The Dream Sourcebook: A Guide to the Theory and Interpretation of Dreams (26 page)

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Authors: Phyllis R. Koch-Sheras

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BOOK: The Dream Sourcebook: A Guide to the Theory and Interpretation of Dreams
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Figure 6.1:
This is a drawing by co-author Phyllis Koch-Sheras Sheras called
The Triad 
that took its inspiration from a dream about how she and her
 two collaborators could support each other during the writing of her
previous book.
archetypal images or dream helpers. You might want to incubate a dream for guidance in choosing which symbols to include. You can post the dream shield or mandala near your bed, as an icon to promote dreaming, or share it with a friend or fellow dream lover. (See page 159 for an example of a dream shield.)
Create a Special Dream Space
In many cultures, rituals of sleep and dreams are sacred. You, too, can create a dream environment or special "dream space" for yourself. Taking care with your surroundings encourages better recall and more productive dreams. Here are some tips:
 
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Meditate on your dream shield before you go to sleep.
Wear a special piece of comfortable sleepwear. If a particular color appears often in your dreams, you could choose to wear something of that color.
Wear a charm that symbolizes some aspect of your dreaming self.
Hang a dream catcher near your bed like Native American dreamers do. You can even make it yourself.
Put a bulletin board near your bed where you can post dream drawings or dream-inspired writings.
Make a dream pillow. Stuff a sachet with mugwort, traditionally called the "dream herb" because it is believed to stimulate dream recall and add to the intensity of the dream experience. Other aromatic herbs also can be mixed with stuffing and sewn into a pillow to stimulate recall (see "Herbal Dream Blends," page 207).
Choose a particular set of sheets or a dream blanket that you associate with dreaming.
Try sleeping in a different place on nights set aside for experimental dream purposes. Some people enjoy camping out on nights they wish to have special dreams.
 
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Figure 6.2:
Co-author Amy Lemley created this dream shield based on elements 
that appear frequently in her dreams. The golden-haired woman is a 
singer, whose songs are unlike any the dreamer has heard while awake. 
The map, to the left, and the open passport above it are other frequent 
dream subjects, symbolizing travel (she often dreams she has lost or
 forgotten her passport). Many of her dreams concern shopping, often in
 antique or thrift stores, always in shops filled with item after item too 
remarkable to describe. Some recent dreams have involved minnows
 spilling out from her new palm trees, pictured at left, and her dog, whose
 face appears at the top of the shield.
 
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Make Your Own Dream Catcher
Native Americans use dream catchers to filter out nightmares and draw in pleasant dreams. These handcrafted items have become popular in recent years as interest in Native American customs has grown, and are available for sale in many gift shops and stores that feature Western artifacts. Although traditional dream catchers were plain and unadorned, save for a feather showing good dreams where they could enter, contemporary ones are often quite decorative.
To make your own dream catcher, visit a craft store to obtain a circular metal base, some scraps of leather or cloth, some leather laces, and whatever feathers and beads strike your fancy. (Some craft stores sell dream catcher kits.)
Bind the metal base so that it is completely covered with the scraps, using the laces to hold the scraps in place. Next, create a large grid pattern of laces across the circle in both directions (think of a very primitive, large-scale tennis racket). Create a loop for hanging, then begin to decorate, attaching feathers and beads in a design that pleases you.
Hang your dream catcher in a specially chosen place, preferably near your bed, and dream on!
Your Dream World Series
After you have spent some time on dreamwork, you begin to see that certain themes and symbols recur, even in dreams about different topics. These symbols usually have the same meaning, or a very similar one, even though the dream stories may be differ-
 
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ent. Examining your dreams in a series and looking for continuity of symbols can shed light on the baffling images in your dreams and on the difficult conflicts or transitions in your waking life. Some confusing or seemingly meaningless dream images may make perfect sense later when the same theme or figure appears in a subsequent dream, or the two dreams looked at together may help elucidate the meaning of both. Discovering changes in your recurring dream symbols and themes can also give you clear evidence of evolution in your waking life. For this reason, some dream enthusiasts enjoy looking over their dream index and dream journal entries from the past year as a rite of passage on their birthdays. New Year's Day is another symbolic day to engage in this ritual.
One man uncovered some interesting thing about his personal development when he examined a lifetime of flying dreams as a series, exploring their changing themes from childhood through middle age. He comments:
They started occurring during dreams when I was being chased. I would jump, and instead of just landing five or six feet down the pavement, I would kind of glide in the air. I remember these dreams as getting away from something frightening. But some of them focused on moving toward someone, such as catching up with my friends. Later, I would dream that I was curious about something on the other side of a wall or building, and I would fly over there and hover as I explored. Eventually, I would travel to places far away, but within the line of sight: a building in the distance, a park, or the shore across the bay on Long Island Sound. As I got older, the dreams would carry with them a different featureI would be going to high places and the flying would involve transporting myself to a place where I could observe people or events. When I look at these dreams in a series over time, I see
 
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that they parallel my actual experience of aging. They shifted from primarily a kinesthetic experience to a more social and strategic tool through which I could do things and learn things.
As you continue with your dreamwork, you may notice recurring themes, characters, or objectsmeeting a wise old man or woman, forgetting something, escaping from danger, committing a heroic act, battling naturein your own nightly adventures. Whether the series occurs in short succession or over a period of years, exploring the evolution of the theme might shed light on your own personal development or provide some interesting insights. That was the experience of one prolific dreamer who had kept a dream journal for many years. After interpreting her individual dreams for quite a while, she began to look at her dreams over a two- or three-week period and came to find themes running through them. ''It was as if I was reading a book,'' she said. "The nightly dreams were like chapters, and after a few weeks, it was a novel that had written itself." She went on to write a short novel based on her dreams for a creative writing class.
You may find it enlightening to note the recurring dream images prevalent in your dream world. If an archetypal figure like a wise old woman, for example, appears in various forms in several of your dreamsgiving suggestions, messages, and assistanceshe might be a "dream helper" for you. These kinds of figures often appear repeatedly in dreams to lend support at crucial periods of your life. Once you learn to recognize them, you can use these recurring images to enrich and heal yourself in both your dreaming and waking lives.
Some people believe that recurring dream images may also be evidence of past-life information. Believers in reincarnation, such as author Michael Talbot, see spontaneous past-life dreams as "the unconscious mind's way of sending a telegram to the

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