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	Robert Moss WAY OF THE DREAMER	mossdreams.com FEATURES & ESSAYS

DREAMING WITH THE PEACEMAKER
The Healing Power of Ancient Iroquoian Dreamways

By Robert Moss

The current issue of SHAMAN'S DRUM magazine (number 64) contains a 15,000-word essay by Robert in which he describes the rich shamanic dreaming traditions of the First Peoples of the Northeast whom he first encountered in dreams. In this article he publishes, for the first time, many of his deepest personal experiences of dreaming his way into the worlds of the First Peoples and the Earth spirits and into a family of life dramas being played out across time and across dimensions.

The following excerpt is titled "Dreaming with the Peacemaker"

One of the great healing stories of humankind comes out of Iroquois dreaming traditions. It speaks directly to us today, offering a way to move beyond hatred and war. In the legend, an enlightened being known as the Peacemaker comes to our world from another realm. He comes in a way that defies Newtonian physics, voyaging in a "stone canoe." He is difficult for humans to understand. He is described as having a double row of teeth, and we are told that the inner meaning of this part of the myth is that he is a multidimensional being whose speech and mental patterns escape linear sequence. In order to be understood, he must find an interpreter, one who is capable of grasping his thoughts and communicating them in ordinary language.

Ironically, Peacemaker chooses Hiawatha—not Longfellow's versified Indian, but a man who, during an age of violent oppression, has lost almost everything (his family, his nation, and his reasons for living). Hiawatha's world is dominated by a sorcerer-tyrant who is called Tododaho, the Entangled One, because his evil thoughts emerge from his head like writhing serpents and strike down his victims at a distance. He has destroyed Hiawatha's family and forced him to flee from his homeland. In his despair, Hiawatha has fallen very low, and, consumed by the desire for vengeance, he is becoming more and more like his enemy. Like the Entangled One, he has become a cannibal.

One night, as Hiawatha prepares to boil human flesh in a cauldron of water, he sees a shining face rise to meet him in the surface of the water. It is the face of a beautiful, radiant being. The vision throws Hiawatha into confusion. Is this really how I am?" he asks himself. The face in the water is not the face of a cannibal or a killer. "This is not the face of a man who lives as I live." Hiawatha is revulsed by what he has become, and he removes the human flesh from the pot and buries it with respect. When he returns, he leans over the pot again and the radiant face seems to bless him. "This is my true face," he decides. "From now on, I will live as who I truly am."

He never looks up. Had he done so, would he have seen the Peacemaker as a separate being, peering down through the smoke hole of his lodge? Maybe, or maybe not.

When the Peacemaker later appears at his door, Hiawatha does not at first recognize him as the face reflected in the water, but he senses his visitor is no stranger. Are they one or two people? They are not the same, but not separate. Their relationship is what is possible between any one of us who is willing to change his life, and his Higher Self, or "double in heaven."

It is very significant that the Peacemaker chosses a fallen man to interpret for him. Hiawatha knows despair, fear, and evil, and he can heal them in others—once awakened to his deeper self—because he encounters and overcomes these things in his own being. As wounded healer, he can cleanse the mind of his darkest enemy. Directed by the Peacemaker, he gathers men of goodwill, and together they overcome the forces of the Entangled One.

When their victory is won, they do not kill the tyrant. Instead, they comb the serpents of rage and psychosis from his hair. They understand that the Entangled One acted as he did because he had suffered terrible soul loss and he was not himself—he had become the vehicle for dark energies inimical to humanity. They cleanse Tododaho, call back his bright spirit, and raise him up to be first among equals in the council of the rotiyaner—the "men of good minds"—who are the traditional chiefs of the Iroquois Confederacy. Today, a Tododaho still sits, along with a Hiawatha, in the circle of chiefs who wear the "living bones"—the deer antlers that denote spiritual power.

The legend of the real Hiawatha and the Peacemaker is a wonderful sacred teaching story, one for our world to dream on. It directs us to understand the psychic forces that give rise to war and destruction, and to respond to them on appropriate levels. It reminds us that soul loss and the resulting psychic intrusion are the source of untold harm in our world, as well as in our individual lives. We can all learn to dream with the Peacemaker to work towards peace and soul recovery for our communities and our world.

Ordering information: If Shaman's Drum is not available locally, you can contact Shaman's Drum, PO Box 270, Williams, OR 97544, tel (541) 846-1313. The annual subscription is only $18, amazing for a large, beautifully produced quarterly magazine that is probably the forement world periodical dealing with shamanic tradition and practice.

Coming February 2005!

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Dreamways of the Iroquois: Honoring the Secret Wishes of the Soul by Robert Moss, coming from Inner Traditions in February 2005