Dreaming with Žemyna:
Practicing Dream Archaeology in Lithuania

Robert Moss (USA)

Dream archaeology, created by Robert Moss, is an emerging discipline that provides potent tools used to “refocus our collective memory” just as Marija Gimbutas proposed. Moss takes this work to Marijas’ homeland of Lithuania where, he writes, “Dreams guide us to the necessary past, to the history we need to know and use. Dreams may also trigger and direct specific lines of research. Dreaming, we have direct access to the realm of the ancestors.” He emphasizes that the practice of dream archaeology involves reclaiming authentic knowledge of ancestral traditions, including those that may have been buried or suppressed in the course of history.

Marija Gimbutas correctly stated that “the basic source in reconstructing the ancient Baltic religion is folklore. . .” but Moss contends that dreaming can prove to be a no less valuable source, especially when mediated by a sapnonis, one who helps people dream, and brings alive the dreaming.

“If you do not have a vision,” Marija cautions us, “if you are not a poet, or an artist, you cannot see much, and you will be just a technician.” Moss affirms that her fire lives. Aš kalbu nuoširdžiai. Dream archaeology is offered here as a way to grow Marija’s vision, to enter into authentic communication with keepers of ancestral wisdom, and to find clues to meaning that helps to heal the collective and cultural soul loss that blights our age.