This synchro came from Katrina Dreamer. It’s a stunner.
++
In waking life, I recoil from scorpions. Their shiny, segmented bodies and barbed tails quickly instill fear in me. But this year, I befriended a scorpion, one that came to me in the Dreamtime.
This past February I had surgery to remove a cyst from my left ovary, the second such surgery I’d had in six months. It was the optimal time to include dreams in my healing and, luckily, I’d gotten Dream Tending by Stephen Aizenstat, which includes a chapter on dreams and healing. Within his book I discovered a technique that helped me foster a new relationship with Scorpion.
The Dream Tending technique draws from Jungian dreamwork. One of Aizenstat’s main tenants is to see dream characters as alive and having their own agency. This means using active imagination, a Jungian technique for bringing forth images and characters from the unconscious.
The important piece of the Dream Tending technique is to imagine the dream character and allow it to do what it will. If it wants to sit and stare at you, allow that. If it has something to say, listen. If it wants to dance around the room, watch. The dreamer’s role is to be a passive and receptive audience to what the dream figure wants to convey.
The point is cultivating a relationship rather than taking something from the character. So often in dreamwork practitioners only see dream images as one-dimensional representations of metaphor. Aizenstat’s method recognizes that the dream image is a vital, living force of the unconscious that with which you can have live interaction.
To bring about healing, Aizenstat adds a step to active imagination. He asks dreamers to create an imagined, or dream-time elixir, salve, or other healing medium to apply to the character and themselves, an act which spreads the healing throughout the psyche.
During my recovery from surgery, I decided to work with a particularly vile character from a recent dream I’d had, a character I called spider-scorpion.
Spider-Scorpion
I’m in a house that belongs to a woman. The front door and entryway, which is somehow both inside and outside, is covered with sticky yellow cobwebs. On the cobwebs are bats and creatures that look like a cross between spiders and scorpions. The spider-scorpions have purple-black bodies and pale yellow legs.
I am horrified and grossed out by them, but I don’t run away or hide. I ask the woman if they are spiders or scorpions, but she doesn’t answer. It seems like they’re there to scare away any men that might come calling. I go into the kitchen to get food. When I walk back into the living room, I see a giant web sack and in it are a mother spider-scorpion and many babies. I yell to the woman that she has to get rid of it and take care of it now.
To work with the dream, I got into a meditative state and asked the spider-scorpion to come forward. I saw it in all its alien glory. It sat before me and I focused on allowing it to be there with me. After getting more comfortable with the character, I gradually attempted more contact with it over several days, and I created a healing elixir to apply to it.
Following Aizenstat’s recommendation, while in meditation I put the elixir on the spider-scorpion and then on myself. After a few days, the spider-scorpion morphed into what looked like a waking-world scorpion. It wanted to crawl into my lap. I let it, and I continued to apply the elixir.
After a time, the scorpion grew larger and eventually became the same size as myself. I watched as it stepped into me, our energies merging. I’d integrated the scorpion and its medicine.
And, you’re asking, what exactly is Scorpion medicine? Darkness, sex, death, rebirth, passion, and transformation, according to Ted Andrews in his book Animal-Wise. He sums up the medicine by saying it is “dynamic transformation through secret passions and desires.”
Without bearing too much of my soul here, I’ll say that I’ve definitely harbored several secret desires and passions for much of my life. As soon as Scorpion merged with me it became more difficult to hide and suppress them until eventually many of them burst out of me.
I went through one of the most challenging periods in my life between April and October, only weeks after integrating the Scorpion medicine. Structures and ideas I’d held tightly collapsed, and I was left with an immense amount of space. Scorpion gave me the tools to navigate with grace both the collapse and the void left behind In fact, she told me her name was Mother of Grace, a fitting title.
For my inaugural post, I chose to write about the spider-scorpion, a dream character that helped facilitate a great deal of healing within me. The post went live at the same time as news came from Texas Tech University that a pseudoscorpion had been discovered living in caves in Yosemite…scorpions that are a cross between a spider and a scorpion. Synchronicity, anyone?
Lauren – Dream Snake is one of my favorite scifi books of all time!
I had no idea that scorpian venem was used for cancer treatment, but that goes right along with this post somehow. Thanks for the information.
The only thing that comes to mind about "snake medicine" is a famous, and very good, fantasy/sci fi book, which won a lot of awards, called "Dream Snake" by Vonda Macentyre…..if you havent' read it, you might enjoy it.
Most interesting dream work. Of course blue scorpion venom is used to heal cancer at a clinic in Mexico which I believe many health insurance companies will pay for treatment there because its cheaper & very effective results.
What does being bitten by a huge venomous snake in a dream mean ? I had a virus when I was bitten by the dream snake and I was ill for weeks after the dream. When it happened it occured to me in the dream that shamans are bitten by a venomous snake to see if they can transmute the posion as part of initiation (they die of they cant) & there was a lot of posionous toxic stuff going on in my life with my mother & sister at the time. i welcome any extra insights.
Jane in Wales
Katrina put up a comment today – it showed up in our gmail, on the blog, then vanished. Merc retro?
Anyway, here it is, copied from how it appeared in our gmail:
Thanks to all of your for your comments on this post! Indeed, my issues with ovarian cysts have decreased dramatically since I integrated Mother of Grace.
Also, for those interested in Dream Tending, visiting Stephen Aizenstat's web site is a good way to dive in: https://www.dreamtending.com/resources.html
The articles are a nice way to start, and the book is fantastic.
wv for this? Trial!
Lauren, there has been a triple Scorpio in my life for the past four decades! He was born on 11-11-1943! He's a retired medical professional but as an avocation is a successful screen-writer and composer. But lordy is he ever difficult, and I never know what to expect from him because he has so many depths to his personality. He is a true creative genius. My hubby is a Scorpio, 11-2, my sister 11-6, my Dad 11-6, my first love was 11-2, my daughter-in-law is a double, born on 11-7 and she's wonderful. It just goes on and on. But this one who is the triple Scorpio born on 11-11-1943…quite a challenge! It's probably a blessing he lives in GA and not here! The Scorpion stings when it's in the mood! cj
Rob and I really enjoyed Three Only Things. The whole book is good.
Gypsy – I saw that news piece! Me thinks there's a synchro in there somewhere!
lauren – a triple scorpio? Yikes!
I've just read through the dream section of
"The Three "Only" Things : Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence, and Imagination" by Robert Moss
and have vowed to pay closer attention to those elusive dreams that evaporate too quickly for me upon awakening.
It seems like a good book so far,but I haven't read it right through,although I see Trish has recommended in her "Books of Interest" column,so I guess the rest of the book must be worth a read,as well.
There's obviously a lot to be learned from dreams,and it's an area of my life that I have neglected,but these posts and books on dream-work have inspired me to take a keener interest.
Superb example of synchronicity,courage, and the magic of the great unconcious.
Thanks to all of your for your comments on this post! Indeed, my issues with ovarian cysts have decreased dramatically since I integrated Mother of Grace.
Also, for those interested in Dream Tending, visiting Stephen Aizenstat's web site is a good way to dive in: https://www.dreamtending.com/resources.html
The articles are a nice way to start, and the book is fantastic.
just came across this little interesting tidbit which made me think of this post:
Broadway might need a superhero to save the new Spider-Man musical. "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," the most expensive production in Broadway history, suffered its fourth accident in a month when a stuntman playing the web-slinger fell about 30 feet into a stage pit during a preview Monday night. The safety tether that clips to his back failed to prevent the spill.
https://apnews.excite.com/article/20101222/D9K8LHM80.html
and the wv – alcats – all cats??
a critter theme today, for sure!
Wow. Profound drea mwork and symbolism, individually, and as collective truth as well. Although I'm not an astrologer by any means, a brilliant, ambivelant, not easy to like soul I once loved (born 11/11, a triple Scorpio) was…….and since then, I've often thought of the meanings of Scorpio. It's the only sign, I understand, that has three emblems, from the depths to the soaring heights, scorpion, eagle, and phoenix. This story gives me much to meditate on……somehow, Scorpio and "scorpion medicine" seems very important for all of us now.
Thank you and to the one who shared her story.
an incredibly intriguing multi-layered story – so many things to learn still…..[for me]!
Very interesting, must find out more about this dream work. Thanks for the intro.
Oh my goodness! What an amazing and insightful story! I'm surrounded by astrological Scorpions, which can be almost as challenging as coping with true scorpions. 🙂 But, I agree 100% with DJan…sounds as though Mother of Grace performed quite a healing miracle. Would that each of us could have such wounds healed, and am certain by following that path of instruction, it could happen. This is an interesting and relevant WV for those who know my personal circumstances: "imbox" I'm in box? or boxed in? cj
Wow! You are right, that is a stunner. I will have to learn about this kind of dream work. Thank you for sharing her story, and I also think she has been healed by Mother of Grace.