That Which Has Already Created “Its Self” — A Dream Image and an Archaeology of the Psyche
By Lanie Bergin, Founder, Center for Dreaming Arts
Welcome to an excerpt of my dream tending methods and research. Specifically, this passage ties together my linguistic research regarding the dream’s symbolic function, and the philosophical nuance of “its self” appearing as two words.
One of the most striking messages in my dreaming life arrived as a simple handwritten message accompanied by a pair of closed, heavy-lidded eyes:
“That which has already created its self.”
And just below it:
“Inside, it is already created.”
The unusual grammar — its self instead of itself — caught my attention immediately. Dreams do not waste language. They rearrange words as a way of revealing what we cannot yet see.
In philosophical and spiritual writings, “its self” is used to describe the essence or inner being of something. Not the reflexive pronoun “itself,” but the soul-center, the nature that precedes form.
This dream seemed to be saying:
Creation begins inside.
The dream is already whole.
My work is simply to meet what has been created.
And that understanding has shaped the foundation of my entire approach to Dreaming Arts.
The Art-Process as Midwife
For decades of work in the Expressive Arts field, I have said:
“The art-process is like a midwife for the transcendental life of dreams.”
This dream image confirmed what I’ve always sensed — that dreams do not come to be interpreted, solved, or decoded. Their essence already exists. Through art, we give that essence the chance to be born into the world.
We draw, paint, write, move, breathe life into what the inner world has already created.
In the dream image, specifically the spelling of “its self” it feels now like a teacher gently correcting my assumptions.
The message was not about reflexivity. It was about origin.
Opening to the Subconscious Over Time
Another truth rose from this dream:
“When we open to the subconscious, it has more for us… over time.”
The psyche speaks in layers, and dreams unfold across years, decades, even lifetimes. What is already created in the depths only becomes visible through sustained devotion — not through effort, but through presence.
This is why tending dreams is a long friendship, not a problem-solving session.
Entering the Basement of My Life (2022)
It wasn’t until 2022 when I started to unpack the decades of dream journals, that I realized I was in the basement of my life — both literally and symbolically.
I felt as though I were in the deepest layers of an archaeological dig, uncovering dusty images and broken pieces of meaning. Some pieces matched easily from one decade to the next. Others remained total mysteries, waiting for their moment to come alive.
I sifted through thousands of pages, drawings, words, and strange fragments.
I encountered stories within stories.
Voices within voices.
Beginnings woven into many beginnings.
I felt tethered not only to my own origins but to a chorus of ancestral, symbolic, and cosmic beginnings — all urging me to listen, to help, to procure something that could contribute to healing and peace.
This was the birth of Project Dream Span, though of course, in true dream logic, it had already been forming itself for decades.
Dream Tending as Pilgrimage
Dream tending is not analysis. It is pilgrimage.
A pilgrimage is defined not by where you go, but by the intention and presence you bring. Dream tending requires the same spiritual posture: to wander with reverence, to follow symbols, to approach images as sacred sites.
And as in all pilgrimages, there are three essential elements:
The Holy Land — the inner landscape of dreams
The Sacred Site — the image you are given to tend
The Homeland — the place in you that remembers
Ultimately, what makes this kind of dream tending a pilgrimage is the intention behind it and the presence you bring.
We travel from the ancient interior realms of the psyche into our modern waking lives, carrying the medicine of what we’ve seen.
Dream tending invites us to wander.
To listen.
To trust what is not yet visible.
Because what we meet in our dreams has already created its self long before we arrive.
For me, dream tending is like an elaborate quilt, a kaleidoscope, a fractal. It includes aspects of dreaming awake and dreaming forward.
What a devoted companion to have, as I traverse the earth alongside my fellow creatures!
Coming Soon:
Part II: The Secondary Image that Appears in “That Which Has Already Created Its Self”
What about the secondary image that appears in this dream?