Hey Dreamers
David and I held a public matrix at Firestone Bay in Plymouth last Tuesday 3rd June. Here’s an outline of what happened in the lead up and in the event itself…
The plan for this event was informed by planning chats with Sarah B, who unfortunately couldn’t be there at the event due to illness. We had talked about how the dreams are held during and after public events, what we do with them etc. Sarah shared an Ursula Le Guin essay ‘The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction’, which explores the importance of considering early objects that were receptacles for keeping hold of/gathering things for another time (as opposed to the more often considered/mythologised tools or weapons). We thought about this in terms of elements of Dream Ecologies - the scroll, the reflections, the recording, discussion; containers for holding, keeping, gathering, offering, sharing dreams.
In our meeting, David and I had been discussing the idea of ’listening’ to dreams rather than sharing. We talked about sharing, how it’s meaning is easily associated nowadays with social media - sharing posts, sharing online. How this perhaps brings up an unhelpful sense of exposure in ‘sharing a dream’. Instead of sharing, like bringing food to share, pass around - which felt like an useful image for dream sharing. However, we played with the idea of instead listening to and for dreams. Perhaps something more receptive again.
It was all touch and go throughout the planning: who was going to be able to facilitate? Was anyone going to come? Was the weather going to be awful?
In the end, it was just David and I. We met at 5:30 for a location check above Firestone Bay, with flasks of tea, biscuits, blankets, a couple of folding chairs, and consent forms. Our plan was that if nobody came, as we anticipated with it being put out so late, we would head down to Firestone Bay anyway, and do the event, as well as record it. The weather was pretty lovely - dry -ish, warm -ish and the sea and air were still. The beach had a couple of swimmers and people/small groups dotted around. We could see that we’d easily be able to create a base at the beach near the tidal paddling pool that would allow what was needed for both exploring and sharing. We then walked down to Hutong Cafe and waited for about 15mins for anyone who might be joining us. Nobody came along. It was strange, but there was a sense of something exciting I think, like how it feels when you have an unexpected day off but you’re already out the house and dressed for the day - time set aside, all the stuff with us; down by the sea on a unexpectedly pleasant evening. No extra responsibility to guide others, but the opportunity to do it ourselves. Have a play.
So, we headed down to the beach and set out some blankets to sit on. We drank some tea and talked about what we were going to do. At 6:30 we started recording. The structure of things was very similar to what’s gone before, but with an attempt to bridge from sensory exploration of the environment to the dream sharing/listening by introducing the imaginal. The fact it was just us felt a good opportunity to step through/think through this ritual in quite a technical way.
It went a bit like this:
allow something from the environment to come into awareness. For example a part of the rocks close by. Allow details of the rocks to emerge. Then to move towards the rocks, and notice your own response to them, notice how the details emerge further and change as your proximity changes. Perhaps make contact, noticing the sensory experience, the details, and in turn how you are moved, how you respond etc. (Very much how its gone for the previous two sessions.) repeat over, following your interest in the environment for a time.
Then to bring in the imaginal: continue with above, but now, once exploration has happened, close your eyes and allow your imagination to respond to what you have been in contact with, perhaps with an image. If an image comes, allow a similar process of letting details emerge in your imagination, as you had allowed with the rocks. A kind of sensory exploration of the imaginal, the texture and detail of the image to come to life.. open your eyes and let something else take your interest, and start the process again
We did this for about 20 mins, both off in our explorations, then gathered talked about it.
David talked about how hard it was to tune into the here and now sensory practice, as he was full of day dreaming in response to the place, Royal William Yard, the sense of Empire, colonialism, held in the concrete structures, the stories and history of this place. How disturbing and even distressing this was. How this was also visible in the detail of the ecology of the beach, materials that lay amongst the pebbles.
I talked about the images that emerged from the sensory/imaginal exploration, including an image of blood running from the rocks. It was vivid and unexpected. Also a plug hole like shape in black shell-like rock, with water draining through. I drew these on the scroll, David drew in his notebook. We both already had dreams to share at this point.
David went to get his coat as it was getting chilly now. I had the chance to admire the sea and the view across to Mount Edgcumbe. It felt that the earlier sensory/imaginal exploration had brought about some state of mind where things felt enchanted. I looked across and the land was alive, the trees looked cosy and like they were part of giant creature curled up for the night. I thought of creation myths where creatures become the land. In Scotland, there is the tale of Dragon Stoorworm, a dragon as big as the country itself, that wrecked havoc on its people, overwhelming in it’s size and devouring nature. Once defeated, various bits of it became the landscape.
David came back with a jacket, I took a blanket, we poured some more tea, and started the dream sharing/listening. There was an easy flow to dreams, and we both wrote each others dreams on the scroll. Dreams of sinking, water draining, stuckness, immobilisation in the face of terrible threat, and the sea - unfathomably huge and powerful, but a dream about using the tidal changes to get somewhere. Concrete circles and structures. Sinking in caramel.
After this, we packed up and changed location. We went up the stairs and sat on a bench behind the bay, rolled out the scroll, poured yet another cup of tea, got out the chocolate biscuits - which were very welcome by this point - and began to reflect on the process and dreams. We wondered about listening, what we might be listening for? If the dreams had something to say, what might it have been? There was a strong sense of patterns emerging, but perhaps this is much easier to sense when it was just the two of us. I offered my response to the sense of threat and not being able to move, relating this to things happening in the world. David wondered about the ethics of one person making an interpretation of the collective. I thought about associations rather than interpretations. David said he enjoyed the presence of the sea and how it really allowed the environment to speak in the dreams, and wondered about having themes to explore in other public events. We checked the time and saw that we had just gone past 8. We rolled up the scroll, packed up our stuff, and finished up there.
It was fun and such a great opportunity to discover more of what this project is. Look forward to discussing more when I next see you all.
Bests, Natasha