{"id":245,"date":"2011-03-16T08:26:19","date_gmt":"2011-03-16T08:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/2011\/03\/in-the-forest-of-living-symbols.html"},"modified":"2011-03-16T08:26:19","modified_gmt":"2011-03-16T08:26:19","slug":"in-the-forest-of-living-symbols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/03\/in-the-forest-of-living-symbols.html","title":{"rendered":"In the forest of living symbols"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"heron<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We want to be more literalist about
\ndreams and more symbolist about waking life. Dreams often show us events that
\nare manifesting, or will manifest in the future, in the external world. Big
\ndreams may be experiences of another reality – for example, a past or parallel
\nlife, a neighborhood in the afterlife, or a place of healing, instruction or
\ninitiation in the imaginal realm – that is as real, or arguably even more real,
\nthan the physical world.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, the waking world will speak to us in the
\nmanner of a dream if we are paying attention. Wind and rain, leaf and mountain,
\nwhisper and cry to us in their many voices. Through the play of meaningful
\ncoincidence, forces of the world behind the veil of our consensual
\nhallucinations come to bring us awake. The active, awakened dreamer senses
\nhimself walking, every day, in the forest of living symbols that Charles Baudelaire
\nevoked, with poetic clarity, in this poem:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Correspondances<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

La Nature est un temple o\u00f9 de vivants piliers
\nLaissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles;
\nL’homme y passe \u00e0 travers des for\u00eats de symboles
\nQui l’observent avec des regards familiers.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nComme de longs \u00e9chos qui de loin se confondent
\nDans une t\u00e9n\u00e9breuse et profonde unit\u00e9,
\nVaste comme la nuit et comme la clart\u00e9,
\nLes parfums, les couleurs et les sons se r\u00e9pondent.
\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

II est des parfums frais comme des chairs d’enfants,
\nDoux comme les hautbois, verts comme les prairies,
\n— Et d’autres, corrompus, riches et triomphants,
\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Ayant l’expansion des choses infinies,
\nComme l’ambre, le musc, le benjoin et l’encens,
\nQui chantent les transports de l’esprit et des sens.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

My rough translation:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Correspondences<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Nature
\nis a temple whose living columns<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

sometimes
\nlet slip mysterious words.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We walk
\nthrough a forest of symbols<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

that
\nwatch us with knowing eyes.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Like
\nechoes that mingle far away<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

in a
\ndeep and shadowy oneness<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

vast as
\nthe night and as awakening<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

fragrances,
\ncolors and sounds correspond.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

There
\nare perfumes fresh as children’s bodies<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

sweet
\nas oboes, green as meadows<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

– and
\nothers rich, corrupt and triumphal<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

with
\nthe power to grow towards the infinite<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

like
\namber, musk, resin and incense
\nthat sing the soul’s ecstasy, and the body’s joy.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This is the way to live as an active
\ndreamer in the daylight world, with poetic consciousness of what rhymes in a
\nday, of how inner and outer correspond, knowing (with goosebumps) that we are
\nsurrounded by living symbols that are looking at us.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Heron Wizard photo by Carol Blackbird<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

We want to be more literalist about dreams and more symbolist about waking life. Dreams often show us events that are manifesting, or will manifest in the future, in the external world. Big dreams may be experiences of another reality – for example, a past or parallel life, a neighborhood in the afterlife, or a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,26,40,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conscious-liviing","category-life-direction","category-poems","category-synchronicity"],"yoast_head":"\nIn the forest of living symbols - 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\/03\/in-the-forest-of-living-symbols.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In the forest of living symbols - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We want to be more literalist about dreams and more symbolist about waking life. 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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\/245","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=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}