A month for waking up
Is your soul feeling a little sleepy? This is the time to shake off that lethargy and align with your inner truth. Dreamwork and collage can help.
“Dreams are the guiding words of the soul.”
Carl Jung
Welcome back to The Life of H: Sarah, Reimagined, where (usually) I share poems and poetic translations that dig into the roots of the story of the First Hebrew Matriarch to reveal new possibilities for balance and harmony in the face of contemporary challenges and crises.
Today, however, we’re going a bit off script.
In this missive:
I share notes on the spiritually rich month of Elul, Soul Vows, and how dreams and collage can supercharge your quest for meaning and joy during this season of self-reflection.
All subscribers also receive a PDF with instructions on using Dream Collage for spiritual growth
PLUS paid subscribers can view my full presentation, Dreaming into Sacred Soul Vows.
Are you missing Sarah?
Stay tuned! We’ll get back to the radically traditional, poetic and provocative verse-by-verse translation of Sarah’s story later this month. Until then, you can catch up on any installments you missed here.
And now, let’s get started!
Despite growing up Jewish, I didn’t realize until several years ago that there is a month on the Hebrew calendar devoted to getting in shape, spiritually.
Elul, which began earlier this month, is a time to take stock of your spiritual life in preparation for the High Holidays, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (the Jewish New Year and Day of Atonement), and the 10 Days of Awe between them.
Since learning about Elul, I’ve chosen a specific practice to engage in each year. The simplest is to blow the shofar or listen to the sounds of a shofar being played every day during the month of Elul.
After all, this is a time for waking up to the soul’s calling!
Paradoxically, dreamwork (engaging with the narratives of the midnight mind to find their healing and helpful messages) is how I wake up to my soul’s voice.
Last year, I added to my Elul practice: I undertook a journaling practice to reveal my soul vows.
Whatever your faith background or beliefs, anyone can use this time to do a spiritual inventory of themselves and set healthy intentions for moving forward.
A North Star for Your Soul
“Your soul vows describe how you choose to walk this earth, in every moment of every day. They are how you receive and spread grace. As you live your soul vows, you become a fertile container in which your purpose can take root and prosper.”
Janet Conner, Soul Vows
Just as marriage vows commit couples to building a meaningful life together, soul vows help individuals make and keep promises to themselves.
Like a north star or a personal prayer, soul vows help us build lives of integrity, joy, and meaning.
I learned about the art of creating soul vows from the book, Soul Vows: Gathering the Presence of the Divine in You, Through You, and As You, by Janet Conner .
As soon as I began the process outlined in Conner’s book, my dreams jumped in, presenting me with a guiding image for each step along the way.
I instinctually began to honor each dream with a collage based on the images that arose week by week.
This unplanned and unexpected process led me on a creative journey to discover my soul’s vows.
“Collage is a form of improvisation. The exact right image can’t be found, or the bits of paper slip and stick in accidental configurations, and unexpected compositions jostle moods and meanings. The collage once completed is its own co-created dream …”
Tzivia Gover, Dreaming on the Page: Tap into Your Midnight Mind to Supercharge Your Writing
What’s Sarah got to do with it?
My journey into my soul vows took me on an amazing inner adventure, including a sacred ceremony that unfolded within a lucid dream.
Not surprisingly, Sarah appeared in my dreams, too.
As I’ve mentioned in various posts in this series, I’ve discovered Sarah as a priestess of the sacred marriage ritual.
Ultimately, our soul vows are about a sacred marriage, too.
When we agree to live in harmony with our soul, we make a lifelong commitment to live and grow in a personal relationship with the Divine.
Get started:
To get a sense of where your dreams and creativity can take you on your journey into your soul’s vows, I’ve provided you with these resources.
✨ Create a dream collage
This handout provides steps for creating a Dream Collage, along with resources for exploring your soul’s calling through writing and dreamwork
✨ View the entire Dreaming into Your Sacred Soul Vows presentation
Paid subscribers can watch my presentation, ‘Dreaming into Sacred Soul Vows: A journey through dreamwork, ancient Jewish wisdom, and art,’ which was originally part of the International Association for the Study of Dreams 2025 Annual Conference. Access the video here.
✨ To purchase all of the recordings including 95 talks, 41 videos, and over 30 hours of content about dreams by leading experts use this link:
That’s all for today.
I’ll be Out of Office for another week. When we return later this month, I’ll pick up my translation project where we left off.
Until then, I’m dreaming with you,
