Dream Explorations: A Journey in Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization

By Rachel G. Norment

Through Rachel Norments Dream Explorations: A Journey in Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization, you can

learn contemporary methods of dreamwork inspired by Carl Jung and developed by Montague Ullman, Jeremy Taylor, and many others; and
discover the deep inner wisdom you have within yourself that can guide you towards spiritual growth and physical and psychological health and wholenesstoward becoming the person you are meant to become.

Rachel Norments Dream Explorations is a gift to us all! The combination of her careful attention to her own dreams over decades and her keen eye for the dreams and insights of other dreamers has produced a work of great depth, wisdom, and inspiration. It is a joy to read.

Jeremy Taylor, D.Min., cofounder and past president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) and author of The Wisdom of Your Dreams

In this valuable and highly readable book, longtime dreamworker Rachel Norment offers us her collection of dream treasures with instructive reflections on common symbols and dream themes. This book clearly illustrates the rewards of a lifetime of dreamwork to guide and heal our lives.

Chelsea Wakefield, Ph.D., LCSW, psychotherapist and author of Negotiating the Inner Peace Treaty: Becoming the Person You Were Born to Be

Serious dream workers and seekers after self-knowledge will be delighted by this book. Rachels practical insights into her personal symbols and themes are sure to bring light and guidance to anyones inner explorations. I highly recommend it.

Jean Benedict Raffa, Ph.D., author of The Bridge to Wholeness, Dream Theatres of the Soul, and Healing the Sacred Divide

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Sep 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781452577548

Rachel G. Norment

Rachel G. Norment, M.A,, is a certified dreamwork facilitator and author of Guided by Dreams: Breast Cancer, Dreams, and Transformation. Visit her online at www.expressiveavenues.com.

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Copyright © 2013 Rachel G. Norment, M.A.

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4525-7753-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-7755-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-7754-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013912268

Balboa Press rev. date: 9/18/2013

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Disclaimer

Chapter 1   INTRODUCTION: GOING WITHIN

Chapter 2   SELF-KNOWLEDGE THROUGH DREAMS

Chapter 3   WAYS TO LEARN MORE

Tips for Exploring a Dream

Chapter 4   STUDYING DREAM SERIES

Chapter 5   RELATIONSHIPS IN DREAMS

The Shadow

Invitations to Integrate the Shadow

Relationship to Parents

Signs of Positive Growth

Dreams about a Shared Concern

Relationships with the Deceased Revealed in Dreams

Chapter 6   ASPECTS OF LOVE IN DREAMS

Anima/Animus

Weddings

Two of Our Daughter’s Dreams

Chapter 7   HOUSES IN DREAMS

Renovation and New Construction

Discovering New Rooms

Fireplaces and Fires

Ceilings and Basements and Fires

Chapter 8   BATHROOM DREAMS

Chapter 9   THE BODY AND HOW IT IS CLOTHED IN DREAMS

Hair Dreams

Teeth Dreams

Clothing

Chapter 10   FOOD IN DREAMS

Food for Thought

Preparing Food for Others

Food - Proper Diet

Being Deprived of Food

Chapter 11   COLOR AND MUSIC IN DREAMS

Music in Dreams

Dreams and Guided Imagery and Music

Chapter 12   FEARS REVEALED IN DREAMS

Fears at Retirement

Captivity and Freedom

Fears of Scarcity Revealed

Death — Signs of Transformation

Dreams of Approaching Death

Chapter 13   NATURAL DISASTERS IN DREAMS

Chapter 14   MORE ABOUT WATER IN DREAMS

Storms

Huge Waves

Frozen Water and Rain

Floods

Chapter 15   MISCELLANEOUS THEMES

Tests

Sports

Holiday Experiences

Puns and Metaphors

Pre-Election Dreams

Chapter 16   ANIMALS IN DREAMS

Horses

An Animal as a Symbol for Oneself

Prehistoric Animals

Snakes

Hearing Animal Voices

Chapter 17   BABIES & CHILDREN IN DREAMS

The Magical/Divine Child

Children in General

The Orphan or Wounded Child

A Baptism Ritual Dream

Chapter 18   CREATING A BOOK

At an Art Therapy Workshop

Getting First Book Published

Chapter 19   HEALING THROUGH DREAMWORK

Kellogg’s Categories of Healing Dreams

A Prescriptive Dream

Dream Guidance Towards Healing

More Examples of Dream Guidance

Garfield’s Seven Stages of Recovery

An Author’s Account of a Healing Dream

The Mind-Body Connection

Chapter 20   TRAVEL IN DREAMS

Life as a Day’s Journey

Driving or Being Driven

Vehicles of Public Transportation

Incubate a Dream

Chapter 21   NEW INSIGHTS THROUGH DREAMS

Reflections of Emotional Truths

Retracing Steps to Resolve Issue

A Source Providing More Insights

Chapter 22   A SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Amazing Dream Revelations

The Roles We Play

Searching for Life’s Purpose

Afterword

Appendix: Dream Contents by Titles

Bibliography

Websites

Cover Art: Transformation Mandala

About the Author

To Owen,

my beloved husband,

whose supportive presence

in my life for more than 56 years

has contributed greatly

to my process of individuation.

FOREWORD

When I first met Rachel Norment many years ago, I knew we were kindred spirits; since then we have become not only colleagues but also very close friends. Sharing dreams for many years, we have come to know each other in a very special way.

In 2005 I became co-creator of a Cancer Project sponsored by the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD). Our main goal was to develop teaching materials and to present dream work in cancer support communities across the country.

Rachel Norment was one of the first facilitators for the IASD Cancer Project, now called the IASD Health Care Project. Rachel’s first book, published in 2006, has been an inspiration and model for many survivors. Guided by Dreams: Breast Cancer, Dreams, and Transformation is an amazing account of how she was guided and supported by her dreams as she went through diagnosis and treatment. All along the path to recovery, dreams were constant companions that brought Rachel insight, a sense of meaning and direction into healing, and a sense of purpose for the future.

Rachel’s first book continues to be an invaluable resource for many people who must confront the challenge of cancer and for the IASD Health Care Project as we expand our outreach to others facing any kind of illness and trauma.

After the publication of Guided by Dreams, Rachel periodically told me about her desire to organize and share a collection of additional personal dreams dating from as early as the 1970’s. I encouraged her, not realizing the enormity of her treasure trove of recorded dreams. I never imagined the time it would take to review her daunting stacks of dream journals or how much work and insight it would require to sort and arrange the selections.

Rachel has proved to be a first class, innovative curator. Reading her new book, Dream Explorations: A Journey in Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization, is like exploring an intriguing exhibit of fine art. From thousands of dreams, Rachel has carefully selected 245 and has arranged them according to themes and recurring imagery into an astonishing collection. The topics range from bathrooms and animals to healing encounters and experiences of spiritual seeking. With each topic and series of dreams, the readers can feel the impact of mysterious creative power and, through the author’s thoughtful reflections on the multiple possibilities of meanings of each dream, can discover how to assimilate and integrate the energies and insights of their own dreams. Each dream series is a demonstration of how the psyche invites the dreamer to open up into larger life by responding to creative energies of the patterns of recurring dream imagery and themes.

Dream Explorations emphasizes the multi-dimensional nature of dream exploration. Dreams are pathways to health and wholeness, and every dream can bring multiple simultaneous insights and energies for growth and the healing of mind, body, and spirit. Each dream series demonstrates patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior that might be keeping the dreamer closed up, limited, and stuck. Each series also points toward patterns that might enable the dreamer to move into deeper self-knowledge and fuller self-realization. This book enables the reader to experience and appreciate the transformative and healing nature of dream work.

I am deeply touched by Rachel’s courage and honesty in sharing the dreams and reflections that so clearly reveal the depths and heights of her own journey. She is truly a dedicated explorer who gives great honor to her dreams and to the healing power of dream work. Dream Explorations can serve not only as an inspiration to others, but also can serve as a guidebook for anyone who might choose to embark upon their own dream explorations, their own journey into self-knowledge and self-realization.

—Tallulah Lyons, M.Ed., author of Dreams and Guided Imagery: Gifts for Transforming Illness and Crisis and Dream Prayers: Dreamwork as a Spiritual Path and co-creator: IASD Health Care Project

PREFACE

Dreams have intrigued me for most of my life. In the early 1970s I faithfully recorded all I could remember for half a year, even though I had no idea what they were saying or that they could help me learn what my psyche considers important. Then during the next twenty years everyday activities of raising two children, becoming a professional artist, teaching art, painting and exhibiting took precedence.

I returned to recording dreams in the early 1990s. Attending my first dreamwork workshop in 1992, I was amazed to discover that one can understand the symbolism of dreams. I was just beginning to learn how to understand my dreams when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994. The first dreams I remembered after receiving the diagnosis were a fascinating series of six dreams all one night. The first one seemed to state by means of metaphor what had already happened. It took many months, and in some cases years, for me to fully understand them all. I have recounted this experience in my first book, Guided by Dreams: Breast Cancer, Dreams, and Transformation. The illness and my efforts to understand what my dreams were trying to tell me about the illness and its causes and possible treatments became a powerful learning experience—part of my preparations for my life’s purpose, helping others understand and learn about dreamwork.

Immediately after completing treatments for the cancer I attended the first of many dreamwork institutes and conferences led by nationally and internationally known dreamworkers, including Robert Johnson, Jeremy Taylor, Montague Ullman, Stanley Krippner, James Hollis, Marian Woodman, Paula Reeves, Murray Stein, Robert Hoss, and many others. I gained certification as a dreamwork facilitator through Jeremy Taylor’s MIPD (Marin Institute for Projective Dream Work).

This book has come about as the result of reviewing the many decades of my dream journals along with the numerous articles I contributed over a period of eight years to a monthly Charlottesville (VA) area newspaper, Echo, and a national dream magazine, Dream Network. I began to realize what a wealth of information was available to me on a wide variety of topics. This information comes from deep within my psyche and is made visible through the symbols and metaphors in my dreams. The same type of information is available to you, the reader, when you study your own dreams. I hope my sharing of my story will inspire you to learn from your own dreams.

As we all know from experience, dream narratives can evaporate—escape our memory—if we don’t write the dream down as soon as we wake up. Then, too, we often forget them even after writing them down unless we go back and reread them. Thus, periodic reviews of our dream journals are very valuable. During reviews we can look for series of dreams that deal with the same themes and images or similar circumstances to see whether we are stuck in possibly debilitating patterns of thoughts, beliefs, and habits or if our positions have shifted over the months or years allowing positive transformations. My discussions throughout the book are based on what series of dreams show about particular subjects.

Remembering how puzzled I felt about understanding dreams when I first began my study of dreams, I feel it might be helpful to show through my own dreams and some from my own family members how we can figure out their possible messages. I introduce various dreamwork concepts, terminology, and ways of working with and honoring dreams.

I am indebted to the many mentors from whom I’ve learned so much about dreamwork, through face to face contact at conferences and through the literally hundreds of dream books on my bookshelves that I have studied and still value. I refer to many I have found most helpful throughout the book.

Life is an interesting and at times challenging journey. As we set out, we may not know our destination or what roads or paths we should take. We often do not know or understand what we are meant to do with our lives—what our lives’ purposes may be. If we can discover what is important to us, what talents we possess, we can learn how to prepare, then allow our lives to unfold as they are meant to. We can be helped along this journey by learning all we can about ourselves through the study of our dreams. I invite you to be open to this means of learning. Dreams can assist you greatly during your life journey in self-knowledge and self-realization.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As I have mentioned in my Preface, I have learned much through decades of study with many of the leading authorities in dream work. I am grateful to all those with whom I have had personal contact as well as the authors of the hundreds of books I have studied. I have singled out and named various persons throughout the book whose particular ideas aided my understanding of my dreams through the years.

I wish to extend special gratitude to Jeremy Taylor whose insights into some of my earlier dreams contributed greatly to my understanding of dreams and myself and whose immense knowledge of dreamwork has enlightened and inspired me.

I wish to thank friends and colleagues who gave generously of their time to read my manuscript and to offer support and suggestions: Jean Raffa, Chelsea Wakefield, PMH Atwater, Jean Campbell, and Jeremy Taylor.

I appreciate the opportunity extended to me by Jim Ward, editor of the monthly newspaper Echo, and Roberta Ossana, editor of the national journal Dream Network, for publishing my early essays that constitute the basis for much of this book.

I extend special thanks to my dear friend and fellow dreamworker, Tallulah Lyons, for her insightful suggestions and encouragement as my manuscript evolved and for her gracious Foreword.

I wish to thank my friend and clinical psychologist for permitting me to include the detailed discussion of her dream in the section on Dreams and Guided Imagery and Music. It illustrates how transformative the experience of bringing a dream image into Guided Imagery and Music therapy can be.

I also wish to express my gratitude to the many participants who have attended my workshops and members of ongoing dream groups who have shared their dreams through the years. Their shared stories and dreams added greatly to my understanding of dreams and dreamwork.

I am blessed with a wonderful daughter and son, Marcia and Russell. They have shared their dreams with me from time to time. I thank Marcia for giving permission to include three of her dreams in this book. I thank them both for their interest in my creative endeavors and their treasured love.

Most of all, I want to thank my husband, Owen Norment, for his special love and ongoing support in all my endeavors through the many decades we have been together. He, too, has become skilled in dreamwork and we have shared and discussed dreams together for many years. He has graciously permitted many of his dreams to be discussed in this book. Having taught Rhetoric in college, he is also skilled in editing and helped fine-tune this manuscript. I am forever grateful for his presence in my life. He has contributed greatly to my process of individuation.

DISCLAIMER

This book is not intended to replace or to be a substitute for appropriate medical or psychological counseling. Dreamwork as put forth in this book can be used complementarily to any medical or psychological care. Please avoid literal interpretation, particularly with dreams about disaster and disease. Unexpected issues and emotions may arise during various approaches to dreamwork. Please seek professional care for individual concerns. The author assumes no responsibility or liability for the actions of the reader.

—1—

INTRODUCTION: GOING WITHIN

How many of us live on the surface of life—going to work, doing our daily chores, interacting with co-workers, neighbors and family without being aware of what really matters most to us? Are we functioning on the same level we did a decade ago or have we matured and grown emotionally, mentally, psychologically, and spiritually? Is there any way we can learn more about ourselves without going to a psychiatrist or psychologist? The answer to the last question is yes. We can learn a lot about ourselves by studying our dreams.

Our dreams come from a deep inner knowing within ourselves, the essential Self, the part of us that can connect our physical, mental, and spiritual bodies with the Divine Source, bringing into consciousness information and intuitive knowing that can help us grow and realize our full potential to become the whole persons we are meant to be.

Do we really want to know more about ourselves? I thought I did as I began a serious study of dreamwork. In one of my dreams early in 1992

I Decide Against Going Deep into Dark, Foreboding Woods

I am walking and come upon an area that is a meadow surrounded by woods. I think the area is beautiful and I walk some distance into the woods. If I were to go beyond a certain point it would become very dark and foreboding because it is too far from the opening where it is light. So I turn around, feeling it would be too dangerous to go farther, and head towards the opening.

Although I was not aware of this consciously at that time, the dream revealed I was fearful of delving too deeply into the unconscious. In the language of dreams, a collection of trees—the woods—often is a dream symbol representing one’s unconscious. The term symbol refers to a tangible object or concept that stands for or suggests a deeper or more complex reality.

During the next seven years I attended many workshops and seminars led by nationally and internationally known dreamworkers and also read extensively. I wanted to become proficient in understanding dreams and to be able to help others explore their dreams.

Then in 1999 I had two dreams that showed I still had an unconscious fear of going within myself. These dreams spoke directly of going within. They used the metaphor of caves and going deep into the ground to represent going into the unconscious.

The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung tells us in Memories, Dreams, Reflections of the important dream he had of discovering a deep cave below the cellar of his house. For him, the cave represented a deep level of the unconscious and the dream became for [him] a guiding image… .

Exploration of a cave (the unconscious) can lead to greater self-knowledge. The first of these two dreams of mine pointed to going within something as part of my education. Even though I was in my sixties at the time, the dream used the image of going off to boarding school or college.

We’re Expected to Go into a Deep Underground Place on Our Own

I am being taken off to a strange boarding school or college by someone, perhaps my father. We enter a small building out in the middle of nowhere, which is to be my dorm. We go into a room that I will share with another girl. I wonder how I will get to classes. I don’t have a car and this dorm is not anywhere near any other buildings. My father walks out, somewhat in a hurry, leaving me to my own devices. I notice that he seems to be fighting back tears—as if he hates to have to leave me in this situation.

I am not sure how we are to have our meals. Perhaps we have a little kitchen. I have hardly had time to eat when an unidentified man appears. He is to take us to our class. We are not taken to any classroom building. Instead, we are outside in the wilds and are led through rough terrain. At one point I discover what appears to be the entrance to something deep in the ground. I have the feeling we are expected to go into this on our own. I stand by the entrance wondering what I should do. I’m fearful and reluctant to go in—wondering if I’ll be able to get back out.

The action of my father in the dream was in keeping with what my waking-life father valued, for he always encouraged me to learn and grow intellectually, psychologically, and spiritually. But he died seven years before I had this dream. Thus my father in the dream represented the wise old man part of myself that realized the way to self-knowledge is not easy; I may traverse rough terrain as I go to the place where I must go deep within. However, he knows this is for the best. My ego (the I in the dream) was fearful.

The second dream, occurring three months later, expressed my unconscious fear of someone coming out of a cave.

We Fear the Person Coming Out of the Cave Might Be Threatening

My husband and I are walking outside and are passing an entrance to a cave or a passageway deep into the earth. I glance in, but then we hastily walk on because we’re fearful of being seen and followed by someone who is coming out.

Even though I had been exploring dreams for many years by this time, apparently a part of me still was not convinced it was safe to go within. Maybe I feared what the man coming out of the cave might represent—an assertive, energetic masculine energy within myself. As I look back on this dream now, I realize that this masculine energy could and would help me undertake various new activities in the coming years. But at the time I had no idea how my life was evolving, and we humans often fear the unknown.

In 2001 a dream showed there had definitely been a shift within my psyche. Here is the dream:

I See a Woman in an Orange Dress Emerge from the Woods

I’m in an unidentified location with other people. We’re in a wooded area beside a small body of water. I’m talking with others when I notice something orange in the water quite some distance away. I think I’m seeing an orange fish. Then I realize I’m seeing a reflection of the bright orange dress worn by a woman just coming into view as she emerges from a more densely wooded area by the water.

In this dream I saw a woman who represented a part of myself that had been deep in the woods—my unconscious—and was now coming into view in a dress—a symbol of an intuitive, feminine outlook. The color orange may indicate a blending of emotions and intellect, abundant energy, and a friendly, outgoing manner. I evidently was no longer fearful of going into my unconscious and was acquiring a greater understanding of myself. I had gained desirable attributes. The dream offered metaphors for gaining knowledge, achieving growth, making progress along life’s journey toward wholeness.

A well-known therapist in the fields of psychology and psychoneuroimmunology, Paula Reeves, writes in her book Heart Sense: Our dreams… urge us to discover who we truly are and what we must believe in order to be true to our core self. At several conferences I have heard her state: When you don’t know or care what matters most to you, that then becomes the matter with you. Our dreams are messages from our core self. From them we can learn what matters and what can contribute to a healthy future.

Even the most frightening dreams are coming to help us. If a dream points to a personal characteristic that is not flattering or a situation that is frightening, it does so to enable us to do something about it. As dream analyst Jeremy Taylor, co-founder of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, says, All dreams speak a universal language and come in the service of health and wholeness. There is no such thing as a ‘bad dream’—only dreams that sometimes take a dramatically negative form in order to grab our attention. No dream comes to say: Nyeah, nyeah, nyeah—you have these problems and you can’t do anything about them! Once we get the message from our dream, we can begin to act upon it in some appropriate way to help ourselves grow and mature into the persons we were meant to become.

Now after more than two decades spent learning how to explore dreams and sharing some of this knowledge by facilitating workshops, seminars, and small dream groups, I am convinced of the great value in dreamwork. I hope by sharing some of my experiences with dreams in this book I will inspire you, the reader, to begin to remember, record, and learn how to explore your own dreams. You will benefit greatly from this undertaking.

—2—

SELF-KNOWLEDGE THROUGH DREAMS

The study of dreams can be a valuable way to learn about oneself. Dreams come from deep within the unconscious and give us many levels of information. Some dreams literally delineate and analyze everyday occurrences, but many use symbols and metaphors to give us insights about ourselves and our relationships with others and our culture.

In dreams, we can be both the observer and the one observed and play multiple roles. Sometimes we are aware of this in the dream. However, in most dreams, the conscious ego simply observes and interacts with other people—either unidentified people or those we know in waking life. Many dreamworkers hold that all people, all creatures, and even inanimate objects in a dream represent some aspect of the dreamer. Therefore, by noting their characteristics we learn something about ourselves.

Can you recall a morning when you awoke from a disturbing or frightening dream? I imagine you were glad you were awake and it was just a dream. Can you imagine how you also might be thankful for having such a dream? You probably think I’m crazy for even suggesting this possibility. However, our dreammaker—an inner knowing within us that connects us with the Divine Source—gives us such dreams to tell us something it is important for us to know. Some people have told me they were afraid to study their dreams, afraid of what they might discover. But we need not be afraid. Even nightmares are coming to help us by making us aware of certain situations and suggesting ways to make improvements. Some dreams remind us of hidden talents. Jeremy Taylor, who has worked with dreams for over 40 years, assures us that we will remember the contents of disturbing dreams only when we are ready to deal with whatever the issue might be. We just need to figure out what the message is.

Nightmares often use images designed to shock the ego out of its complacency. In 1999 I had such a dream, one I found puzzling and disturbing:

I Observe Cannibalism

I’m out in the frozen landscape with others. I watch from several feet away as a scene unfolds. There is a woman lying flat. Another approaches, leans over and begins slicing off a section of the person’s forehead, which seems somewhat larger than normal. As this is being done the forehead has the appearance of a large slab of meat. I wonder what in the world is happening. Then I realize what is happening as I watch the person begin to eat from the slice. Cannibalism! There has been no bleeding when the slicing occurred. I had thought the prone person was alive, but maybe not. That person must have been dead, perhaps frozen, and those remaining are trying to survive. I’m out there with them, although I seem to be just observing from a distance. Does this mean I, too, am in danger and will need to do likewise to survive?

John D. Goldhammer, in his book Radical Dreaming: Use Your Dreams to Change Your Life, recounts a similar dream of cannibalism. The dreamer tells of eating meat, which he noticed was the dead body of a man. Goldhammer explains that [t]he dreamer lives on the money his deceased father left… . [H]e is unhappy because he wants to prove… that he is a useful member of society and is able to make his own living. In the dream, he literally lives off his dead father… . He has become a cannibal.

Goldhammer explains further that "when we turn our backs on our true potential, we are choosing to sacrifice our authentic lives, to allow self-destructive, societal influences to cannibalize the soul, devour our creative ideas, rip our authenticity to shreds."

In my dream, I—my ego, my conscious self—was observing other women eating a woman’s flesh. These other women might represent certain aspects within me and also within women in general. My ego was