In Dream matters we consider dreams of all sorts, unsorted.
For activity on this site, click Dream Matters to get to Dreams and their Corollaries where I post about the dreams spaces (barzakhs. third spaces, special gates, communities, imaginaires) in which we live our other lives. Dream language has its own poetics. Wordsworth laments that we "murder to dissect" when we neglect what "nature" offers us. (I intend to take apart this nature/culture divide over in Ruminations.) Scattered among these dissections are my own dream-inspired poetics.
So, do you see or have a dream? When you "see" a dream, it comes to you. If it comes to you, it is not yours alone. It has volition and its own territory. Since Freud, we "have" dreams; we own them, or as the dream doctor might correct, the latent Repressed has us. In this globalized world, even those who "see" dreams also "have" them. Most of the world carry on in an imbricated modernity. There is not a single modernity, but multiple modernities as many scholars now tell us. But can we, in the mode of Charles Taylor's modern buffered self, also experience the self that hosts the "dreams that come from outside"? Of course. These are epiphany dreams, visitations of the dead, dream journeys of the detachable soul.
Please! Attend to your dreams! Approach your other worlds with care. Here are a beginner's list of resources.
For activity on this site, click Dream Matters to get to Dreams and their Corollaries where I post about the dreams spaces (barzakhs. third spaces, special gates, communities, imaginaires) in which we live our other lives. Dream language has its own poetics. Wordsworth laments that we "murder to dissect" when we neglect what "nature" offers us. (I intend to take apart this nature/culture divide over in Ruminations.) Scattered among these dissections are my own dream-inspired poetics.
So, do you see or have a dream? When you "see" a dream, it comes to you. If it comes to you, it is not yours alone. It has volition and its own territory. Since Freud, we "have" dreams; we own them, or as the dream doctor might correct, the latent Repressed has us. In this globalized world, even those who "see" dreams also "have" them. Most of the world carry on in an imbricated modernity. There is not a single modernity, but multiple modernities as many scholars now tell us. But can we, in the mode of Charles Taylor's modern buffered self, also experience the self that hosts the "dreams that come from outside"? Of course. These are epiphany dreams, visitations of the dead, dream journeys of the detachable soul.
Please! Attend to your dreams! Approach your other worlds with care. Here are a beginner's list of resources.
Resources (updated periodically)
International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD). A remarkably diverse group of adepts and scholars. It permits one to work out in space while tethered to the mother ship. (Sign up for the annual Psiber dreaming conference to glean my meaning.)
Embodied Dreaming, is a very powerful form of dream work originated by Robert Bosnak.
Dream Tending articles by Dr. Stephen Aizenstat Chancellor and Founding President of Pacifica Graduate Institute
Jeremy Taylor, D.Min. was a Unitarian Universalist minister who influenced many students at the Graduate Theological Union and Starr King School of Ministry in the 1990s. Considers social change as part of dream work.
Dream courses I might offer online at some point
Dream Tending your Spirituality
Jacob’s angels climbing ladders, Daniel’s four beasts, Pilot’s wife’s premonition: biblical characters take dreams seriously as messages from God. This session will introduce you to ‘dream tending’ as a spiritual practice. You will learn how to remember your dreams, keep a dream journal, & incubate your dreams. We will explore our dream symbols as sacred messengers awakening us to both the creative and shadow aspects of our life. We will take the labyrinth as a practice for dream work as we read The Living Labyrinth which explores the mythic imagination.
We will read together Dream Tending, Dr. Stephen Aizenstat, founding president of Pacifica Graduate Institute and The Living Labyrinth, Jeremy Taylor.
Dreaming Social Change
Visions, prophesies, dreams have shaken and inspired many to work for the ‘peaceable kingdom.’ In modern life, few expect to speak or hear these languages. While we may not be able to see visions or prophesy, we all dream. We need to revive the ancient understanding that dreams are not only personal property; they can belong to the community. Early Quaker social witness was compelled by prophetic dreams. Did you know that a Quaker dream inspired abolitionism? In the 18th century, Quaker women were propelled out of constricted gender roles to mission work and pastoral leadership because of their dreams. See Night Journeys: The Power of Dreams in Transatlantic Quaker Culture.
We will explore ‘social dreaming’. Through dream tending, we will consider how our “night journeys” offer personal insight, information for our community’s transformation that we may not be able to imagine in our waking life.
Jacob’s angels climbing ladders, Daniel’s four beasts, Pilot’s wife’s premonition: biblical characters take dreams seriously as messages from God. This session will introduce you to ‘dream tending’ as a spiritual practice. You will learn how to remember your dreams, keep a dream journal, & incubate your dreams. We will explore our dream symbols as sacred messengers awakening us to both the creative and shadow aspects of our life. We will take the labyrinth as a practice for dream work as we read The Living Labyrinth which explores the mythic imagination.
We will read together Dream Tending, Dr. Stephen Aizenstat, founding president of Pacifica Graduate Institute and The Living Labyrinth, Jeremy Taylor.
Dreaming Social Change
Visions, prophesies, dreams have shaken and inspired many to work for the ‘peaceable kingdom.’ In modern life, few expect to speak or hear these languages. While we may not be able to see visions or prophesy, we all dream. We need to revive the ancient understanding that dreams are not only personal property; they can belong to the community. Early Quaker social witness was compelled by prophetic dreams. Did you know that a Quaker dream inspired abolitionism? In the 18th century, Quaker women were propelled out of constricted gender roles to mission work and pastoral leadership because of their dreams. See Night Journeys: The Power of Dreams in Transatlantic Quaker Culture.
We will explore ‘social dreaming’. Through dream tending, we will consider how our “night journeys” offer personal insight, information for our community’s transformation that we may not be able to imagine in our waking life.
