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June 5, 2020

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About Me

Tristy Taylor is a Portland, Oregon-based transformation teacher, dream worker, shadow worker, ordained interfaith minister and dream artist. Raised by world-renowned dream worker Jeremy Taylor and dream artist Kathryn Taylor, she has been working with her dreams from the very beginning. She has been leading dream groups since she was 15-years old, and over the last three decades, she has grown her own dream work offerings to include art making and ritual as guided by the dream world, as well as opening the rich secrets of Shadow work and nightmare imagery. She has a Master of Arts in Transformative Arts with a Dream Studies certificate from the Graduate School for Holistic Studies at John F. Kennedy University, and she currently teaches a variety of classes for Morbid Anatomy Academy and the Chaplaincy Institute for Interfaith Ministries. She also sees clients one-on-one and facilitates online dream workshops every season.

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Every Equinox, Solstice and Cross-Quarter day, I like to create new altars around the house, including the one that sits with me on Zoom. It’s always extra special when clients and students notice the change and ask about the new objects - or even recognize them, like my Dream Raptors! I’ve also got a sculpted Kali-Ma my father made in the 70’s, to honor a recent opening I had in my Open Heart Circle. And of course, the glorious tulip magnolia branches that always bring Spring to my little neighborhood. Happy New Beginnings, friends. I love you. 🦚🌸🦅

Happy Spring Equinox! I made a new altar today and had a great time putting precious treasures in the bird’s nest, including a little looking glass for maximum admiration. I trimmed some tulip magnolia branches and put them on the altar too. Soon the mantle will be exploding with pink flowers! Happy Return of the Light, during the Darkest Moon. Keeping it all in balance. I love you.

Happy Spring Equinox! This morning I worked on trimming my fig trees in the cold, blustery wind. I loved feeling the cold bite on my nose as I dragged branches around the yard. I loved wielding my beloved chainsaw to make all those unruly branches into manageable logs and twigs. At one point, with the help of the wind, my neighbor’s Weeping Willow leaned down over the fence and caressed my face and it felt like a blessing from Nature herself. Happy balance of Light and Dark. Happy Return of the Light on the darkest Moon. I love you.

I did a very adult thing and bought a new washer and dryer. When I bought this house, it came with an an ancient washer & dryer and I used their last bit of life in these last 2 years!

Content Warning for Sad Pet News -

We just completed our last session of my Dreaming in 2023 Dream Circle. What an incredible group of Dreamers! I am always amazed by the connections, synchronicities and powerful Dreamwork that happens in these circles.

Came home to the sweetest gift from @the_true_vailias - the hedgehog love continues! That card is hand-painted!!! So sweet. Happy almost Spring, friends. 🦔🍄🌼

Another journal completed. Hedgehogs have really been showing up a lot these past few months! Thoughts and collages and scribbles and drawings and dreams. No matter what, we keep going on into the unknown. I love you.

Here’s the full tally of my February Dream Titles! I like the story it tells. The full title of the “My Pet Hedgehog” dream is actually, “I Dress My Pet Hedgehog Like a Clown,” and I just had to draw them. In the Dream I am nervous that all the patrons of the shop I am in will trample my little Clown Hog, but I believe we get through it unscathed. I’m a firm believer in not trying to illustrate our dreams (because truly, that’s impossible). Instead, try being INSPIRED by your dream imagery and see what happens. Join me for more Dream Art fun with @morbidanatomy in just a week and a half! Link in my bio! Honk Honk! 🤡🦔 #DreamART

Another Dream Artist I want to share with you is Bea Nettles. In 1970, she had a dream while she was an artist-in-residence at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. This Dream guided her to the creation of what became her 78 card Mountain Dream Tarot deck.

The snow has barely started to melt and apparently more snow storms are coming tonight and on Monday. I’m getting pretty low on food - down to the frozen meals and canned goods, but those will last awhile if necessary. The kitties may be forced to eat - GASP! - Human Tuna! So they will be fine. And the cat litter delivery thankfully arrived the day before this surprise Snowpocalypse began. My neighbor said that the freeways are still a mess of black ice, so I’m staying put, but I did shovel my walkway and the gutter to the sewer opening in front of my house, to encourage the snow melt that can occur today. While I was shoveling, I had a few near misses with cars out driving on my street and skittering around the road. I think this bright sun is fooling people into thinking the roads are safe to drive but they are not! As my grandpa used to say, “4-Wheel Drive doesn’t mean 4-Wheel Stop!” What a time we are living in! I love you.

As my passionate students already know, every time I teach a class, it’s full of new art, ideas & research, because what I teach is also my passion. I’m also an obsessive little research mouse, scrabbling around, gathering up new gems of inspiration & visionary ideas, from the past & present (& future? Dreamtime is nonlinear, after all! 😉).

Average snowfall in Portland in the last 24 hours is 10 inches, but as you can see, here in the SE we got more than that. I measured that tower on top of my bird feeder in the first picture… 13.5 inches! That still doesn’t beat the record of 14.5 inches in January 1942, but pretty close! SO GRATEFUL I no longer have a commute and that I still have power. The cats and I are snug. Apparently, the freeways still have lots of abandoned cars from people trying to get home last night, so I’m staying put today too. Wild times! 💎 ❄️ ⛄️

I highly recommend titling your dreams. In fact, sometimes all I have time for is writing a title, but I can still get tremendous insight from the practice of “summing up a dream” with just one sentence or phrase. This is a great way to see themes as well. I also recommend writing a haiku to sum up your dreams. Here’s my latest:

My dreams have been getting lively in anticipation of my next @morbidanatomy class, “Harness the Creativity of Your Dreams Through Art Making.” It’s 3 Saturdays, beginning on March 11th. We’re also in the middle of my annual 8-week Dream Circle intensive and I’ve been trying out a lot of new experientials and active imagination exercises with that Dream Team (thanks for this perfect moniker, @myevajo !) The exercises we tried out together have turned out to be super interesting and fun. So, even if you have taken this class before, there are so many new pieces I’m adding. The images attached to this missive are yet more collaged drawings from my own Dream Art journal. And yes, at 50-years-old, I did have a dream that I was pregnant! Click on the link in my bio to find more and sign up, or go directly to: https://www.morbidanatomy.org/classes/be-a-creative-collaborator-with-your-dream-world-how-to-harness-the-creativity-in-your-dream-life-through-art-making-a-three-week-online-course-with-educator-and-dream-worker-tristy-taylor. See you there! 🐈‍⬛

First time filming myself in time lapse mode! Next time I will film myself actually using the chainsaw on the trees themselves (wearing my pink and hopefully also bedazzled hard hat!). Currently I am in clean-up mode after the MAJOR haircut I gave my mighty fig trees. They’ve been growing so strong and fast that some of the branches were pushing into my Internet cable (aka the sole way I earn an income!) so her long locks had to be chopped. I ended up cutting some very old parts of her and the pieces are so beautiful. I love living in the PNW. I can do yard work for hours without my wonky thyroid getting overheated because it is so cool and crisp outside. I’m so grateful. Thank you. I love you.

The very first class I ever taught for the @morbidanatomy community was how to “Harness the Creativity of Your Dreams Through Art Making.” I’m over the moon that I get to once again teach this fun and creative class. I’m also deeply honored that so many people take this class over and over again, because they know that I am always adding new tools and teachings. This is my life’s work, so it is very alive - shifting and transforming as we all are.

At least once a week I choose a new Portland neighborhood to explore. This time it was the historic Irvington district aka Sabin. “An early example of a streetcar suburb, Irvington contains the largest, most diverse, and intact collections of Queen Anne, Arts and Crafts, and Colonial Revival style residences in the City of Portland as well as the State of Oregon.” So many beautiful houses and quirky winter gardens. And the trees! HUGE. One took my breath away in the soft light and I had to film her! I also found a pristine pocket book mystery, published in 1942, which took me straight back to my grandmother’s house. She was a published mystery novelist herself and her house was filled with these little pocketbook mysteries. They tend to disintegrate and mold quickly, due to the cheap paper they were printed on (not built to last!) so it feels miraculous to find this fully intact little treasure waiting for me. Thank you for joining me on this little visit. I love you.

Another pick-me-up after my terrible date last night: I have been wanting to own an original @mariannaseger Animal Drawing for YEARS, but I was waiting for the right animal to choose me and they did! Hedgehogs have always been special to me. I grew up with a lot of European fairytale books (many illustrated by my great great grandmother!) and they often featured these strange industrious creatures which were so foreign to me, growing up in Northern California. I feel very Hedgehog-ian in my life right now - living alone, being industrious, eating my little grubs, and snoozing whenever I want. This new friend is going to bring a smile to my face as I hedgehog around, living my best life. 💗🦔💗

WHO IS WATCHING THE NEW KIDS IN THE HALL? I need to process!!!

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