I dreamed I was flying through the sky, and at the moment that I became aware I was dreaming, my entire perception seemed to expand. The sky widened into a panoramic view, as if suddenly I was unhindered by limited human vision and could see all around me at once. I could see every valley and pathway below me in minute detail, while simultaneously absorbing the blue sky all around.

You know, it's odd, but I'm not certain if I was human or bird or both. I never looked at myself, I was so lost in the sensation of flying. It felt so real! The weight of my limbs, the thrust of the currents of air, the flow and at times restriction, then release. I seemed "me", yet my arms/wings caught the wind like no human hands; I felt so free from earthly/bodily restrictions! Picture me as you like; best might be a woman with wing-arms. Half human, half bird--but integrated.

Each sensation seemed intensified far beyond normal and mundane perception. As I flew into each current of air, the cool briskness of it rippled in waves through my entire being. I began to manipulate my direction of flight by thought, but in a calm way that seemed a natural extension of the feeling of freedom I felt. In other words, there wasn't an intellectual coldness to my movements, as if saying to myself, "OK, now I shall move this way or that." Rather, it seemed a natural, unforced feeling of thought that directed me. Up, I felt. Up I swooped. Down, I desired. Down I dived. Side to side I glided, coming in tune with the air pockets around me as naturally as a bird in her first discovery of flight. Words fail to describe the boundless joy and ecstatic freedom that expanded within me and grew greater with each movement.

I felt an otherworldly kind of freedom so exquisite that I ponder whether it is attainable at all in earthly existence — the unbridled freedom of a soul embracing all realms of its potential in a moment.

Then a huge dark shadow engulfed me. I looked up to see a gigantic crow or raven above me! I felt restricted, almost suffocating, like a weight that would press me down to earth. I flew frantically to free myself from the shadow. Now all my skills and senses were focused in a new way, toward freedom and light.

At last, heart pounding, I won free of the trickster's shadow. I felt so light, euphoric again. But the landscape had changed: below was a snow-capped mountain. Raven had herded me here! On the mountain's peak, in the snow, lay a nest of twigs. I flew down and landed in it. The next thing I knew, I was outside my body, watching myself. Now I saw myself clearly. I was a delicate new-hatched eaglet.

A fierce, cold mountain wind fluffed my downy feathers, making me aware how fragile and vulnerable I was. I seemed so fragile there--so tiny against that monumental landscape. Yet I felt strong--no doubt or fear or longing, though I was alone, with no mother or father eagle to care for me. Regardless of how fragile I looked, I felt a strong faith in the Unseen. My place there was right, was home, was where I was meant to be. All would be okay.

DREAMER'S NOTES

Raven/Crow--my first thought was that this was my husband (now ex-husband). He was a good man, but we valued different things in life. I'm an artist forever in search of a Spark or Muse; he was content to drudge through life with no wonder or awe. Over the years I began to feel repressed in his presence. When you live with someone day to day your energies fuse, and while I tried earnestly to be content, I didn't feel seen nor understood, nor alive; I had to suppress and compromise so much of myself to make it work. So often my own imaginative 'reality' was stifled to suit his waking 'reality.' So, I believe that being engulfed by the large shadow-bird in some ways represented the suffocation of my Spirit.
Yet months later (I wasn't even thinking about the dream!) a thought popped into my mind: I was the Raven/Crow too. I couldn't put the entire blame on him--I lived in his shadow, I let him weigh down my spirit, and it was up to me to fly free in the light.
Being part Native American Indian, Raven and Crow spoke to me as animal totems, too--they're both powerful, mystical birds of knowing, who get to the deep truths.

Seeing so clearly from a birds-eye view--Rather than slogging through day after day, my spirit had awakened: I saw the bigger picture of my life, the journey of my soul.

The new-hatched eagle, unsurprisingly, represents my new Freedom, my new awakening. Transmutation and rebirth! The comfort of finding one's home inside, and starting to live one's truth.

Of course, this was a personal dream of mine, and each lucid dreamer's experience is as different as her own unique mind and soul.

--Lisa Reich (BlueDove) lives in Michigan, working as a jewelry and cosmetic clerk. Her lifelong interests and studies have included poetry, philosophy, literature, dreams, astrology, numerology, divination, spirituality, cosmology/astronomy, physics, art and music.

EDITOR'S NOTE

But is the dream unique? Lisa emailed me a while back to use two of my images for an article on lucid dreaming; in it, she told the early, simple, ecstatic part of this dream. Our house just had a big party, and as usual, I shamelessly asked everyone to think about their favorite dreams, and whether they'd be willing to contribute them to the World Dream Bank. My friend Laura told me "I don't have anything for you. I don't recall my dreams--they fade away in seconds when I wake." And then she hesitated. "Well... I do remember one dream I loved. I was flying over this landscape like Paradise. Kids were playing. It was just so beautiful and peaceful..."

As she spoke on, it was clear that while her dream varied a bit from the published part of Lisa's dream (Laura's had children and she never became lucid), both were ecstatic flights over their personal vision of an earthly paradise. It made me wonder--is bliss like this really so hard to attain, does it take lucidity, a Buddha-like awakening? Or do we rise into bliss routinely? And then wake (as we call it) to forget.

How we seek enlightenment, thinking that's the hard part!Yet what pushed Lisa into the heights, into her new life, wasn't enlightenment but... endarkenment. Shadow of a trickster.

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