Episode 3: Guided by Dreams (with Matt Cochran)

Turning Season Podcast Episode 3 with Matt Cochran hosted by Leilani Navar turningseason.com

Matt Cochran joins me again, this time to share how dreamwork, especially in connection with men’s work, is a part of his role in The Great Turning.

Click Play below to hear us talk about:

  • how Matt relates to the “three stories of our time” (and how these compare to a rite of passage, or initiation)
  • what dreams are for him and the people he works with (a navigational tool; a fierce, viable presence; a glimpse of the mythic level of our lives)
  • men’s work in Matt’s life (including his shift from the loneliness of a lone wolf to non-competitive brotherhood with other men)
  • how “the initiated masculine” is a part of The Great Turning
  • mapping and protecting landscapes, from inside and outside of existing legal structures
  • looking to the Earth as a role model, not as a victim
  • and one of Matt’s own most significant dreams

After you listen, leave a comment here and let me know what struck you. I’m curious what you think/feel/wonder about this conversation.

And remember to share your book recommendations for Turning Season’s bookshop, here in the comments or by clicking “Contact” in the top menu.

Matt Cochran is a dreamworker, wilderness guide, and modern homesteader. Raised in California, he’s spent his adult life in the Innerwest. First as a wandering poet, then as an Exploration Geologist in Nevada, a Surveyor/Mapper in Colorado and Montana, and a wilderness guide in the Southwest, he’s had a continued relationship with the wild landscapes of the Innerwest. 

With his partner, he’s created a world-built-by-hand and they spend much of their time running their modern homestead. In midlife, Matt earned an MA at Pacifica Graduate School in Depth Psychology focusing on dreams and ecopsychology. In hindsight, he sees that he took his mapping skills to the inner territories, and recognizes that the language of wild nature corresponds to the language of dreams. 

He’s trained in Rites of Passage with Animas Valley Institute and been involved in Men’s Work through Michael Meade and the Rising Man Movement. Matt is now blending all these worlds into the offering of Raven Dream Tracking, where he focuses on dynamic dreamwork and works with men in what he calls Wolfpack Dreaming. As Matt says, “Dreams to me are an incredible navigation tool and a fierce, viable presence. They give us life from the hidden places within, and a generative, creative and visionary capacity in the world without.”

Listen in to my conversation with Matt in The Dreamers’ Den series, Episode 22: Of Ravens and Wolves, of Men Dreaming as a Pack

Connect with Matt on Instagram: instagram.com/ravendreamtracking/

or his website: ravendreamtracking.org

Browse for books in the Turning Season shop at bookshop.org/shop/turningseason

Check out these two books mentioned by Matt in our conversation:

Music by East Forest

Leilani Navar