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Some may think of a great trip as going to Bali or Greece. Those destinations are fine–but a road trip with a girl friend to a lovely retreat center to work with dreams–ours and others–now there’s a dream trip! No spa or pedicures, but our souls were nourished and our spirits lightened.
My friend Maria Wattier and I took a road trip from Bend, Oregon to Danville, California last weekend (June 6-9) to attend a weekend retreat at the San Damiano Franciscan Retreat Center. The title of the annual workshop was “Dreams: Gardens in the Spiritual Desert” with Dr. Jeremy Taylor as teacher/facilitator.
What a wonderful retreat and road trip! Maria (a high priestess in a dream theatre we both participated in) is in training to be a certified Dream Worker with Dr. Taylor’s Marin Institute for Projective Dreamwork. And I was along for the ride. Did either of us take a ‘real’ camera? Of course not. All the below pictures were taken on my T-Mobile Dash phone…so pardon the quality, but you may just get a sense of the fun, sweetness and adventure we had!
First the trip down was a dreamscape that could be titled: “Beth’s in love with a mountain” Note: I am proud of my addiction and sure some new mountain will sweep me away sometime soon–I’m just fickle that way.
Oregon was green and lush even this late in the spring. Northern California was its usual gorgeous self. Friday was a severe-clear day for viewing Mount Shasta, a spectacular volcanic mountain–the southernmost and largest of the Cascade Range. I love living close to volcanoes. They make me feel safe. (That sounds like a blog post coming on!)
I took pictures of each side of the mountain as far as I could see it–through the front window, out the side window!
Here’s dear Maria, putting up with me and my silly telephone-camera.
And then! After nine delightful hours in the car–we were at the retreat center, up in the hills above Danville in the Oakland area.
Lovely San Damiano Franciscan Retreat Center. Amazing place, peace and abundance of spirit everywhere.
The next part of the trip could be called ‘The Dream of the Dreamers”
Here’s St. Francis on his cell phone. It’s actually a new brand called ‘a little bird told me’ being offered by Spirit Phones.
The Franciscans are not much for pomp or religious piety. Inside the beautiful chapel is this stained glass art of outreach in an urban landscape and the struggles of Everyman.
My favorites..the Canterbury Bells just outside the cafeteria where the food was fresh, simple and delicious.
The rest of the cast…
Here is a far away shot looking down at the simple but lovely labyrinth, the pond and the organic garden. What luxurious simplicity!
And then the dreams…and those sweet and profound dreamers! Big thanks to Jeremy, the Teaching Assistants and the dreamers for their honesty, humor and dedication to the process of spirit and soul unfolding in these ‘streams in the spiritual desert’.
The home trip dream could be called ‘Heading for the Barn’ –feeling the familiar pull to be home, in our own beds, back to our routines.
The sculptures below are from a Veteran’s Memorial in the shadow of Mt. Shasta. Beautiful, peaceful, spiritual place. I want to go back and really sit with the sculptures, the desert garden and cemetery sometime soon.
And then we are home again in our beloved Oregon, with our significant others, pets and our own gardens and lovely homes. Filled up, nourished and sent back out into the world!
Sister Mud (from the projective part I played in someone’s dream theatre at the workshop)
aka Beth, VTH Host (from a projective part I play in my own dream theatre)
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the photos were nice. the sculptures were…unexpected…
Yeah, the sculpture memorial garden was a ‘screech on the breaks, quick left turn out in the middle of the sage and pinion desert’ thing. I was moved by the sculptures and the peacefulness and sacredness of the place. Another grounding association about following our hearts onto paths less traveled! Thanks for the comment!
Beth
It was a beautiful weekend at the retreat and I am glad to have met Beth and Maria. The photos of the retreat grounds are spectacular. I went to get my hug from the hugging saint Amma on Monday at the Ashram in San Ramon. I tried to go Sunday night but it was closed for the evening so if you did try to find it…..well sorry.
Sue
Sister Mud! Thank you so much for this wonderful post! I had no idea what a wonderful journey you both took to be dreaming with us. And you saw things at the retreat center that I didn’t even know were there!
I will happily out myself as the dreamer for whom both you and Maria did amazing dream theater with. I am SO thankful that Sister Mud came to show me how amazing and nurturing the earth can be, even when I fall flat on my face! Thank you! Yow and Maria and all the other participants who played roles in my dream will always have a special place in my heart for that day and that experience was life changing for me! Until we meet again….!
Hey Tristy!
Glad to hear from you–and glad that your dream theatre was life-changing for you–it was very powerful for those of us who got to play roles, that’s for sure!
Do you have a website? If so, can we link yours to this one?
Happy, sweet trails to you–and dreams galore–
Beth
Dear Beth,
What is dream theatre, exactly?
(Blushing),
Karen
Dear Karen!
I bet you’re cute when you blush…however, there’s no need to blush over this question–I should have explained it in the post.
Dream Theatre is a method to help dreamers understand their dreams in a different way. It is used in groups, as all the pieces of the dream (in projective dreamwork so all pieces of the dream reflect some part of the dreamers’ psyche and soul) are played by someone in the group.
The dreamer tells their dream, and the director of the theatre helps identify the ‘parts’ of the dream that have juice or call for exploration. Then the group takes on those roles, either by volunteering or by being asked to do so. As the dreamer then walks through the dream again with the parts being played by group members, insight from the ‘parts’ is deep and visceral. Sometimes the roles are reversed and the dreamer becomes the ‘part’ (sometimes called the ‘auxiliary’). New wisdom emerges as the dreamer and the ‘cast’ live through the dream. Usually all involved get just the part and information/wisdom needed for that space in their own journey. Amazing how that works!
So…I played the part of ‘mud’ in Tristy’s dream theatre. She had to fall on her face in it, breathe it, feel connected to it…to be able to continue her journey up the mountain to an important initiation.
It was like out of Central Casting for me–can’t think of a part I’d rather play than ‘mud’: yum! I got some new wisdom out of playing the part for Tristy’s dream: that being the mud is not a secondary role for me but a primary one…so that means I’m doing root work, ‘home’ work on a deeper level than maybe I knew before.
It was an honor to play ‘Sista Mud’. My ‘dream’ is that Trisy and all in the dream theatre roles will live deeper, truer and stronger because of the courage that Tristy had to first have the dream, then remember it and bring it to this workshop so that we all benefitted from it in our journeys towards embodiment and soulfulness.
Hope that helps?
Beth, VTH Host
Excellent description of Dream Theater Beth! I couldn’t have said it better myself! And for those who are interested, I decided to post an entry on my blog about my Dream Theater experience in detail.
You can read it here: http://createwithspirit.typepad.com/create_with_spirit/2008/06/re-initiation-i.html.
Thank you Beth for inspiring me to write it out in full!
Tristy has a great website called Create with Spirit.
After being part of this exchange, she blogged in great detail her dream theatre experience. Great piece…http://createwithspirit.typepad.com/create_with_spirit/2008/06/re-initiation-i.html
Thanks, Tristy…here’s to mud in your eye!
Check out Tristy’s blog on this dream theatre on her cool website: Create with Spirit
//createwithspirit.typepad.com/create_with_spirit/2008/06/re-initiation-i.html