Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Return of the ancient deer

I know I am dreaming. I decide to rest my dream body in a high place overlooking a vast rolling landscape of rivers and wooded hills. People may look in on me, but only if they are able to ascend to this level.
    I close my dream eyes for sleep, and at once the landscape comes alive in a new way. Ancient deer are everywhere. Their spreading antlers are immense. They are like a walking forest.
    From my vantage point, I can see that the ancient deer are returning, all over the world. They are even in the cities, though few people are remotely aware that they have come again. This gives me tremendous hope. I am awed by the return of ancient and primal powers of the Earth. They are needed.


I am thinking now about the resemblance between antlers and the branches of trees. In French, the word for antlers is bois; they speak of the "wood" of the deer. As I follow the troubling news from Turkey, I notice that the protests began as a campaign to save the trees of Gezi Park, and I recall that the symbol of Ankara features a deer with tremendous antlers, dominating two bulls.
    May the wisdom of the ancient antlered ones, connected to the trees and to the power of regeneration, prevail over the bull-headed ones today.


P.S. In sketches for my personal tarot deck, I have drawn the Empress as Ancient Mother, seated under a tree whose branches rise like antlers, and the Emperor as a Deer King whose antlered crown resembles the tree and confirms his dedication to the Great Mother.




Tarot card drawings (c) Robert Moss. All rights reserved.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Signs that we are making a shift - right now? I sure hope so!

Anonymous said...

This one gave me chills...I too feel this deep connection and hope I am part of the birthing process.

Justin Patrick Moore said...

On milk of deer I was reared
On milk of deer I was nurtured
On milk of deer beneath the ridge of storms
On crest of hill and mountain... (from the ever insightful Carmina Gaedaelica)

Here is a collection of articles posted by Sarah Lawless on
"The Deer In Scots Lore" you might be interested in Robert... as well as other readers of this blog...

http://witchofforestgrove.com/2011/05/13/the-deer-in-scots-lore/

Robert Moss said...

Thanks for channeling the Library Angel with the link and the quote, Justin. Synchronicity x 3, because (1) I will be in Scotland, the country of my paternal ancestors, next week (2) I was just writing about an immensely powerful shamanic journey I was once called to make by a distinctly Scottish red deer standing above a Cave of the Ancestors; and (3) An hour ago I announced my intention to suspend my writing assignments and spend the rest of the morning researching Scottish traditions; I placed a book on the folklore of Scottish animals at the top of my current reading pile.
Oh yes, and I quoted the Carmina Gadelica in another exchange overnight.

Irene said...

A dream of the greater dream...very powerfulRobert...our Ancent Mother went dreaming with you last night...showing you her children returning to their rightful space in this 'now' time.

I honour your dream and thank you for sharing it here.

Justin Patrick Moore said...

Glad to channel the Library Angel any time Robert... I just downloaded those PDF files to my computer as well for follow up on my own current assignments from the Otherworld; so the title of your post was a ringer for me as well!

I very much enjoy the imagery in your tarot.

I'm learning about the Stag Dance and how the antlers can be used to bring energy from the Upperworld's down into this one...

James Wilson said...

I once saw on a documentary that an important quality of the deer is his (or her) great field of vision. Because his eyes are on the side off his head he has almost a 360 degree view. And the deer has night vision as well. Probably this is already mentioned a few times on your blog.
Your dream gives multiple angles to look at, or meditate about. The angle you look from in your blog are his antlers ( and trees)
I wonder if (if this were my dream), your witnessing of the ancient deer’s returning all over the world, could mean (as well) the returning off (a) great vision between the people / societies around the world. Or maybe a literal development that has a connection with dreaming?
For instance, that people who are currently working with their dreams can experience this quality of the dear in the following period.
"though few people (the dreamers) are remotely aware that they have come again."

cobweb said...

Any hope of a book on your interpretation of the Tarot, Robert?

nance Thacker said...

..."though few people are remotely aware that they have come again" attests to the power of dreaming and remote viewing.
We develop the ability to see in OR that which we have seen in the dreamworlds first. As a society perhaps when a critical mass has been achieved all will have eyes to see and embrace something so astounding as
the return of the ancient deer breaking through into this level of existence.

Robert Moss said...

James and Nance = Those are hopeful visions, which I share. May it be so! I am writing more about the Return of the Ancient Deer in a new book.

Robert Moss said...

Cobweb - My book on tarot for dreamers is on a long list of possible future projects. There are several things I need to write first, and I will need to complete my own tarot deck for publication. Thanks for asking!

Wilson Wood said...

Thank You Robert and Justin - this syncs nicely with a theme that's been hoofing around with me lately.

Nigel said...

Oh deer, my paternal ancestors are also scottish : )

Rebecca said...

Wow, are they really coming back? I can't stop dreaming about deer-women and deer-men who seem to be in the park on the hill where I live, and in my heart all the time. I wondered who they were. Your post gave me goose-bumps.

jaybird said...

I recently had a dream where I found a large, rough-hewn trident shape carved into a wall. My research showed it cold be the Runic sign for Eohl, which can be translated as elk, or Deer? I wasn't sure of an interpretation, other than the possible meaning of great change,which we all could use, besides myself.

susie @ persimmon moon cottage said...

Interesting to read that so many people are thinking about deer.

I recently woke from a dream of a rather large deer looking at me and trying to get me to follow it. I did, until we came to a tall fence that it just sailed over. The deer turned and looked back at me, trying to convince me to continue to follow. It wasn't speaking. It was just a thought communication. I couldn't get past the fence, so I stayed where I was. It looked at me for another moment and then leaped away.

The dream was so vivid that it woke me up. It wasn't a typical white tail deer that we see around here in the Midwest US, but larger and more like the deer I have seen pictured on ancient tapestries. The image was so vivid that I needed to know what kind of deer it was. I did some research and I believe it was a hart.

Word play or messages from animals? When I found out that it was a hart, the message was pretty clear about following my "heart" and some sort of obstacle in the way preventing it. I still haven't deciphered exactly what situation this dream was referring to...past, present, future.
Maybe a hart, some other animal guide, or something else will help me solve the riddle.