Course  Overview Write Up–

Do your dreams intrigue you? Do you get a glimpse of insight, but much of the message eludes you? You are not alone. Dreams are slippery, written in the language of symbol and metaphor.

During this course, you will learn some dream theory, and tips about remembering dreams. You will experiment with sharing in a dream circle, and dream kiva. You will learn how to approach nightmares and how to create a dream council.

The sacred dream cave will help you listen to and create a relationship with your inner dreamer.  3 days of intensive dream work, dream journaling and sharing in a sacred circle.

Intro. (This course is different from general studies, as it will be working in kivas and dream circles using Aizenstat’s Dreamtending focus). There is an emphasis on building a lifelong relationship with your dream images, rather than just interpreting them.

Class Hand Out- Dream Circles, Kivas and Council

WHAT IS A DREAM?  5 minutes

We will spend the morning covering some dream tips and theory. In the afternoon we will participate in a dream in a dream circle.

-Indigestion or useless leftover data from daily life.

-Reruns of daily life, working out unfinished business.

-Uncensored messages from the unconscious about how the soul perceives the state of well being of the individual.

-Past life patterns or glimpses.

-Psychic events.

Dreams tell us the way we really think and feel, not the way we pretend we think and feel. We can blind ourselves when we are awake, but not when we are asleep. Through our dreams, we have access to vast stores of memory, amazing depths of insight and common sense.

Assumptions about dreams.

1. All dreams come in the service of health and wholeness.
2. No dream comes just to tell the dreamer what he or she already knows.
3. There is no such thing as a dream with only one meaning.
4. The dream language is that of symbol, metaphor and feeling.
5. All dreams reflect an inborn creativity and ability to solve life’s problems.
6. Working with dreams regularly helps in deeper self-understanding, and often builds healthier relationships, as we come from a place of deeper understanding.

HOW TO REMEMBER DREAMS  5 minutes

Everyone, even those who swear they never have dreams, dream 4 or 5 times a night. Although our forgotten dreams probably give us new ideas and insights more frequently then we suspect,   bringing our dreams into conscious awareness will greatly enhance their usefulness.

CONSISTENCY –

-Set the intention to remember your dreams

– Keep a dream notebook and pen by the bed.

– Record the date before you go to bed. Write whatever is on your mind when you wake up.

– Form the habit of thinking back when you wake up, instead of “what must I do today”, What was I just thinking or dreaming of. Sometimes concentrating on the feeling you have when awakening will bring back the dream.

– Even writing down brief fragments will help your dream recall plus overcome the natural laziness we have in the morning.

– Wake up to a gentle alarm, music can distract you from your own emotional state. Ensure you have allowed a few minutes of extra time to do your dream journalizing, so you don’t feel rushed.

– Daytime napping helps some people remember their dreams.

– Get plenty of sleep in a comfortable bed.

– Vitamin B 6 at 50 mg a day.

– Send messages to your internal dreamer that you are interested in what it has to tell you and that you appreciate the information.

How to record dreams-

Before going to sleep.

Write down the date

Write down emotional state

Write down any significant events of the day.

If you have a question to pose to your psyche ask it before you drift off.

Record your dream in the present tense. Don’t edit it because some inf.. is painful or absurd, honor your dreamer by writing as much as you remember and as truthfully. Pay attention to the action of the dream, your feelings in different states, who shows up and in which location.

An overview of other systems-

Freud uses association in the dream. We explore an image to see what meaning it might have in our lives. Through the Delaney work, we also find out what our personal images mean to us and what our dreams mean to give us guidance in everyday life.

 Amplification-Jung developed a process in which we discover how a dream image connects to larger themes in our culture.

Lions- connect to nobility or the sign Leo. They are fierce protectors and symbolize the heart.

We expand the image to see how this might apply to our lives. How is the symbol related to deeper stories from religion, fairy tale and myth? Associate around the dream symbol.

Animation–

James Hillman-Dream images are more than signs pointing to an answer, as Freud said, or symbols representing meaning like Jung said.

Animation is a way to experience dream images in their living, embodied reality. The lion now takes on a physical existence and is present in the room, on the prowl. We are able to interact with the lion, talk to it, ask it questions, pet it, hear what it has to say and follow it through its habitat.
Marion Woodman- Symbols exist in your body. Dancing, painting, etc. brings the symbols to life. Dreams are alive.

Aizenstat’s Dream Tending Method Has 3 Levels

3 LEVELS OF DREAM WORK 7 minutes

1. PERSONAL

Dream image is interpreted as a sign objectively linked to external events. In the personal unconscious, experiences, often forgotten and repressed and individual complexes will be revealed.  Information about your life’s path and true emotional interpretation will occur at this level.

 

ARCHETYPAL

Archetypes are psychological patterns typical of the universal experience. They are symbolic forms of the collective unconscious and can be seen in myths, legends and fairy tales. This is a less personal way of interpreting dreams but is useful for showing cultural patterns, or which archetypes are coming up for us at certain stages.

 

ECOLOGICAL

This is an attempt to realize aspects of the World Unconscious are reflected in the images and patterns of a dream.  All phenomena of the world are understood as interrelated and interconnected.

This method is about interpreting dream images as part of the World Unconscious speaking on behalf of themselves. If you have a polluted river in your dream, instead of relating to your own emotional state, this would actually mean the river is polluted and is appealing to you for help.

 

PERSONAL LEVEL OF DREAM WORK

We will be focusing on this personal level because it is important to first figure out oneself before going onto the other systems. Fascinating information is revealed at the personal level that will give us much to focus on for a very long time.

Dreamtending-

What is DreamTending–

It is a practice where you see all dream images as being alive. The idea is to hear them, smell them, bring the beings into the room and get to know them. The idea is not like in Delaney dream work, where we figure out what the dream means. We are looking for an ongoing relationship with dream figures, whereas with the Delaney work we are looking for the dream to provide meaning and make sense.

The dream is a visitation and may provide us with wisdom, but it is not always just about us. The dream image has relevance within itself. It just is—in dream-tending our aim is to become observant and get to know it.

We create a vital relationship with the image.

The images are teachers and guides. They influence our behaviour, temperament, give warning, cause mischief and inspiration.

Working With Living Images

Four Attitudes of Dreamtending–

1.Meet the Dream in the Way of the Dream.

A dream loves a dream. When we approach a dream image with an open, accepting attitude it comes to life.

When we approach dreams with an agenda to interpret or judge they diminish.

An attitude of wonder, curiosity and presence are necessary.

2. Open Body Awareness. All images have a life force and walk about on legs of their own. Even objects like airplanes and houses have a vitality, which enlivens when they are met with a living body.

Pay attention to what feelings move through you when you encounter an image. Listen to what is happening in your body as well.

3. Move into the now- become present.

Breathe, ground, really bring yourself into the moment.

Dreams happen in the present tense- relive them as if they are still happening. If you meet a friend and you are preoccupied and not present the encounter is stale- the same with dreams. Be fresh and present.

4. Move into an Attitude of Not Knowing.

Dream images can overwhelm and confuse us. This is positive. It means we do not have the answers to a dream. We take it at face value and don’t try to unravel it.

Not knowing allow the dream to present itself, and us to encounter it.

Explanations can take us away from the clarity and reality of the dream itself. Explanations help us deal with our anxiety. When we become comfortable with not knowing we aren’t required to explain away our dreams.

Two main questions for Dreamtending-

Who is visiting now and What is happening here?

Asking who invites the image to come forward. What is happening here, evokes curiosity.

When we get curious about the dream, the dream figure gets interested. Remember in dreamtending, the images, too are alive.

The question to ask the image is:

Who are you?

Use your powers of observation to determine-

How does this image emerge?

What is he/she/it doing?

Break-

That is all the theory we will do about dream tending today. Now take a little break, get a dream ready and have a bite to eat. After lunch, we will talk about how to have a dream Circle and then experiment with telling a dream in one.

Dream Circles, Kivas and Council-

Explain How to do it-

Dream Circle– Assign time prior to each Circle meeting and divide it fairly among participants. If there are 8 members and 2 hours. Decide this before the dream commences and set a non-invasive, but effective way to tell time, such as an iphone, which goes off every 15 minutes. Leave time to open and close the circle.

If dream questions end with one person, but others have not yet spoken, start the dream questions for the next member, starting off with the person who has not yet asked a question.

For questions- you can use what is suggested under the Dream Circle or Kiva.

Objectives–

To create a safe environment to tell one’s dream and hear other’s dreams.

The Aizenstat technique is not about figuring out the dream so much as communicating with it, keeping the images alive for ongoing exploration and insight.

To listen intuitively.

To honor dreams.

To start the exploration and opening of a dream, but not always fully unpack it, due to time.

To create a dream community.

 

Guidelines–

To tell your dream fully, but be mindful of using a fair amount of time, so dreamers get relatively equal time, (somewhere between 2-5 minutes each), of speaking their dream.

To attend to the speaker, with soft eyes, and attentively, without interruption.

To notice if your judgment comes up, but not indulge it.

To allow the dreamer to have feelings, such as crying and refrain from evoking calming or suppressing strategies.

To ask thoughtful questions, which start with “if it were my dream”, I might ask?

To recognize the dream belongs mostly to the dreamer and not tell them what the dream means, even though this is tempting J.

To understand there are many levels and interpretations of each dream.

How to Tell A Dream In the Dream Circle or Kiva–

To tell the dream in present tense, as if it is just happening.

To honor the dream and each character in the dream, recognizing they are living images.

To use your senses to see, feel, smell, hear, touch and otherwise connect with the characters.

To open to insights evoked from the questions asked by participants.

To synthesize the dream, questions, circle experience etc. and make your own decisions about what the dream means to you.  (You are the expert of your own dream).

To later journal and evoke conversation with any of the dream characters that are still speaking and connecting.

Possible Dream Circle and Kiva Considerations

Go to the wound in the dream what image is most intolerable, difficult, disturbing.

Witness it with deep respect. Be curious about the dream. What is fascinating.

 

Dream Circle & Kiva Questions

Who are you?

What is he/she/it doing?

Notice the main characters or images. (Person, animal or object).

What does this mean to you?

“What does this image say to you?

“What do you say to it”?

 

“What do you make of_______”    (A particular image that draws you).

“How did you experience that image”?

When you work with this image————(whatever was not ordinary), what feeling or reaction gets evoked for you? (Grief, joy, curiosity, fear?)

For the Setting– if it is unusual

If it were my dream, I would wonder why it was set_________in this place?

What does this place evoke in you?

Dream Action –

“What do you make of_______” (A particular action that draws you).

What does this mean to you?

“What does this action suggest to you?

What else opens for you____________________

Dream Conclusion–

If it were my dream I would wonder if any of the characters might like to keep dialoguing with you after this meeting?

How and when might they like to meet?

Note that the dream may not be resolved within the circle, but ideas open for further dialogue with the individual. Dreams themselves might continue the ongoing insights and show an evolution, or where the issue now sits.

Now we will have a dream circle.

Call in the Circle-

Let people tell their dream one by one. People on the right of them will be the first to ask a question. If there is still time, the next person may ask a question. We will have 2-5 minutes for the dreamer to tell the dream and 10 minutes per dream for questions, for a total of 15 minutes per dreamer.

After the dream circle we will thank our dreamers and guides, break up the circle and reassemble for questions or comments.

Remember to bring in another dream for tomorrow, for your dream kiva.