In a competitive society ruled by logic, ambition and achievement, it is difficult to listen to the inner wisdom that speaks to us through metaphor and imagery. It is hard to notice the whispers of coincidence and synchronicity.
Yet it is by these promptings that our deepest wishes, our most secret yearnings are revealed and it is by following those leadings that we remain true to ourselves. So, it is worth taking the time to open ourselves to the wisdom of our night time dreams.
The Dreamwork journey doesn’t demand huge changes or dramatic alterations in lifestyle, it is a subtle and gentle introduction to the song our soul is constantly singing.
For many years I have cherished my night time dreams, marvelling at the richness and complexity of the stories and images that seem, at first glance, to have little to do with my experience of the day.
I write them down. I have yards of bookshelf space dedicated to notebooks full of dreams.
But I also embrace the dreams and bring them into daylight by working with them, using a host of wonderful exercises I was taught by my teacher, Maggie Peters.
Maggie ran residential workshops at which we would meet first thing in the morning in our pajamas to share our dreams. Later in the day we would come back to them, using paint and colour, story, song and drama to reveal the secrets of those night time stories.
A man has a recurring dream of being chased by galloping horses. Always in the dream he has hidden behind a tree. When he works with the dream, he realises that he is not going to hide anymore– his task is to learn to run with the horses.
Her dreams are haunted by children, abandoned in car parks, left out in the cold. In her visualisation she befriends the children. One night she dreams of a golden boy in a city of gold. He smiles at her.
I remember one dream I dreamed that provided a whole weekend of interest and enlightenment.
I am in the desert. There is a stone in the desert in front of me and it casts a shade.
Just that snippet turned out to be a rich source of inspiration.
I went on to train as a Transformative Dreamwork practitioner, and run small groups and one to one sessions. But, recently, as Craniosacral Therapy held more and more of my attention, I have only used the dreamwork skills within CST, when someone brings a dream to the room.
“They do not deceive, they do not lie, they do not distort or disguise———-They are invariably seeking to express something that the ego does not know and does not understand.” Carl Jung.
photos with thanks to Lorien Ray
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