SMOKE AND MIRRORS: A DREAM JOURNAL EXERCISE

Although most experienced Dreamers know that dreams mirror our deepest truths, we often awake confused by symbols and situations that reverse our notions of integrity and morality. As long as the ego interferes, we experience a world of opposites. We are often confronted by a reversal in a mirror world that shows up as a split, a distortion, a double image or a duality. The maiden appears as a crone, the prince appears as a beast. Yet, the dream reflects a self portrait – if we care to look deeply into it.

EXPLORATION

The Mirror… is without ego and without mind…

It receives and reflects back what is there—

nothing more or nothing less… 

It does not evaluate, judge or act…

If we are to see as [the Dream] sees, 

we must first become mirrors. 

We must become no-thing 

so that we can receive some-thing….

               Richard Rohr

 In a stream of consciousness style, write for ten minutes without stopping the movement of your pen. Mirror the dream by reflecting upon the images with as many observations and details as possible. Riff with whatever thoughts present themselves. Is there at least one image in the dream which has no split and offers a reflection of unity?

ANIMA MUNDI: A DREAM JOURNAL EXERCISE

Anima Mundi is the soul of the world. It is the animating spirit in all matter and nature in the same way that the soul is the animating spirit in the human being. Similar to the Anima Mundi, every dream image, sensation, location is inextricably united with spirit. When we acknowledge the living presence within the dream, we can shift our attitude toward the landscape, the creatures, the sensations, the objects, the relationships, and the activities. We can dissolve the boundaries between the self and what we perceive as “other.” We can transform our sensations and experiences by viewing the dream world from a multitude of other perspectives.

EXPLORATION

Bring your dream images alive. Make a list poem with each of the images (both animate and inanimate.) Begin each line with “I am.” Endow every image with a voice.

SCAPEGOAT: A DREAM JOURNAL EXERCISE

In waking life, there are many aspects of ourselves that we don’t want to face. Often these characteristics project themselves in dreams onto “the bad guy”, “the evil one”, “the dark shadow”, “the one that doesn’t acknowledge us”.

Create a scapegoat to carry the burden of emotional attachments and old patterns reflected by characters and events in your dream. Expressive image-making invites us to release the anger, the fear, the neglect, the haunting memories within our dreams.

Find a contemplative space by a river or a body of water. Bind branches and stones and nature’s ephemera together to make a sacrificial bundle. Tie up the sorrows and guilty feelings that weigh upon your dream characters. Create a ritual scapegoat to carry the frustrations and injustices within the dream narrative.

Cast your scapegoat onto the waters.

Release, forgive, absolve.