As souls engaged in a human existence we respond to stories, and dreaming is the outline of our personal story. Once we feel a personal connection to that outline we become empowered to create every aspect of our stories from our soul’s pen. In this light, dreaming is one of the most powerful tools we have to recreate ourselves in our lives as we truly want to be.
Most of us are very accepting of the belief that our dreams contain significant messages to enrich their lives. However, we don't know how to tap into that personal symbolic code and make it useful in how we live. Dream dictionaries and external resources can be very helpful in providing insightful information to tap into that code, though spiritually connecting with our personal mythology allows us to feel the truth of its message and bring it though all of our Being. Together with the body of dream resources and bravely exploring our own dreamscape, it is possible for the dreaming Self to communicate with the waking mind to promote powerful change in the present.
In my shamanic practice I am often asked to interpret my clients' dreams. Usually this request centers around disturbing imagery or nightmares. In these sessions I move into an ecstatic trance, venturing into the spirit realm to speak with my clients’ spirit teachers about their dreams. Sometimes their guides reveal to me very quickly what the current collection of symbols being presented means, but most often their guides tell me to instruct clients in dreamwalking. Dreamwalking, or willfully returning to visit a dream in a cognizant theta brainwave state, allows us to become active facets of the dream rather than passive observers. Being active participants in the dream allows us to communicate with the Dreamtime, or spiritual, manifestation of people, animals, objects, events and places in the dream. This technique is useful in breaking the pattern of a recurrent dream, changing mindsets that are no longer useful in waking, and giving insight into personal relationships all by actively communicating with our unique mythology. In my book Gift of the Dreamtime: Awakening to the Divinity of Trauma, I write of my confrontation with a painful experience of my past in a dream. Using this technique of revisiting the dream in an aware state I was able to walk back through the details of the dream to bring insight into the experience of my past, creating healing in my present. When we can personally experience the characters of a dream, its locations, situations and rich archetypal insights, a well of intuitive information is tapped into, not only for the current dream and symbols, but in how we dream from that point on. Key to this shift is realizing that when we look upon the faces of our darkest nightmares and our most hopeful dreams, we are looking upon the same creature: Ourselves. Remember that dreaming is a mirror of what is going on in our lives, inside and out. Dreamwalking helps us to feel more comfortable in that knowledge, as well as to close the perceived gap between ourselves and others. Most often when dreamwalking is mastered, patterns in dreaming change allowing us to advance to new territory in the dreamscape. This change in spiritual terrain usually accompanies healing shifts in waking life.
Dreamwalking can be as simple as moving into a relaxed meditative space, then visualize stepping into a specific point of the dream. Some people are not visual in how they dream; thus, they experience dreamwalking in a sensual manner other than visual. People for whom dreams are more aurally focused respond to sonic cues in dreamwalking. Others experience dreaming more impressionistically and as a result approach dreamingwalking best by following their feelings. However the dreamscape is perceived is fine. What is important is to relax into the most useful perception and flow with it. From this more aware vantage point, the contents of the dream can be engaged. Asking questions about the significance of a particular symbol or event in the dream may be useful. Asking how the dream relates to the waking life at present can bring a wealth of information. Sometimes it is best to approach the symbols more openly and merely ask what they need us to know most at this time. It is important in this appreciation of interaction to create an open space for these beings to communicate about their presence in the dreamscape what they need us to know, their purpose for visiting. Whatever approach feels most relevant to meet the intention of the interaction is key, and that includes their side of the story as much as ours.
Dreamwalking can be useful even if there is no related trauma, or no specific dream to unravel. Rather, there may be a general collection of symbols perceived over years of dreaming and insight into them is desired. With this intention, from a relaxed meditative space ask the Dreamtime manifestations, or the souls, of those symbols to come communicate in the way most appropriate. This open-ended intention frees the Self of needing to perceive the dream in a prescribed sensual fashion, and acknowledges that the symbols in the dreamstate are soulful beings interacting with us, not just responding to us. Once in the dream, or in the presence of the symbolic souls, communication is limitless. Personalities in dreams may be people or creatures known in waking, or they may be unfamiliar. In this style of communiqué it doesn’t matter. They can be interacted with the same whether they are familiar, new, animal, plant, element… Even the seemingly most insignificant element of a dream has something to say. Approach the tiny details as personalities, creating space for their souls to come and communicate their purpose. Just as we may perceive the Dreamtime through varied senses, some of our visiting souls may communicate through lesser used senses. Some may communicate impressionistically, with tones, colors, or storyboard scenes.
Other uses of this meditative dreaming technique don’t involve communication with specific facets of the dream. One such approach is to enter the dreamscape to explore the uncharted Dreamtime, just to see what options and opportunities lay in dreaming. Or in a more targeted fashion, resolve a recurrent dream by stepping into the dream at the point that it begins to repeat, then alter the disruptive pattern by choosing a different course of action. This modification could be as simple as making a better decision under the circumstances, taking a different route in travel, or just acknowledging the absurdity of a particular act.
A more complex but powerful approach to dreamwalking is to align the waking and dreaming minds at the point of sleep to create a lucid dream. In lucid dreaming, as differentiated from revisiting the dream in meditation, we are fully asleep yet capable of controlling the dream with the waking mind. Lucid dreaming can be used as a healing tool in releasing recurrent dreams or painful imagery, or as a technique to create a higher state of awareness. This method of dreamwalking, referred to as 'bridging' in some cultures, can be a little more difficult to achieve and may take some practice. As part of the preparation for sleep set the intention to step back into a specific dream, or to meet with symbols from dreams. Restate this intention over and over, focusing on it as sleep comes. Interact with those who come to the dream as needed or directed. For many, achieving aware interaction will be a feat. However, from there it is possible to delve into bridging. Bridging a lucid dream occurs when some facet of the dream is “brought back” by the dreaming Self There may be an object or event occurring in the dream that is subsequently encountered in waking over the next few days. This bridge, or synchronicity, is considered a very powerful portal linking the waking and dreaming worlds. Such a cross-section is nothing short of the intentional creation of sacred space by our High Selves in an otherwise mundane occurrence. This technique has led many dreamwalkers to find their animal totems and elemental guardians for soul work. Seeing that the waking world can merge with our dreams, we begin to develop a stronger sense of soul identity in the formed world as a result of lucid dreaming.
Many of us master dreamwalking well but don’t know what to do with the information derived from our souls’ teaching. As we seek to accept both the unique mythology of dreams and the complex archetypes of the collective Dreamtime, we also seek to accept the insight of our dreams without judgment of it or ourselves. It is very important that we treat the information gleaned from this communication as neither right nor wrong, neither good nor bad. Just allow it to be. Dreamtime insights must be allowed to grow and evolve as we, ourselves, shift and become. Recording these experiences in a journal, painting them, or bringing them into form through some other artful expression can allow deeper meaning to emerge free of the ego and conscious mind.
Becoming proficient not only in learning one’s personal symbolic language, but in the natural ability of navigating the Dreamtime deepens our overall intuition. We become very personally connected to our mythologies, such that when we experience them in waking or sleep we no longer need to process the symbol itself, but can intuit its dynamic and ever evolving meaning. The experience of dreamwalking brings us in closer communication with ourselves and the Divine, creating the abundant capability to improve the quality of our own lives and that of all dreamers.
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S. Kelley Harrell, C. Ht., is a shamanic practitioner and columnist in Cary, NC. She is the author of Gift of the Dreamtime: Awakening to the Divinity of Trauma. Contact her for shamanic sessions and teaching schedule at kelley@soulintentarts.com. www.soulintentarts.com.