Exploring Dreams

Falling Dreams

2012-02-25T11:47:00.005Z

Dreams about falling are quite common and can take many different forms, such as falling off a cliff, down a hole, out of a tree and so on. Sometimes they are associated with the actual process of falling asleep, when our muscles relax and we sometimes twitch and jerk. Some people believe they are associated with entering the astral body - a non-physical, spiritual aspect of the self.

Falling dreams may occur at times of transition, life crisis or accelerated personal growth, often when you feel out of your depth in some way. If you have a falling dream write it down and then look at some of the main aspects such as:

where is the dream set?
who are you in your dream?
what do you fall down?
do you feel afraid, or liberated in some way?
are there other characters on your dream?

For more about falling dreams, plus other common dream themes such as flying, being watched etc., you may like to refer to my new book Exploring Your Dreams - see sidebar.

New Moon in Pisces

2012-02-20T10:53:00.004Z

At the moment we are in Dark Moon, which is the time in the moon's cycle when no moon shows in the sky. Tomorrow is New Moon, but still the moon will not show her face for a night or two. Then you might see a thin mysterious sliver in the western sky just after the sun has set.
This month the New Moon is in Pisces so it will be a time for dreams, reflections, meditation. Let your life just drift for a while and don't try to think things through logically. Pay attention to your dreams. Write them down, sit with them, ask questions of them. Let go of tension, anxt, control, and just go with the flow of the tide. Don't try do DO, just BE. We don't allow ourselves enough of this nowadays.

An Icy Coincidence

2012-02-08T10:09:00.003Z

We are having a really cold spell in Britain at the moment and yesterday our harbour was frozen over. I sat on a bench with a friend looking at gulls standing on the ice, and I remarked that it was almost like a Baltic port - which was a sort of pun really because when it's really cold in Britain we often say `it's really Baltic today'.

As we sat there I was thinking about the Russian submarine which sank a while back in the Barents sea with great loss of life. A creepy feeling came over me as I thought of all the poor sailors trapped down there under the icy water. But I could not remember the name of the submarine, nor exactly when the tragedy had happened.

This morning I was talking to my father and he asked me to look up a book on the internet for him because it was written by somebody he knew. `I think it's about the battle of Kursk' he said. After I put the phone down and went to wash the breakfast dishes I suddenly thought hang on, I'm sure that was the name of that submarine.

I looked it up on Google, and sure enough, it was the Kursk that had sunk, in August 2000, with the loss of all 118 crew on board.

This sort of thing seems to be happening to me more and more. I am trying to remember something, or find out an obscure piece of information. Then I get busy with something else and I forget all about it. Then, before I remember to Google it, the thing I wanted to know kind of pops up somehow in a totally different and unexpected way. Fascinating, and weird!

Bagan

2011-12-21T11:50:00.005Z

I include really good coincidences on this dream blog because I think the two things are somehow interrelated, both part of the vast sea of the unconscious which we still understand so little about.

Yesterday I was reading The Glass Palace by Amitav Gosh, a fascinating novel about Burma. As I read I thought I must Google to find out more about modern Burma and how life is there now - I'm sure it is called something different now. In the passage I read yesterday it describes a small watercolour painting `a depiction of a landscape at sunrise, a stark red plain dotted with thousands of mist-wreathed pagodas....Pagan!' I had a really vivid, clear image of this scene in my mind as I read.

Today I decided to clear my backlog of reading National Geographic magazine. I had four copies waiting and simply selected the oldest one, August 2011, without looking at the contents. Lo and behold there was an article about Myanmar - the country that used to be called Burma ( by the British anyway). I hadn't even needed to Google it to find out! Fascinated I read on, and, turning the page, there was a double page spread photograph of the landscape of pagodas on a red plain as described in the story. Now called Bagan rather than Pagan, the place was once the spiritual capital of several kingdoms. The picture took my breath away it was so like the way I had visualised the scene in my mind's eye. I saw it so vividly that I almost felt I was there.

Numinous Dreams

2011-12-19T10:20:00.006Z

Now and again we have dreams that feel deeply meaningful and important. These are the numinous dreams that give us a glimpse of the deep, underlying spiritual dimension of our lives.

Last night I dreamed that I was talking to dear friend who has been dead for several years now. We were discussing the date of her birthday, nothing very startling or important. But beyond this rather trivial conversation there was an unspoken one going on too. There was very deep and loving eye contact between us and I knew that we were communicating easily and profoundly on a soul level. While I was dreaming this I was also thinking so this is how it is done, this is how it is when we are no longer in the body. Then I woke up and could no longer quite remember the secret of it all - it had evaporated with my dream, but I knew that it was real, an amazing gift and joy that is yet to come.

Interestingly when I told my friend Gill about the dream this morning she suddenly recalled that she too had dreamed about the same person last night. In this dream I had a hair bobble wrapped up that I had been going to give her for her birthday, but I was saying that she had no need of it any more, where she is now.

Gill's dream kind of backs mine up - neither of us had dreamed of this friend for ages, and we both had dreams that involved her birthday. Strange.

Dream Oracle - Dawn

2011-12-16T10:56:00.005Z

Something beginning
A new start
Something `dawning' on you
Hope
Anticipation or dread
Magic
Take note of what kind of dawn it appears to be - does it look inviting? Forbidding?

Dream Oracle - Ice

2011-12-07T09:22:00.003Z

Frozen energy
Stuck ideas
Blocks
Things on hold
Need for rest and reflection
Memories from long ago

Thawing ice
Releasing
Ideas or energy beginning to flow
New cycle of life

Killing the Minotaur

2011-11-30T12:10:00.006Z

I had a fascinatingly Jungian dream last night. Four of us are in the attic of a large building - two men and two women. The men are Jason and Odysseus, and the women are Penelope and another, misty, shadowy woman. A minotaur has made its way up the building and is now on the floor directly below, bellowing dangerously, bashing its head against the wall, shaking the whole building. We know that it will soon realise it is half human and it will stand up and then walk up the stairs and kill us.

Three of the characters discuss how to get rid of this minotaur - Penelope and Jason are in favour of killing it safely from a distance, by throwing knives. Odysseus is dead set on going down to tackle it single handed, face to face. The fourth figure keeps out of it and says nothing. She merely observes the others impassively.

The symbolism in this dream is so amazing that I have really impressed myself! The four figures, two male and two female, indicating balance and resolution. The different approaches to the problem, using male/female energies. The minotaur itself - half human, half beast; conscious/unconscious; rational/instinctive. The rising of the beast through the levels of consciousness, represented by the floors of the house. The strange mythical, collective unconscious aspect of the characters...I could go on at length!

But most astounding of all is the shadowy fourth figure, who does not take part in the debate. She is silent, numinous, strong, a sort of unseen warrior. I want to be her - she is really cool! And she is clearly my shadow self in the Jungian sense of the word - an unknown, unacknowledged part of me who is centred, calm, and powerful. And the interesting thing is, she is proved right in doing nothing - before we are able to tackle the monster I wake up and find that the monster's roaring is actually my husband snoring loudly! This really makes me laugh - the terrifying minotaur is not even real!

Which all goes to show how we get caught up in huge pendulums of false belief and angst. We allow ourselves to be thrown off centre and dash into attack mode all too often. So I'm going to try and remember my shadowy fourth character and absorb her balancing energy.

Aeolian harps

2011-11-26T11:59:00.011Z

Not really about dreams, but...I just got a message from JB, about a post I did ages ago - in fact I think it was about the first one on this blog if you want to scroll back. It was about an aeolian harp I made in the garden. It looked very pretty but, disappointingly it didn't actually work! So Sorry JB, but I can't post up the sound for you, because it existed only in my imagination!

However...

Here's another, completely accidental aeolian harp - well, pipe actually - that I discovered while out for a walk. It was simply an old pipe with a hole in it, made into a rather ramshackle gatepost. The sound the wind made through the hole was unearthly - a kind of lost, long ago sound, which out in the remote fells where I found it was very atmospheric and haunting. So keep your eyes open - you never know where you might find one - I have actually come across more than one aeolian gatepost!

Meanwhile, I have occasionally caught the wind playing the strings on my own clarsach (Celtic harp) when I'm out in the garden, so if there's a fine windy day in the not too distant future I'll record that for you. The wind is a far better musician than I am! And I've now got a magical mobile phone that records sounds, so next time I come across an aeolian gatepost I'll record that too...

Dream Oracle - Nest

2011-11-23T19:44:00.003Z

making a cosy home
a surprise discovery
air element
birds
protecting something
childhood
nature and the countryside

Predictive Dreams

2011-11-18T10:16:00.005Z

I am absolutely fascinated by predictive dreams because, like strange coincidences, they seem to hint that something is going on behind the scenes that we don't fully understand. Sometimes it's just a small, insignificant snippet of a dream that later happens in real life. Other times they are more complete. Here’s a really weird one that happened to me:

The Dream:
In the dream I went out into a friend’s garden to do a bit of gardening for her. It wasn’t like her usual garden - it had lots of trees in it and it was all green and overgrown. The light was strange- like a sort of green mossy twilight. At one end of the garden there was a rocky cliff face, about 20-30’ high, all covered in ferns and other plants growing out of the cracks. In this rock face was an oak door and I knew this led into a series of underground tunnels.

Over to the right there was a yew tree, high up so that I could get right underneath it and look up at the twisted trunk with its red-brown bark and the dark branches with their bright red glowing berries. All amongst the cracks in the bark were weird goblin and fairy faces, looking out at me.

What happened in reality four days later:
We had wanted to visit the fairy steps for years. Locals had seen fairies running up and down the steps at night. There was also the legend that if you made a wish at the bottom and could go up the steps without touching the sides, your wish would come true.

The wood where the steps are is truly a fairy place - ancient, with many kinds of native trees, and thickly overgrown. The dim green light was hypnotic and strange – but for now I had forgotten the half twilight of my recent dream. As with all fairy paths there were warnings to be heeded as you went on your way. Stern signs from the landowner telling you not to leave the path under any circumstances. It’s a well known fact that you should never leave the path in fairy woods. We set out through the gate, walking up the broad, limestone path, smoothed by the passing of many feet over the centuries. The path we followed was an old corpse road (a road that coffins were once carried along to get to hallowed ground for burial.)

The path descended into the ancient heart of the forest becoming narrower and narrower. The silence became immense and heavy, only broken by the snapping of twigs behind us, we felt we were being watched. When we looked nothing appeared to be there… perhaps it was only squirrels.

We walked for perhaps half a mile and then suddenly through the trees we could see a strange rocky outcrop of huge limestone boulders, rearing up in a cliff about 20-30` high, just as I had seen in my dream. The effect was most odd, rather like coming upon a sudden hidden Inca settlement in the midst of the wood – the huge blocks of stone, fissured by natural weathering, were similar in appearance to the great blocks carved by the skilled masons of those ancient people. We were obviously following the edge of a limestone pavement.

Just as we began to wonder how much further, we rounded a corner and there they were – the Fairy Steps, cut into the rock face up a narrow cleft. As we looked up at the cracks and fissures of the rock face we seemed to see strange goblin faces peering down at us, oddly like the ones in my dream that peered out from the red-brown flaking bark of the yew tree.

Then I realised that many of the plants growing near the steps were ferns - just like the plants in the dream. And then I saw the yew tree, exactly as in my dream, above my head to the right. I could walk underneath it. Its trunk was gnarled and twisted and there on its branches were the glowing red berries, like tiny red fairy lamps. I took a photograph and the light was so dim beneath the overhanging branches that the flash came on automatically - again echoing the odd green twilight of my dream.

So what about the oak door and the underground passages that I dreamed about? I wonder if there are any local legends about subterranean passages! We know that we were certainly enchanted by the timeless silence of the wood, and we all had an uncomfortable feeling that we were being watched all along the way. Who knows – perhaps the fairy steps themselves lead to another world?

Dream Oracle - Ruins

2011-11-13T11:41:00.004Z

Ancient history
Yours?
Your family?
A relationship?
The past
Unearthing things
Buried treasures
Something that was ruined
Past beliefs - do they still serve you or are they holding you back?

Spiders

2011-11-10T10:33:00.009Z

Dreams about spiders provide a very good example of the way in which symbols and metaphors can mean very different things to different people. This is why I am constantly telling people that I cannot interpret their dreams for them - I can only help them to discover their own insights and truths.

For some people spiders are scary and threatening - probably especially true if you live in a part of the world where they may be poisonous. So for these people, spider dreams might be about something a bit scary that is emerging from the unconscious. But spiders are also mysterious and beautiful. Look at this photo of a spider's web I took in my garden one morning:In shamanic spiritual traditions the whole of creation is often seen as a huge, shimmering, interconnected web of energy. Myths from all over the world describe Spider’s energy as the divine female energy. She is the weaver of destiny and the universe, the source of divine creativity. In Native American myth Grandmother Spider is the one who brings fire and teaches humans how to make fire-baked pottery as well as skills in spinning and weaving. One beautiful myth tells of how she laced a web with dew and threw it into the sky, where it became the myriad twinkling stars. The Dayaks of Borneo tell the story of how the world began with a spider hanging on a celestial web in the endless darkness of space. Gradually all kinds of creatures and plants landed on her web and became enmeshed in the fabric of creation.

So spider dreams can also represent the quest for the Soul Centre, and the idea of being both centred within the self and simultaneously connected with all that is - like Spider, sitting at the centre of her cosmic web, with her delicate feet on all the strands. In other words there is a great awareness of the oneness of everything, including that which we normally tend to see as a small and separate Self.

Ghosts

2011-10-29T12:01:00.004+01:00

Its Samhain - the Celtic Feast of the Dead, more commonly known as Halloween. Many people think of this festival as being associated with evil witches, ghouls and vampires, and that's certainly the aspect that gets commercially plugged in the shops. But for my Celtic ancestors it was a very special time - a time when the veil between the worlds grew thin and you could communicate with those who have gone to the Otherworld. It was also their New Year - a time for new beginnings, letting the seeds of new energy germinate, safely tucked up in the warmth of the earth until spring.

Samhain is a time for rest, reflection, surrendering to the dark of winter and exploration of the shadow aspects of the psyche. So look out for ghostly appearances and apparitions, in your dreams or round about you. Can you see these delightlful little ghosts I took a snap shot of near a deserted railway embankment? Its suprising what you see if you keep an alert eye and an open mind. Let me know if any appartitions appear in your dreams over the next few days!

Dark Moon Dreams

2011-10-26T09:51:00.006+01:00

Last night was dark moon - the hidden part of the moon's cycle when no moon appears in the sky at night. Symbolically this can connect us with the hidden, buried parts of the psyche. These may be things which we have locked away, maybe because they are scary; or they may be powerful energies that are unfolding, growing in the dark like seeds. It pays to take note of any dreams you have at this time, write them down in your journal and ponder over them.

My dark moon dream is about cats - lots of them - in my back garden. Cats are strongly symbolic of the unconscious and deep feminine power. They are independent creatures, silent and cunning when they hunt. In particular I am drawn to a silhouette of a black cat on the ground, which is very mysterious and powerful. Mmm...I feel some art work coming on. Cats and the moon.

Birds in Dreams

2011-10-21T09:31:00.005+01:00

Birds are very important in the dream world and they often act as spiritual messengers, and as go-betweens between the inner and outer worlds. As a child I was fortunate enough to live in an old farm house surrounded by trees. Often I would wake to the magic of the dawn chorus, often begun by the amazing, pure fluting notes of the blackbird. Years later I discovered that he is Druid Dubh, the Black Druid of the Celts, who guards the gateway to the Otherworld. I already knew this, somehow, when I was only eight years old.

In my long career as a therapist I have come across a suprising number of people who, rather sheepishly at first, admitted that they felt a lost loved one or friend had returned to them in the form of a bird. It was often a seagull, sometimes a smaller bird such as a wren. Sailors often held the belief that the dead returned as seagulls. It's not hard to see why, when you listen to the unearthly keening cry of a gull, or stare back into that glassy, primeval eye.

There are many useful websites that will help you to discover the particular shamanic energy of your dream birds. Obviously a lot depends on the type of bird you dream about. Here are a few suggestions to get you started, but remember, as always, your dream is unique to you and only you can discover its real truth.

Seagull - travel, the ocean, the unconscious, water element
Wren - small but powerful, busy, woodlands and trees
Robin - friend, gardens, tradition, earth, digging
Kingfisher - flash of inspiration, magic, water, rivers and pools, joyful spirit
Swift - freedom, mastery of flight, air, speed
Owl - night, secrets, death and rebirth, magic, psychic messages
Heron - water, poetry, patience, camouflage
Wild goose - travel, movement, adventure, call of the soul
Cockerel - wake up call, pride, flaunting your skills
Humming bird - dreams, the Otherworld, magic, manifesting
Cuckoo - return of spring, or new energy; mockery, cunning, concealment
Raven - ancient wisdom, Goddess power, death and rebirth, battles

You might already have some strong ideas of your own to add to these suggestions - why not start a Bird Oracle of your own in the back of your journal?

Junk

2011-10-14T11:44:00.004+01:00

If you dream about old junk it might mean that it's time for a good space-clearing session. This might be in the outer world, sorting out your wardrobe perhaps, or giving the kitchen a thorough going over.

Or it might be in the world of your psyche - is it time to take stock, move on, let go of old energy patterns and ways of thinking that are no longer helpful?

Have good look for other pointers in your dream:

Where is it set? Basements and cellars often connect with buried stuff we have shut away and are not keen to unearth. Attics might be to do with family history, or more spiritual matters (because they are `high up').
Who else is in the dream? Are there `issues' that need to be looked at in connection with those people?
How do you feel? Depressed? Energised? Confused? Scared?
Is the junk recognisable stuff - perhaps stuff from childhood, or earlier in your life. If so then your obstacle in life might be somehow connected with this period.

Sorting through junk also often occurs as part of the`delay' type of dream. Have a look at what kind of junk is holding you back.

Metaphor

2011-10-09T11:20:00.007+01:00

Metaphor is vitally important in dreamwork because both symbol and metaphor are part of the language of the unconscious. Symbols are things like road signs, badges and emblems - images and ideas that simply represent other ideas or things. They show us one thing being like another. Metaphor, much used by writers, artists and most particularly poets, is similar in the way it works, but much more powerful. The metaphorical thing actually becomes the other, in a deeply mysterious, alchemical way.

Small children understand this from a very early age: they appreciate it in stories and use it in their imaginative play all the time.

My small granddaughter, not yet two and half, is helping me in the garden. We are weeding the vegetable patch, getting it ready for the fallow time of winter. For a few minutes she lifts weeds with her small pink trowel and puts them into her bucket, copying Granny. Then she gets bored with the task and toddles over to pick up the watering can over by the tap.

`Need water, Granny. Watering the flowers.'
But Granny is being thick and unco-operative and doesn't reply or even seem to notice this request. Granny knows that water + toddler + October = soaking wet and cold in no time at all.

My granddaughter eyes the tap hopefully, but susses out that it's too high up for her to reach. She goes over to the water butt, examines it closely, and experimentally shakes the pipe attaching it to the down spout from the gutter. Can I get water out of here? Fortunately she doesn't twig on that she can turn on the tap at the bottom. She looks at Granny again, giving her her strongest hard stare.

`Water, Granny.'
No response. Granny is still ignoring her.
Thinks - what shall I do now? I can't get any water.
Granddaughter toddles back to the vegetable patch, spoons a quantity of earth into the watering-can with her trowel. Then she picks up the can and wanders about happily, `watering' the plants with her metaphorical water and singing `water, water, water,' quite happily. Solution found.

Earth into water - hmmm - powerful alchemy! I am beginning to wonder if our use of and understanding of metaphor is one of the most important and basic things that that makes us uniquely human. It certainly gives us major insight into the world of the dreaming mind.

Dreaming about Food

2011-10-06T11:14:00.004+01:00

Most people dream about food from time to time. This may mean that you are actually hungry - but these dreams may also give clues to our feelings about security, or being nurtured or fulfilled.

If you dream about food take note of how you feel in your dream. Is the food stuff that you enjoy, or is it something that you dislike? Is it nutritious and wholesome, or is it rancid or off in some way?

Who is with you in your dream? Are you sharing the food amicably? Or is someone forcing you to eat something you don't like, or withholding food from you? Is the food interesting or is it dull, tasteless and boring?

Look for other clues as to what your dream is really about. Where is it set? How are you behaving in your dream?

Dream Oracle - The Sea

2011-10-03T11:43:00.002+01:00

The unconscious
The deep feminine
Travel and adventure
Boundaries and edges
Primeval energy
The ancestors

Dreaming of Artwork

2011-10-01T12:53:00.007+01:00

I dream of Grecian tiles, painted in blue and green with subtle pink highlights here and there. They show the heads of beautiful women in profile, their dark curling hair tied up in elegant shapes on top of their heads. This dream is about some shift of energy, a creative awakening in my own unconscious - my own hair is dark and curling, and I like to do artwork when I'm not busy writing!

Sometimes it's really good to make artwork inspired by your dreams. Even if you are `no good' at art, it can often expand and build upon the imagery expressed in your dream and may lead you to surprising new insights. If you have had a dream with a vivid image like this one of mine, then why not give it a try? I think I'll have a go at drawing my Grecian women - it might help me to explore the energy of my dream in more depth. If the result is any good I'll post it up!

PS - the resulting artwork was not worth posting up - never mind, back to the drawing board!

Autumn Equinox - balancing

2011-09-26T10:19:00.004+01:00

Around the time of the Autumn equinox in the northern latitudes where I live, the psyche needs to settle, find its balance, adjust to the changing seasons.

I dream about a swing - a perfect metaphor for this balancing process. My swing is tied up with complex knots, and placed against a wall, so that it can only swing through half of its natural arc. I need to sit with this dream, discover where I am blocking my psychic energy, unravel the knots and allow my natural balance to come back. The fact that my swing is in a garden, attached to a kind of rose arbour, gives me some good clues - I need to spend plenty of time out of doors, working with plants and nature.

Why not have a look at your own dreams and see if there are any balancing equinox messages emerging.

Fallow Times

2011-09-03T12:30:00.002+01:00

I am going through a fallow time for dreams, as if my unconscious is resting, assimilating. This often seems to coincide with fallow periods for my writing and art-work. Sometimes we have to refresh the soul and simply be for a while. Otherwise we risk over-load and burn out. So if your dreams vanish for a while don't worry - they'll be back!

Cellars and Basements

2011-08-21T11:46:00.000+01:00

Dreams involving cellars and basements are often about your past, or family history, or both. Think about stuff you have stored, repressed, shut away, not dealt with. Very likely stuff that you no longer need cluttering up your psyche!

The basement or cellar may also represent the unconscious - so if you find yourself exploring the cellar of a dream house then be prepared for thoughts, feelings or past experiences that you had forgotten about that may begin emerging into the light of day.

Take special note of how you feel when you are down there, and look for other clues such as the kind of house your cellar is in, the clothes you are wearing and so on. Pointers such as these may help you to pinpoint where and when the blocked or forgotten energy that is represented in your dream originated. Take note too of any obvious symbols - for example I dreamed the other day that I was trying to get into a bathroom in the basement to have a bath. This dream could be about something that I am trying to `cleanse' or release from my psyche. I `re-entered' this dream later on by visualising myself soaking in a deep bubble bath with candles. One could also do this in reality of course.

If you don't have a cellar/basement dream then you could try doing a waking visualisation exploring one. Imagine the house first, then find a door, go down the steps into the cellar and see what you've got stored away down there - it can be quite interesting!

Dreaming in colour

2011-08-04T10:01:00.002+01:00

Do you dream in colour?
I most definitely do - this painting was made after I dreamed about a tiny red dragon. But some people reckon not to. Interestingly this was more commonly reported when TV and films were black and white. Nowadays more people say they dream in colour.

Choose a colour you would like to work with. Let's say red, just as an example. Make yourself a red meditation altar on a table, or in a corner of your room. You could put a red candle on it, a red crystal, pictures of red things, red flowers and so on.

Choose one of your red things when you go to bed. Place it near where you sleep and just before you drift off, say to yourself, aloud if you like, but in your head is fine: tonight I would like to dream about red.

As soon as you wake up, write down any dreams you can recall. If there is something red in your dream pay special attention to its message.

You will find more about dreaming in colour in my book Exploring Your Dreams, which is available now.

Dream Oracle - Deer

2011-07-30T12:04:00.000+01:00

Deer

The Otherworld
Portal to the world of faery
The voice of the soul
Stillness
Grace and swiftness
Dance
Mysteries of the forest and wild places

Random Stones 2

2011-07-24T12:16:00.001+01:00

(If you have not done the first part of Random Stones yet, then scroll down and find the first post about it.)

Now for a dream...take your random stone to bed and hold it in your left hand just before going to sleep. Say to yourself `I am programming this stone as a dream stone. I ask my unconscious to bring me a dream using this stone.'

Put the stone under your pillow. As soon as you wake up, either during the night or in the morning, see if you can recall a dream, or a dream snippet. Write it down in your journal.

Did your stone actually appear in your dream?
Did your dream relate to what you wrote about your stone in your journal before?
Is your stone telling you something?

It's here at last!

2011-07-22T10:12:00.001+01:00

I have my first copy of my new book right here on my desk in front of me. Feels great after all that hard work! If you want a copy of your own you can get it from Amazon or any good bookshop.

I am now offering one-to-one dreamwork consultations via email. This is not about me interpreting your dreams for you - I might make suggestions, but your dreams belong to you and only you can find out what they are really about. I will help you to explore them and get the most out of their hidden messages.

£10 per half hour consultation
Email address on my profile

Dream Oracle - Swifts

2011-07-22T10:08:00.001+01:00

Mastery of the air element
Transformation
Freedom
Joy and exuberance
Living on air
Summer

Random Stones

2011-07-18T11:27:00.001+01:00

One of the most fascinating aspects of dreamwork is the idea of metaphor - the way in which things can stand for, or remind us, of other things. So in a dream a cloud might represent foggy thinking, or a chair might suggest to us that it's time for us to `take a back seat'. This session is to help you explore metaphor through looking at an everyday object.

Go out for a walk and find a random stone. It can be any stone that presents itself - it might feel mysterious, heavy, fun, threatening, beautiful, ugly etc. The choice is entirely up to you. This is one that turned up in my garden. It's haematite, or iron ore, which is common where I live. It's a very heavy, dark stone, so good for exploring deeply hidden issues and the shadow self.

When I first found the stone a couple of months ago I saw a picture of a hooded thing on it. Can you see him? He is facing to the right, wearing a loose habit like a monk, with his hood drawn up over his head. I saw him as being very powerful, dangerous even, but very protective towards myself. So I put him in a plant pot in my garden to keep an eye on things.

When I came to upload the picture of him just now it kept on appearing the other way up on the blog. Weird!! In the end I had to turn the picture `upside down',so that it came out the `right way up'. Then I realised - of course - that many random images and metaphors can be seen from different angles, and viewed differently by different people.

This morning I see a different image in my stone. A figure with a wide, spreading protective cloak is holding and protecting a rather sad, crumpled smaller figure. Can you see it this way?
Interesting because I am doing a lot of inner work right now and healing aspects of myself from the past.

Have a good look at your stone and then write about what you see and feel. It's a good idea to keep a special journal for this - you can read more about keeping a personal development journal in my new book Exploring Your Dreams. You can pre-order your copy from Amazon now.

Dream Oracle - Birch

2011-06-24T11:34:00.000+01:00

Northern lands
Shamanic wisdom
Brooms for witches and wise women
New beginnings
Cleansing and exorcism
Grace and beauty
Lady of the Woods
Protection

Misummer Flower Fairy Dream

2011-06-21T16:36:00.001+01:00

Today is midsummer, the longest day, and all kinds of fairy goings on will be happening in the British Isles! Last night I dreamed that there was a competition to design a flower fairy for each county in UK. There was already one for my county - Cumbria. He was sitting on a leafy tightrope amongst the trees, with his back to me. So I've tried to do a picture of him facing forwards, but he's a bit tricksy, so I couldn't really get his face right.

Why not have a go at doing a picture of an elemental being for your own county, town, city or country? It would be interesting to compare results. No prizes though I'm afraid!

Dream Oracle - Dragonfly

2011-06-16T09:48:00.001+01:00

Ancient magic
The Dreamtime
The Otherworld
Faery
Elementals
Dragons
Change and shattering of illusions
Powerful healing

Marigolds

2011-06-04T12:23:00.001+01:00

Now here's a strong metaphor if ever I saw one. I just discovered that quite a few of the lettuces in my patch are actually marigolds! That is a clear message to look for abundance and special things in ordinary, everyday places. I didn't even PLANT them - they just appeared there, because I love them.

By the way there is a good green message in this picture too. My lettuce bed is an old wheelbarrow that developed a huge hole in the bottom. I put a plank over the hole, filled the barrow with compost and lo and behold an almost slug-proof lettuce patch! Better than taking it to the tip I think. Oh and I have transferred the marigolds to container of their own. That one is made out of three old car tyres that I found abandoned in a local beauty spot. Stacked up and filled with compost they make a very effective planter.

Cats' Ears

2011-06-01T11:12:00.000+01:00

Sometimes in life we find a striking metaphor that comes up repeatedly - this little story is a rather bizarre example. Many years ago now my friend Gill brought me the cat and kittens on the left in the picture, after a a visit to Egypt. This cat lives in my kitchen, but after a while she got dropped, and her right ear broke off. I could not find the ear anywhere, despite a prolonged search, cleaning the floor etc. So eventually I made her a new one out of air-drying clay.

The cat on the right is one that my mother made - this cat lives in the shower room. A few weeks ago she got dropped and her right ear broke off. Now this is the really weird part - the shower room is small, uncluttered, and tiled. I cleaned the floor thoroughly and once again I could not find the ear anywhere. So I have made her a new one out of air-drying clay. Here she is with her new ear in place, waiting to be painted to match.

The two cat-disappearing-ear incidents were years apart, but I can't help thinking there is a message there somewhere. So if it was a dream, what would it mean?

The cat is a creature of the deep feminine, the wild nature, independence, cunning and intuition. I quite often dream about cats when I need to pay attention to this part of myself. In both cases it was the right ear that went missing. My own right ear is strangely pointed, so that friends often joke that I am half elf or pixie. Maybe the message is that I should listen to my own wild nature, my intuition - the part of me that feels and just KNOWS things - my elf self in fact. That part of myself is maybe even in danger, having been`broken' or lost in some way. So in loving and repairing my two cats maybe I am loving and repairing that part of myself that was broken long ago when I was trained to believe that intuitive, creative thinking is less valuable than logical, linear thinking.

Money tree

2011-05-23T11:26:00.000+01:00

An interesting email from my friend Gill:
`Here's a good dream coincidence for you- one of the totally meaningless but interesting ones. On Thursday night/Friday morning I dreamed I was living at my mum and dad's house and I had a money tree that had grown rather large and I was a bit anxious about it, it seemed to be ready for collapse so I propped it up with a stick. In real life we went to mum and dad's for mum's birthday lunch and as we were leaving mum said Do you want a money tree I just potted one up?'

The Money Tree is also known as Happiness Tree or Jade Tree. They are supposed to bring good luck and prosperity to your home. I find that they are very nosey - we have two and they like to be somewhere in the house where they are involved closely in what is going on. Otherwise they wilt and drop leaves.

I have also found that they seem to resonate with how one is feeling. Years ago, during a personal crsis, my huge money tree wilted and then split in half and crashed to the floor one night. And a friend had one that grew sick and died at the same time as she did. I am pleased to relate that mine is now thriving!

Dream Oracle - Storm

2011-05-23T10:57:00.001+01:00

Violent emotions
Blocked emotions rising from the unconscious
Release
New energy
Cleansing
Difficult descisions
A stormy phase in life

Listen to Your Dreams

2011-05-20T11:36:00.000+01:00

From today's Weird and Wonderful on the BBC website:
`Gregor Mendel (1822-84), the monk who founded the science of genetics, failed his teacher training course at the age of 28, getting his lowest marks in the biology paper. He taught all his life but never managed to pass the exam.'

Pay attention to your dreams. They are the gateway to your unconscious, the mysterious, magical, shining world, full of many possibilities. Honour yourself, and never be afraid to be who you really are - we all have unique talents that don't necessarily fit in with the accepted world view.

The Awen

2011-05-18T11:04:00.001+01:00

I am very excited to tell you that I have had an article accepted for a new spiritual journal for change and transformation called The Awen. I have had a preliminary look through the journal and it looks beautifully presented and thought provoking. Click here to download a free online copy and read my article, which is about starting a dream journal. There is also a related blog - click here.

`Awen' is a Welsh word meaning `inspiration', particularly divine and spiritual inspiration. It was used to describe the poetic inspiration which filled the ancient bards, and is still used in modern Druidry to describe the numinous energy and sense of connection experienced in the presence of trees or anywhere in nature.

Capturing the cuckoo

2011-05-17T10:18:00.000+01:00

We are camping in Yorkshire, visiting my parents, because my mother is critically ill. One evening we talk about cuckoos, how rare they have become in Britain, how we have not heard one for the last few years.

That night I dream that I can hear a cuckoo. I am imitating its call with my cupped hands, and it is answering back. Then I find I can't make the sound any more. I wake up, lie in the soft, pale light of early dawn, worrying about my mother. Then - surely...yes! A cuckoo is calling somewhere in the hedgerow nearby. Insistently, coming nearer now, calling and calling, as if to say - yes- I am hear, listen. It goes on and on, for about twenty minutes. I don't hear it on any other day after that, even though I listen out for it.

Researching cuckoo lore on my return home, I discover, mysteriously, that to hear the first cuckoo when lying in bed, as I was, portends illness and death in the family. There are many other myths and legends about the cuckoo - it was deeply important to my ancestors, a bird of great portent whose song heralded the coming of summer. Time to plant out the beans, make merry, dance the rites of spring. They even tried to build walls to keep the cuckoo in, so that they could live eternally in those joyous days of bursting green, white May blossom, the promise of warmth and growth and plenty. But of course they failed - the cuckoo always flew away. Life is constant change, cycles, birth and death, joy and sorrow. We cannot make it stand still.

The founding of a priory

2011-05-15T12:16:00.000+01:00

I recently visited Mountgrace Priory in North Yorkshire and was fascinated to learn that its founding in 1398 involved a predictive dream.

Unfortunately I didn't write down the exact details, so don't quote me on this, but I think the story was that its founder, Thomas Holland, had a dream of seven stars who knelt before him. He was then visited by seven men who knelt before him asking him for money to found the priory.

It's a wonderful, atmospheric place, and if you want the full story you can find it in the museum there. I had not realised until I visited that the Carthusian monks who lived there all lived separately, each in his own `cell'. This was not the tiny damp prison you might imagine, but a delightful little two story hobbit hole, with its own vegetable patch, private cloister and toilet, and all meals delivered. We were quite jealous!

The dinner hatch...

The toilet, with its own running water...

OK, a bit draughty maybe, but so peaceful. That was some dream I think!

The ego and the unconscious

2011-04-23T11:46:00.001+01:00

It struck me the other day that even people's lawns are metaphors. Some people have rigid, square, controlled ones, with never a blade of grass out of place and not a weed in sight. That makes me think of the tightly reined ego, always concerned about what others will think and trying to make an impression.

Mine is rather wild, irregular and full of surprises. It hasn't been cut yet, but it's full of wildflowers and butterflies. It reminds me of Jung's view of the unconscious - mysterious, shining, full of secrets and wonderful, beautiful things. Here are vivid blue bird's eye flowers, like tiny mirrors of the sky

and here wild strawberry flowers peep from amongst the grass stems near the washing line

I've also found daisies, dandelions, bugle, celandine, cowslips, violets and forget-me-nots. And lots of bees, beetles, spiders....oh and moss!

Dream Oracle - Violet

2011-04-19T15:59:00.001+01:00

Sweet secrets
Elemental beings of woods and hedgerows
Children
Love tokens
Peaceful sleep
Healing and calming

The colour violet is associated with the crown chakra and spiritual awakening, so watch out for it in your dreams - it may herald healing at a physical, mental or spiritual level. Violets are one of my favourite flowers of spring and I always feel happy and peaceful when they pop up in my garden in the lawn and under the trees.

Dream Oracle - Ladybird

2011-04-13T10:51:00.000+01:00

Fun and happiness
Frivolity and joy
Spring
Childhood
Miniature worlds - seeing the small details
The Goddess; Great Mother archetype

Some new books!

2011-04-12T11:01:00.000+01:00

I'm busy doing my final edit on the new dream book right now. It looks great, all set up and ready for the printer - very exciting! Meanwhile, if you want to learn a bit more about Freud and Jung, two great pioneers in dream research, why not check out these two new books by me?

Or if you want something in a bit more depth, then you could try these....

All are available on Amazon.

Metaphor

2011-04-07T10:51:00.001+01:00

A friend of mine has been feeling ill for some time. A few weeks ago her computer screen went unaccountably yellow. All the bits that should have been white went yellow. Then it went back to normal. A few days ago it went yellow again. This morning she got up, looked in the mirror, and she was yellow - she has got jaundice.

In a similar way, I have been very unwell myself recently and my car battery keeps going flat. It's interesting how metaphor is woven right through our lives, not just confined to the dream world. Things can mean, or even be more than one thing at the same time, and everything is inter-related in ways that we cannot fully grasp.

Next day - I can another little snippet to this post. A friend who read it told me that a friend of hers had a computer screen that turned purple a few days before she died. Fascinating - purple is often assocaited with the crown chakra, and ascending to spirit.

Dream Oracle - Celandines

2011-04-06T10:28:00.001+01:00

Hope and joy
New energy
Freedom from many kinds of prison
Fun and happy times
Waking nature spirits

A dream coincidence

2011-03-31T10:37:00.001+01:00

I am intrigued by coincidences - they seem to occupy a place somewhere between the `real' world and the dream world, where strange things can happen that hint that perhaps time and the universe work in complicated, convoluted ways we don't really understand. Whenever I find one I have an `ah-ha' feeling, as if my conscious and unconscious have suddenly slipped into step, and I almost grasp the true nature of reality for a fleeting moment.

A few nights ago I dreamed that somebody gave me a mouse to look after. It ran up my arm onto my shoulder and then escaped, vanishing into a big tangled nest of hay. It's tail was left sticking out and I wondered whether I should try to grab it.

Next day I was reading Sons and Lovers, and read the following, when Mr Morel is telling his children about an incident down the pit:
`When I went to put my coat on at snap time, what should go runnin' up my arm but a mouse.
`Hey up, theer!' I shouts.
An' I wor just in time ter get 'im by th' tail.'

This is a typical dream coincidence - it is small and apparently meaningless, and yet at the same time steeped in mystery. They always leave me with a feeling of ... oh, but... Of course all dream coincidences are also predictive dreams in a sense, because one cannot count coincidences that occur first in the real world and then in a dream. Incidentally, I didn't realise until I wrote this post that the `hay' in my dream also appears in the quote, but as a pun!

Dream Oracle - Rainbow

2011-03-25T09:59:00.001Z

This one is a bit faint, but it was a real beauty, set against the backdrop of wild indigo sky and ochre fell-side, near where I live, so I wanted to share it.

Renewal
Hope after hard times
Peace after a storm
Messages from higher beings

The rainbow resonates with all four elements at once, so it is an important magical, transformational symbol:
Earth - where the rainbow meets the land
Air - sky
Fire - light from the sun
Water - rain

In British mythology a pot of gold - the goal of alchemical transformation - is to be found at the foot of the rainbow. Of course it's not easy to locate, as the rainbow shifts its position as you move towards it. And if you do find it it turns out to be fairy gold of course - it generally turns into dead leaves or some such overnight. Once, somewhere in the Scottish Highlands, I had the weird and uncanny experience of driving right through a rainbow. I can't explain this, but odd things do happen to me periodically!

Big Moon Pearls

2011-03-22T09:51:00.000Z

It's a huge full moon this month, because the moon is closer to the earth than it has been for years. I watch it rise, vast and mysterious behind the trees, floating in the sky like a silent gong.

I am ill, unable to do much except lie on the sofa. I spend hours and hours restringing a long rope of pearls that belonged to my mother, carefully threading each tiny pearl and then knotting it in place. It's the sort of job I wouldn't normally have the patience for.

My full moon dream is weird and convuluted, full of images from long ago. I hesitate to write it all down - it seems too disturbed, too full of things I would rather forget. But then I look at the picture on my calendar for March, and the spring equinox - a tall dark figure in blue, wearing a long flowing string of pearls - the goddess of winter, holding in her arms the green, energetic young goddess of spring.

So I write down my dream, sit with it, realise that all this is part of me, It's not stuff I need to unveil, sort out or come to terms with any more - all that work is now done. We cannot ever `get rid' of these wounded parts - otherwise our fabric would fall apart. But we can accept them, love them, see them as part of the weaving of who we are. The layers of pain and confusion that slowly build up the beautiful pearl that is our soul.

Dream Oracle - Fossil

2011-03-04T16:22:00.001Z

My dark moon dream involved a fossil. Somehow this feels like a very dark moon energy, powerful and mysterious....
Things long buried
Ancient, archetypal wisdom
The vastness of time
Transformation
Memories

Moon Dreaming

2011-03-02T10:47:00.000Z

We are just coming up to dark moon, and in these last few days of Quickening Moon I have been thinking about how the moon can affect the psyche.

I have noticed that I always dream more prolifically around the full moon. I'm sure that the dark moon also affects my dreaming - I know that when I was younger my woman's cycle was in step with it. In Scotland there is a saying `a woman's tides never cease'. I am sure that this is true and that my dream cycles still alter with the moon. So I am going to take special note and see what kind of dreams come up for me, if any, over the next few days. It's interesting to make a note of the phase of the moon in your dream journal, and then you can look for patterns that might emerge.

Balancing Energies

2011-02-25T15:01:00.000Z

Last night I had a dream involving two characters. I was observing them as they had a conversation, but when I wrote the dream down I could see they were both aspects of myself.

The first character was a dark haired woman, wearing a dressing gown and slippers. She was talking to a man, who was about to catch a bus to go and do something important. He was miffed and upset because the woman announced she couldn't be bothered to go with him.

The first character represents an aspect of my shadow self - the parts of my psyche I tend to deny. I do actually have dark hair myself, but this woman was not `me'. She represents the part of me that can't be bothered, and would rather stay home being lazy! The man is the out-going, busy aspect of me - he could be interpreted as part of my `animus' - the male, active, organising part of my psyche. He wants to be up and doing things.

This is an interesting dream because I am thinking about a new project at present and I am `in two minds'. Often when one has a dream like this it is very revealing to journal a `conversation' between the two characters, to find out which side one is really on. I found that I was somewhere in the middle - keen to start the new project, but also wary of overstretching myself. The solution here is obviously to achieve a balance.

Joanna Lumley finds the Northern Lights

2011-02-19T11:11:00.000Z

I remembered later having seen this film a couple of years ago and wondered if that was where I got the blue colour from in my aurora dream (see my last post). I looked it up on YouTube and found yes, there is a section with the same electric blue that I saw in my dream. Interesting that I had forgotten this consciously, but must have had it stored away somewhere! Anyway, enjoy the film clip - it is truly beautiful, and describes exactly how I feel when I see the aurora myself - I have even lain down on the ground in mid-winter to stare up at it, exactly as she did - thank you Joanna.

Aurora Borealis

2011-02-18T19:42:00.000Z

There is a lot of solar flare activity at the moment and Britain is on Aurora alert. Last night I looked out hopefully from time to time, but the sky was resolutely overcast, so I was disappointed. But not for long, because I managed to dream my own display!

I live in the north of England so I have been lucky enough to see the Aurora from time to time. Usually it has been vivid green, and occasionally red. In my dream it was green and red, and also an amazing electric blue. I didn't know consciously that it could be this colour, but when I looked it up I found that it can, occasionally. I even found a picture on the internet of an aurora in exactly the brilliant vibrant blue of my dream! Apparently this colour is rare, and is caused by ionised nitrogen in the atmosphere.

This dream is clearly one of the kind that relates closely to current events and interests in one's life. But at the end of my dream there was a strange, static display, of short, red, horizontal bars. I wonder if this kind of aurora ever occurs? I certainly have no knowledge or experience of such a thing, but you never know - it's amazing how the unconscious sometimes seems to know more than `we' do.

I was fascinated to discover that my friend had also dreamed about seeing the aurora last night. In my dream I was with two or three other people, but I can't remember if she was one of them. Her display was green.

Red Dragon

2011-02-13T13:21:00.000Z

Do you dream in colour? For me this is a silly question - of course I do! This little red dragon is a piece of artwork I created from a dream that I had.

I can't really understand why anybody would dream in black and white - after all, we perceive the everyday world in colour. Interestingly, since films and television have been in colour, fewer people are saying that they dream only in black and white.

Toads

2011-02-10T19:47:00.000Z

I was delighted the other night to dream that there were two toads in my garden. I love toads and they were a great favourite of my Grandmother, who actually looked rather like one.

Toads have unfairly had a very bad press in the past, often being seen as evil and poisonous. Some species do have an irritant in their skin that is used for self defence, but they are not evil of course. In the Middle Ages they were associated with witches, devils and bad spells. Witches were supposed to have made `flying ointment' from toads - I can't help wondering if there is a dim, race memory here of ancient, shamanic practices. We know that shamans used the poisonous fly agaric toadstool to go on hallucinogenic trips to the Otherworld, so maybe toad ointment was used in a similar way by our distant ancestors.

What is certain is that negative ideas such as the toad being so evil arose from church propaganda, and have nothing to do with real pagan beliefs. It is tragic that many toads - and Wise Women - died horrible deaths as a result of this bigotry and ignorance. The toad was also seen as having the gift of immortality, and was supposed to carry a magical jewel in her head. No doubt many toads died in vain as silly people searched for it.

The toad does carry a jewel - but it is a metaphorical one - they have exquisitely beautiful golden eyes, and they are quiet, unassuming little animals, living close to the earth in humble, damp places. This may have given rise to their connection in folk-lore with the Goddess, and Mother Earth. Like other amphibians, their ability to live in both water and in air, and their unusual life-cycle, changing utterly from tadpole to adult, has made people associate them with metamorphosis and changing luck.

So - what if you dream of a toad? It's really up to you how you see the message! Some people (misguidedly in my opinion), see them as repulsive, even dangerous and evil. To dream of a toad, or a frog may indicates big changes coming up in one's life. The toad's ability to shed its skin as it grows reinforces this idea. And for me? As I painted this little picture I felt peaceful and grounded and I knew that for me the energy of Toad is magical, connecting me to the earth and the wisdom of my grandmothers.

Things That Go Bump in the Night

2011-02-06T12:54:00.000Z

Sometimes the dreaming world seems to overlap with the `real' world. I think some ghosts might be explained this way, as they are often seen at night, and on reflection one cannot be sure if one was asleep or awake at the time - there is a grey area between the worlds. I have encountered several `ghosts' of this type in spooky old houses, sometimes on my way to the loo across a draughty landing when I am half asleep.

But it's impossible to know if this kind of ghost is simply in one's imagination or has some kind of life (should that be `death'?) of its own. The `tulpa' of Tibetan mythology is a kind of thought form that takes on its own energy. On Wikipedia it helpfully explains: `they have a consciousness field or mindstream confluence in a dynamic of entrainment-secession and organization-entropy of emergent factors or from the mindstream intentionality of progenitor(s).'

Oh - er - yes - that explains it then. I understand now.....????

Anyway, this little chap certainly has a life of his own. He appeared in our house one Halloween and has refused to go away since. He now lives on our bed and sometimes he gets quite uppity even in the daylight. We do have a much more scary Thing that appears on our landing at night from time to time. More of that later perhaps. Meanwhile, does anyone else have experience of twilight zone ghosts?

Puns in dreams

2011-02-04T10:59:00.000Z

The language of the unconscious is largely formed of feelings, sensations and imagery, but sometimes it involves words. From time to time you get puns in dreams, which can be entertaining and insightful.

This is a picture of an aeolian harp - a wind harp - that I made in my garden. The picture got me thinking - what if dreamed about a harp? The harp symbol could have all kinds of meanings for me - as a straightforward musical instrument, or something to do with poetry or magic perhaps, because the harp is associated with the ancient British bards. If it was an aeolian harp like this one, played by the random movement of the element of air, it might be a reminder for me to focus on breath work when I do my yoga.

There again, it might mean that I, or someone close to me, was tending to harp on about something. This would be an example of a pun in a dream.

The unconscious can be incredibly knowledgeable and inventive. I once had a dream about a man I knew, wearing a pair of dark glasses that bore the trade name Wide Boy. When I woke up I wrote the dream down, but I wasn't at all sure what Wide Boy meant, if anything. I was vaguely aware of having heard the phrase somewhere - but what did it mean? I looked it up, and had a good chuckle when I found out. My unconscious had sent me a clear warning by literally labelling this man as an unreliable, shady character! It's weird this - that the unconscious sometimes seems to know more than `we' do.