exploring a dream

Imagine if you were able to connect more deeply with your nightly dreams to help guide you to a more meaningful life.  Allow me to explain some basic information about dreamwork, and  provide you with an example of processing a dream to gain a deeper understanding of its meaning.    

Throughout our life, many of us have what we call in the dream world ‘big dreams or numinous dreams’.  These dreams, when examined more closely can provide us with direction and insight into our waking life, or they might carry a spiritual message.  In dreamwork, we are taught to write down our dreams in a dream journal, even if our memory only retains snippets of information upon waking. Often the act of writing down the dream will allow for more details to emerge.  When journaling, it is important to give the dream a title and write in the first person and present tense.   This practice allows us to more easily re-enter the dream, as though we are experiencing it first-hand.  

The images, symbols, and emotions a dream reveals, create connections and personal associations to our waking life and provide direction as you will see.  Using metaphors and play on words called dream puns to help examine the dream, one can intuit or understand using internal intellect what the dream is revealing. I would like to share a dream taken from my dream journal, written in first person and present tense to demonstrate how this process works. 

In my dream titled ‘The Invitation’, I am standing in an alcove with an old piece of wooden furniture that resembles an entry piece meant to be sat on.  The back of this piece of furniture is folded over.  When I go to lift it up and secure it, I see that the wooden back is in the shape of a cross with a round mirror in the center.  I look in the mirror at myself and realize how functional this piece of furniture is.  Then I look to my left and through the open door into what appears to be my bedroom.  I notice a richly colored red and purple bedspread and think to myself how beautiful and inviting it looks.  I wonder if whoever sleeps in this bed might be truly blessed. 

I begin to examine the dream by realizing that the wooden entry piece is furniture that I can easily connect to as an interior decorator in my waking life. This is no accident, since dreams speak to us in a language that we can understand with recognizable symbols that we can relate to.  Next, I examine myself lifting up the back of the seat and securing it.  I understand this action in the dream is a metaphor in my waking life, inviting me to ‘sit up straight and feel secure’.  The dream will later provide me with insight into the meaning of this metaphor.  When I see that the back of the seat is in the shape of a cross, a spiritual symbol for me with a mirror in the center, I see my reflection and make the connection to my spiritual self.  The round shape of the mirror represents wholeness to me; thus, the seat is inviting me to look at my whole spiritual self. 

I describe this piece of furniture as functional in my dream.  For me, the mirror on the back of the seat is part of the functionality of this piece of furniture.  I imagine that the dream is asking me to look at myself, as reflected in the mirror to consider what my functionality is.  I begin to infer that perhaps I have more than one function in my waking life as an interior designer.  Once again, I am making the connection to the piece of furniture and my occupation.  I look up the definition of  functionality, which is described as ‘a purpose that something is designed or expected to fulfill’.  The dream is about to reveal what my function is as I look to my left through the open door.

In my dream I see the open door to my bedroom on my left side.  In dream language, the left side represents for me a new path and creativity.  This open-door metaphor creates an ‘invitation’ as the dream title suggests, to explore a new creative path, as indicated by the understanding of what the left side signifies to me.  Through the open door I see a beautifully decorated bed with rich colors.  I make the connection to the bed, which is where I sleep and dream.  The richly colored red and purple bedspread draws me in to the ‘richness’ of the dream world.  The dream is inviting me to step into this dream space from the alcove.  An alcove represents to me a place where one prepares to enter a sacred space, and I know from my experience that dreamwork is a sacred practice.  

This is where the ‘aha’ moment of clarity occurs around what the message of the dream is revealing to me.  I realize that I am being invited to step into this sacred practice of dreamwork, and to understand my new creative function as a dream worker.

The end of the dream suggests that ‘whoever sleeps in this bed might be truly blessed’.  When I wake up from the dream in my own bed, an overwhelming feeling of being blessed flood my emotions.  The vivid images from the dream and the emotion of feeling blessed stick with me for many days.  After sharing this dream with my husband and processing it in my dream group, the meaning begins to sink in.  The dream, The Invitation is ‘inviting me’ to ‘sit up straight and feel secure’ and to ‘look in the mirror’ and see my ‘whole spiritual self’ and ‘step into the sacred practice’ of a ‘new creative path’ in dreamwork.  The dream has done what it set out to do, reveal my true inner self and purpose as a dream worker.  Soon after having my dream, I decide to enroll in the Haden Institute dreamwork certification program.

There is a practice in dreamwork I call ‘dreaming the dream forward’.  By acting it out in waking life, or writing down how you might imagine the dream could end, you create the destiny of your dream.   This practice works particularly well with nightmares.  ‘The Invitation’ was literally an invitation for me to dream the dream forward, taking action to become certified in dreamwork.   A dream can also remain alive and provide continual insight when it is revisited and reworked in the practice of dreamwork.  Over the past few years I have revisited this ‘big and numinous dream’ and it has provided me much support and reassurance that I am on my true creative path to wholeness. 

Dreamwork is like a new language, and takes time to learn and become fluent.  Those of you who practice dreamwork, over time will also benefit from these kinds of meaningful connections to your nightly dreams.  I invite you to begin exploring your dreams by joining one of my group dreamwork sessions, or connecting with me to process your dreams one-on-one.