Dreamworking: Introduction

.

A Dragon in the Halls

Artist: chrysaetos-pteron

        Here's one good reason to pay attention to your dreams:

        I had a dream years ago that a hungry, 6-foot dragon was slithering throughout the halls of the business for which I had recently began working.  The strange thing was, I was seeing through its eyes as it walked.  I was looking for "more," as though trying to feed a raging addiction of some sort.  I could feel this addictive need surging through my body.
 



         I kept thinking, "Greed.  Greed.  Greed.  More.  More.  More..."  I felt the dragon/myself desperately searching one room, then another, then another in the deserted  building.  The whole time I was smiling, calm, as though I were trying to mask my true actions and intentions.  Inside, however, I was desperate.

        When I awoke, I was quite shaken by the dream.  Some might call this a nightmare.  While I don't subscribe to the concept of "bad" dreams, for reasons I will explain in another post, I do believe we have dreams like this to wake us up to something.  The scarier-seeming the dream, the more urgent the message, and the more vital it is we pay attention to it.  It turned out that had I not heeded this dream, it wouldn't have been a good thing.

          I went to work there a couple more weeks, still puzzled and rather troubled about the dream.  My significant other was concerned about the growing agitation I was experiencing every day since the dream.  It wasn't going away.  Eventually, he convinced me to find another place to work, and I was quite relieved with the idea.  Following his advice, I soon found work elsewhere.  Then one day he came home, wide-eyed, and said to me, "Sit down, I want to tell you something.  I think you'll be interested in this."

         He told me the business for which I had worked had been raided by the FBI a couple days prior.  This was a common occurrence at the beginning of the recent economic downturn.  Undercover FBI agents regularly walked into businesses of all sorts, posing as potential customers.  The owners where I worked were suspected of embezzling the business' funds, devouring it, just like the greedy dragon in my dream.  One of them fled to Mexico to avoid prosecution, the other was questioned by the authorities.  I never knew what became of either of them in the end.

       

 Navigating the World with Truth

        There are plenty of other good reasons to pay attention to your dreams, beside the dramatic "warning" function they sometime serve, such as the "Dragon in the Halls" dream above.  But all the good reasons have one thing in common: dreams reveal truth.  They reveal how you really feel about something or someone, beyond the suppressed thoughts you won't allow yourself to think or say out loud.  You might not consciously perceive things in your environment, but your subconscious mind won't miss a thing.  Somehow, on a deeply intuitive level I knew those guys were thieves.  But my conscious mind had no clue  --they seemed OK to me, polite, helpful.  I really didn't suspect any funny business at all.  

Your dreams might be alerting you to
underlying dynamics of which you 
might not be consciously aware.  Pay
attention to them.  You are much wiser 
than you might think you are.

        Ultimately, dream wisdom helps us navigate through the world with the light of truth.  Some dreams are prophetic (an acquaintance of mine has 100% accuracy in predicting who next will have a baby in his entire family, even distant cousins).  While other dreams just help us live in alignment with our inner truths.  They might reveal underlying intentions, yours and others' --yes, yours.  We're all guilty of lying to ourselves due to our perceived survival needs.  But while you might lie to your waking self, you can't lie to your dreaming self.  

Busybodies in Dreamland

        I believe that discarnate spirits drop by and visit us through dreams, as well.  I think they know we're less likely to freak out when we see them in the dream state, and more likely to relax and communicate with them.  I've had countless dreams of loved ones passed to the other side, which soothed my spirit and brought me peace.  I've also had the reassuring presence of spirit guides in dream visits.

        I also believe we do quite a bit of "traveling" in our dreams.  Friends, family, and clients have all told me that I occasionally "visit" them, usually teaching them something.  It's kind of odd because I have no recollection of these visits in my waking life.  But enough people have told me this for so long that I believe them.  Now, if I could just figure out what I've been teaching, maybe I'd charge for the lessons (just kidding).

        All in all, it seems we are quite the busybodies in our dream lives.  Without the time/space constrictions of Earth-realm physics imposed on us, our dreaming minds know they can spontaneously enjoy the limitlessness of our spirits.  

Dreamspeak

        Your dreams even have their own vocabulary, their own language through which they speak from and to your soul.  This vocabulary derives from your unique life experiences.  While so-called dream dictionaries are quite interesting to thumb through, they are ultimately useless. Our minds are much more than mere repositories for some "collective consciousness."

        On the contrary, I have found that our dreams are very personal, tailor-made by and for us.  A dragon to my dreaming mind might have a totally different significance to your dreaming mind.  Also, we tend to dream in puns, and some can actually be rather funny.

        Finally, it's important to keep in mind dreams are often metaphoric, so we shouldn't panic if we dream of a death, for instance, or a natural disaster (though there are instances when such dreams are literal).  Most of the time they are metaphors.  The key to knowing the difference lies in learning to work with your dreams.

     

The Dreamworking Series

        I have found the best approach to deciphering dreams is through a process called, dreamworking.  In future articles, I will share what's worked for me in my efforts at dreamworking, which I have done consistently for the last ten years or so.  Sometime around 2002-2003 I decided to take both my dream life, and my meditation practice seriously.  I can say both practices have provided me richness and insight, the kind I could not have obtained from outside sources.  All I needed was inside me.  So, I hope these articles do the same, or more, for you.  Happy Dreams!


The Dreamworking Series (upcoming):

Dreamworking: The Hypogeum, and other Dream Incubators
Dreamworking Step 1: Recording Your Dreams
Dreamworking Step 2: Creating Your Dream Lexicon
Dreamworking Step 3: Dream Dialoguing



.