Turning Season: Conversations with Changemakers in Our Adventure Toward a Life-Sustaining Society

What happens when adults get out their colored pencils and freely draw their dreams? “Ah-ha moments,” all over the place. Life-shifting, and even life-saving, ah-ha moments.

Click Play now to listen to me talk with Walter Berry about his dream groups, where participants draw their dreams and share the drawings. I loved every one of his stories.

Walter has been called “The Wizard of Awes.” His upcoming book, Drawn into the Dream, will explore the awe that comes with drawing our dreams, and with seeing other people’s dream drawings. As a past board member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD), and a visual artist and lighting designer with a background in theatre arts, Walter brings a love of art and dreams that you’ll hear in his voice.

We talk about

• the surprising precognitive dream that led Walter to dive into dreamwork
• how each of us was influenced by Jeremy Taylor’s phrase “all dreams come in the service of health and wholeness”
• the possibilities that open up when a dream group focuses on a drawing, rather than on the dreamer themselves
• and several juicy examples of drawings and dreams. Check out some of the drawings Walter talks about at the show notes: thedreamersden.org/20

and click Play now to hear the stories of these dream drawings.

“My favorite part is when you and the guest talk about example dreams.” ← If you’re a listener who’s said that, this one’s for you. In this New Moon episode, I work one of my own dreams live with guest dreamworker Claudia DeBorde. She takes me on a Dream Tending walk through a dream I titled Time Travel.

We talk briefly about her approach to dreams, our love of stories, and how we can play “host” to the figures in our dreams. Then, rather than keep talking ABOUT dreamwork, we get right into DOING dreamwork.

Claudia has been studying Dream Tending with Stephen Aizenstat for 25 years, so she brings a wealth of experience to this. As you listen, I invite you to notice Claudia’s gentle, curious way of walking through the dream with me, pausing me a couple of times to sink into a particular moment or description before the action of the dream continues. After our dreamwork, I’ll conclude this episode with some reflections I’ve had since talking with Claudia. Re-listening to this recording helped bring home more of the ah-ha moments: about the relationship between my past and my present, taking note when I’m in a state of “high alertness,” why we label things “good” or “evil,” and what I hope to hand over to the future when I become part of the past.

Show notes: thedreamersden.org/19

Have you ever wondered, “Did that really happen, or was that a dream?" In some ways, every dream feels real. And, in some ways, all of our dreams ARE real. Kezia Vida and I begin this conversation, and circle back to, the question of what’s “real,” and how our dreams can bring what feels MOST real into our lives.

Kezia Vida is a practitioner of the Natural Dreamwork process, which she’s been offering to clients since 2013. A New Orleans native, she graduated from Yale University with a degree in Philosophy in 2009 and has been studying dreams in-depth since 2010. Kezia believes in the innate wholeness of every person, in the power of fear to activate courage, and the power of pain to deepen compassion.

In this conversation, you’ll hear about:

• how Kezia has responded to increased interest in nightmares and difficult dreams since Covid-19 hit,
• her passion for making dreamwork more accessible as a natural, free, personal tool
• what it means to “feel into” an example dream (involving the dreamer seeing cuts on their hands, but not feeling much in the dream),
• how dreams give us the gift of raising our awareness, and the value of “clocking” those moments in waking life when the feeling from the dream occurs again,
• the sacredness of the details in our dreams,
• and spirituality and dreams.

Show note: thedreamersden.org/18

Have you ever had a massage, or acupuncture treatment, and gotten the, “Yep, that’s the spot,” feeling when a certain point on your body was pressed? We call those “ah shi” points. “Ah shi” roughly translates as, “Oh, that’s it.” These points tend to feel tender, or sensitive, or simply significant somehow.

In this conversation with Katherine Bell, it occurred to us that the “ah-ha moment” in dreamwork is the same sort of thing. The dreamer just knows: "That’s it." Tender points on the body, which we press on for therapeutic effect, are not unlike tender points in our mental/emotional selves - which dreams can press on quite precisely.

This episode is a recording of my interview on Katherine Bell’s show, The Dream Journal. I joined her on live radio in May of 2020. If you’ve never listened to The Dream Journal, I’m pleased to introduce you to it. Katherine Bell interviews dreamworkers and takes call-ins from live listeners every week. She always begins the show with some reflections on her own personal dreamwork. In our conversation, we dive a little deeper into the dream she shares, looking through the lens of the Five Elements.

You’ll hear Katherine ask me about how I bring dreamwork into my clinical practice. I share that I find dreams helpful in two major ways: deepening the level of the conversation; and helping me and the patient recognize “where the action is.” We also talk about how locations on the body can be specified by a dream, often by an event like a snake bite or an insect sting. Since there are hundreds of acupuncture points on the body, it’s always worth asking what acupuncture points were contacted in a dream - especially if they were “punctured,” maybe by a fang, stinger, or blade.

There's extra fun in this one because we have call-ins from dreamworker Billie Ortiz and a member of The Dreamers’ Den. We talk about “car dreams,” and a dream that includes an unexpectedly welcome message.

Click Play now to listen in. Show notes: thedreamersden.org/17

Click "Play" to hear my conversation with Nicole Torres, a dreamworker, psychotherapist, and medical anthropologist devoted to her own ongoing journey of decolonization, liberation, and learning to “honor the dream.”

In this episode, she explains what all that means to her. Early in our conversation, I ask Nicole’s take on something I’ve wondered for a while: Why do some people explain that their families don’t talk about dreams with this statement: “My family is religious”? I know religious people of various faiths who do like to talk about dreams, so why do some say that their religion is a reason not to?

Nicole’s thoughts on my question lead us right into talking about what “decolonization” means, and how dreams connect us with the wisdom we all carry in our bodies. She calls this our “indigenous wisdom.” We talk about what that means, too.

Have you ever had a dream character come back again and again, in different forms, or in different settings? Nicole shares a life-changing dream of her own that included one of these recurring figures. And, what she's learned: If we don’t pay attention to these figures, and act upon the wisdom of our dreams, we are doomed to make the same mistakes over and over.

Have you had any dreams lately that feel especially related to our current political climate? Or, our “climate” climate? Apocalyptic dreams, or dreams reminiscent of terrifying times in human history?

Nicole and I talk about these “possible future” dreams, and ask, how can we heed our dreams as wake-up calls? How are our dreams nudging us to prepare for these possible futures, or to take action, so that they don’t come to pass?

She reminds us, “It’s incumbent upon all of us to do what we can, and tap into our creative energy that comes in the form of dreams so that we can actively participate in creating a better vision of the future, not just for us, but for future generations, and for the planet.”

Show notes: thedreamersden.org/16

This one's for you. You, who

• believe you have (or might have...) a role to play in global healing
• trust that your dreams bring wisdom
• and want to dive deep with me on the Five Elements, dream examples, and how these SAME energies that tell us about PERSONAL health guide us toward COLLECTIVE well-being.

On board? Awesome. Press play to hear me share about:

• the unique "spirit of genius" in every single person (with help from the words of Michael Meade, Sharon Blackie, and Toko-pa Turner)
• how dreams show where our energy is, and nudge us toward where in the world we're most needed
• Chinese Medicine thinking about the ONE PLACE to intervene that will have the greatest impact on the whole
• actions and issues in the world that can be associated with each of the Five Elements
• dream examples (mine, past interviewees', other dreamers)
• and why I'm in favor of everyone finding their "genius," even when we disagree with each other

Grab your dream journal or somewhere to write, so you can note questions or symbols that strike a chord.

Detailed show notes and free download here: thedreamersden.org/15

Over 9,000 pandemic dreams. That’s how many Dr. Deirdre Barrett has read so far from her worldwide survey this year. These dreams are the subject of her latest book: Pandemic Dreams. We talk about the themes she’s seen - from catching the virus (bugs), to homeschooling (failing math), to possible cures (musical injections), and what the world might look like post-pandemic (robots in charge?).

She shares trends in the emotional tone of these pandemic dreams, as compared to dreams during “more normal” times (for one thing, there's been more anxiety). We talk about how the pandemic has affected people of different genders in different ways, and how this shows up in dreams. Toward the end, Dr. Barrett shares her expertise and curiosity about “problem-solving dreams.”

Want to see if you can “incubate” a dream solution, or an answer to a question related to the pandemic? Stick around for the end of the episode, when Dr. Barrett gives instructions for dream incubation. She and I sincerely want to hear what you dream afterward, so please do head over here to the show notes at www.thedreamersden.org/14 and share. Enjoy!

Do you believe that your dreams serve a purpose, even when you don't remember them? Do dreams help you, even if you don't "work" with them? Katherine Bell believes so, and she's read research studies to back that up. A scientist herself, Katherine blends her curiosity about the data around dreams with her deep respect for the experience of dreaming. You'll hear her talk about how dreamwork helped her shift from habitually dissociating from her feelings (even physical pain), to being able to feel. Dissociating from her emotions was especially present on her mind when we had this conversation, having just returned from evacuating from her home for 2.5 weeks due to local wildfires, and still sitting under a smokey sky. She shares one of her recent dreams that relates to these themes. Katherine affirms that our dreams are working for us behind the scenes, and we don't have to ever "understand" the dreams in order to benefit from them. In fact, trying to understand them with the prefrontal cortex of our brains might get in the way. She encourages dreamers to hang out in the emotional, embodied space of the dream itself, allowing it to do more of its work: bringing forth what we're not conscious of while we're awake. Before the end of this episode, we talk about other dreams related to the local fires, as well as the Fire element within Chinese Medicine. Show notes: www.thedreamersden.org/13

Can you think of a dream in which you felt surprised or confused? I love Billie's insight that this can signal movement into unfamiliar territory. Billie shares so many other gems, like her observation that ancestors frequently show up in dreams as "a large group of people, and I know they're there to see me, but I don't recognize them." Click Play now to hear our whole conversation - or read on to learn more about Billie and what we talk about in this episode. Billie is certified as a dreamworker through Dr. Jeremy Taylor's Marin Institute for Projective Dreamwork. She worked closely with Jeremy Taylor, facilitating retreats with him from 2003-2015. Billie is well-versed in the realm of myth and fairy tale as well.

In this conversation, we talk about:

• her early days facilitating dream groups over a distance using a telephone bridge line - a throwback to the days way before Zoom
• this “collective waking dream” we're all in, including social distancing, mask-wearing, and the Black Lives Matter movement. (We recorded this a few weeks ago, so this part may feel like a a throwback too - to the days way back... last month)
• how our dreams vote for us to express ourselves creatively
• combining tarot cards and numbers with dreamwork
• and the ancestral layer in dreams.

Enjoy! Show notes: www.thedreamersden.org/12

You’re about to meet another teacher dear to my heart: Geraldine Matus, of Justisse College International. You’ll hear her insights from her decades of work in reproductive health and with dreams. I met Geraldine in 2006, when I began studying for certification as a Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner. When I talked to Geraldine about shifting my work over to dreams and Chinese Medicine, I was excited to hear more about her own deep love of dreams and the realm of symbolism. I thought you'd love hearing about it too.

Geraldine shares one of her early "big dreams" that helped her onto her path in Fertility Awareness, midwifery, functional medicine and depth psychology. We also talk about: her tenacious respect for the symbolic life, even through profound family rejection of that part of her; our “daemon,” or soulful purpose, and how we can override it when we’re busy whipping our bodies into shape; dreams that give a “navigational correction” vs. dreams that say “you’re on the wrong ship, on the wrong ocean”; dreaming and the female reproductive cycle (I ask her, Is the “veil thinner” during menstruation?); and one of my own dreams during pregnancy.

Show Notes: thedreamersden.org/11