Shadow Work: Four-step Dreamwork

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Carl Jung, Dreamwork, Robert A. Johnson, Sahdow Work

Robert Johnson

Jungian analyst Robert Johnson created a four-step way to work on dreams in an effort to bring our conscious and unconscious selves together.

Step One: Associations

After choosing the images from your dream (these can be persons, objects, situations, colors, sounds or speech), write down every association you have with each image. For example, starting with the first image, think to yourself, “what feeling do I have about this image? What words or ideas come to mind when I think about it?” These associations will be anything (words, ideas, mental pictures, feelings or memories) you spontaneously connect with the image. Don’t try to decide which association is the correct one, just write them ALL down.

Always make sure that your association related directly to the image. Another thing to be aware of are the colloquialisms that the image might inspire. For example, with my image of pennies last week, colloquialisms might be: “pennies from heaven,” “worth every cent,” “a penny saved is a penny earned,” and so on.

To choose the association that fits best, use Jung’s “It clicks” Method. In other words, which association arouses the most energy in you? Which one seems just clicks with you?

Another way of finding associations with dream images is to use archetypal amplification, which is a process of gathering information about any archetypes in your dream by using sources such as myths, fairy tales and religious traditions. Each archetype will express itself in your dream with its own characteristic symbolism. Dreams with archetypes have a mythical quality: things are larger or smaller than real life, there are otherworldly animals or the figures may have an aura of royalty or divinity.

If you recognize one of the figures in your dream is an archetype, the next step is to go to the source: what memory does the archetype spark? A passage in the Bible? Something from the legends of King Arthur? The Greeks gods and goddesses? And so on. Go to that source and see what it might tell you about the archetype you have seen in your dream.

Every image in your dream will also have personal associations. For example, pennies are meaningful for me because I collect those I find on the ground and save them in a special bank. They are also a sign from God for me. Write down whatever personal associations you have with the images, as well.

Step Two: Dynamics

Now, connect each dream image to a specific dynamic in your inner life. For each image ask, “What part of me is that? Where have I seen it functioning in my life lately? Where do I see the same trait in my personality? Who is it inside me that feels like that, behaves like that?” Then write down each example. Always begin by applying your dream inwardly.

Sometimes, the urge to take the dream image (when it is another person) literally is overwhelming, especially if it’s someone or something we greatly desire or something or someone we are in conflict with. Don’t! Dream images are almost without fail about our inner selves.

The most practical way to connect an image to your self is to ask yourself what traits you have in common with the image or person: What are the main characteristics? If a person, how would you describe their character or personality? Where do you find those same traits in you?

Dreams often speak in extremes in an effort to grab our attention. Because we often repress the best parts of ourselves because we think of them as negative qualities, these parts can only take part in our lives by “stealing” our time by stealing our energy through compulsions or neuroses.

Our egos divide the world into good and bad, positive and negative. Most aspects of our shadows can become valuable strengths if we can become conscious of them. You will NEVER find anything in the unconscious that will not become useful and good once made conscious. And, only you will be able to say what part of you is represented by this shadow.

By thinking of each dream figure as an actual person living inside you, you can ask questions like: Where have I seen this person at work in my life lately? Where in my life have I seen her/him doing what she/he did in the dream? What part of me is it that feels like that, thinks like that, behaves like that?

Pay attention to where you are in the dream as it may give you clues as to whose influence you’re under. If you are in your grandmother’s house, for example, you might be under the influence of the Great Mother archetype. In my dream of the pennies, I was on a bridge: a symbol with obvious connotations. Animals may represent animal instinct or consciousness, something primordial, but like all images they have both negative and positive connotations.

Step Three: Interpretations

The interpretation ties together the meanings of all the images in your dream. Now you can ask yourself questions like: “What is the central, most important message that this dream is trying to communicate to me? What is it advising me to do? What is the overall meaning of the dream for my life?”

Don’t expect your dream interpretation to come out perfect on the first try; keep working at it until it makes sense and fits with the overall pattern of events in the dream. For example, my first impulse with the pennies dream was to attribute to it a need to be more “competitive” before realizing it actually meant “assertive.”

An adequate dream interpretation should be able to sum up your dream in a nutshell. It should supply a specific application of the dream’s message to your personal life, to what you are doing, to how you are going to live. So, write out your interpretations and once again, follow the energy, the interpretation that arouses the strongest feelings in you. Your dream, itself, should provide you with some small clue as to which interpretation is correct.

There are four principles for validating interpretations: 1) Choose an interpretation that tells you something you didn’t know; 2) Avoid the interpretation that is self-congratulatory or ego-inflating; 3) Avoid interpretations that shift the responsibility away from yourself because dreams are never about changing or finding fault in others; 4) Learn to live with dreams over time–fit them into the long-term flow of your life.

Step Four: Rituals

Once you have interpreted your dream, act consciously to honor it. This step requires a physical act (symbolic or practical) to affirm the message of your dream. The ritual neither has to be big or expensive as the most powerful rituals are the small, subtle ones.

Consciously seek to transform the ritual act into an active, dynamic symbol. Johnson says that each ritual must be custom-made out of the raw material of your inner self. And if you can’t think of anything, just do something, anything: Take a walk around your blog as you think about the dream, light a candle. Use your common sense, but don’t act out.

Next Week: Active Imagination

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shadow Work: Image Activation Dreamwork

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Dreamwork, Image Activation Dreamwork, Shadow Work

A dream image can be anything from your dream–human or object.

Image Activation is a relatively simple form of dreamwork that can be used to bring to light both the emotional memories and potential predicaments within the image. It can also reveal the real life situation that prompted the dream.

Keep in mind that all dreams speak a universal language and are the way in which your subconscious works to bring you health and wholeness. Nightmares are the way in which your subconscious attempts to really grab your attention. Also, it is only the dreamer who can say with any real certainty what meanings his or her dream may have. All dreams have multiple layers of significance and meanings, and they never come to tell you something you already know. According to Bob Hoss, follow this format:

1. Pick and Image or Dream Character: For the dream you wish to interpret, pick the characters and images within the dream that seem the most curious, important or impacting. Images that are colorful (their color was noticeable or played an important part in the dream), inanimate images and non-human images may hold the most meaning as they are the most alienated fragments of your personality.

2. Become the Image. Close your eyes, go back into the dream, and bring the dream image or character back into view. Take three deep breaths and move into the image by “becoming” it. Feel its essence; look at the dream through its “eyes.”

3. Let the image speak: Speaking as the image, record their statements exactly as you spoke them. You must speak as if you are the image/character in the first person present tense, using “I am” statements:

A1) Who or what are you (name and describe yourself and your feelings): I am _________”

A2) Alternately, if the image is a dream character who is someone you know, then “become” that person, and:

a) Describe your personality; b) in what ways are you like the dreamer; c) in what ways are you different than the dreamer.

B) What is your purpose or function (what do you do)? “I am _______ and my purpose is to _______________.”

C) As the image, what do you like about who you are and what you do? “I like _____________.”

D) What do you dislike about who you are and what you do” “I dislike ____________________.”

E) As the image, what do you fear most? “I fear _____________.”

F) As the image, what do you desire most? “What I want most is to _____________.”

4. Playback and look for a Life Situation Analogy: Read back the role-play statements to yourself (or have someone else read them to you).

A) Do one or more of the statements sound like something you feel or would like to say about a situation in your real life?

B) Does the “I am” statement sound like a role you are playing in your real life?

C) Do the “I like” versus the “I dislike” statements sound like a conflict going on in your head?

D) Does the “I fear” statement sound like an analogy to a waking life fear?

E) Does the “I desire” statement sound like a waking life goal or desire?

F) If the dream character is someone you know, does some aspect of this person’s personality relate to the way in which you are approaching the real life situation, or alternately, does this dream character have a personality trait that you admire or wish you had more of in order to better handle this real life situation?

5) Life Situation: Describe the waking life situation that is recalled or that is most closely related. Close your eyes and focus on the situation and then a specific event that evokes the feeling and statements in your role-play. Describe that situation and your feelings at the most emotional point. Now what decision did you make about yourself or others in that situation?  Was that a healthy decision that allows you to move forward, or is it holding back your progress because you wish to avoid more fear, hurt, pain?

6) Transformation Exercise–New Dream Ending: Go back into the dream near the end, to perhaps the emotional or conflicting point and ask what you are trying to achieve at that point and how then does the dream end. How does that relate to resolution in your waking life? Does the dream remain unresolved or have a negative outcome? If so, then try this exercise:

A) Without thinking about it, using the first thing that comes to mind, make up a new dream ending that resolves it in a positive and satisfying manner.

B) Now look at that new ending as a metaphor or analogy for a new way to deal with your real life situation. Is it a healthy resolution that allows you to move ahead, or does it only keep you in the same place or the same conflict? If it is a healthy metaphor, then what specific steps can you take in your real life to bring it about? List them.

Next Week: Robert Johnson’s individual dreamwork method.

Shadow Work: Dream Work

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Carl Jung, Dreamwork, Shadow Work

The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far our ego-consciousness extends. For all ego-consciousness is isolated; because it separates and discriminates, it knows only particulars, and it sees only those that can be related to the ego. Its essence is limitation, even though it reach to the farthest nebulae among the stars. All consciousness separates; but in dreams we put on the likeness of that more universal, truer, more eternal man dwelling in the darkness of primordial night. There he is still the whole, and the whole is in him, indistinguishable from nature and bare of all egohood. It is from these all-uniting depths that the dream arises, be it never so childish, grotesque, and immoral.

“The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man” (1933). In CW 10: Civilization in Transition. pg. 304

Yet another way to work on your shadow aspects is through dream work. By becoming aware of your dreams, it will be easier to see where shadow areas might lie. This is particularly true where your anima or animus are concerned.

According to Carl Jung, every man has a feminine side and every woman, a masculine side.

The man’s feminine side is called his anima. The anima emerges when a man relates to other people, when he experiences his emotions and feelings, when he attends to the limited but everyday reality of physical life, and when he is open to the wisdom of the natural as well as the unconscious.

For example, if a man relates poorly to people, and if resentment, rage, and sentimentality are his controlling emotions; if he neglects the real in favor of the ideal; if he squashes what is natural and ignores the unconscious; then he will have feminine figures in his dreams that have unpleasant characteristics. The female dream figures might be seriously seductive, flagrantly hostile, sickly, abused, and so on.

Alternately, if a man’s feminine aspects are more conscious and well developed, his dreams will contain positive feminine figures. If he does not know the woman in his dream, it may be a part of his feminine self that he is not yet aware of; if he does know the woman, then it is more than likely a part of himself of which he is already conscious.

Likewise, females have a masculine side that can be seen in their dreams. This masculine aspect is called the animus. The animus is present when a woman is speaking her mind, when she is inspired to action, when she organizes and focuses, when she appeals to higher principles, when she reads, writes, and masters objective information, and when she is creatively or religiously inspired.

Unpleasant masculine figures will appear in her dreams when she misses the point when speaking her mind, when she is generally disorganized or unfocused, when she is rigidly devoted to political, intellectual or spiritual principles, when she can be seduced away from the genuine and grounded life by the lure of an intellectual, spiritual or creative activity that arises from a collective spirit and is not truly her own, when she breaks relationship destructively, or when she alienates people unconsciously.

A woman’s animus displays the healthy and positive manifestations in her dreams when the masculine figures are portrayed as friendly, helpful, and loving males. Similar to men, a woman will see parts of herself that she is unaware of when she does not know the men in her dreams. If she is familiar with the men in her dreams, she is already, even if subconsciously, aware of these masculine aspects of herself.

Next week, I will offer a couple of practical methods for interpreting your own dreams. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to work on your dream recall. Everybody dreams, usually a half a dozen times a more a night. The difficult part of dream work is remembering at least one of those dreams. The most important thing to do is to decide by what method you will record your dreams.

For most people, it is important to place a pen or pencil and a notebook, paper, or whatever you intend to use to transcribe your dreams, next to your bed. This way, if you wake up in the middle of the night and remember your dream, you can jot down a few notes on key words or images that may help you more fully recall the dream in the morning.

Focus your attention on remembering and understanding your dreams before going to sleep. Say a prayer or create your own ritual to help you remember. If you still don’t remember, don’t despair. Dream Work is a process and sometimes it takes a little while to find the right system for remembering your dreams.

Shadow Work: The Enneagram

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Enneagram, Shadow Work

 

Enneagram Institute
The Enneagram system is a complex but very revealing personality typing system. It consists of Nine basic personality types, which are identified by number but sometimes are given a general name to describe them. They are:

Type One: The Reformer: principled, purposeful, self-controlled, and perfectionistic.

Type Two: The Helper: generous, demonstrative, people-pleasing, and possessive.

Type Three: The Achiever: adaptable, excelling, driven, and image-conscious.

Type Four: The Individualist: expressive, dramatic, self-absorbed, and temperamental.

Type Five: The Investigator: perceptive, innovative, secretive, and isolated.

Type Six: The Loyalist: engaging, responsible, anxious, and suspicious.

Type Seven: The Enthusiast: spontaneous, versatile, acquisitive, and scattered.

Type Eight: The Challenger: self-confident, decisive, willful, and confrontational.

Type Nine: The Peacemaker: receptive, reassuring, complacent, and resigned.

As you can see, the short description for each type included both the good and bad parts of that personality type. Once you’ve determined your type, you will also find that you tend to have what is termed a “wing,” or the type you lean toward on either side of your main type. For example, you could be a Type Six with leanings toward either the Type Five or Type Seven personality.

Each personality type also features three main levels, with three levels within each of those main levels of personality development. Each personality displays different levels of unhealthy, average, and healthy behavior.

At the Healthy Level, the most redeemed personalities have achieved Level One: The Level of Liberation. Level Two is the Level of Psychological Capacity and Level Three is the Level of Social Value. At the Average Level, Level Four is the Level of Imbalance/ Social Role; Level Five is the Level of Interpersonal Control; and Level Six is the Level of Overcompensation. Finally, at its most Unhealthy Level, personality aspects will see Level Seven, the Level of Violation; Level Eight, the Level of Obsession and Compulsion; and Level Nine, the Level of Pathological Destructiveness.

The idea of Shadow Work is to take all those personality components at the Average and Unhealthy Levels and draw them into the Healthy Level.

You will find LOADS of information on the Enneagram, as well as the tests and more detailed descriptions at The Enneagram Institute website. If you sign up for a free membership, you can have a daily Enneathought sent to you by email, which helps in better understanding your personality type.

#28DayBNWPhotoChallenge

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black and white, photography

Because I intend to take a break from social media during Lent, I challenged myself to post a black and white photo on Instagram every day in February. Here is a sampling of three of the twenty-eight:

Day 9: Jesus with flower at Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia

Day 7: Olive in the morning light.

Day 13: Infrared of Summerville Cemetery, Augusta, Georgia

You can see the other 25 days here: #28DayBNWPhotoChallenge

Meanwhile, I will continue to rerun my 9-part series on shadow and dream work. See you on Easter!