Dreams are a species
Of metaphor that we concoct
Deep in REM sleep

#haiku #dreamwork

I mentioned #ActiveDreaming in my intro and I thought I should explain that a little in case others are looking for an approach to #Dreamwork that goes beyond the psychological approach, or the idea of "dream dictionaries" of canned meanings that always apply in every case.

Forty-plus years ago there was an effort to take dreamwork out of the hands of professionals and put it back into the hands of dreamers. Patricia Garfield and Jeremy Taylor wrote, practiced, organized and advocated for dreamers claiming the power of their dreams and they wrote excellent books on the topic. Before encountering them I had delved deeply into Jane Roberts' (and Seth's) writing on dreams and the special techniques they described. Two decades ago I stumbled upon Robert Moss and his writings about his Active Dreaming approach, which has become one of my best dreamworking toolkits. (He is still out there teaching it, too.)

The 'Active' part comes from Jung's idea of Active Imagination. As I understand it this is a technique for using the powers of imagination to converse with the deeper layers of the self. Moss developed a number of approaches for applying this specifically to dreaming. Most importantly, to my mind, using shamanic journeying techniques to reenter dreams, either one's own dreams or the dreams of another. This enables a powerful direct interaction with the dreamer's own dream images. You can go back to a dream and ask that talking mongoose what is it there for!

All of these teachers share the foundation for journaling dreams consistently, building some kind of relationship with your dreams by acknowledging them and interacting with them, and for group dream sharing as a way to deepen understanding of our dreams. With that kind of basis, all kinds of dreamwork can be done. In my current dream group we not only share dreams and work on what they could be bringing us individually and as a group, but we also work with dream incubation, doing group dream travel to places in space and time we'd find hard to visit in waking life. For instance, we did a bunch of dreams to Oumuamua when it was passing through the solar system, which were very mysterious.

All of this dreamwork leads one into interesting personal research. It has led me to #Synesius of Cyrene, student of the legendary Hypatia. Around the year 405 Synesius wrote a book titled "On Dreams" where he goes into great detail on the nature of dreams. To Synesius we are composed of both Mind and Soul, or Matter and Spirit. The Mind contains images of what is, the Soul of what will be. We also have a third part, the Imagination, where dreams occur or exist, a part that connects the Mind to Soul and thus provides a path to the Divine. "The imagination has the senses available, but not the organs of perception. Thus the imagination may be perceiving something more pure. When sleep makes a connection to the soul this brings us close to our source."

I like that he is saying that Imagination is a larger part of us and is the part that connects us to things outside the material world. It resonates with my experience and seems to be a more accurate picture of the world that just the mind/body dualism running around the world these days. Anyway, I'm always open to discussing dreams.

#Introduction

Hi All, my name is Fran and Spirit Bear Dreaming is the label I use for teaching dreamwork and doing things like writing about the things that interest me and which keep me going.

My earliest memory was of picking a tomato from a huge sunny garden with my mother and her mother. We washed it and I bit into in the summer sunshine food, surrounded by loving ancestors. That's my foundation memory.

I grew up in a little village in the laps of the Italian side of the family in the Pennsylvania foothills. I thought their church was goofy from an early age and I looked for more. In my early teens I discovered the I Ching and was blown away by the fact that divination still worked. Later, I had a transformative initiation experience with a tarot reader and then entered into a world of meaning and a living universe, and I've read tarot ever since. Very poorly at first and for years after that, but I've improved a lot over the decades!

I started out working as an artist and ended up doing art production to make a living. As more tech came into the art world I did more tech work and eventually became a developer. A marriage, a family, a home, I hit midlife and realized the trip was half over and that I better get to those things I'd been putting off! A deep dive followed into dreamwork, qigong/tai chi, and then shamanism and now I do a broad mix of those every day.

I read tarot in a small non-public situation and occasionally teach. I've been involved in tarot publishing, including my own intermediate level book on layouts and things. Dreamwork is an lifetime long, ongoing work of imagination in the greater sense. For nearly two decades I've led dream groups and taught dreamwork with a focus on the shamanic Active Dreaming developed by Robert Moss. For a decade I was part of a local shamanic circle build on our leader's Celtic traditions. We worked with spirits, local and otherwise, traversed a lot of interesting realms and did a lot of psychopomp work and clearing, clearing, clearning!

My second Saturn return of a few years ago was very rough, but I survived it. It clearly informed me that I'm in the last few chapters now and that I need to clear up any remaining messes and see if I have anything good to leave for others. I'm learning about that now and frankly, climbing down off the wheel isn't too bad. Lately I have been mostly writing and studying, figuring out what to let go of or get rid of, and finding little tasks to help pay the bills.

The social media scene has been a bit toxic or boring for a while, but as I checked out Mastodon, this site seemed to be full of people interested in many of the same topics as me. So, I did a tarot reading on joining and it told me this would be a good place, if a bit challenging at times. Last night I got a reading that reminded me that I need to get myself out there beyond the gravity of my default introvert self. So I signed in and here I am.

My main topics of interest are:

#Divination in general, including astrology, which I think I will never master, but it pulls at me. Sun in Aries, Moon in Taurus, Sagittarius rising.

#Tarot and especially #TarotLayouts and interesting technical issues in using and reading tarot. I love shared readings where we collaborate and everyone brings things to it.

#Shamanism of the modern kind, using sonic drivers or the like. My teachers all trace back to the Harner efforts to build a system that modern Westerners can use to get back to the foundations of being human after being long separated from their shamanic ancestors. I don't really know much about traditional people's works and I try not to interfere or appropriate things I should avoid.

#BodyEnergetics since that seems to be a requirement for any spiritual efforts. I've worked a lot with QiGong and Tai Chi, but I am always open to learning more.

#Dreaming and #Dreamwork especially using the techniques developed to get more help from dreaming and finding more practical ways to use it in waking life. #ActiveDreaming is very powerful.

I appreciate you reading this whole thing! Cheers!

Leyla (Dragons: Rescue Riders)

#howtotrainyourdragon #dreamwork #dragonrescueriders #rescueriders #leyla #rule34 #r34 #hentai #r18 #teen #loli #ロリ #lolicon #pussy #rape #noncon #incest #sex #sexy #porn #shotacon #nsfw #lewd #forced #shota #ahegao #naked #naughty #cunny

https://writehere.is/nwo/tag:willtrade

#willtrade #thefuture #socialcapital #cooperation #ui #ux #html #calltocode #calltoaction #ben #whereareyall, #assistanceRequired #teamwork #makes the #dreamwork

some more thoughts on willtrade.

Politics are a trap, local action is where it's all about. ground up cohesive actionable workings, vs top down nothing done but lip service and eyewash.

/// more: https://writehere.is/nwo/some-more-thoughts-on-willtrade

know someone named ben? have him or her write to hello@yeshua.is

frontend ui/ux ..

https://writehere.is/nwo/tag:willtrade

#willtrade #thefuture #socialcapital #cooperation #ui #ux #html #calltocode #calltoaction #ben #whereareyall, #assistanceRequired #teamwork #makes the #dreamwork

some more thoughts on willtrade.

Politics are a trap, local action is where it's all about. ground up cohesive actionable workings, vs top down nothing done but lip service and eyewash.

/// more: https://writehere.is/nwo/some-more-thoughts-on-willtrade

know someone named ben? have him or her write to hello@yeshua.is

frontend ui/ux ..

https://writehere.is/nwo/tag:willtrade

#willtrade #thefuture #socialcapital #cooperation #ui #ux #html #calltocode #calltoaction #ben #whereareyall, #assistanceRequired #teamwork #makes the #dreamwork

some more thoughts on willtrade.

Politics are a trap, local action is where it's all about. ground up cohesive actionable workings, vs top down nothing done but lip service and eyewash.

/// more: https://writehere.is/nwo/some-more-thoughts-on-willtrade

know someone named ben? have him or her write to hello@yeshua.is

frontend ui/ux ..

To a degree, I agree with this image, but I think it goes a lot deeper than that. At no point in our journey do we ever reach a point where we're finished working on ourselves. There's always room to improve, become more #conscious and #SelfAware of not only our good traits but our harmful ones. This doesn't mean let people walk all over you or put up with #abuse. I think many people develop this kind of mentality because their trauma-based experiences. That people feel their traumatic experiences are what made them the way they are and that's just how it is and always will be. This is a defensive response to protect the part of themselves that was hurt in the past so it doesn't happen again. But this isn't healing, nor is it moving forward.

Your negative experiences, #trauma, wounds, they don't need to define your #existence. The things you may have experienced in the past that shaped your character of today happened, and it is good that you acknowledge those things and acknowledge the dark side if your being. But the issue lies in getting stuck in that darkness, unpacking and living there, and never #healing from it. If we don't actually heal from it, the hurt, anger, bitterness, distrust, all the negative things we're harbouring inside of us gets reflected towards everyone else, because we are a *mirror* of what's going on in our #InnerWorld.

Healing is hard, because it requires #vulnerability. It requires #SelfReflection, recognizing things about yourself that are uncomfortable to admit, such as #toxic #BehavioralPatterns, #MentalHealth issues, #EmotionalIssues, even physical issues. So much of these issues are rooted in our #traumas and #insecurities. I never realized this until I started looking into #ShadowWork, but it's true. So much of these things are connected and stem from roots we never healed from. It can be a #journey in itself trying to remember what the roots are and get through all the layers of our being.

So I just want to conclude this post with a word of #encouragement to whoever needed to hear this today. You are capable of so much more than you realize. Your wounds happened, they were awful, but you don't need to let them define who you are or who you want to be. Embrace your #shadow, work with your shadow, send love to your shadow, but don't allow it to consume your entire being. You do not need to remain #trapped in this fragment of the #past. You are #worthy and deserving of #MovingForward, and living a life where you feel #happy and at #peace. ❤️ It is 100% possible to get there.

A few things that have helped me on my own shadow work journey that I'd like to share with you are:

» #EFT (#EmotionalFreedomTechnique / aka #Tapping). This is a process of tapping on certain #MeridianPoints while repeating #affirmations that address things you're emotionally struggling with. This is a known treatment for #anxiety and #PTSD. This practice helps with #EmotionalRelease, so if you feel you need to cry doing this practice, allow yourself to.

» #DreamWork. #Dreams are one of the best ways of uncovering what's going on in our inner world and is an incredible tool to get to know yourself on a deeper level. In my experience, my #CordAttachments and unhealed traumas often reveal themselves in dreams, via #dreaming about people, places, or circumstances that have connection to my past or caused me distress. Dreams are often extremely #symbolic and so as you become more observant of what your dreams are, you also need to analyze what certain #symbols in your dreams represent to you on a personal level. It is a very #intuitive process, and sometimes you'll just automatically know what something represents based on the feeling it gives you. Keeping a #DreamJournal is also really important as it will give you the opportunity to go back and reflect more if at first a dream doesn't make sense.

» Talk to someone you trust. My husband has been my rock through my shadow work journey. He might not have many answers for me, but just having someone to confide in and a shoulder to cry on is such a huge support during the process.

» Join shadow work #SupportGroups. #Facebook has some really great ones. It's a great way to connect with others who are also working through things. There are also people there who have overcome many of their traumas that can offer resources that got them through theirs. And sometimes just talking about it with these groups will help you put your own puzzle pieces together.

» #Reiki is another thing that helped me. I highly recommend seeking out a #Naturotherapist in your area who practices this. #Naturotherapy takes into account the mind, body, and SPIRIT, and our #spirit is such an important aspect of ourselves that is often ignored in the world of #ModernMedicine.

I hope this helps someone on their own healing journey. ❤️ If anyone has any questions about anything I've mentioned here, please don't hesitate to ask and I'm more than happy to answer the best that I can. 😊

Since 2007 a lot of my #Dreamwork has centered around the #ActiveDreaming techniques taught by Robert Moss in books and classes and retreats.

Beyond journaling and sharing dreams the focus is on active engagement with your #Dreaming using approaches built upon Jungian and shamanic techniques for working with personal imagery.

Jung's idea of the transcendent function is part of what seems to be going on here, you open a dialog via dreaming and it becomes a way to make choices and changes.

Forgot I had an account here! The past several weeks I finally got hooked to the #Fediverse 😂 took awhile for it to catch on for me but it finally did and now I can't put it down.

So here's a little #introduction post for this instance! 😁

I grew up in a strict #christian household and stopped going to #church when I became a teenager. My #religious upbringing brought me a lot of religion related trauma and for a long time I felt resentful of the church and my father for the things that really hurt me during my upbringing.

I had my #SpiritualAwakening back in 2016 triggered by my first #OutOfBodyExperience. It wasn't a much of an out of body experience, but happened simply because I was curious about what #AstralProjection was, and spirit decided to show me that day. That was the catalyst that set me down the #spiritual path.

From there it lead me down the rabbit hole of astral projection, #ShadowWork, #reiki, opening the #ThirdEye, #manifestation, #divination, #DreamWork, and a bunch of other things.

These days my path has narrowed a bit and my primary method of expansion is shadow work, and dream work plays a big role in my shadow work. This path has allowed me to heal from a lot of religious trauma I experienced growing up and get to know myself on a much deeper level.

#Tarot and #oracle reading is also something I still practice fairly regularly and recently I have been really wanting to learn more about the #pagan #WheelOfTheYear and getting in tune with nature's cycles.

My biggest spiritual inspiration is #GigiYoung. She teaches a lot about #occult science from #RudolfSteiner's work, #cosmology, and diving deep into the sinister agendas of elite groups involved in the dark occult.

That's me in a nutshell! 😊 Thanks for having me, and thanks to the admin for increasing the character limit on posts. 😁 I like to write a lot, and the increased character limit makes this an excellent blogging platform!

@sleepsickwitch Hello Meranda, I've done a bunch of #SoulRetrieval work through direct shamanic techniques and #dreamwork. I even once had a MD lead me through a big one when she overheard me talking about not wanting to see my own blood when taking samples. I'm always up for a conversation on that subject as I think it is amazing and overlooked. Cheers!

Hmmm, I wonder if that subject needs a content warning? It can be intense.

When I hit 40 I realized that I was likely about halfway thru life and that I needed to start doing things that I'd put off. At the top of the list, #Dreamwork had fascinated me for my entire life and I decided to dive in.

So, I started reading everything I could find and I started a Breakfast Dream Group that met at a local coffee shop in the morning. Jane Roberts' book on dreaming was perfect for me, but I also loved books by Jeremy Taylor and Patricia Garfield, among others.

#chaosmagic #mysticism #mystic #animism #psychedelicassistedtherapy #jyotish #wisdomschool #innerwork #contemplative #cynthiabourgeault #gurdjieff #shamanism #trancework #dreamwork #jungian #progressivechristian #exvangelical #exvie #integralist #metamodern #literacy #publiceducation #healing #tarot #pagan #taoism #buddhism

Calling in others...

#kindness #gentleness #compassion #clouds #nature #trees #poetry #dreams #dreamwork #forestbathing #stargazing #beautyintheworld #wilderness #rewilding #ecotherapy #ecopsychology #processwork #depthpsychology #decolonization #carfree #slowfood #slowliving #giftedadults #forests #embodiment #ecology #oceans #wandering #zen #interbeing #voluntarysimplicity #meditation #minimalism #mindfulness #shunyata #satori #softness #listening #presence #peace #ease

Because I can't just keep focused on one project, I've started a series on dreamwork on Tiktok, and am finally beginning to write on the project that's been roughly titled Dreaming with Vassago for... the last three years. But I am finally putting pen to paper-- fingers to keyboard-- and starting to flesh it out.

I will be continuing work on my Beginner's Primer to Demonolatry, as well as a series of grimoires for the Demonic Divine, but this project with Vassago is something I've been passionate about for years, and it's time I actually make it happen.

#demonolatry #dreamwork #occult

It's enough to keep up with politics in my imaginary country than to fret about the "stuff from over there." This is very refreshing!
Looking for an instance or further connections who are deep into #mythology, #dreamwork, #phenomenology. Just weirdness.
We're building it, they're coming through the portal.

I facilitate a 10 hour workshop focused on dream work, and shoring up our relationship to our dreaming and intuition in service of contemplative, creative and healing processes

(Next session Jan 2023)

#Dreams #DreamStudies #DreamWork

https://www.whatashrinkthinks.com/dream-workshop

I've set dates for the next session of my Dream Workshop -

Saturdays at 10:00 Pacific, 11:00 Mountain, 12:00 Central and 1:00 Eastern

Starting in January -

Please share with anyone who might be interested!

#Dreams #DreamWork #Jung #DepthPsychology #OnlineWorkshops

https://www.whatashrinkthinks.com/dream-workshop

I had a little interview today with an Australian journalist about the Climate Dreams Project that I have been running

#Dreams #DreamStudies #DreamWork #Jung #CollectiveDreams
#ClimateEmergency
#ClimateChange
#ClimateCrisis

https://climatedreams.com/about/

The next round of the Dream workshop I facilitate is scheduled for January! Please spread the word!

https://www.whatashrinkthinks.com/dream-workshop

#dreams #dreamwork #workshops #Jung