Branching Woman
Dear website visitors,
After many years of online publishing, Dr. Patricia Garfield has
retired from active participation in this website. (Comments,
Questions and Newsletter features have therefore been removed.)
In honor of her many contributions to the psychology of dreaming, the site
now serves as an archive of her scholarly and creative work, maintained by
Dennis Rivers, MA, her friend, fellow dreamer and volunteer librarian.
EXPLORATIONS OF AN EVOCATIVE THEME
Poem and dream journal entry by Patricia Garfield, PhD.
Painting by Brenda Ferrimani.
Painting by Brenda Ferrimani
Dream Notes from 1973
Poem from 2007
Invocation to
BRANCHING WOMAN
Great Matriarch! Mother of dreamy
life paths that diverge and reach
like trees into the future, please hear me.
Come, as when I first saw you shake
your shimmering limbs to reveal
the finest course tor me to take.
Full-crowned, your grand branches traced,
like antler-thoughts, the parting routes
feeling out the choices faced.
For decades I have followed where you led
while your gifts petal-showered down on me.
Now the light fades; the track grows shaded.
Hornèd Goddess, you nodded your royal head
to indicate the trail tor ancient feet to tread;
don’t leave me in confusion. Visit my dream-bed.
Blaze again, Mighty Mother! Stir your boughs.
Shake your horns. Point out the branch
to advance to fullest life that time allows.
Show me, I implore, the right way forward.
Original 1973 journal painting
Branching Woman
Dream journal brushstroke painting by Patricia Garfield, 1973
Image of original journal page
Image Within an Image — Painting of Patricia Garfield Drawing Her Dream