create your personal red book
Dream Studio
A Dream Art & Creativity Initiative from Dream School
I should advise you to put it all down as beautifully as you can...Then when these things are in some precious book you can go to the book and turn over the pages and for you it will be your church—your cathedral—the silent places of your spirit where you will find renewal...for in that book is your soul.
CG jung, 1926 Letter to his analysand christiana morgan
Welcome to Dream Studio:
Your Personal Red Book
Dream Studio is where we explore art and creative expression through the lens of Jungian depth psychology, dreamwork and active imagination.
Dream Studio is a seminar and workshop series that is included in Dream School, our online dream interpretation course. No prior creative training or experience is necessary to participate - you simply need to bring a curiosity for working creatively with your dream material (and some very basic art supplies).
For this series, we worked with the advice that Jung gave to his analysand Christiana Morgan a century ago now...to create a Red Book of her own. The program included seminars on Jung’s Red Book, case studies from Dream School students who are already in the process of Red-Booking, and creative praxis techniques designed to help you work on your own Red Book. Previous sessions are available to view on the Forum.
C.G. Jung - The Red Book
Session Ended
Spring 2026
Our latest series ran April 16th through July 23rd.
How to participate
Admission is included in your Dream School membership. From April to July, we offered bi-weekly Zoom meetings to guide you through the process of using art to explore your dreams.
You can view previous sessions for a limited time on the Dream School Forum.
What is the Red Book?
Carl Jung’s Red Book (Liber Novus) is a deeply personal, illustrated manuscript Jung worked on between about 1913 and 1930. It records his self-experiments in psychology, where he engaged directly with dreams, fantasies, and visions during a period of his “confrontation with the unconscious”. It reads like a mythic, symbolic journey – blending psychology, art, religion, and philosophy. In it, Jung developed key ideas such as the collective unconscious, archetypes, and individuation. The book remained unpublished for decades, but now is seen as foundational to Jungian psychology. Of his years working on the Red Book Jung said:
“The years {…} when I pursued the inner images, were the most important time of my life. Everything else is to be derived from this...My entire life consisted in elaborating what had burst forth from the unconscious and flooded me like an enigmatic stream and threatened to break me. That was the stuff and material for more than only one life. Everything later was merely the outer classification, the scientific elaboration, and the integration into life. But the numinous beginning, which contained everything, was then.”
- C.G. Jung, The Red Book: Liber Novus
When Jung told Christiana Morgan she should create her own “Red Book,” he was encouraging her to—in her own unique way—engage with and creatively document her own inner psychological life. He was advising her to record her dreams, fantasies, emotions, images, and dialogues with inner figures in a serious, creative way. The point wasn’t to imitate his Red Book, but to undertake her own creative, symbolic journey toward individuation and wholeness.
Dream Studio 2026
Studio Sessions
All art by C.G. Jung - The Red Book
This season’s curriculum is designed as a cumulative series of lectures, case studies and practices–each building on the last–forming a support framework that helps participants to begin Red-Booking. The goal is not of course that each person finishes their book by the end of the course! But rather that the series inspires and supports a beginning to this journey.
This season we also offer bi-weekly Open Studio sessions for the weeks when there is no formal session. Open Studio time will be lightly facilitated time to work on one’s Red Book material in a more informal group setting.
Session One | APR 16, 12:30 – 2:00 PM ET
The Way Of What Is To Come
Course facilitators Lisa Marchiano and Nick Shore will introduce the Dream Studio program. Then Jungian Analyst & Art Psychotherapist Nora Swan-Foster will speak about the process and art of Jung’s Red Book, and lead a Red-Book-related creative praxis exercise to kick off the whole season.
Nora brings to bear her many years of experience teaching of this core theme of ‘everyone creating their own Red Book’.
Session Two | APR 30, 12:30 – 2:00 PM ET
Mysterium Encounter
Dream School participant and artist Sally Carlaw will present a brief case study of her own Red Book process, material, key images and emergent personal mythology.
After Sally has taken questions from the group we will then move to a real-time group creative exercise led by Dream Studio faculty member, artist and creative facilitator Krisztina Lazar.
Session Three | May 14, 12:30 – 2:00 PM ET
Inviting the Soul to Speak
Collage invites the soul to speak to us through images, and it is accessible to all people, regardless of their artistic background. It is a profound medium for exploring our many selves, our inner figures, our dreams, life transitions and numinous encounters.
In this session, Dream School participant, artist and creative facilitator Jeanne Marie Merkel will share the basic principles of SoulCollage® - a process of making a set of collaged cards to access our soul’s wisdom. She will explore how these collages can form an interactive library of your inner life that can get you started on your Red Book journey.
Then she’ll lead the group in an exercise of creating a SoulCollage® card, and we’ll enter small break-out groups to allow our images to speak for themselves and be witnessed in community. We’ll finish with time for whole group sharing, questions, and providing ideas and resources for further exploration.
In order to fully engage the process in community, it is highly recommended that you gather and cut out a few images before the session. (Instructions are provided here.)
Session Four | May 28, 12:30 – 2:00 PM ET
Co-creation with Tensions of Opposites
Session 4 will be led by psychotherapist and author Kikan Massara who will use story, dream and image to illustrate aspects of C.G.Jung’s ideas on the tension of opposites. While this is a vast subject of immense relevance both collectively and individually, the intention here is to stoke inspiration and curiosity about ways in which we can co-creatively engage with these tensions in everyday settings of our life.
The praxis will be integrated as part of the talk and aims to unearth personal insights, symbols and ritual containers that honour these processes of reconciliation. Practically you will need drawing paper, pen, coloured crayons or pastels, and where possible, a candle and matches. Water colours and inks work as well. We conclude our time together with open space for reflections and Q&A.
Session Five | Jun 11, 12:30 – 2:00 PM ET
Images Of Transformation
Dream School participant and dream artist Aneta Wadowska will present a brief case study of her personal journey through working with dream images in a Red-Book-like process, will share some key image sequences, and discuss real life impacts.
After Aneta has taken questions form the group we will then move to a real-time group creative exercise led by Dream Studio Season 1 faculty member, artist, and creative facilitator Krisztina Lazar.
Session Six | Jun 25, 12:30 – 2:00 PM ET
Encountering the Circle
What is it about the circular form and its compelling and frequent presence in the cosmos, in our earthly world, and in human culture? Observing its geometry from a symbolic standpoint, it is clear that across time and history, the circle has been regarded as an image of wholeness, unity, integration, and completion.
The ritual process of making a Mandala produces a container for fragmented and fractured feelings. It centers and soothes the soul and nervous system, and allows us to both embody the form and align our minds with a visual expression of what Jung described as the archetype of the Self, "the God-image."
As Jung did through the creation of his own Red Book mandalas, you're invited to take part in this rich tradition. Join Dream School member/guest presenter Laura Hensley for a Red Book inspired mandala-making process. First we will dive deep into their symbolic nature, psychological function, and cultural history, then participants will be invited to make a “Sacred Circle” of their own.
Led by Dream School participant, dream artist & expressive arts therapist Laura Hensley.
Session seven | jul 9, 12:30 – 2:00 PM ET
The Gift Of Magic
Dream School participant and dream artist Amy Rittenhouse will present a brief case study of a personal healing journey through working with dream images in a Red-Book-like process, will share some key image sequences, and discuss real-life impacts. Amy also discusses her process of arranging material on a wall at home, so the emergent narrative can be seen more clearly over time.
After Amy has taken questions from the group, we will then move to a real-time group creative exercise led by Dream Studio Season 1 faculty member, artist, and creative facilitator Krisztina Lazar.
Session eight | jul 23, 12:30 – 2:00 PM ET
Opening The Cosmic Egg
Our final session echoes a “final show” at the end of a semester in art school. The room will be open to any participant to show and discuss the Red-Book-like work they have developed over the sixteen weeks of the course. We may also kick off the session with a special guest!
open studio | every other week
Open Studio Time
We will offer bi-weekly Open Studios on the weeks between formal seminars. Open Studio is a lightly facilitated time to work on one’s Red Book material in a more informal group setting. Each week will feature a guiding question or quote; quiet time for everyone to work on their material in real time; and then time for sharing at the end. The sessions will be hosted by a facilitation team led by dream artist and Dream Studio faculty member Stacy Tenhouten, with the support of dream artist and This Jungian Life creative director Jessica Gonzalez.
Explore Further
Resources
Some additional resources that explore dream art, dream artists, and imaginal praxis in greater depth.
The Artist Peter Birkhäuser: Individuation Through Dream Image
APPOINTMENT WITH THE WISE OLD DOG: Dream Images in a Time of Crisis by David Blum
Julia Lockheart: Dream Painting for Surrealism Paris 2024
DreamsID interview Julia Lockheart
Carl Jung’s Psychology - Art & Creativity
WISN Dreamwork
ARTmind: The Healing Power of Sacred Art with Alex Grey
Stephen Aizenstat - The Dream Tending interview
Walter Berry - Drawn Into The Dream
Painting Therapy On the Basis of C.G. Jung’s Analytical Psychology
Theodor Abt - Introduction to Picture Interpretation According to C. G. Jung
Nora Swan Foster - Jungian Art Therapy