Lecture: What Animals in Our Dreams Can Tell Us
By looking at animals as they appear in our dreams (through information from analytical psychology, myth and religion) we are provided with a window through which we can glimpse something deep within the instinctive-body-matter aspect of an individual’s psyche. We also glimpse the aspects of nature by which we know the inter-connectedness of all things. The animal can connect us to the instinctive level, but it is a mistake to simply interpret all animals as instincts without respect for the amazing, mysterious specificity within the psyche of choosing precisely the image required.
Inseeing is a term used by Ranier Marie Rilke to describe that exact moment in creation when God knew that each creature was perfect just as it was. By inseeing into the images of the animals in our dreams, perhaps we can better understand what they can tell us.
Workshop: Psyche and Nature
Because of the innate and inner need of humans to produce images of central value to relate to the world around them (which Jung called the religious instinct), primitive men and women identified themselves with the faces of nature-mountains, trees, water, and animals. Frightened as they may have been, they did not feel alienated from themselves or the Universe. But the human family moved from this state of participation mystique with nature to the opposite pole of alienation from the Universe. This is reflected in our current planetary abuse of natural resources and animals. We must now re-connect with nature to effect healing upon our earth and continue our own individual growth. Our consciousness, by nature of our capacity to remember, to re-member and reflect, can allow us to see the natural order of life. We are the space in which the Universe can be cherished in a new and intense manner.
In this workshop we will see how our everyday experiences can be used to remind us of our place in the natural order of things. NOTE: please wear comfortable clothing, and bring a mat, drawing material and a small picture of yourself as a young child.
Eleanora Woloy, M.D., is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Eastern Virginia Medical School with a private practice in Virginia Beach, VA. She received her medical and psychiatric training in both adult and child psychiatry at the University of Michigan and is a Diplomate of the Interregional Society of Jungian Analysts. She has lectured widely on the I Ching, the basics of Jungian psychology, and the Eleusian Mysteries. Her book, The Symbol of the Dog in the Human Psyche, was published by Chiron Publications this spring.