Dreams show us the landscapes of our souls. Where do your dreams regularly take place? What is the felt sense of that space? How does it speak to you? According to the African indigenous perspective on dreaming, the landscapes in our dreams denote our DNA and the people we originate from.
Animal visitations in our dreams represent archetypal patterns and qualities unique to their species; thus, each animal carries an essence that we need to inquire about to understand the dream's message beyond our personal associations...
Jungian Analyst, Robert Bosnak describes dreams as the genius of creative imagination. They are mystery in constant motion and we generally only touch the surface of these vast internal spaces. You can work with a dream for hours, yet always more to understand. Dreams are not a still life image. According to Stephen Aizenstat dreams are living presences originating from the deeper intelligence of the psyche.
Dream work provides an opportunity to get to know the different aspects of yourself. As a complex system, the human psyche, is not only identified by one state, but consists of multiple states simultaneously with an underlying hidden order. According to Robert Bosnak, what we experience as ourselves is, ‘A brewing together of disparate ingredients’, with these multiple inner perspectives often holding opposing values. Bosnak refers to dreams as ecosystems in which we are deeply connected to the presences we encounter.
How do we link dreams most effectively to waking life? The golden rule is to stay with the dream images. Clarify the detail rather than place the dream in some general category...
We are living a dream. Are we awake in the dream? Through resonance with Nature (even in the heart of a city) as an extension of our highest Self, or what Jung called the archetype of the Self, we expand our consciousness through a deep awareness of our embeddedness in our surrounding world. We are not separate.
After the appearance of a white horse in a soul retrieval dream, I attended an “Art, Horses and Constellations” workshop run by animal communicator, Anthea Myburgh of @UbuntuHealing. Horses are acutely sensitive to the resonance within the ‘field’...
Crow is legendary for its intelligence, watchfulness, adaptability and its remarkable voice range. Mythologically, Crow is associated with creation and the archetypal forces that surrounds us, and is symbolic with “magic that is alive within our world every day and available to us”...
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I recently had a dream in which the teacher leant forward and whispered to me “Review your Life Purpose”. Following a unique life purpose is not a safe, familiar journey. As Campbell says “If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s.”
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What about the people who turn up in our dreams? Do you know them, are they familiar friends or family, or are they unfamiliar and complete strangers to you? Dreams use both real people as well as inventing imaginary characters for their stories. The real people may be persons who are known to the dreamer, from the present or the past, close intimate partners and friends or distant acquaintances, celebrities, historical or mythological figures.
Dreams may be seen as a conversation between consciousness and the unconscious, between an ego perspective and multiple other viewpoints alive in us...