Dragon's Egg, Mystic, Connecticut
On Saturday morning my cell phone pinged as I stopped my car near the goddess statue in front of the Dragon's Egg, a marvelous performance space in the woods outside Mystic, Connecticut. I was quite certain I had turned my cell phone off. Curious to know why it had come back on, I delayed my entry into the Dragon's Egg - to open a weekend workshop on Shamanic Lucid Dreaming - in order to review the new email it had announced.
The subject line of the email read "Important Question." I did not recognize the sender's name. She proved to be a woman in Europe who has been following my work. Her question, a double-header, was stated as follows:
What is the purpose of life and what is the purpose of this world?
I was amazed, and grateful. That was a theme to carry into a weekend group adventure devoted to expanding our experience of reality and meaning in the multiverse. Sometimes it's more important to have the right questions than to have the right answers. A thought from Picasso floated back to me: "Computers are useless. They only give you answers."
A question like the one that aroused my cell phone cannot be answered. It must be lived. One lifetime may be too little time for that. We may need to carry the question through successive life classes (I mean classes that take a lifetime) before our response is clear.
We spent the day in the Dragon's Egg dreaming deep, wide awake and lucid, and building a community of dreamers with the skill, the compassion and the connections in the larger reality to support each other's life journeys. We learned how to turn personal dreams into portals into the Dreamtime. We brought back soul, laid ghosts to rest, traveled across time, and roamed in the forests and savannahs of the animal powers.
At the end of the day, still thinking about the question my cell phone had insisted that I receive, I searched online for the exact wording of the Picasso quote. And found this quote from Edgar Cayce I read long ago but had forgotten: "Dreams are today's answers to tomorrow's questions." Yes.
What an amazing way to ring in a weekend of dreaming at Dragon's Egg. This is one of my favourite truths to be reminded of… eventually learning to ask clients - and myself - "would it be okay to live with the question for a while?" in response to elusive quandaries that may need time and space to incubate. And I'm relieved to hear you say one lifetime may be too little time for that :-). I love that quote of Edgar Cayce's… dreams may be most interesting answers of all, the ones that create more questions.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed remarkable that your cell phone rang in with someone asking questions that would enhance your workshop. The timing was perfect. It that isn't actually a miracle it is much like one -- proof that miricals as well as meaningful coincidences do happen.
ReplyDeleteYour remark that one lifetime might not be long enough to answer the questions the caller asked -- that is a remark worth saving.
The two quotations you posted reached me, too. They are right on. I "collect" quotations, but I do not recall ever encountering either one of those.
I just wanted to express my appreciation for your posting such a meaningful article. Thank you very much.
... have patience with everything unresolved in your heart
ReplyDeleteand to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.
Don't search for the answers,
which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them.
And the point is, to live everything.
Live the questions now.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~
I often get disgusted with myself for maintaining old, repetitive, bad habits and reflexes. I suppose behind every bad habit is the question "Why? can't I change this?" ... I will remember this post today and if I find myself repeating old, unnecessary habits (of speaking critically of others in a non-constructive way, for example), I'll remind myself that what's behind all that's not changed is a question that must be lived in order to be resolved. Thanks.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I like to imagine there are billions on very specific soul purposes uniting us in this particular space (earth) and at this particular time within the Multiverse. The challenge seems to be in valuing of our connection amid the dichotomy of our individual and collective dreams. Disconnection resides within our fears, doubts, judgments and expectations, while connections gain strength through our joy, our faith, our trust and our intentions.
ReplyDeleteAccepting our connection and our energetic contributions within the Universe (Multiverse) allows us the freedom, along with the responsibility, to act upon our Joy, and to thereby realize our soul's truest intentions. Balancing our absolute significance with our total insignificance represents the height and breadth of our human experience. More than money or possessions, I believe that true success (purpose) is the achievement of Joy within a balanced Life.
Balanced individuals will bring balance to the planet, and a balanced planet will reveal that "matter matters" (quoting Kathy Martin!) With "matter" being focused energy, suppose earth is simply an energetic proving ground for achieving pure Harmony? I imagine God (however defined) seeks harmony throughout, and that this balance is demonstrated through billions of tiny actions that occur every day and in every direction.
Thank you for sharing the question, Robert, and for continuing to elevate our conversations. You are a blessing.
Savannah - "ringing in" is right. Interesting how the universe finds many ways to ping us, including those suited to our wired and wireless lives.
ReplyDeleteDon - The whole earth is our schoolyard, and our present life class is one of many.
ReplyDeleteLynne - When in doubt (or not) reach for Rilke. Always a good plan. He was a great poet in French as well as in German and (since my French is adequate while my German is not) I often read him in that language, in order to savor his original verses.
ReplyDeleteIrene - I would also carry the knowledge that to see something as it is may also be to change it.
ReplyDeleteMary - Thanks for this soaring and hopeful vision.
ReplyDeleteHere's something connected with IQ.
ReplyDeleteImportant Questions, not Intelligence Quotient.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110329/ts_yblog_thelookout/for-12-year-old-astrophysics-prodigy-the-skys-the-limit
I love that Asperger's Syndrome spells AS when you put the capital letters together.
Of course, I may be autistic.
Nah, we're artistic, artistic...
Thank you, Lynne, for that quote.
ReplyDeleteRainer's rain is always welcome in this cranium.
Still working on feeling his words with my heart.
I'm a slow learner...