Exploring the Messages of our Dream
“Dreams are illustrations… from the book your soul is writing about you.’”~Marsha Norman
On the weekend of June 27-28th at Clay Alchemy from the Voice of Clay, we’ll be facilitating a workshop we’re calling ‘Empowering Yourself with Clay, Dreams, Breath and Shamanic Journeying’. In last week’s blog we looked at Clay from the perspective of personal empowerment. This week we’ll look at Dreams, how they speak to us and how they serve us. Follow our blog over the next two weeks for information on Breathwork and Shamanic Journeying.
“Dreams say what they mean, but they don’t say it in daytime language.” ~Gail Godwin
‘A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read.’ ~The Talmud
In our weekend workshop we’ll read those letters from our dreams, and we’ll learn the nighttime language that’s both universal and very unique to our personal experiences and imagery! We’ll learn techniques for remembering our dreams, and we’ll employ several different approaches to gaining insight into the very powerful messages we are sending to ourselves as we sleep.
As Clay is an element of Earth, so Dreams are associated with the element of Water. Dreams emerge from the Sea of the Consciousness, and like the sea creatures they swirl and shimmer, pop up and disappear. And so, as with those underwater beings, if we want to get familiar with them we have to be willing to dive in, get wet and navigate in unfamiliar territory.
Anyone who has had the experience of snorkeling in tropical waters knows that coming face to face with the incredible world that lies beneath the water, more than compensates for facing whatever fears might have held you back from diving in! When we are asleep and dreaming, we truly experience our boundless natures. We can visit with loved ones who’ve passed on, and not find it at all out of the ordinary. We can fly and leap and fall without getting hurt. We can leave our solar system and meet E.T.s. We regularly time-travel. Recently I found my adult self in my elementary school auditorium with my (now adult) daughter as she was as a child. Anything is possible in a dream…and yet we often take these amazing experiences completely for granted, and walk away, leaving them unexplored, to simply fade away!
Our dreams can be informative – providing insight into a dilemma. In a dream, every single image and statement is a message just for us, and every word is significant. In one workshop, a woman was retelling a dream in which the actor Beau Bridges called to her. In the telling, she was mystified by his presence…to her he was just a movie actor whose name she had heard. At that time in her life, she was struggling with coexisting in the two possibly opposed worlds of her husband’s work – contact sports, and her own – non-violence. As we worked with the dream it became clear to her that the actor’s name was the message…beau (beautiful) bridges, suggested that rather than juggling an either/or situation, she was being called to find a loving way to build a bridge and join the two. The language of our dreams is exquisitely clear and elegant. If she hadn’t engaged with the symbolism though, the message from her wiser self would have been lost to her as she laughed off the experience of having a random movie star in her dream!
“Dreams are often most profound when they seem the most crazy.” ~Sigmund Freud
Dreams can be prophetic. They may portend major events – storms and other disasters. Many people experienced forewarnings of the nine-eleven events in their dreams. The dreams came in many forms – some clear and others deeply encoded. Or a dream may signal the yet to be known promise of a new arrival to the family – an infant or a still un-met stranger. Sometimes the prophecy is a garbled version of a not-yet-happened insignificant event that will later show up on the inner pages of the newspaper, or as a one-liner on the noon news. “Man attacked in his backyard by a rabid otter”…I had a prophetic dream about that! Why? Perhaps to see if I would make the connection, and learn something new about myself! Like Alison Dubois, the real life ‘Medium’ who was fictionalized on the TV series, we have to go through the process of de-coding the symbols and images of our personal dream language before it becomes truly useful to us. Once we have done that though, new possibilities emerge. For Alison it was a job with the District Attorney’s Office in Phoenix!
In the remote Senoi Tribe of Malaysia, children are encouraged not only to remember and to report their dreams, but to manage their dream responses as well. For example, if, over breakfast, a Senoi child describes a frightening dream about running from a tiger, the adults will talk about the dream, and encourage the child to, in a future dream, face the fear, confront the threat and take their power. Naturally, a tiger is dangerous in waking life and it is best to run away from it – but dreaming of a tiger is another matter! While all children tend to have scary dreams of being chased by monsters, other than among the Senoi, few adults listen carefully and use the dream as a ‘teachable moment’ for their children about life skills and empowerment.
“Father, O Father, what do we here, In this land of unbelief and fear? The Land of Dreams is better far above the light of the Morning Star.” – William Blake
Check our website under classes! You are officially invited to join Wendy Walter (wwaltervoiceofclay@gmail.com) and Donna Robinson (donnaroninsun@gmail.com) on June 27-28th to explore the world of Dreams and learn how to remember, own and use them in your daily life. Bring a dream – current, recurring, remembered from childhood, and comfortable clothes. If you wish, rather than commute, bring a sleeping bag for a sleep/dreamover Saturday night! We’ll provide the food and guidance, and together we’ll have not only amazing insights, but also lots of fun!
“Dreaming when Dawn’s left hand was in the sky I heard a Voice within the tavern Cry, Awake, my little ones, and fill the Cup before life’s liquor in its cup be dry.” ― Omar Khayyam