CHASING A DREAM

Jeri Castronova, PhD

Now that we've made it through the mid-point in Year One of the New Cycle, we have a chance to renew our dreams and reinvigorate plans for the future.

How many dreams do you suppose you've had in your lifetime? Too many to recall? Or too few that have come to fruition?

When I saw Les Miz on the stage many years ago, Fantine sang the words of a beautiful testament to the perils of life, which everyone has heard by now, but you may not have seen the words.

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high and life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die,
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted.
There was no ransom to be paid-no Song unsung,
no wine untasted.

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder,
As they tear your hope apart,
As they turn your dreams to shame.

He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride,
But he was gone when autumn came.

And still I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather.

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed.
Now life has killed The Dream I dreamed.

Lyricist: Herbert Kretzmer

Nineteenth-century Paris was a difficult time to be alive, and yet those who were, gained much in karmic wisdom. We may not have the same path as Fantine, but we definitely have a path that we chose before we came in. It involved having a dream, or many dreams, and chasing after them. Some were doable, others simply wound up as illusions. We learn the same lessons today as Fantine did-the need to release the dreams that cannot be. But unlike Fantine, we can dream another dream.

With all the energies bombarding earth at this time, many things are possible that even a decade ago would have been impossible. This New 26,000-year Cycle begins however we want it to begin. And the most conspicuous method we have is something we carry with us all the time, yet have neglected due to early teachings. That underused, underappreciated method is our Imagination.

This is the most propitious time to free your Imagination and let it run wild with envisionings and dreams. Pull out all the stops and let yourself picture what you really want in life: prosperity, loving relationships, travel, beach house, success, education-don't censor, criticize, or believe you don't deserve what comes up. Just allow the most fanciful dreams you can. This stretches the Imagination and gives it permission to Dream the Impossible Dream.

The next step is to imagine yourself able to manifest what you've dreamed. It's not impossible. In fact, it's something we knew how to do thousands of years ago when we were fully conscious beings. If we awaken to that fact, our Imaginations awaken even more, committing us totally to the spiritual paths we have chosen. The law of manifestation functions not only with thought, but with feelings. Instill your dreams with passion and love. Then express gratitude to the Universe that you are alive in this most marvelous moment of earth's history.