":"2010-12-14T11:10:34","slug":"the-language-of-the-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/the-language-of-the-birds.html","title":{"rendered":"The language of the birds"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\"Conference_of_the_birds.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Just back from California to the snowy Northeast, I find a dozen books I recently ordered waiting for me. <\/p>\n

I open the largest, the handsome new Book of Symbols<\/i> from the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism. It falls open to a page with a gorgeous reproduction of a Persian illustration for The Language of the Birds, <\/em>Farid al-Din Attar’s poetic account of birds, like souls, on a spiritual quest that will eventually take them to the heaven bird, the Simorgh, <\/i>a mythic creature that has been part of my own dreaming for several decades <\/i>(and maybe several lifetimes). <\/i>The title of this marvelous spiritual allegory, <\/i>the Mantiq al-Tayr, i<\/i>s more commonly rendered as “The Conference of the Birds” in English, but today “The Language of the Birds” feels just right, because as my eyes move from the full-color plate to the facing page, it seems the birds are definitely speaking.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/em>On the left-hand page, these lines from James Applewhite’s “Prayer for My Son” give me my thought for the day:<\/p>\n

Soul can flame like feathers of a bird
Grow into your own plumage, brightly,
So that any tree is a marvelous city.<\/p>\n

I can’t recommend too highly making a little bibliomancy (divination by opening a book at random) or, more precisely, stichomancy (making a few lines your message) a morning practice. <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just back from California to the snowy Northeast, I find a dozen books I recently ordered waiting for me.  I open the largest, the handsome new Book of Symbols from the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism. It falls open to a page with a gorgeous reproduction of a Persian illustration for The Language of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,17,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conscious-living","category-divination","category-synchronicity"],"yoast_head":"\nThe language of the birds - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/the-language-of-the-birds.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The language of the birds - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just back from California to the snowy Northeast, I find a dozen books I recently ordered waiting for me.  I open the largest, the handsome new Book of Symbols from the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism. It falls open to a page with a gorgeous reproduction of a Persian illustration for The Language of the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/the-language-of-the-birds.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-14T11:10:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/12\/Conference_of_the_birds-thumb-360x565-20240.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Moss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The language of the birds - Dream Gates","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/the-language-of-the-birds.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The language of the birds - Dream Gates","og_description":"Just back from California to the snowy Northeast, I find a dozen books I recently ordered waiting for me.  I open the largest, the handsome new Book of Symbols from the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism. It falls open to a page with a gorgeous reproduction of a Persian illustration for The Language of the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/the-language-of-the-birds.html","og_site_name":"Dream Gates","article_published_time":"2010-12-14T11:10:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/12\/Conference_of_the_birds-thumb-360x565-20240.jpg"}],"author":"Robert Moss","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/the-language-of-the-birds.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/the-language-of-the-birds.html","name":"The language of the birds - Dream Gates","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/the-language-of-the-birds.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/the-language-of-the-birds.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/12\/Conference_of_the_birds-thumb-360x565-20240.jpg","datePublished":"2010-12-14T11:10:34+00:00","dateModified":"2010-12-14T11:10:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#\/schema\/person\/941740e4115cce34706832d06aa76b6b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/the-language-of-the-birds.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/the-language-of-the-birds.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/the-language-of-the-birds.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/12\/Conference_of_the_birds-thumb-360x565-20240.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/12\/Conference_of_the_birds-thumb-360x565-20240.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/the-language-of-the-birds.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The language of the birds"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/","name":"Dream Gates","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Robert Moss","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#\/schema\/person\/941740e4115cce34706832d06aa76b6b","name":"Robert Moss","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/777\/7770e3a2cde4458084d9a31237336b92x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/777\/7770e3a2cde4458084d9a31237336b92x96.jpg","caption":"Robert Moss"},"description":"Robert Moss describes himself as a dream teacher, on a path for which there has been no career track in our culture. He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}