Over the holidays, I read an introductory book on dreams by Bobbie Ann Pimm, titled Notes from a dreamer on dreaming. Pimm’s book may be meant for beginners, but even seasoned dreamers will get something out of this personal and practical book. What strikes me the most of Pimm’s book is her simple three-step advice for recording and interpreting dreams.
The first step, of course, is writing the dream down in the first place. The sooner the better. Pimm cites dream researcher Robert Van de Castle’s advice for also giving the dream a title, as if the dream is a story. In fact, writing the dream down as if it has a beginning, a middle, and a resolution can help structure the narrative and bring insights (as long as you make sure you’re not washing over the memory of the dream with wishful thinking).
The second step is playing with the dream’s meaning. Dream interpretation is never done, but really is a snapshot of a process. Pimm offers several practical methods of working with dream imagery, such as freewriting, doing word associations, and retelling the dream to friends to see what comes out of your mouth.
But it’s really the third step of Pimm’s process that caught my attention: ACTION. This last step is about asking the question: How can I honor this dream in waking life? Pimm calls this the “action plan” and in her own personal dream journal, she always jots down the possible ways she can correct for an action or use the dream as inspiration for discovering new information about someone or something in waking life.
Truth is, many dreamers are not always action-oriented, myself included. It’s easy to get wrapped up in deep symbolic parallels and live within a cloud of potentiality and possibility. But many of us forget that potential energy can be focused into kinetic realities.
Here’s an example of an action plan. In early November 2010, I dreamed:
I’m walking down a sidewalk and I see a box turtle in its shell. “Look!” I tell my friends and I stop to look closer. I feel resistance from them to stop walking but I do anyway. The turtle is beautiful. I see its green head and bright intelligent eyes and as I look it comes out of its shell and I notice how vividly green it is. Suddenly, the turtle starts moving towards me briskly. I’m surprised and a little frightened and I wake up with a start.
This was a beautiful dream, but because I woke up from it, it’s technically a nightmare… maybe the cutest nightmare ever. But what was so scary about this turtle? I played with the symbols of turtles, and could go on at length here about associations with slowness, introversion, self-sufficiency, living between two worlds, etc, as well as possible cross-cultural interpretations that link turtles to wisdom, the Earth’s life force and sacrifice.
There’s also some day residue, as in mid-October I carried a snapping turtle across a country highway to prevent it from certain death. That turtle was gnarly, covered in moss and dirt, and came close to biting me as its neck craned back when I shuttled it across the road. But in all my musings, I didn’t think about an action plan, or how to honor this dream in waking life.
But using Pimm’s action plan, I can easily come up with few actions that seem to honor the spirit of dream:
- To let myself stop in reverie at beauty as it comes across my path, even if that means interrupting a social scene or other “inconvenience.”
- To seek contact with non-human others in my daily life, and build a relationship with them.
- To appreciate the “slowness” of my own nature and allow for the time it takes for beauty and vividness to emerge in everyday life.
- To be ready for–and less startled by—unexpected contacts when I open myself to relationship with all beings, human and non-human.
What’s interesting to me about this process is that the action plan came naturally and really cut through all the confusion and multiplicity from thinking about the dream symbolically. Instead of wondering, which of the turtle’s attributes applies to my life, I was able to quickly apply many aspects of the dream to areas in my life that are already on my mind.
Action: I recommend it. I’m thankful for Bobbie Ann Pimm’s reminder that a dream not honored in life is a dream not yet understood. And my own turtle nature also reminds me that it’s okay if deeper understanding takes a while.
Thanks, Ryan! I am thrilled that my book had such a great impact on you!
Hey Ryan,
Another action idea for you: come to St. John and swim with some sea turtles!! 🙂
Having been doing that for the last few months, I no longer associate “turtles” with “slow,” at least not when it comes to the aquatic version. A few powerful strokes from their front flippers and they easily leave me well behind, no matter how quickly I swim to try to keep up!
I started taking action on dreams about a year ago and I can attest to the power of it, even if the actions seem small or simple.
One example: to honor the scorpion medicine that came to me in the dream I wrote about last month, I bought some holy basil tea and holy basil oil (recommended by Atava). I’m using the tea and oil as healing methods to soothe the scorpion.
Also, if an animal comes in a dream and it sticks with me, I’ll put a picture of the animal up at work and at home where I’ll see it often and be reminded of its medicine. It’s fun to have my waking space populated by my dreamtime companions.
thanks Bobbie!
Julie, I would very much like to make an action plan involving St. Johns. it seems my turtle isn’t really that slow either. you think he will be, but then he pounces! Coyote-turtle.
Katrina, I also have turtle regalia around the house that I have noticed with new interest. Also, I had an earlier turtle dream in which gigantic turtles arose out of the mud like dinosaurs.
by the way, the turtle image is the actual snapping turtle I carried across the road. I came across the image only a few days ago when uploading images form my camera. I wrote this piece almost a month ago.)The turtle image was laying in wait until the last minute and then – surprise! coyote turtle power.
Hi Ryan, Appreciated this brief article. Very hands-on and salient. The turtle is one of my totem animals and whenever I learn of another aspect of how it can work I appreciate it all the more.
Thanks for the rich article, Ryan and I agree Bobbi Ann’s book is fabulous for both beginners and seasoned dreamers alike. I am a big proponant of dream activism and believe this is where dreamwork will shift many paradigms.
I was also struck by the way you described the turtle and couldn’t help but giggle at the similarities with your Green/Moss Man costume for the IASD ball.
http://www.examiner.com/dream-research-in-san-francisco/mossman-photo
I was honored to watch that metamorphis in person which involved lots of mud, sticks, leaves and moss. Bringing the dream into the world and intergrating at its finest!
hmmm, well my dream’s a bit different in a way of how to act on it at this time but I’d like to share. comments welcomed.
I dreamed that I was a turtle. lol… yeah I know. anyways the dream starts with me straining and pushing against my own shell with my right hand up near my right shoulder. I was stretched so hard that my efforts could be seen in the length of my neck pushed away from my shoulders with very visible contoutions in my face. I was alone on the ground near grass as I worked. my hands gripping the edge of the shell I was in until finally at the moment I thought I was going to tear myself did I snapped and detached from my shell. when I climbed out of my shell I was a bright lively green however it wasn’t just my color I noticed I also noticed that it took great effort to come out of the shell because my torso was SQUARE! lol… yep, square. I had all four sides and my head was at the top of my box shape and my legs at the bottom of the box shape. I was a square completely. although I was surprise that my body was square inside of a round shell I was still very glad to be out of it. in the dream I felt glad about three things which was to be able to move faster, over joyed about being able to stand upright, and the net cleaness of my appearance. I was clean, smooth bodied, and lightweight.
well, that’s it.
signed
turtle girl clean-gone. heehee
Comment…why was the turtle freaked out by my presence in my dream and wanted to get away from me