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In ancient
times, scribes were devotees of the Word. They were the
bridges between worlds, charged with the sacred task of
painstakingly transcribing the Mysteries into a form
that could be referenced by holy men and women. Many
centuries later, our modern journals give us unlimited
access to the Mysteries of our souls. Through this
column, I hope to offer ways that we can approach our
own lives with the love and devotion of the scribes of
old.
A Baker’s Dozen Ways to Journal Your Dreams
- Record your dream upon awakening. Use
the present tense to add immediacy and to honor the
dream’s ongoing life force. Don’t remember the
entire dream? Record scenes, fragments, snatches, even
impressions. When it comes to dreamwork in your journal,
a little can go a long way.
- Name your dreams as you would a short
story or painting or poem. Keep a separate, running list
of your dream titles somewhere in your journal. Themes
will often jump out at you.
- If you don’t remember your dreams,
try writing a note to your "Dreamkeeper" in
your journal before you turn out the lights. It might be
as simple as, "Dear Dreamkeeper, Please bring me a
dream that I’ll remember tomorrow morning. I promise I’ll
write it down and pay attention to it. Thanks!"
- After you’ve recorded your dream,
write a Ten-Minute Sprint in which you give your best
guess as to what this dream might be saying about your
waking life.
- Write a list of questions raised by
the dream. Leave yourself a few lines between questions.
Then go back and answer the questions. Do this quickly
and without much conscious thought.
- Cluster your dream symbols. When you
get an "aha" of recognition, note it and use
it as a symbol substitution for your dream.
- Dialogue with your dream characters.
Ask them why they’re in your dream, what they’re
trying to communicate to you, how you can best
understand their meaning.
- Free write about a particularly
elusive symbol or character. Let yourself free
associate. Be alert for "ahas of recognition."
(An "aha of recognition," according to
dreamworker Jeremy Taylor, is the conscious mind
remembering what the unconscious mind knew all along,
but the conscious mind forgot.)
- Write a Captured Moment of a scene
from the dream, focusing on the sensory details. Extend
this into a fictional scene. What if a character in a
short story found her/himself in this very situation?
What might happen next? Where might this action lead?
- Shift perspectives. Take a key symbol
or character from your dream and rewrite the dream as if
that symbol or character were the dreamer. Or let the
symbol/character interpret itself, by writing in the
first person from its perspective ("I am the
winding dirt road. I am in this dream
because....").
- Play Western Union. Rewrite the dream
using as few words as possible, in telegram style. Let
yourself be cryptic and direct. Often, nuances and
layers of meaning will emerge.
- Write a poem about the dream. Focus
on the images and feelings. Try an AlphaPoem about a
dream symbol, scene or character.
- Draw, paint or sketch the dream or
its symbols. Or make a collage using images that
represent the dream. One woman in a recent workshop
collaged a cover for her journal using her dream images
and symbols. Her first entry in the journal helped her
interpret the dream’s meaning for her next steps.
©
Kathleen Adams. All Rights Reserved
Kathleen Adams LPC, RPT is a
Registered Poetry/Journal Therapist and Director of The
Center for Journal Therapy in Lakewood, Colorado. She is
one of the leading voices on the power of writing to
heal and is the author of four books, including Journal
to the Self and The Write Way to Wellness.
Her upcoming seminars include the annual 5-day women’s
writing retreat in Colorado July 8-13, and a one-day
Journal to the Self workshop in Denver in late July. She
would love your feedback on this column; please e-mail kay@journaltherapy.com
or stop by her website, www.journaltherapy.com.
Read
Kathleen's Past "Scribing the Soul" Columns:
April
2001 "Journals to Go"
March
2001 "Healing Words, Healing Touch: Jihan's Letters"
February
2001 "Love Letters"
January
2001 "Scribing
the Authentic Self"
December
2000 "Riding the Inky Wave"
November
2000 "The Good News"
October
2000 "Soul Food: Exploring Affirmations in
Writing"
September
2000 "Diary of a Headache"
August
2000 "Making Up the Truth"
July
2000 "Pockets of Joy"
June
2000 "Five Ways to Scribe Your Intuition"
Read
Kathleen's Feature Article on Dream Journals:
Writing
in the Dark: Cracking the Soul's Code Through Dream
Journals
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