Dreaming the Dark by Starhawk

Author:Starhawk [Starhawk]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8070-1043-3
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 1997-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

GROUP BONDING EXERCISE

(This works best in units of from four to eight people.) Sit comfortably in a circle. Ground, and center, and breathe together. If you like, do the Tree of Life.

Go around the circle clockwise. Each person says her or his name, and the group repeats it.

The name can be spoken or sung. The group may speak it once or three times, and may sing it back to the person.

Now everyone closes their eyes. Again, go around the circle. Each person says her/his name, and the group repeats it. As we repeat each name, we visualize that person.

Again, go around the circle. Each person says her/his name. This time, with our eyes still closed, we let ourselves picture that person’s energy. We may sense a quality or an image, and as it comes to us we say it out loud:

“Rose.”

“Warm.”

“Turquoise and red.”

“A colorful tropical bird.”

We take time for each person until images have stopped coming and silence falls. (We are practicing our sensitivity to the ebb and flow of group energy.)

After we have gone around the circle, we focus on the center—breathing together, and visualizing all the images, and qualities, and energies of each of us flowing into the center. Gradually, an image or scene will begin to be created by the group energy. We describe it to each other, as aspects surface in our minds, until we are all clearly in the same place.

“I see a jungle.”

“I see bright-colored birds flying.”

“I see a mountain—a volcano.”

“Yes, the jungle lies on its slopes.”

“And I see a cave.”

“In the side of the mountain.”

“And we can follow it down to the fire.”

We can continue with the group vision as long as we like. It may become an elaborate mutual journey. We may find a group symbol or an image of power. We may discover a task.

When we are done, we breathe together again, and return ourselves to ordinary space and time, grounding whatever energy we have raised. Then we can talk about the vision and discuss its meanings.

In Reclaiming, we find that when we teach groups this technique, many people come away from the first exploration feeling annoyed or angry, feeling that the images are shallow and stereotyped. When we ask people what they were seeing that they did not say, often we get answers such as:

“I was seeing bones and blood—but everyone else was seeing flowers, so I didn’t want to spoil their trance. But now I feel alienated.”

“You’re kidding—I was seeing bones and blood. But since nobody else was, I didn’t want to say.”

As we continue around the circle, we discover that nobody was really in the pretty scene the group created. Rather, all were seeing much darker and usually more powerful images, but they were withholding them from the group. The discovery of how much we all withhold is disconcerting, and the trance exercise becomes a model of group process in ordinary situations.

If we repeat the exercise, with each person committed to expressing even negative images, we will discover a much deeper level of group power and bonding.

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