When people start studying magic, one thing I see a lot is that people seem to get this idea in their head that every dream they have MUST be interpreted, because it obviously has some significant magical message, or is otherwise important.
My dreams are crazy. They're bright, loud, vibrant, and have a level of super-realism that challenges me to figure out I'm dreaming even when I'm semi-lucid. Yes, some of them are communications with Anubis, or premonitions of people I will meet, or situations I will be put into shortly.
If I took the bulk of my dreams even remotely literally, or to be more than just crazy brain-narratives from an eccentric mind, I'd have some serious issues though.
I am not capable of flight, I do not have wings. I am not a shapeshifter, or a non-human entity. (shamanic shape shifting doesn't count) I have not disemboweled demon dogs with my hands, nor will I ever meet the gargoyles from the Gargoyles tv show. I am not a chosen "anything" and any narrative where I am the center of some great destiny is just because I am the center of my personal universe. I have never been to Narnia, nor will I ever. The same goes for the Harry Potter universe, or the dream I had last night where Russia invaded California. It was incredibly vivid. Russia had suddenly devoured a portion of northern California, and that suddenly made Oregon into California. It made no sense. It was a nonsense narrative. They happen. Get over it.
No matter what your dreams tell you, you are not a special snowflake meant to save the world, or whatever. You are not the "chosen one" of some great destiny, and believing that you just need to wait for the "next step" to be revealed in your dreams to achieve greatness, is folly. Get up, live your life. Don't wait for your dreams to tell you what to do. If you have some options in front of you, but you aren't sure which one would be best, do a reading. Dust off those runes or tarot cards and get to work! Life, magic, it's all work. The trick of the magician to is to turn it into the Great Work. To do that, you can't sit and wait, you have to act. You have to do more than just dream. You have to do.
The exploratory writings and magical experiences of a Hermetic Egypto-Pagan.
Well said indeed, and something more people would do to keep in mind. Most (as in 99+%) of my dreams are total fluff - pop culture remixes and the occasional bog-standard anxiety dream. I've had a few that had meaning, but no more than one or two every few years, and alway distinctly different from my standard dreams. However, even then dreams are limited - I get far clearer answers in meditation and visionary states than in dreams.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of mine are weird remixes of things that happened in the last 48 hours, or stories I read, or shows I watched. Ever since I started working at a dog daycare again, my dreams have been full of me at work, or working with dogs. I spend a lot of my time at work, my brain understands this is something that I encounter a lot, so I have dreams about it. If I watch a movie, or read a good book, chances are my dreams in the next day or two will be some kind of crazy epic, with stuff from the books in my mental narrative.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you on the bit about meditation and visionary states. The few times that I've managed mutual communication with entities, that is much clearer than many messages I get in dreams as well. Though personally I think the best way to get answers, or to see the aspects of a situation is divination :)