Explores the ancient Iroquois tradition of dreams, healing, and the recovery of the soul
. Explains Native American shamanic dream practices and their applications and purpose in modern life
. Shows how dreams call us to remember and honor our soul's true purpose
. Offers powerful Active Dreaming methods for regaining lost soul energy to restore our vitality and identity
The ancient teaching of the Iroquois people is that dreams are experiences of the soul in which we may travel outside the body, across time and space, and into other dimensions--or receive visitations from ancestors or spiritual guides. Dreams also reveal the wishes of the soul, calling us to move beyond our ego agendas and the web of other people's projections into a deeper, more spirited life. They call us to remember our sacred contracts and reclaim the knowledge that belonged to us, on the levels of soul and spirit, before we entered our present life experience. In dreams we also discover where our vital soul energy may have gone missing--through pain or trauma or heartbreak--and how to get it back.
Robert Moss was called to these ways when he started dreaming in a language he did not know, which proved to be an early form of the Mohawk Iroquois language. From his personal experiences, he developed a spirited approach to dreaming and living that he calls Active Dreaming.
Dreamways of the Iroquois is at once a spiritual odyssey, a tribute to the deep wisdom of the First Peoples, a guide to healing our lives through dreamwork, and an invitation to soul recovery.
Industry Reviews
“One of the more active players in the modern field of dreams is Robert Moss. He has been an exemplary explorer of dreamworlds and a prolific sharer of his discoveries. He dives into his dreams and accepts the invitations into other realities which they provide him. He is not so much an interpreter of dreams as an explorer; he talks less about what dreams mean and more about the dimensions of consciousness they reveal. In Dreamways of the Iroquois: Honoring the Secret Wishes of the Soul (Destiny Books), he tells us the story of his spiritual initiation by the spirits of Native Americans that occurred in his dreams, and his synchronistic daytime interaction with indigenous dreamkeepers. He shares what he has learned from these dream encounters about the soul’s journey in consciousness, a story similar to Edgar Cayce’s “mythistory” (to use one of Moss’s terms) of the soul’s creation by, separation from, and reunion with the Creator. It would be fair to say that to Moss, the important thing about dreamwork is for us to use it to remember our true spiritual nature as soul. I’ve adopted a similar idea in an attempt to summarize Cayce’s view: the purpose of dreaming is for us to empathize with our soul, the treasure within. Ideally, dreamwork would make soul awareness, which is usually dormant except while we sleep, more a part of our waking consciousness. Moss repeatedly admonishes us that a dream is a call to action. We need to act upon the dream to honor the soul that brought it to our awareness. One of the actions he values most is to sing the dream! Imagine doing that. Attempting to sing a dream, as I can attest, does put one in touch with the dream’s mood, the shadow of soul. Singing creates a spell in which the enchantment of soul expressed in that dream can be experienced. It is more an experience of energy than insight. Being in touch with soul energy may seem impractical, but with experience, one comes to realize how important it is to be able to approach the world with a non-material consciousness. Dreams are essential to bring a sense of intuitive, timeless being into a co-creative relationship with the unfolding experiences of one’s lifetime. The alternative, as in Moss’s horrific dream, of a modern man amnesic for soul leading a lifeless, mechanical existence, is completely impractical. Creating from the impulses of soul--whether it be an artistic or inventive work, an attempt to refashion a relationship, or a new way of honoring the awareness of Spirit--is the evolving style of today’s active dreamwork.”
