A query from an Aquarius newly turned onto the power of dream interpretation prompts my tips on How To Be A Genius Dream Analyzer.
Hello Mystic,
I’ve been floating on the MM’s website waves for a couple of years now, every so often you will find a new way of gently prodding/giving reminders of the benefits of keeping a dream journal.
I have had one now for most of this year, pretty consistently, and insights have arisen, but I’m wondering if you’d have any advice in terms of more studied ways/practices to work with the material that comes up. (In a practical way, not a ‘please tell me what my dreams mean way’:\)
– Can one come to be able to decipher the difference between a ‘personal’ dream vs being somewhere else, like the astral plane? Or other places that are not one’s personal psyche? Is the quality different?
-Does it help to try different styles of writing dreams down? When I started I barely started because I was so eager/frustrated to remember every single last nuanced detail…when details really began to come in it got to the point of being like ‘okay do i really need to write down the colour of the light in the shop window in the corner vision of my eye when I’m clearly having an in-depth moment right in front of me that feels more significant?
I’ve started to make bullet points rather than narrative because I find with narrative my conscious mind begins to embellish. But then wonder if that’s a bit of co-creating? (I raised my eyebrow as I typed that.)
If not bullet points than I ask myself a few pointed questions. You know, like listing three things you remember or asking myself what the three Ws of the dream were.
Do you have any modes you’d be willing to share?
Warmly,
Cap Rising Aquarius
Dear Cap Rising Aquarius,
Yes, I am an ardent advocate of dream recall and dream journal-keeping. Whenever I read back over my dream journal, it is always a series of “aha” moments. And it seems like such an accessible way to connect with “other” or with guides, our subconscious genius, and problem-solving neural synapses.
Einstein famously said that we only use a small percentage of our brains. Maybe we access more of it when we sleep, while our bodies are in renewal and clean-up mode?
So with the caveat that it’s a very personal process, here are my tips for being a genius dream analyzer. I like your idea of listing three things by the way!
Genius Dream Analysis Tips
* The more you pay attention, the more potent your dreams become. You will notice that you return to specific landscapes. Consider giving them distinct names? A particularly common dream terrain is a compilation of various places important in our childhood.
If you name it, preferably a made-up name that has resonance to you, you will be able to consciously ‘ask’ to visit it as you to sleep. Or for it to give up its secrets. The dreamlands are we connect with our psyche, past lives, astral realms, and guides.
* Make a note of your recurring symbols. The definition of “bull” or “beach” in a dream dictionary is probably not super-relevant to you. But if you keep a separate section in your dream journal for them, their deeper meaning will become more apparent over time.
*If you really want to up up your dream game, experiment with mint or skullcap tea before bed or – if you’re game – Mugwort. All with appropriate research, input or advice re their effects on your unique constitution of course.
* Water and numbers are extremely significant in dreams. Turgid water suggests sluggish and toxic emotions. High waves portend feelings in turmoil or overwhelming passion. Water is the elemental spirit of dreams.
* Some dreams are just neural dumps. Your brain is doing a hard refresh and dropping a whole lot of trivia and impressions to de-frag the psyche. They are those dreams that feel crowded and irrational.
*Any of the Robert Moss books about dreaming are sensational but the most comprehensive is The Secret History of Dreaming, a truly fascinating and inspiring read.
* People who have passed on can and do visit you in the dreaming. I don’t know how or why but they do, animals too. Familiars are very active on the astral. Some of my most profound dreams have involved ravens and cats.
* Dreams that alert you to danger or an incoming situation are usually short and to the point. They may be cloaked in symbolism but you will understand them.
* When you dream of ex-lovers all the time, it is usually alerting you to an unresolved emotion around them. Somewhere in your psyche, a shadow self is still trying to win the argument or wishing you had not broken up.
* If you are consistently having dreams that feel like they are not your usual turf, someone else may be too much in your psyche. Or, you may be eating something that is inflaming your gut and messing with serotonin/bacterial balance. Alternatively, space clear the room you sleep in!
* You know you’ve been dreaming about a previous life when you wake up nostalgic for a place you don’t remember visiting or are not even sure exists in this dimension.
*Genius dream analyzers don’t take their mobile phone to bed and blast their pineal gland with synthetic light right before going to bed.
After over 20 years of dream diaries I still don’t have a definitive answer to anything but that doesn’t mean I’m devoid of answers or insights for that matter for this life or lives before (or could that be to come?).
I think the most important aspect of working with dreams is the demonstration of willingness to work with that part of the self. Showing up which can + waking up and writing down something when you’re not in the mood or it feels too loose etc . It means taking time to sit with thread in hand, with patience and curiosity and to be willing to have an honest attempt at weaving it without needing to solve it or put it in a nice category.
I also think the whole idea of resolving tension (in general perhaps) needs to be tempered. We can’t know before we know so in attempting to impress a resolution upon a theme we are attempting not to reconcile the dream but rather resolve the tension associated with not reconciling it… we have a desire to and whatever personal need arises to know.. we are then vulnerable to impressing a definition upon it but it’s like any other seed theme and needs to be watered and left to flower. It will flower or not and there will be a crop or not… an answer or not. Both are ok. Give the dream time to speak and speak with the dream.
I have had a broad range of dreams and visions and all are equal in my mind but they are also quite different in their intent and experience.
I am constantly encouraged/reminded to step out of my own paradigms of thinking and knowing in everyday life. Dreams do the same thing and I tend to feel that making assumptions on what is or is not unless the intuitive hit is clear become barriers to getting to the essence of the dream. Maybe it’s psychological, maybe it’s prophetic, maybe it’s irrelevant, or poignant but the weaving is where it’s at and in that way the dream does not fade to naught or the page of a journal but continues to speak to you in the waking realms.
After all the world of dreams is the edge of all things, the bridge between worlds and a land unto itself. Mortal rules do not apply though they are almost irresistible and we do so love to impress them upon these lands eh x
Some of my dreams are what I call numinous dreams. They are quite beautiful often with a slightly scary edge (power). For example I dreamed I was climbing an enormous pile of rocks, a cairn. Was told the name of where to find it, fell into a crack into a dream world. I looked up the name and found it is where Boudiccea took her last stand, (legend or fact) and a place of ancestor worship since dawn of time. Another name for it was- yes you guessed “the crack in the world” At first I thought I should go there , but in the end it felt like I had been
.Also have dreams which are generational commemorating events of my ancestors I e battle of the Boyne…been told that a spider is the remedy…at that time the remedy (homeopathic) didn’t exist but have since had it. Sometimes guides come and say the answer is something complicated they turn into a wolf or such like. I often record and research these ones but annoyingly if I get woken up by external forces I can only remember part of it. Painting them is excellent you are using your intuition and creative brain. Sometimes though I wake up exhausted and feel like I have been astral travelling all night! Nothing seems to make me have more or less but the moons phases, eclipses and the current Jupiter Venus conjunction. I just wish guides didn’t have such a love of riddles and crap sense of humour. I woke just now cause I heard a voice right next to my ear…not so keen on those ones! Happy dreaming!
Abraham Hicks says our dreams are a manifestation of our thoughts, almost the rehearsal dinner so to speak, before those things come into your waking life. Everything in your dream is you- so if you’re being tormented by something in your dreams- how are you tormenting yourself while awake? Are you going down every fearful thought-path and insisting you have to accept “truths” that feel uncomfortable to you? Are you bullying yourself? Watching how your thoughts become dreams, and then the dream-thoughts & feelings carry over into the following days & weeks of your life is interesting; another reason to keep a dream journal! If something fearful has manifested in your dreams, this calls your attention to it in a loud way and you can recognise where you’ve been focusing and redirect your attention to things you want to be attracting!
started having vivid dreams about the previous owner of this house. He was lost looking for his wife.
I began journaling my dreams in earnest this year and it has been amazing! I have attempted interpretation using the steps outlined by Robert Johnson in Inner Life and believe in bringing significant symbols into my conscious life by some sort of small ritual (eg buy lipstick in the colour prominent in my dream). Also have connected with an old Jungian analyst (after emailing a dream to her in which she “daughter of Jung” appeared) and she has been helpful in offering that perspective to my dream analysis. No doubt it is a direct line to the unconscious that is so meaningful. It’s changed my life.
In the morning, without much time, even though i adjust alarms i set against the dreaming or the sleeping.
i will make a record of my dreaming
sometimes by hand but usually by conscious wakening as i go outside winter or summer, under stars or dawn.
Scents are first though they are last if ever to be remembered later by hand;
weather notes come in from scents;
scapes and general topography or architecture are tied in to that;
if i’m hand recording waether and topography come first, if i’m not writing, these notes ensure the scene is real, no “co-creating”.
Buildings and spaces come next i guess though if there’s a dramatic feeling it sings straight away, before or mixed in with the weather and geography (i travel as people and also just to places, sometimes).
There will be notes if i am not me in this dream. They will come early. That gives context when my dreaming doesn’t parallel or come anywhere near symbolically my own lived experience. And then there will be intrusive radio voice speaking a visual text in particular font. Font is always accompanied by radio type voice in that instance. Still not sure if its SupraSelf or else. But if it’s a political clime i am not actually interested in, it makes like a newspaper and/or radio (and then i’m not sure why it’s me that gets the shrill msg – i can’t do much.)
My actions and interactions are of course a thing. As is the ending of the dream (especially since that is accompanied by my OWN voice, often telling me how to read a situ just to go, out of the dream or other body.)
I’m annoyed to be woken up for the first time since i was 14 by one of those icy pinches, but i worked the whole house and bod later to effect armour and reasons why this is unacceptable and fqn unreasonable. I think i might live on a ley/song line, just a minor one maybe but around a powerful place. I don’t care: they pay no rent, make no efforts to beautify, build no connection other than mischief, in those times. And if they want to channel in again to place through art, or artistry, then that is the pact i clearly make. They must bring it in to the birthed here. I realise i’m one of those. But they have to love it into being despite generational gaps, and i think that is hard. But i don’t particularly care how hard it is, if they’re going to try mischief at night. Like, you make it hard to sleep and get up to earn my keep?? Where is your mthfqn REASON and sense of getting a real effect? Why don’t you take it to the living generation before??
Oh did they take it to the gen before (still alive and commercing) but it all evolved into something else?
Well, TRY AGAIN because if I can’t in the living then WHAT IS THE POINT of supernatural or earthly power?
I can’t send anything back to “the light” if it never came from anything like it in the first place, if it came out of earth, and you can only say Fq Off for so long. In the end it’s just PURPOSE and REASON. And what more can i motherfqn DO or BE for you? *engage spiritual paddles*
*Clear!*
Miss M.. I’m reluctant to dive right in here.. but…I’ll start with a knowing nod and a reassuring hug. I kinda know how this space rolls….
The ‘work’ in this place really doesn’t have a rule book eh but it does demand time and energy. It also often times feels imposed upon us. I can’t really comment on the bigger picture there…who knows how it really works?
In my experience those pervasive types of energies take a certain type of resilience and often make zero sense in our world. They can erode our centre and leech off energy. There are different types of ‘vipers’… but remember always that you are divine spirit and God manifest. Yes it can seem weird or easy to say but there is a spark in all of us that can smite that which is out of the energy resonance field if you would only but call it in.
Now, I know you know that and I don’t know why I wrote that as I did but I’m leaving it as it is and my intent is to just gently remind you that you hold within you the power to determine an outcome of your choosing. Never forget that. Hold that, right up next to the vulnerability and frustration if need be but hold it.
Light casts a shadow and shadow is only born from light … vis-a- vis… there is always a light source even when it appears there is only dark.
xoxox
Sending you hugs and reminding you that whatever you might be experiencing you can do more
shadow is cast only from light and
Hahah.. wtf.. some additions after the xox that I’d started free-form typing and are now immortalised on the blog. My inner Virgo grimaces and I realise I need to follow my own words and thread. All is well and forget the note to self to pay attention to what you’ve typed or not. The <3 essence is where it's at x
“Even taking mugwort or reishi in moderate amounts don’t elicit much”
Just take extreme amounts of reishi
You can take a lot without trouble
it’s good, man
I went to a 2 day dream workshop once with a Oxford trained psychologist. It was brilliant. The main technique was to draw your dream, with coloured pencils/paints, whatever, and to look at the key objects in the dream and start a conversation with them. Why is x visiting me? What is it I need to know? etc. Strangely, it worked brilliantly. I gleaned an awful lot form it, and my dreams were incredibly rich, almost like they knew they were being recorded, so they made sure they performed well.
Also, Neptunian (+ medicinal mushroom eater). I went thru a period paying exquisite detail to every facet of a dream, writing things down, then came to general alignment with the adage that dreams mean something if you think they do, otherwise mean next to nothing. Presently, most dreams are perceived as almost entirely (much-needed) mental de-cluttering, with poring over their contents much like going again through the bag you’re sending to the charity bin.
I’m a big dreamer. I played with melatonin years ago and had longer more lucid flying dreams but prefer to stick with good sleep hygiene now. Lucid dreaming for me is I fly around and visit old haunts, fun but not meaningful necessarily.
If I’m worried about my family I have dreams with rats or family members dying, since I was a kid.
I have dreams where I wake up and can feel the gears in my brain assimilating new learnings. If I’m giving a talk I practice before bed and sleep on it, if I’m stuck on part of it it’s almost always resolved in the morning.
I am a believer that dreams can be more than your own projections. I have had dreams that contain a message for loved ones like a fortune cookie. I dreamed my son was a boy before it was confirmed in ultrasound and would have dreams he was talking to me and I could see him as a kid and the dream matched his appearance pretty well, pregnancy was a trip that way. My ex’s mom had an inoperable tumor and I dreamed I was her right before she passed and it felt like I downloaded all of her pain and frustration about leaving too soon, I woke up sobbing. My dad (also Pisces) lost touch with me and my sister for a few years when we all switched to cell phones and moved around and he says he dreamed we were calling him and it pushed him to seek us out. I’ve had dreams where I’m talking things out with someone and it shifts things in ‘real’ life.
I’m a Pisces sun, Scorpio moon with Neptune conjunct my south node (both conjunct my Ascendent) and Neptune sextile Mercury, Moon, Saturn, and Pluto, and square Mars. The more I read about these aspects the better I feel about avoiding violent media and anything yucky, it affects me too much and wastes energy digesting the yuck.
Not doing well emotionally.
Opened myself up again to someone. Its ended from what i can see but theres no official ending. It was a crush, we had amazing chemistry, our thoughts aligned on so much. He has said things I never inagined finding someone who would believe in too/want in life. I thought it would go somewhere. But as it came with the Saturn-Uranus stuff from Nov 2016, it has died with this cycle.
I cannot quite believe something so beautiful could die without noise….just wisp away. Its painful and I have never experienced this.
It’s Chiron square Saturn also. Same thing happened to me. I ended it “officially” but no confirmation from hid end. I guess as a Pisces / moon in Cancer / Aqua venus / Mars Libra ghosting is the confirmation.
The whole time I kept thinking, this is all going well, it’s not a Neptune saturn square, I’m not being a love zombie. But I forgot that Saturn is on my south node in Sagg in 12th.
Karmic lessons.
Going to take a while to get over this one.
*his end
Yes, thanks for commenting. Things make more sense now.
Can’t say I was ever much of a dreamer apart from the occasional prophetic one ! And past 10 years nothing really until I started taking dhea as a supplement (best thing ever). Bang. Dreams almost every night. In fact every night. And very sexual past lovers ex husbands, unknown ones possible new ones. But wow yes dreaming is now on my menu. And I like it ! Haven’t written any down yet.
my dreams become my songs…
For the last 6 years I’ve been having regular consults with an Integrative Dreamworker. Worth every penny!
It is the best form of ‘therapy’ have ever done.
With the help of her very intuitive & Jungian Dreamwork I have worked through my trauma of alcoholic father who died a tragic death, faced into much of my own shit and worked tirelessly on improving myself, followed my creative aspirations without limitation and left a very damaging and toxic marriage.
Prior to embarking on this powerful healing modality my own dream interpretation was generally totally off the mark.
Now I can recognize I have very real and powerful Anima & Animus figures I can go to at any time during the day for guidance etc.
Integrative Dreamwork is utterly amazing. It takes a little while to understand the process because it is so very subtle but WOW!!!! It has totally changed my life for the best
I often see water in my dreams. I loved the article on sleep hygiene you did awhile back, Mystic! Helped me break the habit of surfing my phone before bed. Hadn’t thought about gifts, that is really intriguing and i’ll Definitely keep that in mind!
There is an app that yellows out the light so you can use ipad or phone at night without melatonin problems.
Cool
I have some dreams that I see loved ones who have passed. I also have dreams of what I think are my spirit guides (I wondered about these…not sure) they ask me questions, sometimes they are just doing normal type things and ask me a question. I’ve also had dreams where I invent the most amazing thing…then can’t remember once I’m awake LOL I have scorpio moon conjunct Neptune in 4th house sq my 12th house Leo sun/asc
I have an awesome app on my iPhone called Progressive Alarm Clock that not only plays gentle Tibetan bowl chimes for the actual alarm (several tones to choose from) that progress from soft and slow to gradually louder and gong-y, but also has a built in Dream Journal so you can capture your dreams as soon as you turn off your alarm. I think I paid $2-3 for it, worth every penny.
I love sleep and dreaming. I find my best dreams occur in the last segment of sleep (7th to 8th hour+), and sadly I have had that sleep yanked from me in the last couple of months as I find life has required me to “level the fuq up” and alter my sleeping habits. Apparently it takes a while to adjust to sleeping in different times than you naturally are inclined to! Sigh. Hoping that after a while things settle down and I can begin to enjoy my dreamscape again. I learn so much from it.
Omg I need that app! Thanks for the inspiration 🙂
I was just about to leave a mopey comment about how I rarely remember my dreams and when I do they’re usually dull/anxiety dreams based in real life…then I read your paragraph about the iPhone media bender. Which is of course exactly what I do most nights before I go to bed. Whoops.
I don’t do any journaling as such but my dream recall is mostly amazing. I have periods where I can’t wait to go back to sleep and into my dreams. I often dream of these places that don’t exist in my day to day life but are really familiar in my dreamscape.
Water dreams and dark rolling clouds or being caught up in an impending tsunami, always leave me with dread as their ominous nature always foretells of a very difficult and hard time around the corner. For me.
My dreams are SO DETAILED it is amazing. I love it. Some of them are incredibly magical.
But yeah, I agree with the water symbolism.
Same! I’ve written pages on some. Other times it can just be a sentence. I have had so many insights since I started writing them down.
i do write down my dreams (i once dreamt in a dream i was writing down my dreams lol, the msg got thru mystic!) but i never read them back.
the pnly water dreams i can recall is when im swimming, but there isnt quite enough water in the pool, and im trying to duck under the water so i can swim better…
I’m not a meticulous dream-recorder-er but in the scopes yest you suggested that we pay attention if sleeping thru the cancerian void moon…
whoa
last night was a short series of 3 dreams – all extremely violent, not as in direct personal attack to me but i was in danger in the last one
I never / v rarely have violent dreams so this one left its mark, also the imagery was very foreign, i think that a symbolic – almost literary – level was happening, i was not experiencing a lot of sentiment / fear in the dream, I think
hmm
I think as i was tired and have been a bit strung out lately that i absorbed some ideas from waking life (horse race imagery etc) that my fatigued brain finally could process via REM sleep
I have beautiful, vivid dreams most nights and have always been able to remember them, I even remember dreams from early childhood. They tend to fade and reappear in my mind like my waking life memories. In many ways, I feel like I am living two lives, waking and dreaming. I have tried journalling but I have found the process ruins my enjoyment of them, like it separates me from the dream, making me the observer rather than the participant and dreams I’ve written down now seem like they happened to someone else.
That said, I do receive messages, connect to other people and have prescient dreams and I can tell when the dream is of that nature and tend to at least make a mental note.
Am fascinated to track the moon over my South Node as I have had one or two dreams that I am convinced were actual recollections of past lives, either that or I astral travelled into someone else’s mind for a few hours.
As for Lunar Portals, despite being an ultra Neptunian, multi-Pisces, I’ve never noticed any dreams of significance during Moon-Neptune but Moon-Uranus and Moon-Pluto are heavy dream times for me.
A friend of mine has prophetic dreams every so often. These she said occur on one side of her brain/memory/thinking and ordinary dreams on the other. She told me of being in a car accident rolling off a dirt road but knew she would be alright because she hadn’t dreamt it. She had accurately dreamt her Grandfather was passing and people changing jobs or being sick. I said wow tell me if you dream of me winning lotto . And she said too late I dreamt my aunty won lots and she won $10,000,000.
I find that some memories of dreams can be recalled years later in dreaming or meditating. I also find if I roll into the same position I dreamt in it helps the recall. Both my father and recently passed father in law explain things to me. Like we are just in another dimension…..that was cool
New moon on the 18th is conjunct my natal neptune and sun on south node. Early night coming up
I also make a note of how the dream made me feel. Stressed, anxious, happy, loved etc. This helps me latter in my interpretation.
The biggest thing has been time, I seem to understand many of the really puzzling ones a year latter. Someone told me your subconscious is a year or two ahead of your conscious self. I have found that if I reread them a year latter they all make blinding sense.
Sorting out the premonitions from the clearing or messages also the hardest. Hence recording my feelings. If it’s a new person or visiting someone I have found it’s really quickly. Ie same day.
I hope these thoughts, experiences help.