Welcome to our 12-Week Animals in Dreams Journey!
Designed to be both fun and deep, this course will train you in the esoteric symbolism of Animals in Dreams.
You’ll experience:
Jaw-Dropping Stories about Animal Encounters!
Daily Dream Journaling to invite life-changing dreams!
Weekly Deep-Dive into Spirit Animals, Animal Totems, & Dream Animals
30+ Animals! 🦜🐢🦀🦎🐸🦩🦈🦐🐠🦦🦋🐛🐜🦗🦟🦒🦓🐅🦔🦘🦚🦏🐆🐪🦢
Not to Mention: In-depth Dreamwork Training: Master the Art of Dream Interpretation… your hours qualify toward our 100-Hour Certification in Esoteric Dream Interpretation!
Each week will be different!
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Your guide is Benji Whitehurst, MA, a Transpersonal Psychologist with a passion for unraveling dream mysteries. Join us as we decode the hidden symbolism and profound meanings behind your animal visitations in dreams!
Come join us for a fascinating time exploring these dreams together!
🦜🐢🦀🦎🐸🦩🦈🦐🐠🦦🦋🐛🐜🦗🦟🦒🦓🐅🦔🦘🦚🦏🐆🐪🦢
🌙 What’s in Store for You? 🌠
🐾 Dreamwork Essentials: Whether you’re new to dream exploration or a seasoned dreamer, this class will provide you with essential tools to dive deep into the subconscious realm.
🌌 Unravel the Esoteric: Delve into a captivating 20-minute weekly discussion on esoteric dream interpretation, unlocking the secrets of your animal visitations in dreams and visions!
🔮 Real Connection: Connect with a vibrant community of fellow dreamers, visionaries, and artists!
😊 Smiles: This is a great group for adding a smile to your face in the middle of a busy week!
Topics will include:
Dreamwork Essentials
Animal Archetypes
Intuitive Dream Interpretation
Animals in Sacred Imagery
Dream Enactment Rituals
We’ll adapt the course to focus on the specific animals in your dreams, including:
Dolphins & Whales
Owls, Hawks & Eagles
Fish
Turtles & Alligators
Dogs & Wolves
Cats – Big & Small
Rats & Mice
Rabbits
Spiders
Snakes
Farm Animals – Cows, Pigs & Horses
Bears
+ Other Animals You Bring!
And most importantly: Exploring the dreams you bring in a small group of avid dreamers!
All are welcome, even those with no dreamwork experience.
Location: Online. RSVP and Join Link are via Meetup for each session you wish to attend.
Times & Dates: Our sessions will be on Wednesday evenings from 7:00-8:45pm, with minimal overlap in the content.
Fall, 2023 dates for this series are: Sep 13 – Dec 12.
Optional Field Trip – September 1, 2023: Participants are encouraged to visit the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, NC (near Greensboro – 90 minutes away from Durham)! The link to join is HERE on Meetup. (Optional, ~$15 admission not included in the course. But a great way to tune into the animals in our dreams!)
Tuition: There are 3 options:
Option 1: Drop-In. Pay $20 directly on our Meetup for each event you wish to attend, using PayPal here: Alchemical Dreamers’ Guild Meetup
If you do not have a Meetup account, you can also receive the event link by registering through our scheduling software: Drop-In Registration Here
Option 2: Coaching Program. Interested in coaching or mentoring with us? This event is included as part of the Alchemical Dreamers’ Guild’s Sleep & Dream Mastery Program and our other coaching programs.
Option 3: Dream Symbolism Training 10-Pass. Get a 25% discount when you buy a Course Pass. Then, simply choose which classes to attend through our online scheduler. The Pass is $150 and is valid through our last session on November 29.
Certification:
Interested in certification? The 12-class series counts as 18 hours toward the Alchemical Dreamers’ Guild’s 100-hour Certification in Esoteric Dream Symbolism!
Click here for details:
Certification:
Looking to go deeper? Our spring course is the Alchemical Dreamwork Initiation, a 6-month dreamwork immersion that includes 1-on-1 sessions, a retreat, and Level 1 Certification with the Alchemical Dreamers’ Guild! Don’t miss out on what the other group members will be experience next year! EarlyBird Registration ends 11/30/2023.
Click here for details:
Looking for a gift? We offer sleep coaching & 1-to-1 dreamwork sessions. Please consider offering the gift of sleep & dreams! It’s the perfect gift for someone who has everything but sleep. If you or a loved one is experiencing nightmares, insomnia, unusual dreams, or other nighttime challenges, we would love to explore this with you!
Special Gift Certificates may be purchased here in our store. We’re glad to mail you a paper certificate, if this interests you:
You may also contact us via text message: +1 303 847-5263 or email: ready@navigatechange.org to set up a session.
Your host for this event is dream alchemist Benjamin Whitehurst, M.A., founder of the Durham-based Alchemical Dreamers’ Guild (DreamCircling.Com).
Benjamin holds a Masters of Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from Naropa University along with certification in Integral Circling from the Integral Center in Boulder, Colorado. Benjamin studied Gestalt Dreamwork with Betty Cannon, PhD, Jungian dreamwork with Nancy Ortenberg, PhD, dreamwork with Rev. Jeremy Taylor, and has been teaching and leading dreamwork for 9 years.
Notes & Disclaimers: This event does not involve professional advice, psychotherapy or any other form of medical or healing intent. All events with the Alchemical Dreamers’ Guild are based on principles of 100% self-responsibility–you are in charge of ensuring your own physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Participation is at your own risk. Please be aware that dreamwork can be intense or trigger unwanted experiences for some people–check with your doctor or therapist before participating. You are fully responsible for any psychotherapy or medical attention necessary to process or integrate what may come up while sharing your dreams with us.
The intent of this training in dream symbolism is educational and spiritual. For example, the intent of this course is to learn about dream symbolism by sharing dreams with each other, telling one’s story, and receiving feedback from the community on potential dream meanings. Imagine 1,000 years ago when communities would share dreams together when a crisis was afoot–they would sit in a circle and share the dreams they had been having. It was both a means of staying connected, and a means of processing & gaining insight into what was happening. May this event be in service of the well-being of our community. This event is a professional offering organized through the Alchemical Dreamers’ Guild / Navigate Change, LLC.
Detailed Description of Practices & Community Guidelines (Take Note, Highly Sensitive People!): It is an honor working with you! I would like to provide you with some transparency about what types of metaphysical practices we will be engaging in, and what I see as useful FYIs on how to participate in ways that will help you have a more positive experience of this form of dreamwork:
1. Alchemical Dreamwork involves emotion, sensation, and visualization: we use our intuition and imagination to step inside dream images and feel into their underlying qualities and energetics. We also practice stepping out of these same images, so you don’t take home other people’s stuff! This practice can be emotionally or energetically activating, and we expect everyone in the group to be 100% self-responsible for any necessary clearing or grounding at the end of our sessions. As a highly sensitive person (“empath”) myself, I find it very helpful to practice dreamwork – as it helps me to learn to connect and then disconnect consciously from other people, instead of getting lost in the emotional waters we swim in each day in social life!
2. Alchemical Dreamwork involves meditation, breathwork, and active imagination practices: we intend this to be a spiritual opening practice tied in with psychoeducation, and will sometimes instruct you to explore whether dream images are connected to experiences of contraction, energetic blockage, or muddy colors as we tune into our own spiritual, psychological, and physical interiors.
3. Alchemical Dreamwork in group settings does *NOT* involve trying to tune into what is going on for other people, although Highly Sensitive People may do that automatically. Our instructions involve using external imagery (such as other people’s dreams) to learn to explore our own inner worlds. The phrase “working someone’s dream,” commonly used in public dream groups actually means to imagine ourselves within a dreamscape someone else is sharing with us – in order to learn about ourselves! We are technically stepping into our own dream when we hear a dream someone else shares–we cannot recreate what is in their head… this is imagery our own mind is creating in response to external prompts. That is why we say it is not about interpreting someone else’s dream! Other people seed our inner worlds with dream imagery that we use to explore our own versions of that imagery.
4. As mentioned above in several places, Alchemical Dreamwork can be intense or uncomfortable at times. It is uncomfortable in part because we explore all types of dream images–including unpleasant or socially taboo topics. This is unavoidable in the practice. Our main guideline and expectation is called “Honor Self”, which means that we expect you to be 100% self-responsible for your own physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being at all times while participating in our group. This could mean setting boundaries, saying “no” to something we’re doing, stepping out of a group if something doesn’t feel right, or otherwise taking care of your own needs. Since this is a lay educational group in a spiritual context (not psychotherapy), this is very important!
5. The role of facilitator. One of my teachers, Jeremy Taylor, taught that it is important for lay dreamworkers (different from psychotherapists) to share their own dreams in the communities they host. My plan for this group is to name dreams I have had as examples during the didactic or check-in part of sessions, or to occasionally name dreams I have had that are similar to those others share. While I agree with my teachers that it is important to share my dreams publicly and in my sessions, my preference is for participants to simply hear these dreams without trying to step into them or interpret them–I make a point of doing my dreamwork outside the groups I teach, so I do not “get my needs met” through the groups I host.
6. The role of connection and intimacy. Many people joining a dream class or group for the first time are surprised by the level of interpersonal connection they feel with others, and they begin to ask, “What does this mean?! Are we friends?” Experiences of connection and intimacy happen when we share deeply of ourselves or spend time together–perhaps see it as a positive side effect of dream classes. However, I would encourage you to avoid attributing meaning to it–there is a big difference between feeling connected to a group, and group members showing up for you outside class as friends! Connection and openness are actually feelings, and they may come and go. It is normal to feel open or deeply connected with other participants or with the facilitator during groups–and it is also normal for these feelings to fade quickly if they are not maintained.
7. Professional relationships. As a community organizer, I host a couple community parties per year at my home, in addition to other social events, in service of people within the community networking and developing real friendships. Please read these invitations as a way to connect as a community, and allow me to be the host with some professional distance! The level of connection that is generally available with me, as community host and facilitator, is a “professional peer relationship” as fellow Alchemical Dreamers’ Guild certificate holders. I am generally engaging, but am not seeking deep friendships through the community outside these shared classes, conferences, and retreat experiences.
8. Our second community agreement is: “Honor Other.” It means that we expect all participants to help make this course and the Alchemical Dreamers’ Guild as a community, work as well as possible at all times! There are always tough moments communities–that’s just how social life works–but the expectation is that we will all do our best to make the Guild into a welcoming and life-giving community. Direct, constructive feedback is always welcome, and we prefer it *as soon as possible* with *clear, constructive suggestions*.
Please Support Our Work: Please spread the word about our Alchemical Dreamers’ Guild Meetup & our upcoming dream retreats (DreamCircling.Com)!
Want more? We are looking for invitations to offer talks for your community–are you currently part of a spiritual community or organization that might want to invite us?
