The story of sharing bread spreads around the world. Listen to my story of the global traditions.
Category Archives: Perspective
Waking Dreams: Reading the Signs With Eyes Wide Open
“Hope is a Waking Dream.” Aristotle
When someone says they are daydreaming the usual connotation is they are lost in idle fantasy, or worse in the view of our modern world, wasting time. A daydream is described as a voluntary, or semi-conscious, imaginative fantasy or vision while awake. I think the criticism is unfair as many have reported receiving powerful creative inspiration this way.
By contrast, what psychologists call a waking dream is considered to be quite different from a daydream. A waking dream is described as a sudden sensory experience that happens while awake. Waking dreams are similar to sleeping dreams in that they penetrate ordinary reality due to REM (Rapid Eye Movements) sleep activation. Waking dreams can be so vivid that they can be briefly mistaken for “reality.” I would argue instead that such states are a heightened sense of reality.
To me the deeper question is the true nature of reality that physics and metaphysics explores. Some say that life is but a dream–one where we sleep and one where we sleepwalk. When we are not sleeping our brain waves are primarily in the beta range and our focus is on the outer world. When we sleep and dream our brain waves slow to alpha and theta and our focus becomes internal and more receptive to higher guidance, which is why cultures across time have valued the guidance in dreams.
Native Peoples
Indigenous cultures view dreams and waking dreams as sacred, literal extensions of reality that provide guidance, healing, and connection to ancestral or spiritual realms. Indigenous perspectives consider waking dreams to be not only symbolic but real experiences. Waking dreams can be a way to access realities that are usually inaccessible while awake.
Australian Aboriginal Dreaming, or Dreamtime, represents a complex, continuous reality that links past, present, and future through stories, art, and ceremony. When attuned this way, waking (and sleeping) dreams act as conduits to the spirit world. Modern Indigenous perspectives also emphasize reclaiming these traditions from colonial perspectives that often labeled them primitive or superstitious.
Enhanced Guidance
What if rather than being unusual, some of our most powerful and important guidance could come from waking dreams? I believe if we watch for the symbols and learn to interpret them, we can gain valuable insight. Instead of what might appear as a meaningless distraction or a mere fairy tale, we might receive guidance to solve current problems. This adds a powerful component to our nighttime dream messages. Inviting and expecting waking dreams adds richness to daily life. You might ask for a waking dream to get more guidance from a powerful sleeping dream you had that morning.
Examples of Waking Dreams
- You stop behind car and the license plate is a word with a strong message
- Your eyes are drawn to a clock and the time is 11:11 or 4:44
- Suddenly a rainbow appears in the sky
- A feather appears in your path, or you see an animal with meaning
- You hear lyrics to a song or notice a billboard that speaks to you
As described in my dream books, (Symbol & Synchronicity and Tarot & Dream Interpretation), having a dreamwork practice opens a communication channel with your higher guidance. This counsel comes from the level of your Soul and is tailored just for you. The effort of learning to decode the symbolism pays valuable dividends.
Seven Steps
Both books can be used with a waking dream in the same way as sleeping dream. The Seven Steps in Dreamwork©process takes a waking dream to a deeper level. Give your waking dream a title and think of an image that captures the central theme. Examine what’s happening in your life right now and how the experience of a waking dream is offering guidance about current conditions or a long term pattern of behavior.
Guidance is available 24/7 when we learn to notice the messages that are woven through ordinary life. Invite these moments of magic and meaning to illuminate your path.
Piercing the Veil — Dream work at Halloween
The Universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. Eden Phillpots
Death, and what awaits us when we depart physical existence, are among humanity’s greatest mysteries and most profound questions, perhaps second only to where we came from and why we are here. Most people believe that earthly life is not the end and that some aspect of our soul or spirit continues after death. Dreams are one of the ways we can move back and forth between the veil that separates the visible world from the unseen realm.
Sometimes dreamers encounter deceased loved ones in dreams. While this may be symbolic in terms of what the deceased person represents character-wise, often these are real meetings. Many people have also reported visits in dreams from relatives at the moment of death, as if they are stopping by to say goodbye. These powerful experiences often help with loss and grief.
On the last day of October, we celebrate Halloween, Samhain, All Hallows Eve, or All Souls Day, depending on the tradition. Samhain is pronounced “sowen,” and in the ancient Celtic language meant Hallow tide. This was the Celtic new year and was the time set aside to honor the dead and to pay attention to all the manifestations of the thinning veil.
The history of Halloween stems from the Celts, and we have to peer back in time nearly 6,000 years to trace the shadowy origins. Halloween and Thanksgiving have the same root origin, and their purpose is to celebrate the harvest before the cold and dark of winter. Millennia ago the year began on the date we now call October 31, after the third and final harvest, midway between autumn equinox and winter solstice.
In the modern world, winter’s dark and cold are illuminated by artificial light and warmed by generated heat, so the conscious passage of this season is less dramatic. Because we are insulated, we lose touch with the darkness and its part in the shifting rhythm of life. Prayers for the dead and activities to honor and communicate with ancestors are common activities at this time in cultures around the world. Leaving an ancestor’s plate on the table is the origin of the treat part of Halloween. The trick part came much later before World War II and was called Mischief Night. Therefore, modern celebrations of Halloween include ghosts, goblins, witches and costumes and well as “tricks and treats.” Carved pumpkins with scary faces and candles inside were meant to scare off evil spirits.
All of these symbols and activities are remnants of practices that have to do with engaging and interacting with the unseen realm. The same is true with dream work and making the most of our dream time can be enhanced at this time of year because of the thinning veil that separates the worlds. In truth it is more that our frequency is heightened, allowing us to perceive energy that we normally don’t sense.
What does all of this have to do with dreams you might ask? This time of year, when the annual turning of the wheel presents an opening to the spirit world, and the veil between the visible and unseen world thins, provides a more open portal to communicate with beings no longer in form. Likewise, the ability to receive messages through this opening is enhanced and dream messages may be more pronounced.
Setting time aside for dream work that has to do with those who have passed on can yield huge dividends in forgiveness, release, and surrender. Some dream fragments are actually memories of our own nighttime travels in the spirit domain and at this time of year dreams are often more intense. Dream symbolism may relate to unfinished business. Unspoken communication with deceased loved ones can work to resolve Karma that is still in operation and may be draining resources and growth in waking life.
Another benefit of working consciously with the parting of the veil near Halloween is a heightened ability to communicate with our own spirit guides. If we take advantage of the opening, our guides will speak to us through dreams. This is almost the opposite of the old axiom about making hay while the sun shines. Here we are doing deep work that can only be done in the “darkness” of our psyche while the soul is in charge rather than the less-evolved personality. Getting serious about your dream journal, and remembering to ask important questions before you sleep, offers opportunity for an abundant harvest of personal growth.
Light a candle, set an intention, and expect a powerful dream.