SUMMER
DREAMS:
THE TRANSFORMATIONAL
JOURNEY THROUGH DREAMWORK
(SUMMER 2000)
When I was well into my soul's journey of transformation, I began to study dreamwork. I felt that my dreams were offering guidance and direction, but I was unable to decipher the messages. So I began to write, study, and explore my dreams with guidance from mentors and teachers who knew something about interpreting the powerful symbols, images, and metaphors through which the deeper psyche communicates. I found a world rich with possibility and challenge. As much as I had hoped to receive the guidance I believed lived within my dreams, I was unprepared for the confrontations I would receive from my deeper self. I was greeted with complex recognitions of the limiting patterns within which I lived, acted, and related. I thought I would receive, once I interpreted my dreams, a fanciful reality of love and light, a beautiful realm of the Gods with no shadows, and only the sweetness of spirit. The archetypal struggles of an individual coming into herself were struggles I did not expect, but for which I am most grateful. My dream world has taught me to tough it out through the challenges of the initiatory, transformational path. Facing up to my psychological wounds, and the enactment of my wounding in relationship to others has been an often painful and sometimes joyful exploration into my life and my psyche. The challenges that reading my own dreams have given me has been the grist for my mill and the meat for my meat-grinder (metaphorically speaking!!) of my transformational work.
When working with dreams it is important to remember that a dream teaches on many levels. The true meaning of the dream deepens and changes with each visit or interpretation of the dream, and as the wisdom of the dreamer grows, the meaning of the dream may change significantly. Dreams have a way of bringing new forms and ways of being into the life of the dreamer. Contradictory insights in dream interpretation reiterates that many levels and possible meanings of any one dream, or symbol within a dream, are possible.
Dreamwork is a wonderful guide along the transformational journey, for dreams never lie. Our dreams are resources of knowledge which give access to wisdom that is not readily available through our conscious minds. By opening to the symbols, images, and patterns present in dreams the possibility exists to begin linking unconscious knowing with conscious awareness--thereby linking us to our innermost self--our soul.
As we begin, through interpreting our dream symbols, to understand hidden aspects of character, we develop greater understanding of ourselves, and of our life-purpose. In this way, our dreams respond to many of the difficult questions of our lives, offering guidance and leading us toward our deepest intentions.
In addition to shedding light onto personal issues, dreamwork connects us to collective arenas of consciousness, bringing understanding to life and its varied forces. Through learning and practicing dreamwork one will develop self-knowledge, intuition and clarity, enabling clear, honest choices through which to live life.
The images and symbols delivered up at night are not manipulated by the mind or the ego, but rather, are a pure expression of the unconscious self. Dreams have the potential to reveal the truth at as deep a level as one is able to interpret or receive. Truth has the potential to transform, and when one is willing to work deeply, consistently, and honestly with dreams, those dreams will carry an individual through a transformational journey.
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