This is a sample of one of the written prompts for the course, a free offering to give you a sense of how to use journaling to explore associations to your dream. The course will go beyond this to include both written and live group discussion, video presentations, responses to questions and more. It’s not too late to join us! You can still sign up here.
Module One: Journaling to explore associations to dream elements
Welcome to the beginning of a deeper exploration into the world of your own dreams… online and in the company of others. I am so glad you have chosen to join me in this grand experiment! And because you have come this far, it’s safe to assume you are curious about your dreams and aware of their tremendous value for self-exploration and growth.
Above all, I want you to enjoy this journey, and come away with many practical ways to engage with your own dreams. So I will offer prompts, personal examples, coaching and a venue to share the feedback and experiences of your fellow travellers as we experiment with the best ways to unlock the tremendous potential inherent in our dreams. I will introduce one new practice each month so that you have the time to explore it at your leisure, try it with several dreams, ask questions and develop a feel for it.
Journaling associations
Seeking associations to dream elements was introduced by Freud as a way to tease out the so-called latent or hidden meaning behind the dream. Modern dreamworkers do not believe that the dream is trying to hide its message in some kind of code. Rather, the strangeness of dream language comes from the quality of dreaming consciousness, which draws more from the image and emotional processing centres of our brain than from our logical, rational mind.
This brings me to an important point. Because dreams do not come from the part of our brain that processes in a logical, sequential fashion, it means that we need not seek to understand our dreams from this perspective. Let go of the need to make logical sense of your dream, and instead treat it as an experience, a work of art, a metaphor, a message from another realm… this frees you up to simply play with the images, and allow them to infuse you with the complex feelings they carry.
Frog dream, an example
I will offer you an example of the process from my own dream life. I would suggest you start with a simple dream, and see where the journaling leads. Try to remain open-minded and curious, exploring what arises from your dream images with no particular goal in mind. This opens up your right-hemisphere functioning, the non-logical side of your brain that is most aligned with dreamwork. Here is my dream text:
I dreamt about a sleek, very large brown frog that I had picked up out of a square container. There were other elements to the dream, but I have forgotten them. It seemed very important to hold on to the frog, despite some other tasks distracting me. I was considering making it a pet. It was huge for a frog, and instead of reptilian skin, it had a silky brown coat, very short hair, gorgeous brown colour. It was warm and alive and seemed fine with being held.
My Associations
In the introduction to this course, I wrote about a stunning dream of swimming in a pool of frogs when I was pregnant with my daughter Grace, now 20
I just took a day trip with Grace to Idylwild and bought a big brass frog, with a plan to acquire similar objects for a sand tray collection
The frog’s short-haired coat reminds me of my dog Savannah
The frog itself is more pet-like and cuddly than a typical frog, more a dog-frog
I think of frogs as powerful healing symbols, but also warnings because when an ecosystem is in trouble, frogs begin to disappear
I could go further, but want to stop here and notice that I am already beginning to get some sense of this dream frog, which at first seemed like a complete mystery. Its qualities are becoming fleshed out, and it seems connected with my daughter, affection, health… and it may also be a kind of a warning.
A word about dream dictionaries…
At this point, you might be tempted to consult a dream dictionary that explains what your dream image means. I am not a fan of this approach, except possibly to augment and amplify your associations after you have explored them thoroughly. If you are still mystified by a dream image once you’ve worked with your own associations, then a symbol dictionary may bring up additional ideas that resonate. But if you go to a dictionary first, the book’s idea may stick and prevent you from seeing the uniquely personal relationships you have with the image.
That said, if you want the help of a dictionary, I recommend An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper (Thames and Hudson, 1978). It offers interpretations of symbols from various spiritual traditions. If I look up frog, it says this: Lunar and a rain-bringer; fertility, fecundity, eroticism… and the text goes on to offer short descriptions of what the frog means in Celtic, Chinese, Christian, Egyptian, Graeco-Roman and Hindu traditions. All seem to point to the frog as abundant and fertile… and in the Egyptian tradition, frog is protector of mothers and the newborn, so it is a lovely image to dream of when pregnant.
Staying close to the image
The trouble with dream dictionaries and even taking the associative process too far, is that it takes you away from the immediacy of the image itself. So when you play with associations, always refer back to your dream. In this case, I need to make sure I don’t lose touch with my silky brown dream frog as I explore more generic ideas about frogs.
Another way to explore associations is to get an embodied sense of the image itself, and see what comes up from the inside about it. When I do that, I am reminded of the sense in my dream that it’s important to carry this frog with me, not to put it down. I can feel the weight of it in my hand. It makes it awkward to do the other tasks that are calling to me in the dream, but the sense of deep importance of the frog comes through loud and clear. One thing I have taken from this process already, is the need to stay connected to my daughter even more. She is away at university, at times extremely stressed, and in general, just feels too far away. So after writing this, I plan to reach out to her.
I could go further, but I don’t want to burden you with too much to read. I hope this gives you a sense of how to begin. Each module has a space for your comments and questions, and I hope you will all be moved to share something of your own experience as we go: what came of the process, what works for you, what doesn’t, and where you have questions. Above all, enjoy!