Importance of Group/Collective Dream Work

What is A Crow’s Calling?

A Crow’s Calling is the collaborative work under which myself and Susan Ackerman Joseph, aka Sackjo22, call ourselves. We are integrative creative/healing arts practitioners and facilitators. Our sisterhood began through developing/producing theatre & performance. We currently create multi-media productions and experiential workshops together. Some days our teaching looks like a virtual workshop where we guide embodiment practices, dreams, and/or sacred activism. At other times, we are exploring our personal growth & transformation through creative play, storytelling, sharing insights. The crow has been a mystical symbol with us since the beginning, literally and figuratively.

I’m excited to share the recent discussion/interview we had with Katherine Bell on her radio show, The Dream Journal. Katherine Bell is the creator of Experiential Dreamwork. We had the pleasure of first working with Katherine at the 2019 IASD regional dream conference, Festival of Dreams, which she produced in Santa Cruz, CA. Recently, we were asked to co-lead her weekly dream group, discussing/embodying “Dreams & Community”.

The past two months have been so full of profound experiences and collective aha moments through sharing this dream practice with multiple groups of people. If you’re interested in hearing more, I hope you take the time to listen to this interview and feel inspired - creative - hopeful - curious.

You can also find this podcast on APPLE , Google Play, Stitcher & Spotify.

Some of my favorite takeaways from this interview are around the benefits of facilitated group dream work:

• See the themes of the collective unconscious

• Build awareness how we as individuals play a role in community & collective healing

• Ability to support others just by showing up

• Integrate the group experience/awareness/healing into your individual waking life

• Ability to see from others/group perspective

• Opportunity to connect with others, and who are interested in the same things (especially during times of isolation)

If you’re interested in sharing in a dreamy virtual holiday party…Book your

I still have availability! And, I would love to share these gifts with you and your family & friends.

You're ready to be seen.

Hi Dear Ones,

It has been another tough month, but we’re still here. Today, I feel hopeful. Although, I am listening to the voices of the collective and dreaming images from our collective unconscious. Our hearts are tender. I sense hiding/pushing away any vulnerabilities. This is reflected in the anger, resentment, frustration, rage even, from feeling unheard, unprotected, and helpless. There is anxiety and fear of what the future will hold.

How can an individual hold this alone? You can’t.

There is still so much work to do. There is healing and growth that is needed within ourselves and within our communities. Between the joys or grievances - we are now in a space of “what to do next?” or “the fight is not over”. I believe, the “Other” needs to be heard. There is a divide amongst us. In order to bridge our differences, as in any relationship, we have to work on ourselves first.

How can I hear someone else, if I cannot hear/see my own voices/ego/shadow?

What can I do to listen more and relate to the Other? (I ask this in relation to my inner self as well as external relationships.)

What could be preventing me from hearing the Other and compassionately seeing them?

How can I show up in order to listen more fully, wholeheartedly?

Despite our fears - the action is simple. We embrace what is, through Embodied Presence. This is where you begin - through feeling. First, feel into what the body is holding, move beyond thinking. Slow everything down in order to become aware of the layers upon layers that are may be blocking the deepest, most valuable feelings within. It’s a shedding process. Simple, devoted actions become daily, sacred rituals. This will create long lasting change/transformation.

I offer you a skillset that will last a lifetime.

There are many ways in which you can work with me or begin your journey of self-discovery, change, healing or growth:

I offer individual sessions in Intuitive Growth Coaching.

I facilitate Dream Coaching with groups & communities.

Find me on PATREON, for continued insights, meditations & monthly sessions.

If you prefer to learn solo: TRANSFORM FEAR: Learn to Identify Blocks & Break Through Them

This online course is offered at a discounted rate for the rest of 2020. *Through this guided course, you will be able to embrace any fear/block. Your relationship to yourself, your body/feelings, to others will shift. You will build strength and resilience around life’s transitions and challenges. You will expand your capacity to hold discomfort, and be able to show up with ease and grace.

Blessings to You & Your Loved Ones,

Angela

Bridge Dreams During Covid-19: Feeling Our Way From One Normal To Another

Crossing bridges from one normal to another...?  This is happening within personally (feeling like everything is ok) and through the physical action of protestors and states opening up back up too quickly.  Once we cross this bridge, we cannot go back and why would anyone want to? Our system has and continues to fail us. Going back will only lead to extended uncertainty and more lives of those we love.

Bridge dreams are showing up collectively. The collective unconscious wants to cross this bridge. We must if we want to reach a new realm of being alive and supported within our communities.

Crossing Bridges are scary, they cross water which can hold deep truths, feelings and unknown territories. The bridge connects us and can support us on this journey. Take another’s hand and walk across with them now. Do not turn around and go back to what is limiting and separating us.

*Bridge Dreams often symbolize times of transition in life that are significant and defining to one’s path or journey. What are your dreams during this time holding for you? Are you crossing bridges or choosing new pathways? What kind of support are you giving AND receiving? We are all in this together.

Please reach out if you are in need of support in healing and/or creativity. Observe your dreams, insights and intuitions at this time. AND please share dreams with your loved ones and children!

Me, Too - The Intruder in Our Dreams

Image from Marie Louise Van Franz's Interpretation of Fairy Tales

Me, Too - The Intruder in Our Dreams

There is one that penetrates me deeply to the bones and it’s the man within my own psyche.

I feel this fear every time I have this dream. I can feel it now as I am writing about it.

Recurring Dream:

I am running from someone. A man. Him. I am trying to find a place to hide. It’s dark out. Night. I go through multiple places, sometimes an empty hotel or convention center or a house. Trying to find the best place to hide...I run through showers, spa like areas and locker rooms until I find a bathroom to hide in. (Bathroom, a place to express oneself.)  I crouch down, I am silent. I sweat. I feel the cold, damp floor. I wait and listen to see if I hear him coming. My heart beats. I’m terrified.

He, is the Intruder, that prevents me...all of us...from furthering. From owning our own power, beliefs, identity. 

I recognize him as my masculine shadow aspect in the self that "manifests as the spirit of courage" in all that we do including our thoughts, feelings, using your voice to express your needs and developing one's own spiritual beliefs. (Clements, Analyzing Your Dreams Dictionary).

I see him as the collective unconscious’ masculine energy energy associated with doing, creating, destroying, opposed to the female which is being, containing, nurturing. (Clements, p106).

In dreams, we may meet him and experience him through feeling fear of him.  He is the dark man in the shadows. In my dreams, no light ever sheds on his face or his build. I never see him hunting me, but he is behind me, coming after me. He is the intruder in our psyche.

The intruder doesn't only show up in women's dreams - he shows up in men's too.  You may be running from someone, authority, conflict or fighting with another man.  This would reflect the shadow not acknowledging this unconscious aspect of yourself, there is conflict between it and the ego.

I was unconscious of him for a very long time. Night/darkness unconscious. I had many different versions of this dream over the years. My sister recently shared one of hers with me, which was similar and carried the same weight of dread upon her. It wasn’t until I was well into dreamwork, studying Marion Woodman’s theory of feminine consciousness when I spoke of one of these dreams. It was suggested to me to begin reading “Women Who Run With the Wolves” by Clarissa Pinkola Estés.

There it was! Chapter 1: Stalking the Intruder, the Beginning Initiation - the story of Bluebeard. For those of you who do not know this tale, Estés will indeed tell it better than I, so please do read her stories. She also has a live performance series called “Theatre of the Imagination”, which is very powerful to listen to. Her storytelling is healing and truly transformative.

Bluebeard is a tale of a frightening man with a blue beard who entices the youngest of three sisters to marry him. This young woman is lovely and innocent and naive. Unlike her sisters who had the intuition that something was not right with Bluebeard, he had some sort of power over her. The young woman was not in touch with her instincts yet. There was no mother or father to teach her these things. As the story goes on, her sisters attempt to guide her. Through her unconscious desire she does something she was told not to do, which leads to the undoing of Bluebeard’s power over her life and so many other women like her.

I finally stopped dreaming of running and hiding in the bathroom, when I began to acknowledge my strength as a spiritual being.  I began embracing my power within and honoring my own beliefs, gifts and creativity. All the things I wasn’t authentically doing.

THIS is how we change consciousness. Tuning in, listening to the dreams, sensing, feeling - in order to become aware of the beliefs and belief systems handed down to us from generation to generation and making a conscious decision to believe you have the power within to change them, the power to think and act differently, the power to use your voice and discuss with each other - as I see so many sharing "Me, Too" stories on Facebook. 

So how do we share this power of awareness to those that were never taught differently or our young? How do we build trust in our feelings and instincts through our sensing abilities when something doesn't feel good or right? How do we protect our innocent, vulnerable, and delicate youthful beings? This is a discussion that I would love to be having.

I believe we all have to live this way. We have to trust our inner guidance, use the power of our voice and support one another through feeling. And stop letting others make poor decisions for us, our communities and our country. The transformation begins within. 

NOTE: Posts may only include part/s of the dream. 

*BOLD TEXT = DREAM IMAGE

*italicized text = interpretation and/or what resonates for the dreamer