Courting the Dream With Toko-pa Turner

What You’ll Discover in These 7 Weeks
Course sessions are on Thursdays at Noon Pacific.

In this 7-week online journey, Toko-pa will guide you through the fundamental spiritual skills and competencies you’ll need to successfully discover dreamwork as an enduring and fulfilling path to living a life of meaning, with a deep sense of belonging — to yourself, others, and the world.

Each weekly LIVE contemplation and training session will build harmoniously upon the previous ones so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles of “dream courtship,” with an emphasis on the body as the first gate of dreaming, and learning how a somatic exploration of dreams can help bring their wisdom into your everyday life.

Module 1: Dreaming Is Nature
How Your Dreams Are in Service to Healing & Belonging (January 3)

Most of us have been taught that our dreams are the products of our own minds. But as anyone who has plumbed their depths can testify, there is a much greater mystery at work. We begin this course by reframing dreams as Nature, inclining us towards healing and belonging.

You’ll explore the root causes of forgetting your dreams, and learn how the psyche works to retrieve the lost, devalued, and neglected aspects of the Self. As you engage in this process of remembership, you realize you’re also restoring belonging to your life.

In this module you’ll:

Learn how dreaming is nature, naturing through us in service to our wellbeing
Reveal the underlying reasons you forget, dismiss, and even denigrate your dreams
Discover how dreamwork can assuage your personal and collective feelings of loneliness and disconnection
Engage in a courtship with your dreams as a potent practice for personal growth and connection
Recognize longing as the sacred calling homeward
Module 2: The Art of Courtship
Practices for Approaching the Mystery of Your Dreams (January 10)

Unlike so many Indigenous cultures, we in the Western world have become disconnected from the Mythic Life. This loss contributes significantly to our personal and cultural loneliness. Even when we do work with our dreams, we are often taught an acquisitional approach, asking, “What does it mean for me?”

Courtship is the art of circling in closer to the mystery, making yourself approachable so you might learn what the dream loves, what it longs for, and then moving your life in response to that longing.

This week, you’ll be introduced to Toko-pa’s method for “Courting the Dream” and discover why this leads to a more enduring and fulfilling relationship with your symbolic life.

In this module, you’ll:

Understand how your longing to belong comes out of your separation from the Mythic Life
Discover how myth, symbols, and dreams can enhance your life
Learn a more engaging alternative to traditional dream analysis
Be introduced to Toko-pa’s 5 Keys for “Courting the Dream”
Module 3: Embodying the Dream
Somatic Practices for Integrating Your Dreams (January 17)

The body is the first gate of dreaming. Dreams are a biological imperative, and the emotions they inspire are somatic expressions. This is why in courting a dream, we need to do so with embodied presence.

This week, you’ll learn to listen to the communications of your body during dreamwork and allow its agreements and disagreements to guide your process. You’ll learn techniques for giving relevance to the invisible through dream journaling, somatic exploration, and walking in nature.

In this module, you’ll:

Learn about the biological function and necessity of dreams
Explore ways to ground your presence and involve your body in dreamwork
Practice an embodied method for recording your dreams in greater detail
Participate in a somatic exploration of a dream
Engage with nature on integrative walks to enhance dreamwork

Module 4: The Architecture of Dreams
Discover the Universal Patterns Underpinning Every Dream (January 24)

Dreaming is our mother tongue… but throughout the ages, we’ve forgotten how to speak this symbolic language.

Dreams are made up of metaphors, archetypes, and symbolic motifs that occur in every different culture around the world. When we learn these patterns, we can better understand our own dreams and their archetypal significance, which rescues our lives from randomness and gives us a map to follow. (Bring a journal and recent dream to work with.)

In this module, you’ll:

Recognize key elements in every dream and use that knowledge to make effective associations
Learn how the structure and arc of a dream can put you in touch with its meaning
Discuss universal themes and tips for stepping out of recurring patterns
Learn how to engage your curiosity and follow the energy of a dream
Circumnavigate the intellect to meet and tend to your animal heart
Module 5: Making the Encounter
Working With the ‘Dark Guests’ in Your Dreams (January 31)

Many of us feel disconnected from each other, our ancestral roots, and even parts of ourselves. Throughout our lives, we are shaped by our consensus culture’s celebration of certain qualities, with more sensitive and creative traits often devalued, dismissed, or neglected. As a result, we become split off from those devalued parts of the Self, which can turn into shadow dreams, conflict in our relationships, and even illness in the body.

This week, you’ll learn how dark dreams are actually a validation of something that is ready to be healed.

In this module you’ll:

Explore the origins of our alienation and how we became estranged from each other and ourselves
Learn how to reframe nightmares and the so-called “negative emotions/images” as clusters of energy, striving to belong with us
Discover how to approach a threatening dream to reveal its concealed medicine
Witness and participate in a real-time demonstration of dreamwork
Module 6: Walking the Dream
Connection With the Holy in Nature Through Ritual & Reciprocity (February 7)

Dreams don’t always tell us which way to go, but ritual helps us live with that ambiguity. Once we have worked with a dream to reveal its teachings, it’s important that we take what we’ve learned and find a way to honor it in our waking lives.

This week, we’ll discuss ways to create ritual actions as a response to dreams to deepen our reciprocity with the holy in nature.

In this module, you’ll:

Weave bridges from the wisdom of your dreams back to waking life
Come to see dreamwork as a conversation with the holy in nature
Understand that when you create ritual, a greater intelligence will meet you halfway
Develop ritual tools and other methods for honoring your dreams

Module 7: We Are an Ecosystem
Guidance for Cultivating Dreamwork Circles & Community (February 14)

An incredible thing happens when we come together in dream-sharing community. We quickly realize that the pieces we are working out as individuals are arising not just for our personal healing, but to serve the larger ecosystem as well.

Dreams require us to come together with vulnerability and authenticity so that we can discover what the circle can teach us as a whole. This process introduces us to a new model of leadership that is deeply needed in the world today.

In this module, you’ll:

Learn how to transform your fears and hesitations about joining groups so you can participate in community
Discover how sharing dreams with others takes you into the heart of intimacy and belonging
Discuss the role of dreaming and storytelling in creating a new culture
Learn how to start and sustain your own dream circle …