Spirit Bear Dreaming

Someone asked if they need a professional dream interpreter to help them read and understand their dreams, and if anyone would spend some of their free time helping them understand their dreams?

I have a somewhat contrary idea on how best to do dream interpretation, something along the lines of: give someone a single dream interpretation and they have one day's dream help, teach someone to work with their own dreams on a daily basis and they will have a lifetime of dream help.

I advocate learning more about dream journaling and working with a group of peers who share an interest in dreaming, and in using techniques that honor the dream and the dreamer. I like the freedom of rejecting interpretations that don't sit well with me, the ability to test my own feelings and to develop my own inner imagery, and to act on my dreams in the manner I see fit.

When I first got serious about studying my dreams I read a lot of books and looked at the local dream groups. Most of what I encountered was not useful to me as it was all slanted in a certain direction I wasn't sure I wanted to adopt. However, the works of Patricia Garfield and Jeremy Taylor and, most especially for me, the approach of Robert Moss, had a lot of good information on how to do dreamwork for oneself and in groups, and on how to develop one's own ability as a dreamer.

Garfield came from the scientific research of dreams, Taylor came from the ministering dreamwork side of mainline liberal Christianity, and Moss from the approach of an artist who finds a deep connection with the ancient dreaming techniques of shamans. He hooked me with one of the first lines in the first book of his that I encountered, where he says that the best book on dreaming is your own dream journal. That immediately stuck me as true and honest because it didn't suggest that I adopt a specific symbology of dreams, but that I'd build my own understanding and adapt and adjust as I go along. And that has ended up being the case for me for nearly two decades.

I wholeheartedly recommend these three authors as a starting point if you want to take the path of self-discovery through dreaming. But I personally find Robert Moss most appealing and he still teaches his techniques in workshops around North America and sometimes in Europe. He has many techniques for dream sharing that are useful for acting on your dreams, not just getting symbols but getting plans for action.

The major rule for dream sharing in his groups is that we never tell others what their dreams mean, as that takes away their power from their dream, and it replaces that with something foreign. Rather, we share what we would think or feel if the dream were ours. We share our version of their dream and let them make their own choices to take what they like from us and keep the dream as their own.

I personally like this approach because over time you develop awareness of when something being suggested is really hitting the mark. For me, I get an actual shiver, an expression of inner knowing showing itself in the body. And that says to me that my sometimes jumbled mental state is not imposing itself on the dream, but that my body is talking about some inner truth in the dream.

I could go on and on as to why you should interpret your own dreams and build your own inner world in terms of your life and experience and feeling. But rather than repeat myself, I suggest reading my other post on similar dreaming questions about meaning and journaling. And I strongly suggest looking for a dream group, I've been in at least one group nearly every week for well over a decade and it is the best thing for keeping connected to dreams and learning about new ways to approach dreaming.

Best of luck, no matter which approach you choose, dreaming has made a significant difference in my life and I have no regrets about going deeper into dreaming.

✢

~~fran

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