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.