Volume XVI – The Dark Night: Winter Solstice

Dream Incubation and Tending at this Time of Winter Solstice

1) On your bedside table, place an object that represents for you the significance of the winter solstice. This may be an object from nature, a piece of jewelry, a poem, or something else that evokes the spirit of this time.

2) As your eyes are closing and daytime transitions into dreamtime, repeat three times—“tonight I am going to listen to dreams.”

3) In the morning, in the transition between sleep time and awake time, pause. In this liminal time/space, breathe.

4) Get quiet and listen with ears that can hear and a heart that can receive.

5) Express what you have seen/heard/felt in a sketch, doodle, or poem.

6) Bring what has come forward into the rest of your day. Then, when the sun sets, find your attunement with winter solstice and read aloud or look anew at what came through you in the morning.

7) Consider this question: “What are the rhythms of nature asking of me now?”

8) Imagine ways of responding to what guidance came forward.

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.