Personal Dreamwork & Dream Circle
| The Living Child |
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| Oil Pastel, October 2007 |
New Addition!
I have added an "artist's
dream circle" to this site. For those interested in joining, send me an email and I will give you the password.
This will be a chance for
someone to submit a dream for art interpretation.
A Dream Circle is a group of people who get together and discuss
one dream at a time. The dreamer who provides the dream does not give any other information but the dream itself.
The group will respond as if the dream was their own; in other words the group will each own the dream and respond, individually, as
if they had dreamed it, on the blog provided.
Example:
Jane Dreams: I am walking along a tree-lined dirt path in the middle of the forest.
Suddenly a beautiful crystal blue lake appears. I wake up. (note there is no emotion)
Jennifer: If it were my dream, the dirt path
represents my feelings of starting over again, back to the basics, not on firm or solid ground and not able to see ahead.
The lake materializes in front of me as a sign of hope for happiness: the circle is a symbol of wholeness, the shape of a
mandala. The water is my unconscious inviting me to enter and jump in...I am now ready to brave the emotions (water)
and wash mySelf clean.
Rick: If it were my dream, I feel scared and apprehensive. I do not
like being alone and the path is constricting. The trees loom over me and suddenly a huge lake appears. The water
is soo blue and cold. I cannot swim and am stricken with fear that I might have to cross this lake in order to get out
of the woods. I know this is my "path"; my dream is telling me that I must cross into the water before I can fully heal.
The water represents my hidden secrets and emotions that I hide; the lake is hidden but is now revealing itself to me.
So beautiful yet so dangerous, just like my relationships in life.
There will be a variety of interpretations that will emerge and the dreamer will have several view points
from which to understand her or his dream. The dream circle can be quite magical when all involved are able to understand
something unknown within themselves, even if the dream was not originally "from" them.
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KEEP SCROLLING DOWN FOR MORE IDEAS ON HOW
TO INTERPRET YOUR OWN DREAM SYMBOLS
"...No matter how vigilant one is against
resistance, no matter how many surpise reverses one tries on oneself, a big dream always has meanings that lie just beyond
the dreamer's reach. Big dreams have a foreward-looking, teleological thrust to them, pushing the dreamer into the future,
revealing what lies ahead on the path of growth and development. For this very reason it can be difficult for people
to fully interpret and understand their own big dreams-it's hard for consciousness to grasp what lies just beyond its present
sphere of awareness.
"This is where shared dreams with other
people can play an extremly valuable role. Other people are often able to see meanings that the dreamer can't
quite perceive or recognize. By hearing the thoughts, suggestions, insights, and questions that come up for other people
in response to hearing the dream, the dreamer gains a broader sense of where the dream's meanigs lie and a much clearer understanding
of how exactly the dream relates to waking life."
-Kelly Bulkeley, PH.D.
Transforming Dreams: Learning Spiritual Lessons from the
Dreams You Never Forget. (John Wiley and Sons,Inc: Toronto. 2000.
pp 147-8)
6 MAGIC QUESTIONS
In interpreting your own dreams, it
is helpful to use this little Gestalt “tool” which can uncover meaning behind your most troublesome or bizarre
symbols/objects within your dreams.
Become the object that contains the
most energy; basically pick out the image/object that stands out in your dream and become it.
There are 6 basic questions that you ask yourself, as this object:
- I am ____; my purpose is __________ .
- As a _______, my goal is ____________ .
- As a _______, my biggest fear is _________ .
- As a _______, I love ___________ .
- As a _______, I hate ____________ .
- As a _______, I desire/wish __________ .
I will post an example in the
Dream
Circle…
GESTALT TECHNIQUES ARE ALSO VERY HELPFUL IN WORKING WITH NIGHTMARES. LEARN MORE HERE.
