Could your dreams lead you down the spiritual path to witchcraft?
The most important tool of the witch is intuition — and our dreams are the one place where our intuitive mind completely runs the show. For this reason, dreamwork is an important part of the spiritual path of witchcraft. This is as true for the witchcraft-curious as it is for the accomplished adept.
Whether you have learned to remember them yet or not, you have a dream life full of spiritual treasures that can guide you on your magical life path.
Through our dreams, our intuition speaks in the bizarre, beautiful, and complicated language of symbols.
Below is a journaling method that will help you begin to understand and interpret your dreams. Don’t be surprised if some of your most ordinary dreams actually contain magical messages!
Dream Journaling
Before bed each night layout a pen, book light, and journal. Even this simple act (in fact a mini ritual of sorts) will help you to begin not only remembering your dreams but prepare you to decode them.
Then follow these steps to discover your own rich and mystical nightlife…
1. When you wake up write down every scrap of dream you can remember, even if it doesn’t seem significant. Within a week or two, you’ll remember everything far more vividly.
2. Go back and read your journal about once a week. Make a list of the people, places, and objects that appeared. If there were too many, choose the ones that seem most significant.
3. The best way to understand the symbolism of our dreams is to consult our own intuition. So ask your inner knowing what each person, place, or thing reminds you of. Write down one or two words for each noun on the list.
For instance, you might associate a dog with a trusting friend – or a dangerous scavenger. There are no wrong answers.
4. Go back and check your journal again. Take note of what these people, places, and things were doing. Add a couple of adjectives for each of the items you wrote down.
For instance, “Dog – white and hungry”.
The descriptive words will help you interpret what that particular symbol means in YOUR dream. Pair the animal (or person, plant, etc.) with the description of what it’s doing to find its meaning. For example, a horse might represent drive and vitality. If the horse in your dream is slow and hard to control, it might then represent a feeling of being disconnected from your life force.
3 Tips For Decoding Your Dreams
Here are some additional tips to give you greater insight into the symbols of your dreams. Learning about each will help you grasp a deeper understanding, and you’ll have no need for dream interpretation books!
1. Understand the Elements
The four elements have been part of human consciousness for millennia, and make their way into our dreams as symbols.
Water is an emotional and spiritual life. Therefore a stagnant pool would be stagnant emotions or spirituality, and a towering wave could be a spiritual awakening or emotional overwhelm. Fire represents transformation and inspiration. Wind and air represent consciousness and intelligence, and earth and land represent fertility and security.
Much has been written about each of the elements, so go deeper!
2. Understand the Animal, Plant, and Mineral Kingdoms
Each animal, plant, and stone can have symbolic associations. Start with your own sense of what the figure means to you. Then, refer to books or internet searches to flesh out your idea.
The meanings change from culture to culture, so keep that in mind when consulting sources. Your intuition is always your best guide!
3. Understand Archetypes
An archetype is like a “representative” of human personalities. It is essentially a pattern that repeats itself throughout people, cultures, and within one person’s personality. One way to understand the figures that appear in your dreams is to think of them as messengers from yourself, to yourself.
Sit quietly and ask yourself what part of YOU each person in your dream represents. The answer will likely be an archetype. The twelve essential archetypes are caregiver, creator, explorer, hero, innocent, jester, lover, magician, member, outlaw, ruler, and sage.
Raven Hinojosa
