Having been delivered from the dark places on eagle's wings, I commit myself to helping others discover their own eagle-energy... Having received the gifts of Image Guidance and flights of poetry, I commit myself to empowering others to recognize their own gifts... Having been grasped by Love beyond all telling, I commit myself to serving that Love, wherever it may take me...

AWAKENING THE WOMAN DREAMER
This Woman Dreamer has a concrete face. The name, taken from the title of my poetry book, Woman Dreamer, originated with a Neolithic figurine from my homeland, the island of Malta. This tiny figure – about “4” long—is at once a goddess, priestess, intercessor, supplicant, one awaiting a divine message, one awaiting a prophetic dream; one awaiting impregnation through an ancestral spirit, one in search of healing…. There are no written records to contextualize this figurine and the archaeological data remains thin. All we can say for certainty is that this figure from more than 6,000 years ago was found in a magnificent underground temple, along with fragments from 7,000 skeletons. From the use of red ochre and the spiral motif, we know that religious practice involved attention to themes of death and re-birth. The dreamer reclines on a couch, her ample body suggesting fertility; she is wearing a cultic dress, suggesting her dignity and office.

She is an image of Women Dreamers everywhere – of women who dare to be themselves – solid, connected to Mother Earth and to the rhythms of nature; of women who are connected to the endless cycle of birth, death and re-birth; of women who are aware of their spiritual centre, confident in their relationship with God, confident of their inner knowing and of the wisdom they have to offer the world. She is goddess, priestess, prophet – imagine her, if you will, reclining on her bed, waiting for words of revelation from the oracle, challenging the deadness of the status quo. She speaks words of hope, words of life, words of transformation, but those who do not dream flee her presence, finding she is too much for them.....

She is one who reverences the inner world, one who is not afraid to encounter Mystery. Trusting in a loving God, she makes herself fully available to that Holy Presence, allowing God to work freely in her life. She is pregnant with God’s presence, eloquent with God’s Word. Passionate about life, she refuses to accept apathy, indifference, mediocrity, rote and other structures of destruction. She dreams by night to be awake by day. She is compassionate and nurturing but has the strength of a warrior, the courage of a wanderer. She is caregiver and caretaker, but also loves herself, boldly insisting she has a right to happiness and healthiness, that she can pursue her own dreams while helping others name and follow theirs. She is both heart centred and head centred; she is both leader and follower. She knows how to delegate and how to cooperate, how to connect with peoples everywhere. She sees the connectedness of all peoples everywhere and years for an era of peace, for a transformed world order.

In my poetry book, particularly in the title poem, I present different images of the Woman Dreamer  ranging from the Neolithic priestess to female versions of the biblical characters Joseph, Jonah and Daniel. This Woman Dreamer is a woman of passion, insight and courage. The status quo tries to silence her but she is relentless in her spiritual odyssey; to go on her journey, she has to embrace a new world order of possibilities. When the voice of patriarchy has said, “Know your place, keep silence; accept your inferiority and limitations,” this Woman Dreamer has defied this spiritual death sentence and has instead embraced her own authenticity and giftedness. She knows that with God’s help, all things are possible: no dream is too extravagantly wonderful. All she must do is tend the dream within, refusing to let others extinguish it. The Woman Dreamer refuses to be bound and trapped buy others’ lies. When the status quo trieds to hold her back, bind her to rigid roles, limit her access to places of influence and convince her that she is less than she is, she protests. When the status quo demands conformity, compliance, and self-effacement, she refuses to cooperate, She is to be found wherever women have claimed their own dignity – in the Mothers of the Disappeared in Central American countries, in Mothers Against Drunk Drivers; in women who have been involved in peace initiatives; in women who have worked for better wages, working conditions and labour relations; in women who have claimed their place in the church…

The Woman Dreamer dares dream a dream of peace and a new world order in which Mother Earth is venerated and given the respect she deserves… She is Mother Eve, Sarah, Haggai, Miriam, Judith, Esther, Deborah. She is Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the disciple of Jesus; she is Claire of Assisi and Teresa of Avila, she is Joan of Arc and Julian of Norwich; she is Dorothy Day and Rosa Parks, Kasturbai (wife of Gandhi), Princess Diana and Mother Teresa, Cindy Sheehan, Oprah Winfrey and—potentially, you and me!