Going back through the entries, I realized that I had missed submitting a personal post about working with Dream Magick! 
For this week’s Weekly Witchy CHALLENGE- Catch Up I will be re-visiting the past Dream Magick Challenge.
Here we go~!
Dreaming and sleep are fascinating topics- I enjoy learning about them as both an educational endeavor and as part of my magickal practice.
For this reading period of the Spells8 Book Club, I am reading The Philosophy of Dreams by Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj. I won’t go deeply into this book here, as a full review of the book will be posted when the reading period ends on November 6th. Also, I haven’t finished it yet! 
But there was one very interesting section that called out to me:
“The modern study of dreams shows that they are not meaningless presentations. Every dream presentation has a meaning. A dream is like a letter written in an unknown language. To a man who does not know the Chinese, a letter written in that language is a meaningless scroll. But to one who knows that language it is full of most valuable information. It may be the letter calls for immediate action; or it may contain words of consultation to one suffering from dejection. It may be a letter of threat or it may speak of love. These meanings are there only to one who would care to attend to the letter and would try to decipher it. But alas! How few of us try to understand these messages from the deep unseen ocean of our own Consciousness!” (Philosophy of Dreams, 9)
This passage really resonated with me, as I have been working a lot lately on Tasseography/Tea Leaf Readings (I shared some in the guide to Cross-Checking Divination Methods and a recent Tea Ritual) 
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I have been studying how best to piece out both answers and meanings from the leaves 
. Reading the above passage made me think that reading the fragments of leaves and sediments in my cup is similar to examining the pieces and moments within dreams.
I had written down pieces of a dream I had the other night in my journal. For this challenge, I want to break down the dream into pieces and try to find meanings within a short fragment of the moment 
I used my intuition, along with the handy Dream Dictionary and Dream Lookup to read potential meanings.
THE DREAM…
We ran through the gateway and onto a the slope of a long, rolling hill. Far below was a cliff that dropped into a churning sea.
<Click here for interpretation>
Dream Dictionary associates a gate or portal with entering a new reality- in the case of dreams, this shows you are leaving one piece of the dream and entering a new stage or situation.
Since this was the first piece I remember, it could be the start of my dream phase- perhaps when I entered the REM sleep phase.
We were running from something- someone, who didn’t seem to be an evil presence, but none-the-less felt like someone we had to get away from.
<Click here for interpretation>
I don’t need to consult a dream journal for this- I am 100% sure that the looming presence in my dream was anxiety. The dream was giving it a form, something more tangible than it is when I’m awake.
I wonder now what would have happened had I chosen to stand and fight it.
The path ahead split- one road lead down to the ocean, and the other path led into the distance, to some kind of abandoned castle on the edge of a lake.
<Click here for interpretation>
Water is a re-occuring theme within this dream- in both the ocean and the lake. My family has always lived by the ocean and I am a Scorpio- a water element sign 
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While it could be that water is so present in my dreams because my inner nature is in tune with water, I have a feeling that the constant pull towards this element is urging me to be more adaptable and flexible.
We split up, people going in different directions. A friend and I went into the castle. We turned right in the entranceway and were faced with a drop into dark water below.
<Click here for interpretation>
Dream Lookup says that entering a castle is a good omen for the future and means that there is likely good things to come 
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Dream Dictionary says that the right side or going right can indicate being conservative or sticking with what you know.
I could feel that whatever we were running from was right behind me- my friend lept into the dark water and vanished. I was afriad- I have a lifelong fear of dark water- but something told me it would be okay. I jumped.
<Click here for interpretation>
It seems that I am even more scared of anxiety than I am of actual, physical things like dark water. This could be a potential warning and wake-up call. A reminder not to make monsters out of shadows and another call to address anxiety head-on.
Beneath the surface, the water was bright and clear. I could see my friend and a wide underwater pathway- I knew there was an exit up ahead. It felt safe for the time being. We began to swim forward.
<Click here for interpretation>
Perhaps overcoming a fear by jumping into the water helped to give me a boost of self-confidence that allowed my inner self within the dream to move towards the exit.
This is the last I remembered before I woke up- but I’m glad the dream ended on a positive note!
All in all, I can take this dream to show me that good things come from facing fears- and the real challenge I need to face is dealing with anxiety. Maybe it’s time to do @Rowan’s gorgeous Anxiety-Be-Gone Spell! 
For a double whammy against anxiety and to aid sleep: I also got a new bag of Melisa/Lemon Balm Tea 
In addition to being a pick-me-up herb that boosts happiness and brings feelings of joy, Lemon Balm is also a sleep aid that combats insomnia 
The benefits of Lemon Balm can be explored in Self-Care: Herbs for Anxiety.
I usually use chamomile to help me drift off to sleep but I tried a cup of this last night and WOW I was out in a snap. I’m not sure if it is this new brand or I just used too strong a dosage- but it felt very powerful. I think I’ll be saving this for nights when I’m really struggling to fall asleep
Sweet dreams and Blessed be to all! 
great that it worked so well! Enjoy your tea! 
but I did have the dream, just in the bathroom 
And on that note- I finally got some mint! I brought it home… and one day later it’s on its way out 
I don’t think it liked the cold journey home. But I saved some sprigs to try and grow roots, so maybe in a few weeks I’ll finally have enough mint to do your gorgeous 
Seems like a very memorable experience- I like the image of red vases and red roses 
I’ve started recording them on my computer- I have a folder there for journals and dreaming. It takes an extra minute to start up the computer, but then I can (usually lol) actually read my entries when I look back on them. I’ve found night/early morning scribbles to be indecipherable 
It’s likely that, as I continue to study and explore these things, my views around them will continue to grow and develop 
In case anyone who wants to hear me babble more about it, there’s more in this 
