the mountain
teaches the
dreaming
Mount Tamalpais, Marin County, northern California
On Recalibrating the Context of this Paratheatre
© 2008 Antero Alli
GENESIS
Since the 1977 genesis of this work, numerous individuals have applied its ritual technology through a wide spectrum of themes and sources that have shaped, bent and sometimes broken the very techniques used to gain access to their powers. Though each of these sources carry their own distinct values -- Anima/Animus, Ancestors, Crucifixion, The Chakras, Song as Vehicle, Alchemy, Initiation, to name a few -- they also express interconnected strands of the larger oceanic mother archetype, The Dream and/or The Dreamtime, and its awesome capacity for dreaming existence into being.
We are the Dreamer and the Dreamed.
Rather than continue exploring a new theme which each passing ritual lab, as a stone skipping across the surface of the ocean, it is time to deepen my commitment to the ocean itself via the archetype of The Dreamtime, or The Dreaming. A stone can only skip across the surface of the sea so many times before it finally drops down through the depths to finally dwell.
The power of dreaming found precise expression in the choreography of a dreaming ritual structure I developed in 1985 after a fortuitous meeting with Australian Aborigine (or Koori) elder of the Yuin tribe Guboo Ted Thomas. I asked Guboo how he taught the dreamtime techniques and he laughed,“I don’t teach the dreaming, the mountain teaches the dreaming”. I didn’t know exactly what he meant by that but I felt enough resonance with his presence, his truth, to keep my mind open. This meeting turned out to be an initiatic encounter of spiritual transmission that I would not understand until much later.
Guboo Ted Thomas
1909-2002
THE DREAMING RITUAL
This dreaming ritual involves recalling and extracting a series of movements from dreams. By its genesis in the dream itself, each movement emerges to consciousness from incubation in the Personal and/or Collective Unconscious; each movement carries its own innate force of dreaming. These movements are then practiced separately and then combined to form a movement cycle, a kind of dream choreography, capable of triggering dreamtime memory, emotion and visions when performed in the waking state. This ritual aims to evoke the presence of the dreamtime/daytime interface through its embodiment in action. We are also careful not to assign, assume or project any meaning onto these movements; sometimes the dream's innate meanings emerge on their own.
The dreaming ritual enacted in the Dreambody/Earthbody lab of Spring 2008 culminated in two nights on Mount Tamalpais. The strong tellurian currents of the mountain amplified the power of dreaming, shocking us all with a direct experience of the Dreamtime/Daytime continuum. Like Guboo said, “the mountain teaches the dreaming”. I realize now that we would probably never have experienced this without the rigorous preparation we underwent in the preceding six weeks, where certain ritual skills were developed to maintain the structural integrity of our choreographies and where specific sources were served to sensitize and empower the energetic body, a.k.a. the dreambody.
SHADOW WORK, TECHNIQUE AND SOURCING
The recalibration of this paratheatre work will be accomplished simultaneously in three areas: 1) Shadow work; exposing power drains 2) Technique; development of ritual skills and 3) Sourcing; nurturing intuition and the talent for fluid access and expression of the internal landscape. These three levels of work will serve the continuing excavation and enactment of dreaming ritual choreographies. At the culmination of our Spring and Summer labs, these dreaming rituals will be executed over several nights on Mount Tamalpais.
SHADOW WORK
This paratheatre medium acts as a means to empower the energetic body and, to expose and dramatize the existing symptoms of power loss in our lives. Only when we are willing and able to examine what is draining the energetic body can we begin to resuscitate our power. I call this process Shadow work, as it addresses the excavation of unconscious and often self-destructive complexes into the light of day for their transformation into more creative expression and play.
Click this for more on what drains the energetic body.
TECHNIQUE
However, before any Shadow work can safely occur certain techniques and principles must first be learned and adhered to. Technical proficiency in this medium allows us to enter the volatile “magma” of the internal landscape within the safety of a container, a ritual structure, without which our good intentions can drown in self-indulgent soup. I call this process Technique, as it addresses the structural integrity of this ritual technology. The techniques and principles of this medium are referenced by the following terms: No-Form, Polarizations, Contact Point, Verticality, The Warm-Up Cycles, Resonance, Service, Surrender, Immersion, Precision, Sanctification, Territoriality, Containment, Spatial Awareness, Jogging Forms, Ritual Actions, Sourcing, Prayer.
Click this for more technique notes.
SOURCING
Paralleling the ongoing development of skillful technique are the equally essential virtues of personal freedom, spontaneity, and intuition. Without the capacity to give oneself totally to a given source, force or archetype, no amount of technique can hide the lack of vitality demonstrated by any holding back from total immersion in the experience. I call this process Sourcing, as it nurtures the talent for direct access to, expression and embodiment of, whatever sources of energy are being engaged. Sourcing means to leave the self-conscious watcher behind and enter the circle of participation. Words, images, explanations all belong to the watcher. To the participant -- experience is everything.
Click this for how the term "archetype" is being used.
A NON-INTERPRETIVE APPROACH
There will be no emphasis on dream interpretation or dream analysis in these ritual labs. The deeply somatic focus of this dreamwork demands our full attention to the dream movements themselves and the innate power they carry. Dream councils, or group circles, are held after each individual lab session to share notes on what happened and how we were impacted emotionally and otherwise; speaking forth in these group circles is invited but not mandatory. Verbalizing our experiences can help us language our perceptions and neutralize the charge often accumulated in the rituals themselves.
On maintaining written reports in journals. Participants are free to keep dream journals but they are not mandatory to the actual dreaming ritual process which involves direct physical replication of movements recalled from dreams, rather than our analytical interpretations of these dreams. Sometimes it can be useful to bring a journal to the ritual workspace to sketch and draw mandalas that relate directly to your imagistic responses to the dreams. Writing in journals can also prove helpful for future recall of ritual structures, techniques and insights emerging through the work itself.
dreaming and paratheatre links
Paratheatre video documents on dvd