Awakening to Eternal Love, Comfort and Connection
The Program
Awakening to Eternal Love, Comfort and Connection is an arts-based program of practices drawn from consciousness research, world wisdom traditions and my own lived experience.
It weaves together dream incubation, art therapy, meditation, ritual, and teaching within a grounded, accessible framework that participants can gently shape within their own belief systems.
Developed with the guidance of Diplomate Jungian analyst and art therapist Nora Swan-Foster, the program unfolds in three thresholds — Gateway, Attending, and Passage — thresholds adapted from her work on feminine initiation, pregnancy, and childbirth.
It is structured around the creation of Loving Memory Art™ as sacred creations that honor our loved ones who are no longer physically present. Both the art making process and the finished piece offer grief containment, providing a safe space to process pain and open to connection.
Exterior, Loving Memory Box™
Interior, Loving Memory Box™
I created this program because my own profound dreams and visits of departed loved ones. These ongoing, sacred encounters continue to transform my grief and perception of loss into a deep awareness of the unbroken continuity between this world and the next.
Dreaming of loved ones in spirit is a universal experience that can offer a deeply restorative experience for the bereaved. And, dream incubation for healing, creativity, and prophecy has been practiced across cultures for thousands of years.
My “aha” moment occurred when it landed on me to combine the two: since the earliest records of dreaming of the deceased go back 5,000 years and dream incubation practices were emerging around the same time, surely, we could apply these practices to intentionally bring forward dreams of our loved ones in spirit.
For those participating in Awakening to Eternal Love, this hypothesis is holding true.
Along with powerful dreams, this work has lifted up another truth: we can cultivate an ongoing, spiritual relationship with our loved ones in spirit that can soften our grief and support our spiritual lives while we are here.
I was absolutely avoiding my grief and the pain. But what I found through this program is that it’s actually so much more fulfilling and peaceful and freeing to feel through the grief and know that there’s still love and connection.
Art as a Spiritual Path: Transforming Grief into Connection
Artists have long turned to art to connect with spirit and divine energy. Swan-Foster shares that Carl Jung used art and dream imagery to explore spirituality as a path toward wholeness.
Art therapy is also a powerful path through grief, allowing us to express what is too painful for words or may not yet be known. Through image, symbol, and metaphor, we honor both our sorrow and our loved ones, engaging imagination to find light within darkness.
Across time and cultures, art and ritual have served as offerings to the deceased and to invite connection.
Awakening to Eternal Love, Comfort and Connection weaves these strands together through the creation of meaningful artworks that honor the deceased and serve as a symbolic bridge to unseen dimensions.
The program is guided by Elizabeth Bryan-Jacobs and presented in collaboration with Daryl Kovalich, LMSW and certified end-of-life doula.
As a fine artist, art-making is central to my spiritual practice and connection. Visit www.elizabethbryanjacobs.com to explore this work.
