How to Dream like Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc wanted to stay home spinning wool. She had no intention of becoming a child soldier, of dressing as a man, and leading an army with such precision that she would turn the Hundred Years’ War to France’s favor and ultimate victory over England. 

Joan was just a teenager in the early 1400s from a small town in northeastern France. She was born to a peasant family and intended to live out her tranquil life as a girl in peasant dresses, spinning wool and praying in the garden.

This is all that was expected of her by others, so this is all she had expected of herself. 

Until the day came, when in a vision, like a waking dream, Joan’s entire life transformed. 

She was 13 and in her father’s garden during the summer when everything was in full bloom.

She would later recount during her trial when her life was on the line that the dream, the vision of the Archangel Michael, was so real, more real than all of those standing around her in that moment. He was so intensely present, so exquisite, and so much love, she wept when he left. 

Artists throughout the centuries have depicted this moment when the Archangel Michael came to Joan and began her formal instruction, or dialogue between heaven and earth with Joan on her knees or standing but with the archangel Michael looming large and brilliant far above her.

This is immensely deceptive and can confuse us into thinking that an angel is above and beyond us, and maybe even better or more holy than we could ever be. 

Angels appear from within us. Angels speak directly to us from within the heart. 

The vision, the dream that Joan has at 13 that changes the direction of her entire life, is what she perceives not with the eyes, but with the spiritual sight within the heart. 

Joan is guided from the age of 13 to 17 by not only Michael but also St. Catherine and St. Margaret. Joan becomes advanced in the art of listening. She becomes advanced in the sacred art of hearing directives from within the heart and taking action without doubt or judgment. Joan becomes advanced at trusting not what makes sense, not what her ego might ask or suggest, but trusting her soul completely. 

So much so that at age 17 when she was directed inwardly by the angels to go before the royal court of France and announce that she was meant to lead an army, she did just that. 

There’s an energy that arrives with us when we are following the path of our soul’s purpose here. There’s an energy of conviction, of unfaltering light, that infuses the words we say when we are telling the truth about our lives. 

And it may not be understood by those who hear us, but it will be felt. 

All throughout her strategic military campaigns during the Hundred Years’ War, Joan was never alone. She was never without that direct connection to the divine. She sourced her wisdom from within her. And she became a legend because she listened and acted on the words the angels placed into her heart. 

When she was on trial at the age of 19, not for any war crimes during her mission, but for repeat offenses of cross-dressing, this is when Joan said to the room filled with church fathers and men, “I die for speaking the language of the angels.”

She knew she would be burned at the stake ultimately for becoming what had not existed before. 

She had dared to follow not her ego, or anyone one else’s, but the voice of her own soul. 

She had dared to follow the directives of love, of her own unique destiny. 

She had dared to realize that the angels are only as powerful as our own capacity to perceive them. The angels are only as powerful as our own capacity to speak their language. 

“Act and God Acts,” Joan relates to all of us from hundreds of years ago. Act from the heart, and we become the physical expression of love here on earth.

The last statement Joan made was just as she was about to be burned at the stake. She said, “Hold the cross so high that I may see it through the flames.” 

Her courage is breathtaking. It comes from the steel-like faith she has in her vision, in the dream that the angels gave her of what was highest and meant for her in this lifetime.

“I am unafraid,” Joan of Arc repeated to herself, “I was born to do this.” 

This is how we dream like Joan of Arc. We have the courage to go inward to the heart and ask the soul directly: 

“What is the most powerful vision for my life?”

(Excerpt from HOW TO DREAM LIKE JOAN OF ARC available on the HAY HOUSE UNLIMITED AUDIO APP) 

With only more love,
​M.