Emily & Isabel; Literary Heroines In Dreams

Emily and Isabel : Literary Heroines in Dreams

Dreaming or awake, we perceive only events that have meaning to us.

— Jane Roberts

Emily

Many women writers I know, and not just those of my generation, still struggle with giving themselves permission to write, which is tantamount to permission to believe in themselves.  It’s true those of us who came of age in the sixties and seventies with all the motifs of liberation, still looked for men to complete them, And we wondered if we could really speak our truth. Since I was fascinated by my dreams and knew that I found it intimidating to compete with men, I hoped to gain more confidence and courage through Jungian psychotherapy. One dream I had during my analysis astonished me with its sad but sacred beauty. It showed me how I strove to believe I had talent to write poetry but unconsciously identified myself with sacrifice, even martyrdom.

At the time of the dream I had been reading Judith Farr’s biography of Emily Dickinson. Emily had an overbearing father whom she referred to as “Vesuvius at Home,” yet despite him, she wanted to present her work to the world. However, well before the end of her life as most of us know, Dickinson was virtually a recluse.  She retired to her room garbed in her white dresses, writing her poetry, as poetry is often written, in solitude. She stopped trying to get the attention of editors and stopped sending her work to her mentor at The Atlantic Monthly.

I believe by then she had a sense of her own genius and eventually reconciled herself with the circumstances that kept her from making her mark on her Victorian world. Perhaps she knew how far ahead of her time she was. After she died and her 1789 poems were discovered so beautifully packaged, and perhaps deliberately prepared for publication, of course, she was appropriately, if posthumously, admired, studied and praised. Her enigmatic inner life has been a subject for scholars ever since.

Earlier in her life Emily had submitted poems to Samuel Bowles, the editor of The Springfield Republic. Not only did he reject them but Bowles discouraged her from writing poetry at all.  She also corresponded with T.W. Higgison, the editor of The Atlantic in Boston, who became a kind of friend to her.  Higgison was totally befuddled, if intrigued, by her writing. Captivated, but suspicious of her innovations, her slant rhymes, her unconventional punctuation, he cautiously began a correspondence with her.  Her letters were especially coy and displayed her curious originality.  Higgison and others who did have an opportunity to meet her socially have all attested to the insufferable intensity of her personality.

It is evident that Emily had been wounded emotionally by someone with whom she had fallen in love, possibly on a trip to visit family friends in Philadelphia or a visitor to her home where her father, a state senator, often entertained various dignitaries.  It seems she corresponded with this man, and there are several spellbinding letters where she addresses him as “Master” and tells him of her feelings often in muted jokes and coy posturing:  “I’ve got a tomahawk in my side but that don’t hurt much.”   Teaching her work and reading her letters undoubtedly provoked my dream.  Whoever “Master” really was, and whatever projections he invited, it was Emily’s coquettish, half-plaintive, self-deprecation that was the right hook for my unconscious. And I had issues with my own bigger-than-life father as well.

I was in an art museum in my dream and turned a corner into a room where there was a huge, gorgeous, “alabaster” (one of Emily’s words) statue of Emily Dickinson crucified on a cross. She was partially alive but also a statue, i.e. to say, “frozen” in stone.  In the dream I take her down from the cross and hold her in my arms with great compassion and love.

In awe of the image in my dream, I dropped by a local Catholic church to look at the Stations of the Cross. I was aware that the dream adopted the posture of Michelangelo’s Pieta and that one of the stations reflects that image. Interestingly, it is the thirteenth station where Christ is taken down and held in the arms of his mother, which corresponded with the image in my dream.  The dream had come during the period in my therapy when my analyst Noni, had been asking me about the numbers thirteen and fourteen that continued to show up in my dreams. My own family trauma occurred when I was thirteen and fourteen and my father had a breakdown. Adolescence is a challenging time for most of us and I recall overwhelming emotional turmoil in response to my father’s emotional turmoil.  A few years later my father died suddenly and a psychological complex, my complicated relationship to the opoosite sex, was born at that time.

After having the dream, I wrote a poem using some of Emily’s language from her letters to “Master.” Certain poems were addressed to Master as well. His specific identity has never been known with certainty, although most critics name the married Reverend Charles Wadsworth. Emily’s three famous letters to Master include phrases broken with dashes. As in her poems, the style is beyond her era, almost contemporary, her method obtuse, and her meanings oblique. Yet we can recognize from the excerpt below the voice of someone who is suffering from repudiated expressions of love:

God made me—Master-— didn’t be—myself.  I don’t know how

it was done.   He built the heart in me—Bye and bye it outgrew me–

and like the little mother–with the big child I got tired holding him.

I heard of a thing called “Redemption”—which rested men and

women. You remember I asked you for it—you gave me something else.

I forgot the Redemption and was tired–no more— am older—tonight,                                     Master—but the love is the same—so are the moon and the crescent             . . .   (Farr 204)

Have you the Heart in your breast—Sir—is it set like mine—a little to

the left–has it the misgiving—if it wake in the night-perchance-itself

to it-a timbrel is it—itself to it a tune?  (Farr 212)

Like many of her readers, I found the letters puzzling, beautiful, disturbing and heartbreaking. And I was in awe of the image in my dream of the smooth white structure, its austere beauty.  Moreover,  the dramatic statement of a “crucified woman” poet stunned me to the core.  My dream seemed to conflate Dickinson with Jesus Christ.  The dream gave me a deep respect for the ingenious way that the human unconscious will draw together the combinations of assorted data and arrange suggestive symbols.  I realized the unconscious often exaggerates to get our attention, but I never doubted that my unconscious knew so much more than I did and that it had much to teach me.

Reworking the images in the intuitive act of writing the poem helped me feel them consciously.  I could have compassion for those feelings and then move away from the martyrdom with which I unconsciously identified. After having the dream, my own poem came on its own easily and afforded me relief and satisfaction. It became a made thing outside of me, rather than ill feelings festering within.

Consciously, I would never have thought of grafting myself onto Emily Dickinson.  She has been a difficult poet for me always; I felt her poems were often over my head.  What this dream did was choose to suggest the size of my ambition and show me how I really felt about my relationship with my father and the other men in my life.  Writing the poem helped me release these victimized judgments.  I wanted her own language in my poem and readers familiar with her work will recognize the snatches from her letters and some vocabulary from her poems:

I Dream The Passion of Emily

after the Master Letters

In the museum

under a great basilica—

the crucifixion of Emily Dickinson.

I lift her off

her alabaster cross,

an image of the Church’s 13th station.

Holding the small-boned wren

of her body in my arms,

we form a pale Pieta.

Through a hole

in her white dress

where the evidence of the spear would be,

my fingers find the wound

of Master’s tomahawk.

And I know white sustenance, know

what was sacrificed

for the poems tied

in fascicles, disinterred

from the father’s house.

I lift her fallen hand,

read the palm,

infinity’s pencil,

promise of circumference

yet to come. Loose

beneath her bridal veil,

the sherry-colored hair

overruns the crown

of buttercups and daisies.

Her heart is set

to the lower left

just like she said—

a full moon

folding to a crescent.

But the love is the same.

Emily’s poetry is cosmic, concerned with higher consciousness, death and transcendence. In a puritanical era, she eschewed institutionalized religion openly and yet her sensibility is entirely spiritual.  I believe that by the end of her life she understood that she was ahead of her time.  Many readers are spellbound by her baffling words and I can’t claim to fully understand many of her poems. Yet it’s as if the language and form together create something beyond words and we are drawn to reread the poems over and over.  Several poems lead me to suspect she had commerce with other dimensions and sensory access to the spirit world.

I had identified with Emily unconsciously. Though we lived in different centuries, our role as women inhibited us. Emily was infinitely more brilliant, talented and mysterious than I am. But my unconscious chose some of her posturing as a self-reflection. I was honored to have been gifted with this dream, honored by its stunning visual, and the fact that I know that all the images in the dream are aspects of myself, my unconscious projections as well as my ego self, remains. That I was the crucified one was a concept I understood. But there was also the message that I was tending to my own dying self, holding her in my arms, so-to-speak, which may have been a statement about seeking therapy and honoring my unconscious calling.

Isabel Archer

Both in and out of analysis, I have had prescient dreams. One of these dreams took three years to prove relevant.  It boggled my intelligence and threw my left brain for a loop to fathom just how my unconscious registered the significance of this dream when real life circumstances had not yet played it out. Furthermore, it seems entirely by accident that I discovered the dream’s revelation.  I have my analyst to thank for her advice. Here is the dream:

I’m working behind the counter at my bookstore.  A customer

has requested that I get down a big art book that’s on display

on one of the higher shelves.  I stand on the stool and lift the

book down. It weights a ton—is heavy and huge, about two feet square.

When I lay it on the counter I see it is “The Portrait of a Lady” by

Henry James.  It has a picture on its cover that I recognize from the Penguin

Edition paperback, which is a beautiful painting of a woman by

John Singer Sargent. The customer wants to buy it. I notice the book

costs $14.00.

I thought the dream was simply day residue because I had unpacked a box of penguin clasics the day before.  As I was shelving them, I admired the many classical and modern paintings which the series’ editors have chosen to replicate on their covers. My analyst, Noni, explained to me that even “day residue,” or the quotidian hum-drum banality of our daily lives which later shows up in our dreams, is selected specifically by the unconscious, not because of it’s recent occurrence but for its symbolic content.

We were not surprised to see that the book cost $14 as the numbers thirteen and fourteen had been showing up in my dreams for a while now and connected with the age I was during my adolescent trauma.  The price tag of the book in the dream was not logical, as a big art book is usually a lot more than $14.00. (This was years before I was familiar with Barnes & Noble’s remainders.) Noni asked if I had read James’ novel, The Portrait of a Lady. I had not. Our session time was up; I stood to leave. As she walked me to the door, very quietly and casually, she suggested I read the book.

The next day I took it home. All five hundred something small print pages with the gorgeously serpentine, Jamesian sentences that went on and one, clause after clause like intricate vines containing an English manor house.  It took me about a month to read and I did love story about Isabel Archer, a young—if naive—wealthy American woman who comes to Europe to see her relatives and eventually marries an Italian man without any money to back up his aristocratic title. Isabel discovers at the end of the story that her husband and the woman who has become Isabel’s best friend had an intimate relationship and have hoodwinked her into supporting their child. Isabel is both pensive and adventurous. She takes a risk marrying this morally questionable man and ends up quite unhappy.  Once she realizes she has been manipulated, she must decide how to react.  She maintains her dignity and one assumes in the end, although she understands her mistake in choosing this unfortunate marriage, she reconciles herself to her fate, or in other words, in her time and place, behaves like a respectable “lady.”

I could find nothing in the situation of the story to relate to myself except for certain characteristics in Isabel’s personality, her Pollyanna attitude of trust in others and the scope of her psychological self-probing.  She is devastated by her double betrayal, but her will and some deep, residual confidence, helps her keep going.

Noni and I could go nowhere with the dream.  Yet strangely enough, three years later, a confession from my best friend suggested strange parallels to the novel. I too, had been deceived, but preferred to look forward rather than back. I was no longer in therapy though I called Noni to tell her. I was already divorced and on my own, and seeing that I was not trapped in the nineteenth century like Isabel, I had escaped the situation which had betrayed me. I was angry however, that once again, like discovering the true circumstances behind my father’s premature death, I learned the truth about something concerning me that was purposely kept from me by the two people with whom I was closest at the time. When my anger evaporated, as for me anger inevitably does, I suppose you could say I remained a “lady” by forgiving my betrayers. Yet this incident energized me and motivated my decision to move out of the small town atmosphere of Maine to Boston.

There is a long scene in James’ novel where Isabel is sitting alone by the fire and thinking through her predicament. Years earlier I had underlined this passage in my book:

. . .  she should some day be happy again. It couldn’t be

she was to live only to suffer; To live only to suffer – only to feel the

injury of life repeated and enlarged – it seemed to her she was too

valuable, too capable, for that.

—Henry James

I doubt if I was consciously relating Isabel and myself at the time I marked that text, although it’s possible I was attracted to the idea of psychologically moving on from a position of injury. What I found most truly bizarre then—was that my unconscious mind managed to deliver up the information it had stored quite subtly long before the facts became clear. Nowadays I don’t find the idea at all odd. I just continue to be impressed by the impersonal, unconscious psyche and its wikepediac specificity.

It appears that the unconscious extends beyond our concept of linear time. Jung himself even defined the dream as “athe small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul, which opens to that primeval cosmic night that was soul log before there was conscious ego and will be soul far beyond what a conscious ego could ever reach.” This quote confirms for me what I had already suspected, that with the right induction, our conscious intuition could have access to information outside our usual boundaries. My fascination with the unconscious knowledge we possess continued to grow.  In joining a training dream group, I discovered methods that would facilitate that access.

********

I find dreams and poems to be similar in that they both utilize unconscious material. We are often confused as to why we would dream a certain dream, yet as we feel our repressed emotional knowledge, we can deepen our understanding of the unconscious.

When we write poetry, we put ourselves into a theta brain state where the unconscious arises and helps us “hear” the words. Often we don’t know where we are going and are surprised by what we say. After several drafts, we can then work the material with our left brain, finding the right form for the poem so it yields its message in a manner that seems to evade paraphrase. Poems speak so that particular words and their nuances rub against one another in order for feeling to arise in the reader. Literary dreams offer a whole other body of meaning to contend with. I couldn’t have willed either one of these dreams. But by their references alone, they brought me deeper connections to myself.

References:

Farr, Judith, The Passion of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992.

James, Henry, The Portrait of a Lady. New York: Modern Library Paperback Edition, 2002.

New Review from Facing North for Deborah’s Memoir

Facing North – The Future That Brought her Here: A Memoir of a Call to Awaken

Week 3 1/20 Demystify Your Dreams at Crystal Garden

Jan 20^{th 7:30-9:30}  

Entering the Magical Dreamscape 7:30-9:30

Register at Crystal Garden Bookshop, 2610 North Federal Highway,Boynton Beach, FL 33435-2413
(561) 369-2836

http://www.thecrystalgarden.com/classes/Events_Calendar/Special_Events/Deborah%20DeNicola/Demystifying_Your_Dreams_4WeekSeries.htm

In this class we will learn how to lead a dreamer back into the dream scenes, find the places of greatest tension and greatest comfort, emphasize the poles of the dream, encourage the dreamer to hold the images in the body, allow for autonomous imagery to emerge, and watch the meaning of the dream unravel by questions posed to the dreamer and the dreamer’s reaction.

Photo from reading at Books & Books

Djana and I after my reading

It was a wonderful night with Deborah Pollack’s beautiful slide show of her book on Laura Woodward, my reading from my memoir and Edwardo Perez’ operatic songs. Add a little wine and a great mix of writers, voila, creature culture!  I read Chapt 11, “Intersecting Worlds” on my visit to The Centrum Foundation in Port Townsend where i communed with my lost father and wrote the poem sequence: The World’s Veil. Here I am with the lovely Russian writer Djana Fahreyeva.

A Talk With Deborah DeNicola

A Talk With Deborah DeNicola

As we finish up the week, I’d like to share with you an interview I had with Deborah DeNicola, author of The Future That Brought Her Here–Enjoy!

1. Deborah, can you tell us a bit about why you wrote this book?

First of all I am a poet and though I’ve written a lot of reviews, I wasn’t inclined to write a prose book until I began having uncalled for, spontaneous, metaphysical experiences. I took a lot of notes in my journal for months and months, not knowing what was going on. All I knew was I’d been a normal person for 47 years and suddenly I was aware of other presences around me and could see through my closed eyes. Eventually I decided, I am a writer, this strange thing is happening to me and it only makes sense that I should write about it.

I did actually write a number of poems on some of the experiences but the more I learned about the growing global spiritual movement and the reasons for it, the more I felt a responsibility to report on it using a more accessible genre than poetry.

The fact is that the human species is evolving. We are on the verge of some huge changes as three great cycles cross one another early in our new century. As I joined the vanguard of the movement and found thousands of people there, I also found my story was unique. It only seemed logical that the next step was to write it. I feel a personal responsibility to share what I know. Many people are not ready to resonate with my thoughts, but enough are out there with the germ of the seed in their unconscious collective memories. I worried about risking my reputation as professional writer and teacher, but it became apparent that I myself was crossing into new territory and needed to have the courage of my convictions.

2. If readers gain only one thing by reading this book, what is it you hope they gain?

I hope that readers will remain open to my suggestions and investigate for themselves the idea that we are all part of the godhead, that we create our reality and that we can change what we have experienced as reality, that we can change the world with the power of our collective thoughts and our perceptions, that most of what we were taught to believe about how reality works, is false and wrong, that our religions have misconstrued our powerful place in creation. That if we adjust our attitudes, have faith and rely on our intuition, we will usher in the greatest shift our planet has ever known.

3. Deborah, I see you are offering those who purchase this book some very special gifts–would you like to tell us what they are and how readers can take advantage of this offer?

Unfortunately, the offers are no longer available, although I am still offering on my web site, www.intuitivegateways.com, a free article on dream recall and an MP3 of my reading “Poetry of the Beloved,” a mix of love poems, both individual and spiritual. If people join my mailing list, they will be emailed articles now and then, both by me and if I come across one that I feel is terribly important, I will email that also.

4. What projects do you have planned for the future?

I have some workshops scheduled. Nov 11th at The Crystal Garden in Boynton Beach Florida, I’m teaching a class called “Rumi’s Path of Love; on the Philosophy Faith and Poetry of Rumi.” And I have a four week class in January on “Demystifying Your Dreams With Dream Image Work.” Both of these can be found at Calendar of Events Complete Date Order . Aside from some readings and talks I have in the works, I am writing a book of essays on dream image work called Cinderella Rocketing. A few of these are available on my web site. I am about half way through this book. Each essay offers a closer look at a different aspect of dream image work. The essays are about personal experiences and subjects such as dream amplification, day residue. archetypes, and active imagination, utilizing mostly my own dreams.

I don’t’ believe we can heal by means of our will alone. We need access to our unconscious minds which have been coerced by our negative experiences. We need to create new neural pathways, stop responding automatically to stimuli. So many of our complexes exist below the radar. But Dream work allows us direct confrontation with the unconscious. Dreams are readily there and available for inner work. You can have good intentions, say affirmations, and take steps to put your manifestation into process, but if you haven’t cleared your unconscious beliefs, all your conscious intentions are for naught.

I know how to let meaning form and rise in the process of dream work. Healing the unconscious is absolutely necessary for the transformation of our civilization. I wish to share what I know and can teach about messages in our dreams.

5. Is there any special message you would like to leave our readers with?

Despite the grim look of the world and perhaps some chaotic episodes ahead regarding the economy, earth changes, climate crises etc., we, as a species, are manifesting a new civilization, as hokey as it sounds– one of hope and peace and universal love.

Once people begin to realize that what we do to our neighbors we do to our selves, a great shift will occur. Many have already undergone this shift and are teaching others about it. It involves a new way of thinking about ourselves, our relationships, our work, our material and environmental concerns, our educational institutions and our justice and medical systems. Change is the operative word right now. We have passed into several new cycles, one being out of the age of Pisces, into Aquarius. Aquarius is about new systems, team effort, collective values, community, technology, freedom, equality and consensus thinking outside the box. Slowly we will overhaul the whole workings of our world. The big institutions, like dinosaurs, will be the last to fall. If we focus on them for security, we will be lost to the raving media and spinmeisters who have either unknowingly or knowingly colluded with the power cartel that benefits only a few at the top.

We are living in a time of breakdown of many of our reliable supports, but there is no reason to go into fear. It will be the end of our world as we have known it, but it will be eventually a better world, the return of esoteric power, peace and universal abundance.

My advice is to learn everything you can about the natural laws of manifestation and attraction. Take back your projections, understand who you are, accept nothing less of yourself than your most idealistic aspirations. Retract your projections.

Find work where you can do what you love. Find community. Share. Stop complaining. Visualize what you want, no holds barred. Don’t focus on the negative. Forgive everyone for everything including yourself. Express gratitude for what you have. Find joy within. Keep the faith. Hold to the highest good for all. Be patient. Love yourself and others. Trust in higher powers.

Deborah DeNicola

www.intuitivegateways.com
www.blog.intuitivegateways.com

Posted by Joyce Anthony at 12:01 AM | 3 comments Links to this post

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2009

Deborah DeNicola – Guest Author

Last week, I introduced you to Deborah DeNicola, author of The Future That Brought Here Here. Today, I’d like to share with you some excerpted poems from her prose memoir:

Posted by Joyce Anthony at 8:54 AM | 1 comments Links to this post

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Poems From The Future That Brought Her Here

The other day, I introduced you to a new book titled The Future That Brought Her Here. Deborah DeNicola is first and foremost a poet and she has given me permission to share with you two wonderful poems from this book.

While the book is “a memoir of a call to awaken”, there are some wonderful poetry pieces that have found their way into the book. I chose two of my favorites to share with you!

The Future that Brought Her Here

She’s still discovering injury.

The childhood doll

with its cobalt eyes stuck open,

ginger lashes greasy with years,

a death in her retina

where only an absence appears.

The woman blinks

into the dawning, violet

light of her bedroom

rinsed in hallucinations–

Wrapped in the quilt

of her flowering sorrow,

she arranges the cumulative rain.

Birds swoop and crop her terrain

in a scree of time

and the room slides through iys layered history,

bookcase into fireplace,

latex into lacy paper,

the same hydrangeas bluing the air.

And she is years back, masked

to an earlier sensation, married

to memory that blunts her senses

the way hunter’s headlights stun

deer. And she falls

through the future

that brought her here.

*****

Lioness

Not a cat, not a leopard, a lioness

walked out of my eye, halted

on furred paws. They covered

her claws, turning.

Her orange mane

swung like drapery

and when she opened her jaws,

I fell into darkness and close quarters.

Ripening fullness

inside her mouth. Her musk

was weighted, a cloud,

like the misty refusal of rain.

She licked my chin, my den

a warm furnace, heaved

in the height of her throat.

Heat ticked somewhere below

in the baseboards.

And the hands

of the dream held me

entranced in its print,

like a pinned insect

under amber. Sheltered

beneficence, brutal–

attractive, something

like love.

I will leave you with these poems to savor, examine and contemplate. I’d love to have comments on your interpretations

Deborah DeNicola is the author of five poetry collections and she edited the anthology Orpheus & Company; Contemporary Poems on Greek Mythology.

Among other awards she won a Poetry Fellowship in 1997 from the National Endowment for the Arts. Deborah has been a recipient of many writing colony residencies. She also teaches dream image work and mentors writers online at her web site www.intuitivegateways.com .

To purchase a copy of The Future That Brought Her Here and receive up to 20 bonus gifts, please visit:http://www.thefuturethatbroughtherhere.com/bonusoffers/

Posted by Joyce Anthony at 2:03 AM | 2 comments Links to this post

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2009

The Future That Brought Her Here

I am excited to be sharing a unique book with you over the coming two weeks. Today, I’ll give you general information, but watch for an interview with the author, a review–and hopefully a couple of excerpts

A dynamic blend of history, science, psychology, dreams, and visions, Deborah DeNicola’s memoir is a compelling account of self-discovery that is provocative and humble.

A poet, dream analyst, and college professor DeNicola writes about her struggle to live in the ordinary world of academia while honoring the competing call of the creative and the spiritual. DeNicola’s memoir shows her range of intellectual pursuits and spiritual experiences as she battles an inner war between depressive cynicism and faith and shares her lifelong search to heal the trauma of her father’s tragic death when she was a teenager.

Struggles between skepticism and faith, depression and hope, independence and attachment, creativity and financial security in the midst of spiritual searching, motherhood, teaching and writing are inextricably woven into the fabric of her story. Sharing the process of her awakening and how dreams and visions guide her, DeNicola stirs readers to listen courageously to their own inner voices. Her visionary quest takes her to the American West, Israel, and Southern France. Along the way she weaves together references from the Bible and the Gnostic Gospels, the story of Mary Magdalene, medieval history, the Templar Knights, the Black Madonnas, String Theory and quantum physics to find the repeated linkage between divinity and humanity. 

Deborah DeNicola’s most recent publication isInside Light, a chapbook from Finishing Line Press and her spiritual memoir The Future That Brought Her Here, is from Nicolas Hays /Ibis Press. A full collection of poetry, Original Human, is also scheduled for publication in 2010 from Custom Words Press. Deborah edited the anthology Orpheus & Company; Contemporary Poems on Greek Mythology, from The University Press of New England.

She was awarded a Poetry Fellowship in 1997 from the National Endowment for the Arts, received The Paul Hoover Critical Essay Award from The Packingtown Review 2009, Best of the Net Anthology Award 2008, chosen by Dorianne Laux, The William T. Foley Award in 2000 from America, The Barbara Bradley Award in 1996 from The New England Poetry Club, and a Special Mention from The Pushcart Prizes 1992. She is the author of Where Divinity Begins (Alice James Press) and three chapbooks, Harmony of the Next which won the Riverstone Chapbook Award, Psyche Revisited (1992), which won the Embers Magazine Chapbook Contest, and Rainmakers (Coyote Love Press).

A Bread Loaf Scholar (1993), a recipient of fellowships from The MacDowell Colony (1994), The Centrum Foundation (1995), The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (1997), and The Vermont Studios (1999). Deborah DeNicola was trained by the Dutch Jungian Analyst Robert Bosnak who coined the term “Embodied” dream work. She teaches poetry and dream image workshops in South Florida and reviews poetry for The Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel.

To purchase a copy of The Future That Brought Her Here and receive up to 20 bonus gifts, please visit:http://www.thefuturethatbroughtherhere.com/bonusoffers/

Posted by Joyce Anthony at 12:03 AM | 2 comments Links to this post

Why The Current Economic Crisis Is A Good Thing by Deborah DeNicola

Greetings all. I have the pleasure of hosting Ms. Deborah DeNicola as she travels around the blogosphere on her book tour for her new book “The Future That Brought Her Here.” On December 1st you can read my book review of her book in Voice of the Angels.com Magazine for Multi-Dimensional Living. In the meantime, she has graced us with this enlightening guest post on the state of our current economic distress, which I know you will find most helpful.

Deborah is a fascinating person. “The Future That Brought Her Here” is her journey through spiritual awakening to enlightenment. And this lady is now very dialed up!  It started one day when she had the oddest experience of discovering her multi-dimensional self.  This led her to study Dream Image Work and she subsequently went on spirit quests to the Holy Land, among other interesting destinations.  Enjoy her perspectives on “Why The Current Economic Crisis Is A Good Thing:”

Whatever you think of the state of the world right now, you are most likely misunderstanding the spiritual message in the current economic crisis. In times of stress and distress, people tend to react with fear and once we start to project fear, we begin to create a spiraling vortex of misfortune. To hold our center, stay grounded and send love to one another may be a challenge in these times, but it is exactly what we need to do.We are living at the end of a 26,000 year cycle, a destined time mark, when our civilization  is radically undergoing change. The large institutions, the banks, the government, the corporate structures will hold on to their status quo as long as they can. They may even begin to react defensively, as we are already seeing with the credit card companies. We have also seen the heavy hand of the government attempting to shore up these structures to avoid all out panic in the streets, but we see the unfairness in what is happening with the bailed out companies. Yet, we needn’t worry, despite all the efforts to maintain business as usual, these structures are going to be overhauled and revamped.

Astrologically, Pluto has moved into Capricorn for the next eighteen years. Pluto always takes out what isn’t serving the soul, and the soul of the people is no longer being served by these structures. Capricorn means big business, markets, investments, corporations, hospitals. Essentially “we the people” have been enslaved to way of life that breeds more and more illness and stress. The idea that the energy we call “money,” or more aptly “abundance,” is limited and scarcity reigns is an idea whose time is over.

People losing jobs, homes, savings and insurance protection are forced into creative thinking. We need to look at this phenomenon as liberating. Already thousands of people have created new companies and services to increase consciousness and they are working online. People are asking themselves what do they really want to do for work. Work needs to align with the soul. The market on the Internet is extensive and one need no longer be tied into a forty hour week schedule and a tiring commute to the office. Whenever there is crisis, the people with new ideas and thinking outside the traditional box, are the ones who create new visions and then manifest them. We need to remember that the Chinese character for challenge is also opportunity.

During times of upheaval, whether it is through natural disasters or intentional attacks like 911, people draw together in community and begin to see where their real values lie. Superficial material concerns dissolve and the important, essential necessities of life take preference. People are known to share, to provide service, to shelter one another during these crises. Humanity has created an opportunity for change on the most fundamental level.  And the Spiritual Universe will not permit any more shenanigans. We will be seeing more and more exposure of corporate crime.

The wealth of the world has been held in the hands of a silent, invisible few who have controlled the population at large. But new light has raised the vibrations of millions of us here to desire earnestly a peaceful world, to hold the vision and to begin to band together to rediscover our atrophied intuitive powers. It is imperative that each of us begin developing a spiritual practice to commune with our higher selves.

The Age of Aquarius will be an era where justice becomes the foremost value.  We may expect to experience chaos during this transition. That is why it is necessary to become aware that this is not just another cycle that will play itself out, but the groundwork for an entirely new and infinitely better global society; a society that we may not have thought possible.  Indeed, until the present era, it was not possible.

The most important factor will be the perspective you take as you see the old world crumbling. Clinging to what is bound to change is futile.  The traditional media and other stalwart institutions will do their best to unhinge our beliefs. But conservative thinking will only prolong the growing pains and increase fear. Technology has offered us ways to communicate in large groups and the power of the group vision will create resolutions to our problems. We will unhook from the structures that have held us at their mercy. Destructive intentions will no longer be supported. We are learning the natural laws of the universe, such as the law of attraction, and we are going to see results from our intentions that serve the whole rather than the few.

We may not yet be sure what steps to take, but in the moments when we need to know, we will go inward and find our answers. There is an old Zen saying: “When you don’t know where you’re going, go the way you don’t know.” Let us hang onto our faith in our own goodness and our ability to create peace. It’s the only thing we haven’t tried. Support is here from the spiritual dimensions. Ask for it. Give permission to be profoundly changed and watch your world change with you. We need to remember we are eternal spirits in bodies. We need to remember “The meek shall inherit the earth.”

We do not need to know how. We need to visualize the outcome and desire it, and trust that it will come. This is the greatest passage in the history of the earth. Let us love one another, share the vision, join in the collective community of faith in nothing other than ourselves. Aquarian values favor the group consensus. Find a community in which to share your best vision of what our world can and will become.

Deborah DeNicola is the author of 5 poetry collections and most recently her memoir, The Future That Brought Her Here from Nicholas Hays/Ibis Press.Available at Amazon.com. Another poetry collection,Original Human is forthcoming in 2010 from Custom Word.  Among other awards she received an NEA Fellowship for her poetry. Her website is www.intuitivegateways.com.

Posted by Dyan at 11/22/2009 7:54 PM |     **********************************

Interview with Phil Harris’s Blog “Things That Matter”

(1)Do you really believe that there is such a thing as evil or is it just what we perceive as hurtful we label as evil? Does placing labels on polarized concepts actually bring these concepts into our reality?

I believe we’re in something like a matrix that is collectively created from our imagined fallen state. Though I didn’t always, I now subscribe to the philosophy of A Course in Miracles, which says that the Godhead separated itself in order to experience itself more fully and from the separated aspect (one could say us, or Adam and Eve) the thought of separation from Source was on day “thought.” In that “unholy” moment the thinkers of the thought experienced separation and the “ego” was born, because like Source, we had the powers of creation and manifestation.

However, the separation was an illusion. As soon as it was thought, it was undone because, since we are all one with Creator, separation was actually impossible. It never happened. But we remained in the illusion, out of guilt for our perceived attack on Source. That was the so-called “Fall.”. Heaven is here, we have just covered it up. Because we feared we had lost connection with Source, everything that is considered bad or evil came into being . . . out of the ego, out of Fear. During our entire history we’ve believed in separation and perpetuated it. But only Non-Duality is real. There is no world. It is all a projection made out of fear. We are insane and do not know it. Therefore, I do not believe in Evil per se, but it does appear that “ego,” which has projected its own fear , guilt and anger onto others, has created some horrendous events within the illusion.

(2)I do think it’s a label. Labeling or naming Evil as reality still cannot bring it into reality. Although it appears very real, there is no evil.

Collectively we experience the same things in the world because we are all one, the “Sonship”, as the Course calls us. Our journey is to undo the ego and get back to oneness with Source. We can do this through forgiveness and self-forgiveness, non-reaction, and asking for help from Spirit. Our world is a dream, or perhaps a nightmare is more apt a label. Labels separate and worsen the situation. We moved into form because we imagined we did. But “nothing unreal exists.” The only thing out there is Love. Adam is the Sonship. He fell asleep and has not yet awakened. But that is the task at hand now. Some have awakened and are helping others onto the spiritual path back to Oneness. When we stop projecting and own our own shadows, and forgive them, we will have the New Heaven on the New Earth. Many of us are involved in that awakening right now.

It’s best to stop labeling, polarizing and separating. As Jesus said, “Be in the world but not of it.” We need to accept what’s here. The first step in changing anything is accepting it. Then we can hold an intention for something better, visualize it, believe it will manifest and keep on doing the best we can within the illusion. It’s a tall order. There are a lot of paradoxical situations that can come of it. The Holy Spirit will help us if we call upon it when confronted with dilemma. Coming together in groups can be powerful to manifest change.

(3) Why do you feel that the spiritual paradigm is shifting now? Aside from ‘if not now, when,’ is there something special at this point in evolution?

This is the time foreseen by many prophets. Three huge cycles are coming to an end at once, overlaying each other. We have just changed millenniums from Pisces to Aquarius, there is also a 26,000 year cycle ending known as the equinoctial cycle where the poles shift as the earth’s axis wobbles. And there is the end of the Mayan calendar which is known to be the end of time. Not the end of the world as the new movie “2012” is portraying with terrible earth changes, although some challenging earth changes are likely, but the end of “time” as we know it, linear time. Some of us are likely going to leave our bodies and cross over into spirit (a.k.a die) if caught in the earth changes. But there is no death anyway. We can move back into spirit at any time. The exciting thing will be to be here and awaken collectively in our bodies.

We are multi-dimensional beings, several aspects of ourselves living parallel lives simultaneously. My theory is that when we become aware of those other lives, some kind of consciousness shift occurs. In some esoteric traditions, where these truths have been kept alive, but secret, we each belong to a group of souls known as the Monad. When we become aware of our oneness in the monad and then exponentially with other monads, we will be “enlightened” to our connections with one another and with Source. It has been predicted that there will be 1000 years of peace. Why only 1000 I wonder . . . I don’t know. I guess we should worry about that later.

(4)What do you feel will happen if the ‘masses’ are unwilling to move out of the Piscean Age?

They will be, they are already resistant, unwilling and in denial. There is enough information out there now to move out of dualistic thinking but many will not accept change. People are creatures of habit and don’t like to change their beliefs. So there will be, there is resistance. It will only make it more difficult for them, and in some cases, for us.

However long they want to resist change, their suffering will increase until finally they will have to choose change. The earth is not going to support duality anymore. Many of our systems are collapsing and will be replaced by more equitable and ethical systems. Meanwhile there may be a lot of pain in the adjustment depending how much we resist. Some say those unwilling ones will be left behind as the earth ascends into the 5th dimension and many of us go with her. But the old earth will be there and the resistant ones will have their lives go on as usual, perhaps with more suffering and war and disease etc. I don’t venture to guess how the “ascension” is going to happen, but I know it is happening.

I’d like to think that the changed behaviors of some of us will affect the unwilling ones and they will embrace the move into oneness if they are exposed to it. I think it’s a done deal. It’s going to happen, exactly when or how gradually, I don’t think any of us can stay.

But you can stay behind in pain and resistance relying only on your intellect and reason and all that the invention of the ego created. Or you can intuitively feel the difference through the heart opening. Our bodies are changing. We are being bombarded with light, those of us who have agreed, because we have to give permission. Many of us have asked in our prayers, in our dreams or consciously to see the “light” so-to-speak.

And it’s not always comfortable. I am feeling and seeing this light and my body needs attuning on a regular basis. There is a lot of body work going on in the holistic communities and even in the gyms. I think that unconsciously many people are adjusting and intuitively moving onto the spiritual path before they consciously know it.

(5) Are religions ‘worn out dogma’ whose time has passed?

I think yes and no, but mostly yes. What we have been taught dogmatically has not always been correct. We have been led like sheep and given over control to hierarchies of power in the churches and temples. We have been taught that we are sinners. In Greek word for sin, “harmatia,” etymologically means “missing the mark,” or in other words, confused, off target. In that context we are not sinners, just ignorant of truth. People have not been taught about their own power to access Source directly. Instead intercessors or priests, rabbis, mullahs etc. have been given too much power.

The Secret Doctrine, the esoteric truths, the hidden occult traditions attest to the human power to access divinity. I believe there will be one church, the Church of Love and equality. John Lennon appears to be right about this. Already there are communities forming on this basis. The Unitarian Universalists are embracing this philosophy. There are centers for spiritual living, science of mind churches, noetic science centers, bringing spirituality together with science, physics especially.

(6)How do you define spirituality vis-à-vis religious?

Spirituality doesn’t recognize separation or levels of proximity to Source. Spiritual paths, and there are many, all lead to the same place, universal love. This love seems to be the basic cornerstone of all institutional religions, although they have strayed from it. The Christians have the Gnostic tradition and the Druidic tradition to look to. The Muslims have Sufism. The Buddhist path is basically love and acceptance. The Jews have the path of Kaballah. So traditional religions have love and self-actualization at their heart, relegated to an esoteric branch. Along the way through history, however, when dogma was born, because we believe ourselves to be imperfect, because we fear differences, our leaders too lived with fear and misled us.

(7)Do you feel that quantum physics is becoming increasingly supportive of the basic tenets of spirituality? Will they accept an Intelligent Universe concept?

Yes! I do feel that more of the natural laws of the universe like the Law of Attraction, and laws of manifestation are being proven by scientists. Dr. Emoto’s book on water crystals shows how intentional thoughts, positive or negative, had different effects on the crystals. We appear to be learning that thoughts have power and if a certain thought is repeated enough times with great emotion, it will most certainly manifest. There is still a lot of suspicion and criticism in the scientific community but Edgar Mitchell’s Institute of Noetic Science is setting up numerous experiments in the field of thought forms. I can’t predict when main stream science will accept an Intelligent Universe concept. But I know a lot of skeptical scientists like my brother, for instance, who is a botonist and not in agreement with much of my thinking, but who says nonetheless, it is obvious there is a superior intelligence at work in nature. Maybe Source is nature. To me it seems a silly argument. Intelligent Design and Creation theory can both be true. I think the sooner we leave dualistic thinking we will find more agreement around “both and” than “even or.”

(8)Have sacred texts been the purloined letter containing basic ‘truths’ about the Universe?

I’m not familiar with all sacred texts in great depth but it does seem that the hidden traditions have carried forth the same message, even through the mysterious practice of alchemy. They all seem to imply that there is a lot of “maya” or illusion in our 3-D world, that we have been disempowered by our false beliefs, that we all are indeed part of the Divine. My study has been focused on the Gnostic Gospels found in the Nag Hammadi Library. I stumbled across these through Jungian studies as Jung was quite interested in them, even owned some texts he found in the black market. Some of these are quite apocryphal, more mythical. Yet myth is true in a very symbolic way. Much of the truth is delivered in myth through metaphor, parables, what have you.

(9) Do you feel that John’s words in the Gospel of Thomas supports the deeper meaning in what has become known as The Secret?

If we are referring to the Kingdom of Heaven being here, the answer is yes. John also says two men might be standing in a field and only one might see it, (the kingdom). That statement may be about perspective. Changing our thinking is all about perception. Esther and Jerry Hicks’ books are the best teachers right now. Their books really clarify how our minds deceive us. They give a lot of tools to shift our perception of a negative situation so that we do not exacerbate it. When you give up victimhood you have to claim your power.

10) The Crescent Moon of Islam is a Goddess symbol. Why do you think they don’t get this?

You mean the Muslims? Hmm . . . a good question. I guess you have to chalk that up to the heritage of a long history where the prevailing culture has been unconsciously fearful of the power of the Goddess, of the power of women, the “devouring, toothed vagina” as the Jungians might put it. The Mullah patriarchs, if they know it at all, are obviously intent on keeping it a secret. Symbols can lose their meaning. I think Muslim women are prevented from finding a way to bond together and claim their heritage because they are threatened with death. The same thing happened during the Inquisition in Europe. Thousands of women were burned because of this primitive fear. Muslim countries have had a hard time coming into the contemporary era because there is so much repression. I’m hoping, like the phenomena we saw when the Berlin wall came down, the masses will somehow throw off their oppression like Eastern Europe through off Communism. There needs to be the force of the zeitgeist and at least some of the oppressors need to awaken. We can hold the vision and not have to know how it will happen. I think the internet is a fabulous tool to bring the world together collectively. At this point there are so many spiritual web sites and social media groups. Perhaps closed minds can open through exposure to spiritual ideas.

(11) Are people ready to accept the Divine Feminine?

It seems there are thousands of people who are. Perhaps millions.I don’t think it’s a main stream idea yet but the goddess is seeded and germinating in the collective unconscious. It may be as simple as an idea whose time has come. This is the millennium of her return according to many prophesies. I think the interest in Mary Magdalen has demonstrated that something is happening.

Years before Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code came out, I was first taken by an intense interest in Mary Magdalen and began my research. The number of books on the subject of Mary exploded. I found other women who were also discovering her. Why after 2000 years was she drifting into women’s dreams? Then Brown’s book brought the question of Jesus’ marital status into the forefront. Despite the Roman Catholic Church’s denials, the book became the best seller of all time! And Brown’s new book ends with hope for the coming age. He has the same conclusion as I do in my book.

In other traditions and ancient societies, the goddess was honored by both men and women. I think she is finding her place again. Apparitions of the Virgin Mary have also increased. The Roman Church has revised their take on who Mary Magdalen was. There’s a lot to say on the subject, but overall, whether Wiccan or Christian, the divine feminine is back.

(12) What is your personal take on the timeline of the paradigm shift? Is 2012 a real date for change?

I hope so. I do think we’re getting close to a massive shift. If the internet is any indication, the spirituality sites are everywhere. I’m living in an area, Southern Florida, full of spiritual practitioners. I think a lot of people are being awakened, including people in traditional religions. As the foundations of the culture collapse, more people will turn to faith and they will find synchronicities and signs because the veil between the spirit world and our 3D world is thinner than it’s ever been. Anyone who asks for help will get it. Maybe not in the way they expect or desire but eventually it will hit them over the head. Not with a bag of money or gold bars but with a slight revelation, an insight, an experience.

So many people are in recovery from addictions and depend on a Higher Power. Even if you just believe in the Tao, you start to see it in action in your life. The connection to the divine is available. I think the timeline is where most psychics have been found to be inaccurate, so that gives me pause. But we do have the Mayan Calendar though and I believe in its approximation. Though I don’t understand all its workings, I’ve read about it and it has been correct in following the ages. Any real transition between civilizations happens over a long period of time. The spiritual sub-culture is still ignored by mainstream media. Maybe when the E.T.’s make contact, Fox News will call it a Democratic hoax!

I WANT TO THANK DEBORAH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO ANSWER MY QUESTIONS. YOU HAVE ALSO READ MORE ABOUT HER BOOK AThttp://allthingsthatmatterpress.blogspot.com