Dear Dream Tending and Deep Imagination Community,
Today’s Tending Tuesday is brought to you by Kathie McCutcheon, Dream Tending Mentor, member of The Academy of Imaginal Arts and Sciences, Interfaith Minister, Chaplain and Spiritual Director.
In the Dream Tending approach, we are encouraged to establish and deepen relationships with the living images of the dreamtime and deep imagination. The same principles that apply to maintaining and enjoying healthy, happy and fulfilling relationships with our intimate friends and partners also apply to the relationships we forge with the figures who make themselves known to us through our dreaming psyche. Intimacy in all relationships is established with trust, truth-telling and the willingness to be vulnerable, to let ourselves be seen and known while we seek to know the other.
In my opinion, the most intimate relationship we can ever have is with our soul companions of the imaginal realm. They see us and know us in all of our light and shadowed aspects and they only have our best interests at heart. They want to guide, heal and bring us to wholeness. As we tend living images, we are simultaneously held, supported and encouraged while being challenged to our next evolution. Just as we evolve, our images evolve along with us. Just as people move in and out of our lives for a season and a reason, so too do the figures of imagination. The skills and practices of Dream Tending help us to nurture our relationship with dream and imagination. Our relationships with the companions of soul nurture us in all ways – in body, mind and spirit.
Questions for further reflection:
- Am I taking the time I need to fully tend my dreams to come into relationship with my own living images?
- Am I intimately getting to know the figures of the dreamtime and allowing them to both support and challenge me?
- How can I nurture and deepen my relationships with my beloved soul companions?
We are relational beings – interconnected and interdependent in all ways. Tending and being tended by living images brings us into beautiful relationship with all that is.
Thank you for being a part of this community of Dream Tenders,
Kathie McCutcheon
Interfaith Minister, Chaplain, Spiritual Director
Dream Tending Mentor
Inside The Curious Mind
A quote that resonated with me this week…
“Everything you can imagine is real.”
― Pablo Picasso
Learn the Power, Purpose and Intelligence of Dreams
Unleash your creativity and innate genius
Stephen Aizenstat
Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D., is the founder of Dream Tending, Pacifica Graduate Institute, and the Academy of Imaginal Arts and Sciences. He is a world-renowned professor of depth psychology, an imagination specialist, and an innovator. He has served as an organizational consultant to major companies and institutions, and as a depth psychological content advisor to Hollywood film makers. He has lectured extensively in the U.S., Asia, and Europe. He is affiliated with the Earth Charter International project through the United Nations, where he has spoken. Professor Aizenstat is the Chancellor Emeritus and Founding President of Pacifica Graduate Institute. He has collaborated with many notable masters in the field including Joseph Campbell, James Hillman, Marion Woodman, and Robert Johnson.
