Dreams are more important to me than air. Without them I feel flat, dead.
Herein lays my dilemma. In order to reap the benefits of my dream images, I must record them on a daily basis. This requires discipline.
Discipline has never been one of my strong suits. As a matter of fact, discipline is one of my greatest weaknesses. I wrestle with discipline like Jacob wrestled with the angel. I want desperately to win, to eschew its hold on me, but discipline is essential to dream work—so discipline wins.
It’s worth it, though, because dream images are the seeds of inspiration. They feed creativity and nourish our lives from the inside out.
Just ask Harriet Tubman (freer of slaves), Elias Howe (perfector of the sewing machine), or Einstein (father of the theory of relativity), where we’d be if they hadn’t trusted their dream images. Tubman might never have helped countless people find the road to freedom. We might be sewing our clothes by hand—or stuck light-years behind our modern perception of physics.
It doesn’t take long to discover that dreams are a garden of images ripe for the picking. The question is: in this modern era of attention deficit disorder, how does a person go about cultivating discipline?
Creatively.
In order to make my dream gardening more interesting, I had to commit to a creative process, one that allows me to capture the juiciness of my images while I record them for safe-keeping and later reflection.
So, what do I do to capture my images?
Before I tell you let’s step back in time. Years ago I was the Creative Arts Director for Matthew Fox’s The Cosmic Mass. One of my jobs was to design the advertisements for each Mass. In essence, I had to capture the spirit of the Four Paths and communicate our innate human right to give birth to our images.
I had one week to produce my first postcard. It was a huge success. People were so moved they congratulated me. They even posted them on their desks for inspiration.
It was then that I realized our inner images, whether they stem from our dreams or imagination, are not just for us. They are gifts that we have to share with the world. It’s not fair to keep them hidden inside, locked away for personal gratification.
During this time, I honed my professional skills as a graphic designer and created a collage process in which I layer symbolic images, color and text. This is the process I use today to record my dreams.
Creating a dream-inspired collage is completely organic. It has to be, otherwise it becomes just like any other discipline—stagnant and boring—and I simply will not adhere to it.
This is a life-enhancing, fun process that can easily be incorporated into any spiritual practice.
Here’s what I do: I create dream collages, often an entire series based on one dream. The original dream inspires the images I select.
Sometimes I cut magazines into manageable pieces, overlapping them to create new images. After I’ve determined my design, I glue it onto cardstock. More often then not, though, I use computer graphics to create my design. It’s more flexible, there’s no mess, and it allows me to manipulate the colors to my liking.
Whatever the method, the result is usually the same: colorful dream images that tell a story. The entire process is gratifying and revealing.
When I do a series, each collage inspires the next—until the images have unfolded in an unusual, unexpected and delightful way. As I incorporate each image into the design, I connect more deeply with my inner images until a new meaning is unearthed.
Take the Soul Retrieval series, for example. To begin, I reconnected with the feelings of the dream. Then, I sorted through a file of electronic images (original photographs and stock photography). Selecting one, I experimented with color and composition until the design resonated with the dream feeling. Afterward, I created a second collage, inspired by the dream and the first collage. I kept doing this until I had six collages. Three are presented here.
Dreams are multi-layered in meaning. Discipline is a necessity to harvesting their potential. Bringing them to life through creative expression is just one of many ways to explore their richness. Sharing them with you is another.
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This article is adapted from Rev. Amy Brucker's chapter in the newly released book, Originally Blessed, ed. Matt Henry, D.Min. (2008)
