Photo by Boston Public Library on Unsplash

The Dream

I had several dreams last night. The one I dreamt just before I woke up was a short dream about a beautiful green plain filled with white buffalo. Not a herd, but several (I don't remember how many exactly). The point of view of the dream was above the plain looking down. There was a voiceover saying, "they were looking out on a wide plain, but it was the white buffalo that held everyone's attention." 

Biblical Associations

When I look at a dream that I think may be spiritual, I turn to biblical and religious references first. I do this because I've read the Bible and am familiar with Christianity. So these elements tend to be part of my personal symbology. 

There are no buffalo in the Bible so I focused on the color white and the significance of a green plain. I immediately associated the green plain with the green pasture of the 23rd Psalm. To me, the 23rd Psalm is about trusting and following God.

My favorite verse about the color white is from Isaiah, so that was another easy association.

I then looked the color white up in Fr. Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary. (I have the print version but you can access the entire dictionary free online.)

There may be a lot of Bible passages for a single term, so I try to focus on those that have personal meaning to me and / or are coherent with other aspects of the dream.

While white is occasionally associated with symptoms of illness in the Bible, I don't feel that applied to this dream.

More often, white is used to describe angels, God and Jesus in the Bible. It is mentioned in connection with the transfiguration and the resurrection. There are so many references to the color white in Scripture that I can’t list them all here.

The four horses  mentioned in Revelation and in Ezekiel include a white horse. In Revelation, Jesus rides a white horse. The lamb of God who represents Jesus is white as is the countenance of the Ancient of Days.

The common denominator in all of this is that white is associated with the holiness. What's really interesting about this to me, is that the Indian meaning of the white buffalo is very similar. 

Native American Associations

I have an interest in the symbols and teachings of indigenous cultures. I knew the white buffalo was significant in Native American culture but I didn't know the details, so I decided to do some research.

I learned that there is a Lakota myth about the White Buffalo Calf woman who was a supernatural being who appeared to teach the people the seven rituals. All the rituals are fascinating but I found Wanáǧi Yuhápi or the Keeping of the Soul especially interesting.

There are prophetic ideas linked to the white buffalo as well:

This video tells the story of the White Buffalo Calf Woman:

General Associations

General associations include anything that occurs to me about the dream. It can have to do with plot, context, or symbolic meanings not previously explored.

The point of view in the dream was above, looking down. This, combined with the voiceover,   suggested an omniscient, or all-knowing narrator. A group of people were observing the white buffalo below and the buffalo were what held their attention. The unseen group thought the white buffalo were important.

Waking Context

To me, the waking context of the dream matters. This context could include related events that seem to be connected with the dream as well as any prayers or petitions that precede it.

People have practiced dream incubation from ancient times to the present day. The practice can be simple or involved. The way I usually approach dream incubation is through prayer. In this instance, I was praying for insight on my writing and learning about dreams. 

I have heard various priests say that we should just ignore our dreams and I understand why they have this opinion. But to me, Scripture and the early Church take a different view. In spite of that, I feel some conflict about working with my dreams.

Possible Meanings

My son Josh has done a lot of work on our family tree. He's found out all kinds of interesting people. Kings, queens, saints, women hung for witchcraft, Ray Bradbury and more.

This interests me, especially as I become more and more convinced that the tree in the Spirit Dream is our family tree. Though I am still unsure just what it means.

I got my Ancestry DNA done recently, as well. A lot of stuff washes out (like Swedish and French). Other comes through—like Scottish, Native American and Irish, which was told was there but didn't know about for sure.

I'm happy about this because I have an interest in Native and Celtic culture. I understand, of course, that culture is something handed down and I know that the genetic part doesn't really matter, but I still like the idea that there is a connection.

I also find it interesting that some of the historical figures that have interested me the most over the years, have popped in my family tree (and the family trees of millions of other people, I'm sure).

 
It was Mary who first called me to the Church and Jesus who called me back in early 2020. One of the first things I did after returning to the faith, was to look for a statue of the Blessed Mother to replace the two I had given away.  

I bought my first replacement Mary statue on eBay and was excited to have found an exact replica of the old chalkware statue I had given up.

Unfortunately, when the statue arrived the beautiful face of Our Lady was completely smashed!  At first I was upset, and even started to wonder if this was some kind of sign that coming back to the Church was a mistake.  But the more I thought about, the more determined I felt to continue in the Faith.

I decided to repair the statue.

It was tedious, painstaking work, but as I reconstructed the statue my attention was drawn the snake that Mary was standing on.  I knew that the snake represented Satan. 

I thought about the many negative influence in my life - influences that included my fear of snakes and the presence of many garter snakes in our new year. And I started to feel that somehow Mary might help me to face that fear.  I wasn't sure how that would happen exactly but I was willing to believe that it was possible.

Enter St. Kateri 

A little later that year, a DNA test confirmed that I had a distant American Indian ancestor.  While I have no direct connection to the indigenous culture, I've always been interested in Indian spirituality.  Now  I began to learn a bit more. As I did, I started think about what I was learning had to say about my lifestyle and my relationship to the land.

At that point, I was spending most of my time inside.  I got very little exercise and my diet was terrible.  My participation in the family vegetable garden was minimal and I had let my own medicine wheel herb garden go. I felt bad about that but the worse the garden got, the harder it seemed to turn it around. 

Then I found out about the St. Kateri Conservation Center.   According to the website, anyone could transform a yard, garden, school, farm, or parish into a Saint Kateri habitat.

Even people, I thought, who live on busy streets and are afraid of snakes - or maybe even those people especially.

Where I'm at Right Now

Right now, I'm busy working with my son in our backyard. We haven't got to the medicine wheel garden yet but we are making progress with we are working hard on getting our three raised beds ready for planting.

The Mary Garden is still in the planning stages and I am still snake phobic but I wanted to write this post to hold myself accountable.

The image above is of medicine wheel garden not long after we put it in.  It is badly overgrown now and needs a lot of work.  But I hope to posting on my progress very soon!

I also want to learn more about the medicine wheel and related aspects of American Indian spirituality.

About the Medicine Wheel

The Medicine Wheel, sometimes known as the Sacred Hoop, has been used by generations of various Native American tribes for health and healing. It embodies the Four Directions, as well as Father Sky, Mother Earth, and Spirit Tree—all of which symbolize dimensions of health and the cycles of life.

The Medicine Wheel can take many different forms. It can be an artwork such as artifact or painting, or it can be a physical construction on the land. Hundreds or even thousands of Medicine Wheels have been built on Native lands in North America over the last several centuries.

Movement in the Medicine Wheel and in Native American ceremonies is circular, and typically in a clockwise, or “sun-wise” direction. This helps to align with the forces of Nature, such as gravity and the rising and setting of the Sun. - Excerpted from "Medicine Ways" on the Native Voices Website

When I read about the medicine wheel garden and what it means, I can why I let mine go and why I must return to it.

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My journey back to the Church was a long one.  You can read about some of it in my post The Long Way Home.   

I made this dream catcher at the last meeting of the Sacred Circle women's group. One of our members was nice enough to show us how to do the weave. Mine is a little off but I expect the next one to be better.

Our circle is based in NE PA.  We meet two times a month. One meeting is an arts and crafts night and the second is a metaphysical study group.  The study group is a new addition and we'll be having our first study meeting this Thursday.

I am really enjoying all aspects of our group.  Not so long ago it was common for women to work together as a team.  In my grandmother's big farmhouse, for example, all the women would clear the table and do the dishes together.  One would wash and rinse.  Another would dry.  A third would put the dishes away. 

There was laughter and conversation and the work was never overwhelming because it was shared.