“Dreaming in the Garden”
A Nature-Based Experiential Immersion
Wednesdays in September (7, 14, 21, 28)
8:30am – 12:00pm
Taft Gardens, Ojai, Ca
We have forgotten the river of dreams. The ancient ones knew that the dream stream was the elixir of the “other” world. For the aboriginal peoples of Australia, the “dream-time” is more “real than” the middle-world space we inhabit. In the Judeo-Christian text (aka The Bible), there are numerous examples of dreams and visions. Most dreams were interpreted as communications from God. The river of dreams flows down the sides of the mountain and into the garden of the Psyche where we find ourselves confronted with mysterious images, emotions, and predicaments, just the right kind of trouble.
We might make a case that dreams are initiatory opportunities from the Self, God or Mystery. The dream-maker of the psyche offers nightly gifts as an opportunity to expand our consciousness into the consciousness of the imaginal and the underworld.
During this month-long journey, we will enter the garden of dreaming for 4 separate sessions. We will move from attempting to interpret dreams into allowing the dreams and their strange characters to alter our consciousness; in fact, that’s the whole purpose of dreams, to initiate us into a wisdom beyond the ego. We will encounter characters of our wildness, our wholeness, our outcasts, our protector parts, deep mystery, and if we are lucky, some nightmarish shadowy figures.
In addition to entering the night-world of dreams we will, not surprisingly, enter into the dream of the Earth and wander with dreams in nature and semi-wilderness.
We will employ soul-centric dreamwork, embodiment practices, heart-centered council, expressive arts, deep imagery, and wild wanders as we explore the wild dream stream.
Join us and deepen into your dreams and your unfolding wild story!
Sleeping in the Garden by Mary Oliver
I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.
Location: Taft Ecological Gardens, de la Garigue Rd, Ojai, Ca
20 minute drive from Von’s in Ojai
20 minute drive from Von’s in Ojai
Cost: 380.00
Group Size: 8
Guide: Brian Stafford, MD, MPH
Brian is an eco-therapist, depth psychiatrist, vision fast guide, retreat facilitator, and Guide, Trainer, and Co-Founder and Director of the Wind Mind Training Program, an eco-depth wholistic psychotherapy program at the Animas Valley Institute. A former Chair of Psychiatry, he is also a poet, essayist and storyteller who is completing his first book, “Pathways to Ecological Awakening.”
Brian is an eco-therapist, depth psychiatrist, vision fast guide, retreat facilitator, and Guide, Trainer, and Co-Founder and Director of the Wind Mind Training Program, an eco-depth wholistic psychotherapy program at the Animas Valley Institute. A former Chair of Psychiatry, he is also a poet, essayist and storyteller who is completing his first book, “Pathways to Ecological Awakening.”