From the Blue Lake of Healing

Bucegi Mountains, Romania

There is a blue lake of healing, on top of a mountain. You must earn the right to go there, by tracking a wounded animal through the woods, following it up steeper and steeper trails even when mountain mist swallows your sight. The animal is connected to you. The places where it is wounded reflect your own condition.
    At the top of the mountain, you are amazed to find a shining blue lake. As you watch, the animal staggers to the lake and falls in. It is gone for so long that you fear it has died. Have you come here for death?
    At last, you see a stir in the waters. The animal surfaces on the far side of the lake. As it takes off, you see it is whole, and healed.
    It is your turn to enter the waters of the healing lake. You may go far deeper than the world you come from. How far you go will depend on your courage and imagination. 

This is a summary of the simple instructions for a group journey that I gave to the intrepid dreamers who gathered in the Bucegi mountains of Romania with me in October, 2013 for my program "Dancing with the Bear: Reclaiming the Arts of Dream Healing". The Blue Lake of Healing is a real place in nonordinary reality. You can read about how I discovered it, and the full instructions for the journey, in my Dreamways of the Iroquois.
    We found once again that our shared adventures in shamanic dreaming and soul healing produce gifts that keep on giving. I asked our dreamers to write summaries of what they experienced and what they learned in the journey to the Blue Lake. Here is a first sampling of their travel reports:

"A wounded deer was completely healed as she entered the blue lake in the mountains. In the middle of the lake there was a crystal and from there healing was being sent for Mother Earth and for all the living creatures on Earth. I was healing people and animals and through healing a part of the light was being sent, so that they themselves became filled with more light."

”The aura of your heart will soften the hearts of those around you. It will transform them into clay that you will mold until it becomes liquid. It must be left ripening in the dark until it becomes light.” 

"Healing comes from the depth ! You can heal yourself there, where you did not think that you could even live! The diamond tunnel with rays of divine light help you heal yourself."

"The mountain goat was hurt in many places and still she had the power to reach the lake. The drums and the fire were calling me, recognizing me as one of their people. I was asked why I needed healing. I said, 'Because I want to make art with colors.' Again, I was asked 'Why?' I said, 'Because in this way i can travel.' I brought colors to my heart and my body." 

"The animal I met was very young and very beautiful. He was bleeding in the neck area. In the deep of the lake I found a rock, removed it and got to the top of a mountain, where I sat in lotus position. I felt myself being charged with energy. I met some dynamic forms, light green in color. I received a gift: a schoolbag with pockets with buckles."

”A giant eagle was my guide. I became one with her and felt her pain As I came out of the water my body was translucent. I was light, I was love. I saw my dear ones - I sent love to them and they sent love to me. Together, we created an immense sphere of light and love and sent it to float above the lake, the country, the planet. Then I transformed into a tree.”

”I follow a big stag, wounded in the chest, in the left. He is limping, but still I cannot reach him. I arrive at the lake, just in time to see him going into water. I run to the lake and I see him getting out on the other side, healed, running towards the forest. I dive into the water, which on the inside looks like an immense lagoon, with light in every corner. There are nymphs and gods at the bottom of the lagoon. My chest hurts, on the left side. I feel the energy healing me. When I get out of the water I notice I have a big scar on the left side of my chest, where my heart was healed.”

"Dancing with the eagle and the bear and the lion. Great festivities in an underwater city. Ceremony around a cauldron. Diving into the cauldron, swimming through a curvaceous tunnel and arriving in the kingdom with all of our loved ones."

"Heart wounded, I realized I came here to die. I let myself fall in the blue lake. Sweet fall, like floating. Beings, translucent tall beings put this golden, shiny, small energy ball inside my heart center and it started spinning. Golden light revived me and i started breathing the blue, good water. Breathing like the first breath in my life. Came back from the journey with a new song in my head: It is a new life, it is a new dawn.

“I was dancing with the shamans around the fire. In the rhythm of the drums I started spinning - faster and faster - until at a certain point I was not touching the ground any more. I was at one with the wind."

"The stag is bleeding from the eyes and his back right leg is injured. When he comes out of the blue lake, he is healed - and he has dropped his antlers. As he moves away, the antlers grow again, larger than before, and golden. 
   "Ravens strip away dead energy & disease from the energy field of the group. Bear dismembers some people, cleanses their hearts. Below the lake is a hospital of animal doctors. We are covered by angels' wings, blazing bright."

"The giant with the head and antlers of a stag was standing on the lake shore, with six of my ancestors flanking him, with staffs in their hands looking at me. He gave me his blessing to enter the lake. Now is your time. I entered the lake cautiously, and found I could breathe normally.
     "I came to a gate near the bottom of the lake. It was like a lens. When I passed through, I was flying within a blue horizon. I realized I could create anything from my heart. The Heart Fairy appeared. We put our chests together and our hearts were united. They were one, with a tremendous power. And then my chest opened, as I was flying and i connected with thousands of hearts. We were linked in a net of love, light and healing. I realized I was golden. I was there for a long time.”

"I met the bear. He was weak, wounded and tired. At the blue lake he dived below and then he came out all shining. His fur, once grey and without light, was now shining in the moonlight. After my healing I was given a white and silver dress that looked like the fur of the bear waiting for me on the shore. I climbed onto his back and we went into the forest where a shaman woman taught me a dance and an incantation for cleansing: "I release to the fire, water, earth and wind what does not belong to me and is a burden for me.'" 

Vindecarea exista in fiecare dintre noi. Crede. "Healing exists inside each and every one of us. Believe.”

For an expanded version of this report please see my new book Growing Big Dreams.

Dreaming with Bear in Romania

Pârâul Rece,Carpathian Mountains, Romania

We started the day by singing for the Bear in Romanian.

Nu plânge micutule

Nu plânge micutule

Ursul danseze pentru tine

Ursul danseze pentru tine

By the end of the first drumming, our meeting room was full of bears. They danced through the dreams and visions that were shared throughout our first day.

"I am out in the forest, high in the mountains. I feel a great wind blowing on me. It is strange but good. It lifts my spirit. I see a rider dressed in furs. His horse is covered in furs as well. I have the impression he is a part of myself. A huge bear comes from the mountain, standing on two legs. He wants me to follow him." 

"I heard a little girl calling, 'I'm here! I'm here!' I looked for her and found her inside a cage, with a little bear cub. I was so sad because I recognized her. She was part of me that I lost in childhood. Then a great mother bear came and stood behind me, giving me the strength to free her from the cage. I took her and the bear cub into my arms and felt them come into my heart."

"I saw a little ballerina, turning pirouettes. A bear came and she clapped her hands with joy and soon they were dancing together. I was happy because I know the little ballerina is part of myself and that now the bear is here she feels safe with me and is coming home."

We did not merely talk about such dreams and visions. We turned them into theater, we danced them, we journeyed with the help of shamanic drumming through the portals they provided. The vision of the fur clad rider and the standing bear gave us the gateway for an extraordinary group adventure.
    As I drummed, we felt that strange wind rising. With my second sight, and then with all my inner senses, I found myself in front of a giant bear. This was not one of the forms of the Bear I know well, and have worked with in many places and in many ways. It was a Carpathian brown mountain bear, and we were making our first acquaintance.
     The mountain bear gripped my shoulders and leaned its great head over me. I felt an edge of fear, because it could easily break my neck. Though part of me was inclined to step back and take my distance, I willed myself forward. I pressed my second body into the heart of the bear. It opened like a door. I entered a mountain cave, which led into many other caves. They were full of children and bear cubs. I understood that this was a place of Lost Boys and Lost Girls, waiting to be restored to those who have suffered soul loss, and also a place to restore full connection with the animal spirits.
    I was grateful for that moment of fear. It was one of those moments that removes any doubt that what is happening in nonordinary reality is altogether real. It gave necessary edge to the day, and prepared me to help others who were experiencing fear or doubt on the edge of claiming the power that was waiting for them.
    

"There was a bear at the door of my house. I was trying to keep it out, to keep the door shut. Then I heard it up on the roof, trying to get in through a window up there. People who were in my place would not help. The bear came down through the roof window. I ran through my apartment, trying to get away. Nobody seemed to understand what was happening. the bear caught me and held me and licked the side of my face like a dog. Ugh. It was disgusting."

We laughed when we heard her response when the bear revealed that it was her friend. I noted that her voice, in that moment, was the voice of a child self. She laughed when one of our dream players pretended to lick her face.

After sunset, I drove with friends through the fir woods to a hostelry in Poiana Brasov called Coliba Haiducilor; the name is a Romanian equivalent of Robin Hood and His Merry Men. We were greeted at the door with cups of warm palinka, and ushered through rooms that were a vision of abbondanza, with great jars of home-made pickles, dried fruits and vegetables, alembics of distilled spirits, sides of smoked meat, bottles of Romanian wine, some dusty from many decades in the cellars.
    We dined heroically on traditional Romanian fare and survived strolling players with an accordion. Towards the end of our feast, the lights went down for a moment and shouts carried across the high-beamed hall.   
     "The bear! The bear! The bear is extraordinary!"
      The voice was that of the head waiter, encouraging guests who had just arrived to try bear steaks from the game section of the menu. It was definitely time to leave. Though I love Bear, I don't eat bear - precisely for that reason.

I sat out on my balcony at the mountain villa where we have gathered, under a night full of stars. I thanked the bear of these mountains for opening its heart to the heart of soul healing. A white bat flew by, between me and the fir trees. Hey, this is Romania.

photos (c) Robert Moss

Into the Cave of the Bear

Hameau de l'Etoile, near Montpellier

You are walking in the woods in the dappled light of a fine spring day. You enjoy the springy grass and crunch of leaves and twigs underfoot. You graze on some early berries. You see the flash of water, and pause to look down at a cool, fast-running stream where fish gleam among the currents. 
    Wouldn't it be fun to try to catch a fish in your bare hands, like a child. You make a grab and, amazingly, you have a fish in your hand. You are suddenly, urgently hungry. You raise the fish to your mouth and chomp down and you enjoy the explosion of fish oil in your mouth. You may or may not have enjoyed  raw fish before, but this live one is delicious.
    As you wipe your mouth and bring your hand away, you notice that you are not quite the same as before. The back of your hand is furry, and the hand is larger and thicker than you remember and it has sprouted claws. You have become a bear.
    You amble back to your cave. You remember the pleasure of taking a long winter nap down here, in dream contact with the Earth and your ancestors and the new life you would enter come the spring. For now, you are simply going to rest, and remember.
    There are many levels to your cave. Some will take you into contact with ancestors who may appear as human, animal, or other. You may have to face tests and challenges before you can know your own, on the deeper levels. You may have to calm the male bears, and the warrior males who pretend to be bears. What you most want to find is the Divine Feminine energy of Earth that alone can gentle and contain the violence of men and turn the wildness of the Bear into a power of healing and protection.
    Go deep enough, and you may be received into the embrace of Great Mother Bear. She may take you on her lap, like and infant, and nurse you and heal you. When the generous stream of her milk flows through you, you will be replenished and restored. Her claws may work like scalpels, to open you and heal in your body what needs to be healed. When you are blessed and healed by her, you may bring her gifts into your world and join the clan of the Bear Dreamers...

This is the invitation I gave to our circle for the first group journey in the depth adventure in "Dancing with the Bear: Reclaiming the Arts of Dream Healing" that I am currently leading at the Hameau de l'Etoile near Montpellier in southern France. The results were phenomenal.
    It is especially moving to be honoring the Bear as a medicine animal in a part of the world where a serious attempt at speciescide against all bears was organized under the rule of Charlemagne. The church became convinced that the ancient cult of the Bear was the mlost dangerous source of opposition to the Christianization of Europe and persuaded the emperor to order two "crusades" in which all men with arms were ordered to kill every bear they encountered. Thousands of bears were slaughtered in this attempted holocaust. Here in the Midi, this week, we are honoring the Bear and its many gifts, and seeking ways to cleanse the "berserker" in man.

Art: "Drumming Bear" by Cristina Craciun in RM personal collection