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Abstract

When we examine a culture's attitude toward dreaming and vision experiences, we bring to light the archetypal force fields that inform the basic shape of the collective consciousness. Dreams are of the natural world, events of nature, and follow ancient, mythic patterns of influence. Shamanic cultures understand the power of dreaming, and in such cultures dreams are ritually cried for, or quested after because of their power to align people and communities with sacred intentionality. In the attempt to overpower and displace the native cultures of this country, our "patriarchal, urban culture of conquest" has damaged much of our dream grounding and inhibited our desire and capacity for tending the natural world (inner and outer) in sacred, mythically meaningful ways. In this essay, I sketch the nature of dream reality in this country prior to, and following European colonization, and explore how a culture's relationship with dreaming reflects and influences people's impulses toward war and peace, destruction, and preservation.

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Dreams in the Nuclear Age

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