I have been in Melbourne for five days now, landing in the home of the two Margarets who are most assuredly my fairy godmothers. The trip from California was a time travel though the seasons and, as everyone has been telling me, the most intensely disorienting jet lag on the planet. I was glad to have three days before the Dream Quest to get my bearings, visit a local labyrinth and a sanctuary for native animals. I met with my new friends here to see a performance by Bangarra, a dance troupe fusing Aboriginal and modern dance forms, In my appropriately foggy state, I whiffed the fragrance of the Dreaming and the consciousness that has known the land here for the past 40-60 thousand years. In entering this culture, one layer was laid down like one does with the filo dough when making spanakopita. I know that there are many , many more to come.
The Dream Quest yesterday was one of the most joyful in my experience. 30 open, loving, and deeply felt women enjoyed the songs, meditations and rhythms we have been offering for 28 years. As I have found before, it is deeply meaningful to invite women to the Circle, now spanning the globe.
I learned another layer from these women who all shared a profound appreciation of the indigenous culture of their land. The Dreamtime, they said cannot be understood from the the concepts of Western spirituality or even mysticism. It comes from a unitive conscious that grows from the land. It is important to slowly encounter this place and open to a new way of knowing.
I am off to the desert to present a 4 day retreat with beginners mind and heart .May the stars teach, and the land.