It has been an unacceptably long time since I have blogged, and it’s not that I haven’t had anything to say! I’ve been moving house, travelling and busy with book things, among other diversions. Right now I’m sitting in my room in Heraklion on the north coast of the isle of Crete as we come to the end of a 2 1/2 week pilgrimage. We have been travelling with psychologist and writer Ed Tick, and his wife and fellow psychologist, Kate Dahlstedt. My last roommate, Barbara – a professional astrologer, just left this morning for her home near Boston.

Sailing into Heraklion port at 6:00 a.m.

My friend from LA, Grace will be moving in with me for one night and then I head for Athens by ferry and the flight back to Calgary. What a trip this has been. Ed Tick leads healing/educational trips to both Viet Nam and Greece. We knew that “A” Greek trip was coming up for the last two years but didn’t know where we would be going. In the meantime I dreamt I was in ancient Greece and with two other people, all teenagers at the time; we were lovingly washing and grooming a black bull with gold balls on the ends of his horns. A few weeks after that, Ed announced that our next trip would be Crete, for whom the bull is a symbol! This is the bull I dreamed, without the gold balls on the ends of his horns.

Minoan Bull in the museum in Heraklion

This was just one of many magical things that have happened before, and during the trip. I think everyone experienced at least some degree of healing, catharsis, new insight, and/or transformation. The spine of the trip was to visit a couple of Asclepion healing sanctuaries and then follow near the end of our journey with a night of “dream healing.” Dreams have been considered of importance in many healing traditions, including conventional psychiatry, ie. Jungian and Freudian practices. The healer Asclepios was a powerful figure of ancient Greece who actually lived, according to Homer. His daughters were Hygiea – from which we get the word, hygiene and Panacea, who name is self-explanatory.

There are Asclepion ruins all over Greece, Turkey and even some Italy. The Asclepion in Epidavros is being restored as close to the original as possible. There are literally thousands of testimonials recorded of healings including some very specific notes from Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius – the Romans adopted the practice from the Greeks. Hippocrates was an apprentice to, and eventually a priest of Asclepios. The snake on the staff in medicine comes from Asclepios, not Hippocrates.

Asclepios and me from an earlier trip, in Epidavros.

Symbols of Poseidon and Asclepios in the Asclepion in Lendas on Crete

Enough history. Whether it is symbolic or real makes no difference. When pilgrims travel together with a powerful intention for knowledge and healing, remarkable things happen. During the dream incubation, several people shared common elements in their dreams without knowing it until we shared our experiences at the end. A sceptical, atheist (kick-ass) trial lawyer from Detroit had a couple of mystical things happen that really made her question her beliefs, in a good way. She was excited and inspired by what she discovered. A wounded young veteran was transformed by this trip and will probably end up being a speaker for Soldier’s Heart, (www.soldiersheart.net) Ed and Kate’s charity for healing combat trauma. My friend Grace, who is a practising psychiatrist also has healing dreams for her patients and friends.

Outside of that, we all loved Crete. Wonderful, warm people, fantastic food and the best tasting honey in the world – you can taste the flowers in it! In the photo below, there were Minoan ruins here, a carpet of wildflowers and you could hear nothing but the buzzing of happy bees. Just beautiful.

Millions of wildflowers and bees.

One little story from WWII; a group of British soldiers were bivouacked in Epidavros at the end of the war. The Sergeant Major told his CO that they needed to move because the place was haunted. ALL the men had had the same dream – of a large bearded man in a robe with a staff that had a snake wrapped around it! They were describing Asclepios.

That’s enough for now. Please note: I’m in the process of moving everything to a new site – susanraby-dunne.com It is under construction and once I get moved, I will get that up and running.

Here we are on April 7th with freezing drizzle, ice pellets, annoyed and half-frozen migratory birds, and the usual crazy southwestern Alberta spring weather. I did get out on my bike for a couple of burns last week and the week before but no hope right now. I’m still recovering from last week anyway, 2 funerals – my friend Garfield, and my 20 year old Andalusian mare, (I’d had her since she was three) so I’m hibernating nicely with good books and videos for awhile.

April what?! The view from my back steps. Waaa.

This morning I watched two videos with Drs Rudy Tanzi and Deepak Chopra from the Super Brain series. Inspiring stuff. We have more power over our own lives than most of us really REALIZE. It’s all about being mindful and paying attention to our bodies; breath, feelings and thoughts…without judgement, criticism or analysis. Being self-aware would have been considered a waste of time when I was a kid, even a conceit. Thinking about it now though, the most unhappy, emotionally crippled people I know have little or no self-awareness or insight.

The doctors suggested an exercise; imagining or remembering events that have given you pleasure in the past and those memories actually release healthy chemicals, enzymes, endorphins, etc. in the brain. I started doing that and after the first things I recalled, which were about my love for certain people in my life; family and friends, then I remembered stuff like singing in a choir two summers ago, inside Chartres Cathedral in France, and sitting on a beach without human company, for several hours in 1981, surrounded by sea lions in the Galapagos. My next thought was, What an amazing life I’ve had and continue to have!
Gratitude Gratitude Gratitude

I’ve been honoured to be entrusted with the finer details of Garfield’s WWII stories. He held them inside for over sixty years. After we went to Belgium and Holland in 2010, he was noticeably “lighter.” Upon hearing about my healing journey back to Viet Nam in 2009 with 8 VN veterans, my family doctor said he had a WWII veteran patient who was fixated on his experiences during the war and wanted to talk to him about them. As a busy family physician he just couldn’t accommodate him. I said, “I don’t suppose you could tell me who he is could you?” But of course he couldn’t for confidentiality reasons. I’m pretty sure now it was Garfield. We became friends at just the right time.

Looking for Toby’s grave in the Adegem Canadian Military Cemetery in Belgium.

A stoic Garfield sheds a cathartic tear after finding the grave of his brother after 66 years.

Diez in Hay, Alberta. Her last summer – 2012 She would have been 20 this May.

So, it’s just that kind of Sunday. I have started the Bonfire screenplay and will get back to it when my inspiration for writing returns. I never stay down for long!