What if dreaming can blossom into art from the heart?
From cave paintings to modern times,
the inspiration for art has been night and day dreaming.

When I took an art class years ago, we began with a guided meditation. What we experienced in the meditative journey is what we painted. Our imagination turned on! Both day and night dreams are a cornucopia of inspiration for writers and artists. To imagine means to make an image. Where we image and vision in the brain is where our psychic abilities arise. Some say that drawing and writing began for the first people to express dreams and visions.

In that art class journey, I was in a grove in a circle of trees and flew up a tree. The dream came true because I soon began training in Active Dreaming. We connected with a big tree as our grounding place in our Dreaming. It was my sacred dream space - my magical dream tree where I meet my guides, guardians, and spirit helpers and where I fly from and return to following all kinds of mystical adventures.

I traveled to the northwest, where I took Active Dreaming teacher training with Robert Moss. Active Dreaming is a synthesis of dreaming and modern shamanism. There it was – the grove of cedar trees some three-plus years later! The painting was a future flash from the art class journey and is now a rich memory whenever I remember it or look at it.

Whether we remember or not, we are dreaming when we sleep, and we benefit from our dreams remembered or not. Dream scientists say we have up to 20 adventures a night! When we suggest an intention and honor dreams, we will begin to build bridges between the worlds, awareness will deepen, and we become more conscious, more awake. We can journey with Active Dreaming at any time.

As the poet Rumi said:

The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you,
Don't go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don't go back to sleep!

During Active Dreaming, we journey with the drum to meet our visions. Drumming is like the heartbeat of the mother before we were born. Drumming is one of the safest non-chemical ways to get into the theta wave state, where deep relaxation, meditation, mental imagery, and daydreaming effortlessly occur. In active shamanic dreaming, we gather our inspiration for our art, music, dance, creative journaling/writing, and enrich our inner life and connection to each other and All That Is. We connect with our core inner essence and psychic abilities, explore parallel lives, choices, and probabilities. Life is an art.

'I dream my paintings, and I paint my dreams'

Vincent Van Gogh

Once a year, I teach a Level 1, 6-module Active Dreaming course where we go into more depth with dreaming, explore many suggestions for dream recall, and honor dreams. After the course, I offer a monthly Zoom Dream Night, where we will continue to work with dreams and dreaming.

Please sign up for my newsletter to be notified of this and other webinars in the Wise Women Webinar series. You can also schedule a private consultation to work with your dreams.

Great drumming track for Active Dreaming