Dear Dreamers,
I’m moving next week, so my message will be brief. East Tennessee has been beautiful in every way, and it’s hard to leave. Someday I’ll write a truly moving testimony about my five amazing years in and around Jonesborough.
And yet. I have really enjoyed my time with in-person dreamers this summer, at Ring Lake Ranch and most recently with the Atlanta Jung Society. Lately, I’ve been nudged and invited to show up more as a dreamworker. So I’m moving to Pine Lake Ga, in the Atlanta area, where there are more opportunities for in-person groups, workshops, and individual dreamwork. It will be wonderful to be with lots of great folks I already know and many more I have yet to meet.
Til then – here’s an online opportunity for next week! Night School is a program through Spiritual Wanderlust. If you haven’t met Kelly and her amazing work, take a look at the whole website!
Night School
Please join me on Saturday August 1 at Spiritual Wanderlust’s online Night School, where I’ll be presenting about dreams as a way to navigate our personal and collective darkness.
What is Night School? In their own words:
We find ourselves in an extraordinary moment, one that calls for all of the courage and tenacity we can muster.
But we need guides along the way, guides who understand what it is to brave the darkness, not just to get through it, but to imbibe the wisdom that only the darkness can impart.
I’m delighted to announce that this year I’ll be one of the teachers in an illuminating and inspiring course designed to help us do just that.
Night School is a year-long exploration of the gifts of the darkness–spiritual, emotional, and communal–led by some of our most profoundly gifted spiritual teachers. [link to landing page]
Each month will feature a live masterclass and also a wealth of resources: spiritual practices, private community, class recordings, and a curated reading list for further exploration.
I’m so honored to be presenting, and I’d love to see you there!
Learn more and sign up here:
https://school.spiritualwanderlust.org/a/2148226496/PLCaPNWh
You can come to one session or join for the year and receive all the recordings, which have been excellent!
Dream Groups
It’s time to schedule fall dream groups! The general idea is explained in the previously posted blog below.
If you are interested, please email me at laura@firebynight.net with the following:
Name and phone number
A bit about yourself and your interested in dreams.
In person (Atlanta area) or online? If online, state your time zone.
Best times? (morning, afternoon, evening….weekend, weekday)
What else would you like me to know about you?
I try to set up groups that would seem to work well together. Minimum 4 dreamers, maximum 6. You can ask for a group with friends or come alone and meet new dreamers.
Meetings are 2 hours, every other week, with a total of 8 meetings for the season.
Each session will include some teaching, dreamwork practices, and two dreams shared by participants. $200 for the season.
I’ll set up a brief conversation by zoom or phone with each potential dream group member.
Here’s the blog about dream groups:
DREAM FISHING
Mike says, “Nothing yet. That’s why they call it fishing. Not catching.”
It’s summertime, and people are out fishing at the local pond. I can smell salmon grilling someplace nearby. A person recently recounted a funny story about deep sea fishing off the Florida coast. And a man shared a dream about how his dad is fishing in the afterlife. Fish fish fish. I think real fish are kind of icky, but in my world, fish = dreams.
Dreamcatching is a lot like fishing: you bait your line with good intentions…you cast it out into the waters of the unconscious…you sink into a dozy, dazey state of minimal consciousness, and then maybe you get a tug that wakes you up and wow, there’s a live, glimmering Other twisting in the air.
With fish, whose fate is either A) get eaten or B) survive but with a gash in their mouth, it seems reasonable to avoid fisherfolk entirely. But dreams? They can be elusive, but sometimes they jump in your boat. Or the same fish will bite over and over. They cluster in schools, they glow in the dark, they show you scars of something big and toothy way down in the murky depths of the pond. Something that will probably surface one of these days.
And so – what do you DO about those dreams and what are they FOR and why so MANY and so WEIRD, and what about the PIRANHAS?
Well, we stay with it. That’s why I’m here. I can’t think of any practice besides dreamwork that is more spiritual, more directly connected to the Source, more exciting and challenging and trustworthy and transformational and true to your most authentic Self and the Purpose that summons you. And dreams aren’t only about us personally – dreams connect us deeply and instantly with others who fish for meaning, for guidance, for the experience of the Mystery. Dreamwork is wild and sometimes terrifying and sometimes unimaginably beautiful.
Yes, we stay with it. We absolutely stay with it.
Staying with it is easier and more enlightening and truly fun in a dream group, and for that reason I’ve opened more groups in my schedule.
I want to help make dream awareness and dream tending as common as fishing. I want people to understand this natural relationship with the divine within, and I want them to relax into that heartfelt magic of symbol, mystery, and meaning that dreams are full of.
And actually – It doesn’t even matter if you don’t catch many dreams. Someone in your group will show up with a catfish or a net full of shrimp, and that’ll feed everybody including you for weeks. Don’t worry. No dreams is no problem: the psyche speaks all the time and everywhere. You’ll see.
Unanswered questions? Email me at laura@firebynight.net.
I look forward to dreaming with you – at Night School, in person, and online.
Deep dream wisdom to us all,
Laura
www.firebynight.net
laura@firebynight.net
Photo credits:
School of fish: Graham Henderson at Pexels