Dreaming a World into Reality
The Evolutionary Transformation of Society and of Humanity Finds its Origins in the Dream World of the Individual
On Friday morning, Steven Leavitt, Podcast creator of Language of Creativity and Spaceship Earth Mission Log, interviewed Della Burford, Dream Explorer for decades, who has used her dreams to create award-winning paintings, books, theatre, and media.
Della was mentored by a shaman who studied with Carl Jung and also studied dreams with Robert Moss and Dream Yoga with Tenzin Wagyal Rinpoche. She started painting her dream wheels in 1975, creating one complete wheel for every year. The dream wheels have 3 rings: the center ring is for important everyday events following the seasons; the outer ring is dreams that are creative, inspirational and wise dreams (you can write a title for the dream); and the middle is small drawings which are symbols and like the title reminds you of the dream and is a portal to return.
Della and Steven invited people to our virtual coffee shop, the Futurists Café, to come and find inspiration in our night dreams for self-discovery and helping our Planet Earth. We enjoyed a fireside chat with an interview and then divided into a break for people to share dreams.
Transformation
What the caterpillar calls the end of the world,
the rest of the world calls a butterfly.
— Richard Bach
It seems to me that two important conclusions are emerging with increasing certainty:
that the evolutionary transformation of society and of humanity must take place first in the individual, and
that the transformation of the individual requires a turning inward, toward self—not in narcissistic self-absorption but in aware self-confrontation.
Ralph Metzner. The Unfolding Self (p. 2). Synergetic Press. Kindle Edition.
Taiyo Okamoto
Taiyo Okamoto, whose art was recently featured in an article on Consciousness and Creativity, generously shared his dream and a thought on what dream means to him.
Blue Toscana (2022)
Direction by Taiyo Okamoto
Photography by Joseph Reid
A Dream
One night I felt great rage.
Then, before sleeping, I intended to let go of that emotion in my dream.
I went to sleep.
In my dream I was in an outside event space.
There was a stage and people were sitting on the grass waiting for the event to begin.
A woman walked into the space.
She was supposed to be a speaker or a guest; she looked snobby.
That was my judgement, and I said out loud, “I don’t like her energy.”
She was disturbed, and it became kind of a big mess.
She was complaining, “That man said this to me….”
Around that time I realized that it was a dream.
And I was feeling shame, regret, anxiety, fear and guilt.
I could certainly escape from that scene, or change the scene and jump into a different dream.
But instead I let go of those heavy emotions.
Then I decided to walk towards her.
And I said, “I’m so sorry to hurt you.”
And she walked towards me and held my hands and cried.
And something really heavy came out of my heart.
It was like a big chunk of heavy metal.
That was the end of that dream.
A Thought
I thought when we are feeling anger, we actually just want to be forgiven.
It’s not really about the subjects that you feel angry about.
Anger is just a sign for us to be proceeding towards forgiveness.
That was healing for me.
I’m an artist who often uses paper as a medium.
My work is not really about visions, but more about texture and sensation.
As we let go of heavy vibrations, we become more and more tender.
I consider dream to be part of my creative process.
Taiyo Okamoto
Taiyo Okamoto grew up by the ocean in Karatsu, Japan, where he often spent his childhood days twilighting on the seawall; dreamily gazing at the vast sky, crashing waves, and flying fish. He has lived in New York City since 2002.
Working across mediums, Taiyo creates chigiri-e inspired paper art from small works to large installations, paintings, photography, digital art and writings.
https://www.taiyo-okamoto.com/about