Divorce, Dreams & the Divine

By Susan Audrey

Shift Network writer Susan Audrey: Our night- time dreams connect us with the Divine within.

One of the best things about being a writer and editor for The Shift Network is getting asked: Tell us the story of your awakening.

Well, here goes…

When I was 33 years old, I became a divorced, single mother of two, ages three and six. It was a tough road. There’s nothing like single parenting to sober you up to how hard your reality can become — and how fast.

It was also the start of my awakening on many levels, including the realization that life isn’t fair (yes, I was a late bloomer). And I was getting those first glimpses at how difficult situations just may be happening for a reason, and how — as tough as it was to swallow — I had played a part in the disintegration of my marriage.

I was also seeing that — in amazing, seemingly miraculous ways — the three of us were being lovingly guided and held.

Early on, I happened upon a compassionate spiritual community now known as the Center for Spiritual Living in Santa Rosa, California. The teachings, the people and the music were just what my son, daughter and I needed.

Yet, what was to truly connect me to something greater than myself and my earthly existence occurred on a typical summer’s night about six years later in the form of a dream — my first precognitive dream.

I dreamt I was standing outside the recreation center where I dropped my kids off for daycare on workdays. Walking back to my car, I saw a dark-haired man in a crisp white shirt talking on a pay phone (yes, this was a while back).

Not a particularly eventful dream, but what made it unforgettable was that when I walked out of the recreation center the next morning, there was the dark-haired man in the white shirt at the phone, just how I had seen him in my dream the night before.

This simple recognition — that our nighttime dreams could show us the future — opened the door to a curiosity that blossomed into the reading of countless books on the subject, including our popular Shift faculty Robert Moss’s many bestsellers.

Through my reading and close attention to my nighttime dreams, I was discovering that our dreams can be the fast track to our higher Self and inner knowing. I was also truly and finally believing that we’re not alone and that help is always available to us.

Years later, when my children were older, I took dozens of workshops in dreamwork, intuition and spirituality. I became a regular at Spirit Rock, the Vipassana meditation center in Woodacre, California.

And recently, I attended and completed a master’s program in Depth Psychology at Sonoma State University, a formidable foundation in working with Jung’s perspectives on images, symbols, the imagination and dreams.

Yet, what ultimately strengthened my faith in myself, life and the spirit helpers, loving ancestors, and glimpses of higher knowing that emerge in our dreams is the community of dreamers I’ve come to know.

In the midst of my passion for discovering more and more about what dreams come to tell us — including how they can help us evolve, heal and better our relationships, health and lives — I began to lead dreamwork circles and workshops in creating dream-inspired art.

And it was the dreamers I met, who shared their dreams and stories and helped each other explore the possible meanings of their nighttime journeys, who illuminated just how divinely guided this practice could be.

I saw it in the seemingly magical way that a circle member said just the right thing to help another dreamer grasp the significance of her dream; or that once a circle was established, members began to spontaneously dream about the same subject or have a dream for another member; or that even during a “dream drought,” a member would dream the night before a circle was to meet, her psyche somehow knowing it had “homework.”

It was in comments such as, “My dreams saved my life,” from a 70-year-old woman who was heartbroken at the end of her 40-year marriage.

And when one dreamer shared that her close friend’s recently deceased husband had appeared in her dreams to let her know he was okay, so she could share the message to comfort her friend.

It was also in how my own dreams guided me in making important choices about my health, in knowing when to let go of outdated beliefs, and in navigating relationship challenges.

I’ve come to know dreamwork as a practice of awakening. It’s the opportunity, each night, to let go of the egoic mind ­­­­— and what it thinks it knows — and open to the unknown. It’s a powerful reminder that you can always find divine light in the dark.

I also now know that in my mind’s eye — through the practice of Active Dreaming, a way of dreaming while awake conceived by Robert Moss — I can guide myself back to those early years as a single mother to comfort that young, scared woman I once was.

And in doing so, I can recover my energy — the part of my soul — that was stuck in the difficult memories of that time, allowing myself to be more present in this moment and more open to the wonderful possibilities around me now.

Susan Audrey is a writer and editor for The Shift Network. When she isn’t polishing marketing copy, she’s leading dreamwork circles in the San Francisco Bay Area and creating art inspired by her nighttime dreams. Susan holds an M.A. in Depth Psychology and finds great benefit –– especially for women –– in interpreting one’s dreams through the lens of the Sacred Feminine. You can discover more about dreamwork and the dreamwork circles and workshops she offers by clicking here.