Well here it is the third week in April, and I realized I have yet to post any thing on the Starwalker Dreamer blog. Most people need between 6.5-9 hours of sleep to get into the dream cycle, where their more vivid dreams can rise to the surface of their remembering. I have been traveling and teaching a lot and a sound 8 hour night has not been on my calendar. I realized that my lack of sitting and writing the blog, and remembering my dreams mirrored each other. I have been hitting a “blank dream time state.” This happens to everyone and comes in cycles now and again.

How to deal with that? Well, in a similar fashion to just getting down to writing this blog, sometimes we need to coax the dream to the surface of consciousness. For that to happen we will need to slow down the day to day so we can rest, remember, and record. One last thing–put away the cell phone. Most of us leave the phone next to the bed and the RF (radio frequency rays) not only cause health problems, but they positiviely interrupt your sleep patterns too.

Our conscious mind speaks in words, but our subconscious mind speaks in symbols. So when engaging the subconscious we need to activate something symbolic to engage a connection. Unlike sitting to write this blog, when wanting to remember dream sequences, we need to offer the subconscious mind ‘symbolic bridges’ to let it know that we are actively looking to help our conscious mind deepen those insights and awarenesses into self, that our dreamtime offers.

I thought you, the reader, may enjoy just a few of the ways a couple of my mentors counseled me to remember my dreamtime when going through dream draughts and doubts. These suggestions might take days, or even weeks to work, but they do work. And the actions you use to encourage the subconscious and conscious to meet up, creates the dreaming re-membrances.

A past teacher of mine was a Yaqui Deer Dancer and the principal of his pueblo’s school. His name was Gilberto. It takes many years of training and ceremony to become a Yaqui deer dancer; it is done for the survival of their people. The dance is both poignant and exquisite, in that you believe you are really watching deer. He shared that the Yaqui world consisted of 5 separate worlds: the desert wilderness, the flower, the mystical, the dream, and the night worlds. The deer dancers perfect these worlds by eliminating the harm people have done to them over time.

To them, the dream world holds the reflection of what we hold deep in our minds. He suggested that I program my thoughts before I went to sleep at night to see my reflection- be that in a mirror, a pool of water, or a calm pond. Once you see that reflection, let it lead you. It will reveal something within yourself that you need to claim, release or acknowledge. The key is to look for what is being reflected in the water, it is not in the surrounding terrain, it is literally in the reflection within the water. It is the information held in that reflection that is waiting to inform you. Ask Deer Spirit to guide you to that reflective place. If deer shows up in your dream sequence, follow it in your dream story to the reflection pond it may be guiding you to. See what is to be seen.

Gilberto introduced me to a Mayan elder outside Merida, named Señor Manuel. Señor Manuel had a unique way of speaking to the Spirit World, which he shared was more easily accessed in ceremony and in the dreamtime. In the Mayan tradition it was the trained healers, plant specialist, and curandera’s that did the traditional medicine work. They would be sought out for everything from child birth, to settling family squabbles, to herbal concoctions, to decoding dream sequences.  Manuel would always need to consult the spirits before he did any of this work. He would infuse a glass of water, ofttimes with flower essences, and call on the spirits to come into the water. Before bed he would drink some of the water, bringing his request into his innermost knowing self. His dreams would show him how to do his healing work. He would drink the remaining glass of water in the morning to “ingest the dream’s knowledge.” He suggested that I use this technique to program a glass of water with a request, or question, and follow the same procedure. I would call on the Spirit world to help me find my answer in the dreamtime, or remember the story line the next morning when I finished drinking the water. I can’t tell you how many times this one has worked. Try it, you have nothing to loose and everything to gain.

One last suggestion for now, is using a material object to represent something abstract. This one arose from my women’s herbal group. A bedtime ritual can be created to remember your dreams. Get a mugwort smudge stick, incense, or little bowl of dried herb (you might even like to drink a light mugwort tea prior to retiring). Mugwort was used in many cultures for protection, inducing sleep and enhancing dreams,  and is associated with Artemis, the Greek Goddess who sends divine dreams.  Take a talisman, another object that is special or sacred to you, such as a rock, crystal, feather, statue, religious medal, even a symbol on a piece of paper such as a rune, Flower of Life image, a tarot or angel card. Smudge the object and yourself with the lit mugwort smoke, inhale the smoke deeply and ask that the object guide you into your dreams. Experiment with this for a few nights in a row. See what unfolds. You won’t be disappointed.

In closing, I am getting low on dreams to decode. I have two in the works, but always appreciate more should you be of a mind to share anonymously.

Wishing you pleasant and informative dreams!!!!