I love dreams! I love my own, and I love working with dreams
that clients bring into our sessions. I find them to be very valuable windows
into the unconscious world, full of imagery and symbolism that is important to
the individual, whether they are consciously aware of that or not.
Currently, I’m getting a Dream Group started, for people who
are likewise fascinated and interested in their own dreams, and would like to
work with them together. As an example of what that might look like, I offer
one from my own nighttime wanderings. We
had watched a movie before going to sleep, a recent award winner about a
historic event in my lifetime. If you’ve also seen it, you’ll likely recognize
some themes. And in discussing the dream after re-telling it, I will address
the issue of popular culture references showing up in dreams and what to make
of them.
There is a need to smuggle a few people out of state. To do that, my
partner and I go to a gun show with a crate full of knives and guns. The guns
are sold, and the knives get sharpened and repaired. We talk to the dealers
there, and hope that they can’t tell how out of place we are. We arrange for “the
Canadian singer Celine Dion” to act as escort. The windows of the car are
smeared and fogged over, including the windshield, looking like it’s been
hand-waxed but not buffed off. We load the crate that now holds someone we’re
smuggling into the car and leave. They are silent for a while, and then a small
girl pops out of the box and starts talking. We remind her to stay in there and
be quiet, and we keep going.
It’s important when writing or re-telling dreams, to use the
present tense in your language. This brings the dream back into the moment,
into the room with you as a living presence. In a group situation, it can be
helpful as well to re-tell the dream again. The second time, different details
may come out, or different wording used will point to another perspective on
the dream.
Then, maybe as in this case, there will be an obvious parallel
to address, or an anomaly may need to be addressed. In this case, images and
themes from a movie showed up. In another case, maybe it becomes clear that the
sausage pizza and ice cream right before bed have had an influence on your
dreamscape. I’m not saying dreams in either of those cases are any less valid, or
have anything less to communicate to us. They just may be using different
language. The unconscious world is a place of power and wisdom. It will use whatever
imagery is available to talk to us about our Selves. The key, as in all dream
work, is to invite the dreamer to provide the meaning to the symbols that show
up. Things will mean very different things to different people. Each individual
is the expert in their own dreamworld.
After re-telling the dream, it’s time to play with
associations for the images in the dream. The group can help with this, in a
sort of brainstorming session. For mine, the gun show was a particularly strong
image. I’d say it’s a place for people to deal and celebrate weapons of violence.
I associate conservatism, conspiracies, fear, and control with gun shows. Guns
work from a greater distance, while knives are more personal and close-up. The
escort shows up as a “neutral party”. But also, she is a performer of music,
which is a powerful source of expression for me. People were always depending
on us to rescue them, but when at the end, the expected adults became one small
child, the theme of vulnerability and dependence is further emphasized.
Associations lead to applications to the dreamer’s life.
Some of the messages in this dream are for my awareness alone, but I will share
a few here as illustration of how this process works. I asked myself, “What is
small and vulnerable in my life that needs me to keep it safe?” and then, “What
are the tools I need to keep to protect that vulnerable part, and what do I
need to get rid of because it no longer serves me?” I think in terms of archetypes a lot, and this
dream made me think that my Inner Child both needs some attention, and needs to
know the appropriate timing for finding expression. She is hiding inside a
vessel that used to hold weapons of violence. We do symbolic and psychological
violence to ourselves often, and often without awareness that we are doing it.
Baggage that used to take up space in our souls, when cleaned out, may reveal
something joyful and innocent underneath. This was a strong takeaway message
from this dream for me, hiding under images that could have easily been written
off as “just memories of that movie”.
If you’re interested in joining a Dream Group and doing work
like this with other likeminded people, please contact me for more details.
Heather Austin
303-522-8839
