😴 Weekly Witchy CHALLENGE- Dream Magick!

BryWisteria · August 6, 2020, 10:05am

Warm greetings to all!

Thank you once again to all those who reached out and connected with the earth in last week’s challenge: Earth-Friendly Witchcraft! After immersing ourselves in the energy of nature, it’s time to go even deeper- this time, within ourselves!

The theme for this week’s challenge will be…

Dream Magick!

This challenge is all about venturing into and exploring the hidden potential within ourselves. Through our dreams, we can go far beyond the limits of our conscious minds, leave behind our physical bodies, and delve deeper into both the universe and the universe within ourselves .

Dreams are a key into the beyond- learn to find messages, meanings, and guidance while you sleep .

For those unfamiliar with dream magick, this challenge is welcoming you to diversify your knowledge and learn about this fascinating practice . Share what you’ve learned to complete the challenge!

For those with prior experience or a desire to try something new, this challenge tasks you with the mission to go even deeper- try a new practice, experiment, and return to us with your new wisdom to share!

Are you ready? Grab your comfy pillows and pajamas, it’s… CHALLENGE TIME!

STEP 1: Practicing Dream Magick

~An Overview to Dream Magick~

@Francisco has compiled a great introduction to the Magic of Sleep and Dreaming- it is a great place to get an overview of different types of dream magick, definitely check it out if you haven’t already!

~Learning to Find Meaning in Your Dreams~

Look for symbols and signs in your dreams. You may find some of them to be of great importance to you- and may be able to find Your Personal Symbol!

If you can remember items that appeared in your dream, jot them down and then look them up to find their meaning. You can search for the meaning of your dreams from various sources, such as:

Remember that one symbol may have different meanings depending on the guide you are looking at- the most important meaning is the one that calls to you! These are your dreams- consider looking for connections and representations to people and places that are close to your heart before looking through a dream guidebook!

A great practice is to keep a Dream Journal ! Doing so will not only help you to prevent dreams from slipping from your conscious memory, but will also help you to track patterns and symbols that re-appear time and time again

~Lucid Dreaming~

Lucid dreaming is the practice of regaining awareness and taking control of your dream- while remaining inside it. Both a magickal practice and a hot topic in the field of cognitive science , lucid dreaming is a difficult to attain but wondrous ability that is worth giving a try!

Tech Insider has an intro to lucid dreaming on their YouTube Channel

There are numerous books available on the subject of lucid dreaming and how best to go about it- I’m about halfway through and enjoying Lucid Dreaming: Guide to the Inner Self by Robert Waggoner

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Lucid dreaming is a very advanced and difficult practice that, for most lucid dreamers, requires a lot of training and patience! It is normal if it takes a long time to be able to achieve awareness inside your dream . Keep trying, stick to one or two “signs” to guide you, and keep trying- good luck!

~Connect with a Dream Diety~

There are many deities that are connected with sleep, dreams, or other worlds. Here are just a few- consider learning about and possibly appealing to one or more of these deities to enhance your dream magick abilities!

Selene
Selene Goddess (1)
(From Selene: Goddess of the Moon)

@Abs53 has put together a magnificent guide to Selene, a goddess of the moon, dreams, and so much more! You can learn more about her in the post: Selene- My Favorite Goddess

Oneiroi: Greek Gods of Dreams

While originally the Oneiroi were a countless number of smaller demons or deities, the term eventually came to refer to the gods of dreams in Greek and Roman traditions.

Morpheus  – Some would name Morpheus as the leader of the Oneiroi. Morpheus’s name means form or shape, and his role was primarily to take on the shape of humans in dreams.

Phobetor (Icelos) – Phobetor would take on the form of animals, birds and reptiles in dreams. The name Phobetor can mean “to be feared”, and this was the name man knew the god by, but gods referred to him as Icelos, meaning “resembling”. Phobetor was also occasionally referred to as the god of nightmares.

Phantasos – Phantasos was the god of inanimate things within dreams, the like of water and earth. Phantasos was sometimes considered to be the god of surreal dreams.

In Roman mythology it was also common to name the Oneiroi not sons of Nyx, but the offspring of Hypnos and Pasithea. As such the Oneiroi were also often perceived to be attendants of Hypnos found in the god of Sleep’s cave in the Underworld.

[From Greek Legends and Myths:The Oneiroi in Greek Mythology]

From a playlist on Greek Myths on YouTube:

Baku: Nightmare Eater

(From Ancient Origins)

Baku are yokai or spirits in Japanese mythology that can be summoned to free you from nightmares and bad dreams. Unlike some of the other tricksy or ill-intentioned yokai, Baku are usually depicted as benevolent spirits.

~Make a Dream Pillow~

Dream pillows are sachets or small bags filled with dried leaves, pieces, and petals of plants that have dream or sleep-enhancing abilities .

The following herbs have a host of medicinal and magical abilities in addition to being connected with sleep and dreams :

Chamomile
Lavender (and mentioned here as well)
Heather [*Heather has a connection with ghosts and the Fae- be careful when using]

There is a topic in the forums Dream Pillows shared by @Roxanne that has some ideas to get you started!

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(Picture of dream pillows kindly shared by @roxanne)

You can also find a step-by-step guide to making dream pillows in The Magic of Sleep and Dreaming.

roping-moon-dream.jpg.480x0_q71_crop-scale

STEP 2: Share Your Experience

In order to participate in the challenge, you must share your experience! Please feel free to create a new post in the forums (and don’t forget to mention the challenge!) or write about your experience below!

This challenge will be open for: 7 DAYS!

To join in the challenge, please post about your endeavors delving into dream magick by 5:00 AM (Central European Time) on Thursday, August 13!

After the challenge closes, you are still very welcome to post but please be aware that no additional prizes will be given.

For those that dare to venture deeper into the reaches of their own minds, expect to receive a shout-out and small prize for your efforts !

A warm reminder that this challenge is very open- you are encouraged to participate in a way that reflects your unique practice . There are no right or wrong answers so long as you practice respectfully, and there is no way to ‘lose’ the challenge if you participate!

The goal of this challenge is to help you help yourself- to learn more about the exciting practice and possibilities of dream magic , to further diversify and strengthen your magickal practice , and to bring together the Spells8 forum family to inspire and support one another

May the hidden pathways of your mind open to you, and may you find wonder and delight in the magickal world inside yourself!

Blessed Be!

CelestiaMoon · August 7, 2020, 12:16am

Oooh this is very much my thing!

I love dreams and how they’re pretty much a window into our subconscious! I’ve noticed that for me the greatest dream magnet is major life changes - if everything is calm and unchanging, dreams don’t really have fuel - things like fear, passion and uncertainty bring the most vivid and memorable dreams! But sometimes there are some pretty surreal dreams when having a nap or waking up to an alarm and falling back asleep! Hmm, there might be something to explore there…

I have already been building an altar to Selene and she’s been sending me signs and “coincidences” for years now! Maybe there’s a possibility to deepen that connection…

BryWisteria · August 7, 2020, 9:34am

I know the feeling! Nap dreams always seem much more vivid to me- perhaps because we tend to be more “awake” when sleeping during the day? Maybe this means that something like lucid dreaming would be easier to achieve during naps than at night… very interesting indeed!

I love how your altar for Selene is coming along, @CelestiaMoon! Deepening your connection with her definitely qualifies as part of the challenge I can’t wait to hear more about your dream magick and connection with Selene!

Abs53 · August 7, 2020, 10:37am

Ohhh I swear you read my mind! @BryWisteria I’ve just started a new dream journal, which I’m noting alongside the moon phases and what signs the moon is in at the time, so this works really well!

Also, I am super into Lucid Dreaming; I have managed it twice in my life purely randomly with no intention of doing it! I just knew I was in a dream and could change it to my will, it was fabulous. I have also managed to “force” myself back into the dream I was having before I woke which was awesome.

Since actually trying to Lucid Dream I haven’t managed it since!! I’ve started having a cup of Mugwort tea before bed as I’ve heard this can help and I will definitely try out the book above!!

Katt · August 7, 2020, 1:59pm

For the past couple of months I have not been able to remember a single dream. Not an image or anything, I find this to be be very odd as I know I dream a lot and usually remember everything. But lately, nothing

Francisco · August 7, 2020, 4:42pm

Thanks for this challenge @BryWisteria!!

I have kept a dream journal for at least the past year. I did a lot of lucid dreaming about 10 years ago and I’m trying to get back into it!

Like you said @Abs53 lucid dreaming is an amazing experience and it personally helped me a lot. There is a parallel between manifestations in dreams (as a sandbox) and in real life. I’ll share more of my findings for this challenge.

Susurrus · August 7, 2020, 5:01pm

I am very excited to participate in this particular challenge. The only problem that I have, which may not be a real problem, I only remember small bits of my dreams. I will remember an object or something that was said. I am going to make a dream pillow though and see where it takes me! The last couple of nights I haven’t been able to sleep really well, so maybe I will be able to get at least a few hours sleep after I make my pillow!

CelestiaMoon · August 7, 2020, 5:10pm

My dreams tend to be pretty sneaky about me being too lucid in them, sometimes I realize that something’s “off” (reality check) and that I’m in a dream, I get to have some control but eventually the dream draws me back in or I wake up…

I haven’t really tried any techniques for lucid dreaming, I prefer to see what my mind comes up with on its own…

Susurrus · August 7, 2020, 5:13pm

I have been in a lucid dream before. It is pretty regular for me, I just never realized how much I could actually participate in them before now. I just let them happen too. See what I come up with on my own while I am relaxed in bed!

janelle · August 8, 2020, 9:32am

What an interesting challenge!

In my almost 30 years of living, I have one dream(or nightmare since it was when I was a young kid) that has always stayed with me.

Not taking into account our memories and how we go about recalling them, including dreams/nightmares… I can’t believe I had never thought about diving into what can be interpreted from it and why I have clung onto it for so long. Or what symbologies are attached to it, etc.

While in reflection of my sleep habits and such, I’m starting to think that I subconsciously prevent myself from going into REM sleep. That’s when we start to dream right?
I do this by either staying up late and getting up early, pulling all-nighters while nose diving into topics I am researching, I use cannabis, I’m a heavy soda drinker…

But I also have taken notice on how I feel when I get the typical 8 hours of sleep vs how I feel when I am getting between 4-6 hours of sleep. I personally feel like less is more. When I go 8 hours, I wake up feeling more tired than I was when I laid down. I struggle to gain focus, I approach the day in kind of a pessimistic way, just kind of puts me in this “I feel like I just can’t wake up” despite coffee, tea and what have you. I don’t know how much of that plays into having dreams.

I bring all of this up because if you ask anyone, I always say I don’t dream. I might wake up once in awhile and quickly recall a couple components of whatever I was dreaming and then poof, thats it.

daniel4 · August 8, 2020, 12:19pm

We have kept a dream journal for several years now. We consistently read thru them together and see what dreams we have had correlate to future events and past events that were repressed.

Once a week we make a special tea blend I call Dream Tea. I will post the recipe soon.

We always sleep with herb bags and crystals under our pillows to help keep bad dreams away and help to understand the dreams we do have.

We also use meditation and white noise along with tea when we want to sleep deep and enduce vivid dreams.

The girls have been using tea and incense for day dreaming. It’s more of a meditation to help relax and clear your mind. They say it’s more if a way to remember the past night’s dream in more detail while they are not asleep and compare notes in the journal.

CelestiaMoon · August 9, 2020, 12:51am

I keep a dream journal by telling my girlfriend my dream on Discord and she does the same
She’s not a witch, but she still enjoys interpreting our dreams together

Around the time of Litha I was taking my first steps into the craft and had this dream that stayed with me I’d like to share with you!

Click to open

I was at my childhood home and my brother was also there, I was changing clothes
There was something on my back that seemed off, that my brother pointed out
He asked me to move a few muscles and as I did so, he went silent for a moment and concluded in a rather serious tone that my muscle movements look like I’ve had wings on my back before!
I said jokingly that that’s what the doctor also said…
Secretly I was amazed… and not surprised at all. I always had this feeling that I wasn’t a human after all…

I suddenly had a vision of flying on top of a very high mountain through a narrow pass, where no human would ever get to, a beautiful green paradise opening before me, but there was no one to be seen, except fiery fiends standing guard…
With a heavy heart I remembered that it had been my home before but it was overrun, and that now when I have the memories back it I’ll have to be very careful

I had to get to the mountain and make things right again… I knew there was a secret entrance in a bathroom somewhere for just this kind of an occasion…

I found out about the bathroom and in a stall there was a secret passage to a kind of control room, where I knew were the controls to life, but I had no idea how to operate them yet… but I did know that it was vital to defend it from being discovered

The dream went on, feeling like my enemies were always one step ahead of me… I couldn’t go even near the bathroom not to give it away… I wished that when I had had the chance I’d just have brought a bunch of supplies, put a believable enough “under construction” sign on the door of the bathroom and started figuring out how to use those controls!

haley · August 9, 2020, 4:46am

The last 2 nights, I have researched a bit into what I can do to help REMEMBER my dreams, so that I can delve more into dream magic! New guided meditations, a notepad within reach of me & I’ve been drinking chamomile this evening.

I have supplies to make a dream pillow tomorrow & will update on any progress I manage to make!

(Not remembering my dreams has been a lifelong thing for me. The only dreams I remember are nightmares and those are few & far between. Hopefully I can use this challenge as a way to grow in this part of my life!)

janelle · August 9, 2020, 9:16am

I resonate with what you said for sure!
Remembering what it was that I had playing in dream land has always been 98% of my struggle.

I haven’t tried any guided meditations for dream recall though, you’ve inspired me to check some out! @haley

Susurrus · August 9, 2020, 4:51pm

Good afternoon! I was home yesterday and made my first dream pillow! I put rice, chamomile, lavender, moonstone, smoky quartz, and angelite in the the sachet & placed it in my pillow. When I went to bed, I did some meditation to get myself to sleep as I always do, but on this night, I felt a tingling all over and saw people holding hands and swirling in front of me. I had a feeling on my lips that was warm and tingling and I drifted off to a peaceful sleep for the night. Which was great because for 3 days I had been greatly lacking in the sleep department. I finally got a full night’s rest and woke up feeling restful and a lot better than the last 3 days!

haley · August 9, 2020, 7:15pm

Yay! I have my supplies out to make my pillow, but a friend is stopping by for dinner so I’m waiting until he leaves. Then I’ll do my Sunday smoke cleanse & get to work on my pillow! Your experience makes me look forward to my sleep/attempt at dreams tonight!

BryWisteria · August 10, 2020, 7:25am

For @Katt, @Susurrus, @haley, and any others who only remember small bits of their dreams (or can’t remember any dreams at all), the New York Times had a very interesting article about improving “Dream Recall”- and offered some tips from dream experts on how to help you remember your dreams! The article is How to Remember Your Dreams, and here a few of the tips:

The dream-deprived nod off quickly, sleep soundly and emerge from sleep fully awake. So before going to bed, drink three full glasses of water — not beer or wine, because they suppress R.E.M. sleep — which will force you to get up and go to the bathroom. “Middle-of-the-night awakenings are frequently accompanied by dream recall,” Stickgold says. “In addition, many people will notice hypnagogic dreams, or those brief dreams that occur as one is falling asleep.”

Stickgold also recommends repeating the phrase “I’m going to remember my dreams” three times before you drift off to sleep. And keep a notebook and pen by your bed. Both preparations establish recall as a priority.

On waking up, don’t open your eyes, don’t move, don’t say a thing — any sensory perception or movement tends to wipe out memories of a dream. “If you roll over and say to your spouse that you just had the coolest dream, you’re going to lose it,” Stickgold says. “Stay half-asleep and replay what you remember in your mind. As you replay it while awake, it gets stored differently, and now you’ve got it. A whole other chunk might even pop into your mind.”

If you try any of the tips (or find others that work for you) please feel free to share! Experimenting with techniques and trying to become able to remember your dreams absolutely counts as participating in the challenge too

That’s amazing, @Abs53! Lucid Dreaming is such a difficult activity, and it sounds like you have a natural talent for it! I hope you will be able to experience it again soon Stick with it! And ooohh thanks for the tip about Mugwort tea, very interesting! I’m not sure if the local supermarket would have any, but it’s worth a check!

Best of luck, @Francisco! Hopefully you can get back into the habit of lucid dreaming . And that’s wonderful that you’ve kept a dream journal for so long- it must be exciting to go back and read through your dreams! Have you spotted any trends over time?

Lucid Dreaming is indeed very tricky- I think it’s perfectly fine to ‘sit back’, relax, and enjoy the creation within our thoughts without trying to take control or direct them!

I think this is valid, @janelle! I have a close friend who swears the same- that she feels much better after just a few hours of sleep. The “8 hours recommended sleep” is an average- but each of us have different bodies and minds. One person might need 10 hours of sleep while another only needs 6. Just as under-sleeping leads to health problems, so too does over-sleeping!

You know your body best- get the amount of sleep that you need, that helps you to feel healthy and refreshed the next day . Dreaming or not, it sounds like you took some time for self-reflection of your thoughts and sleeping habits and hopefully found this challenge to be useful! Well done

Wonderful! I will look forward to seeing the recipe, @daniel4!

This is very cute- what a creative way to record and share your dreams, @CelestiaMoon! . And a very interesting Litha dream too- it’s amazing how much you remember from your dream! So many details! Thank you for sharing

Best of luck to everyone working on their sleep and dream magick this week- Sweet Dreams to you all!

SilverBear · August 10, 2020, 12:20pm

So, typically I don’t recall my dreams…but last night, well…early this morning…about 2 am. I felt like I was in the between stage of waking/sleeping - and it was during a dream so I actually remember it…and now I am frightened. LOL!!

I dreamt that I was at my sons wedding - (he is already married and expecting his first child in Feb) and 1 hour prior to the wedding I was bleaching his hair LOL… (what…???) and it turned super white…and no one liked it, so I put another color over it and then it looked normal…and then WILL SMITH appeared (what!!! LOL) and gave a toast at the wedding, then my uncle Ken appeared to give a second toast and he was drunk out of his mind…he NEVER drinks…so I tried to interpret this and have ZERO clue HAHA

My brain is just bizarre lol

christina4 · August 10, 2020, 1:18pm

I made a dream pillow. I added lavender, mugwort and chamomile. Also used lapis lazuli which aids in safe lucid dreaming. I personally associate the color green for dreams bc it deals with the subconscious mind. Mind for me (in color) is green. I first cleansed. Added my ingredients. Tied the pillow. Thanked the elements. Drank some chamomile tea. Placed the pillow near me as I sleep. I will continue to use this. I also keep a dream journal. I have been lucid dreaming for a while now. My biggest concern in the beginning was to not be scared as it happened. And now look at me, all grown up. Lol thanks for making this week’s challenge dream magic!! I love dreaming bc i love to sleep and my sleep is sacred.

Susurrus · August 10, 2020, 1:47pm

I will definitely be trying something for dream recall. I can probably change my meditation to remember my dreams. I am thinking of starting a dream journal for such occasions. I have done lucid dreaming, but I wasn’t aware of it until after I woke but then the memory went poof as soon as I tried to recall the dream. I usually remember how the dream made me feel.

I will definitely try again tonight though and maybe do some more research into how to participate or recall the dreams. I think looking back on dreams through a journal would be a great idea too!