Pilar Zeta: Falling in Love with the Dark Side of the Universe
This place is a dream.
Only a sleeper considers it real.
Then death comes like dawn,
and you wake up laughing
at what you thought was your grief.
But there's a difference with this dream.
Everything cruel and unconscious
done in the illusion of the present world,
all that does not fade away at the death-waking.
It stays,
and it must be interpreted.
~Rumi from "The Dream that Must Be Interpreted"
“Between living and dreaming there is a third thing. Guess it.”
~Antonio Machado
Carl Jung called dreams “the royal road to the unconscious” and considered them one of the best opportunities to communicate with the vast unknown landscape of our inner world. Over the course of the last two years I have committed to keeping a dream journal where I record my nocturnal stories. The the themes that I have recognized and insights that I have uncovered are truly remarkable. My last and final class for graduate school is on Transpersonal approaches to dreaming and I had the good fortune of attending a workshop on the subject when I was in California in January of this year. Jeremy Taylor, who taught the workshop, wrote the book The Wisdom of Your Dreams: Using Dreams to Tap Into Your Unconscious and Transform Your Life. He is a true master of dream interpretation and offers decades of dreamwork experience in helping people decode the often abstract and disjointed material of a dream. He supports the view that, just as many indigenous cultures practiced, we too can benefit from sharing our dreams in a group setting to help uncover deeper layers of the dream. In this way dreams support not only our personal, but our collective growth as well.
Taylor articulates ten basic assumptions about dreams that I will share here as a foundation to learning about how to view and work with your own dreams:
- All dreams come in service of health and wholeness.
- No dream comes just to tell the dreamer what he or she already knows.
- Only the dreamer can say with any certainty what meanings his or her dream may hold.
- The dreamer’s aha of recognition is a function of previously unconscious memory and is the only reliable touchstone of dream work.
- There is no such thing as a dream with only one meaning.
- All dreams speak a universal language of metaphor and symbol.
- All dreams reflect inborn creativity and ability to face and solve life’s problems.
- All dreams reflect society as a whole, as well as the dreamer’s relationship to it.
- Working with dreams regularly improves relationships with friends, lovers, partners, parents, children, and others.
- Working with dreams in groups builds community, intimacy, and support and begins to impact society as a whole.
To recognize that ALL dreams come in the service of health and wholeness is an important starting point. Dreams range in tone from mundane to terrifying and Taylor posits that “bad” dreams are really just a mechanism of the unconscious to help bring attention to some important information for our lives. It’s difficult to forget a troubling or recurring dream.
If you really want to begin to work with the material of your dreams begin to set your intention at night before you go to sleep. Tell yourself that you want to remember your dreams. Try to record the dream first thing upon waking before you do anything else and write the dream as if it were happening in the moment. Get it down in as much detail as you are able to recollect. The next thing I do is give the dream a title. This, in itself, can be revealing. Look at the dream sentence by sentence--jot down anything that comes to you as you read and think about it. A couple of questions that I have begun to ask regularly are “why now?” or “how does this dream speak to my life currently?” There is a reason for it showing up in my life at this particular time and I try to identify my associations. The other thing to keep in mind is that each part of your dream represents an aspect of your psyche. Try putting yourself in each role and and note what you observe. Is there one dream character that you relate to more than another? Very often the material of our dreams will provide access to our shadow qualities--the parts of ourselves that we have disowned or repressed. I have found that the personal transformation that results from honoring my dreams has come almost simply through the willingness to pay attention; to notice and take the time to listen without judgement to the diversity of voices within me. I don’t approach my dreams analytically with a need to “figure them out,” but rather with a curious and compassionate presence that is willing to contain even what I do not yet understand. I have deep respect for the mystery of dreams and try not to presume that “I know.” When I can suspend my need for certainty, then I remain open to learning more. I think it’s clear that all of these lessons and assumptions can apply to the “waking” dream as well.
Sharing dreams with another is an intimate and sacred experience. It is important to hold them with respect and one of the guidelines that is imperative in responding to the dream of another is to recognize it as your projection of the dream. When we did our dream work together whenever we responded to a dreamer we were taught to begin with the words: “In my imagined version of the dream. . . “ or “My projection of your dream is. . .” This way we are able to take responsibility for the awareness the dream material may contain for us while offering a different perspective of the dream that may prove helpful for another. It becomes so clear when investigating dreams this way, how there are universal themes that resonate with all of us at some point in our lives. Dreams speak in the language of image, symbol and metaphor. Learning to decipher our dreams is like learning a new language and with practice it becomes more familiar.
I have come to strongly believe that for any personal healing to be complete, it must involve the cultivation of a relationship to the unconscious. This is especially important in the case of an illness or dis-ease that seems to persist despite our best efforts to heal. To become whole, integrated human beings we must carve pathways to our depths and mine the treasures that lie below the surface of our habitual patterns of operating.
This month commit to recording your dreams. Keep a journal and pen next to your bed and take a few minutes upon waking to write anything you recall--even if it’s only a fragment or two. Give it a title. Ask “why now?” In what way does this dream speak to your current life situation? Pick a few key images or people from your dream and list any associations that you make when you think of that thing. Employ your senses--what feelings, colors, smells, tastes, etc. do you remember? Pay attention to details--for example, what was the name of the book lying on the table in your dream or what did your aunt’s t-shirt say? You can draw your dream or use images from magazines to create a collage as well. If you are inclined, share the dream with someone and ask them to respond as if it were their dream and see if you gain any new insights. I don't suggest using the dream interpretation dictionaries--instead, let the dream speak to you specifically and personally. I am open and would love to listen and respond to any dreams that you might want to share with me here or privately.
As Carl Jung says, "The dream harbors no desire to distort or hide, any more than a flower or stone. . . ." By paying attention to our dreams we can gain clarity, guidance, healing and ultimately by bringing that conscious awareness to our daily lives we can transform the reality of our waking life.
Sweet dreams!
Collage from a dream I titled Looking for my family
