{"id":211,"date":"2011-02-10T10:03:53","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T10:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/2011\/02\/in-praise-of-black-dogs.html"},"modified":"2011-02-10T10:03:53","modified_gmt":"2011-02-10T10:03:53","slug":"in-praise-of-black-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/02\/in-praise-of-black-dogs.html","title":{"rendered":"In praise of black dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Praise of Black Dogs<\/b>\"Thumbnail<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>
<\/b>
\nI am in favor of personal superstitions.
\nNot the kind Granma mumbles
\nOr the stuff of fright-night moves
\nBut the ones that grow on you
\nWhen you notice which incidents in a day
\nAre shadows cast by something ahead
\nAnd get to know which clues from the world
\nAre reliable road signs.<\/p>\n

I think a black dog, if friendly,
\nIs always a good omen
\nAnd could be a god traveling in disguise.
\nSome days you don’t have to figure this out.
\nAt the door of possibility on San Francisco Bay
\nA black dog crossed my path.
\nHis walker, a ruddy man in a red pixie hat,
\nTold me the dog’s name is Pollo,
\nShort for Apollo.
\nI have a black dog of my own.
\nHis name is Nubie, short for Anubis.
\nHe lives on my dreams
\nAnd takes on many bodies in the world.<\/p>\n

<\/i>
\nI’ve noticed again and again over the years that in my life the appearance of a
\nfriendly black dog, especially under unsual circumstances, often presages
\nsomething good. My feelings may be related to the fact that I shared my home
\nfor many years with a couple of big, sloppy black dogs; one of them returned to
\nme in dreams, after his death, as an impeccable friend and guide. <\/p>\n

In the midst of a rather difficult phone conversation with a powerful producer
\nwho had not quite been “sold” on doing a certain show with me, we
\nwere interrupted repeatedly by the barking of a dog. Finally I asked,
\n“What kind of dog is that?” “It’s a black lab,” the
\nproducer explained. It turned out she was sitting a friend’s dog for the day –
\na black dog. I knew in that instant that the conversation would turn out just
\nfine. I proceeded to tell the producer stories about black dogs who
\nhave given me messages (some of these are in The Three “Only”
\nThings<\/a><\/em>) – and the producer did not waste another second before agreeing to
\nput me on the show. “How soon can we book you?”<\/p>\n

On my way home from leading another workshop, I stopped for essential
\ngroceries. When I came out of the supermarket, I noticed that the car parked
\nbeside me had a decal that read: “Black Labrador Taxi Service.” Yes,
\nthe rest of the evening was just lovely.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Now I have a small and very woolly black puppy. Even when he pulls me out of a dream for an early walk, I know he’s good luck. When I first brought him home, he decided the pile of papers at my left hand might be chewies, and pulled out a document. When I grabbed it from him, I discovered it was a letter from several years ago, containing a dream report from a person I was going to speak with that day – exactly<\/i> what I needed to know as background for that important conversation.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Praise of Black Dogs I am in favor of personal superstitions. Not the kind Granma mumbles Or the stuff of fright-night moves But the ones that grow on you When you notice which incidents in a day Are shadows cast by something ahead And get to know which clues from the world Are reliable…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,13,40,44,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-divination","category-dream-symbols","category-poems","category-power-animals","category-synchronicity"],"yoast_head":"\nIn praise of black dogs - 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\/2011\/02\/in-praise-of-black-dogs.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In praise of black dogs - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In Praise of Black Dogs I am in favor of personal superstitions. Not the kind Granma mumbles Or the stuff of fright-night moves But the ones that grow on you When you notice which incidents in a day Are shadows cast by something ahead And get to know which clues from the world Are reliable…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/02\/in-praise-of-black-dogs.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-10T10:03:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Moss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"In praise of black dogs - 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\/2011\/02\/in-praise-of-black-dogs.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"In praise of black dogs - Dream Gates","og_description":"In Praise of Black Dogs I am in favor of personal superstitions. 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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\/211","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=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}