Robert Moss writes, “I have just received the best ever dreamer’s wish for the New Year. It comes from Virginie Pols, a wonderfully gifted dreamer, artist and teacher of Active Dreaming in Switzerland. She offers it in both French and English: Que cette année, nous soyons dignes de nos plus grands reves! This year, may we be worthy of our biggest dreams! I love this because it reminds us that dreams require action. If we do not take action to honor and embody our biggest dreams in our lives, they may fly away. To lose a big dream is a sad thing. It can even amount to losing a vital piece of our soul…”

Aboriginal Australians believe that we dream our way into this world, and dream our way out of it. “We talk to the spirit-child before a baby is born,” naturopath and traditional healer Burnham Burnham explained it to me. If the father-to-be is a dreamer, he is frequently the one who first meets the spirit-child in dreams. These dream encounters often unfold at places of water that exist in the natural world — a billabong, the shallows of a river, a waterfall — where the spirit-child plays with its own kind and is not confined to a single form. It can appear as a kingfisher or a platypus, as a fish or a crocodile.

The night of my birthday in 1988. I entered the rooms of a tailor in Manhattan. I wanted to have a new suit made but did not like the fabrics he had in stock. When I left the tailor’s shop, the city was different. There was the sense that hidden things were pulsing behind the scenes. Still bent on new clothes, I entered the menswear section of an upscale department store. I pulled a suit off the rack. It fitted perfectly and the price was right. It seemed to have pinstripes. When I looked at the label, it read “Shamanic.”

Robert Moss, a lifelong dream explorer who survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanic techniques for empowerment and healing. He is a former university professor of ancient history at the Australian National University, also a bestselling novelist, shamanic counselor, and the author of five books on dreaming. Robert gives lectures and leads workshops all over the world. You can visit his website at www.mossdreams.com.

“She came from the same Anglo-Irish milieu as William Butler Yeats, and wrote two plays that were performed at his beloved Abbey Theatre. Her mentor was the famous Irish medium Hester Dowden, said to have been the model for the psychic in Yeats’ spirited one-act play The Words Upon the Window-Pane. When she started practicing as a psychic medium, Yeats was one of the first people to consult her. Her name was Geraldine Cummins, and her life story as author, suffragette, medium and possible secret agent during World War II, is quite fascinating.”

“When we start paying attention to the dreamlike symbols of the day, we often reopen our connection to the dreams of the night…Have you lost touch with your dreams? Is your dream recall limited to fragments that fade away as you hurry off into the business and traffic of the day? Relax. Here are some fun and easy ways to renew and refresh your relationship with your dreams…”

I have enjoyed and benefited from all of Robert Moss’ books over the years, but Mysterious Realities may be my new favorite. This collection of “just so stories,” as the author calls it, is fresh, intimate, and surprisingly topical. If you’re like me and find these current times murky, dense, and difficult to navigate, you need this book.