Our July workshop, Dreams and Transitional Spaces was a popular event. We explored the nature of transitional life stages and the experience of dreams from childhood, mid-life dreams and end of life dreams. We discussed the power of metaphor, themes and recurring patterns which point to and reveal the deeper structures of consciousness underpinning our life journeys. We shared personal stories, historical dream journal material, and worked with collage and dreamgroup process to deepen awareness of personal recurring dream themes and to consider the meaning and impact of collective cultural themes and patterns.
Here is a sampling of some member’s comments:
Very enjoyable, wonderful, great day, excellent.
We also shared news of the new Australian online Dream Patterning Course offered by Dr Michael Conforti of the Assisi Institute. The course starts on August 12th, and will include 18 online teleseminars, a weekend workshop on February 12-14 in Sydney and 2 individual mentoring sessions with Dr Michael Conforti. I spoke with Michael on July 23rd DNA-Interview-Michael-Conforti and August 6th DNA-Dr-Conforti-August-6-recording.
In our July 23rd interview Michael spoke of the course as an invitation to journey together in deepening our engagement with dreams and our understanding of the deep patterns of archetypal energies underpinning personal, cultural and spiritual life. During the course participants will be studying the difference between a complex a dreamer has about a dream and the inherent complex in the dream itself.
Michael, quoting Marie Louise Von Franz, spoke of archetypes as,’ nature’s constants’.

‘We find archetypes’ he said, ‘we don’t make them. Every archetype has its own mythology and natural life tendencies, and we can point to the objective nature of the psyche through the awareness of recurring patterns and themes in life and culture '.
In both conversations, Michael talked about the generative function of dreams and image and the importance of being receptive, and of paying close attention when the dream is contrary to nature and natural processes. Nature has a rhythm, a ‘right timing’ that allows natural stages of gestation, hibernation, incubation and creative unfolding and expansion to occur.

(Salmon Dreaming: artwork by DNA member, Jane Austin)
We also talked about how important it is when working with dreams to connect to the feelings and to the nature of the shared field of resonance and relationship that is generated when we listen deeply with imaginal insight and feeling.
We look forward to seeing you at our 6 September workshop on Dreams, Archetypes and Transformation.
This blog was posted in Dreams
and tagged in archetypes, dreams, patterns, September, transformation, workshop