Spiritwind: A Study Book for Spiritual Adventurers

By Rev. Dr. Richard E. Kuykendall and Diane Gilbert

Spiritwind: A Book for Spiritual Adventurers is a book that teaches you and your friends about many religions, philosophies and spiritual paths. It is a spiritual adventure that is only a beginning to a journey that lasts a lifetime. Spiritwind is also a book that models for you how to have a study group for “spiritual adventuerers.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Aug 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781698709314

Rev. Dr. Richard E. Kuykendall

Rev. Dr. Richard E. Kuykendall holds both a Master of Divintiy degree, and a Doctor of Ministry degree in Creation Spirituality. He served as a minister for over 35 years, and has led his Creation Spirituality Community, Spiritwind, for over twenty years. Kuykendall is also the author of fifteen books, including: The Dream Life of Jesus, Liturgies of the Earth, and The Way of the Earth.

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Copyright 2021 Rev. Dr. Richard E. Kuykendall.

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ISBN: 978-1-6987-0932-1 (sc)

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

Understanding The Meaning of Your Dreams

The Christian Origin and Meaning of The Tarot

The History of Witchcraft and Its Modern Expression as Wicca

The Muslim Jesus

The New Thought Movement

Buddhism and The Beat Poets

Creation Spirituality Not Creationism!

Winter Holiday Traditions

Homosexuality and The Church

Mysticism

Philosophy in The Making

Death and Life After Death

Sacred Lists of Things

Different Forms of Prayer

The Religions of India

Spring Holiday Traditions

Kabbalah

Sufism

Understanding The Book of Revelation

A Survey of Traditional Christian Doctrines

A Philosophy of Life for The 21st Century

Existentialism

The Ultimate Nature Of Reality

Postscript

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the support that I received for Spiritwind at three of the churches that I have served as minister: Community Congregational Church of Tehachapi, CA, Bethel Congregational Church of Ontario, CA and First Congregational Church of Auburn, CA. I also would like to thank Unity of Auburn and especially Reverends Mark and Karen Schindler for providing Spiritwind with its newest home.

Also, I must thank Fritz Guy my philosophy professor, Richard Rice my main theology professor, and Matthew Fox who, at this point, I have either studied with or worked for, for nearly 25 years. His work in Deep Ecumenism or interfaith work which is expressed so beautifully in his book, One River, Many Wells has been of on-going inspiration for our own Creation Spirituality* Community1 which is Spiritwind!

Finally I must thank my life partner, Ava who is my inspiration and partner in all of the work that I do as a writer, teacher and dream worker. She helped in the editing of this book, is an active participant in the group, and is the one who conceived of this book in the first place.

Thank you all!

Foreword

About 19 years ago a new minster arrived at the church where I was employed as the Youth Director. The congregation was abuzz with anticipation of this rumored free thinking, guitar playing, intellectually inquisitive spiritual leader coming into our midst. Struggling to identify ourselves as a welcoming, free-thinking, questioning church, embracing the You don’t have to check your brain at the door philosophy, without leaving traditional Christianity and those with more conservative views on the curb, Rick was greeted with open arms and open hearts. One of the things that came with Rick was a weekly class that he’d taught at various churches over the years called, Spiritwind: A Study Group for Spiritual Adventurers. Through this class attendees were invited to explore the outer realms of the spirit in a safe environment. The idea of a class like this was extremely attractive to many in the church who were trying to meld the idea of encouraging unique individual faith journeys with teachings and learning methods that could be embraced by one eclectic congregation. The adventure began.

Having come from a very conservative Christian background myself, the idea of adventuring out spiritually was both exciting and a little scary. I had come pretty far from my conservative Baptist roots had begun opening my mind up to releasing the dogma of traditional Christian religions that had plagued me for decades. What had always bothered me was that I felt in order to release the dogma; I’d have to give up my deep commitment to the teachings and philosophies of my Jesus. What I found after 15+ years of being a spiritual adventurer through Rick’s Spiritwind classes, studying thoughts and writings of those all over the world and through the ages, whose beliefs vastly differed from mine, from each other, and often directly opposing each other, was… that it’s all good. I began to relax. I began to grow. There seems to be that universal desire to figure it all out, to give ourselves answers, to help ourselves feel secure as we go through our lives looking for a reason for it all. I truly believe that people do the best they can with what they know. As I began to see the similarities in our universal humanness, I began to gain an intense respect for each individual’s spiritual path. I began to see how my Jesus could still be my hero, his teachings could still be my handbook while at the same time, I could feel the freedom to explore and participate in the wealth of teachings from many other spiritual and faith traditions. I could read the thoughts of philosophers and teachers from long ago and from across the globe with an open heart, without feeling that my personal journey was being threatened. For me Spiritwind threw open all theological doors. It truly became an adventure.

I never would have imagined that my Jesus would blend so beautifully with the teaching of Muhammad, Buddha, Wiccans, Hindus, Jews, Mystics, Pagans and even other denominations of Christianity. We are all on our uniquely individualized spiritual paths. For me it has been such a gift to be open enough and comfortable enough with my own spirituality to be able to explore other’s perspectives and be enriched by thoughts and writings of so many intelligent and thoughtful, seeking souls. If we can begin to understand each other, relish our differences and respect our different ideas, perhaps then we can find a way to all just get along.

Over the years I’ve, halfway jokingly, more than halfway seriously, proposed the idea that we should figure out a way to offer Spiritwind across the globe. I suppose it’s too lofty to claim that Spiritwind: A Book for Spiritual Adventurers can and should be used globally as a valuable tool in the efforts to foster world peace, but the more conversations that are prompted, looking at out similarities rather than our differences can’t help but make this world a better place. Spiritwind looks at intelligent and soulful spiritual thought through philosophy, faith traditions, conversations and interactions. We discover the profound oneness, common threads, and the different ways to experience the awe and wonder of what many refer to as God. As we perpetuate the adventure through varied lenses, we realize it’s all about love. It’s about wonder. It’s about awe. It’s about beauty.

Allow yourself the freedom to grow. Let the adventure continue from here!

Diane Gilbert, Auburn, California

Introduction

Though I have been a minister for over thirty years and have pastored a number of churches in California, in 1990 I began a study group which I called, Spiritwind. Here I took those who attended into the exotic realms of the Spirit. I have done Spiritwind in four different churches the last being Unity of Auburn where I have been continuing this work.

Why the name Spiritwind? The answer is twofold: (1) A text in the Gospel of John (chapter 3; verse 8): where Jesus compares the spirit to the wind, and (2) The Wind Energy Parks which covered the hills of Tehachapi, CA while I was minister there.

This book was the brain-child of my life partner, Ava who thought I should write a book titled, Spiritwind in which the chapters would be the topics I cover at Spiritwind. At Spiritwind we meet once a week and I cover one topic per month—and you can see by the chapter titles that our topics are wide ranging. What follows are the topics I will have covered over the course of three years. I will later present a history of how Spiritwind came to be and how it has developed over the years in chapter 5 on The New Thought Movement.

One more thing… I have made this in such a way that if you would like to start a Spiritwind group of your own, this will provide you with topics to get you started. I also have a Spiritwind group on Facebook where I make daily comments on the topics we continue to study; which I have been doing now for over 30 years. And by the way, both Matthew Fox and Creation Spirituality Communities have Facebook groups as well!

Front%20Cover.jpg

Understanding The Meaning

of Your Dreams

"A dream not interpreted is like a letter

unopened from God." Talmud

"Dreams are the royal road to the

Unconscious." Sigmund Freud

Since 1990 I have been doing Dream Workshops and have led a number of dream groups. I have been leading our present group in Auburn for over ten years. I studied dream work in my doctoral studies with Jeremy Taylor, author of The Wisdom of Your Dreams among others, and I am the author of The Dream Life of Jesus. I have also taught this class, Understanding the Meaning of Your Dreams, at all four of the churches where Spiritwind has met, as well as taught it a number of times at the Sister’s of Mercy Retreat Center, in Auburn, CA.

How I do dream work is a mixture of Jeremy Taylor’s method and my own…

First I like to categorize different kinds of dreams. I put dreams into three broad categories: Physical, Psychological and Supernatural. Don’t prejudge what these three mean without first hearing me out.

Physical Dreams: What I call physical dreams are dreams that have a physical cause such as you dream that the phone is ringing only to wake up and hear that the alarm is going off. Or you dream you are in a snow storm only to wake up and find your covers are off and you are cold. Now we shouldn’t just write these dreams off as if they can be explained away by their physical cause. Because take for example the dream about being in a snow storm—what if instead you dreamed you were locked in a meat refrigerator? The physical cause can take any number of forms in the dream and dependent of which form it takes, gives meaning to the message that is coming to you from your subconscious.

Beside these examples of physical dreams there are also what I have found in light of children who wet their beds. Often times they are dreaming that they are going to the bathroom when in reality they are wetting their beds.

Then there is what Jeremy Taylor calls, Day Residue. Day residue is when something from the day bleeds into your dream world. For instance, when I was young I used to work for my father building houses. One day I worked all day putting shingles on a roof. That night I dreamt that I was working on the same roof but I slipped off and fell to the ground. In this case I felt that subconsciously I had been concerned about this happening all day.

Psychological Dreams: Under the heading Psychological Dreams I have six different kinds of dreams.

1. Expressions of fear—dreams of being chased or attacked, dreams of being in dangerous situations or even dreams of being unprepared like me dreaming that I was about to preach but left my notes in my office. Or many people have dreams that they have to take a test and they are totally unprepared.

2. Vulnerability—many people have dreams of being naked or scantily dressed in public. These dreams often show that the person feels that more is being seen or know about them then they want.

3. Messages from the personal unconscious—often times when people who were molested as children have repressed memories, at some time in their adult life they may have dreams that indicate that something is trying to break in to their consciousness. One person I worked with kept having dreams where they felt that someone was trying to break into their house and they were frantically going from room to room locking the windows and doors. After a number of these kind of dreams the person started getting more graphic dreams which indicated molestation.

4. Wish fulfillment and compensation—this was one of Sigmund Freud’s contributions to dream interpretation. Here a person who has not had sex dreams of having it, or a person without food dreams of eating, or even a person quitting smoking dreams of smoking.

5. Transcendence—here is where many have dreams of flying without the aid of a vehicle. The first book I read by Jeremy Taylor was titled, Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill. These are dreams of rising above your current situation.

6. Recurring dreams—usually mean one of two things. Either you’re not getting the message such as in dreams in where I can’t find my cell phone or get it to work, thus there is a problem with communication in my life. Or if the dream recurs over the course of a number of years it can be telling you, Here you are again in terms of your situation. I have had over the years what I call Dirty Bathroom dreams. These are dreams where I find myself in public bathrooms that are filthy. Whenever these dreams recur it is to show me that I’m at another messy time in my life.

Supernatural dreams:

Some dream workers do not like to label any dreams as supernatural because they do not believe in the supernatural. They believe that every dream has a natural cause, such as those I shared under physical and psychological dreams.

There are prophetic dreams in the Bible such as those Joseph the son of Jacob had and interpreted in the 37th chapter of Genesis where in two dreams he predicts that one day his family would bow down before him. Later in chapter 40 he interprets the dreams of two others which are prophetically fulfilled. Then finally in chapter 41 he interprets two dreams of Pharaoh which also prophetically come to pass. Besides this, in the story of the birth of Jesus as it is told in the first two chapters of the Gospel of Matthew dreams are given to Joseph the father of Jesus to guide him in his decision to marry Mary, and dreams are given to Joseph and to the magi which serve to protect the infant Jesus.

Besides these dreams in the Bible I have, as well as many other people I have worked with have, had dreams that seem to predict something that later comes to pass. One example of this from my own dreams is:

I had a dream that I saw my grandmother on a metal table in a morgue where the fluids were being drained from her body. I woke up horrified!

Though at the time my grandmother was alive and well, not long after this dream she died—and I did her funeral.

In my dream groups we also speak of what we call, Visitations. These are dreams where someone who has died appears in our dreams. Besides interpreting these dreams as we normally do we also see them as visitations by those who have passed on. Recently I have begun doing dream work with the elderly in retirement homes and care facilities and one of the women who shared a dream with me said that her dead son and daughter-in-law had come to visit her in her dream. Because the woman was in her nineties I thought that they were calling her home.

In Jeremy Taylor’s The Basis Dream Work Tool Kit he proposes six ideas that can guide a group doing dream work. The first is All dreams speak a universal language and come in the service of health and wholeness. The second part of this is that dreams come in the service of health and wholeness. That is ALL dreams come to help us—even nightmares. We often forget our dreams but when we have a nightmare we don’t forget it. It is in our face. The problem in dealing with nightmares is what Taylor calls, the danger of mistaken literalism. That is we forget that dreams speak a language of symbols, and are not to be taken literally. Thus killing someone in a dream or someone trying to kill you, usually have something to do with something in your life that needs to die. It could be an attitude, a way of living, a relationship, or any number of things.

The first part of this point is that dreams speak a universal language which is the language of symbols. In my dream groups I start them off with a number of suggestions which I will share with you now.

1. Identify the setting: are you on a mountain top, the desert, the city, or near, on or in water? Each of these have meaning, Take for example water. In my way of doing dream work water is symbolic of emotion, as earth is symbolic of grounding, air is symbolic of the intellect and fire symbolic of passion. So being on the water is being on the surface of emotions while being in the water is being immersed in emotion.

Also, are you in a building? A school speaks of what we are learning, a church speaks of some aspect of our spiritual life, a house speaks of our life and whether we are upstairs on the main floor or in the basement has to do with whether the dream is addressing our waking consciousness, are subconscious or even super-consciousness.

2. Vehicles: are you in a car, airplane, or boat? Again this has to do with the elements as mentioned above. But if you take the example of being in a car the questions are who is driving—you or someone else? Is the road bumpy or smooth? Are you traveling fast or slow, etc.

3. Identify the characters: are they people you know? If so what are they symbolic of in your life? People you don’t know are what I call filler or extras as in the movies. They are just there to flesh out the dream story. And do you have what I call, blended people. They are a phenomenon in the dream world where we have a person in our dream who is a cross between two people, such as,I dreamt about my aunt but she was also my ninth grade English teacher.

4. Word plays: Freud wrote about the place of word plays in dreams. Take for example a dream where flies or insects are getting all over you—you could say, What’s bugging you? Or at one of my churches I was having problems with a woman in my church that was being controlling and I had a dream that I was wrestling with a bear—you could say, She’s a real bear!

5. Dream dictionaries. Sometimes when you are beginning dream work using dream dictionaries can be helpful in interpreting symbols. The problem however is that we automatically have our own personal dream dictionary. Take for instance a dream where one is plucking an apple from an apple tree. Dream dictionaries might say this is a sign that one is in danger of falling into temptation, as in Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. But if you were an apple grower the dream would probably be related to your confidence in a good crop.

6. Finally it is important to ask how the dream made you feel? Did killing a certain person fill you with horror or with relief?

I, along with Taylor believe that dream work is best done in groups. We need each other in our waking life and in our dream work as well. Taylor says that dreamers are uniquely blind to the meaning of their own dreams and this is another reason why we do dream work in groups. In dream groups we agree on maintaining anonymity in discussing dreams with others outside of the group— meaning that we can talk to others about a dream without revealing the identity of the one who dreamt it, but members are always able to ask for confidentiality on a certain dream if they so desire— meaning that no one in the group will speak of the dream outside of the group.

As we work dreams in the group whenever we respond with our interpretation of another’s dream we always begin our statement by saying, If it were my dream… This for two reasons: first to say, I think your dream means that you… comes off seeming accusatory. Secondly, when a person shares their dream, we have our own imagined version of the dream which might not be the same as theirs. If a person said, I dreamt that I was walking in the country… one could seem themselves walking in the mountains, or through a meadow in a valley, or even in the desert. As we work the dream we clarify these points but when we first hear the dream we have our own imagined version and as we work the other’s dream we at the same time work our own imagined version of their dream.

Also we recognize the fact that only the dreamer can say for sure what the meaning of his or her dream is. Some times this comes when we are working a dream with a sudden aha moment. Sometimes it comes later after a time of reflecting on what was done at the dream group.

In what follows our dream group will work a dream that I had. There are six in the group. This is a significant dream because it was the first dream I remembered in seven months since I suffered a major stroke.

Here is the dream:

I am with my niece, Christy, my son Andrew, some children and two women about my age.

We are in a car with a blanket on the seat, going to a church conference of some kind.

When we get to the building where the conference is being held, not only is it on the water (ocean) but the water is chest deep going to the entrance.

Andrew is first in the water and he walks up chest-deep in the water up to the entrance of the building.

I decide I am not going in.

Not only do I not want to go through the water but I am concerned because I have seemed to have lost my wedding ring, my cell phone, my credit card, and my meal card.

I want to go back and look through the car.

Suddenly a woman comes out and tells me to come in, that I am the vice-scientist and I need to come in to respond to questions.

I tell her about what I have lost and tell her that finding my things is my priority.