Dreaming of Dreams

Welcome! 

Today, I'm talking about dreams. One of my listeners (hi Katie!) suggested this topic, and, boy, is this a juicy topic! The magnitude of this topic is akin to Thanksgiving dinner. There are many directions to go and so much detail to play with. So, in the spirit of sharing bite-size insights for your soul - I'm shrinking this topic of dreams into the size of a weeknight dinner and looking at how you may use content from your dreams to interpret your spiritual path.

Admittedly, this episode is more earthy (less airy) and rooted in insights I've learned through my studies at Sacred Stream, my own dream practice, and assisting my clients in interpreting their dreams during sessions.

What Are Dreams

Dreams are beautiful examples of how your inner world connects with your outer world. When you sleep, you slip into an altered state and communicate with the unseen— your states of consciousness and awareness. 

What exactly does that mean? Well, dreams are parts of your oneness that are communicating with you. They're opportunities for your guides, helping spirits, or guardian angels to connect with you to solve problems, revisit the past, speak to a deceased relative, and even receive instruction.

When you let go of expectations and misunderstandings about how you relate to dreams and your native self - you can explore dreams with curiosity and enthusiasm. You see how your inner journeys and inner framework bring you undeniable and significant meaning when you're in the dream state.

Source of Dreams

There is plenty of science on dreams that feed your mind's hunger for logical data so you can process information linearly. So I'm inviting you to settle in with wonder as I talk about dreams from a more spacious place.

In a dream state, I like to think that information moves like the tides in an ocean. Some wisdom comes to you from many lifetimes. And other times, you channel information to the collective. The inflow and outflow of information are akin to the ocean's tides.

When you dream and slide into an altered state of consciousness and connect with the unseen - your busy mind is asleep, and *this* is what allows you to tap into the pure depths of your awareness and connect with your inner being. And regardless of whether you remember your dreams or not, the information comes to you later - knowingly or unknowingly. And when it arrives, the insight often comes, out of the blue, as a 'great idea' or maybe through a deja vu moment.

Dream Interpretation

When it comes to dream interpretation, your 3-dimensional mind likes to link dreams with outcomes or results. But rarely do dreams work this way. Instead, you probably experience dreams like watching a movie clip - where you see the relationships between characters and watch the plot thicken. You feel the scene's emotion and maybe get a clear signal of what happens next. And while your tendency may be to wed that scene to a real-life experience - it's not quite that simple.

I'll start with a super simple way to begin interpreting your dreams. So, dreams often reflect a feeling or emotion. And once you embody that sensation, it may bring you to a time and place where you recall experiencing that same feeling. At that moment, there's likely something for you to observe as an insight or teaching. And if your dream triggered BIG emotions or maybe felt like a nightmare, consider returning to the dream when you can hold compassion and be genuinely curious to receive the wisdom coming through your dream. 

Interpreting your dreams is a way for you to better understand and reunite with yourself at a soul level. Your dreams point out blocks in your life and are a quantum leap forward in knowing yourself more thoroughly. In other words, you can use dreams as a door to your psyche, with direct routes to your core issues or where there are imbalances that separate yourSelf at a soul level.

Whoa - that's a little hard to grip. So to make this more tangible and relatable, I'll share a dream. I was a man during the holocaust. I was born Jewish and had to protect myself and my family. So I pretended *not* to be a Jew and instructed my family to do the same. As a result, I resented being free. And this created a lot of mixed feelings for me. So while I escaped with my family, siblings, and cousins —I carried an enormous amount of guilt by pretending to be someone I wasn't. Furthermore, my fellow people, other Jews, disapproved or despised me for doing this.

When I woke up from this dream and sat with it for a few days, I saw how much I resonated with these feelings of resentment to be "free" by pretending to be someone I wasn't. It reminded me of my career in the financial technology industry, where I took on the masculine role for decades to navigate systematized structures and hierarchies. And while that materially served me well, I saw how I also felt guilt and resentment. I remember how much I succumbed to capitalist markets and patriarchal structures, which kept me from operating within my divine feminine and truly holding that power. And while rediscovering myself, I also remember feeling like an outcast in drum or healing circles as it appeared 'everyone else' was living in their essence, and I was still trying to find mine.

This dream helped me better understand and reunite with myself at a deeper level by pointing out blocks of resentment and guilt in my life. This awareness allowed me to take a quantum leap forward in knowing myself better *and* celebrating achievements in my life's journey. In this example, you see how this dream was a door to my psyche, with direct routes to (ahem...some of) my core issues and imbalances that pulled me away from my soul. It's also an example of how I accessed wisdom from past lifetimes and integrated it into my being. 

In inverse, dreams may also feel like recent memories that travel to some faraway galaxy. An example of this is when you begin to fall asleep and replay your day's events or re-experience a moment earlier in the week. You may notice those events seem to leave you and fly away into the ether. When that happens, I like to think of these dreams using a metaphor that a dear friend shared with me the other day. Consider thinking of us earthly beings as Mars Exploratory Rovers, traveling this planet and taking in information with each spoken message, thought, or action taken. And when you're asleep and in an altered state of consciousness - that information you gathered is shared with the greater collective - call it the Universe, Cosmos, Creation, or the heavens. So as you fall asleep and rewind a day's events, perhaps entertain the idea that this is how you channel current information to the collective. 

And then, you may be someone who never remembers any dreams. That's normal too! Cultures do not put much attention into dreams. So either you do or do not dream. But, even when you do not dream, I believe wisdom and understandings are still energetically exchanged whether you realize it or not. 

Symbols in Your Dreams

So we talked about how to go in on a big emotion or feeling to interpret a dream. Now let's talk about how you may recognize symbols in a dream to help translate your dreams.

In the dream state, most experiences are symbolic and work from your native consciousness - meaning your purest sense of awareness. And even with lucid, intelligible dreams, they're not literal and hardly ever focused on your physical reality. 

So one way to look for symbols in your dream is to focus on the repeated 'nouns' since - like intense emotions in your dream - they're usually an invitation to go deeper. I'll share another one of my dreams (we're getting cozy here in this episode!) as an example of how a repeated 'noun' may translate into meaningful insights. 

I dreamt that electrical wires were being redirected and resourced differently. I had to unplug the wires from one connection and reroute them to plug into another connection. This new connection was essential, and it was important to have the mapping documented. The mapping document contained complex coding; yet, the one key element I recognized had to do with people. 

When I revisited this dream and searched for repeated nouns - clearly, it was 'connections.' And for me, 'connections' symbolize energetic relationships and remind me of a pillar I rely on in life: creating, maintaining, and nurturing purposeful connections. I lean on this pillar in how I show up in my work - both in my business consulting practice and my spiritual client practice. It also supports me during transition periods where I move from a known to an unknown. At the time of the dream, I was in the middle of shifting from writing a book to starting a podcast. As I linked this information, I deduced it was important to get the 'connections' correct and with the right mapping and resources - physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

So to make this relatable, there are four - probably oversimplified - prompts I offer you to help interpret a pattern of 'nouns' in a dream. 

1. What does this noun symbolize for you or remind you of?
2. When have you seen or experienced this before?
3. How can you link these experiences together?
4. What comes up for you when you look at the dream this way?

And using this framework, I'll summarize my dream in hopes that it helps you apply these questions to *your* dreams.

1. What does this noun symbolize for you or remind you of?
• 'Connections' symbolize energetic relationships and remind me of my pillar (or mantra) in life to create, maintain, and nurture purposeful connections.
2. When have you seen or experienced this before?
• I've seen or experienced this in how I show up in my work - especially during transition periods where I move from a known to an unknown.
3. How can you link these experiences together?
• At the time, I was in the middle of a transitional time, and my dream showed me the importance of getting the 'connections' correct to connect with the right people.
4. What comes up for you when you look at the dream this way?
• I saw the invaluable guidance I received when being a student to podcasting was not quite connecting with my intention. I saw how essential it was for me to make that connection - physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually - to have the right resources and mapping to connect with people.

Ways to Bridge Dreams with Your Spiritual Path

There are infinite ways to bridge your dreams with your spiritual path. I find the great place to start is with a dream journal. Begin to log your dreams - unfiltered. Note everything as is - no matter how bizarre it may be. I've found it helpful to capture the dream before moving around or using the restroom, as the dream often fades as you re-engage with your physical body. Then go back to the dream later and see what additional information comes through your notes. What are the repeated symbols in the dream? What do they mean to you? What do they remind you of? You know, those four inquiring questions already mentioned.

There are so many benefits of establishing a dream practice. For example, I've found that when I get into a rhythm with journaling and interpreting my dreams - dreams become a reliable source of wisdom. So much so that when I fall asleep, I'll often ask the Universe, Light, Source, a question I'm seeking insights into. Then when I wake up, more times than not, I receive a nice download to work with. 

And if your dream practice is on point, you're probably communicating with people in other realities and may have established mental and psychic processes. If this describes you, I would love to hear from you and learn from YOU! 

If you're on the other end of the spectrum, be patient with establishing your dream practice. When I get tripped up on a dream, I find that by retelling the dream to a friend or my husband when I'm awake - inevitably, more details come up, and I make new connections between the patterns in the dream.

And to protect yourself, you probably do *not* want to start a dream practice if you're depressed, tend to see evil all around you or feel hopeless or in a state of suffering. These conditions tend to influence the inner exploration of your dream state towards discouraging insights. You can always revisit the idea of starting a dream practice when you feel stable and grounded.

Recap & Wrap Up

Ok. So to bring you full circle - you're probably seeing now how dreams are pretty insightful and serve as a bridge to your spiritual path when you're open to new and creative ideas. And when you can comfortably see dreams at the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels of your being - you become an active explorer in new territories and realms.

The main takeaways from this episode:

1. Dreams are opportunities for your guides, helping spirits, or guardian angels to connect with you.
2. In a dream state, information moves like the tides in an ocean. Some wisdom comes to you from many lifetimes. And at other times, you channel information to the collective. 
3. Both feelings and symbols in your dreams help you understand and reunite with yourself at a soul level. 
4. There are infinite ways to bridge your dreams with your spiritual path. I find establishing a dream practice to be the best place to start.

And, I'll leave you with that… See you in the next episode.

Bye for now.