Queen of Dreams: The Story of a Yaqui Dreaming Woman [Hardcover]

Heather Valencia (Author), Rolly Kent (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1991

From earliest childhood Heather Valencia had vivid, precognitive dreams. In one of them, she would travel to a pre-Columbian world to join a mysterious, powerful spiritual leader. When she grew older, Heather married and raised a son, but her dreams continued and she found herself increasingly drawn to the desert of southern Arizona. Finally she decided to travel there, particularly to witness the colorful and famous Easter deer dance ceremony, and when she did, she met the mysterious figure of her dreams. This is the true story of Heather Valencia's journey to Yaqui, and her experiences with Anselmo Valencia, the spiritual leader of the Yaqui people and Heather's future husband. Heather describes her passionate love affair with Anselmo, her discovery of the rich Yaqui spiritual tradition under Amselmo's guidance, her otherworldly spiritual explorations, and her mystical activities with the powerful circle of Dreaming Women.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 271 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First edition (April 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671694472
• ISBN-13: 978-0671694470
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,313,413 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Queen of Dreams, December 27, 2006

By 

kaioatey (Awatovi, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Queen of Dreams (Paperback)

"Do not talk gosip to other women. Do not speak badly of anyone. Do not tell anyone you have problems - problems are what others will bring to you; you are the queen. If you have trouble, act happy. Now you have to walk behind me. That is how it is done on Yaqui. Oh, and one more thing. When I get up in the morning? I want you to make the bed first thing. Then cook my breakfast - two eggs over easy. One tortilla. "

This is how Anselmo Valencia, a headman of the Yaqui Pasqua reservation, proposed his Anglo wife-to-be. The book is basically a compilation of Heather Valencia's more or less disastrous relationships with men up to the Yaqui chief that she meets at a deer dance in the Pasqua village. Valencia reveals a pattern of being controlled throughout her life by assorted husbands, medicine men, football stars etc trying to force her into adopting THEIR lifestyle, interests, values and passions. The Yaqui chieftain, clearly a remarkable and influential guy, is no different, only more canny and confident in making her fit into his universe. But, in contrast to others, he also gives something in return.

Perhaps to compensate for the constrictedness of daily life, Valencia shifts into the dreaming universe and art-making. The book chronicles her experiences in which dreaming seemlessly morphs into reality, with characters from one merging into the other. We learn about unknown women who 'teach' her about dreaming in this dreaming domain; many of these women would eventually turn out to be Yaquis from the Pasqua reservation. This part resembles earlier works of Castaneda and Lynne Andrews and as in Castaneda, the reader is tempted sometimes to suspend her/his disbelief.

This book also shows Heather's resourcefulness, toughness and ability to manifest her many talents, including painting and community work. Depictions of Native Americans in this book seem real, certainly more real than cartoonish characters from Andrews' books. There are a number of interesting details about Yaqui deer dancing, customs, etc. and astute and valuable descriptions of Indian perception, healing traditions, singing. Those were the parts that interested me the most: the impressions of an adopted outsider of Yaqui customs and behavior.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Made me wanting to know more ...loved it, October 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Queen of Dreams (Paperback)

I am glad I found this book, or it found me. It made me want to try to do a workshop with Heather one day if possible and to know more about her life since the book ended. I love reading about her experiences from the female perspective. Great book.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Yuck! This sets back the women's movement 100 years..., August 18, 2001

By 

Pat C. Ames "Pat C. Ames" (Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Queen of Dreams (Paperback)

I'm not a "libber" but I was certainly not happy that this story-teller proudly declared a woman's place is serving her husband.

I expected to read about dreaming techniques and instead had to find my way through a convoluted telling of this woman's childhood dreaming experiences, how she came to meet her "Dark Lord," how the earth shook when they made love and how fulfilled she is supporting her husband's mission to lead the Yaqui nation.

What a crock. If you're interested in developing Yaqui dreaming techniques, read Carlos Castanada's books instead. Although the "exercises" described in them are difficult and required a very long time to achieve success, they are effective and do work.