Sorry.  I misunderstood your original post.  Thank you for explaining.

No, I don't feel right publishing details of  ceremony. I can speak directly to anyone who is interested (or by email). Perhaps writing about recapitulation itself however would be all right. I'll see what I can do.

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Lion

It would be great if you could add the rituals you know to the Group Journals.  Also, If you could write a post in the group forum about the recapitulation technique group journals you add, would help people identify them.  For myself, I plan on working with them.

I haven't heard about the toltec recapitulation breathwork...but I did a lot of breathwork at one time...like Fire Breath. I learned recapitulation as part of a toltec program of inner work, but we didn't have a breathing exercise that was done with it.  There are various approaches to recapitulation though that we might discuss. But the journal article is a useful summary of the basis for clearing emotional charges in our memories.  When one delves back into painful childhood (or adult memories), one goes back into those emotions of fear or guilt and self abandonment and feels them very intensely. For me, feeling those old emotions again while suddenly shifting how I saw the experience into one of compassion and understanding rather than feeling like I was losing or victimized caused the discharge. Like shouting "NO!" at the feeling. There are ceremonies I can describe for you too if you want.

Thank you for bringing up the topic of recapitulation.  Having also experienced being left out of the group...and feeling that throughout my school years, I am very aware of the feeling that continues to arise...this "I am not worthy as..." feeling.   I found some great work on Toltec healing and recapitulation.  See Group Journal 21.  If you did not bring this topic up, I would have never found another tool to put in my tool box.

I did it through recapitulation. Going back through my own life and rethinking what happened to me that  "seemed to cause me to develop the way I did." And then reframing from an adult point of view.

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For instance, I remember as a small child in the first grade becoming aware that I was not liked by the other children. Why? I have no idea. But I would be the last child chosen for teams on the play ground, and that hurt. I had no friends I can recall among the other children. I felt stressed all the time. The teacher didn't "nurture me or honor my answers in class. Those are some of my recollections.

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I took that personally and decided that the fault lay with me. It affected my self image afterward quite a bit.

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Now do you think that was an accurate assessment? I needed some help from an adult or a peer mentor to work on relationships and also get some encouragement. But I did not get it in that environment. So do you think the guilt and shame I felt from those first grade experiences as a 7 year old were appropriate?

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I hope you thought not. Looking back now as an adult, I can see that I was too young to make such a judgment but I did anyway and my parents never knew it or knew to intervene. Now, I can look back and see my young self with a compassion that I could not employ then. Was it a "just" experience for a 7 year old? I have to assume so. Perhaps I needed those early experiences of feeling "less" than others so that I would need to focus on this work (to be well) later in life so I could do this work with you now? Who knows? I do believe that things happen for important reasons. We don't have to know what those reasons are to live by a rule of acceptance.

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With the technique of recapitulation, one goes back to those experiences that shaped our lives in negative ways and "reassesses" each experience and each conclusion we made about ourselves or about life. We reframe from a wiser and more mature point of view. We then free ourselves from guilt, shame, fear, self loathing, anger, depression, envy or jealousy. We simply say, "Whaddaya know! I made a mistake! It was never my fault at all. I was a good kid after all. I simply needed a little help." The energy of those emotions then just "shoot" up our spines and out the top of our heads, and we feel a sense of relief and a self acceptance we lost long ago.

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That is the way I did it.

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Lion

I understand. I really think that if you can simply find a little compassion for yourself you will recognize that you have very little to feel guilty about...or ashamed for. Mostly, you were in a frightening situation from your very earilest years, and you learned to give in to be safe. That is extraordinarily human. Any animal will do it. But it will, in the end, make them sick. Eventually, the mind and body surrender and the psyche collapses, and you can't put off going on that healing journey any longer.

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It happened to me too, you know.

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Grieve for yourself and forgive yourself for being weak and afraid and alone. Start over fresh. No one in this entire Universe judges you. Now be well.

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Lion

Dream work can be humiliating because dreams will pin us to the wall when we try to steer by our ego's need to feel safe or secure. We have learned things from past experience from family as well as with spiritual gurus that we believe are the keys to transformation, and we follow those teachings as the "path." With dreaming, for awhile the ego must follow the lead of dreams' "teachings" until we are turned loose to find ourselves alone again--to choose again who to become or to be only. Dreams will bring up those issues we have steadfastly refused to confront and request that we deal with them as needs to become well. Surrendering to these requests takes us out of ego and often pulls us into confusion about "HOW" to remove deeply imbedded understandings of the world and self images. These are always the hardest tasks to address for they are the very things that we fear, feel guilty about, are ashamed of, grieve about, and are secretly angry about. Moving to another state for instance would not heal them; this only places the button-pushers at a distance and leaves the "patterns learned" and causes of our disturbed emotions and wounded selves quiescent and blockaded in our little controlled environments. They are still there within.

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Hard isn't it?

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Dream work is brand new to me.  As I stated in the prior post, yes, the patterns are deeply etched.  so the HOW is the next question?  Yes, I can keep them quiet in a little corner....no fuss, no muss.

HOW?  I will have to find the answer won't I?   One thing I have learned in this short time of taking on dream work, is that I have to form better sleep patterns.  The morning getting up late routine helps tremendously to feel more well rested and relaxed, and the dreams just float in easily.