Dreams.  I love this word.  I have been fascinated with dreams my entire life.  Of course, I come by this naturally.  Almost every morning when I woke up my mother would ask me and my brother and sister, “any dreams last night, kids?”  I always had some to report and did not hesitate to clamour to report them.  My mother quite likely got her interest in dreams from her mother, Sarah.  Whenever Granny would visit from England, she always arrived with her dream book in hand.  So, today, in preparing this piece, I went downstairs into storage and got out Granny’s dream book.  I have it beside me now, and miraculously, it still smells of Granny’s signature scent.  April violets.  When Granny and my mother crossed over, only seven years apart, I inherited the old dream book from Granny’s trunk.  It was the only material thing of Granny’s that I wanted.

One of my teachers, Sylvia Browne, says that there are five categories of dreams: “Release dreams, wish dreams, prophetic dreams, information or problem-solving dreams and astral visits.”  (BOOK OF DREAMS).  I have experienced all of these categories of dreams many times.  It is highly likely that you have too.  If you meditate on each category they will waft toward you like whisperings in the wind.  Dreams are one of the ways that our subconscious expresses itself while we sleep.  If you don’t usually remember your dreams and you wish to, then just plant that affirmation into your mind before you go to sleep and keep a pen and journal on your nightstand and readily available to you so that you can write your dreams down before a busy day erases them from your consciousness.

When I underwent Jungian therapy in the mid-eighties I kept dream journals at the request of my therapist.  So, I have five years worth of very ‘old’ dreams in a very ‘old’ suitcase in storage.  I figure some day they may be helpful as fodder for ideas for stories or novels that I may wish to write in the future.  One of the lines that I have frequently heard in my mind since my late teens is “time is a river in which I go fishing.”  It is a repeating echo.  Maybe, some day, I will open that suitcase and go fishing.  One doesn’t have to get stuck in a time-warp in order to mine ideas.

One of the many benefits of our dreams is that they help to keep us sane.  As Sylvia says, ” our subconscious mind takes the opportunity to let off emotional steam that our conscious mind has not dealt with. ”  She quotes sleep researcher, Wm. Dement as stating, “dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.”  Also, many of us find immense inspiration in our dreams as well as clues and connections to our past and future selves.  Dreams tend to be filled with symbolism, both personal and universal.  It is in dreamtime that we can commune so easily with our angels and be open to our own divinity and of course within the dreams that are actually ‘astral journeys’, we can meet up with loved ones on the astral planes.

Louise Hay has sage advice for us at bedtime: “Please do not listen to the news or watch it on TV at night.  The news is only a list of disasters, and you don’t want to take that into your dream state.  Much clearing work is done in the dream state, and you can ask for help with anything you are working on.  You will often find an answer by morning.” (YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE)  I have found this to be true.  Praying before sleep has given me answers that were crucial to myself and others.  This includes a dream I had when my daughter was a child and her doctor was unable to diagnose her illness.  My daughter was nine and losing a lot of weight and was not herself and her physician was unable to discover the cause.  Like any mother would be, I was frantic with worry – as her doctor refused to refer her to a paediatrician and she was getting weaker and weaker.  I prayed to know the medical diagnosis.  That night I had a dream that gave me the diagnosis and I took my daughter into the clinic the following day and asked her doctor to test her for this disease.  He said it would be an unnecessary blood test that would cause her pain.  It pained me greatly to insist; however, the illness could only be determined by a blood test and my dream was very specific.  Thankfully, because at that time I was still a registered nurse, the doctor ordered the test, the disease was exactly as my dream had told me and her doctor immediately ordered the medication she needed and was on for two weeks.  She recovered completely.  A lot happens while we sleep.

Waking up to and understanding our own unconscious mind is such an important task in our quest for wholeness.  Dreams often provide us with the information that we need so that we no longer project out of ourselves, onto others, what belongs to US.  Through dreams we can claim our projections and take responsibility for them.  As Marion Woodman ( well-known Jungian analyst and lecturer) says, “as within, so without” is a psychic reality.  She states,” In analysis, I have watched both men and women move inwardly over a period of years from one pole to another, from a deathlike, dismembered state to an abundant wholeness of life.  This inward movement is not linear, one step after another.  It is like the movement of a snake: the forward movement is propelled by a coiling or circling back as a gathering of energy to move ahead.  Their dreams and the accompanying  associations, coilings and circlings that propel them, mark the various stages of their rites of passage.”  (THE MAIDEN KING: THE REUNION OF MASCULINE AND FEMININE by Robert Bly & Marion Woodman).  This speaks to me, as I am undergoing another transformation.  Ironically, (or perhaps not!) I had a vision of a cobra a few weeks ago and took it as another Kundalini Yoga sign as well as indicating the shedding of another of my skins.  So, once again, I am recording my daily dreams.  An unexpected benefit of these dreams and visions is that they are preparing me for an Animal Totem workshop that I am delivering in mid-March.  Animals are coming into my dreams every night, bringing me their energies and preparing me from the inside out.  Ted Andrews says,” anytime a snake shows up as a totem, you can expect death and rebirth to occur in some area of your life.”  And, the animals just keep coming!  Black panther, tiger, cats, bear… the list goes on. I am deeply grateful for their gifts.

There is so much help available to us while we sleep.  It is during our dreamtime that our angels and guides can accomplish some of their greatest divine interventions for our healing and our Highest Good.  One of my teachers, Dr. Doreen Virtue, recommends that you set your nightly intention with this prayer: “Dearest God, I seek to expand my consciousness through your angels’ interventions into the landscapes of my mind this night. I give You my open mind and heart, that You may heal my limitations in thinking, and correct my mind to truth.”  (ANGEL THERAPY, p.58)

Wishing you the sweetest of dreams,     Monica