Not everyone is a gifted artist, but a surprising number of my clients are either professional artists (painters, writers, musicians) or discover artistic skills during the course of their work with me. Many times I’ve experienced the joy of being shown a piece of dream alchemy artwork (over a skype cam during a consultation or emailed to me as an image), or seeing my clients’ works appear in print or in blog form in the public domain. A joy doubled as the client typically relates the fun they had creating the art, and trebled in witnessing the waking life results that naturally follow.
Perhaps we could get some of these pieces together and hold an exhibition!
Linda, my guest last month in episode 89, sent me her painting, Phoenix, to share with you here. It was her dream alchemy practice, the task we designed, during the show, to reinforce the positive essence she chose to take forward from the dream interpretation.
“Putting the feelings and symbols from the dream into a concrete form that I can look at and be reminded of has been so helpful,” she wrote. “The changes in my waking life since the interpretation have been tremendous. I’m feeling a much greater sense of calm and confidence in my life due to the decisions that the dream, along with your interpretation, helped me to make. Working on the painting was cathartic and powerful. And I sold another (different) painting during this process!”
The point of dream alchemy is to transform an unconscious belief that has not been serving you well into one that is aligned with your conscious intentions or goals. Your unconscious beliefs are laid out in your dreams, once you understand how to interpret the symbolic language your unconscious mind personally uses to express itself. Then you turn the tables, and use the same language to communicate with your unconscious mind to change those beliefs. That’s the process of dream alchemy – working with your personal symbols from a dream to reprogram your unconscious mind. In Linda’s case, painting was the chosen medium, though you can also use visualizations, writing, bodywork, dialogue, and, oh, the list is as endless as it is creative.
You can listen to Linda and me interpreting her dream, throwing light on her waking life, and designing her dream alchemy practice in this episode. You’ll understand why the act of painting the phoenix led to the “tremendous” changes in Linda’s waking life, and you’ll pick up plenty of tips about how to interpret your own dreams and design dream alchemy practices that will deliver positive results for you too.
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