6 Canons of Dreamwork

Article first published on The Natural Dream.

6 Canons of Dreamwork
by Laura Smith

Dreams have long been lauded as sources of divination, and sadly, in more recent time, by some as detritus resulting from the human mind performing a ritual house cleaning. But for those who pay attention to our dreams, we intuitively know that there is a deeper meaning to dreams and dreaming and we understand the potential that our dreams have to offer. Deeply rooted cultural wisdom tells us that we must honor our dreams. I would go one step further and say that we must allow them to live and have an active role in our emotional, psychological, physical and spiritual well being as individuals, as a community and as a species.

Here are 6 canons of dreamwork that can help you better understand what dreams are and why paying attention to your dreams is important.

Canon 1: Dreams are both organic and inalienable. They are part of the over arching human morphology and are produced naturally, without artificial chemicals or stimulants. Human beings dreaming appears to be universal and true as far back as we can know. They are as natural as all other human functions, produced not as waste as some seem to believe, but as an organic alchemical agent which attempts to facilitate change and growth within the emotional, psychological, physical and/or spiritual body. As such, dreams are inalienable. They cannot be separated or taken from us. Once a dream is remembered and especially once you have worked with it, it forever holds a place in the psyche even if forgotten later. Some believe the plants and other animals dream too, indeed some would argue that the world itself, as a living organism, dreams. If true, could this not be where our eternal Archetypes and mythologies come from? The dream can be viewed as living and eternal and as such we can enter into a relationship with it, returning over and over again to a moment where we can re-experience what the dream has to offer as both a reminder and also to promote new growth and healing.

Canon 2: Every Dream Carries the Possibility for Growth and Healing. Dreams actively seek to bring about our emotional, psychic, physical and spiritual growth and healing. Often the dream may bring difficult emotional content relating to childhood or adult trauma, wounding, loss or other habitual patterns which block us in our efforts towards wholeness, healing and joy. The dream may mirror behaviors which are unconscious and will show us the possibilities of who we are as our innocent soul selves. This mirroring quality allows us to begin to accept ourselves more fully and to make choices for ourselves from our deeper intuitions rather than from our unconscious or trauma-driven reactions.

Canon 3: Every Dream Holds the Possibility for a Sacred Encounter. When we dream, our dreams often carry elements of the profane, or that which is mundane and of our daily outer world lives and thus perceived and known by us in some specific way. However, each dream also contains that which is sacred, or that which is set apart from us, an unknown or previously unexplored part of ourselves which, when encountered, may be revelatory. The dream landscape is littered with sacred artifacts in the form of images, symbols and metaphors which associate to memories, feelings, aspirations, and desires. When we meet a dream character, whether it is someone we know or someone we don’t know, an animal or other non-human entity, this is a wholly sacred encounter. Characters, creatures and other entities may be reflecting something of our shadow, a behavior which is blocking us or may be a powerful Archetype whose sole function in the dream is to guide, teach, support and love us unconditionally as we move deeper into our inner life to discover the hidden treasure within.

Canon 4: Dreams Convey Meaning with a Poetic Sensibility. Dreams do not speak in a language that can be understood in a rational way. They speak more as a poem, with imagery, symbols, metaphors and seek to invoke deep feelings which open our intuitive body. The messages may be a metaphor which speaks to a personal mythos or idea we hold about who we are, how we are living or what our future might hold. The metaphor may also carry the energy of the collective unconscious which holds true in a more universally accepted way. A symbol in the dream, as a sacred artifact, may have a very specific set of qualities and meaning for the dreamer, which evoke memories and feelings. The artifact may also be imbued with the collective wisdom associated with the symbol socially, culturally or universally. But ultimately the dream must be understood through the feelings they evoke and the activation of authenticity and intuition within. This is an ancient language that has evolved unique to human beings and which taps into the depths of the human experience in a humanistic way.

Canon 5: Dreams come from a Power Greater than Ourselves. Dreams come from a creative and universal source and as such should remain beyond our power to control. They are revelatory and unfolding in real time/dream time. Choices we make in dreams come from two sources: our deepest fears or our deepest intuition. When we attempt to place our egoic/waking world ideas of what we think something should be onto a dream, we are not in our deepest intuition. We are attempting to play God, believing we know what the message of the dream should be rather than accepting what it is as a sacred encounter and an opportunity to learn and grow. When we turn to face the lion in our dream, we face into our deepest fears from the place of our deepest intuition. This is particularly true when, in the dream, we are conscious in the moment of what we are doing. A primary teaching of the dream has to do with trust, namely trust in something greater than our own machinations if we are to grow in our understanding of who we are and why we are here. Our trust often begins in relationship to a dream mentor that we are working with, but ultimately we begin to trust the Archetypes who come to teach, guide and support us. We begin to learn what true faith feels like as something outside of us that we can rely on in daily living.

Canon 6: Every Dream is For You and an Opportunity to Reclaim Wisdom and Intuition. Each dream has an intended message for the dreamer, however, this message may be layered. There are numerous associations a dreamer may have with the elements contained within that dream. These associations can take us down many paths toward understanding of the dream. Sometimes, we will only reach one layer of understanding, other times we may make a connection to multiple layers of meaning and understanding for ourselves. Firstly, each dream is for the dreamer and the dreamer’s benefit. That others might benefit, our community or even the world, is a by-product of the dreamer finding the intended message of the dream that is just for them. While dreams often seem nonsensical, they actually make sense. But this “sense” must be incorporated into the emotional, psychological, spiritual and physical bodies of the dreamer. This embodiment is the message of the dream truly and deeply received. Ultimately, a dream make sense to us once we receive its specific message for us. A dream message fully received become a portal into the reclamation of our wisdom and intuition and allows us to make better choices for ourselves and thus to carry a message of hope to others.

Artwork: Odilon Redon ~ The Yellow Sail, Final Journey, Guardians of the Soul

Souls on Deck

Hand on Fire by Elbichopt on DeviantArt

Here is a quote from one of my favorite authors of dream and vision work that carries some of the essence of what I am feeling in these times of extremist violence in our world.

“One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these – to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.” ~  Clarissa Pinkola Estes 

Many of my spiritual compadres are asking why? What can we do? What difference can we make? I do not have an answer. I beseech my own Goddesses and Gods and still I cannot see the answer clearly.

I am working with a dream where a man of fire is coming through a wall towards me. I am terrified. I have been working with fire for the last several months. I have fire in me. I feel the heat of it. I feel it rise and I notice when it comes out in ways that may be more about releasing the energy rather than embodying it.

I do not know what it means to live as one with the flames. I have only the dream moment to return to and then the next thing. Moment to moment. And mostly I forget and then I feel the heat again. It's good to have such visceral homework, the kind that comes unbidden. It is intense and it is nuanced and its unbidden nature helps me to remember that I am a creature of fire. The becoming is about remembering. The lion is in me. I forget. This is the human condition...to forget. Our work helps us remember, re-member, re-me-ember. The spiritual condition is to remember....

The being who is of flames is a reflection. The dream, like the moon, offers the gift of sight, the true seeing. It is subtler than the sun, whose fire can blind. When my dream guide had me be the being in flames from my dream, it felt encompassing and my vision felt obscured by the flames. Everything looks different when seen through eyes of fire. I don't know how to see through eyes of fire, so I don't understand what I see. I just see that everything looks different. It's like seeing from within the aura.

And yet I forget. When I can't hold the flame as the gift, the invitation, the offering, it can flip. Is there righteous fire? Is there a place for the fire to be the cry to heaven, the outrage at a world filled with injustice? At the helplessness of myself and others? And can it carry me to something more? Do I even want it to? How do we work with this material to support the fire in the world and all it has to offer as the fire of passion and love, the fire of pain that burns, the fire of anger that engulf and destroys, the fire that is eternal?

Is doing my work enough? What does being of service really mean? Can I offer more? Is it true, that I must first heal the split in myself before I can hope to offer healing in the world? What does it mean to be a soul on deck? How do I hold the flame and yet offer it?

On fire,
Laura

To find out more about how your dreams can guide you towards a fuller manifestation of your fire, contact me. www.archetypaldreamworks.com
Tend to your dreams, consort with them!

Who is Puella?

People often ask me, “Who is Puella? Or, “What does Puella mean?”  I have come to realized that for me there is something so personal about her and also that this topic can offer a larger meaning in our world today.

As a Natural Dreamwork Practitioner, I practice a deep presence in working with my own dreams as well as standing with others as we explore their dreams. It is meaningful work, a path for those who seek healing and wholeness. It is heart work.

Artist: Stephen Bauman

Puella is the Latin word for “girl”.  In Jungian purview she is often viewed as the girl who never grows up, as having a child-like demeanor, and as the feminine component within the male psyche which Carl Jung referred to in his public, professional life as "puella anima". In Natural Dreamwork, the girl in a dream is not an archetype per se, because she typically represents the manifestation of the dreamer's soul. I think of her as Puella Aeterna, the Eternal Girl, not in a Jungian sense but as the eternal innocence of the feminine. She is present in both men and women as the essence of vulnerability and innocence in relationship to the Divine. And she is seeking to come into relationship with us. I believe that our very existence hinges on our desire and willingness to accept her, to accept our own divinity as the vulnerable innocent one in relationship to the Divine. Even Dr. Jung acknowledged her powerful presence within his dreams in his personal writing contained within the posthumously published The Red Book (2009).

Sometimes she will bubble up in our life with a burst of carefree love and innocence that leaves us filled with desire to know her more. She holds the place of the innocence and creativity, the vulnerable aspect of the soul self in connection with the Divine which always seeks dominion in us. But we do not know this, or we are terrified, or we buy the lie that the feminine represents original sin rather than divine innocence.

The world-side has been violent toward the feminine. Some speak of how we need to return the earth to the feminine, that the masculine energies are destroying the earth. But the feminine always needs the balance of the masculine, just as the masculine needs the balance of the feminine. And it is true that we are out of balance. The world fears the feminine. She is the creator and the destroyer. We have  repressed her, stoned her, bound her feet, cut off her hands. We have burned her at the stake. We have defined her as the seductress, the temptress, and we have held her responsible for the moral failings of men. And, when she has spoken, we have often not believed her.

Voices: The Darkness and I

Voices: The Darkness and I

I.

You who seek do not need to seek me, for I am always here. I have not left. It is as it has always been and always will be. The past is present and will continue. You cannot escape because I am what you know. You know me too well and worship me, which makes me stronger in you.

Medusa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini 1630

I am the Medusa, the destroyer. I am the darkness where light fades. I am the event horizon into which all things are drawn. I will crush them into nothingness and you can not escape the gravitational pull of our love for one another.

It is inevitable that each time you seek, you will find me, for I am what you know and therefore you will always come back to me. When you become the bird of your soul and fly to heaven, it is with me that you will land again. I am the olive branch, the world, the earth beneath your feet, these things you know, and I live where you know.

II.

I sought to banish you. I thought I could fight you single-handed. I saw myself as a God. I thought I knew you, that I understood your evil and could name you and hated you as that which I had named. I sought to smite you but did not understand that the sword I held was yours. And I cursed you when you failed me.

And yet you compel me to seek the light and a power greater than me, which I know as darkness. Without you I am nothing. Without your evil, I cannot feel my grief or pain, and so cannot know love. I must be a murderess and the one who dies.

I cannot flee. It is true, there is no escape. And yet, when I surrender, when I take wing and float along the thermal winds of chaos and light, I find myself where wolves howl and the moon is silent and alive.  You have not left and yet I am the armless maiden whose tears thwart you. The light has slit my throat and blood drenches my body. The sun pierces my eyes as I lift my head skyward in a cry to heaven.

My cup runneth over and I find myself a blood filled grail, holy, pure and innocent. Abundance is upon the land and I see the golden city, the earth and the ancient forest. I see cereus bloom at night and tilting worlds, and know that I am mad. And I see all growing and green things born anew lift their heads to the sun. A cry to heaven, let there be light. The child is born, Genesis.

Black Madonna by Katherine Skaggs

Archetypal Dreamwork and the 12 Steps: The Recovery Chronicles #02

The Recovery Chronicles by Laura Smith are a series of essays which delve into the ways that dreams can support 12 step recovery work. Through her own personal experiences in recovery and with the dreams, Laura shows how dreams can offer insight, hope, and support in the deeper work toward emotional sobriety.

Coming to terms with Higher Power is perhaps the single most effective and critical aspect of a successful recovery program. It is through grace and the keen insight of our founding fellows that the foundation of our recovery must be built on faith in a power greater than ourselves. For what other than the True Light could pierce the darkness of the soul-sickness that we experience as alcoholism or addiction?

And yet, is it not true that in some deep recess of our heart we know? We know that there is something more. Is there not some basic yearning in us to find our true self again? Is our thirst really our longing to be found, to be whole, to reclaim our lost soul? We had to first accept that we were lost before we could be found.

The great Carl Jung, in a 1961 letter to Bill Wilson, wrote, "You see, Alcohol in Latin is 'Spiritus' and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraved poison. The helpful formula therefore is: 'Spiritus Contra Spiritum' (which is translated in this context as 'Spirit against Alcohol').

Jung had observed that the alcoholic's thirst for alcohol is, "the equivalent, on a low level, of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval language: the union with God."

And he went on to quote Psalm 42,1:

"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God."

For many of us, finding a God of our understanding is a mighty challenge. Who cares to admit total defeat? And yet, without our admission of our own powerlessness, we have no starting point, no way for God to get to us. But when we surrender to our own powerlessness it is like we are cracked open. It is through this crack that the light can re-enter. And when we achieve fullness, it is through this crack, the crack of our wound, that the light shines back out for others to see and find hope.

It is this way with the dreams. The dreams want to crack us open, break our willfulness, bring about our total surrender. The dream will give us many opportunities to see how we are blinded by self will, independence, pride. They do this not because we are bad people, or that we should feel sinful or shameful, but because they seek to bring awareness to all the ways we have closed our self off from the sunlight of the spirit. It is the sunlight of the Spirit, or the grace of God, that can burn away our character defects to reveal the untarnished girl/boy soul that longs to be freed from the bondage of self.