A Story for the Dark Moon

When I was in the very beginning of my “spiritual” path, I spent 3 years doing weekly dreamwork. Both of my parents were trained in the art, so I wasn’t a total stranger – but this was the first time I made a practice of writing down my dreams and working with them in a group.

One of my favorite methods is Gestalt, where the dreamer will speak from different points of view in the dream… (“I am lost, wandering a desolate landscape. I feel scared…” Or even, “I am a desolate landscape. My soil is scorched and trees stand bare, but there is still a little bit of life within me…”)

{Sidenote: dreams are always written and spoken in the present tense. It helps the dreamer stay immersed in the experience, drawing out more emotional connection and deeper understanding.}

Plenty of my dreams were scary. There might be dead bodies, blood, and running, lots of running…

It took practice, but over time I trained myself to stop running, to turn around and face what was chasing me.

Without telling you what I found, just know that the act of turning around was life changing. The most important thing was simply That. I. Stopped.

In that one, simple, dream-bound act, I evoked courage. The courage to die even, if I had to, simply so I could stop running in fear.

Since then I’ve learned the shadows don’t only hold terrors. They hold wonder, beauty, magic!✨

But we will never find it if we keep running…

“I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” — Georgia O’Keefe

So today I extend a simple invitation: whether through dreamwork, active imagination, journaling, dancing, etc, may you find (with the aid of a guide if this is new or you need support – most of us do at times) a thread of practice that helps you face the nasties, fears, doubts and demons hiding in the shadow pockets of your mind.

Affirmations and spiritual work can be lovely, but if any of those little gremlins are still lurking, they will always come back to haunt and limit us.

As we enter the darkening season, this is a perfect time to listen to what arises from the deep…