Lucid Dreaming

Source of image: www.hyperluciddream.com

The Water Tide flowed at Lammas, and now has turned to ebb at the Fall Equinox.   

 

When a tide ebbs, a Witch's power grows. In a flowing tide, the powers of Nature are in the ascendant, and the work of magic is more a matter of divination than sorcery--of reading the course of things, and riding the waves. In an ebb tide the manifest world has less will of its own, and the Witch's will has more effect.

 

Dreams, the creatures of water, are now available not only to our understanding but to our influence, and can even be wielded to influence the course of events.

 

"Lucid dreaming" is a term used to describe dreaming which the dreamer consciously controls. It is, obviously, a powerful magical technique.

 

The most challenging first step for most people is learning to recognize that they are dreaming while the dream is still in progress. You are ready to start working on this when you have reached a point in the work of dream retrieval when you can generally recall at least one dream each time you awake, at least when you are able to wake naturally. (When you are wrenched out of sleep by artificial means, dream-catching is more difficult.)

 

Here are ways develop conscious awareness that you are dreaming;

 

Make a habit of asking yourself regularly, when you are awake, whether you are awake or dreaming. The habit of asking yourself this question can carry over into your dreams. 

 

Ask yourself "Am I dreaming?" in situations that resemble ones that commonly occur in your dreams. Go through your dream journal and not images or situations that appear repeatedly, and which can also occur in waking reality. For example, if you dream often of bodies of water, make a habit of testing your state each time you see a body of water, and each time you swim or bathe. 

 

Go through your dream journal and note recurring images and events that would be impossible in waking reality. Examples might be flying, or watching or experiencing magical shape-shifting. Give yourself the suggestion that the next time you dream about such a thing, you will know that you are dreaming.

 

Stop at some random moment during the day and ask yourself, "Am I dreaming?" Then continue to imagine what could happen next if you were dreaming.

 

Work to become more aware of the subjective nature of your waking perceptions. We construct our waking experience with our own minds, just as we construct our dreams. Form a habit of viewing events from more than one point of view. When you perceive and respond to something, work to imagine other interpretations which could be put on the same events. You do not have to hold and commit to such alternative perceptions if you do not wish to; you are just building mental flexibility, as you build physical flexibility with body exercises.

 

Create a vivid mental image to use while falling asleep, that you can carry between waking and dreaming. One such image in Buddhist tradition is the "flaming lotus," a delicate pink flower with a bright flame in the middle, which is located at your throat (Interestingly, if the Kabbalistic Tree of Life is mapped out on the human body the "hidden sephirah" Daath lies at the throat.)

Moon Festival

This past full moon was the Chinese Moon Festival. I had an in-class essay in which several  Chinese students spilled out their homesickness--it is, most of all, a time for family gatherings. The assignment was a response to an essay that only mentioned someone's homesickness in passing, but in honor of the occasion, I cut some slack for writing off-topic.

There are a number of different stories connected with the Moon Festival. Here is the one I like the best:

Long ago, there were ten suns in the sky. The earth was hot and parched, and no matter how hard people worked, they could not grow enough to eat. The king declared that he would marry his beautiful daughter to the man who could destroy nine of the suns, and leave them with only one that was needed for life.

A mighty warrior presented himself, and true to his word, fought with nine suns and destroyed them all, until at last only one good sun was left in the sky. The king was true to his word, and gave his daughter's hand to this mighty warrior.

The princess, however, was not happy in this marriage. The same ferocity that had given this warrior the power to destroy the nine suns also made him a jealous and violent husband. She soon came to understand that for the good of the land, her own hopes of happiness had been sacrificed forever.

So one night, she went to her jewel box, and chose from it one large, perfect pearl. She went out into the courtyard, and threw the pearl up, up, until it came to rest high in the sky. Then she took a running leap, and jumped high above the palace walls. She flew up to the moon, and there she lives joyfully and alone, giving comfort and encouragement to all unhappy souls below.

At the Dark of the Moon

Introspection, trance work, self-evalution

Dream work

Fast or eat sparingly

Don't overwork

Wrap yourself in a covering or veil of some kind, arranged so you can breathe properly (oxygen deprivation is not an essential part of the experience.)

I especially like some slow and evocative sound for this--Tibetan temple bells, for example.
Close your eyes and go into a cave. As you go deeper in, the light becomes fainter and fainter, and you have to feel your way with your feet and hands.
The passageway becomes narrower, and more difficult to negotiate. You go deeper and deeper into the earth.
Then after a time you will suddenly lose your footing and go floating in free fall, around and around, down the passageway, until you land in a cavern deep inside the earth.
There you may find something, or you may meet someone.
You may be told something you need to know, or you may be given something to take back with you.
Perhaps you will find or be given something that must remain in the cavern, but which you can return to again.
When you are ready to leave the cavern, you will find that you can float up and out the passageway, by the same way you came.
Then you will find your footing, and make you way along the passage, feeling with your feet and hands, until you return to the mouth of the cave.

Discovering the Meanings of Dreams

Examine any emotions which accompany the dream. If the emotion seems inconsistent with the thing you dreamed, pay more attention to the emotional content than to its apparent stimulus.

 Explore your associations with a puzzling symbol. If, for example, a dream person has blond hair, free associate on the phrase "blond hair," jotting down anything that comes to mind.

 After recording a dream, quickly and instinctively give it a title. This will often provide a clue to its meaning.

 Pay attention to any involuntary slips of the tongue, pen or fingers which you make as you speak or write about the dream. These are sometimes significant.

 Pay particular attention to symbols and situations which occur repeatedly in your dreams.

 On waking, imagine endings or continuations for your dreams. Record these and examine them along with the dreams themselves

 Waking, place yourself in the position of another character in the dream. How would the dream appear, and what would it mean, to that person? (For example, if you dream of being pursued by someone, place yourself in the position of the pursuer instead of the pursued.)

 Give creative expression to your dreams in drawings, poetry, dance. This extension will often fill in missing meaning in your mind.

Be aware that any one dream has multiple levels of meaning. The possibilities include, but are not confined to:

• Processing and integrating experience from the previous day.
• Wish fulfillment.
• Messages from your unconscious to your conscious mind.
• Self exploration and analysis; often one possible interpretation of a dream involves seeing each character in the dream as part of the dreamer.
• Symbolic representations of physical conditions in your body.
• Dream symbolism may include puns or plays on words.
• Contact with spirits or Deities often occurs more readily in dreams than in waking.
• There may memory of the distant past, of early childhood, or of other existences.
• Experiences of precognition, telepathy and clairvoyance are more common in dreaming than in waking.
• Your mind may use a dream to take control of a problem and solve it.                                                                                                                                

Waxing Moon

Magical work for fertility, prosperity, growth and plenty:

Harvest crops and herbs that grow above the ground.

New Moon

(when the first sliver of the moon shows in the sky)

Divine the future (this is when the priestesses at Delphi prophesied)

Move to a new house

Trim hair or nails in order to make them grow faster

Sign contracts

Auspicious for:

Consecrations and initiations

Marriages and new partnerships

Major purchases

New enterprises, new investments, starting a business

When you see a new moon for the first time, salute Her by kissing your hand and saying, "New Moon, leave me as well as you found me."

(According to folk tradition, you are supposed to kneel on a rock while you do this, but in my neighborhood it is hard to find rocks large enough to kneel on.)

CATCHING YOUR DREAMS

Probably the most important technique is to verbalize, orally or in writing, anything that you remember, as soon as possible on waking. Often memories which are vivid at the moment of waking will fade and disappear very quickly--especially as soon as you get up and move around. Keep a pencil and paper or a voice recording device near your bed, and if necessary a small source of light so that you won't have to disturb your partner. At first, do not worry about the quality or meaning of what you remember and record. If you wake during the night too drowsy to record a dream at length, often a few jotted words or doodled images will be enough to trigger your memory later. In fact, it is generally helpful to start recording each dream with just a few key phrases or devices immediately on waking, and then use these as notes as you write out the dream in its entirety. If you prefer to record your voice, be aware that if you want to use the material in any systematic way at a later time, you will probably have to take time to transcribe it into written form. For most purposes of magic and self-exploration, you need the dreams recorded in a form which you can easily browse through, sort, classify and retrieve.

Do not ignore what at first appear to be meaningless fragments. Usually the process of verbalizing or recording them will trigger a more complete memory. Often a puzzling segment will, on closer examination, turn out to be a sort of telegram from your unconscious--a small but potent message which summarizes a longer dream.

Use the present tense and not the past tense when you record your dreams. You will find that this triggers more complete dream memories.

Treat your dream recording materials with respect; choose aesthetically pleasing ones, consecrate them and guard them carefully.

Incenses are used in many cultures for purposes of dream incubation. The dream-inducing properties of mugwort are well known in European and Native American folklore alike. In the Far East, jasmine is credited with dream-inducing powers. Bay is also known as psychotropic incenses; bay laurel was the incense used in ancient Greece for healing dream incubation, and by the seeresses at Delphi. California bay is somewhat less effective for these purposes than the Mediterranean variety, but is still worth trying. Probably any scent that you choose to use for dream incubation will work well once you have established that association for yourself in private ritual. Ideally, of course, the incubation incense burns, tended by someone else for you while you are sleeping. But if there is no way to do this, (household slaves being a rare luxury nowadays), at least use the desired incense or oil before retiring.

Ritual baths were an essential part of ancient Greek incubation ritual. Before retiring, the incubant was bathed in order to cleanse away all influences which could interfere with the dream, and leave a clean, open place for the Deity to do its work.

Deities who can help you with your dream work should be invoked prior to retiring. I have good luck with Hermes, Lord of Words and Guide Between the Worlds--although the dreams I get by invoking Him sometimes bear the mark of the Trickster as well.

Experiment with ways of focusing yourself mentally as you go to sleep. It may be helpful to induce a trance, using drums or music on a tape or sound file which will play to the end and then shut itself off. In the trance, give yourself the suggestion that you will dream and remember what you have dreamed; if you like, you can narrow it down to a specific subject. Then pass from trance into dream. Another technique is to focus your attention, as you fall asleep, on an image which you know to be of great psychological or spiritual importance to you.

If you have trouble remembering dreams, try increasing your intake of B vitamins. For many people, this seems to affect body chemistry in such a way as to improve dream retrieval. If you take a B vitamin supplement, use one which provides a balanced complement of all the B vitamins since increasing one of them to the exclusion of the others may induce deficiencies of those which are neglected.

If you awake with no dream memory, try moving your body into its sleep habitual sleep position(s); often this kinesthetic cue will trigger dream recall.

Find ways to give creative expression to your dreams. You can do this with poetry, art, movement. The creative process will often trigger memory of forgotten parts of the dream.

Dreams are best remembered from daytime naps, or from periods of morning sleep when you wake and then fall asleep again for a few hours. In the latter case, a dream may summarize other dreams which you have had during the night. Try to arrange opportunities for this kind of sleep. 

Women tend to crave more sleep and have more vivid and important dreams just before or during their menstrual periods. Try to allow time for sleep and dream work at this time of the month, if you can.

Dream charms can be made to keep under your pillow while you sleep. Mugwort dream pillows are popular, due the the well-know dream-inducing properties of this plant. Another charm is a bit of the herb or a bit of red string, tied in a circle to represent unbroken memory and magically charged for that purpose.