Dream Analysis of the Week- Shower of Change

Dream:

I ws in the shower.  I did not physically ressembe my current appearance. I had short black hair and I was a cartoon character. As the water came down on my body, the colour was washed off and there was nothing left. 

 

Insight:

This may be viewed as a shapeshifting dream.  It is a reminder of what Shakespeare reminds us: "All the world's a stage and men and women are only players."

Water dreams or falling water echo we are healing from the past, and optimistic about things. It also refers to purifying ourselves physically and spiritually to preparing for new realities where we realize a different state of mind and being.  If showering or bathing evokes unsettled thoughts or feeling "dirty", something deeper may need to be addressed. These generally include emotionally distressing or stressful situations that arise for acceptance and healing.

To dream that our life or body is a cartoon implies we don't take life too seriously or would be better off if we found ways to lighten up.. This could mean we would benefit from growing aware of a stressful habits or thinking patterns.  Consider it a possible wake up call to reframe our life, to remind us we can always shift perspective.  We can always erase a version of ourselves through integrating lessons and/or letting go of what we outgrow.

When rewriting (or rescripting) our dreams, we are growing more conscious of who we are and our true power.  This is a way to actively approach the storyboard of our soul journey. That is, we close our eyes and run through the images in our mind, and then rewind the image and rewrite it – rewrite the story, in whatever way we choose. In essence, we are taking charge of the image on our own terms.  At any given moment, we realize we decide how we wish to feel and where we will allow energy to flow.  When focused, every thought and feeling can be harsessed and redirected consciously. 

Dream Analysis of the Week- Cosmic Mermaid

Dream:

Entered body of water from land and swimming across/ through water toward an island in distance. Storm arose. Rough water. Fishing boat appeared with fisherman that resembled Jesus. He fished me out with tail and took me closer to island where I got back in water. Fog set in. The fishing boat disappeared in to the mist. Mermaid grew legs when on island. Approached small white house. Knocked. Radiant lady with halo holding newborn baby called out to me. I entered room, saw her breast feeding. She said I could stay the night in lighthouse and pointed next door. I gestured namaste, then climbed nearby lighthouse stairs. Came to open area with book, burning candles, skull, crystals, sacred geometry and dried herbs. At midnight, the items on table levitated in a circle, rotating around geometry.. Connected with higher self and knew what to do. Levitated to sleep above book which I read in my sleep. Next morning, lady with baby and I took fishing boat back to land. The water was clear. Night storm had subsided. I did not grow back my tail. We went to enter a bus somewhere. i paid driver with crystals. I had no watch but felt like I had misplaced one. The driver of flying bus drew my attention to glass case with watches. I shapeshifted to see I am busdriver and crystals. Driver pointed to watch with Winnie the Poo floating inside some some liquid with food and chatacters. I entered the watch, communed with the characters and reset time cogs.

Insight:

Many versions of self exist. Everything we encounter is a version of Oneself.  How we respond to each reveals the nature of shadows and/or soul fragments. Encounters with water reflect our emotions. If its stormy, we may be bravely exploring reasons for discomfort as well as creative endeavours. We are getting clearer on how we feel and responding in greater integrity with the soul.

Note you are your own divine saviour (nobody can rescue you from any situation but yourself).  In scriptures, a fisherman echoes resurrection and immortality as well as connection to the inner spirit.  It echoes diligence and a focused mind

A mermaid represents metamorphosis and transformation is taking place or about to take place in our midst. The shapeshifting of tail to legs is a metaphor for developing precisely what we need to move forward.

New babies may echo our return to innocence as much as the possibility of new projects on the horizon you might view as your "baby". The age of the baby may indicate how long your project has been incubating. Nourish the budding vision that is blossoming through you.   Each of us also nourish our own inner child even if it appears to be external as a metaphor. A mother is symbol of love, purity, nurturing. We are forever connected to the source of love energy.

A lighthouse is like a beacon, a symbol of rising awarness within. It also echoes one must gain knowledge to make wise decisions going forward.  A lightbulb is going off pointing to new relationships, changes, and projects on horizon.

Reflect on where you give power or authority away in a given situation. A busdriver is someone you pay for transport or directions

Crystals remind you that spirit guides have your back and are in constant communication with you on an energetic level.

Watches invite paying closer attention. This is an invite to be more natural and less concerned about others' expectations.  Reflect on self-containment,  self-created limitations and possible options to branch out.

Dream Analysis of the Week- Repeated Awakening

Dream: 

I dreamed my alarm went off, startled me. It quickly hit I had overslept, forgot to sit exams. The dates were circled in red on the calendar on a bulletin board hanging above my nearby desk. If that was not bad enough, I opened a letter that had been slide under my door. It said I had an another exam to write for a course I forget to drop.  My breathing went shallow, I began to sweat. So, I lay back down, closed my eyes, heard my beating heart, slowed my breathing. When I opened my eyes again, my bedroom furniture had moved. I also had a green plant. I was aware I had finished college years ago. I shook my head again, closed my eyes and then a real alarm woke me up. I was lying down again.

Insight:

To feel panic when you awaken from a dream; a sense of being desperately unprepared, stressed, scared and worried, invites that you meditate on the feelings.  Silence the mind and ‘stay’ present with the emotions that stand out. Let them guide you to the underlying and core issue.  Where else in your life might evoke feeling unprepared, stressed, desperate or scared?

As it happens, this might be about a life transition you are going through or change and growth in personal relationships. What is it, unrelated to dream exams, that you might feel unprepared for? It might be feelings of inadequacy or self-doubt about a new life chapter. It might be about experiencing a lack of life balance, too much pressure, a sense of overwhelming responsibilities or a reflection of an inner conflict.

Another view is this is a false awakening dream. Such false awakenings are viewed as a hybrid or overlap of timelines, states between sleep and wakefulness. Those who know false awakenings may also lucid dreams.

In a lucid dream, the dreamer realizes s/he is dreaming. This knowledge allows you to maintain some control over your surroundings and even change the course of the dream. If this was lucid, ths student might have consciously turned the alarm clcok back and decided to to go back in time to awaken in time to take the exams, reclaim control of the unfolding experience. Many lucid dreams commonly end in false awakenings. You might even “wake up” and start describing your dream to someone else before truly waking up.

A false awakening can become a lucid dream, especially if you begin to notice certain details that differ slightly from reality.  For example, your furniture might not be in the usual place, your lamp might not turn on, or you might open a book and find you can’t read any of the words.  Suspecting you aren’t actually awake might lead you to try manipulating the dream in some way or telling yourself to wake up. This is part of an empowerment process that redefines a different kind of awakening and reclaiming of power.

We offer detailed Dream Consultations on single and multiple dreams as well as an Astral,Lucid and Dream Yoga Course. 

Dream Analysis of the Week- Bloody Frogs

Dream:

I was visiting an acquaintance at her home. I had always had a not so great relationship with her. She is married to my husband’s business partner so we were often forced to socialize and I knew she detested me but however hard I tried to win her over nothing changed. She had made up her mind. She and her husband immigrated to the USA a couple of years ago and they were back in South Africa visiting friends and she invited me over.

So I was at her old house which was empty now and we were chatting, she was obviously trying to be friendly and I appreciated the gesture. It was just the two of us. She took out this little box that had about ten tiny compartments. In each compartment was a tiny frog. Each frog had the most vivid and beautiful colours with patterns. Exquisite. I played with one or two frogs and then gave them back to her and she put them back in their respective boxes.  I was curious and picked up the box because I wanted to see the other frogs and somehow the tops of the compartments came open and all the beautiful little frogs spilled out onto my lap and I couldn’t catch them quickly enough to put them back. The frogs hopped off into the next room. She didn’t seem too perturbed when I pointed it out. After a while I got up to go and look for the frogs and upon entering the other room saw two puppies who had eaten all the frogs in a playful game. There were chunks of dead frog parts and a blood puddle.   I immediately ran to her and explained what happened.  She was understandably furious and started screaming at me to get out and she regretted ever inviting me and she hates me etc…

I was extremely upset about the beautiful little frogs and how I had proved to be careless. I felt responsible and wretched and cried. I was so disappointed in myself. My friends arrived and tried to console me but I was distraught. I felt so awful. My one friend had a box with similar frogs (not as beautiful) and I asked him whether I could buy them from him to give to her as replacements but he didn’t want to sell them. They were rare and one could only purchase them in Pakistan.  I felt a failure. I knew the dead frogs were an accident but I still felt completely responsible for ruining her attempt at trying to be nice.  In the past years (before this incident) whenever she invited me over to her home to try and be nice - something awful always happened to cause us to remain estranged for a couple of years.  It was as if destiny insisted that we shouldn’t be friends.  

Insight:

Dream encounters are a projection of some part of ourselves. If someone despises or hates us, and we are triggered, then this is drawing our attention to something unconscious within our own psyche.  We all have a shadow self. Its often made up of the parts of self we view as unacceptable. For many, this means things like our sadness, intense emotions like rage or hostility, even laziness, cruelty, grief or despair. Yet, you might also view this as relating to uncivilised behaviour or disowned parts of yourself like personal power, lost independence, emotional security or sensitivity.

Turns out, unacceptable treatment in dreams is a metaphor often couched in blame that evokes guilt and/or shame. Whatever beckons your attention on a deeper level, you assume self-blame, feel careless, responsible and self-punishment continues through dream worlds to get your attention.

Uneasy emotions are inviting you to explore more deeply what is going on inside.  Shadow figures may evoke fear of rejection. If we do not learn to love, accept whatever we hide from, we project the unresolved feelings onto others (who trigger us to keep discomfort alive).  The context of relationships reminds us of whether something is truly resolved. If someone leaves of moves away, it may be that part of yourself they represent is no longer needed is is healed.  If they return, this is opportunity to restore or rekindle relationships, or a way the universe is telling you something deeper remains unresolved. If you truly desire to repair a friendship, then you must find a way to befriend yourself.  That is, explore ways to decode and love your shadows.

This dream is also an invitation to accept and integrate the male side (assertive self, set and defend boundaries). There is something deeper going on here than an ongoing quest for connection, acceptance and belonging.  This explains why the frogs escape.  Somethng wants to show itself and you may not want to see it.

Dream figures like the frog appear to offer guidance and direction.  Frogs are about evolution and coming into wholeness, Change is on the horizon.  As your inner feelings are made known to yourself and those around you, it does not have to turn out to be a bloody mess. Dogs are known as man's best friend. The one in the dream is doing the dreamer a favor. The puppy heightens the sense of urgency to look. Something wants attention. Reflect on significance of the number 10.

We offer detailed Dream Consultations for single and multiple dreams. We also offer an Astral, Lucid and Dream Yoga Course.  Contact us.

6 Benefits of Lucid Dreaming & Dream Yoga

To be exploring your dreams is to be working with your mind. Lucid dreaming happens when you realize that you’re dreaming as it’s happening. You may reall films like Dream yoga occurs when you use this lucidity for your own practice. Dream Yoga, rooted in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, allows us to “hack into the previously unconscious” and use our dreams to transform our waking lives. Wonder if this is worth exploring further?  Consider 6 benefits of lucid dreaming and dream yoga;

1. Extend our meditation practice into our sleeping hours

Buddhist teachings on emptiness and the alleviation of suffering, offer clues. We suffer because we take things to be real.  We suffer in direct proportion to how solid or unchanging we take the contents of our mind to be.  Dream yoga teachings gets to the heart of the matter. This can be confrontational yet, it shows us how we create our own suffering based on our beliefs in solid and heavy, and what is real. The removal of suffering is a direct effect of seeing the world as dreamlike. We use our study of night-time dreams to understand the mechanics of our suffering and happiness in the so-called daytime dream.

2.  Help manage nightmares

If we’re freaking out in the middle of a nightmare and we can wake up to the fact that we’re dreaming, then we can relieve suffering. We realize it isn’t real. That is being lucid. If we wake up to the fact that the contents of our mind are not as solid as we make them to be, then we see them as illusory. This is a process of awakening.

3. Better understand nightmares

To know nightmares on a mental level differs from the feeling and visceral level. Nightmares echo fragmented or disowned aspects of ourselves.  We’ve refused part of our experience. During a nightmare, these rejected aspects of our being are calling back for attention and reintegration. That’s why they’re chasing us. When we run away from them, we continue to keep them alive. That’s why people have recurring nightmares. The nightmare arises, and instead of relating to it, seeing it as it is, we run.  Instead of running, we can stop, turn around, and look directly at the monster. When we do, several things can happen. The monster may disappear, or it will stop and dissolve into us. By facing the monster, or by facing our demons, we can reintegrate these fragmented aspects of ourselves and absorb the nightmare.  This has big impact in our waking lives.

4. Uncover deeper Truth

There are relative truths to many of our dreams. Freud once said “an uninterpreted dream is like an unopened letter.” The unconscious mind is frequently sending us teachings and messages in dreams and nightmares.  Lucid dreaming can transform sleep into a window to the deeper realities. Yet, we often experience dreams as unreal. We can do things in dreams we do not in waking reality, like fly. 

One of the reasons we don’t seem to have the same capabilities in waking reality as in dreams is because we take waking reality to be real. When you truly wake up, the waking world is just as real (or just as unreal) as the dream world. You start to see that the waking state is basically no different from the dream state. It’s the mind expressing itself in two different mediums.  We make this so-called waking reality more real than our dreaming reality. When the world is seen as illusory, the ego freaks out. It has nothing to stand on. Therefore it sees waking reality as real and the dream world as unreal.  The basic charter of these practices is to see the one taste of all these different dimensions of the mind so we’re no longer privileging one state over another. We have a very powerful prejudice toward waking consciousness. This is the source of lots of problems.

5. Explore the relevance of spiritual bypassing 

Spiritual bypassing here refers to nihilism.  This frequently arises as the near enemy when one asserts that reality is just a dream. Saying reality is just a dream is very dismissive. On one level, that level of dismissiveness is what we’re after. We’re trying to dismiss the imputed validity of reified waking reality. In that regard, dismissal is appropriate. An erroneous interpretation of this is a thought that sounds like, “If it’s all just a dream, who cares what I do?” With that mentality, you do not choose to be a conscious creator. There’s no compassion or social activism. There’s just apathy. You must realize it’s a subtle trap, and ego can default into that. When we’re working with these practices, there are all these subtle traps that ego will find. The proof you may be seeking is found through your own diligence and what is revealed through your direct experience.

6.  Prepare us to experience a lucid death

According to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, dream yoga came about largely as a preparation for death. Padmasambhava [the 8th century Indian teacher who brought Buddhism to Tibet] once allegedly said that if we can maintain lucidity in our dream state seven times—in other words, if we can maintain lucidity with some constancy in the dream state—we can have a lucid death experience.

What the traditions put forth is that when we die, our lucidity or "bardo" awareness  (the in-between state after death and before rebirth] will be directly proportional to our lucidity in the dream state. This, in turn, is directly proportional to our lucidity in the meditative state.  Dream yoga is important because it empowers not only our dream practice, but also our meditation practice. The biggest reason we’re not lucid in our dreams is that we’re not lucid to contents of our mind during the day. That is incredibly important. So many studies have shown that meditators have more lucid dreams. If you practice meditation during the day and develop lucidity or awareness of the contents of your mind, that naturally expresses itself as increased lucidity in the dream state. The tradition then goes one step further to say that type of lucidity also transfers to a lucid bardo experience.

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It is important to recognize that huge resistance can come up for people when attempting lucid dreaming and dream yoga practices. Why?

The ego has a bias toward its version of awake reality. People fear some of these nocturnal practices as they’re afraid of the dark. Ego is simply keeping up its defences. Darkness is a code word for ignorance. Nighttime is an archetype of that ignorance for many people who prefer to stay in the dark.  Every time we go to sleep or get lost in monkey mind, ego is recharging its samsaric batteries. Not everybody wants to engage in dream yoga, because it will show us just how far we’re willing to go to wake up. Ego exists in the darkness of ignorance.  When we try to penetrate it with nocturnal dream practices, part of us that just doesn’t want to go there. 

In conclusion, lucid dreaming and dream yoga practices are not designed for everybody. They’re a little more advanced and require discipline. They are subtle and deep. People may wonder, why bother? While these practices are not all that easy, they are potentially more transformative, aswe are dealing more directly with the very roots of our ignorance. When we engage in these practices, it concerns the very tectonic plates of our existence.

 Our Astral, Lucid and Dream Yoga Course begins November 3rd.  Contact us for further information.