Dream Work Journaling

“Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.”
― Henry David Thoreau

We are always wondering "Who Am I?"  Yet, we may not know that your dreams say very much about us. Dreams are the deep down mutterings , joy, sweetness and sorrow, woundings and wonder of our very soul.  Tucked in the folds in memory are bits and pieces of things that impacted us, changed us, hurt us, fulfilled us and our dreams manifest things we need to learn, need to be grateful for, things that were/are offered as a gift for change.

Dreams are not literal.  This is important. They are full of symbols and metaphors and myths and stories of things our soul knows we need to revisit.  Dreams are parables that come from our brain going through our days and picking up important moments to work through.  There are emotions, sometimes intense, that need working through.  Dreams are autobiographical, they belong to you, are about you, even though you may not recognize yourself within the dream, other than, perhaps, the observer.  

Perhaps you already keep a Dream Journal of some kind.  But, here is an opportunity to really work with them.  There is no one way to record dreams.  I choose art journaling to do.  Some write it into a poem.  Some just record them in words.  But this time, you will use as much color, and all the sense you can recall when expressing a dream.  

1.  Who or what is the main character/object, place, and/or thing.

2.  What are the colors of your dream.  Medicine Men tell us that color in a dream makes it a powerful dream that needs to be interpreted because of its purpose for healing something, or as a spiritual message.  Record as soon as you wake up before the dream theme fades.  

3.  You may be left with the mood.  Record as deeply as you can, the location and the scene.  Have you been there before, describe it in-depth?  What are /is the main character(s) doing, how describe them from head to toe?  What is the mood of the dream?  Really do a full descriptive expression of the dream. 

I had a powerful dream, one of the most impacting, after a ceremony in a women's circle that spoke to knowing your guide.  Seriously, it was a creative imagery activity, where the leader talked us thorough a walk to meet our guide.  My dream started out with a walk in the salmon colored walls of arroyos that were deeply cut into the sandstone of the southern desert.  I remember, still, the happy anticipation of the activity.  I was not in any way apprehensive. I was not, either, in a hurry.  The beribboned salmon walls filled me with such beautiful awe.  I was the observer and I sense all the emotions.  I felt the slightly sifting sand on my bare feet.  When the sun peeked through the top slit of the canyon, it was hot and dry, but when I walked on through into shadow, it was cool and womb-colors surrounded me.  It was as if I was walking through my original birth.  I was aware of being beautifully alone in a place of great peace and gratitude as I have ever known in real life.  I walked further in and the canyon became almost a tunnel;  as large tunnel, but a tunnel-type place.  When I got through that tunnel, I came out into a spotlight sunny space, maybe as big as an acre of dry desert with sage and small tufts of tumbling weed caught at the bottom of tall stately saguaros.  No birds chirped, no animals scurried, it was like entering a truly sacred space.  Suddenly, I heard the steady sounds of a slow walking horse coming from further through curved walls of canyon. My heart started to beat faster as the horse hooves sounded closer and closer.  I saw the shade first, as if it were alive and coming around the corner into the open space.  I can see him as sharply as I saw it decades ago.  There was a Native American Man sitting settled on a slowly walking tan horse.  He was as relaxed as I was and it was as if he knew he was meeting me because his eyes turned on me, the moment he became aware I was there.  The horse had hand braided halter on and over his nose and neck.  The man was riding bareback.  He had a type of breechcloth and a paisley flower shirt, a soft chambray, perhaps, with tiny lavender flower print.  His hair was blunt cut at jaw level.  He wore a red bandana.  (The red bandana is important to me because, when I was a young woman, I wore red bandanas when I was on a mission.)  His face was sharp-angled, his eyes blackly piercing, his hands held a gnarled grip on the drooping reins.  We spoke not a word but I had a senseof the word "Moki"  There was a grace that enveloped us.  No words were needed.  Slowly he began to turn his horse and returned back into the salmon colored tunnel and I turned, not wanting it to end, slowly, and made my way back to whence I had come at the beginning of my journey.  There was more to the ending ceremony.  I am only sharing the dream.  I was in University and one of my classes was Native American Spirituality with Dr. Phil Lane.  I knew I was eternally connected to Native Americans.  I know the reasons I am, now.  I got help through a Medicine Man to really affirm what I thought.  I had met my life guide.  I did not recognize the way the character looked, I guessed Hopi but was led to go down to the very bowels of the University library to discover what Band wore his type of clothing and hair cut, etc.  There were stacks and stacks of such.  I simply closed my eyes and chose one.  I turned a few pages and there he was, almost exactly and what I saw. 

"Hopi, formerly called Moki or (Spanish) Moqui, the westernmost group of Pueblo Indians, situated in what is now northeastern Arizona, on the edge of the Painted Desert. They speak a Northern Uto-Aztecan language." - Wikipedia 

I was forever changed due to this experience, this dream.  I spent my whole career in service of First Nations. I saw God every day in my work.  That was a huge purpose to fulfill and certainly was not always easy.  I was committed to doing it and always had reason to continue.

You will not necessarily dream a dream every night, or remember the dreams, but sometimes a dream is impacting.. watch for color for this, they say, is an important dream.  But, record all you can of every dream until one really comes full Technicolor and fully sensory.  For sure, express those as fully as you can.  

A word of warning:  Your Ego will hate this.  Your dream may be totally unacceptable to society at large.  Ignore all that and be true to your dreams.  Every dream is something abut a need you have, an unmet emotional closure.  Writing your dreams and putting it away, then coming back later to dissect the dream, to research symbolic meanings ( there are many found through Google, (type" Symbolic meaning of _____people, place, thing, color, etc.)  I took courses in First Nations Dream Analysis, so if all else fails, simply ask me.  

So, before you go to sleep tonight, ask for a dream, any dream.  (Note:  I will deal with journaling nightmares next post).  Please share in the Face Book group, a little goddess in all, as it will help us all learn better how to journal dreams. 

©Carol Desjarlais 8.19.19