It is a time of great uncertainty, one where we are encountering unprecedented levels of change
and disruption. This change is both personal and collective, it is environmental, political, cultural,
economic, and more. There is hardly an area of life that remains unaffected if you look deeply.
This is not only a time of chaos, but an opening to possibility, if we can take the time to see it.
There are signs of this change all around us, especially in the realm of the climate crisis: the
oceans are warming, the big ice is melting, coral is bleaching, forest fires are becoming more
ferocious and frequent, the news headlines remind us of new challenges every day. Beyond the
“sign” that there is ecological disruption occurring, these are all deeper symbols for the
challenges we are facing today. The work of these tumultuous times seems to be one of waiting
and deepening into the problems that we face.
Rather than move fast and break things, we need to slow down and begin to heal. For
Sarah, this move began to take shape as parallels were revealed through a personal experience
echoed in our collective crisis. Slowly, a relationship began to grow with an image of Earth that
spoke to all aspects of our time and expanded in this recent writing. Through dreams, active
imagination, and the creative process, an opening to healing and possibility took shape. In this
time together, we will look at a few passages from Sarah’s new book, some enduring dream
images, some of the artwork that sprang from these encounters, myths that called out, and
more to discover where these expressions of deep knowing can find a place in our lives even in
the most difficult times. Whether you have a creative practice, record your dreams regularly or
hardly ever, there are images that are open to these in-depth relationships. We will dig into how
these images, from dreams, artwork, nature, memory, current events, and/or the imagination
can become an opening to possibility, healing, creativity, and comfort even in the most uncertain
and chaotic moments. 

Biography: Sarah D. Norton, PhD, is an independent scholar who earned her MA and PhD in
Depth Psychology with an emphasis in Jungian and archetypal psychology at Pacifica Graduate
Institute. She completed her dissertation Arctic Imaginings: Chasing Ice through Jung’s Liber
Novus into the 21st Century, defending on Earth Day of 2020 in the early days of the pandemic.
With a passion for intersectional environmentalism, grief work, dreams, and creativity she writes
about climate and current events from an archetypal perspective. Her new book Climate
Change, Environments of Uncertainty and Loss: Jung, Politics and Culture was just released

from Routledge as a part of their Focus series. A longtime dream worker, Sarah is an occasional
dream group facilitator certified by the Haden Institute and a member of the International
Association for the Study of Dreams. She records her dreams as often as she can, often creates
art from them, and loves sharing dreams with others.  Sarah is the online education coordinator
at the Richmond based non-profit, The Foundation for Family and Community Healing
(www.HealingEdu.org), editor of the publication The Rose in the World (currently on hiatus for
restructuring, hoping to return soon), communications coordinator for the Natural Spirituality
conference (www.NSRGathering.org), International Association for Jungian Studies member,
and co-host of London Arts Based Research Centre’s Pyschreative as well as an honorary
board member. You can see more, including published articles and upcoming events, at
sdnortonphd.net/.