This year’s Dream Quest cycle is named, Dreaming for the Earth. These Quests will give us an opportunity to tune in to our intuitive, dreaming capacities to experience our beloved planet. It will give her an opportunity to communicate with us about her needs and aspirations. We can become her voice. Like the aboriginal people of Australia, I believe that one of our tasks as human beings is to sing the song of the Earth- her oceans, rivers, mountains, creatures, peoples: her ground, water, fire, air and ether.

I invite us to imagine what it means for us to do this task– to take on the responsibility of voicing the beauty of our earthly home and well as the peril it faces. We are new to this task. Our rational minds can chart the relationships between species in environments. We can measure the changes in climate, the extinction of species, the health of a given ecosystem. We can photograph the wonders of sunsets and sweeping vistas of mountain ranges as well as the degradation of polluted waterways and failing coral reefs. But how do we begin to sing the song of the black bear or the aria of the water fall. What I am proposing is an expansion of consciousness and purpose. Following the notion of Johanna Macy and John Seed’s council of all beings,

(http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/council.htm)

what would it take to adopt a creature, a geological formation, a watershed and be able to speak from its soul? What would we say to each other as we spoke for them? What would we ask of each other? What would we give each other?

Our Women’s Dream Quest gatherings are especially suited to such an endeavor. We come together in the circle. We work to support each other in feeling safe and full emotionally. We are already in the Land of the Soul. If we make it our intention to meditate on one element of our Earthly community and bring back the insight or word or poem that we receive, we will be able to share a collective experience of singing for the Earth.

This morning on my drive through the hills of West Marin, a majestic red tailed hawk sat on a wire. I always thrill to a sighting of my totem animal. I was driving so a deep meditation was not in order, but what I got was a sense of seeing the big picture, surveying the world around and all the dramas unfolding within it. I imagined that Hawk was at peace in his perspective, able to soar on the wind. If I were to come to a council of all beings as my friend Hawk., I would say that I needed room to roam, and that I could offer the gift of perspective to the crises plaguing the planet.

So for those of you coming to the Quests in San Francisco, Chicago and Charlottesville in the next seasons and those of you in Australia, next September,  I would invite you to tune in to your favorite creature, landscape, body of water, rocky outcropping and devote some time in meditation to receiving their voices. You can use this as an opportunity to write, paint, dance or otherwise express the insights you receive.

When we meet in the circle, please share what you have gleaned and be prepared to listen to what the ocean, the mountains, the birds, the animals have to tell us about their experience of Earth. Our dreaming/visioning/listening teaches us how to sing their songs.