The Dreamers’ Den Series Ep 20: Drawing Dreams with the Wizard of Awes (a conversation with Walter Berry)

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What happens when adults get out their colored pencils and freely draw their dreams? “Ah-ha moments,” all over the place. Life-shifting, and even life-saving, ah-ha moments.

Click Play now to listen to me talk with Walter Berry about his dream groups, where participants draw their dreams and share the drawings. I loved every one of his stories.

Walter has been called “The Wizard of Awes.” His upcoming book, Drawn into the Dream, will explore the awe that comes with drawing our dreams, and with seeing other people’s dream drawings.

As a past board member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD), and a visual artist and lighting designer with a background in theatre arts, Walter brings a love of art and dreams that you’ll hear in his voice.

We talk about

• the surprising precognitive dream that led Walter to dive into dreamwork
• how each of us was influenced by Jeremy Taylor’s phrase “all dreams come in the service of health and wholeness”
• the possibilities that open up when a dream group focuses on a drawing, rather than on the dreamer themselves
• and several juicy examples of drawings and dreams.

Check out some of these drawings Walter talks about (and click Play now to hear their stories):

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Learn more about Walter Berry and get in touch with him on his website: drawnintothedream.com

After I stopped our recording, Walter asked me whether I ever have dreams that apply to my work with patients. I told him about dreams that have been set in my clinic, and included details of an acupuncture treatment I’m performing on a patient. I’ve been the one getting the therapies in dreams several times, too. And I’ve had a few dreams (love these) in which one of my teachers or another master practitioner is the one giving the treatment.

This led us into the subject of The Five Elements in dreams, and how they show up as objects, directions of movement, or areas on the body. 

At one point, Walter said, “What a fascinating world you live in.” That hit home. This world is fascinating, and it fills me up to share it with you. The language of our dreams, of the natural world, of our bodies, of metaphors and story. Thank you for being here. 

If you want to know more about what fascinates me, I’d love to send you a gift: my mini-book about the Five Elements in dreams. Click here to enter your email (which I will NEVER share with anyone else) and I’ll send you a copy.

Thanks for reading. Now go ahead and listen to this episode. And then, let me know what you think!