Beginning my sessions with a client or with a dream group always involves a poem. Poetry is the threshold that we walk through to enter the imaginal, the place where we may encounter the images, the archetypal characters, and the recurring themes that keep cropping up. The language of poetry is very much like the symbolic, non-literal messaging in a dream. This practice helps us to engage other parts of ourselves that involve more than the rational.
Having the opportunity to close your eyes, sit back, and listen to stories is magical. When a poem is read aloud listen to the sound frequency in the teller’s voice. Notice how this sound begins to calm our mental and physical stress. As we relax the poetic sensory and figurative language has a larger place within us to play and reveal itself. Now, we have a greater capacity to engage the imagery which is alive with its own meaning.
In this way the dreamscape is the same as the poetic realm. The dream is a sanctuary for imagery. Dreamwork is a practice of going back again and again into the imaginal, metaphorical space where images bring forward their own purpose. Those images are just waiting for us to observe and listen to them. Allowing ourselves to be surprised by their message can be transformative.