Medicine person Wanbli Mato, (Frank) Eagle Bear, tended to the extraordinary healing of thousands of people in his lifetime with the ritual use of sacred stones. These stones, material embodiments of the Anima Mundi, or Soul of the World, he carried in various places inside his own body, and were the prima materia with which he channeled healing for the soul and body.The stones literally spoke to him and helped him see the ailment of the afflicted person then guided him to the appropriate medicines in nature. Wanbli Mato shared that in this practice the spiritual power of the stones must be “stirred up by ritual use” along with the natural power given to each person working in a healing relationship with Creation (Thomas Mails, Fools Crow 1988, 126, 127).
It is with this sense of collaborative healing that I believe Dream Tending and the Global Dream Initiative has answered the call to tend to the deep suffering of the Anima Mundi’s body and soul. One of the basic tenants of Dream Tending is that the Anima Mundi is present in all things. This includes dream figures or images that seek our conscious awareness each night when we dream, the images that arise in active imagination, and daydreams.
In Dream Tending, part of our task is to identify and tend to a soulful and relational dialogue between wounded images and images that offer healing, paying particular attention to Indigenous Images that indicate the Anima Mundi’s suffering. As Dream Tenders...
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