Engaging dreams and myth
The Carl Jung Circle Center (CJCC) will present, for the first time in the Philippines, a dream tending certificate course by the distinguished founders of Pacifica Graduate Institute (Santa Barbara, California).
“We can enrich ourselves by exploring psyche, myth and dream for new perspectives of one’s personal unconscious,” explained CJCC chair Dr. Ma. Teresa Gustilo-Villasor
Carl Gustav Jung understood that myth is a collective dream. Dream is a personal myth[mv1].
Dr. Stephen Aizenstat, Chancellor and founding President of Pacifica Graduate Institute, crafted the Dream Tending Methods. A professor of Depth Psychology with a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, he is a marriage and family therapist, counselor, lecturer and international consultant. He will share his techniques.
Dr. Maren Tonder Hansen will open the 3- day course through an introduction and familiarity with the use of symbols in myth. She is a founding member and Trustee of the Pacifica Graduate Institute, Institutional Management Council and faculty. An ordained Unitarian minister, her subjects include women’s spirituality, myth and dream work. Her publications include Mother Mysteries and Teachers of Myth.
The Dream Tending course builds on the methods of association amplification, and animation pioneered by Dr. Sigmund Freud and Dr. Jung.
Dream Tending is a life practice that healers, storytellers, and poets have known by different names for thousands of years. These have been expanded by James Hillman and Marion Woodsman.
The course introduces the psychological methods such as personal association and ritual. It explores the symbolic narrative, whether it is myth or dream.
CJCC chair emeritus Rose Yenko remarked, “It is for those who do soul work, healing of the psyche, working with brokenness, working for psychological growth. Dreams are such a rich resources deep within ourselves that offer us a wisdom to help move our lives into a better place. If only we knew how.”
This is ideal for those individuals who are intrigued by their dream images and stories, as well as mental health practitioners who wish to aid their clients in decoding the image and the healing messages from the unconscious via dreams.
The psyche or soul will be explained in depth.
In studying the 4,000-yearold Sumerian story, The Descent of Inanna, the participant will discover images, patterns, movements of the soul that provide wisdom and advice applicable to our lives. The topics to be covered are: 1) How to remember dreams and examine recurring themes;
2) Awareness of the multiple dimensions of our psyche — the personal the collective and the world unconscious;
3) How to animate dream images and form relationships with figures in our dreams;
4) How living images impact and inform our moods, behaviors and perceptions;
5) How dreams can support and improve our moods, behaviors, and perceptions;
6) How dreams can support and improve physical and psychological health.
At the CJCC’s “Salubungan: An Encounter with Depth Psychology,” Dr. Aizenstat gave a glimpse of dream tending which he has practiced for more than 40 years. Here are notes from his lecture in July 2016.
“Today I am offering the approach to dreams called dream tending… I mentioned multidimensionality because it can be the home of dream tending.
“We will work with dreams as that vision that comes as we work with another human being in relation to his or her dream life. We must also realize how dream tending has multiple applications. It is medicinal when we work in the way I will offer.
“We can work with images as medicines, as the psyche of the soul, in the tradition of ancient Greece. … Images do have something to offer from the medicinal point.
“And going into Europe, where I work with multinational CEOs and with the company, and with its alignment with that mission which has all kinds of meanings in terms of success.
“Dream tending can also be worked with in marriages or in partnerships of couples. There are always more than two people in the room at any given time, and they bring themselves forward in the quality of the dream…
“In dream tending, it is important to allow the intelligence, which is alive and active in the image itself, to come forward. Here, we need to work with images as if they were alive…”
From Mary Oliver’s “Dreams”: “When deep in the tree, All the locks click open, And the fire surges, And the blossoms blossom.” “This is the approach to dream work that I want to offer: dream tending. It is not dream interpretation, although that is incredibly helpful. It is no dream analysis although, again, that is incredibly helpful. Instead, it is tending to the image as living entity here and now and allowing the blossoms to blossom. Let us try it then.”
(The certificate course “Engaging Dreams and Myth in One’s Life” will be held on Jan. 25- 27 at Ateneo Rockwell Auditorium, Makati City. For inquiries, contact The Carl Jung Circle Center jungphilippines@ yahoo.com tel. no. 0927- 2313-757 ( Ella) www. jungcirclecenter.ph).
This is ideal for those individuals who are intrigued by their dream images.