Sunday, April 17, 2011

Wake up and dream, with runo-song









Tallinn, Estonia


We started the weekend sessions of my Active Dreaming workshop in Talinn with an old Estonian runo-song (regilaul) from Vigala in the west of the country. The spirit level soared immediately, in this country of singers.


The previous evening, I had opened with a Mohawk song for calling the Bear spirit, and noted that in the Mohawk language the work for song means literally "I am putting forth my power." A runo song puts forth the power behind the runes.


Here are the words of the runo-song we sang together in a light-filled upstairs studio in an old wooden house in Tallinn:


üles üles hellad vennad/ sõidame nüüd Sõõrumäele/ sääl me rõõmu rõkatame/ lahket laulu laksutame/ sääl me sööme sõstarida/ paugutame pähkelida/ sääl on meeled mesitsemas/ südamed sääl sütinemas


In translation:

Come on wake up brothers and sisters/ let's go to Sõõrumäe [a mountain] there we shout out with joy/ there we sing our songs/ there we eat currants/ there we crunch nuts/ there our minds stream with honey/ there our hearts are full of life and joy


The Bear we had invoked with the Mohawk shaman song on the first night was very pleased with the references to currants and honey. The theme of waking up to go to a sacred mountain was perfect for the opening of an Active Dreaming workshop, because one of our cardinal principles is that dreaming is not fundamentally about what happens in sleep. Dreaming is about waking up to a deeper order of reality.

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