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Understanding the hidden messages in dreams is like harvesting honey from the beehive. We have to sift through the layers, scrape off the excess wax of our consciousness in order to reap the sweet honey of our Higher consciousness. How do we access our own highest wisdom? How do we align with that Goddess Wisdom within each of us- that all knowing Presence which illumines our Soul and brings unmanifest expression into and through the physical form of our everyday experiences? What tools or methods bring us into alignment and communication with our Soul-Self, our Higher Self, our God Self? There are a variety of ways, easily practiced, that require nothing more than a willingness to know and the presence of mind to ask first, move into stillness and then receive the information. Meditation is one technique, journaling or writing is another method, Shamanism, which is a spiritual practice dating back tens of thousands of years, and dream interpretation, just to name a few.
These modalities assist us in bridging the unconscious Mind with the conscious mind. With dream interpretation, we merely need a technique or method to decipher the symbology and hidden messages. Through this conscious participation in understanding those veiled aspects of ourselves which influence our daily lives in one way or another, we can become more aware and present. We can heal old wounds, face current challenges and opportunities, gain insight to new directions we might take and understand ourselves and each other more completely. Through that understanding we can walk more peacefully and joyfully through our lives.
Many people don't remember their dreams or think they might not dream at all, but all of us dream during different phases of the sleep cycle. The best way I have found is outlined in Robert Johnson's book, "Inner Work". Start by having a journal and pen next to your bed to record the dreams you remember. Before going to sleep, impress the intention to recall the dream by saying something like, "I will to remember my dreams". Say it three times to yourself. If you wake in the middle of the night, you'll have to rouse yourself to write it down, otherwise you won't remember it by morning no matter how clear it seems at the time. It's easiest to recall the dream if you don't wake up with an alarm but most of us don't have that luxury. Record the dream with as much detail as possible.
Ideally, the next step in decoding the dream would take place however, even if daily life takes precedence over the contemplative, the dream messages and meanings will now be easily understood even days after the initial dream came through. Each symbol in the dream has a message so I usually divide my page in half vertically with the word or symbol from the dream on the left and then words of free association to that symbol on the right. ie: Sensible shoes.... walking through life, thinking sensibly, practical choices Running Shoes... running to something or away from something, hurrying, racing, exercise, moving quickly in a new direction Two Kisses... intimacy, twice as good, Hershey kisses, sweetness, double meaning. The practice is to freely associate the symbols into your own language of understanding. If a person does not care for coffee, that symbol will have a different meaning and interpretation than for a person who loves coffee and drinks it daily or someone who loves coffee but is allergic to it.
After free association for each image in the dream, you can link the images together and create a short story of interpretation and understanding. "I was wearing sensible shoes and running toward a man I know who is a successful artist" could be interpreted as, "I tend to think logically and sensibly but my Soul Self is asking me to move with urgency toward taking the art class I read about two weeks ago."
Eat the honey and know Thy Self!
In Light and Love,
Diana
a friend on the path
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