Path To Sustainability
Help Bring About The Ecozoic Era
Photo by Flip Romanovski, Pixels.com.
Key Assertions That Help To Summarize This Article:
If we cannot make such corrections, we will enter the Technozoic era—that bleak time when technology, affluence, and human population will cause severe impacts on the natural world.
If we fail to enter the Ecozoic era, it is difficult to imagine that the future will contain any semblance of the relative paradise we now inhabit.
The five steps for addiction recovery in Dream Tending are: 1) acknowledging that you are caught in a specific addiction; 2) using dream association and dream amplification to drag out what is hidden (through association) and to determine its significance (through amplification); 3) stopping the compulsion; 4) face the image of your addition directly, develop empathy for the addictive Dream Character, and getting to know the addictive Dream Character; and 5) finding the true nature of the image.
The six steps for improving love relationships through Dream Tending are: remembering the first six months of your relationship, recalling what you found fascinating about each other, recalling what it was like to have those long talks; both partners agreeing to stifle judging; witnessing your partner’s dreams without judgement; finding the Archetype of Eros; looking for who Eros attracts as its partner in your dreams; and looking for the soul body of the bond between you and your partner.
Explore your personal relationship with your finances by noticing how you feel when you experience the Dream Character of Money.
The next major event in the unfolding of the cosmos is on the horizon. As human beings extinguish thousands of species each year we are forced to make big changes in the way we relate to the planet. In doing so, we will recognize that the natural world is not only our primary provider but also the primary way divinity is revealed to us. If we can examine the terms of the human-earth relationship and then make necessary corrections, the Ecozoic will replace the Cenozoic. If we cannot make such corrections, we will enter the Technozoic era—that bleak time when technology, affluence, and human population will cause severe impacts on the natural world. If we fail to enter the Ecozoic era, it is difficult to imagine that the future will contain any semblance of the relative paradise we now inhabit.
Fortunately, we have already entered a time that is the necessary prerequisite for the dawning of the Ecozoic Era. In important ways, this time is similar to the first Axial period (800-600 B.C), which is marked by the spawning of the world’s great religions. In this second Axial period, we are becoming more aware and appreciative of an integral view of religion and spirituality. This integral view leads us to adopt the “pereNNIAAL philosophy” that underlies all religion, a view that fosters a connection to our source in the Divine, a connection to our individual and collective selves, a connection to our neighbors, and a connection to the harmonious energy and intelligence that pervades and surrounds us all. In this second Axial period we will develop paths of paths and, in so doing, become inter-spiritual in ways that enable us to be deeply committed to a variety of spiritual preferences. We can see the emergence of this inter-spiritual perspective in the way some in the present generation neither knows nor cares about the differences between religious denominations. If such indifference is worrisome to you, just know that every new journey brings understandable fears.
To An Age Of Sustainability…
Photo by Anna Shvets, Pixels.com.
HumaNatureConnect Activity
Heading Towards The Ecozoic Era
For the next activity, determine what more you can do to help bring forth the Ecozoic Era. Use the following table to help spur ideas and organize your thinking. Write down your responses in your journal.
Photo by Ian Findley, Pexels.com.
Nocturnal Pilgrimage
For best results, write down your impressions of each night’s dreams in your journal using the Heartwood Path Dreaming Time Protocols found in the Appendix. Afterwards, consider sharing your Dream Tending with others.
It is now time to begin applying what you have learned about tending to your dreams to some of life’s most pressing issues. In this nocturnal pilgrimage section we shall address controlling addictions, the challenges of loving relationships, and one’s personal relationship with money.
Addiction Control
Aizenstat presents a method of working with Dream Figures that helps people break free of addiction. Here, we will present his five steps to recovery:
Acknowledge that you are caught in a specific addiction. Look for Dream Characters that exhibit “some kind of addictive or compulsive behavior” (Aizenstat, 2009, p. 92). Ask yourself how the addiction is operating your life. Name the Image that represents the addiction.
Use dream association (associating aspects of dreams with keywords) and dream amplification (turning Dream Characters into universal symbols) to drag out what is hidden (through association) and to determine its significance (through amplification). Watch the Dream Character closely. Look for ways the image is associated with your childhood. Then, using your imagination, connect the image to fairy tales, myths, legends, or stories. Look for what more the stories tell you about the addiction.
Stop the compulsion. Face the addictive Dream Character and do four things: 1) find an interruption such as a cold shower that will help you stop the mental activity surrounding the addiction; 2) extend your hands outward to the sides, identifying the right side as positive, the left side as negative, and you in the middle as curiosity. Use this curiosity to gain information about the Dream Image, paying note to how it is breaking out of its compulsivity; 3) get curious about the Dream Character, looking especially at its compulsivity, but also staying away from the compulsive whirlwind; and 4) take some small action to curtail your compulsion.
Once you have done something to control your compulsivity, face the image of your addition directly, develop empathy for the addictive Dream Character, and getting to know the addictive Dream Character. Move. Shake. Cry. Run. Do anything that releases your feelings. When ready, return your attention to the Dream Image.
Find the true nature of the Image. It will likely now be less menacing and intense. List the characteristics of the Dream Character. Place a natural being someplace in your home that represents the addictive Dream Character. Such objects that represent Dream Images we shall call “Dream Figures.” To your Dream Figure, write a letter of commitment, detailing what you will do to control your compulsion. Revisit the Dream Figure, looking for signs of hope. Bring offerings to your Dream Figure. Revisit the Dream Figure repeatedly. Look for signs that the Dream Figure is acting like a muse. Tell it what you are inspired to do about your addiction. Do it.
Love Relationships
For this major life challenge, Aizenstat offers six steps:
Together with your partner, remember the first six months of your relationship, recalling what you found fascinating about each other, recall what it was like to have those long talks, and invite any remembered Dream Images to come forth again. Share some of your dreams with your partner, promising not to get too “psychological.” Recall some enjoyable stories from your childhood. Discuss what activated your imagination when the two of you were young? Discuss what it would be like to tell your dreams to each other, and to make sure the listener does not interrupt or judge.
Both partners agree to stifle judging. Both partners share their concerns about sharing your dreams. Light a candle. Find a natural being to act as a “talking stick.” Talk only when you have the stick. Both partners agree to confidentiality regarding what is revealed in the dream discussions. Agree that the process of discussing dreams in this way is important.
Witness your partner’s dreams without judgement. Do not try to be helpful or useful. Be responsive rather than reactive. Just listen. Thank your partner for sharing. Do not comment on the content of your partner’s dreams. Switch roles.
Finding the Archetype of Eros. Recognize Eros as an inner Dream Figure, both mischievous and elusive. Find Eros in your dreams. He may be cloaked and repugnant, at first, waiting for the kiss that will release him from exile. The Eros Dream Image will likely be complicated, contradictory, and paradoxical, like love itself. Name this figure and tend to him so that you can rekindle compassion and intimacy. As you befriend Eros, it will likely shape-shift. Follow Eros inside the shape-shifted Beast, if necessary. Stay away from idealizing Eros. Do not be seduced by notions of wish-fulfillment or lover’s remorse. Tending to Eros takes time. Express yourself to Eros orally or with the presentation of your own poetry. Be willing to share in the process of discovering Eros with your partner.
Tend to the sacred marriage. Look for who Eros attracts as its partner in your dreams. With repeated attempts, allow the image of the imaginal couple to become more vivid and details. “Notice how one figure evokes the other . . .Let the dream enactment take on a life of its own” (Aizenstat, 2009, p. 125). Notice how, after witnessing the Dream Couple in your dreams for several days, your emotions begin to open up.
Look for the Third Body, also known as the Relationship Body, which will have a life of its own, beyond the two partners. This Third Body is the soul body of the bond between you and your partner. It shapes the feelings each partner has for the other. When this image is bright, there is a sense that each member of the couple belongs to something greater than themselves and their partner. The Third Body will be an image or a sensation that embodies the transcendent. It will seem timeless. Resist attaching this image to your children or any other external being. As a couple, make repeated offerings of fruit or flowers to this Third Body. Doing so feeds the Third Body of your relationship and this, in turn, will ignite moments of love between you and your partner.
Work Money
Explore your personal relationship with money. List your areas of expense and attach each the essential quality or benefit of each. Notice what connection exists between the vitality of the Dream Image and the energy you feel when receiving or spending money. Look for an image of money in your dreams. Notice how you feel when you experience this Dream Character.
Now shift your attention to the workplace. How does your money figure personify what is happening at your workplace? Look for a work place image in your dreams. Write a dialogue between the two images of work and money. If you were to act as a counselor to this relationship, what might you suggest to each party?
With controlling addictions, the challenges of loving relationships, and one’s personal relationship with money in mind as you prepare for sleep, incubate a dream, dream, and then tend to your dreams when you wake up. Your skills will improve with practice.
Work Money
Explore your personal relationship with money. List your areas of expense and attach each the essential quality or benefit of each. Notice what connection exists between the vitality of the Dream Image and the energy you feel when receiving or spending money. Look for an image of money in your dreams. Notice how you feel when you experience this Dream Character.
Now shift your attention to the workplace. How does your money figure personify what is happening at your workplace? Look for a work place image in your dreams. Write a dialogue between the two images of work and money. If you were to act as a counselor to this relationship, what might you suggest to each party?
With controlling addictions, the challenges of loving relationships, and one’s personal relationship with money in mind as you prepare for sleep, incubate a dream, dream, and then tend to your dreams when you wake up. Your skills will improve with practice.