Dreaming the boar

Montpellier, France

The night before I traveled to L'Hameau de l'Etoile, near Montpellier, to open a three-day Soul Recovery training, I dreamed of the wild boar, or sanglier. In my dream, this fierce animal, associated with warrior deities and perilous hunts in European mythology and history, had become a guardian for my group. I saw it as a heraldic figure, as a statue, and then in full charge, moving ahead of humans to clear dark entities from a cavernous space.

When I reached the retreat center the following day, I noticed two wooden sculptures on the table in the refectory that had not been there during my last visit in November. They were wonderful carvings of the wild boar, one of the dominant animals in the dry hilly landscapes of the Midi.

In group shamanic journeying in the circle later that day, boars reappeared and fulfilled my dream. I had asked everyone in our circle to produce a portal image for a journey in which they would pursue the intention of receiving soul recovery healing with the aid of trackers. A man in my group gave us the image of a dark place where he felt he had lost a vital part of himself, a place he needed to reenter. During the drumming, wild boars charged ahead of the seeker and his companions, clearing out opposition and opening the way for a deep experience of healing.