The Scottie of Kaunas

Kaunas, Lithuania

-

On the way to leading my workshop in the Old Town of Kaunas, I pause for coffee at a bijou establishment on the square called the Šokoladas Cafe. No sooner have I sat down than the door opens and in walks a very confident black Scottish terrier, followed by his master. I greet the Scottie with enthusiasm. His name, I am soon informed, is Oscar, which I especially like because I was recently reading the poems of Oscar (O.V. de L.) Milosz, an older relative of the Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz, who is well-known as a poet and esotericist in France and was a very active diplomat in the cause of Lithuania early in the 20th century. I tell Oscar's owner about Sadie, the Scottie who was recently picked as Best Dog in the Westminster dog show in the United States for the second year in a row. Oscar's human taps eagerly away at his I-phone and quickly finds Sadie.
-

A friendly black dog in an unlikely place is usually a good sign for me, and I have seen very few dogs in the streets since my arrival in Kaunas, so the arrival of the Scottie in the coffee shop makes me feel the day will turn out well. I report this little incident to our workshop members soon after opening the circle. A woman from Latvia is amazed. "I think that's the dog in my dream last night." She recounts a dream that came after she set the intention of receiving guidance on her job situation during the night. In the first scene, she is in a boxy office, playing interviewer and interviewee for a job opening at the same time. A young woman comes in with a chunky black dog with a silver collar, looks around and announces that she doesn't want to work in a box. When she walks out with her Scottie, the dreamer feels longing to be with the dog. In a second scene, she finds herself playing a game for a prize she doesn't want. The young woman with the black dog reappears, heading off in a different direction altogether. Again, the dreamer feels longing to be with the black dog and go wherever it is going.
-

"Since the black dog is always a reliable guide for me in my dreams," I say, "I would want to re-enter that dream and follow that black dog and see whether it brings me to the guidance I am seeking." The Latvian dreamer readily agreed to do this, and what followed - during a drumming session - was a marvelous journey that involved an ocean crossing, the release of a captive from a solitary island, and insight into both work and life situations.
-

In one of the smaller groups we form for dream-sharing, I recount one of my own dreams from my nights in Kaunas:
-

ACTIVATING THE ANCIENT ARTIFACT

-

I study an ancient artifact. It stands against a wall on a stone pathway that leads towards the sea. It is of rather abstract design, with long curving elements. People here are intrigued and excited by it, but don't know what it means or what to do with it. I stand with the sculpture, leaning my body inside its structures (it's about my height). Then I push down, decisively, with my foot, inside the base, with rather the motion you might use on a motorbike. This has the effect of turning on the "ignition". The artifact is evidently a powerful machine. I decide it needs to be stabilized while we work out exactly how to use it. I prop a staff that branches into three short sections at the top inside the structure, a little like a trident, as an extra support.

-

"So how did you feel when you woke up?" asks Jurga, a Lithianian high school senior. She is playing guide for our Lightning Dreamwork process.
-

"Excited. Charged with energy."

-

"What do you recognize from this dream in your life?"
-

"Well, I think I am here in Lithuania. Some of the people with me may be from the workshop. I've been trying to study ancient Baltic symbols and traditions, and I've found that the sources are limited and the meaning of some ancient symbols is unknown or disputed by scholars. The staff with the three short branches at the top looks natural, like something taken from a tree."
-

"Could the dream play out in the future in some way?"
-

"I doubt that I'll find an artifact that is literally a machine. But I'm open to the idea that I could help to discover the meaning of a lost symbol and activate it in some way."
-

"What do you want to know?"
-

"I'd like to know what the dream is telling me about my intention, which was to receive guidance on leading this workshop."

"If it were my dream," Jurga comments, following our protocol flawlessly, "I would think that the structure I bring alive is this workshop group, where my job is to raise the energy of the group while keeping it stabilized and moving in the right direction."
-

I told Jurga I thought this was spot on. My action plan? To be guided by this understanding in leading the workshop. Oh yes - and to remain open to finding a lost symbol. It transpired that in one of our group journeys, to a very interesting locale in the imaginal realm that I call the House of Time, I did just that. I found myself entering the life of a 19th century merchant and collector of antiquities who acquired a three-headed ancient "Curonian" figure as yet unknown to the scholars. But that is another story.