Dreams, Archetypes, and Synchronicities

I recently attended a Wisdom University course intensive in Oakland, California with dream workers Jeremy Taylor and Bruce Silverman titled “Many Paths Into The Heart of Dreaming: Solar & Lunar Perspectives on the Archetypal World.” There were so many surprises that I and others in the class encountered, such rich layers of meaning between Jeremy’s morning projective dreamwork and Bruce’s afternoon rituals and dream enactments that it’s taken me many days to “come down” enough to write about the experiences at all. Since it would take several pages to describe the multiple synchronicities we – individually and as a group - encountered, I will keep the focus on the remarkable coincidences having to do with two dreamers in the group. But before I do, I want to add that I can’t say enough good things about Wisdom University and the work of Jeremy Taylor and Bruce Silverman - individually and as a team. They are both brilliant masters of dream work. If you ever get an opportunity to do a workshop with both or either one of them, I suggest you jump at the chance!

During our group's first full day of dreamwork (we had met the night before for a two-hour orientation), we assembled in the morning for 30 minutes of Lunar heart and body work with Bruce - drumming, song, dance, poetry. Afterward, we joined Jeremy in a smaller room for the more Solar interpretive dreamwork that lasted until lunchtime. Those who wanted to share a dream and have it worked on by the group were instructed to write their name on a slip of paper, fold it lengthwise for security, and place it in a bowl that was passed around the circle for Jeremy to chose one at random. The dreamer who was chosen that first morning - I will call her Dawn (not her real name) - shared with the group a fascinating and what some considered to be a precognitive dream of inner transformation that required the whole morning session. By the time we took a break for lunch, we had learned many things about Dawn's life as this information related to the dream, including her strength of character. We also learned a lot about each other through our projections onto her dream. In working with Dawn's dream, the group practiced the type of group work that Jeremy writes about in his book “Where People Fly and Water Runs Up Hill.” Following Jeremy's "Tool Kit" for dream groups, deep intimacy between members is nurtured in a safe environment. Our own group space quickly began to feel – as in the morning’s ritual with Bruce - like “Holy Ground.”

After lunch, we met with Bruce on the Lunar side again for drumming, music, and grounding before actual dream sharing with him this time. In Bruce’s group work, those who feel led to share a dream stand up in the middle of the circle. If more than one person is standing, then, those who are led to sit back down do so until only one is standing. Out of four people who initially stood up, John (not his real name), a man in his early thirties, was left to tell his dream when the process was complete. And what a dream it was! He proceeded to share an amazing dream of mythic proportion; a personal and collective dream of initiation and redemption. As John recounted his dream to Bruce's soft drumming , he stood in the center of the room surrounded by the group.

Standing in for John, here, I recall that his dream went like this:

In the beginning of the dream, I am facing a tall woman with a light, like a torch, in her right hand. This image changes into a wall with the woman and light contained within it. Behind the wall is a white knight. The wall, then, becomes the white wall of a castle where I am the King. I am going through many, many receipts and getting frustrated because my young daughter is playing with two cats on the floor. I ask her to stop playing and help, but she will not. This scene changes into the King (me) going through a doorway into another reality where I become an ordinary man whose house is being built. Two artists of grunge-like persuasion are there working on the house. One, a man, is painting white flowers on the outside walls and the other, a woman, is hanging a wreath on the door. I call these two the Seattle Lights. Dawn (from the group) is there. She is giving me instructions on the building and use of the house.

Without going fully into the extraordinary work that John, Bruce, and the rest of the group did on this dream (I could write a book!), I will merely recount what relates to the synchronicities that unfolded. The first thing, of course, is that the two dreamers of the day, both chosen by random selection, were Dawn and John. They were strangers before meeting at the group and separated in age by many years. Not only had John dreamed about Dawn the night before we worked on her dream, but also the group had a chance to get acquainted with her as person during the morning session before hearing his dream! Ah, but there is more to be revealed about the Dawn/John connection as you read on. In the meantime, we will explore the next meaningful coincidence that happened as John chose people to represent and act out the symbols in his dream. Without thinking too much about it, John picked a woman from the group, whose name was later discovered to mean Angel of Light, to represent - you guessed it! - the Divine Woman of Light symbol in the dream. Little did we know at that time how much light this angel in disguise would bring to the group over the next few days.

There were other interesting matches between people and symbols, but what really made the hairs on our arms stand on end was when John chose Dawn to represent herself in the dream, and she confessed that she had also dreamed of him the night before - perhaps, at the same time he was dreaming of her! In Dawn’s dream she saw a billboard with John’s face on it that resembled that of Alfred E. Newman of Mad Magazine fame. It wasn’t a stretch from that famous jester's image to making the connection between the Court Jester (positive Shadow figure) and the King (the dreamer’s Ego) to associating the jester with the Divine Trickster archetype. In my projection on the dream, it is the Trickster who tells the King and his subjects (sub-personalities) the truth through the back door of humor. He lessens the king's load by showing him the lighter side of life.

I will leave you, the reader, to tie up the dream associations and meanings for yourself. I am a merely a messenger, bringing word that the universe is indeed alive with meaning, mystery, and humor. And I know a group of dream workers who resemble the truth of that statement!

A Heroine’s Journey: Turning Straw Into Gold

Years ago I thought about writing a book about using life's challenges as a way of embarking on a heroic healing path. I even had a title: If Pain is the Teacher, Joy is the Reward. As I wondered if such a book would be meaningful and helpful to others, I thought about my own life and how facing painful moments instead of hiding out in addictive behavior has made me a stronger and more aware and compassionate person (Admittedly, I am a late bloomer, but over the years I have achieved a modicum of awareness). At that moment, a perfectly formed yet tiniest of all acorns fell at my feet. I took this as a sign that all that I needed to write this or any book was within me and just needed to be nurtured to grow. While that particular book was never written, I am happy to be in the process of writing another about a subject close to my heart: synchronicity journaling. I saved my little acorn and pasted it in the journal I was writing in at the time as a symbol to remind me that given the right conditions for growth – focused attention, love, dedication, and time – the books I do choose to write will take root and grow and, hopefully, be sources of sustenance, warmth, and shelter for those who choose to use them.

Thankfully, others have successfully written about using life's challenges as sources of healing. One of my favorite books on this subject is Jack Kornfield’s A Path With Heart. I have recently begun reading it for the second time, and I am mining more nuggets of wisdom in it than the first time around. In the section titled “Turning Straw into Gold,” Kornfield writes, “What freedom this attitude [of the Dali Lama toward the Chinese, whom he calls my friends, the enemy] shows. It is the power of the heart to encounter any difficult circumstance and turn it into golden opportunity. This is the fruit of true practice. Such freedom and love is the fulfillment of spiritual life, its true goal…”

A few days after reading Kornfield's words, I was looking for a Netflix movie to watch and chose “I Dreamed of Africa,” primarily because I’m drawn to stories about Africa lately. As it happens, the universe had different reasons for me choosing this inspirational biography about Kuki (pronounced cookie) Gallman, a woman of courage and heart who turned her own intense suffering into a golden opportunity to help the endangered animals of Kenya and educate future generations of Africans about the joys of conservation. Since I’m going to tell the gist of the story here, if you haven’t seen the movie or read the book, I suggest you quit reading now and come back after you’ve had a chance to do so.

Kuki was born to an Italian family of wealth and means. Although, she had everything she could ever want materially, she dreamed of leaving Italy and living a more meaningful life in Africa after having spent time there with her father in her teens before he passed away. In 1972 Kuki, her husband Paolo, and son Emanuele moved to Kenya where they acquired the farm known as Ol Ari Nyiro. In the farm's idyllic setting they raised cattle and began an anti-poaching initiative to save indigenous animals from extinction. In 1980, Paolo died in an auto accident transporting a crib for their unborn daughter. Three years later Emanuele died from a poisonous snakebite. The movie spent much time building up family's love of Africa and the loving relationships between Kuki and the two male loves of her life. At Emanuele’s death I was beside myself, wondering how a woman goes on after losing both her husband and her son. But Kuki is an extraordinary woman. She has continued to find meaning in her life by writing the book I Dreamed of Africa (made into a movie) and starting the Gallman Memorial Foundation, dedicated to the memories of Paolo and Emanuele, to protecting endangered species of wildlife in Kenya, and to training young Africans about the importance of conservation.

I found the heroine's words at the end of the film quite moving: “Finally, all we can do is let the days instruct us, and know the only gift worth having is the Grace to go on. There’s a job to be done, people to love, and knowing what we love we can never lose. There is no holding on in this world. We came to this extraordinary place, and Africa let us lead extraordinary lives. Then, Africa claimed an extraordinary price. That was Africa’s privilege. And now it is my turn to look after Africa.”

Wow! That’s what I call turning straw into gold!

The New Humanism Re-visited

David Brooks is a columnist for the NY Times. He wrote an article March 7, 2011 titled "The New Humanism" that caused quite a stir in education circles. The article has to do with our nation's "overly simplistic view of human nature" and our belief in the West that "society progresses to the extent that reason can suppress the passions." As a result, we focus on our kid's test scores and achievement and competition in school and put subjects having to do with the arts on the back burner. Brooks notes that that historically in our culture something has to be quantifiable or measurable to be considered worthy of our attention. Unfortunately, this causes a major disconnect between our hearts and heads.

I have experienced this disconnect recently during a visit to a new doctor for a ‘complete’ physical examination which consisted solely of discussing my blood work and her giving me a print-out of exercises to do for my wounded rotator cuff. I was thrilled that my blood work looked so good, but disappointed that this doctor didn’t touch my shoulder or look at any other part of me to back up the medical report with her own intuition. I walked away feeling disappointed as if I'd been reduced to technical notes on a piece of paper.

It is interesting to note that my physical examination was on March 7^th, the same day that Brook’s editorial was being published in the NY Times. I discovered this the next day when a friend - not knowing my thoughts about the doctor's visit - sent me a link to the “Point Reyes Dialogues” between author/philosopher Jacob Needleman and other philosophers, humanitarians, and high-profile service workers. There were several dialogues to choose from...I chose, at random, to listen to the one between Needleman and Dr. David Heiden, an Ophthalmologist who serves individuals in developing countries in an effort to save their eyesight from complications due to AIDS. Both Needleman and Heiden praised Brook’s editorial, and discussed their beliefs that touch is essential for a doctor/patient relationship to have real integrity. The dialogue supported my own feelings during my less-than-physical examination.

“One of the greatest things you can give me is your attention," says Needleman, "When you give me your attention…when I feel you’re really letting me in…hearing me, feeling me, seeing me, that is as much a healing force as almost anything…technology is good up to a point, but if the other part isn’t there, something is going to be dead wrong.”

I am touched by those words. Right on, I say. Right on!

Things Fall apart and Come Back Together - Often in a Better Way

Awhile back, I saw the movie “Then She Found Me” with Colin Firth, Matt Broderick, Bette Midler, and Helen Hunt about a woman who gets dumped by her husband. This causes her world to seemingly fall apart, but it doesn’t take long before she falls in love with a man she is much better suited to be with. Of course, they are both terrified of love due to each having lost at it the first time around. The tension around their clumsy attempts at relationship creates the action of the movie.

I cherish and relate to the conversation that occurs at the end of the movie after a comedy of errors that comes precipitously close to keeping the two destined lovers apart (e.g., she sleeps with her Ex even though she doesn’t love him anymore).

She: “I will disappoint you again and again, not in THAT way. If I disappoint you in that way, I want you to leave. You would leave wouldn’t you?”

He: “Yes.”

She: “And you could leave for another reason."

He: “I won’t.”

She: “But, you could.”

He: “I won’t.”

She: “But, you could.”

He: “Yes, I could.”

She: “But, we will go ahead and try this thing.”

The above is a loose paraphrase of that conversation. Point being is that it got me thinking about the impermanence of things I’ve experienced in my own life and how we humans can’t predict the future with any final certainty, although, we love to think we can.

Oh, there was a time when I was younger…but, I would no longer be so brazen as to set my future in stone. For one thing, I've learned that my little ego isn’t smart enough to understand my Life (capital "L") from a Big Picture perspective.

I’ve also learned that when things fall apart (and they most assuredly do in the life of each person at one time or another), it is not so much about “What?” “How?” or “Why?” so much as the way we choose to deal with whatever gets thrown onto our paths that makes all the difference.

While such thoughts were still fresh in my mind; I decided to check my Facebook Wall and happened across the Status of the Awakening Women Institute:

“Each and every one of us will experience times when things fall apart. During these times, we are stripped of part of our identity. It can feel terrifying; it can feel unfair, yet these moments when our self-identity is less solid can provide a powerful initiation into a greater sense of freedom. The dismantling of identity throws us into unknown territory and into change.”

Aw, Change. It keeps the Wheel of Fortune ever turning and allows us mere mortals opportunity to experience just how creative and resourceful we can be as co-creators of this sometimes dreadful/sometimes wonderful life!

How Synchronicity “Speaks”

Synchronicity often speaks to me in nature through birds and animals and the changing of seasons. It also comes to me in other ways: book passages, movies, things people say, music, signs I see while traveling the roadways, and music to name a few. I have a musician friend who experiences synchronicity most often in music. She told me about a time when she was working at how to play Carole King's "You've Got a Friend" by ear, but just couldn't seem to find or remember the chords. Giving up for the time being, she posted the lyrics in her kitchen and went Christmas shopping. When she arrived at one of her favorite bookstores, "You've Got a Friend" came on over the intercom system, bringing back the lost cords to memory!

My friend’s meaningful music coincidence reminds me of a synchronicity of my own, having to do with music that was quite incredible. It happened during the time just preceding my
husband's death in 2008. Like many home caregivers of terminally ill individuals, I was concerned that the right amount of pain medication be given to ease my loved one’s pain, but not enough to make him comatose as he approached his final hour. His Hospice nurse and I discussed my feelings, and she suggested that "H" be transferred temporarily to a Hospice nursing home for a few days where the effect of the pain meds could be tested with equipment not available at home. H's death although close did not seem imminent to the Hospice staff. However, I still felt uncomfortable about him going to the center since I had promised that I would do all in my power to help him to die peacefully at home. I went to bed that evening thinking about the idea of transporting him to the nursing home for a few days. Part of me wanted to send him for testing, because he seemed to be slipping more and more into a state of delirium, and I wanted to be absolutely certain that it wasn’t the strong dosage of pain medication causing this. On the other hand, my dear husband was very weak and I felt that if he were to die in the nursing home, I would have gone back on my word to him. Anyone who has been the primary caregiver of a dying person can understand the dilemma in which I found myself.

The next morning, H was surprisingly lucid and asked to hear music on our local community radio station, WMNF, located at 88.5 on the FM dial – the station we generally listened to together before the physical and mental decline he experienced as the illness progressed. Lately, the music on the station had only served to agitate him in his current state of mind, so I rarely turned it on. I was happy to see him so alert and desiring to hear music, and thought, perhaps, my difficult decision could actually be averted altogether. I turned on the radio, and a very passionate song by singer/songwriter Conor Oberst was in the process of blaring away. The refrain went like this: I don’t wanna die in the hospital/No, I don’t wanna die in the hospital/No, No, I don’t wanna die in the hospital/You gotta take me back outside! Astounded, I looked back at H who had apparently not heard the verse as he slipped into unconsciousness almost as soon as the radio had been turned on. I will never know for sure if he heard the words to the song, but in that instance I knew that I had the answer to my dilemma: H would remain at home! Had he gone for testing, he most assuredly would have died in the Hospice nursing home, because he died exactly two days later.

As if that important message wasn't enough, the very next song on the station held meaning for me around H's death as well. It was Jackson Brown's For a Dancer. I had been looking for the right music for the memorial service, and this was it! The song was written for a friend of Browne’s that had recently passed away, and I and other family members who listened to it found it quite moving. The words perfectly fit aspects of my husband’s love of life and of dancing (he was always pulling me up on the dance floor ahead of everyone else). When played at his memorial, along with pictures highlighting his short but meaningful life, the song lyrics brought tears of bittersweet recognition to the eyes of everyone present: Keep a fire burning in your eye/Pay attention to the open sky/You never know what will be coming down/I don’t remember losing track of you/You were always dancing in and out of view/I must have thought you would always be around…

Do you have a special way that synchronicity speaks to you and grabs your attention? Or a story of meaningful coincidence that you would like to share here? Please feel free to post it in the Comments section of this blog.

Finding My Mission in Life

Back in 2007, I came across a dream I had recorded in a journal several months prior to beginning work on the Finding Your Mission in Life course materials that were part of my Transpersonal Studies Master's program. My focus in the program is in Spiritual Mentoring. The symbolism in the dream had a lot to do with my then current studies:

Baba Yaga Dream: I come out of a building and start to go down a road. I soon realize that it is the wrong way to go, and choose another road. It is a dead end – ends with a brick wall. I apologize to the people I have to cut in front of to turn around, and begin going the other direction on the first road I was on, realizing that I am now going the right way. I am carrying a broom that causes a big stir with the people I pass. A small group of them start making fun of it (the broom), calling it a special name (I remember it to be “Baba Yaga” when I wake up). I carry the broom past the people on the side of the road. Once I am clear of them, I start riding it like a pogo stick. It is so fast and so fun to ride that I pass a lot of people up on the road. Eventually, I come to an open field and keep bouncing along joyfully.

I found this journaled dream just minutes before I began working on the “Self-Discovery” learning module for the course. I am writing about this, because I believe that finding the dream at that time was a special synchronicity. It still illuminates inner states of mind for me as they relate to my life’s mission in this second half of life. It warrants being included here as well, because working with dreams and synchronicities through reflective journaling has been a real joy for me and a process that I intend to work with in my spiritual mentoring practice.

In the above dream, some of the symbols signify choices I have made – wrong turns that delayed my progress and other decisions that turned me around to move ahead quickly in discovering passion and freedom in my life. As the dream shows, I am a person that doesn’t always follow the norm. I feel more at home in my own skin when I am off the linear, main road of life and checking out its mysteries in a more circular, spacious way that is portrayed by the open field symbolism in the dream.

When I had the dream, I was not familiar with the specific characteristics of Baba Yaga per se, but found this excerpt on the Internet describing her in part: Baba Yaga is the Arch-Crone, the Goddess of Wisdom and Death, the Bone Mother. Wild and untamable, she is a nature spirit bringing wisdom and death of ego, and through death, rebirth (“About Baba Yaga” at www.oldrussia.net/baba.html). I see a connection with this symbol and my own path of transformation of late. I was 60-years old when I had the dream. Now, at 64 and having retired from my corporate marketing job, I feel I am finally entering the Crone stage of archetypal feminine development that the dream presaged. The soul work I am engaging in in this second half of my life is shifting from the more culturally masculine focus, engendered by a career in business, to re-birthing the archetypal Feminine in ways that include focusing on unity, communication, creative writing, storytelling, and opening.

Dreams, synchronicities, stories, myths, and visions are the energy sources that charge my psyche and point me intuitively in the direction my inner life is beckoning. When I work with the symbols of my dreams and synchronicities, I feel in synch with the larger picture of my life. Finding ways to apply the lessons from my meditations, dreams and visions to my daily life is the grounding mechanism I use to stay focused. Writing about my experiences is the best way I know to share them. However, learning to apply my inner knowing to my everyday life has been an ongoing process for me. I have never found the work easy, and consider myself a late bloomer in the Life Mission department. I have certainly experienced my share of hitting walls at the end of dead-end roads along the way. But, by taking up the proverbial “pen,” or broom, again, I am finding a way to share my insights (creative writing is a gift that I exhibited in early in childhood and gave up in adulthood for the more formulaic writing called for in marketing and sales). I also intuitively know that I am on the right road that is leading me to greater passion and freedom in my life as experienced in the exhilaration of bouncing in the open field.

Another synchronicity worth noting here happened during those first weeks of working on my spiritual mentoring courses. I took a break from a Finding Your Mission in Life writing assignment and went to the local library in St. Petersburg, Florida where I then lived to get a few books for a research project I was working on. A laminated peace of paper fell out of the first book I picked up. It was a bookmark from Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I am well acquainted with Fountain Street, as a non-denominational, metaphysical church in the Grand Rapids Area where I lived for part of my life and the city where I have strong ancestral ties! On the bookmark, these words were printed: “We strive to be a vibrant church community that challenges individuals to craft their own spiritual journeys and engage in creative and responsible action in the world.” I humbly thanked the universe for giving me those special words. I couldn’t have expressed my life’s mission as a writer and spiritual mentor any better for myself!

A Seed is Planted

Thought seeds planted in consciousness, like seeds planted in the earth, have vibrational energy. The act of honoring an event of synchronicity by writing it down in a journal allows its meaning to grow in light of conscious reflection over time. My own experience with this type of journaling over the past five years has produced some amazing results in the way I think and perceive the world around me. These results include heightened intuition and creativity, better dream recall, and a larger view of reality that is connected to both the observed and hidden influences that affect my day to day life. I have discovered that there is power in writing down meaningful coincidences as they happen to me and then pondering their meaning for my life over time. While engaging in this process of reflective journaling, new thought patterns have emerged that nourish my soul’s longing for truth and self-expression.

Since I began my journaling project, I have experienced many instances of synchronicity, but one comes to mind as an especially powerful. It coincided with a message contained within a dream. The dream and the synchronicity following it occurred at a time when I was dealing with feelings around a painful relationship. Intellectually, I realized that the other person was not the “bad guy,” but was having a rough go of it emotionally. I fell asleep one night after wrestling with this issue, and had a dream that contained an important message for my life. A message that serves me to this day.

Moving From Warrior to Wise Woman

I am a general in the front ranks of a war zone. All is dark and chaotic in the midst of the battle. Quite suddenly I decide to give up my position of leadership in the battle to a man in the dream. I continue to merely view the scene, not engaging in the fighting any longer. Later, I discover that I have dug a deep well. I find myself arranging stones of different sizes and colors around the outside of the well housing that is above ground. When I am finished, it looks like an old-fashioned well with a wooden bucket on a rope pulley dangling at the top. I am pleased with my work and consider whether or not to lower the bucket into the cool, clear water below. EOD

        

After recording it in my dream journal, I summed-up the dream’s theme in a sentence: A woman gives up fighting and builds a container to hold a substance that will quench her thirst. I took this to mean that I was making a positive move somewhere in my psyche (not consciously yet) toward peace and emotional nourishment and away from the inner conquest that the ill-fated relationship had stirred in me. I knew upon reflection of the dream that had I stayed asleep, I would have lowered the bucket and drank of the cool, nourishing water. Later that morning, as I began again to think about the dream’s meaning, I said aloud to myself, Yes, I think a part of me is ready to drink of the water of this well! As I said this, I absentmindedly walked over and picked out Heal Thyself, by author Saki Santorelli from my bookshelf. I had purchased the book earlier in the week, but hadn’t begun reading it. I opened it at random to these words, “Right now it feels as if each of us is standing at the edge of a deep well, staring into a shimmering unknown, wrestling with the unspoken question, ‘Do I say no to this moment, remaining parched and brittle? Or do I say yes and drink from the uncertain waters, holding the possibility of life renewed?” Having taken all the Jungian courses that my mid-western university had offered (not many, but enough), the concept of synchronicity was not new to me. What was new was the crystal clear experience of it in my own life in that moment in time. I knew I had just been given a powerful gift of grace and continue to feel much gratitude and humility in the face of it.