_Review: The Dream Artist By Paula R. Stiles, Innsmouth Free Press

If you’ve read much of my fiction, you’ll know that I have a strong interest in shamanism, both from the anthropological and the practical points of view. So, when a chance came our way to review, and host the author of, a new book on shamanism during her book tour, I jumped at it and talked Silvia into going along. Shamanism may seem like an odd subject for a dark fantasy ‘zine, but it isn’t, really. The first ghost hunters were shamans and the first people to venture deep into caves and other dark places were probably shamans, as well. Horror is perhaps the oldest genre of storytelling there is and the ghost story the oldest narrative. Hence the “campfire tale”.

The Dream Artist  is not so much about the terrifying aspects of shamanism, or at least, not so much the kind that rip you apart if you don’t master them before dawn, as the more-spiritual aspects of the belief in spirits and dreams. Dreamshield is a Dutch journalist who has spent a decade investigating, and writing articles about, New Age practices. The Dream Artist is about her apprenticeship with an American shaman named “Vidar”, who teaches her shamanic practices (mainly, lucid dreaming) in the general tradition made famous by (or created by, depending on whom you read) Carlos Castaneda. Hence the title, which echoes a famous biography/memoir about Castaneda. The book itself echoes the story of the sorcerer’s apprentice told by Castaneda in his books, with Dreamshields starting off with vision and dreaming exercises, going to a sweat lodge, encountering the question of using hallucinogens, and meeting her “spirit animal”, all under the guidance of an indigenous teacher.

I have to admit that I am not a fan of the Castaneda tradition. It’s been pretty clear since a now-infamous investigative article on him came out in 1973 that his anthropological research was a fraud and, to be honest, I thought a lot of his “insights” weren’t anything a broad-minded person couldn’t figure out on his/her own with a good book on meditation or guided dreaming. Also, the racism that his narrator character shows toward Don Juan (the narrator’s Yaqui teacher) is intense, patronising and difficult to tolerate. Going with the theory (commonly put forth by Castaneda’s supporters) that Castaneda is really supposed to be Don Juan and not the deliberately-ignorant narrator does not improve the use of the bigotry. Calling him a “trickster” figure doesn’t help, either. And the questions of fraud and cultural misappropriation (including an ongoing debate over whether a term/set of traditions originally identified in Siberia can really be applied beyond Eurasia) have never been satisfactorily answered.

But it’s not necessary to think much of Castaneda in order to appreciate The Dream Artist. One of the distinct plusses of the book is that Dreamshield is not just some naive dabbler who stumbled on shamanism during a quickie retreat. As a journalist on the New Age movement, she comes into the story already plugged into the New Age culture, hip to the various dodges and cons (initially, for example, she dismisses Vidar as a poseur looking to score with the ladies). In fact, some of the scene-setting and anecdotal asides that she puts in, especially early on, are quite interesting. This is someone with a lot of friends in the New Age movement, who regularly interacts with people involved in it. Of further interest to an American audience is that she’s Dutch, so you’re getting the perspective on the movement, and the Castaneda offshoot, from a European non-anglophone.

The discussion of “conscious dreaming” (and how to do it) has some good set-up (like the description of the use of stones as meditation tools), though it tends to get buried in overly-long paragraphs. The book tour’s blurb promises “instructions” on how to conduct conscious dreaming, but I felt the instruction-manual aspect got lost in the apprentice narrative, particularly in the second half of the book, as it often does in this literary tradition.
And the ending is strangely abrupt, with no indices or other endpages. I suppose this was intentional, to show that the apprentice’s journey is ongoing, but it confused me more than anything, and had me looking to see if my review copy had been somehow left incomplete.

You can also enjoy the book as pure story, the tale of a young woman learning about shamanism (by practicing an apprenticeship with a shaman) in a New Age context, a tradition few women have had access to until recently. The double role of telling a good yarn and telling the reader how to make a good yarn of his/her own is also part of this literary tradition. Joseph Campbell would have been proud.

Elizabeth August (Dreamshield). The Dream Artist: Dreaming and Spiritual Adventure in a New Millennium. 

Travel with your dream body
Lucid dreaming in the sorcerer’s tradition

Lucid dreaming gives you a great feeling. If you dream consciously, you have control over events. Or at least the realization that you can control the situation. There will be a day that you can instruct yourself to dream about something; to fly like a bird or to meet a deceased loved one.


In my book the Dream Artist I reveal unique steps for lucid dreaming, knowledge that sorcerer Vidar passed during my initiation into the sorcerer’s world. In the next article I give you an impression of the first steps on How to Lucid Dream in the sorcerer’s tradition.

Why would you want to learn more about lucid dreaming? Well, the purpose of human is to master lucid dreaming shamans say. One becomes the dreamer and the dream, to be a living dream weaver that experiences one's own dream.

Learning to dream consciously really starts with attentiveness, being aware of your surroundings and your actions in daily life. And by writing down your dreams and to leave no detail behind it becomes clearer what has happened in the dream and that gives you an overall awareness. If you are aware of this reality and consciously deal with your dreams, you will find out that your dreams develop and that you become conscious in your dreams.

With the techniques described below you build so much energy to develop a dream body by which you can travel outside known reality to the boundless second reality of dreaming and creativity. And it finally takes you to totality where will you experience and be aware that you are creating your own reality.

Ordinary dreams and dreams of the spirit
Before you get more information about traveling to the second reality and the totality, it is necessary to indicate the difference between ordinary dreams and dreams of the spirit.

On the way to totality you will learn to master your dreaming; one of the first steps is that  ordinary dreams will come to a halt and will be replaced by  dreaming of the spirit. Ordinary dreams should come to a stop and disappear because they take up too much energy and contribute to nothing valuable. Stopping ordinary dreaming comes gradually in your process of learning to control your dreaming better as you learn the art of mastering lucid dreaming.

Stopping ordinary dreaming means that you must fixate the images in dreams; watch the images intensively, that starts the movement by which dreams develop themselves into dreams of the spirit.

Unpleasant dreams disappear when you look right through them and change into images of beauty. When you fixate these images, all that remains is beauty, and the fear of certain situations will disappear. And that’s what you need because to be able to travel in the second reality, you have to release your fears.
To give you an idea of traveling to the second reality: The Totality consists of the first and the second reality. The characteristics of the totality is twofold. The first is created by the creative energy of the first reality and the second by the creative energy of the second reality. Imagine a circle with a line in the middle, one half represents the first and the other the second reality. Then draw a dot in the middle. The dot represents the totality of the Self. Your dreaming creates the first reality as well turning around your totality.

When you start dreaming, you become conscious of your dream body. The totality creates a dream body to travel from this reality.
With your dream body and your intention, which is the energy used to create, you will not only travel from the first into the second reality, but you will also reach the totality of the self. If you're ready then you discover that you yourself are the creator of the two realities.
 
Finding the dream stone
With the following exercise, you make the first step to develop a dream body.

Take any kind of stone and study it in detail, you need to know it inside out, every line, every dent, every outline. Visualize the stone between your inner eye - the place between your eyebrows. You have to know every spot, dent or drawing from the inside and from the outside. Practice as long as it takes to get it in your mind and aim at finding the stone in dreaming within the next ten days. And then you start counting down the days until you find it. When you don’t find it within that time then you start all over again, until you get it right.

Before going to sleep you look at the stone in detail and place it somewhere near, close your eyes and visualize the stone on the inside of your inner eye, between your eyebrows.

Then it is important to become conscious of the moment right before you fall asleep. At that specific moment you visualize the stone immediately inside your inner eye and you will find out that you get dream flashes which you can fixate or stop as an exercise in order to start mastering your dreams.

It’s actually enough to have the intention to be conscious and that you will stop your dreaming before falling asleep. Attempt it.

Aim to wake up consciously every morning and let your inner eye visualize the stone. Pick up the stone and move it closer from an arm’s length to the tip of your nose as if the stone is coming towards you. And do not forget to repeat to yourself that you will find the stone.

The bridge between reality and dreaming
Put attention at the top of your list. Make a habit of observing your surroundings in detail and  try to do acts which are usually done by the automatic pilot, as conscious as possible and imagine you are dreaming. Of the daily - even the simplest acts that you usually do without thinking - you need to be conscious.

Before going to sleep rewind all the images of the previous day from the evening back to the morning. You gradually notice that these exercises have effect on your dreaming because as a result you literally have a retrospective view of those daytime images in dreaming. Not long after, even in dreaming, you will observe every little detail in your surroundings thoroughly. 

Your dream body has to be on it’s full capacity to travel to the boundless second reality of dreaming and creation. You are developing your dream body by bringing experiences, objects or specific acts or movements conscious from dreaming into the reality and vice versa.

For example: If you see or find a shell in your dream then you harden your dream body by taking a similar shell with you and put it on special place in your home where you collect these dream-items. With that you make a bridge between reality and dreams.

Be impeccable both in the every day reality as in dreaming. This trains your attention which has to be perfect. Through attention you shall build on your intent because with that you travel into the boundless unknown.


Dreamshield

Review The The Dream Artist
"Dreamshield has an engaging narrative style and tells stories that are engrossing. There is a lack of literature on female sorcerers and this book makes an admirable effort to fill this lacuna. When, at the end, she attains “totality,” the reader will share her exaltation." ~ Stanley Krippner, Ph.D. Alan Watts Profess of Psychology, Saybrook University.

The Dream Artist, A true story of initiation into the sorcerer’s tradition by Elizabeth August, Dreamshield. The author gives us a glimpse into the very real world of lucid dreaming and astral projection. Her direct experiences with a modern day mystic, Running Deer, takes the work of Castaneda one step further. In The Dream Artist, she reveals unique steps to mastering lucid dreaming and traveling to the unknown.


Bio
Alysa Braceau, Dreamshield lives in the Netherlands (Europe), she is mother of a 9-year old daughter. She studied social legal studies and a (freelance) journalist and publisher. Besides that she has a healing practice and gives workshops about the Art of Dreaming.

Website: www.dreamshield.nl

In The Sorcerer’s Dream, about my initiation into the sorcerer’s world and mastering conscious (lucid) dreaming I describe among others shamanic rituals and ceremonies like the sweat lodge.

The steam and the heat coming from the stones take you to a deeper layer of consciousness and pave the way for purifying on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level my dreaming teacher Vidar told me. The Indians used the deeper state of consciousness for traveling in the spirit world and receiving visions for healing.

The preparations for the sweat lodge are well under way. On a wide field, protected by trees, stands a low, round hut made of branches and covered in blankets. A couple of feet in front of the hut there is a fire burning where stones are heated. In a minute or so they will all be carried inside to warm the hut.

I enjoy the quiet restfulness and the wide-open space of the countryside, far away from the big city. There is no traffic, just the sound of singing birds, the soft breeze through the trees and the cracking of branches. The sun shines weak through the clouds. Spring is in the air, which gives rise to welcoming the ancestors of the four wind directions in two ceremonies: the deer and the bear. I immediately got excited when Vidar, who conducts the sweat lodge, started to talk about it. The only thing I did not look forward to was to sit squeezed together among fifty naked people. However, in retrospect that meant nothing compared to the heat and the darkness that fell on me like a smothering blanket.

Before we enter the sweat lodge we sit together in groups to make offerings to the ancestors, the so-called prayer ties. On colored pieces of fabric we lay tobacco and tie them together as a pouch. For each one of the four directions you make at least four prayer ties, after that you can make an unlimited amount with personal wishes for whomever or whatever. In total I make twelve of them. I find a place all the way in the back and just like everyone else I tie my twelve prayer ties to the willow branches above my head. As everyone has taken their seat, five glowing stones are carried inside the lodge one by one.

The sweat lodge ceremony consists of four rounds of approximately one hour each and a break in between. During every round we greet the ancestors of one of the wind directions. Vidar tells us the steam and the heat coming from the stones take you to a deeper layer of consciousness and pave the way for purifying on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level. The Indians used the deeper state of consciousness for traveling in the spirit world and receiving visions for healing. Not only that, but it also helps you to reconnect with mother Earth and to come in contact with your inner knowledge. The dreamer in me is mostly looking for a vision, the vision of the four wind directions to be exact.

The lodge is dark and packed.

Vidar pours water over the hot stones with a wooden soup spoon. The stones start to sizzle and give an orange glow. The door flap is swung shut. Suddenly, a feeling of panic overwhelms me because it is pitch dark. I hear Vidar say that in this sweat lodge you can experience the softness, wisdom, kindness and subtlety of the deer.

I experience the smothering heat. I would rather leave, immediately, but there are four more rounds to go. I knew it was going to be warm, hot even, but I hate the darkness even more, or is it the combination of the two? I try to breath calmly, comfort myself and then things start to improve.

In the first round Vidar welcomes the deer, the grandfather of the north with cheerful drumming and singing. The crowd roars and sings as if we are attending a party and this feels weird when you cannot see your hand before your face and you feel like you are choking. I am bathing in sweat. I try to let myself be carried away by the drums and the singing; it sounds merry and distracts me from my fear of the dark. In the next three rounds the grandfather of the east, the eagle, the grandfather of the south, running wolf, and of the west, grandmother moon and black bear are welcomed.

You cannot imagine how happy I am when the flap opens in between rounds and bottles of water are carried inside and passed along. It is no luxury, because my body is craving liquid.

When the grandfather of the east is welcomed I start dreaming. An eagle settles down next to the stones, and leaves a feather behind for me. He screeches, flaps his wings and flies straight at me. With the wind beneath his wings he flies me over green hilltops. Ohio-Michigan-Colorado, the wind whistles, and floating I feel like the queen of airspace. From a distance I conclude preparations are being made for an Indian funeral ceremony. Two Indians with a waistcloth wrap my father’s body for ceremonial worship in a white cloth and lay him down on a raft, made of two canoes bound together with thin sticks. With fierce paddle strokes the Indians navigate it through the breakers to the small island a couple of hundred yards further into the sea, where the branches of the only tree alive rustle in the wind. In the shadow of the tree there is a high wooden scaffold on which my father will be laid out.

I try to comprehend the images to wait and see what will happen: burial or cremation. However, nothing happens. Will he just remain lying there? My thoughts make me dizzy and the heat gets hold of me. Hot air fills my windpipe. I feel locked up and feel more and more stifled. I cannot possibly walk over all these heads in the pitch dark.

I cannot stand it any longer and gasp: “Can someone open the door?”

“No,” one of the participants says resolute. Deeply offended I do everything to survive and by breathing through my stomach I try to calm myself. When I find the rhythm, I have more control over myself.

It does not take long before the door flap opens and the light falls in. I am relieved and hurry out behind my neighbor, taking a dive into the nearest pond.

Bio –

Alysa Braceau, Dreamshield lives in the Netherlands (Europe), she is mother of a 7-year old daughter. She studied social legal studies and the passed ten years she is a (freelance) journalist and publisher. Besides that she has a healing practice and gives workshops about the Art of Dreaming. Alysa Braceau is author of The Sorcerer’s Dream. The theme of the passed years have been the sorcerers tradition and mastering lucid dreaming. She carefully recorded her personal experiences which has finally led to this first book.

About the Sorcerer’s Dream -

The Sorcerer's Dream, A true story of initiation into the Native American sorcerer’s tradition by Alysa Braceau, Dreamshield. The author gives us a glimpse into the very real world of lucid dreaming and astral projection. Her direct experiences with a modern day mystic, Running Deer, takes the work of Castaneda one step further. In The Sorcerer’s Dream, she reveals unique steps to mastering lucid dreaming and traveling to the unknown.

Connections –

Website: http://www.dreamshield.nl
Blog: http://dreamshield.wordpress.com
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sorcerers-Dream-Dreamshield-Alysa-Braceau/dp/16091...
Alysa at dreamshield.nl

The medicine wheel has many meanings in shamanistic traditions and one of them is being a signpost in the dreaming reality. Together with your power animals, it leads you towards totality.

To clarify: in dreaming you learn to travel with your dream- or energy body from this reality to the boundless second reality to discover that you are the creator of your own reality. Shaman Vidar taught me about this medicine wheel ritual and you read more about this in the next excerpt from my book The Sorcerer’s Dream.

Excerpt
Tonight we will set up my medicine wheel. The medicine wheel towards the totality to be exact. I await in expectation.
With slow movements Vidar takes five pebbles from somewhere between the junk and the papers. He places four in an imaginary circle and puts the fifth one right in the middle. “The medicine wheel is a guide in the dream reality,” he starts to explain. “Every stone signifies one of the four wind directions, the stone in the middle is the centre from where you travel. Accompanied by the drum you will momentarily travel to the four wind directions and in each one of them you will identify the dwelling places of knowledge.” I worry because I know my sense of direction has it’s short comings for such a trip. “With wind directions I mean the spiritual wind directions,” he exemplifies. “By identifying these wind directions and the dwelling places, they will prevent you from having a spontaneous experience and being unaware of your whereabouts.” He adds that the medicine wheel is the fastest way to reach the totality. “Look at it this way, the spiritual wind directions are represented by entities and together with your animal totems, whom you will meet at a later stage, they are the roadmap leading you into totality.” I ask what significance is attached to these wind directions, in the sense that it might represent a certain development or phase in ones life for example. He would rather wave away any possible meaning. “Originally there is no significance to it,” he says, “it prevents you from fixating it. The medicine wheel is an individual process and its significance depends on the specific information you obtain elsewhere.” Finally he says, “wherever you travel you retrieve your history and accumulate enormous reserves of spiritual energy.” Vidar gets up and gathers five big pebbles from the floor in front of the cabinet and places them in a circle in front of the deerskin. “We commence in the north,” he says and invites me to take place on the deerskin, facing the street. Then he picks up his drum next to the deerskin and explains: “The repetitive rhythm and fast beat of the drum will guide you during your journey. The overtones of the drum influence the wave patterns of the brain, meaning it sets off an increased state of perception, perceiving with your spiritual senses, your inner eye if you will.” He gives further instructions. “Look intensively in every wind direction to determine what you see and absorb every little detail.”

I try to place myself in a comfortable crossed-legged position and tell him I am ready. As the rhythm intensifies I fly away on the deerskin towards the northern wind direction, high above green mountains, interrupted by rough rock formations. From the highest point there is a crystal clear stream which flows down the sloping hills. “Search for your dwelling place,” I hear Vidar say. My feeling tells me I have no time to lose. Far beneath me I discover a sandy path effortlessly making its way among the hills. I descend as soon as possible and quickly take a sharp turn to the right, into another path which leads towards a splendid bare piece of sandy soil with a little lake. Here and there long strong blades of grass arise from the ground. To my left, at the foot of the lake, steep rock formations rise up to the blue sky. A frail looking woman with long black hair comes towards me. It looks like she is floating. Her cream colored skin and grey eyes are in beautiful contrast with her long black hair all the way to her waist. She signals for me to follow her as she runs in the direction of the rocks. Then she climbs up the cliff and I climb after her, pulling myself up into the opening of the cave, just as she does.

Once we’re in the cave she invites me to sit opposite her, I take a good look around, I hear Vidar telling me to return to the centre of the wheel to travel to the next wind direction. I say good-bye to the woman and return to the slowing of the rhythm of the drum.

About The Dream Artist
The Dream Artist, A true story of initiation into the Native American sorcerer’s tradition by Elizabeth August, Dreamshield. The author gives us a glimpse into the very real world of lucid dreaming and astral projection. Her direct experiences with a modern day mystic, Running Deer, takes the work of Castaneda one step further. In The Dream Artist, she reveals unique steps to mastering lucid dreaming and traveling to the unknown.

Latest review
"Dreamshield has an engaging narrative style and tells stories that are engrossing. There is a lack of literature on female sorcerers and this book makes an admirable effort to fill this lacuna. When, at the end, she attains “totality,” the reader will share her exaltation." ~ Stanley Krippner, Ph.D. Alan Watts Profess of Psychology, Saybrook University.

The Sorcerer's Dream is available at Booklocker, Amazon, and everywhere they sell books.

About Elizabeth August aka Dreamshield
Elizabeth August, Dreamshield, lives in the Netherlands (Europe), she is mother. She studied social legal studies and the passed ten years she is a (freelance) journalist and publisher. Besides that she has a healing practice and gives workshops about the Art of Dreaming.

Lucid dreaming gives you a great feeling. When you dream consciously, you can have control over events, or at least the realization that you can control a situation. Here are six steps to lucid dreaming and six of the top Law of Attraction tactics that will enable you to get the best out of your dreams. 

Step 1  Write down your dreams as soon as you wake up (even if it’s in the middle of the night). No matter how meaningless they may seem, appreciate what you receive.
Step 2  If you wake up while you are dreaming, review the events of your dream as often as you can. This trains you to remember your dream the next morning and give it your attention.
Step 3  Develop your dream body and aim to find for example an object such as your favorite stone in dreaming. 
Step 4  Be aware of your surroundings and your actions in daily life. Make a habit of observing your surroundings in detail and try to do those things that are usually done on automatic pilot as consciously as possible, and imagine you are dreaming.
Step 5  Develop your dream body by bringing experiences, objects or specific acts or movements from dreaming into the reality and vice versa (that is the bridge between reality and dreaming).
Step 6  Before going to sleep, review the events of your day from the evening back to the morning; this helps to become lucid in your dreams.
(Source: The Sorcerer’s Dream by Alysa Braceau, Dreamshield)

Here are five of the top Law of Attraction tactics that will enable you to get the best out of your dreams.

Tip 1    Positive Attitude
 One of the simplest methods that you can improve the quality of your using the Law of Attraction is to always maintain a positive outlook.

Tip 2     Visualization
Another essential technique is to make a mental picture. It is vital that you actually picture where you want to be in your dreams (and in your life).

Tip 3    Affirmations
You have to begin putting down in writing what you want, and then keep saying them to yourself repeatedly. The more often you say them aloud and confirm your dreams, the likelier it is that they will come true.

Tip 4    Gratitude
Being grateful of what you already have achieved is vital when you’re looking to attract and manifest exactly what you really want.

Tip 5    Always keep the eyes on life goals.
The more focused you are in your ambitions, the more likely you will achieve them eventually.

Tip 6     Taking action
As soon as you begin to have positive thoughts, picture where you would like to be, use affirmations, and keep focused on your ambitions, then you are ready to begin progressing towards your goal.

Good luck! May your dreams come true.
Dreamshield

The Dream Artist, A true story of initiation into the sorcerer’s tradition by Elizabeth August, Dreamshield. The author gives us a glimpse into the very real world of lucid dreaming and astral projection. Her direct experiences with a modern day mystic, Running Deer, takes the work of Castaneda one step further. In The Dream Artist, she reveals unique steps to mastering lucid dreaming and traveling to the unknown.
​
Latest review
"Dreamshield has an engaging narrative style and tells stories that are engrossing. There is a lack of literature on female sorcerers and this book makes an admirable effort to fill this lacuna. When, at the end, she attains “totality,” the reader will share her exaltation." ~ Stanley Krippner, Ph.D. Alan Watts Profess of Psychology, Saybrook University.

Why would you want to learn more about lucid dreaming? Well, the purpose of human is to master lucid dreaming shamans say. One becomes the dreamer and the dream, to be a living dream weaver that experiences one's own dream.

Learning to dream consciously starts with attentiveness, being aware of your surroundings and your actions in daily life. And by writing down your dreams and to leave no detail behind it becomes clearer what has happened in the dream and that gives you an overall awareness. If you are aware of this reality and consciously deal with your dreams, you will find out that your dreams develop and that you become conscious in your dreams.

In "The Sorcerer’s Dream" I reveal unique steps for lucid dreaming, knowledge that shaman Vidar passed during my initiation into the sorcerer’s world. In the next lucid dreaming paragraph I give you an impression of the first steps on How to Lucid Dream.

Excerpt chapter 2
As the sorcerer plays his flute and dances around in a setting of white clouds, he watches me curiously. I hand Vidar the grayish green oval-shaped gemstone with the black figure. He observes the stone closely.
“Good find,” he says. I carefully chose the stone from a box containing all sorts of gems in a small shop in the center of Haarlem where they sell books, incense and jewelry. The bent figure is also known as the dancing sorcerer, a male being with physical characteristics of several animals: with eyes of a wolf, antlers of a moose, a horse’s tail and bear claws. Vidar holds the stone at arm’s length between his thumb and index finger and says “it’s jade.”
He tells me it is a medicine stone, which means that the stone has healing properties and can be used at shamanic healing rituals. For the time being its role is that of the prey and I am the hunter who must try to find it in my dreaming. During the past week, I have been studying the stone from every angle, but there is so much to be discovered that I cannot see the woods for the trees. I ask Vidar, holding the stone in his left hand, what would be the best procedure to learn all the stone’s characteristics by heart.
With the index finger, he caresses the figure and the contour of the stone. “First you study the sorcerer’s outline and draw the lines in your mind until you are able to visualize them. When you succeed, you follow the same procedure with the white spots and the stone’s shape. Carry the stone with you at all times and make a habit of studying it on every occasion, even when you are standing in line at the cashier’s desk,” he smiles. “You have to know every spot, dent or drawing from the inside and from the outside. Practice as long as it takes to get it in your mind and aim to find the stone in your dreaming within the next ten days. Then you start counting the days.”
“And what if I don’t find it within that time?”
“Then you start all over again, until you get it right,” he replies, and gives me the necessary instructions before falling asleep. “Look at the stone in detail and place it somewhere near, close your eyes and visualize the stone on the inside of your inner eye, between your eyebrows. It is important to become conscious of the moment right before you fall asleep. At that specific moment you visualize the stone immediately inside your inner eye.” My mind resists. Waking up before falling asleep seems impossible. He must have read my mind, because he says; “It’s actually enough to have the intention to be conscious before falling asleep. Attempt it.” I decide not to worry anymore. I will just do it. “Aim to wake up consciously every morning and visualize the stone with your inner eye,” he continues as he slowly brings the stone closer. “Pick up the stone and move it closer from an arm’s length to the tip of your nose as if the stone is coming toward you. Do not forget to repeat to yourself that you will find the stone,” he concludes.
He carefully places the stone in front of me on the table as if it is fragile, pushes his chair backward and gets up to boil water for tea. I place the sorcerer in the palm of my hand, he gives me a defiant look as if he is about to make a getaway and obviously expects me to chase after him. He is one in a million and I will do anything to find him.

About the Sorcerer’s Dream 
The Sorcerer's Dream, A true story of initiation into the Native American sorcerer’s tradition by Alysa Braceau, Dreamshield. The author gives us a glimpse into the very real world of lucid dreaming and astral projection. Her direct experiences with a modern day mystic, Running Deer, takes the work of Castaneda one step further. In The Sorcerer’s Dream, she reveals unique steps to mastering lucid dreaming and traveling to the unknown.

Latest review
"Dreamshield has an engaging narrative style and tells stories that are engrossing. There is a lack of literature on female sorcerers and this book makes an admirable effort to fill this lacuna. When, at the end, she attains “totality,” the reader will share her exaltation." ~ Stanley Krippner, Ph.D. Alan Watts Profess of Psychology, Saybrook University.

The Sorcerer's Dream is available at Booklocker, Amazon, and everywhere they sell books.

About Alysa Braceau
Alysa Braceau, Dreamshield, lives in the Netherlands (Europe), she is mother of a 7-year old daughter. She studied social legal studies and the passed ten years she is a (freelance) journalist and publisher. Besides that she has a healing practice and gives workshops about the Art of Dreaming.

• Related Topics:
• Dreams
• Shamanism

Mushroom Dream Ceremony

 Encounters with the past in the boundless unknown

The Sorcerer’s Dream is a true story of my initiation into the Native American tradition of sorcery. During my initiation one of the steps was to take magic mushrooms in a dreaming ceremony. The mushroom is the outward appearance of the entity and I was fortuned to meet the entity Mateeë. Mateeë is a cosmic relative and he guided me into the unknown being a signpost into the second reality of dreaming and creativity. During the first dreaming ceremony I was pleasantly surprised to be invited by my ancestors, who were speaking to me, to be initiated as a medium. My dreaming teacher, the shaman Vidar, explained more about the skill of the medium. 

The shaman Vidar told me somewhere in the beginning of my apprenticeship that Mateeë would guide me to the unknown; he teaches how to shift your assemblage point. His characteristic is cosmic love, humor and beauty. He teaches you that this reality is not the only one.

However, you have to be ready to meet the entity in the dreaming ceremony, to be guided into the unknown. It can be very dangerous if you don’t have someone to teach and to guide you because you are challenged and confronted with your fears.

During the first dreaming ceremony I was invited by my ancestors, who in cosmic waves of information were speaking to me, to be initiated as a medium. This event I describe in my book. In this post I would like to explain more about the Art of the Medium with the next excerpt from chapter 10. It starts with a dream a few days after the dreaming ceremony and next my dreaming teacher explains more about the skill of the medium. 

Excerpt

“A circle of people are urging to introduce themselves to me. “It’s an entire family,”

I declare my amazement out loud.

But it is not an ordinary family, I know, it is my spiritual family consisting of at least two men, two women and a couple of children. The family gives me the warm-heartedness which you could expect from a family. Their love delights me. One particular guy seems to like me very much. When we say goodbye he keeps asking me for a last kiss. “All right, one more kiss, only one more.”

“That’s me,” Vidar teases.

“Are they really related to me?” I ask.

He agrees. “They are immediate family. Soon you will get better acquainted because the coming period I will educate you in the skill of the medium according to the North-American tradition of my family.”

Without a shred of irony he adds: “You must realize we are talking about a far advanced training.”

I want to jump for joy. My biggest wish is about to come true! I am not sure how to measure my talents, but I feel very honored and once more I tell him this is all I ever wanted even though I never really knew why. Vidar says there is a simple explanation for it: “Your wish derives from your gifts.” He draws a circle on paper and says: “For your initiation as a medium, you set up a new medicine circle. That means you no longer work exclusively with the medicine wheel of totality, but also with that of the medium. There are wheels within wheels.” On the four wind directions he sketches figures and he draws one figure on the centre spot: “You grandmother is the coordinator of it all. She brings your ancestors in touch with you. Your family members introduce themselves to you and tell you what their knowledge is. After a while, every individual is placed on a fixed spot on the medicine wheel. As a medium, you get your information from the source of knowledge itself. For instance, your ancestors have eternal knowledge on healing, art, architecture, philosophy, to list only a few.”

I wonder how it is possible to pick up information which is a hundred or even a thousand years old.

“Look at it this way. The past is like a fingerprint on reality: layer on layer. As a medium, you retrieve the stored memories of your ancestors, interpreted by many as past lives.”

“You don’t believe in past lives?” I interrupt him.

“Not in passed and not in future lives. Man has created two lines from the source of totality: the hereditary line of the eternal cosmic family and the earthly ancestors. You are an eternal entity and you cannot suddenly jump onto someone else’s totality. 

To get back to your question, a medium has the gift to tune in on the past and pick up information. You could compare it to a radio mast,” and he puts his arms wide up in the air. “Your gifts work like a tuner, you tune in until you reach the frequency which leads you to your grandmother. You convert to other channels through her and tune in on another frequency to get in touch with one of your ancestors. But that’s what your grandmother taught you during the encounter. Very quickly you were able to switch to other frequencies. You practiced a nice skill,” he grins, “you made use of cosmic energy to pick up information. When you address your physical energy, you’ll exhaust yourself.”

About the Sorcerer’s Dream 
The Sorcerer's Dream, A true story of initiation into the Native American sorcerer’s tradition by Alysa Braceau, Dreamshield. The author gives us a glimpse into the very real world of lucid dreaming and astral projection. Her direct experiences with a modern day mystic, Running Deer, takes the work of Castaneda one step further. In The Sorcerer’s Dream, she reveals unique steps to mastering lucid dreaming and traveling to the unknown.

The Sorcerer's Dream is available at Booklocker, Amazon, and everywhere they sell books.

About Alysa Braceau
Alysa Braceau, Dreamshield, lives in the Netherlands (Europe), she is mother of a 7-year old daughter. She studied social legal studies and the passed ten years she is a (freelance) journalist and publisher. Besides that she has a healing practice and gives workshops about the Art of Dreaming.

• Related Topics:
• Dreams
• Healing
• Plant Medicine

Humans and animals have several assemblage points. However, the cosmic assemblage point and the assemblage point of the totality are the most important. The cosmic assemblage point belongs to the knowledge of the shamans and the one of the totality belongs to the people of knowledge.

The cosmic assemblage point has two features: the first one is the preservation of energy and the second is manipulation. Shamans are constantly working on expanding their assemblage point and strengthening it by continuously exchanging earth and cosmic energy. They bring it up to full capacity for healing and traveling. The cosmic assemblage point originates somewhere in your upper body where cosmic and earth energy come together.

Learn more about the The cosmic assemblage point in the next excerpt from my book "The Sorcerer’s Dream". 
 

Excerpt
Vidar presses an imaginary ball of energy in between his hands and says, “You receive cosmic energy through your crown and earth energy ascends through meridians up through your feet and your legs. When you sit, earth energy enters through the first and second chakra. When the energies meet in your upper body, a third energy emerges which is three times stronger than the sun since it has inexhaustible powers. Whereas regular healers address their own body energy, shamans use cosmic energy for traveling and to receive information for healing, and to heal like a fireman using a hose. But shamans also need to learn how to maintain the energy to spiritually enlighten their fellow human beings. To make the light in the spirit tangible and recognizable and to experience the full capacity of spiritual light. You cannot even compare the sun to the light of the spirit. The sun’s energy is less pure than spiritual light which consists exclusively of pure energy. An experience with spiritual light takes you on a spiritual path which feels like a revelation. You feel like you are captured by your own spiritual light. It is beautiful to express this to someone else. The second feature of the cosmic assemblage point is manipulation, through which you will meet your own consciousness, reflecting the totality. By increasing the pressure of the two joining energies and by stepping into the conscious ball of energy – the cosmic assemblage point is within that ball – you meet your own consciousness.”

He explains, “When you enter, fine energy threads of light pass through, even beyond reality, giving you an experience of intent,” he stretches his arms out. “You feel dispersed in lines of intent, call it an experience with the boundless part of the Self. The lines of intent reflect the totality. Lines of intent are pure lines of creation. Through these lines you feel connected to all that exists. Every minor particle is connected to the lines of intent.” His conclusion is short but to the point: “The reflection of the totality is a consolation prize to people unable to reach the totality,” and he watches me challenging. Undoubtedly he can read my mind. I will not settle for a consolation prize.

The Dream Artist
The Dream Artist, A true story of initiation into the sorcerer’s tradition by Elizabeth August, Dreamshield. The author gives us a glimpse into the very real world of lucid dreaming and astral projection. Her direct experiences with a modern day mystic, Running Deer, takes the work of Castaneda one step further. In The Dream Artist, she reveals unique steps to mastering lucid dreaming and traveling to the unknown.

Latest review
"Dreamshield has an engaging narrative style and tells stories that are engrossing. There is a lack of literature on female sorcerers and this book makes an admirable effort to fill this lacuna. When, at the end, she attains “totality,” the reader will share her exaltation." ~ Stanley Krippner, Ph.D. Alan Watts Profess of Psychology, Saybrook University.

The Sorcerer's Dream is available at Booklocker, Amazon, and everywhere they sell books.

About Alysa Braceau
Alysa Braceau, Dreamshield, lives in the Netherlands (Europe), she is mother of a 7-year old daughter. She studied social legal studies and the passed ten years she is a (freelance) journalist and publisher. Besides that she has a healing practice and gives workshops about the Art of Dreaming.

Hi Witchy friends, I would like to share an excerpt about my meeting with one of the witches somewhere in the beginning of my initiation into the sorcerer’s world. The witches helped me to bring my ability to consciously dream on full capacity and made me aware of the connection between dreaming and sexual energy.And don’t forget, in the dream world anything is possible. Under guidance of my mentor the sorcerer Running Deer I made the impossible possible and even managed to transform into an elf.

“I am about to depart, when out of the corner of my eye, my attention is drawn toward a group of women. Hanging around looking bored, it seems like they have been waiting for the bus for ages.
I dig my heels in the ground. “Whoa, hold on a minute.” I stop the eagle who was about to take me to the wind direction, pointed at by the woman in the street.
Tell me if I am wrong, but I believe them to be the sorceresses who dragged me along in my dreaming the other day. They exude the same mysterious atmosphere, somewhere between mysticism and light-footedness. I have to concentrate to see how many there are. I count one-two-three-four-five and watch them one by one. Two are not as exotic as in my dreaming, but, it was dark.
One of them is tall and slender, her grey-blond hair is cut in an elegant bob and she is fashionably dressed. She has a natural elegance and she emanates life-wisdom without being pedantic. She looks like the eldest of the lot and the wisest, at least, that is the impression she makes.
The other woman has beautiful long red curly hair. She is quite sturdy and makes a social and friendly impression with her rosy cheeks, a long pleated skirt and thatched basket on her arm. Immediately, she puts me at ease.
The three dark women mirror the image of each other, they must be sisters. All three of them are dressed in black, and with their dark hair tied back, their caramel colored skin and with big dark brown eyes they are true exotics. They stand, or rather they hang between the other two, as though they are about to fall asleep any minute. The one in the middle is not half as slender as the other two, but all three seem smaller than the other two women. They stare at me silently without making me uncomfortable.
Without the interference of any tone of voice, I hear: “Hello, here we are, pleased to meet you.”
I would love to start a conversation, but I have other plans for now and promise to come back later to get better acquainted.
I fly along with the eagle and from the air I see the red path down below, bending like a thin trail through the rocky west and I dive downward after the eagle. Like the first time, we land at the start of the trail and after a short walk we fly over the green palm tops in the direction of the ocean. Further to the left there are several bays interrupted by rocks and stones. I circle, exploring over the west’s shelter. It is the first bay seen from the rocks, toward the right the jungle starts narrowing into a point. I descend at the sea, make myself comfortable and take in the light orange horizon from left to right and back.
The tiger walks toward me, purrs and pushes his head against my shoulder. I stroke his head softly, get up and we walk to the wooden villa together.”


The Sorcerer’s Dream
Author: Alysa Braceau, Dreamshield
http://www.dreamshield.nl

Paperback: 294 pages
ISBN: 978-1-60910-156-5

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