Hi !

I am Christiane.

I am a teacher by profession. Dreams are my passion, interpreting them is my pleasure and teaching the art of interpreting them is my vocation.

I spent forty years of my life as a teacher in the Education Nationale. I taught two languages, French and German in France and abroad.

Meanwhile I also learnt to understand and teach the language of dreams.

It first began in 1976, while teaching in Tahiti.

I started to study dreams on my own, guided by  books from the Edgar Cayce Foundation, the A R E, where Scott Sparrow, now an IASD Board Member, was involved in researching and writing about dreams. Thanks to this support I acquired a solid base.

This link with the ARE was precious to me, when later on in Turkey (1978-1982) I continued, still alone, to try to understand my dreams.

Nobody in my surroundings understood my passion for dreams and  they even told me I was crazy. For your information, it is a sad fact that since Napoleon's time until 1992, dream interpretation was forbidden by a law in France.

From 1982 to 1987, in Berlin, Germany, I studied at the Gestalt Therapy School and at the Freudian School of Psychoanalysis.  Then I discovered the “ dream interview method” created by Gayle Delaney. I immediately adopted this efficient tool.

In 1985, I started reading Jung. Then came a dream which showed me a man whom I knew only by name : Etienne Perrot. The dream advised me to work with him. In my search for information about him, I discovered that he was Jung’s spiritual son and translator in France. I worked with him for five years. By analyzing my dreams he transmitted Jung’s spirit to me and lead me to understand the alchemy process.  

In 1987, having come back to France, I pursued my teaching career. At the same time I began to transmit what I had learned and I set up dream study groups.

In 1991, I founded an association called "Dreams to Live By," which in 2004 became the Academy for the Interpretation of Dreams. Since then I have  continuously been teaching dream interpretation in very small groups, where every one can practice. I also held seminars on symbols. I give interpretations in person over the phone or through Skype.

In 1994 a dream ordered me to write a book. And so, in 1996, twenty years after my first steps in the dream world, "Rêves à Vivre" (Dreams to Live By) was published. This book is a practical and spiritual manual for dream interpretation.

Then ten years later I wrote "Amour et Sexe dans vos Rêves" (Love and Sex in your Dreams), in which I write about what dreams say about love and their explanations about the sacred path of sexuality.

In 2007 I started a blog to give the French public the opportunity to recognize the value of dreams, and the means to understand them.

Lately my Canadian student Judith Saint Laurent has agreed to translate the essays of my French blog into English.

Throughout these years I developed additional activities :

the medias contact me from time to time for newspaper articles and radio and television interviews.

I have just started a dream salon in a small hotel in my neighbourhood, where anyone can come to talk and learn about dreams. Also I often give conferences in France and abroad.

Now a member of IASD,(International Association for the Study of Dreams) it brings me great joy to have the opportunity to exchange with researchers who are exploring and promoting the realm of dreams.

I thank the artists and photographers whose work permit me to illustrate our blog.

1968- 1972 : The first high school where I began to teach with pupils almost as old as me.

Tahiti, 1972-1978, where Elsie Sechrist, ARE International Representative who helped me discover  dreams and their interpretation. pressetahiti.com

Sunday in the lagoon : voyage-bons-plans.aufeminin.com

Working during the week in Paul Gauguin high school in Papeete, Tahiti,

The ARE,  the Edgar Cayce Foundation

How to interpret your dreams, practical techniques based on the Edgar Cayce readings, by Mark Thurston, ed. ARE.

In Turkey, in Istanbul 1978-1982.

The great basilica Hagia Sophie, built in 325 after J.-C., now a museum.

The dream sanctuary in Pergame.

In Berlin : 1982-1987.

Living your dreams by Gayle Delaney, ed. Harper and Row. I discovered Delaney’s interview method in the ASD Monthly News vol.1 nb.3., 1984, in an article where Gayle Delaney explained it.

Jung

Etienne Perrot and his wife, who both have dedicated their lifes to  dreams and the path of alchemy, that Jung had rediscovered and explained.

C G Jung and Etienne Perrot's book " Path into the Depths" , ed La Fontaine de Pierre

"Rêves à Vivre", a practical and spiritual manual to dream interpretation by Christiane Riedel, ed. de Mortagne, 1995

"Amour et Sexe dans vos Rêves"  Book by Christiane Riedel, ed. Trajectoire, 2006

Judith Saint-Laurent, my Canadian translator.

Exlpoding Raphaelesque Head, by Salvator Dali

Site : http://www.christiane-riedel.fr

French blog : christiane-riedel.blogspirit.com

In the preceding pages I have introduced you to dream incubation. This practice permits us to receive from the unconscious information that the conscious is unable to have access to.

I showed you how this practice is still valid today as in the ancient times and how to proceed.

Last time, with Irina’s example we saw how her dream answered her and showed her that the lover she was thinking of was not a good prospect.

So again she asks what she could do to meet a suitable partner.

A building 

For the dreamer it’s where the occupants share common habits.

Irina hopes that the dream will show her how to find a suitable partner.

Following the interview technique, now I have to ask what this description reminds her of, in regards to her incubation question.

So I proceed very methodically and say :

- Having asked your dream how to find a suitable partner, what does a building, where the occupants share common habits remind you of ?

- Oh ! says Irina, that reminds me of the singles club where I go regularly.

A cat

For Irina, this animal is an independent male who goes out at night to hunt or chase a “beauty”.  Isn’t that the description of a man?... So the dream, through its symbolism, is  talking about a man, whom Irina  knows well and meets regularly.  Who is this man ?

Now, is the dream giving more precise details ?

She goes to feed this cat.         

What does she feed him with ?  

With flesh?  Who is this man with whom there is contact of the flesh?

Among the many men she dances with at the club, who is the man the dream is singling out ? Let’s examine the next image :  

Every time she arrives, the cat rushes towards her.

 - I see, Irina cries out, that’s Frank.  He always comes to get me when he sees me.  He’d like me to go out with him, but I'm not really attracted to him.

Let’s go through the verifications:  is this man independent?  He sure is.          

So why does this independent man rush to meet her ?  Because she is also independent and he knows that she’s not the “you and me forever” type. 

-  But, remarks Irina, another man also rushes towards me, it’s Stephan.

Frank ? Stephan ?

We haven’t got a clear answer yet. So let’s see if the following part of the dream gives us more precise clues.         

I show Eva a pretty bra which I have just bought 

 A bra enhances the breasts.

It allows a woman to use her power of seduction, it gives a charming glimpse at feminine eroticism.

- As a matter of fact, Irina adds, lately I’ve changed, I’ve bought new outfits, less sober, much more sexy.                                                                    

And so the dream underlines the efforts made by our dreamer to seduce the men around her. 

Irina bursts out in a joyous, refreshing laughter and says:

- You know, Christiane, I am quite popular !

I notice that the cat is slipping away. 

Well, while the pretty woman is savoring her popularity with one and the other, all of a sudden the tomcat is running off.     

Is it Frank or could it be Stephan?

- Ah! It’s true, says Irina ! Frank is turning away from me because I haven’t responded to his advances. 

And what does the dream say?                                                                               

My sister Eva says I have to bring him back.

Well there we are !

Eva, the woman who knows what she wants gives this advice.

-Gosh ! says Irina. Frank ? I would have preferred someone else.  He’s not bad but it’s not love at first sight.

 Yes, but the dream considers Frank a real male, an instinctive virile man, this is quite different from insect infested branches as in the preceding dream. 

Maybe Irina should remember that she wants enjoyable sexual relations and therefore change her point of view.

Well, now we have the indications of the dream.  They are not what Irina expected but they bring something new.  Irina doesn’t know everything, perhaps her view is limited to the surface, the appearances.

- Listen, she says, Christiane, I’ve been working with you interpreting my dreams for a couple of months and everything you’ve told me concerning them has been so exact.  If I had listened to them, I would have avoided lots of trouble. So I’ll see, I’ll go and meet him.

But she has to hurry, he’s taking off.       

You will find the text in french on the french blog

http://christiane-riedel.blogspirit, 12 May 2007, (05 10 2007)

Illustrations

I thank the artists and photographers, whose works permit me to illustrate my blog.

Laughing cat : maxcrabouif.zeblog.com

Cat : fond-ecran-image.com

Cat : pixfr.eu

Cat : naturailes.org

Bra :cannnes.olx.fr