Approach

[Bill Vollman]

Michael, this may have already been stated else ware, my apologies for a repeat question if it has, but can you talk a bit about your approach to dream work? (links or whatever...thanks!)

[Michael Hawkins]

Hello Bill,

My approach follows the Jungian archetypal model developed by Charles Bebeau here in Boulder, CO, during the 80's, 90's and early 00's. Besides applying dreams symbols as indicators of a specific dominant archetypal process (i.e., tracking dreams over time, and noticing how they tend to present symbols around one specific archetype), Bebeau also plotted dreams according to a four-fold alchemical unfoldment. This allows the dreamer to determine whether or not she/he is moving in an upward or downward trajectory. "Downward" is pathologized as depression in our culture, but in past traditions it is simply a normal part of human life, containing much wisdom for our process of spiritual growth. So, in dreamwork we attempt to locate the particular archetype around which we are working, and place ourselves in one of the four up/down alchemical movements that, besides determining ascent/descent, also tell us whether we are working at an ego or soul level -- i.e., surface/physical or transpersonal.

This is the short reply, without taking off into thousands of words. We look at color a lot in this work, as well as paying attention to the dreamer's emotional state when confronted with dream imagery.

Bebeau, who died a couple years ago, did not leave a lot of writing behind, but I'll try to find some stuff for you. He was a mentor of mine from 1992 through 1996.

Hope this helps!

Blessings,
Michael

[Michael Hawkins]

Hello again Bill,

From another post on this forum, here's something I wrote a while back:

astro-jhana.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=gotopost&board=dreamwork&thread=45&post=217

It gets into the question of applying dream symbols to the archetypes.