Having the honor of doing a ceremony with a Peruvian Medicine Man this month. Fascinated that by thought alone you can be transported. He mentioned that near-death experiences and trauma can cause one to be connected . Well for me this happened in my twenties and the story is very long and I won’t go into it now but it was very traumatic and my reaction was to travel in my dreams and magically fly away ………..to distant and fantastic lands.

During this time I created a hat for traveling with two birds (swan –like) called the Bird Helmet as for me it was symbolic of being able to escape and travel in my dreams. It had two birds with their necks crossed in figure eight. The hat I even put in a story and painted it called “Journey to Dodoland“. My mother and father supported my action and made a three-dimensional hat for me to wear. I wore it storytelling my story of magically flying. To my surprise, it became popular and was a play and a website. One group was all the children in the schools in East Harlem. But again that’s another story.

So many people have been able to travel in the magic Bird Helmet. I am thankful that something created from my dreams can be not only used by myself for my inner growth but has been incorporated in my story to help others to feel the freedom of dreaming and imagining.

Anyways I have told the story of the creation of my Bird Helmet story as it is related to the ceremony with a Peruvian Shaman this week. In the ceremony I floated above my house looking down. Again fascinating as used to doing this in dreams but not necessarily in thought during the ceremony. Afterward thought to myself “Now tonight I should have some good dreams”.

Sure enough in my dream Wednesday night I saw myself in my Bird Helmet..I was like a sculpture and around me was a mandala of paintings from various stories. It was fascinating as my paintings were shown and represented in different directions of the mandala. I was lucid and wanted to remember the image to paint it later so went to come closer. At the same time a small bird was flying towards the sculpture. At that moment one swan like bird became a snake and hissed and drove the small bird away. Amaru from Peru showed its face. It scared me actually. I woke up. In thinking about after knew Amaru in Incan mythology is a two faced serpent or dragon that can move between spiritual realms (sometimes a puma head) that represents for me new life and change and this was the wisdom message to be learned and good lesson at any time and maybe especially now with the Pandemic. I am sharing this as felt it was a message for me and could be for other – to be open to change and transformation.

The next night saw the Bird Helmet again and it shape-shifted back to a birds again. Seems such is life. Change and Transformation! The trick is being open to it and shifting to positive and uplifting directions.

Now shape-shifting – well there is yet many other stories.

The question for you is – HAVE YOU FELT A SHIFT?

Della in Bird Helmet by Della Burford – painted in watercolor in 1977 for the book ‘Journey to Dodoland’.