The Dreams Keeper

by Paola Elena Ferri

  But there is no time now to think about unpleasant things. If any of you want me to treasure your seeds, the ones you got from He-Who-Waits, I will be pleased to be of help. At the end of the journey, I will give them back to you, intact, because in the Land of Dreams, nothing dies, when faith is strong.

  Let’s continue, admiring the expanse of colorful flowers that surround us. There are all kinds of flowers, intensely fragranced, but not exaggerated. Strong and delicate flowers, that, nevertheless, you are not allowed to pick. Not here. Maybe, further on, but this opportunity is not given to all. Let these flowers live and die following life’s cycle and don’t keep them for you: they are here for everyone, so that all may relish their beauty and perfume. They cannot be cut and only a few of you will have the privilege to take one back with you, to the world of Reality.

  We must reach the top of that hill over there. It is not too far away, but you must have the necessary strength to climb up to the top. The slope is a bit steep but you may cling onto rocks and trees. Until now, no-one has ever fallen but many have decided not to climb, for fear of falling. You are free to choose. You may climb up or stay at the bottom. Should you climb it, there is another experience that you can take with you, in your deepest knowledge; if you don’t climb, no-one will blame you, but, perhaps you may experience a sense of regret in not having risked. This may appear to be a paradox, but it isn’t.

  Let’s walk faster because we are the foot of the hill. I know you are tired because you may still not have fully realized what you are living and what it will bring you, and perhaps, it may not make sense to a few of you. Others instead may be hungry or thirsty… don’t worry: soon we will be able to take refreshment and energy will return, even stronger than before.

  The hill we are heading towards seems quite low, seen from here, but, from the other side, as soon as we reach the hill-top, we will see a precipice overlooking a raging river. There, you will be put to a test.

  Don’t be afraid.

  We are on the hill’s slope e now you can see how steep it is. It is, but there are many supports to cling onto. I too, am afraid of heights and was afraid to climb it, the first time. I tried a dozen times to put my feet at the beginning of the slope, just to go down again, frightened. Little by little, I realized that every time, in some way, I was supported. Whenever I slipped, I did not fall. Instead, I risked falling every time I tried to turn back. Thus, step by step, just like you are doing now, I started to climb.

  The bird song is wonderful, and if you were allowed to see them, you would be overwhelmed by their beauty.

  If you continue your journey, you will see the wonders that Nature provides, without us noticing them.

  Let’s climb, let’s cling onto what we find. But don’t cling onto each other. Each one of us must do it by himself, with what he finds. Speed is unimportant: you can take all the time you need. You may stop for a while, cool yourself under the shade of these trees that surround us, like an embrace, and then set off again. Enjoy the sight of the flowered meadow that we have just left behind us….then get up and continue climbing. I will stay ahead of you and guide you.

  We are on the hilltop. I would invite you now to look down, in front of you, very carefully. Can you see the precipice? It’s about 100 meters high or even more. Can you see the force of the river crash against the rocks, dragging along everything that comes its way, without ever stopping? Can you the vortices it forms that never dissolve?

  This is the test awaiting you.

  Now, you must let yourselves go and fall into the river. A bit further ahead, the river ends up in a waterfall, and the waterfall exhausts itself into a lake, after another step, that’s at least 20 meters high.

  It’s a big jump. A jump in the dark. Here it’s not a matter of survival. Here it’s a matter of having faith. Surely, many of you will not feel up to taking such a step. Many of you will ask yourselves: why should I leave such an enchanting valley, walk for so long, scale the rocks, to then allow myself to fall into a precipice that grants no discounts?

  Well, the answer will be yours only after you shut your eyes and launch yourselves into the void.

  Every second, for you, will last an eternity, during which a thousand thoughts will cluster your mind. You will be afraid. It will be like dying.

  But you will not die.

  You are not obliged to accept the test, thus, who doesn’t feel ready to face it, can stop here, and wait for the will to enter his heart, or turn back, backwards. He will not meet, though, He-Who-Waits. He will not receive water to quench his thirst nor bread to feed himself, because he is going back to the reality he knows well where everything is so well scheduled, that he will not fear not having anything available.

  I, myself, as a Human Being, was afraid just like you. And I still am. I don’t know how to swim. For me, the test is never ending. As The Dream keeper, I encourage you to have faith, to continue, because you will not die. I am not allowed to give you proof of this, right now. You must take my word for it and, above all, put your trust in the unknown that you will stumble upon.

  You will not die. In the Land of Dreams, you cannot die in that way. You die only when you stop dreaming, hoping and no longer believe. Taking risks, here, in this Land, with someone to guide you to the Eternal Present, can only lead to new awareness.

  The time has come.

  I will jump first.

  Then, it will be your turn.

  I will wait for you at the lakeside.

  SHE-WHO-RECEIVES

  Welcome, brave Wanderers.

  If you can hear my words, it means that you have taken the jump.

  I am pleased to see you.

  My name is She-Who-Receives, and I was with you, in the water when you were swept away by the current. I was in the water, because the water is part of me and I am water myself.

  You saw me. You saw my eyes peering into your lost gazes. You experienced the strength of my arms that pushed you towards the shores of the lake, where you would have found a safe place. And now you are here, on the sand warmed by the sun, and you can see me, while it seems that I float above the water’s surface…

  I am not on the sand with you because my world is elsewhere. I can study you, help you, guide and save you, as long as you are in the water. Be it a torrent, a river, a lake, or even an ocean… I am always there.

  I am not a mermaid, as you can see. My arms and legs are like yours, my face is like yours, my hair is long and blonde but similar to yours… the only thing different is my dress, because mine is similar to a transparent tunic, in continuous movement… it is because it’s pure water, crystal clear water that comes from the source that gave birth to me. The color of this water is also in my eyes, so light as to appear without irises… but I know that you do not fear me.

  You have been saved but I know you are tired, so rest for a while. Let me cradle you, as a mother would do with her child. The lake is calm. You can come closer to the shore, sit down where you can still touch, let yourselves be lapped by the water that will caress you with maternal love.

  I know that many of you are thirsty… drink, thus, of this water because it is pure and it will not harm you. It will quench your thirst for a long time. If you want to take some with you for the rest of your journey, accept my gift for you: the tiny crystal bottles that have now appeared on the water’s surface are the result themselves of the work of this extraordinary source. Take them: these are free gifts for you, to relieve your fatigue, reinvigorate your body, and quench your thirst. Fill them. They will not melt, not even under the hottest sun. The only way they can be destroyed is through your own will: if you decide to do without them, if you will throw them on the ground with force, they will dissolve into water that will evaporate very quickly. They will never be returned to you. So, take care of them.

  You are seeking the Eternal Present and The Dream keeper has brought you to me, so that I could guide you up to here and give you a little part of me. The water in which you have imm
erged yourselves and that has quenched your thirst, is the water of life, of innocence, and has the power to make you open your eyes in this Land, on the border with your Reality.

  You have faced a hard test, by launching yourselves into the precipice. What you have put to test is the trust in yourselves, in who has led you to here and in something else that you could not know. But you just trusted. From this test, you have learned that even in the hardest situations, when it seems that you have no other choice but to let yourself fall, trusting someone is the only way to find the solution. Extreme hardness often leads to destruction, whereas softness helps to cushion even the hardest blows, like when you are dragged over staggered rocks without hurting yourselves.

  Water is synonymous of maternity and life. You come from water, from the amniotic sack in which you were a fetus in your mother’s womb. Your eyes were shut, your lungs did not breath air, yet you were ALIVE. The maternal water nourished you, it warmed you, protected you, surrounding you as in a warm embrace…Then you were born and the alcove where you were laying became a tunnel that pushed you with force towards the light, that just as it lightens and provides warmth, it highlights also the perils, the risks and the fears. Nevertheless a part of you still remembers those months spent thriving in the maternal womb.

  Each one of you wants to know who you really are. To do so, you must understand who you were when you were little, before your birth and just after. That’s the reason why you have been brought to me. That’s why the river has given birth to you. You are born again. You can start over, break with the past, and overcome the traumas that have taken away pieces of your soul, recover yourselves.

  It will not be easy. Life is never easy. For this reason, the Human Being has stopped hoping, stopped dreaming and no longer believes. He doesn’t realize however that who believes in nothing is like an empty shell. Wherever there is space, life fills it. You are magnets: if you have a positive approach, you will attract positive things and your soul will be full of light. If you act in bad faith, the darkness will permeate your hearts. But the choice is always up to you. No-one will be forced.

  This is the Land of Dreams, which welcomes anyone who has decided to embark on a journey towards the Eternal Present. It makes no distinction of sex, race, age, social status, religious beliefs: here, the human being is called to find the pieces of his dreams, his hopes, his joys that, in one way or the other, have been destroyed. It’s never a useless journey.

  Let me make one thing clear to you: idols do not exist here. This Land produces only the fruits of what is sowed by the Human Being. The Dream keeper still has the seeds that you received from He-Who-Waits and you may give her even the bottles of pure crystal that you received as a gift from me. Remember that neither her, nor I… Neither of us are divinities. She is a Human Being, just like you: one day, one of you will take her place. Regarding me, I am only part of Nature, but a Superior Force rules every law. Not me, not you.

  Respect this Force, this Superior Being who has given you the permission to get this far, and so doing, you will respect yourselves.

  Now that you have quenched your thirst and rested, it’s time to get going again towards the Eternal Present. It’s also time for you to change your clothes. Take off what you were wearing when you arrived here, and put on Life and Nature, to be part of it.

  I beg you to come closer to the shore, to go into the water and immerge yourselves, until only your face will remain on the surface. Take off your clothes and wait awhile, then come out of the water and go back to the shore. You will see that you are now dressed with light, almost transparent white tunics, with light blue shades. The tunics are long, for the women, and shorter for the men. They are tailor made for you because the water, enveloping you, dresses you for what you are, inside and out.

  When all of you will be ready, turn your backs on me and follow

  The Dream keeper. She is the only one with a white cape over her tunic and a crown of flowers on her head. These are the symbols you need to follow. Turn your backs on me and don’t look back. You are not allowed to do so. Whoever thinks about returning to where he came from is free to run away, but following the road backwards, he would encounter an incredible force that would push him towards this shore. He can, however, challenge this force, but I will not be able to do anything for him. I can only bring you forward. Not take you back.

  Go, then, and have trust.

  Continue your journey towards the Eternal Present, without looking back.

  Good luck, Wanderers.

  SPARK OF THE WAY

  Follow me. I beg you. Hand over to me what is tiring you. Can you see this? She-Who-Receives has given me a basket made of little branches woven together, that she collected herself from the bottom of the lake. Nothing gets thrown away in the Land of Dreams. Allow me to carry your gifts and treasure them until we reach the Eternal Present. Feel free to move around as you like, breathing the fresh air of this Land that few people know or what to know.

  We will pass again through a small wood, so lovely and fragranced by the resin. You will hear the birds sing but you might not be able to see them yet. All in good time. For now, just welcome what you have received as a gift, without asking too many questions. No-one will ask you to give it back: only you will decide whether to return it or not. All that is given to you is yours and will return to you. Always.

  You might decide to share it with someone else, but, even in that case, it may never belong to other Wanderers. Every gift is personal and there is none identical to another.

  I am leading you to a place where you will experience something very important, that you will take with you up to the Eternal Present and even after, in your everyday life. It’s a place that will be created by all of you and I will tell you how. We just need to move towards a point in the wood, where the trees are collected in a circle, where the foliage can create a kind of shelter, through which the sun's rays will filter, though not distracting you from your next experience.

  We can stay here. There are pine trees everywhere and the fragrance of the resin is even more intense. Can you see that space created by the pine trees that surround us? It’s circular and there’s enough space for the group to remain here without being scattered in other areas of the wood. The ground is covered with pine needles, but they will not sting you. What you have to do now is gather stones. They need to be medium sized stones and not too heavy. You can help each other, collaborate, both to find them and to bring them here, to the middle of the circle. Search around you, but don’t lose sight of yourselves: you might get disoriented, right now.

  Put down all the stones that I will tell you and wait for other instructions.

  There are enough stones now. I ask you, therefore, to arrange them in a circle, to create a kind of surrounding wall, touching the perimeter created naturally by the trees. Put every stone, next to one another, and close the circle. If some stones should be left over, put them in the middle, in another circle, but don’t use them all: all of you should keep two stones, for later use.

  Now look for some dry branches, amongst the ones that have fallen to the ground. Take some, as many as required, to make a bundle. We will light a fire, but only one person, amongst you, will be the one chosen, to light it.

  I have observed you carefully, from the beginning of the journey, till now. I have observed all of you, to choose he or she will be the Spark of the Way. And I have come to a decision.

  I have chosen you. I have chosen you, who embarked on this journey full of fear, perplexity, with many doubts, yet you followed me everywhere I went, launching yourself after me into the river. You were not afraid, in that moment. You just did it. That was your test. You have passed it.

  Thus, now, I choose you and want you to light the fire, Spark of the Way. From now on, in the Land of Dreams, that will be your name.

  Light the fire as you know how, while the rest of us will beat our little stones, one against the other, in a gradual crescendo, until the flames will r
ise. The stones that we place in a circle will protect the trees from the heat. In any case, here the soil is moist and the barks are not dry. A fire will not blaze.

  And then… we are protected by creatures, who at this moment are invisible… but once the veil that covers our eyes shall fall, you will be able to see those around you who protect you. They are not Angels because this is the Land of Dreams, but they are living creatures, who exist thanks to your soul that opens up to hope, will and determination.

  Now, Spark of the Way, light the fire. We shall start to create a rhythm with the stones.

  I'm calling the breeze of the North, so it can be the breath of wind on the wood that starts to emit a mild smoke, the prelude of the bonfire that we are lighting;

  I’m calling the heat of the South, so it can give strength to the flame and make it live;

  I’m calling the rising of the Eastern Sun, so that the flame blazes in all its glory to become the bonfire, for our dance;

  I’m calling the faint glow of the West, so that it impedes the bonfire from burning everything around itself;

  I’m calling the Guardians of the cardinal points of the Land of Dreams, so that the balance of Nature is not altered.

  Continuing to beat one stone against another, we start to move around the fire, remembering the paces of an ancient dance that is part of our memory. Close your eyes and stop thinking. Do not be driven by the fear of appearing ridiculous. Do not be afraid of being clumsy. Do not be distracted by the doubt that all this doesn’t make sense.