After Philly

Dear Friends,

I am writing to you from my living room, sitting in my red chair, watching the changing evening light of an early northern spring. It has been several weeks since a group of us from North of Eden, drove, flew or rode the train to the conference in Philadelphia I wrote about in my first blog entry called, 'The Gift of the Dream: A Transformative Conference.' We went to speak of Archetypal Dreamwork with our colleague, Rodger Kamenetz,  and show a little of how we work with the dreams using a form of psychodrama called  String Therapy. It was an experiment for us and an adventure. How do we take this work on the road and show the depth of the dream? It was a first to be a part of the larger dream community.

We learned a lot. We took some hits from some people in the audience who had problems with aspects of the work and/or the way that we presented it.  It was interesting to watch the projections and reactions at work. It was a new challenge for us to meet criticism and attack without reacting ourselves. As always it was fascinating to see how people reveal themselves at the edge of their own reactivity. The depth of the work triggered some hot spots for different people. Other people stayed in their seats, riveted all day, responding with tears, clearly moved by the stories told by various members of our community, of the ways their lives had changed by doing this dreamwork. We made some mistakes. We were learning. 

Some of those participants told us that they had never felt so moved by a conference, that the essence of the work stayed with them, in the days and weeks that followed. So we are still learning. This work is not for everyone. How best can we convey its power to those who are looking for it? Do we simply accept that powerful truth-telling and deep feeling will evoke strong responses in both directions? That there will be those who are longing to be met with the truth of who they are even when it is challenging and uncomfortable while others will react dramatically to personal revelation and disclosure. In May, we will present the work in Hanover, New Hampshire. It  will be a different day. We will have all grown and changed by then. Marc will speak more about the process of the dreamwork before plunging into the raw beauty of the Strings. I will comment more on the process that is occurring and provide more of a contextual framework. We will find more ways to bridge the distance between the audience and the intensity of the inner realm revealed by opening up the unconscious through the psychodrama of the dreams. It will be a different moment, reflective of the way each one of us who shows up on the day has continued to grow into becoming more of who we really are. Who we are, that is, as humans growing closer in relationship to our selves and to the numinous being-ness that some call God. 

Saturday Evening: 3/7/09

March 8th, 2009
Dear Friends,

This morning I met with some colleagues to talk about the business of our new Center, which is the educational arm of our organization, North of Eden. North of Eden is a group of individuals dedicated to the work of Archetypal Dreamwork and to the unfolding purpose of bringing the wisdom of the dream to others in the world. 

A year ago we hosted a function at College Hall in Montpelier and invited everyone we knew to come and celebrate as we took a step into the world with ourselves. Rodger Kamenetz, our friend and colleague as well as gifted chronicler of this work (through his honest and engaging book, The History of Last Night's Dream: Discovering the Hidden Path of the Soul), came and read with the teachers of Noe.  Marc Bregman, the founder of Archetypal Dreamwork, and myself, Co-Director, with Marc, of North of Eden, hosted the evening while Bob Murray broke open many hearts with his songs. The evening was a doorway into a new phase. 250 people braved the March snowstorm to listen to our intense and extraordinary stories of spiritual growth and transformation.

This year, again in March, next weekend in fact, we are traveling to Philadelphia to meet up with Rodger again and spend the day presenting this work at a conference called, The Gift of the Dream: A Transformative Conference. We will come full force with teachers and students from North of Eden, to speak about the work (Marc, Rodger and I) and to enact the dreams of at least two dream subjects using the form of psychodrama we have evolved called String Therapy. 

Meanwhile we are hard at work creating the school of Archetypal Dreamwork which will open in September. This morning, several of us met up with Dorothy, a co-teacher and leader in NOE who runs a successful business here in Montpelier. We had a great conversation over our eggs and toast at the River Run Restaurant in nearby Plainfield. We spoke about money and our value as teachers. We talked about how we are creating a new structure, involving tuition and credits and how that structure is the container for all of us who teach and lead in NOE to become more of who we are. It is an edge of growth for each of us, letting go of the known concepts we have about ourselves and what we are capable of, and stepping into the unknown of our limitless selves aligned with the Divine.

On Friday night Sue and Bill, colleagues and house mates, came over for dinner. In turn we each froze in fear at taking the next step. The fear spiraled around the table until the moment when Bill started talking about actual numbers of potential students and actual figures. In that moment the school became real for me, a real place of learning and yes, exchange. It will be an exchange of energy. The teachers will bring their priceless experience and connection and in turn the students will bring their resources of tuition and interest and desire, all intersecting.

It will be a place of extraordinary exchange of resources. 

North of Eden grows and changes daily. I said to Bill, Sue and Dorothy this morning: "It's like a road trip, living on the edge of the intensity of each moment." This is what is looks like today, the first melting March day where the ruts in the back roads threatened to swallow us up on the way home and the sky kept breaking open to patches of spring blue, while the river ran furiously along the road back into Montpelier.

With love and respect,

Christa