{"id":180,"date":"2010-12-21T04:41:37","date_gmt":"2010-12-21T04:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/when-the-sun-turns-back.html"},"modified":"2010-12-21T04:41:37","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T04:41:37","slug":"when-the-sun-turns-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2010\/12\/when-the-sun-turns-back.html","title":{"rendered":"Earth guardians, calling back moon and sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sun_and_Moon_(LXXVIr).jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The night of a lunar eclipse – when the wolf eats the moon – is a time of extreme psychic dangers, for my blood ancestors in Europe and for the ancestors of the land where I live. <\/p>\n

On a mountain in the New York Adirondacks, in a gathering of active dreamers, I sought counsel from the wise ones of the Onkwehonwe – the first people of this land – on the correct ritual to conduct as earth’s shadow fell across the moon. <\/p>\n

An imposing native elder appeared at
\nthe door of the lodge as we drummed to call in the ancestors. A whole party of warriors,
\nfaces blackened for battle, waited behind him at the threshold, not intruding on our
\ncircle.<\/p>\n

The elder wore the feathered Iroquois headdress known as the gustoweh, crowned by the antlers that denote spiritual authority, because they rise above the physical head towards the spirit realm. He was clothed in deerskins. While I continued to drum, he spoke to me,
\nfirmly and clearly. <\/p>\n

During a lunar eclipse,he reminded me firmly, it is necessary to stay very close
\nto the Earth, grounded and protected. This is not the time for journeying, or
\nfor partying. “This is the time when the Wolf eats the moon.” When the moon’s
\nlight is hidden, there is a real danger of humans going crazy and behaving like
\nwolves. (A human who behaves like a wolf is very different from a wolf
\nfollowing its nature.) This is a time to evoke the tempering, spiritualizing
\ninfluence of the White Wolf.<\/p>\n

He directed my
\nattention to the huge warriors at the threshold. “They will protect you and
\nwill attack those who attack you. They must be fed.” I quickly promised to give
\nthem tobacco. The elder made it plain the guardians wanted something more: they
\nwanted meat, raw meat with plenty of blood in it. Best freshly slaughtered, but
\nwe could see what we could arrange with the kitchen. <\/p>\n

I felt blessed by
\nthe presence of the ancient ones. We followed the elder’s directions in the
\nritual we developed. In the morning, I made an offering to the warriors – a
\njuicy prime sirloin from the kitchen, and tobacco, and a little firewater. In
\nthe evening, as the Earth’s shadow fell across the moon, we formed the shape of
\na hexagram. We had made its outline on the frosty grass with cornmeal before
\nthe light went, and appointed the dancers who would take the points of the
\nhexagram, so we could find our places easily. As the moon’s brightness darkened
\ninto burned umber, we danced and sang the same words over and over. Words that
\nhonor the Earth as our Mother and help us to find our grounding.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

            <\/b><\/span>Mother I
\nfeel you under my feet
            Mother I
\nfell your heartbeat<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our breath made steam in front of our faces. We sensed
\nwilding spirits and forces of confusion as the shadow swallowed the moon. They
\ntook form as a feral wolf-pack. We continued singing. Then, like a shadow of
\nlight, the White Wolf appeared, containing and gentling the wildness of the
\npack.<\/p>\n

We danced until
\nthe return of the light. The sun’s light, reappearing at the bottom of the
\nmoon’s disk, rolled up like a drop of liquid gold over the face of a bronze
\nmirror.<\/p>\n

This is my journal account of a ceremony I led during the lunar eclipse in November, 2003. <\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i>Last night, I stayed quiet at home. I watched the first quarter hour of the eclipse through a haze of clouds, then the clouds thickened. I stayed up all night, keeping vigil, and did not go to sleep and dream until dawn.<\/p>\n

Tonight will be the time for celebration. The sun stops at 6:38 PM Eastern time today, and begins its slow return (in human perception) from the South lands towards the North. Tomorrow, there will be an extra two seconds of daylight. On Thursday, the day will be longer by all of eight seconds. <\/p>\n

For modern city-dwellers, these may be trivial details, but for our ancestors, they were of the essence. At the solstice, they poured wine and beer and mead and the blood of animal sacrifice to hail the rebirth of the sun – personified as male for some, female for others (as for the Sami, the Balts and the Japanese). The Romans moved the day of celebration forward to December 25, which was not the birth date of Jesus until the Church decided to steal the glamor of the ancient ways. <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The night of a lunar eclipse – when the wolf eats the moon – is a time of extreme psychic dangers, for my blood ancestors in Europe and for the ancestors of the land where I live.  On a mountain in the New York Adirondacks, in a gathering of active dreamers, I sought counsel from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,21,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-active-dreaming","category-psychic-health","category-shamanism"],"yoast_head":"\nEarth guardians, calling back moon and sun - 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\/when-the-sun-turns-back.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Earth guardians, calling back moon and sun - 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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\/180","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=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}