Restarting A Dreamwork Practice

Exercises and Advice

It’s been over 3 weeks since I last wrote down a dream in my journal. I haven’t recorded even the slightest bit of dream material; not an impression nor a single image. I have been dreaming. And yet, when I awake, I can’t seem to muster the energy to write anything.

This is the natural ebb and flow of the practice. There are times when I am working on dreams regularly. At other times, the well appears to dry up. And it’s not just my motivation. Some days I rise in the morning without the vaguest sense that I had dreamed at all.

“The inner process can be overdone with too much fire, as happens to those who strive after the process of individuation. They say they can’t go to a party, for instance, because “I have to stay home and do my mandalas.” It is the desire to force the process, but one cannot force a process of growth. It is foolish to storm at a little oak tree, telling it to grow more quickly, for that is against nature. It would be better to water it and put some dung at its roots. There are things in the inner process which cannot be speeded up and it is no good being impatient.”

- Marie Louise von Franz, “Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology”

As von Franz mentions in this quote, the inner process can be overdone with a rigid attitude that doesn’t adopt flexibility and ease. That does not honor the slow periods or the natural shifts in tempo of the psyche. We may lament about our lack of dreams rather than living our life and trusting that they will return when the timing is right.

What if the lack of dreams is a necessary part of the current process? Maybe our resources need to be allocated to the outer world for a time. Maybe we’re falling into habits that block the unconscious flow and the lack of dreams is a reminder of that. Maybe we just need a break. We can get curious about the situation without, as von Franz says, “overdoing it with fire”.

During these past weeks, I have allowed dreams to slip away and other practices to rise in its place. But as of late, I have been feeling the call back to dreamwork; to gently restart the process. Here are a few methods that I’ve employed as I turn once again towards the images of the unconscious.

Dream Incubation

Dream incubation is the practice of setting an intention or asking a question before going to sleep in order to connect with the unconscious psyche and potentially receive insights or guidance through the resulting dream. I find this technique to be playful, mysterious and impactful. It helps enliven the link between ego and the unconscious as our conscious attention gazes into the depths.

At times, the dreams received shoot back with a lucid clarity that can feel stunning. What is more likely is that the dream will feel cryptic, entrenched with symbols, and unrelated. Do not make the mistake of tossing these dreams aside. Sitting with the images that come up after a conscious intention can unlock and move energy within the psyche.

Our attitude towards the process should be one of receptivity, curiosity and invitation — rather than explicit expectation. This is an act of co-creation; a linking between layers of our psychic essence. We are not shaking a magic 8 ball and receiving a literal response. We are engaging in a conversation spoken through symbol and metaphor. Listen to what the unconscious says back.

The intention I set to restart my dreamwork:

• “I want to receive a dream that can orient me in relation to my inner work. Where am I? What themes should I focus on?”

Record Keywords from the Dream

One pattern I was noticing during this time was my lack of focus and ability to record the dreams I was having. Upon waking, I had images still within my conscious grasp. Alas, I just couldn’t get them down. Chalk it up to busy days, worn out energy, distraction, etc. In this case, make the process easier by writing down keywords only.

I employ this technique during all periods of my dreamwork. Especially if I awake at night and want to record my dreams. I will write down simple words that capture the essence of what the dream was about. When I have time later that day, I return to the keywords and see if they jog up clearer memory of the dream. The closer you do this upon waking up, the higher the chances of remembering as much as possible.

That night, I had a rather complex dream involving many family members attending and chaperoning my grandfather’s birthday party. There were tense interactions between my cousin and I. Conversations about how to run the party, where to place the gifts, and who was in charge. There was a long sequence where many of my family members were attempting to assist my ailing grandpa from his wheelchair and carry him off somewhere else. The dream ends with me finally going to my grandfather’s aid, successfully carrying him where others could not.

When I woke up from the dream, I only wrote down these key words:

• Grandpa, birthday, fighting, helping carry him

I went back to sleep and some hours later looked at the keywords I had jotted down on my notes app. I held each word in my mind and sensed into the imaginal space that surrounded it. The dream came back to me with relative ease, and I then wrote it down in greater detail.

Dream the Dream Onward

I journaled for a time on the dream: what came up for me as I reflected on the images, how I thought it applied to my life, what I was being called to pay attention to. I found this useful, and yet, I still felt that I was struggling to pierce deeper into the core of the dream. That my conscious standpoint was running up against a block of sorts. Or that I had walked this trail as far as it could go.

In times such as these, it is useful to call upon other methods for interacting with the dream material. To dream it onward, bring it back to life, or approach it in a new way. Some options include (but are not limited to) active imagination, painting or drawing a dream image (and paying attention to what new insights emerge during the process) and tarot.

As an avid reader of the tarot, I always have the cards near by. Next to active imagination, it is my most utilized technique for working with dream images. Tarot and dreamwork pair wonderfully as they both tap into the archetypal, symbolic and metaphorical layer of psyche.

The goal is to stir up further images, insights and symbols that can expand upon the dream; providing further context and material for us to work with. The tarot cards drawn at random (an act of synchronicity) point us towards particular themes. They help link disparate associations and images together to create more coherency.

Here is the spread I used for the dream:

• What aspect of my life is the dream exploring?

• What does my grandpa represent?

• How can I work with the themes of this dream?
  

All together, the different techniques helped get things flowing. I have been recalling my dreams with greater ease. I feel re-connected to the unconscious and its rich images. The dream I received that night pointed me in a meaningful direction. I took the themes presented into analysis and have been reflecting on them ever since.

I expect there will be times in the distant future when I stray again from the dreamworld. But I remind myself that development does not halt whether we recall dreams or not. It is an opportunity to slow down, to be challenged, to find new ways of connecting to the psyche.

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Share Your Experience & Thoughts:

What methods do you employ to stir up dreams, to reconnect, or deepen your interpretation? Would love to hear about your techniques, thoughts or general comments on the subject.