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ABSTRACT Elemental
Dreaming: Following Movements of Energy Through Dream Images—Part 1 and
2
Sven
Doehner, Ph.D., M.F.A. is a psychotherapist in private practice in Mexico City.
Trained in Depth Psychology, he has worked for many years with
native Mexican healers, and guided dream-work groups in Brazil, Greece,
Lithuania, Peru, Mexico, the Soviet Union, the U.S.A. and Uruguay.
An innovator in alchemical dream-sharing, he works at the borders
between contemporary depth psychotherapy and ancient healing traditions. Tom
Crockett, M.F.A., is a writer, teacher, and shamanic counselor. He is the editor of Maskan:
A Newsletter of Urban Contemporary Shamanism. He is the author of The
Artist Inside: A Spiritual Guide to Cultivating Your Creative Self
(Broadway Books, 2000), and the forthcoming Stone
Age Wisdom: Shamanic Principles for Living in Balance (Fair Winds
Press, 2003). He is a student and apprentice in cross-cultural shamanic
practice and maintains a private shamanic counseling practice.
Summary of Presentation A universal aspect of the spiritual life of primary cultures around
the world is the importance and significance of fundamental elements such
as earth, water, air, and fire. Tracking
these elements as they appear in dreams reveals elemental movements in our
personal and trans-personal worlds. This two-part workshop will explore a
unique way of working with the elements in dreams. Part one will feature a
sample of elemental dream-work. Part two will explore and discuss the
individual elements and the process of working with them.
Evaluation questions: A. How do the elements appear in our dreams? B.
What does it mean when no elements seem to be present? C.
What do the elements reflect to us about our lives and our
challenges ?
Abstract A universal aspect of the spiritual life of primary cultures around
the world is the importance and significance of fundamental elements such
as earth, water, air, and fire. These
elements are considered to be living entities - actors in myths and
stories of creation and transformation.
Working within our own traditions and in collaboration with
indigenous shamans, we have developed a way of working with the elements
that appear in our dreams, exploring our images for the energetic wisdom
of the elements. This method
involves a deep sensitization to the elements themselves through
connection, observation, awareness and subtle attention.
Tracking the elements through our dreams reveals elemental
movements in our personal and trans-personal worlds - or how that movement
is being inhibited. This
two-part workshop will explore a unique way of working with the elements
in our dreams. Part One will feature experiential elemental dream-work, an
openness to experience the unconscious effects of dream images on each of
us, in a way that helps us all to move from the specificity of our
personal imagery, to the energetic wisdom of a mythic perspective.
In the process of elemental dream-sharing, we begin around a
central arrangement of images that represent the four elements.
This allows us to experience a connection to the actual elements in
the physical world. After a
moment of concentration and self-observation, participants are asked to
select a particular element to focus on.
Then dreams in which this element is present will be called for.
After of moment of sensitization, we will explore some individual
dream images with the gift of focused
attention. This involves
struggling to always remain true to the dream images themselves - always
describing rather than interpreting.
We will first use our heightened sensitivity to become aware of our
unconscious physical and emotional responses to the images, carefully
differentiating, refining our personal sensitivity to the dream imagery
until it becomes a concentrated alchemical tincture:
a highly concentrated declaration that states in first person / present
tense, the essence of what is most truly at stake in the particular case,
the most basic theme. Then,
with our conscious (and unconscious) personal sensitivity coagulated into
this energetically charged tincture,
we can recall our initial thinking and attitude toward the particular
elements, as a reference
point to help expand the dream sequence more deeply into its elemental
mythical background, and experience the flow and movement of energy that
ensues. Part Two will use discussion and elaboration to explore the
significance of the individual elements, and different process of working
with them. The four elements
themselves will help us to organize this second part.
EARTH will give us the
material itself, and help us to focus on structural and environmental
concerns, and to make concrete recommendations for engaging in elemental
dream-work. WATER
will allow us to explore the flow and movement of different processes.
FIRE will motivate us to
perceive the new vision that comes through a confrontation with what we
are passionate about. AIR
will inspire us, and provide the space to discuss and direct what we
have learned and experienced into our daily lives. |
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