Finding Peace by Creating a Sacred Dream

Finding Peace by Creating a Sacred Dream

By Alberto Villoldo PhD

Posted on September 20, 2023

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. 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.

You find your sacred dream by transforming three common dreams many of us are convinced are true and cannot seem to wake up from. They are the dream of security, the dream of permanence, and the dream of love that is unconditional. When you transform these dreams—when you accept that life is ever changing, that your mortality is a given, and that no one can liberate you from a life of fear and insecurity except you—the chaos in your life turns to order, and beauty prevails.

These 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.

Are you ready to find your sacred dream to help you bring light and peace to your world, and to find your part in the greater sacred dream of humanity?

Alberto Villoldo

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Understanding Love

Understanding Love

By Alberto Villoldo

Posted on July 27, 2023

“To an Earthkeeper, love is not a feeling or something your barter with. Love is the essence of who you are, and it radiates from you as a brilliant aura: You become love, practice fearlessness, and attain enlightenment.” -Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D

Love is not only a feeling. The sages believed that love is the singular force in the universe, that all of creation arises from love, and that every beautiful thing you create in your life comes from love.

Love is a force that you cannot escape, like gravity. It is ubiquitous, yet invisible. It exerts an irresistible pull on us, leading us to acts of courage and foolishness beyond our wildest imagining. But unlike gravity, which you cannot do anything about—you cannot easily levitate, for example—love is the force that you use to co-create with the Primordial Light. When you discover this, you can go about dreaming a new world into being.

For the shamans we work with at The Four Winds, love is not a feeling, although most of us experience it as such. It is a force. It’s what the flower feels for the morning dew, the jaguar for the deer it hunts to feed her cubs. It is the rainbow after a rain. Love is the force that can help us elicit the truth amid the lies.

And above all, love is the power of the Primordial Light, which is cognizant, intelligent, wise. We can interact with the Primordial Light, what we call Spirit, and it responds to us. This is the contract that the Laika has with Spirit. You call, and Spirit responds to you every single time.

Transforming the daydream of love, that is unconditional, requires you to discover fearlessness. You become fearless by taking three actions:

• Give up the fantasy of finding your perfect soul mate.
• Love who you are, even with that nasty streak.
• Give up the idea of a god who loves you only when you do “what’s right.”

How do we recognize when we are living under the spell of a daydream? Daydreams always contain a contract or agreement that we make with life that goes like this: “When…., then…”

When I find my true love (or my true calling, or the perfect house, or job. . .) then I will be happy (or successful, or fulfilled, or—you name it). But life does not like these bargains. We begin to wake up from the daydream when we turn the “when…., then” agreement around: When I love who I am, then others love me.

When we break the habit of searching for our soul mate, we start to end the dream of unconditional love. The next action we must take is to love who we are and here’s how: Be fearless as you look at yourself. You are what you are. Take a deep breath and accept that for better and for worse, you are you. No one else is going to give you this kind of approval without extracting a sky-high price.

Embracing all of yourself is the true path to unconditional love for all those around you. Your parents, partner, children, friends, extended family, and co-workers. All are imperfect, the same as you.

What parts of yourself will you Love today?

In Munay

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Transformative Wisdom and Evolutionary Leap

 Transformative Wisdom and Evolutionary Leap

By Alberto Villoldo PhD

Posted on April 1, 2023

We are witnessing an era of history drawing to a close. Before us is the possibility of humanity developing a grand new understanding as it emerges into the “fifth sun,” as the sages of Middle America describe this time.

The Andean shamans believe that it is the time of prophesied reintegration of the peoples of the Four Directions. With their counterparts in other areas of the planet, Andean shamans are making offerings to Pachamama, Mother Earth. They do this to facilitate the bringing of a new order and harmony to the world. They hold that it is time to reawaken that sacred fire of their traditions and share it with the world to reunite all people.

The awakening I’m describing will be a global phenomenon, expanding exponentially as the few become many, as the people of all races become Earth stewards. But there’s a personal element to it, too. We can each choose to work through our personal issues that might whisper to us that, “I’m not good enough to do anything as important as all that” or “This sounds like feel-good spirituality, but what the shamans are talking about isn’t real. . . .” Believing you’re not good enough and pure enough to do the work is a form of self-indulgence; the same is true of assuming the work isn’t important enough for you to take it on. The maxim here is to bite off more than you believe you can chew, to find the entire desert in a grain of sand, and to say yes to the calling that has been softly whispering to you for some time.

As this regeneration of humanity gets underway, humankind can experience an evolutionary leap forward, a remaking of ourselves and the planet, but this will only happen if each of us discovers the magical, invisible realms through a shift in our perceptions and the architecture of our energy field. We can most easily make this energetic shift when we’re in nature, but we can also do it indoors by drawing on intentionality, personal power, and love to engage with mother nature. This is called the return to the mother—that mother that never left us and that wants us to be well.

To do this, we must shed our toxic beliefs about having to look out for number one only, whether “number one” is ourselves, our family, our community, or our country. We have to release any attachment to a specific outcome that might be beneficial to us but harmful to others. We have to serve something greater than our own desires. Only then will we see our desires being met.

As you read the Wisdom Wheel, and this month’s blogs, ask yourself what you need to do to become an Earthkeeper—and not do. If you know, get your mind out of the way and take action to align with the sacred plan encoded in the tides and eddies of the quantum field. Begin your work to serve this plan, for the gifts await, the medicine you have been seeking that will help us all to heal and to dream into being our new bodies and our new world.

Are you ready to become an Earthkeeper?

Alberto Villoldo

https://thefourwinds.com/transformative-evolutionary-leap/

The Way of the Seer

The Way of the Seer

By Alberto Villoldo PhD

Posted on May 17, 2023

This week we will explore the four practices of the Way of the Seer: The Practice of Beginner’s Mind, The Practice of Living Consequently, The Practice of Transparency, and the Practice of Integrity.  Take some time to think deeply about each practice and how it might change your life.

Beginners Mind. Practicing beginner’s mind requires us to let go of our preconceived notions.  As Jesus said, “Except ye . . . become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” In other words, our lives become much simpler when we aren’t weighted down by the baggage of our stories and expectations The Laika say that this is when we are able to walk in the snow without leaving tracks. We stop being jaded, and instead open ourselves up to the opportunities presented to us. Innocence and spontaneity infuse our lives again, and we lose the attitude of “been there, done that.” We become childlike, experiencing things as if for the first time.  Zen practitioners strive to achieve what’s known as “empty mind.” When we practice beginner’s mind, we don’t forget about our years of experience – we simply don’t confuse what we learned yesterday with what we’re discovering today.

Living Consequently. The Practice of Living Consequently is to recognize the impact each action you take has on future generations.  Earthkeepers understand that even thoughts have an impact on tomorrow, so they’re mindful of every image and feeling they experience. When you practice living consequently, you’re fully conscious of the impact of each thought, intention, and action you have, and you take care to make them positive and healing instead of selfish and destructive. You recognize when you’re acting out of fear, and you deliberately choose to act out of love instead. You take full responsibility for all your actions, and the universe notices this, making your good, as well as your bad, karma immediate.

Transparency.  You practice transparency when you stop hiding the parts of yourself that make you uncomfortable. It means that we allow others to see us and that we have nothing to hide. After all, it’s what we’re tiring to conceal that’s actually the most visible to other people.  But we hide more than our insecurities.  Oftentimes we hide our beauty and power as well because we’re uncomfortable with them or fear the consequences of letting our light shine.  Hiding our true selves attract to us those who embody that which we keep secret.  It externalizes our healing process, entangling us in another person’s drama and leaving us more vulnerable and fragile than we were before.

Integrity.  The practice of integrity is being true to your word and recognizing its power to create reality. For the Laika, there is nothing more important than being true to one’s word, so they’re very careful about what they say to themselves and others. What you repeat to yourself is equally powerful, such as I’m a loser, I’m not as smart as so-and-so, or I’ll never find love, so you must be careful. Your word is a vow that you make. And the more you live a spiritual life, the more power your word carries and the less leeway you have to fudge. Living true to our word builds a spiritual power that’s essential if you’re to dream into being a better world.  Without this power, your dreams never acquire form and always end up collapsing just as they’re about to bear fruit.

What have you learned about the Way of the Seer?

Alberto Villoldo

https://thefourwinds.com/transformative-evolutionary-leap/

The Way of the Luminous Warrior

The Way of the Luminous Warrior

By Alberto Villoldo PhD

Posted on Mayl 10, 2023

In this blog we explore the four practices of the Way of the Luminous Warrior: The Practice of Fearlessness, The Practice of Non-Doing, The Practice of Certainty, The Practice of Non-Engagement. Take some time to think deeply about each practice and how it might change your life.

Fearlessness. To live fearlessly is to actively practice peace and non-violence, even when it seems like we’re being threatened. This doesn’t mean that we don’t protect ourselves and our loved ones – it means that we don’t respond from a place of anger or violence. Our propensity toward violent solutions is rooted in our brains, which are wired in a very strange way. The region where our sensations of pleasure are experienced is very close to the center where we experience violence, so when we stimulate one of these areas in the brain, we often end up stimulating the other.  The reason that fearlessness allows us to step beyond violence is because violence is rooted in fear – of being rejected, taken advantage of, ridiculed, hurt, and so on.  Practicing fearlessness requires us to approach people and situations with love so that others can also let go of their apprehension and propensity toward violence.

Non-Doing. We practice non-doing by immersing ourselves in the flow of the universe, receiving and working with the opportunities it presents to us rather than struggling to get everyone and everything to go along with our plans. In the West, we mistakenly believe that the only way to solve problems and get things done is to work hard. There are things we all need to do in order to survive and to keep our communities vibrant. But we don’t have to take up residence in the “kingdom of do” and become possessed by our obligations and our accomplishments.  Our constant bustle makes it easier for us to avoid dealing with our emotions. When we pause and sense what we’re feeling, we can be open to how the hand of Spirit might touch us in that very instant.

Certainty. To practice certainty is to have an unwavering commitment to the course you’ve chosen. That is, you let go of your worry that you’re making a mistake or that you’re not good enough thin enough, rich enough, or young enough for an endeavor. Certainty means we deliberately choose not to leave ourselves any “escapes” that would allow us to keep one foot in the new track while keeping the other foot out the door. Back doors leak energy that could otherwise be available to fulfill your dreams. They are where fear lurks within you, and they lead to self-fulfilling prophecies of failure and defeat.

Non-Engagement. When you practice non-engagement, you deliberately choose not to take part in battles, particularly those where the grounds of engagement are defined by your adversary. Just because someone is itching for a fight, longing to create a drama that will allow them to feel like a noble rescuer or a victim, that doesn’t mean you have to play along. So, if you choose to enter an argument, be aware that you’re doing it for sport, sparring because you enjoy it, not because it will allow you to vanquish your adversary of the moment or will prove you right.  The question is, Do you want to prove yourself “right,” or do you want to connect with your opponent and find common ground? Do you want to perpetuate and maintain your point of view, or do you want to solve a problem?

What have you learned about the Way of the Luminous Warrior?

What have you learned about the Way of the Hero?

Alberto Villoldo

https://thefourwinds.com/transformative-evolutionary-leap/

The Way of the Sage

The Way of the Sage

By Alberto Villoldo PhD

Posted on May 24, 2023

This week we will explore the four practices of the Way of the Sage: The Practice of Mastering Time, The Practice of Owning Your Own Projections, The Practice of No-Mind, and the Practice of Indigenous Alchemy.  Take some time to think deeply about each practice and how it might change your life.

Mastering Time. To master time, you let go of your idea that effect follows cause, and you step into the stream of timelessness. In the West, we’ve been taught that time flows in one direction only, that the future is always ahead of us and the past is always behind us. This is monochronic time, which flows linearly, going at its petty pace from day to day. But time doesn’t just fly like an arrow; it also turns like a wheel. That’s why polychronic time, is considered sacred. Here the future seeps into the present to summon us and we can change events that have already occurred. The Laika believe that the chance occurrence of events, such as how two people happen to run into each other serendipitously, is just as significant as their cause, or why those people were in the same place at the same time.  Synchronicity allows for future causation and is more interested in the purpose and meaning of an event than in its cause.

Owning Your Projections. To own your projections, you must discover and acknowledge the parts of yourself that you’ve refused to look at. It turns out that everything you believe to be true about the people around you, or the situations you find yourself in, mirrors a story you hold about the way the universe works. When you understand this, you can take a long hard look at every difficult situation in your life and then change it within. The psychologist Carl Jung called these hidden parts the shadow. Our shadows are those parts of ourselves that make us feel that we’re not good enough, that we’re unwanted, or that we’re a failure and will never be happy; and projection is the mechanism through which we cast these undesirable qualities onto others.  On the other hand, we also cast positive shadows. Marianne Williamson once said that it’s not our darkness that we fear the most, it’s our light meaning we tend to disown our own beauty and tremendous talent, keeping ourselves small and diminished.

No Mind. Practicing no-mind requires you to break free of your thoughts and get in touch with the sage within, who is beyond thoughts. You don’t have to spend hours upon hours in meditation to do this, although the practice can help anyone who wants to master it. When you become aware of how your mind foolishly jumps from thought to thought like a monkey, you can sit quietly, amused by its activity. The parade of thoughts will continue, but you won’t get caught up in it. There will only be the sage. You make the switch from identifying with the chatter to becoming the sage by asking questions such as “Who is hurt?” “Who is angry?” and “Who is late to the office?” What brings you home to the sage is always this: “Who is it that is asking the question?” The minute you ask yourself this, you break the trance and the mind dissolves. Only spirit remains, because Spirit is the sage.

Indigenous Alchemy. Indigenous alchemy is made up of four steps: identification, differentiation, integration, and transcendence. Identification. Identification is the quality of serpent, differentiation, of jaguar, integration, of hummingbird, and transcendence, of eagle. When a Laika wants to solve a problem, she practices indigenous alchemy and then works her way up to a higher level of perception, where solutions are readily available. We’re always in the process of identifying with some things, differentiation from or integration with others and transcending others. The way out of identification (into jaguar) is by owning the projection. The way out of differentiation (into hummingbird) is by turning it into a journey statement and asking yourself, “What do I have to do in order to move on?” The way beyond integration into transcendence (eagle0 is to see opportunity where you once saw only problems. Indigenous alchemy allows you to do your learning withing, rather tan through your children, parents, spouse, and co-workers.

What have you learned about the Way of the Sage?

Alberto Villoldo

• https://thefourwinds.com/