I hope you don't mind, Jerry, but I've copied our previous conversations on ritual and am bringing them in here, to start a new thread just for this subject, something I could have done from the beginning. I copy/pasted our previous posts at the beginning and my more elaborate answer follows.

MY QUESTION WAS:

What is your opinion on using ritual as a means of working with a dream, or of bringing resolution to a dream?

Jerry Answered:

Raymonde,
Your question reminds me of what Campbell said about rituals. Something that although directed to the meaning of a myth has pretty much the same application as do dreams except dreams are an 'enactment' of ones personal myth.

"A ritual is an enactment of a myth."
He goes on to explain:

"Myths puts you in touch with a plane of reference that goes past your mind and into your very being, into your very gut. The ultimate mystery of being and nonbeing transcends all categories of knowledge and thought. Yet that which transcends all talk is the very essence of your own being, so you’re resting on it and you know it. The function of mythological symbols is to give you a sense of "Aha! Yes. I know what it is, it’s myself." This is what it’s all about, and then you feel a kind of centering, centering, centering all the time. And whatever you do can be discussed in relationship to this ground of truth. Though to talk about it as truth is a little bit deceptive because when we think of truth we think of something that can be conceptualized. It goes past that."

Apply this to dreams and I see the same results. The Aha! moment one has with the sudden flash of understanding from the depths of the unconscious. Just as myths provide insights to the universal patterns, dream do the same with personal emotional patterns. How to apply this enactment to dreams would be the question. Art work is a form of ritual and it is used often as therapy.

Do you have a specific ritual in mind? It may help in resolving an emotional issue. More information would help in determining this.

You can read more from Joseph Campbell on this topic at Mythic Reflections. Thoughts on myth, spirit, and our times.

An Interview With Joseph Campbell, by Tom Collins

Here is something from the interview that is a truth.

Tom Collins: The ancient Greeks were surrounded by the presence of gods and statues and reminders of gods."

Joseph Campbell: But that doesn’t work any more. Christianity isn’t moving people’s lives today. What’s moving people’s lives is the stock market and the baseball scores. What are people excited about? It’s a totally materialistic level that has taken over the world. There isn’t even an ideal that anybody’s fighting for."

So true. What chance is there for a new myth to emerge if there is no imagination?

~*~

My RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE:

Again last night, or early this morning, I had three different (but related) dreams that I remember.

My dream life has doubled in intensity and by a significant remembrance factor since I've come to this forum and have started sharing my dreams here. I know something really important is happening in my life here, and I think rituals form an integral part of dream synthesis as a process of individuation.

Rituals have in the past helped me "assimilate" a dream's contents faster and deeper than if I had not performed the ritual.

I'll come back to this with a more satisfactory answer. "life" is begging my attention. You have cats, I have other stuff.

~*~

I continue my answer this day, February 21:

According to several Jungian authors that I’ve read (Von Franz, Robert Johnson, Anthony Stevens and Jung himself) the use of rituals is important in helping one not just ‘understand’ a dream, but also to bring it to its natural unfolding. Bringing it into one’s physical world not only makes it real to the conscious mind, but its Transcendent Function, like the digestive enzymes needed to break down the foodstuffs we eat, chips away at the dream’s nutrient potential and frees it, allowing us to assimilate the unconscious contents more completely.

Jung said in his book Dream Analysis, “The main fear of the unconscious is that we forget who we are.”

With dreams and active imagination, one can keep that connection active, and the ritual, well the ritual enables the bond of remembrance – of who we are – to form in a concrete, physical way, the way that the bodymind can fully comprehend.

There is such a strong connection between myths and dreams, and, in my opinion, ritual ties the two together. Dreams want us to connect to the archetypal world in such a way that therein we will find the answers to our questions, the solutions to our problems. Have not the ancients of old gone through the same challenges, and conquered them? If we look to them, to the MYTH, if we relate that to the myth of our lives, then we will see we all belong to the same, as you point out, Monomyth of humanity. First the dream, then the Myth, then the ritual.

In the book Private Myths – Dreams and Dreaming by Anthony Stevens, he has a full chapter devoted to “Rituals of the Imagination.” Here are some highlights, emphasis mine.

“Dream analysis achieves little if it remains a purely intellectual activity. Dreams have to be felt and their message translated into life. Sometimes this happens spontaneously: the insight generated by a dream or a vision can be so dazzling that one is bowled over by it and one’s life is transformed. Such an experience brings about its own revolution and one can do no more than follow it through.

Usually the message is less overwhelming and one needs to do something about it in order to enhance its influence. Action in the light of a dream is a psychological obligation one owes to the Self. It may be done either practically or in the form of a ritual, itself a symbolic act. “

He goes on to list the three stages needed to make the most of a dream: - here I quote direct from this chapter:

“1) Basic dreamwork, using association and amplification to establish the personal, cultural and archetypal references of the dream and gain insight into its meaning;

2) Register the essence of the dream in consciousness by writing up what it means in terms of your life, illustrating it, working on its main symbols in clay, etc., so as to give it substantive form;

3) Build on the dream, mobilizing its energy and ploughing its meaning into life, either practically, as in direct use in relationships, or symbolically, as in ritual, active imagination, psycho-drama, Gestalt work, etc. “

In 2010, I had a great revelation happen to me because I did the above steps. In fact, the dream and my success at understanding it turned my world upside down and it made me see what I had been all my life, since the abuse, since I was 6 or 7 years old. It was powerful, to say the least, and I know I owe a lot of the ensuing assimilation of the unconscious contents to doing that ritual.

I’ve been using ritual since to work with my dreams and other life transitions or important events, though I’ve not done any in a while. I feel I am missing something in my life right now and it just seems natural to suggest it, that I incorporate ritual in my soul/dream work – now that I’m here in this forum, having these dreams reveal deep truths of which my unconscious wants so much for me to be aware.

You say:
“What chance is there for a new myth to emerge if there is no imagination?“

Here is Stevens’ answer:

“All three stages require development of one’s powers of imagination, even the most practical application of a dream’s disclosure”

So – there is the imagination forming the myth, as we work on our own personal myth by understanding our dreams and ‘doing something about it’ ... in imaginative, creative, and ritual ways.

Have you or anyone else here used rituals to help you with your dreams?

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60, Atlantic Canada

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Female

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes

Raymonde,
The ritual I use is my normal routine every morning. By that I mean I usually interpret dreams in the morning hours when my mind is fresh. I go through my regular morning routine of making coffee, feeding the cats and then sitting down with a cup of coffee {and usually something light to eat} and begin to go over a dream, one at a time, and giving an interpretation. What I am doing is preforming those necessary tasks that need to be done first then clearing my mind for my dream work.

I don't have a routine as in 'meditation' prior to interpretations. But anything we think about in detail is a 'mediation' of sorts and performing the other parts of my morning ritual and going to my dream work is a ritual. I am preparing myself for a voyage into the unconscious, tapping into those inner resources I have developed and refined in working with dreams.

And I don't have any specific ritual I use in my daily life, other than the one I use in my workout shooting basketball. I use physical fitness to center myself physically as well mentally actually stopping 4 times {every 15 minutes} during the workout to center my breath, my body and my mind. I don;t I have mentioned it to you but I have routine shooting basketball by myself for am hour 3 times a week. I've learned to shoot the ball using intuitive senses as well as physical abilities. Those 'intuitive shots, where I shoot the ball instantly on contact and without thought are amazingly accurate. Over my head, behind my back, some amazing shots. I have been doing this routine for about 5 years. I had not perform any serious workouts with a basketball before then. I believe my work with the unconscious, learning and let go and trust the intuitive mind, is greatly responsible for my abilities with a basketball. Here is a short 'Youtube' video post of my workout.
Workout At Grant St Center. It doesn't catch all the shots I make, especially some over the head shots where I catch the ball with one hand and in the same motion put it back up.

Note: Soon after I made this video I have intensified my workout. Before I moved to Florida I worked out at least 4 times a week and usually walked another 20 -30 minutes afterwards. I've adjusted my routine here so to get a more intense workout, to keep up the same pace I had before moving.

A short story about my workout. Often when I do my routine there is an older man, in his mid 70s who also shoots basketball. I was told he is a basketball coach. He is a quite person not prone to conversation {I always engage people}. We've worked out on opposite ends of the court many times. Last week we were each shooting the ball when we met at mid court. He unexpectedly started a conversation asking me who taught me to shoot basketball. I told him I taught myself. He said I was doing it wrong. My reply was my intent was more than just putting the ball in the basket {which you can see from the video I do quite well}, my intent was the exercise, the shooting, running in short sprints, jumping, etc. Exercise was why I was there. Then I asked him, "could you shoot like I do as well I do?" He paused for a moment and said, "no". That ended the conversation. My unorthodox style puzzled him.

My workout demonstrates two things. One is what a person can do {most anyone} when they take physical fitness seriously, which includes a better quality life. The second is what one can do when they learn to 'let go' and use the senses. The video shows that but not to the full degree as when you watch a full 60 minute workout. The intuitive mind is amazing when you learn to trust it. Not only in working with dreams but many other applications as well.

Question. What type ritual do your perform, if any? I can think of mental exercises as an option but is there a specific routine you use?


Jerry

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