What Then? (Week Two: the Dreaming)

For Week Two of our monthly Better Endings process this year, I ask you to reflect on your dreams or inner guidance with respect to a monthly personal question or quest.

I have been dreaming a lot this past two weeks since posing the question, “What Then?” In one dream a friend standing behind me introduces me to a couple of potential new friends in a new location. As I am in transition already, moving gradually to my new home in a new town for me, this seems quite likely! I took note of the appearance of the two potential new friends so I might recognize them when or if this comes about outwardly.

Another dream shows me (from my dream journal): “approaching a space, like a hole on a white membrane, that if I were to enter, it ‘would go on forever… like a wormhole’.” It felt like a purification portal of some sort–I woke up wondering what it would mean to enter into that space and sensed it would be “transformative” and that it indicates a passage to embracing or becoming/ joining with “all that IS.”

images are from pixabay.com

These two dreams taken together both are positive indicators that the new direction I have already embarked upon is a forward motion, advancing into new potentials. A step into an apparent void, perhaps, yet clearly full of positive potentials. The wormhole-like image felt as though to enter would be like a death or a near-death experience. Yet it was placed before me as what is next, something I must enter into, a natural passage of spiritual development even though it is a mysterious movement into a void or the Unknown.

Ready, Set, I Accept!

What are YOUR dreams telling you this week or month about some deep personal question you are contemplating? I encourage you to keep a dream journal and to review it at least once a week. I had forgotten the “wormhole” dream until reviewing my dream journal. (Interesting, though, how I used a wormhole picture in last week’s blog post when I first established my monthly quest for understanding.)

Dream On!

Find the Gold, Bring It Forth

In the opening post this month it came through that the Mystic archetype is that which is able to “find the Gold and bring it up” to the surface of your awareness. This is a part of you that sees through surfaces to what lies beneath; that perceives the true and the good—or their opposites—despite outer appearances. Such a valuable Ally!

It is important to pay attention to this Seer side of you. How can you tune in when your “inner tuition” is trying to alert you or draw your attention to something your conscious mind might be denying or blind to? You must be willing to connect with this ‘deep’ facet of your awareness in order to follow its promptings or to accept and acknowledge its truths.

People are often afraid of their own Mystic potentials.  Perhaps it will reveal to you something you would rather ignore, like the actual state of a relationship or even an opportunity for significant change that will require that you take a step forward in a direction you may not yet feel ready to take.

So remember to pause, to ask, to LISTEN to what your Mystic Guide wants you to realize or understand. It may appear to you in a DREAM manifestation, as a Dream Guide or an elder Wizard or Teacher. Keep a dream journal and write in it often, then also review your dream entries on a regular basis to reflect on patterns and themes showing up in your unconscious dream promptings. Then once you acknowledge and understand your inner guidance, contemplate how you can ACT. I would encourage you to act in tandem with your inner Mystic, to allow it to guide your actions forward. It will lead you  according to your deepest sense of truth and value, so it is unlikely to ever steer you wrong.

images from pixabay.com

I welcome your insights and stories!

Just Ask! Meet Your Dreamtime Nourisher

How does your NOURISHER Archetype Ally show up in your life or Psyche? Often we are more nurturing of others than of ourselves, but your NOURISHER is there for you too!

One way to get in touch with or to explore your own Nourisher nature is by identifying when and how your NOURISHER appears in your dreams.

Can you think of a dream or perhaps a recurring series of dreams that have included some form of Nourisher character or theme? Cooking or feeding others in your dream, or being fed or served nutritious food by someone in your dream are sure signs of your unconscious NOURISHER persona. Or simply a dream theme involving any form of Giving and/or Receiving a gift could also reveal your NOURISHER nature.

If you don’t recall a specific instance of your NOURISHER appearing in your dreams, or to explore this vital archetype Ally further, Just ASK!

Before you go to sleep, invite your NOURISHER to appear in your dreams, to reveal himself or herself to you. During the day, think lightly about how you will invite your NOURISHER into your dreams that evening.

Remember to write down your dreams, all you can recall on waking. The form that your NOURISHER might take in your dreams could be a bit surprising or disguised, especially at first.

I recall a recurring dream theme from several years ago that involved my suddenly discovering a pet–usually a horse or an aquarium with fishes–that I had forgotten I had, so therefore I had neglected to FEED or to give water to them! I was able in these dreams to find food to feed them, but when I awoke I felt awful and would review what this dream might mean in my life at that time. Was I neglecting to communicate with a loved one? Was it my own Soul I was not nurturing regularly enough? I would take this dream as a sign that I needed to nurture and nourish in any way possible, and usually this led me to some form of giving and/or receiving that would help me feel I had addressed the ‘neglect’ revealed in the dream.

I would ACT on the dream message, and that is something I encourage you to do whenever your dream indicates a needed or a corrective course of action.

Nurture your NOURISHER, and it will serve you well in turn!

I welcome YOUR comments and stories.

 

Are You a Dreamer? (Your Dream Laboratory)

I have always thought that cultures should recognize and nurture Dreamers and give them a valued role. I’ve written a science fiction novel (which sits on my shelf and in computer files) which is Book I of a trilogy I call The Dawnbreakers, all about this. On the remote, terraformed planetoid of Guvral, Dream Arhat (Teacher) Benath trains young people who show an aptitude for becoming Dreamers. He teaches the Art of Dreaming. The Dreamers develop their gifts of prophecy, of inner sight for healing and for manifesting creative ideas, and of telepathic communication.   Separated from their home Grand Spiral federation for over 60 years, the majority of people on Guvral have given up on their dreams, however, and the Dream Temple Benath operates is in jeopardy. Mogren, a Science & Technology consul, aims to dismantle all remnants of the spiritually founded Grand Spiral ideology and its dream-based theocratic governance. One young Dreamer, Jenu, tells his best friend and fellow Dream student Kairn about dreams he is having about an Inner Dream Guide who accompanies Jenu as he visits another remote planetary colony of their federation, hitherto unknown to Guvraleans.  Kairn develops a plan for a cadre of Benath’s Dream Temple students to launch a mission to the stars to find this planet so they can revitalize and reconstitute their Grand Spiral ways.

At the end of Book I, the Dawnbreakers cadre barely escapes capture as Mogren’s forces try to prevent Kairn and Jenu’s mission to the stars. Book II transpires mainly in the Void of interstellar space as the cadre hops from planet to planet (by means of “photosonic transduction”), seeking the prophesied sister colony.  Jenu begins doubting his visions, the crew nearly mutinees, and the technology begins to fail so that it appears the Dreamers will become stranded in space, when suddenly they do find the orange-white banded planet of Jenu’s dreams . There on Sadhan, a colony of Grand Spiral refugees has developed a Dream Temple centered around teaching telepathic communication and teleportation skills. They had contacted Dreamers on remote colonies telepathically to draw only those worthy of training to join their cause. In Book III Jenu stays at Sadhan to train, while Kairn and most of the rest of the original Dawnbreakers along with some representatives from Sadhan return to Guvral, where a quasi-religious millenarian group awaits their return as an underground movement opposing Mogren’s harsh new regime.  Kairn’s crew, however, is intercepted immediately upon landing on Guvral by Mogren’s forces, so that most of Book III involves Kairn’s group aiming to escape the harsh imprisonment and “Reeducation” program that Mogren imposes. I won’t share the ending; suffice to say it involves Jenu appearing in his Light Body from Sadhan to help deliver Kairn’s group from imprisonment so that all of Guvral can celebrate the return of the Dawnbreakers and the rise of a new cycle of growth and spiritual unfoldment on Guvral; okay, so there it is then!

Some day I aim to complete the writing and to publish this trilogy. For now, though, I share the story just to ask you: Are You a Dreamer? For those of you who answer Yes, what does this mean to you? How have you learned to rely on your dreams for Inner Guidance, prophecy, healing, or inner communication? What dream techniques have you developed for lucid dreaming and how have you come to use dreaming as an inner laboratory to help you understand and apply your insights to any outward situation and to your own deepest life mission and spiritual Quest?

Now I want to add: we/you can ALL be Dreamers! Sometimes “lucid dreaming” is held up as some sort of secret, arcane, privileged ability. Often this approach sees lucid dreaming as a way of controlling one’s own reality—and sometimes that of others. This latter is the darker potential shade of ‘lucid dreaming’ depicted in some science fiction stories—like the recent Invictus and somewhat in Ursula Le Guin’s earlier and masterful The Lathe of Heaven.

Give yourself more faith and credit than ever before! You do not need to rely on others when it comes to dreaming. You can learn to unlock the secrets of your own unconscious wealth of inner awareness. It is your right and your divine heritage to unfold your Inner Awareness to unlimited heights.

Last time I shared about a series of Bear dreams wherein I learned to re-own my Strengths instead of foisting them upon others. Well, in the final dream of this series the whole mechanics of dreaming revealed itself! I had climbed a pine tree (axis mundi linking the Above with the Below) to evade a graceful Mother Bear and her cub who were chasing after me. When I reached the top of the pine tree, I stepped across into a LABORATORY space. A female scientist was working with chemistry tubes there (Alchemical!). She handed me a beaker that I drank a potion from, and suddenly I knew just what to do. I stepped back into the tree and looked down at the ascending cub and her Mother. Easily and gently, I removed a few strips of bark from the tree and dropped them toward the Bears. The cub dropped off to the ground immediately and then the Mother Bear also released her grip on the tree and she dropped gracefully down to the ground, not to return. This was the last dream of this theme I have had, from a few years ago.  It showed me that I can always find answers inwardly to the questions I have about how to proceed in life! The value of lucid dreaming—which ANYONE can learn to develop on their own—is that if you can ‘control’ what happens in a nightly dream, then you can also change or better manage this OUTER DREAM, as well!

I welcome YOUR stories , your own best Dream Practices, and Comments!

Your Recurring Dream Messages

This week’s Life Mapping activity invites you to reflect upon a recurring dream or a recurring image in your dreams. These sorts of dreams or dream images can reveal archetypal messages for you about important potentials and challenges. If you keep a dream journal, you will notice repeating images or scenarios and you can keep track of how they appear to you and whether they change over time. As you work with your recurring dream imagery—either through dream-based therapy such as Gestalt or archetypal dreamwork, or by actively contemplating the dreams you record—you will come to understand what they represent about your own feelings or unconscious complexes.

For many years in my dream life, I encountered archetypal lions, tigers and bears (oh, no!).  There was always a similar scenario: I have befriended a Tiger, for instance. Then something stresses the Tiger and I realize that, being wild, he will turn on me and try to hurt me. So, I run, climbing through three degrees of fences or walls (like the 3 epidermal layers of skin!) in order to reach shelter and safety, with the Tiger hot on my tail until I get through the thickest, third barrier.

In one of my Bear dreams, my sister and I are in a woods and we find a cute little bear cub in a clearing. We approach to pet the bear, but of course, then the bear cub’s Mother sees us and comes after us to protect her cub. I tell my sister to run and climb a pine tree (axis mundi, “world tree” for you Jungian readers, linking Earth with the Heavens).  I climb up behind her, then looking down I see the Mother Bear—beautiful and graceful–climbing after me as easily as if she were on level ground!

To benefit from these vivid recurring dreams, it is important to work with them inwardly as well as outwardly in your journal. After the Bear dream described above, the feeling of the dream lingered, but I didn’t completely understand it at first. So on the second evening, I took the dream “into contemplation”. Asking for help in understanding the dream from my Inner Guide, I asked inwardly about the meaning of this dream. Then, the dream played itself out visually on the screen of my mind, like a movie rerun. As soon as the rerun faded I heard a voice, telling me clearly: “Even though you run from Her, she is driving you to greater heights!”

This interpretation was exactly the point of the whole series of lion and tiger and bear dreams I was having: I was projecting my own strength or power into these animal figures. Rather than claiming and harnessing my own power, from fear of that power being overly aggressive, I ran from It. Yet, indeed, even running from my Power required me to use it, to get away, to protect my sister, and to survive.

After I realized the meaning of these dreams, they started changing. In a Bear dream several years later, I see a cub and then a Mother Bear and I climb a pine tree. But this time, at the top of the tree there is a platform; I walk across it to a Laboratory where a female scientist is preparing a potion she gives me. Somehow this prepares me with what I need to know to ward off the Bear. I go back to the tree and strip off sections of bark, tossing them down at the Bear, who backs off down the tree and goes away!

So, what is an example from YOUR dream life of a recurring dream scenario or dream figure?

Write down as vividly as possible a typical dream with this recurring scenario or figure in it. Let your unconscious mind help you to write out this dream description; it will give you the right words to use.

Now, you can ask yourself, or better yet, ask your own Inner Guide to help you understand the meaning behind this recurring dream. Does it remind you of any outer situation in your life, perhaps showing you something about how you typically respond to it?

If you are an artist you can draw or paint the significant elements from your recurring dream. If you are a poet, you can write a poem, or if you are a musician, write a score or lyrics.

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

(William Blake, from “The Tyger,” in Songs of Experience)

However makes most sense to you, record what you can of the meaning of your dream. Then, put it aside. You can create a dream dictionary at the back of your journal (cf. The Art of Spiritual Dreaming, by Harold Klemp), and then every time you have your recurring image or dream, you can write the date and describe the image to see if or how it might be changing over time as you assimilate the force of the image into your daily life and understanding.

For me as an avid Dreamer for all of my life, I believe that recurring dreams always bring important messages. Dreams are not merely phenomena to be experienced or even just remembered or retold. Dreams are messages from Spirit and from your own Higher Self. Learn to listen to their messages to you and to act on your dreams to benefit from their lessons or nudges. Even if the action is just writing a dream down or sharing it with a loved one whom you can trust, I believe the more you pay attention to your dreams, the more clearly they will speak to you and help you to identify and then to fully Realize your Life Dream.

Better Endings to You!

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I invite you to Comment about your own recurring dream image or the lesson you have learned from this activity.  Remember, ultimately YOU are the best interpreter—and active beneficiary—of your dreams. The more you can learn from your dreams to realize your Dream, the more service you can also be to others!