{"id":3810,"date":"2011-12-21T15:58:41","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T20:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=3810"},"modified":"2011-12-21T21:47:31","modified_gmt":"2011-12-22T02:47:31","slug":"solstice-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/12\/solstice-poem.html","title":{"rendered":"Solstice poem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Eyes of the Goddess<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From a vision journey to Newgrange<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The poet waits for me in his countryman\u2019s cape<\/p>\n

And shows me the map in the gateway stone:<\/p>\n

Twin spirals to get you in, and out, of the place of bone;<\/p>\n

Wave paths to swim you from shadow to dreamscape;<\/p>\n

A stairway of stars for when you are done with earthing.<\/p>\n

I am here to practice the art of rebirthing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She calls me, into the belly of the land that is She.<\/p>\n

But I play, like the poet, with the shapes of time:<\/p>\n

I am a swimming swan on the River Boyne;<\/p>\n

I am a salmon, full with the knowing of the hazel tree;<\/p>\n

I wander with Angus, and know the girl I have visioned<\/p>\n

in gold at the throat of a white swan, beating pinions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Drawn by the old perfume of burned bones, I go down<\/p>\n

and doze until solstice fire, bright and bountiful<\/p>\n

quickens me for the return of the Lady, lithe and beautiful<\/p>\n

In the form she has taken, flowing as liquid bronze.<\/p>\n

Her face is veiled, so the man-boy called to her side<\/p>\n

like the red deer in season will not die in her eyes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I see beyond the veil, for I come from the Other.<\/p>\n

Oh, I yearn for the smell of earth and the kiss of rain!<\/p>\n

I leap with her on the hallowed bed, coming again.<\/p>\n

She knows the deer-king, as I am child and lover<\/p>\n

Her eyes are spiral paths; the gyre of creation whirls<\/p>\n

And sends me in green beauty to marry the worlds.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The inner chamber of the great Neolithic temple-tomb of Newgrange (S\u00ed an Bhr\u00fa), constructed some 5,000 years ago near the River Boyne in County Meath, Ireland,\u00a0is illuminated just once a year, at the winter solstice. Archaeologists cannot agree on the purpose of this extraordinary structure. I describe its discovery, in the early 18th century, in my novel <\/em>The Firekeeper.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eyes of the Goddess   From a vision journey to Newgrange   The poet waits for me in his countryman\u2019s cape And shows me the map in the gateway stone: Twin spirals to get you in, and out, of the place of bone; Wave paths to swim you from shadow to dreamscape; A stairway of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,38,25,40,22],"tags":[753,158,853],"class_list":["post-3810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancestral-traditions","category-ancient-religions","category-conscious-living","category-poems","category-shamanic-dreaming","tag-newgrange","tag-robert-moss-poems","tag-winter-solstice"],"yoast_head":"\nSolstice poem - 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\/12\/solstice-poem.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Solstice poem - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eyes of the Goddess   From a vision journey to Newgrange   The poet waits for me in his countryman\u2019s cape And shows me the map in the gateway stone: Twin spirals to get you in, and out, of the place of bone; 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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\/3810","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=3810"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3904,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3810\/revisions\/3904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}