Traditions & Orders

Earth has a voice. Not many folks can still hear it. Long ago, all people listened to that voice – the beat of Life and the song of Spirit. Pride, however, has driven wedges between our world and the spirit realm. It takes strength and vision to hold on to that primal connection in spite of all the distractions of modern life… even more so when that modern world has tried everything in its power to break you. And yet, this Tradition and its people refuse to be broken.

Endurance is perhaps the best word to summarize the Society of Dreams. Its vision has endured. Its people have endured. The Tradition itself has endured ignorance, slavery, division, oppression, betrayal, marginalization, stereotyping, and a simplistic view from outsiders that has likewise endured long past all reasonable expectations. Aside from the group’s staunch allies in the Verbena and Ecstatic Traditions (and often including them as well), the Council’s view of the Dreamers has remained paternalistic and patronizing for over 500 years. And yet, they endure.

It’s appropriate that this Tradition had not one founder but two. Naioba and Star-of-Eagles both heard the call of their spirits in very different lands, yet they transcended their differences to fall in love with one another. The sacred marriage between these female and male devotees inspired a diverse confederation of African, Native American, and Asian visionaries, for while that marriage was a ritual, the love involved was real. Although their

romance ended with Naioba’s assassination by a Vision-Mocker, that love, with its many symbolic ties, still holds the group together.

With few exceptions, the Kha’vadi (“those whose vision shapes the world”) come from indigenous cultures or their technological descendants. Some embrace modern fashions and technologies, whereas others favor their ancestral ways. Though the Tradition holds a handful of European, Oceanic, and Asiatic spirit-workers, the vast majority of the group hails from Africa or the Americas. Often referred to by the Siberian word shaman, they’re more properly thought of as medicine-people: folks who use natural healing gifts rather than selfish magick. Instead of bending reality to their will, the Kha’vadi work with reality… not the twisted reality of the Technocratic world but the deeper reality of the World Spirit in its many forms.

Thanks in part to its healer nature, this Tradition gets stereotyped as a bunch of bongo-beating throwbacks. That impression is absurd. Kha’vadi are spirit warriors fighting to save a sick world from itself. Especially in recent years, the Dreamers have become more militant than they’ve been for centuries. Groups like the Red Spear and the Ghost Wheel Society defy the Tradition’s “stoic savage” image, with a newer faction, the Akinkanju (“Unbroken”) even lobbying to toss out the Council’s “slave-name” and replace it with a self-determined title. This age, after all, is a “White-mare,” and the ’Speakers have had enough of it. Some wounds need to be cleansed with fire.

I’m speaking to the end of silence.

Can you hear the thunder yet?

Stereotypes

The Technocracy: The living essence of the White-mare.

The Disparates: I sense a trick here, and I think I like it…

These days, a new vista offers fresh hope: the Internet – a global connection network with its own spiritual aspect. Computer-minded Kha’vadi realize that the Digital Web has a consciousness… and by extension, a soul. The practical tools of social media allow Dreamspeakers from across the world to meet up and reconstruct their roots, and the spiritual

side of the Digital Web nurtures a growing technoshamanic movement

whose possibilities and repercussions reach further than anyone, even the

’Speakers themselves, can imagine…

this Tradition combines a respect for autonomy with

the supportive network of a tribe. For centuries, many Dreamspeakers preferred to wander their own roads; in recent years, however, the group has returned to the community-centered focus of many pre-imperial cultures. Separation, after all, has been a liability. With stronger bonds between them, the ’Speakers share a greater voice.

In previous ages, Dreamspeakers met in distant corners of the spirit world – even forming Realms where the Old Ways remained untouched. Recently, however, the Unbroken Folk have turned their focus to the material world, meeting in both rural and urban settings, often gathering at powwows, hip-hop shows, block parties, and neotribal festivals. Social media groups, too, provide meeting grounds for the new breed of Dreamspeakers. In all cases, the previous solitude has shifted toward a more social focus.

Even so, Kha’vadi remain distinctly informal. Elders are respected by their younger peers, but youthful vigor feeds

the future and earns its own sort of respect. The long-

winded titles favored by “the White Council” sound

stupid to the average ’Speaker. Deeds and wisdom

speak louder than laws.

Initiation: Like his Tradition, a Dreamspeaker survives apparent death. Part of his initiation involves ritual (sometimes literal) demise; that passing brings the shaman into the spirit realm, where he faces

trials and challenges. Assuming he survives that ordeal, the

kaimi (“initiate”) becomes a so-cha (“disciple”) and returns

to the mortal world with fresh insight and greater vision.

Focus: Medicine, not magick, is the essence of Dreamspeaker Arts. An avatar is Howahkan: the

mysterious voice that speaks to those who are ready

to hear it. Sorcery is an egotistical and ultimately

destructive Path that leads people away from the Good Road of harmony with the World Spirit. To reach past the illusions of mortal life, one must listen to Creation’s heartbeat, face death, and remain open to the voice through which all life speaks.

Practice-wise, ’Speakers favor medicine-work, craftwork, shamanism, crazy wisdom, and faith. A few pursue cybernetics, yoga, Voudoun, and witchcraft,

but their companions often shun them. Common

paradigms include A World of Gods and Monsters, Creation’s Divine and Alive, Bring Back the Golden Age, and sometimes Might is Right.

Organization

Although the shamanic Path tends to be solitary, medicine-people can be quite social. And so,