In our meeting on May 26, it was suggested we do some dreaming in response to the desire to come up with a vision for the group (Thanks, Pam and Donna).
This week (and beyond), if you are willing, please set your intentions each night to incubate dreams and reply here with dreams, fragments, images, and symbols that seem like they might be related—even if you don't understand "how." Daytime dreams count too, so pay attention to what grabs your attention as you go about your day, or feel free to use active imagination, shamanic journeying, meditation, etc. It will be interesting to see how the individual elements connect with one another and to see if we can discern a pattern.
Maybe we could collectively choose to do additional work on a particular image that arises if it seems relevant for the group—but let's decide as we go.
Just hit "Reply" and share what comes to you, and feel free to make any observations or connections from others contributions to your own images, to our unique situation, etc. Exciting stuff!
(photo credit: http://guides.library.harvard.edu/Literature151)
Replies
A dream fragment from last week. I try to move to higher ground as it is flooding. The flooding water is clear and I am not afraid of it. I drive up a mountain road but a male and a female lion are cuddling/playing in the middle of the road. I walk on the dirt road to get past them. They keep playing and I am not afraid of them. I have more of a feeling of longing for the connection, playfulness, and joy.
The line that has pierced me in the conversation is Bonnie's "Why am I trying to write on something that cannot be written on?" Even as I endure this endless winter of mourning the loss of my beloved and the life that we shared, even as I prepare to also retrain in bookkeeping to ensure basic livelihood, even as I manage this new life with all the shamanic wisdom I can muster, I have continually wrestled with some writing - around sexuality and spirituality. Maybe "I trying to write on something that cannot be written on?" Yet I cant seem to give up on it... maybe some things are simply not to be said out loud.
My son has an apricot tree here and we have been eating its bounty the whole week. So luscious that even the pip breaks open revealing its very bitter (but supposedly very healthy tho I couldn't eat it) almond shaped white centre - a perfect vesica pisces (spelling?)
My only dream image of the past two weeks is having my head screwed off - both watching it being screwed off and doing the screwing off as well. I felt the crunch in the dreaming... So I walk around holding my head... only don't know.
I have enjoyed all the other contributions here . With thanks
That is interesting....Why am I writing on something that cannot be written on? Hmmm.
Thanks for bringing this into focus Adele.
I wanted to add my dreams from last week that relate to images in Bonnie's dream....
...I am guiding my aunt (writer/teacher), and someone else(?), through a yoga pose called the angel pose.
...a display of art, for a festival or art show, which is being set up. I wasn't planning to be in the show but was told I could have a wall to display my paintings. I walked over to it and a guy had his black and white photos of India on display already. He was going to take them down for me to hang my art.
My associations... there seems to be this theme of art/writing connected to spirit/soul. yoga means to yoke back, reconnect. the angel is the spiritual aspect.
The black and white India photos I had seen the night before in a documentary of a Tibetan Buddhist monk (American in India) who wanted to build a place for the monks to live. His rich friends were going to pay, but then the economy tanked and they backed out, he realized his photography (which he struggled with, since it was something he loved and therefore was to some degree attached to) could be sold to pay for the building. He sold his art to pay for the creation of a sacred space for others.
OK, I'm going to post this dream fragment because in my dream from last night, there was a part where I decided to give my 'business card' to someone I met who was helping me pick up some scattered pages of my writings, and who seemed to be already familiar with my work.
First I tried to write my contact info on a sort of giant apricot, the size of a soccer ball, but the "apricot" was too ripe and my pen went through the skin.
When I pulled out my business cards, (newly ordered in real life), I noticed virtually all of them were misprinted so that only the black came through, but not the logo or colors. All that showed up (and just barely) was my name and contact info. I didn't want to give this individual a card like that, so lackluster and not representative of what I am "doing"—but it was all I had.
Thanks for sharing this dream....
What are you writing? Is it your book around your dissertation? or something else? That is scattered in pages?
Is your business card related to DP Alliance? Do you have writer listed on it?
Who is the person you were giving the card to? Male/female, friend/acquaintance, etc.
I wonder about the connection of the goddess (soul) to your writing?
Lackluster business card does not reflect what you are doing? Why?
If this was my dream....I would explore the apricot as something that is juicy and nourishing to be ingested. Why am I trying to write on something that cannot be written on? Wanting to put my name, contact info, on the apricot? I want to connect through the juiciness and nourishment associated with the goddess, but what is coming through, the flat, cold, dry business card is one dimensional, trying to write with ink, black? on the fruit, the message isn't coming through on the paper or the juicy apricot. Black is goddess, night, unseen. The writing, connection, hasn't yet developed to where it contains the colors, the juice, the ripeness. Connection through goddess, color, word, image....Apricot too ripe, but business card not right yet. How to contact and connect? The image and colors didn't come through on business card. The goddess deals in image and color, juice and ripeness.
The business card I just had printed up does not reflect what I am doing. It is too lackluster. Does not contain the images and color I want in my life. Poetry and art:) the missing elements from my business. The juice.
Bonnie, thanks for sharing your dream. Such provocative and curious images here; will continue to think and process these.
Most curious about: the large, too ripe, apricot; writing on this to give a contact your information - and the fact that your business cards were "misprinted" with only the black coming through.
If this were my dream, I am noticing the dicotamy between a business card, which gives someone surface info/identification about myself, and my pen which "went through the skin" (breaks through the surface). Since I am a writer, I am very curious about the fact that my pen would not "settle" on the surface of things...The other image, also related to my business card, is the fact that the cards are "misprinted" all in black. Black, associated with the shadow; also, in one article I just read on Carl Jung and archetypes, black is associated with power, death, & mourning). I am also associating the pen and black with Jung's black book, although I am not sure why (just came up for me).
Also, curious if you had this dream before/after the news about controvery over soccer federation (right word? not a soccer fan) taking bribes, etc.
Curious, too, what images have the most energy for you...more later.
Thanks for your observations, Donna. I have done many kinds of dreamwork, and so have different ways of working with dreams. I am fascinated by your noticing of surface/breaking through the surface (into the depths, presumably! ).
The apricot, for me, was also the most potent/intriguing image in the dream. In honor of the pure Jungian style (See Yoram Kaufmann's "The Way of the Image"), I sought to amplify the image of the apricot. I had done some work with the 'peach' which showed up in a book and a paper I wrote and which is connected in Asian mythology (along with the apricot) to the Great Goddess. On the other hand, I had to laugh out loud when I googled apricot and "symbol in dreams" and found this site that suggested, "To see only one apricot in your dream signifies that you will have a lot of money."—and that the ripeness of the apricot symbolizes MORE money. I am waiting for that!
On the other hand, in the dream, the very (overly) ripe apricot the size of the soccer ball could not sustain my attempt to put my identity on it; I couldn't leave my information there. I am wondering, in light of your comments, if we need to, as a group, be looking beyond the money which is "ripe" and already there, and see how we can surrender our identities (and pre-made plans) in order to make more personal connections.
I didn't know that apricot symbolized the Great Goddess. Very cool. Speaking of the Great Goddess, just got through watching a youtube video, "Facing the Death Mother" by Dr. Harris. Very powerful and some of the discussion seems important for what we are about here in this group:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1gWBA-ipjY
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