Drawing by Jennifer Badot
At the beginning of my Natural Dreamwork journey, I had a series of dreams in which a blue flame appeared. In the first dream, the blue flame combusted into a destructive conflagration that engulfed me. In another, the flame emitted slyly from an electrical outlet only to disappear when I went toward it. In yet another, I wholly extinguished it because I was afraid. Working these dreams, I came to understand that this blue flame was my own internal blue fire speaking to me, asking for attention, sometimes gently, sometimes violently.
During this time, I was inspired to make a drawing of the blue flame. Bringing it to life by depicting it, giving it dimension and expression, was a way to bring the message of the blue flame into my waking life. As I drew it, I felt guided and in close communion with those dreams. We worked in concert: the dreams and my hands. The drawing, then, is both a vivid artifact of this series of dreams as well as a testimony to my creativity. When I embody the images of my dreams in visual art, poetry, or song, it’s a way to amplify them and extend their reach beyond my psyche into the world. The more I engage with my dreams, the more they reveal to me, the more they can heal me. Each time I look at this drawing — the vibrant blues and the strong arcs of the flames – I am reminded of this journey I’m on, this journey we’re all on, the Journey of the Blue Flame.
Jennifer Badot is a poet, visual artist, diviner, and Natural Dreamwork practitioner in training. She believes that our world needs engaged and activated dreamers now more than ever — as a pathway for individual and collective healing and as a way toward imagining a just and healthy future, for ourselves and our planet, one dream at a time.
