by Dr. Alberto Villoldo: The shamans of the Andes know and serve a sacred dream, one that guides planets across the heavens and our human destiny here on Earth…
The sacred dream is a map to the future, but has no paths you can follow and no trails other than the ones you blaze yourself. It is ephemeral, changing every instant, surprising you at every turn, as in a dream.
Men and women who serve and protect this sacred dream are known as luminous warriors. They have no enemies in this world or the next. Their resources are vast.
The sacred dream reveals the implicate order of the universe. It is evident in the seasons, in how the bees pollinate the flowers, and in how all living beings are connected and related to each other. With this wisdom, the ancient shamans of Peru bred and crossbred their corn to produce more than 400 varieties of maize; they gazed at the night sky and forecast eclipses decades into the future. Meaning and purpose arose naturally in their hearts because they understood they were part of a plan much greater than they.
When we become aware of the sacred dream, we recognize that the universe is not made of dead rocks hurling through space, of lifeless energy, or of the dark matter of science. Instead, we understand that the cosmos is pulsing and conscious, longing to create beauty, birthing blue-green planets, spiral galaxies, and more than 20,000 species of butterfly on our earth.
Each one of us is given a fragment of the sacred dream to hold and express in our own way. When we forget that we carry an essential and necessary part of the sacred dream, our lives begin to spiral into disarray, our personal dreams become nightmares, and our lives descend into chaos.
Many people have replaced the sacred dream with a dream of fame and fortune, power, and Facebook likes. Meanwhile we are facing global crises—from climate change to species extinction to war, famine, and disease—all of which are calling us to dream a new dream for ourselves and the world.
The sacred dream is calling us, inviting us to awaken from the slumber we are living in and dream with our eyes open so that all the possibilities of the future are available to us.
A sacred dream encourages you to explore the mysteries of life and of love, to glimpse a reality beyond death and discover a timeless truth for yourself. It demands that you act boldly and courageously, and not collude with the consensual—that which everyone agrees on and no one questions—even though it is a popular story that traps us in daydreams that become nightmares.
How do you know when you have found a sacred dream? Because it is much larger than you, and it feels impossible to accomplish all that you hope to achieve. A sacred dream launches you on a mission, as it did with Martin Luther King Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi. “But I am not Gandhi,” you might say. True, you do not have to set a goal to lead a billion people to freedom. But what if your destiny is to do something far greater than you have imagined until this moment?
When you find your sacred dream, the creative power of the universe—known by the shamans as Ti (Primordial Light)—becomes available to you to create beauty in the world, and to heal yourself and others. Like the shamans of the Andes—the Laika—you become a luminous warrior. You live fearlessly, know the answer to “Who am I?” and know the ways beyond death into infinity. You dare to speak the inconvenient truths, uphold universal values that honor all life, and perform daily acts of courage.
The practices of the luminous warrior are essential in a time when dreaming happens only when we sleep, where cowardice is honorable, where hindsight seems wise, and where spirituality is spineless. They help us craft a destiny infused with courage, and driven by vision, to bring light and peace to our world, and to find our part in the greater sacred dream of humanity.
In future blogs, we’ll discuss the practices of the luminous warrior—and the importance of awakening from the misguided dreams of security, permanence, and love that is unconditional.
