When Lightning Strikes the Heart: A Dream Initiation
A soul offering from the ancestors
This year, on June 17th, 2025, my birthday, I was given a gift not of this world, but from the dreamworld a soul offering from the ancestors that would forever change how I understand the thin veil between worlds.
The Visitation
In the depth of sleep, I found myself being gathered by three tribal medicine men. They were short, dark men wearing loincloths with organic rope across their chests, carrying some sort of weapon. They had black hair cut in short, bowl style cuts. Their faces looked serious but gentle, and they stood around me with presence so ancient, it stilled the air. They began speaking in an Indigenous language I could not understand, but my body felt it. Their voices moved through me like rivers carving stone.
One of the elders stepped forward and handed me a sacred bundle that looked like a small cloud. As he pressed it into my hands, he pounded his chest and shouted with fierce love:
"Storm in your heart!"
And in that moment, I understood him. His words cracked something open in me.
Another elder approached with a brown bag filled with flowers, fragrant herbs, and a large piece of palo santo. I received it reverently and pressed it to my forehead and eyes, as if to see beyond the veil.
Then the first elder raised his voice again, this time roaring:
"Thunderbolt!"
In an instant, he summoned a bolt of lightning that struck through me. It didn't harm me it initiated. It rattled the very marrow of my bones, shook loose my forgetting. I cried out with a kind of sorrow and reverence I've never known before. Soul deep, body shaking tears.
And then I realized I was dreaming within a dream. This is something that happens to me often in my lucid dreams. When I find myself dreaming within a dream, I've learned to recognize it as a signal that I'm about to receive a message from spirit. In this particular dream, when I was crying so profoundly from the lightning strike, I "woke up" in bed, still crying and shaking. But then I realized I wasn't actually in the waking world yet. I tried to wake myself up from this second layer of sleep, and when I finally did break through to true wakefulness, I had tears streaming down my face. The veil hadn't closed it had simply moved through me, like ripples in time.
When Thunder Gods Speak
What happened to me was not an ordinary dream. It was an initiation. A remembering. A transmission from those who walk with me across time. But I needed to understand what I had received.
My research led me deep into the mythology of the Andes, where I discovered Illapa, the thunder God of the Quechua and Aymara peoples. Illapa wields lightning as both weapon and blessing, bringing life-giving rain while commanding awe and respect. When he strikes his club, thunder roars across the mountains. When he pours from his sacred jug, the rains come to nourish the earth.
The "storm in your heart" that the elder declared suddenly made profound sense. In Andean cosmology, lightning is both creative and destructive, it awakens powerful ancestral energies within the one who receives it. The thunderbolt that struck through me wasn't just a dream image; it was a classic motif of shamanic initiation found across cultures.
Sacred Gifts from the Spirit World
The cloud bundle and bag of herbs I received carry deep significance across indigenous traditions. In Andean healing practices, shamans use sacred bundles called “mesas” or “khuya” bags filled with flowers, herbs, and sacred objects for cleansing, blessing, and connecting with the spirit world. The palo santo is a sacred wood used for purification, added another layer of spiritual protection and cleansing to the gift.
Clouds themselves are messengers in Andean cosmology, associated with the “Apus” (mountain spirits) and ancestors. Shamans sometimes "call the clouds" for rain or healing. Being handed a cloud in my dream felt like being entrusted with spiritual responsibility, a connection to the ancient ones who navigate between worlds.
Lightning as Ancestral Communication
What struck me most in my research was learning that across Andean and Amazonian traditions, lightning is seen as direct communication from the spirit world. Shamans often receive their calling after encountering lightning either in waking life or in dreams. The physical response I experienced; the shaking, the tears, the rattling in my very bones, echoes the classic shamanic initiation response to receiving power or messages from ancestors.
This pattern appears across cultures. In Yoruba tradition, Shango the thunder god wields the double-headed axe of lightning. In Hindu mythology, Indra's vajra (thunderbolt) is a weapon of spiritual awakening. The Greek Zeus' thunderbolt represents divine justice and power. The common thread is clear: lightning is the language of the gods, and when it strikes, transformation follows.
The Ripple Effect
This dream was just yesterday, yet I can already feel its reverberations rippling through my waking life. The dream didn't end when I woke… it initiated something that continues to unfold. The energy is still so present, so alive in my body. I find myself drawn to create a small altar with elements from my vision: a white cloth for the cloud, dried flowers and herbs, a piece of palo santo. Even thinking about these objects brings me back to the connection with those three medicine men who gathered around me in the dreamworld.
I've learned that in many traditions, such dreams are not just personal experiences but calls to service; invitations to deepen our relationship with the spirit world, to honor our lineage, and perhaps to use whatever gifts we've been given in service of healing.
Living the Initiation
The elders who visited me spoke of a "storm in the heart" and delivered it through thunderbolt. They didn't just tell me about transformation, they initiated it. They showed me that the ancestors are not distant memories but living presences who continue to guide and teach across the veil of time.
The storm they placed in my heart continues to rumble. The thunderbolt they sent through me continues to illuminate corners of my soul I didn't know existed. And I carry their gifts, the cloud, the herbs, the palo santo, as reminders that we are never as alone as we think we are.
Having this lucid dream on my birthday is no coincidence. I know my ancestors have been weaving a path for me, and it's been challenging for me to navigate my life on this earth. There are days when I feel unanchored, questioning my place in this world, wondering if I truly belong. But somehow, with dreams like this or messages from my ancestors, it makes me feel like I do belong here, awakening to something bigger than just myself. They remind me that I'm part of an ancient lineage, that their wisdom flows through my veins, and that even when I feel lost, I'm being guided.
The storm they placed in my heart isn't just about personal transformation, it's about remembering my connection to something vast and eternal. Sometimes they give us gifts that look like dreams but feel like lightning. And sometimes, when we're ready, they remind us who we really are and why we're here.
The veil between worlds is thinner than we think. Sometimes all it takes is a dream, three medicine men, and the courage to let lightning strike our hearts.
