Sacred Dream-work Circles
Dream Circles Forming
Experience meaningful connections - through shared dreams and with each other - in this group experience.
We will meet online for two hours, once per month, for six months. This group (capped at 7 members) will use the Projective Dreaming structure, described below. This is not a therapy group, yet participation often leads to new insight for both the dreamer and the group co-dreamers. If you are interested in joining the next Circle please complete this survey.
Each meeting will begin with meditative centering, either working with an active dream image or a new image invited into your minds eye in the moment. Each week two participants will have the opportunity to share a dream from their sleep or a “waking dream” image from the opening meditation.
The method is described on the right.
The work of a dream circle is NOT to figure out what the dream means for the original dreamer. Guided by the theory of the Collective Unconscious and the mystery of mystical connection, we participate to explore our own psyches and inner mysteries.
Dreams are simultaneously individual and universal. Weird, illogical, and bizarre is the norm. They can be experienced as unsettling or funny, deeply intense or blandly neutral; none is “better” than the other.
We do not assume a symbolic meaning for the dreamer. If your experience, or study, tells you that “horses mean x” and “houses mean y” you might share that in the context of, “In my dream…” but we never assume “correctness” of anyone’s experience of the dream – other than each dreamer and co-dreamer may claim the truth of their own experience for themselves.
If you are interested but concerned because you don’t remember your dreams, attend anyway! You can always use your waking dream images from the group meditation to share with the group.
Dreams shared with the group don’t have to be recent either; if you still recall an image or story from a very old dream, the fact that you can still recall it might mean it is worth exploring – if not for you, then perhaps for others in the group, hearing it for the first time. You also are likely to start recalling dream snippets with greater frequency over the weeks. Something to write with (or dictate into) by your bed is an important first step. Those dreams are slippery and vanish pretty quickly!
If you haven't done so, above, please fill out the survey so I can decide on the next recurring meeting date. At this time I’m happy to offer this without charge and also appreciate donations to support the work.
The Method
1. The first dreamer shares their dream. You are welcome to either write it up before the meeting to read, or simply tell it from memory in the moment. You are also invited to give your dream or image a title.
2. This dreamer then retells (or re-reads) the dream a second time. Listeners are absorbing the dream as if it is their own.
3. The group will spend some time asking clarifying questions. These questions help the group (your co-dreamers) see the images as you did.
4. The dreamer retells the dream a third time. Co-dreamers might listen with their eyes closed.
5. The dreamer is then asked if we may “borrow the dream,” then turns off their Zoom camera but does not leave the space. (During in-person meetings the dreamer traditionally turns their chair away from the group).
6. The listening co-dreamers now take turns sharing their impressions, beginning all statements with either, “In my dream….” or, “If this were my dream….” The original dreamer often takes notes on the impressions shared by co-dreamers.
7. When the impressions are complete, we invite the dreamer to rejoin the group. The dreamer then shares whatever responses they wish.
Often this includes noting statements that resonated strongly – either with an “aha, yes!” or a “THAT’S not it!” Often hearing what isn’t true for you allows you to sense with greater clarity what is true. The dreamer might share new insights or questions that arose. The dreamer may also choose to share nothing and merely thank the co-dreamers for sharing.
8. The facilitator then thanks the dreamer and “gives the dream back” to them.
The process is then repeated for a second dreamer.