Through the blue door, into the house of the ancestors

A guest blog by Romanian dream teacher and life coach Ana Maria Stefanescu.

I am in a old traditional Romanian house. The walls are painted deep, deep blue. I step through the small door, and I am warmed by the smell of childhood, the smell of summers spent with family in the country. This is wonderful. I realize that I am in a village in Ardeal, in Transylvania, perhaps the village where my mother was born. An old woman, wearing white and black traditional clothes of the region, is just waking up from sleep as I enter the room. She seems older than Time itself - or better said, there is a feeling of her being outside Time. She starts speaking ardeleneste - the sweet accent that my heart loves. She uses regional expressions I thought i had long forgotten. She is giving me food recipes, suggestions for delicious regional dishes. As her voice rises and falls, the words stream into a rhyming chant. The sounds are so alive. Their energy stirs me.

I woke from this dream feeling blessed. I felt immense gratitude. Over the years, I had had dreams connected to different traditions. This one connected me directly, and deeply, with the ancestors of my native land. I wanted to put on the ia, the traditional Romanian blouse - the one that inspired Matisse and is well depicted in his painting "The Dream".
     There was an amazingly beautiful follow up to this dream, inspired by fellow dreamers

in our Romanian Dreaming Circle: some weeks later, all of us dressed in ii - the traditional blouses we organized a Sezatoare, a circle of women gathered to share stories, to sing, to dance, to plait hair, to knit. Gatherings of this kind used to be common in the villages. Our circle shared hours of joy and laughter and dreams..     The gifts of the dreamworld are many. For me, reconnecting with the authentic, ancient Romanian tradition is one of the most cherished gifts.. I believe the techniques of Active Dreaming help to establish similar connections for dreamers all over the planet, making the link to what is authentic and true and right to bring through now, into our world.