Four-Step Approach

Za Robert A. Johnson

"Inner work using dreams and active imagination for personal growth"

The Four-Step Approach Before we begin step one it may help to have a brief preview of the four basic steps we will be covering in the pages ahead. 

 The steps are these: 

1. Making associations 

2. Connecting dream images to inner dynamics 

3. Interpreting 

4. Doing rituals to make the dream concrete In the first step we form the foundation for interpreting the dream by finding the associations that spring out of our unconscious in response to the dream images. 

 Every dream is made up of a series of images, so our work begins with discovering the meanings that those images have. In the second step, we look for and find the parts of our inner selves that the dream images represent. We find the dynamics at work inside us that are symbolized by the dream situation. Then, in the third step, the interpretation, we put together the information we have gleaned in the first two steps and arrive at a view of the dream’s meaning when taken as a whole. At the fourth step we learn to do rituals that will make the dream more conscious, imprint its meaning more clearly on our minds, and give it the concreteness of immediate physical experience. When we arrive at the fourth step, we will discuss the uses that ceremony and ritual can have for us in reconnecting with the unconscious. With this brief road map before us, we will start now with the first step.