“Dreams are illustrations..from the book your soul is writing about you.”-Marsha Norman

 Every culture and family has some lore about dreams and their power. In my family my grandmother is an intuitive dreamer ( and many African American grandmothers are!), she dreams of  fish swimming, and knows someone is pregnant, dreams of flowers, and knows someone is in love or planning to get married.Her dreams predict so many events for my family, some wondrous, like the beginning of a new life, and some quite disastrous, such as the death of family members. I inherited some of my grandmothers “dream power”, having experiences ranging from speaking to long lost relatives, to having a person who was dating someone i was also dating come and tell me in my dream what was happening in their relationship! These stories are actually very common in the south among all races, and very common in the world in general. However American culture has often dismissed or downplayed the importance of our dreams.

Yet I believe we must reclaim our dreams! I have been keeping a dream journal for about five years now. It has been one of the most illuminating and empowering aspects of my life. To be able to look back at what i was dreaming three months ago, or even a year ago, has helped me understand my waking life and experiences in a whole new light. you see, much of what happens in the “waking world” happens also on some level in the dream world.

 What i learned from my grandmother, and many of the southern black women in my life, was that the dream world was not to be trivialized. They taught me that dreams were the way in which god, or as i would say, “the universe” intervened and communicated to you important messages. To not be in connection with these messages could mean missing warning signals, or getting details on phenomenon that could be useful and empowering in your waking life. Sometimes our dreams tell us what we don’t want to tell ourselves.

Yet at all times our dreams demonstrate the deep level of connectivity we have with each other. How could my grandmother know her niece was pregnant? Or that her nephew was getting married unless on some deep level, there are ties that psychically bond and link us? How else could dreams be explained without that being possible? We are not as separate as we think.

For many of us however, in this increasingly scientific minded world, we have lost the desire to connect with dreaming. We have forgotten or neglected its power.  Thinking, and the intellect, have been the constructs that have imprisoned our waking lives.

But not today. If you have not connected to your dreams,Today I want to invite you back into your dreams and into your inner power. I want to invite you to come to awareness of the world that lives within you! So I am going to share with you in how you can help yourself remember and catalog your dreams. I am also going to give you a reference guide for some great dream interpretive tools that will help you tease out what your unconscious is trying to say to your self. Ready? Let’s go!

1. FIRST STEP BUY A JOURNAL!

And not just ANY journal. Find one that you really like. It can have creative designs or nice colors, or it may just be a leather cover, or, you can even create a journal yourself! Whatever you do, buy a journal that feels special for you, not just a notebook that feels “hum drum”. Having a notebook that you like will be a big impetus to you writing your dreams. Also, If possible the journal should BE ONLY for your dreams.

HOW TO DO IT!

a) Right before bed, drink a Tall Glass of water. This is extremely useful in helping  you remember your dreams. I have shared this with many people, and it almost always seems to work. Somehow drinking the water helps your consciousness remember the dream.”

b) Put your dream journal right next to the bed, with a pen. That way when you wake up, the first thing you do is Write! You have to make sure you capture the memory before it fades! And sometimes the dreams do!

c)  (optional) Buy a gemstone or crystal and put it under your pillow. Crystals come from the earth and  have unique vibrations that affect our auras. They can be very helpful if we use them along with our own personal work. Stones such as agate, amethyst, turquoise, or smoky quartz are great to help dreaming. But the best thing is to find a stone that resonates with you. I recommend you picking up one that “feels good” versus just one that i recommend. The great thing about all these stones is that they are also very inexpensive. You can get a piece of amethyst for two or three dollars depending on where your at.

Just make sure your crystal is not a BIG One! Lol. That would be uncomfortable.

 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

NIGHTMARES: If you have challenges with nightmares, I recommend buying the stones  “Apache Tear”, “Smoky Quartz” or Opal. They will help dispel negative energy. But be mindful, these stones will only work if you are are ALSO working to help dispel the root of that negative energy. In other words, those nightmares are trying to tell you something about fear or an unresolved wound you must face. The crystals can help,but they will not just do the job for you!

SO  I HAVE MY DREAMS WRITTEN DOWN. NOW WHAT?

Start Interpreting!

Once you have started cataloging your dreams, you may realize patterns. There may be recurring animals, or themes that keep popping up. How are you going to know what they mean? Don’t worry, I got ya!

Here are some GREAT resources to help.

Dream MOODS Dictionary: (IT”S ONLINE & FREE)  http://dreammoods.com

I use it all the time. While the symbols aren’t always culturally appropriate, some of the meanings are more than often dead on. You can type in everything from animals, places etc and  Dream Moods will give you interpretations. You can even go into an online dream forum to talk about specific dreams and get insights from other dreamers. It’s great!

If you dream about or have an affinity for animals, I suggest you try using this website:

ANIMAL TOTEMS: http://www.animaltotem.com/animals.html

or even BETTER Buy this book! It’s Called “Animal Speak”. It’s a fairly comprehensive catalog of alot of animal symbols and meaning.  It’s AMAZING:

http://www.charisbooksandmore.com/book/9780875420288

So thats how you can get started. And trust me, once you do, the things you will learn about yourself will be invaluable. Always remember though, symbols have unique meanings for you that may or may not be universal. You are your own universe and its important that while you look to some of these tools for understanding, you must at the end of the day find out what your dreams mean to you!

Happy Journaling!

As your mirror and your friend,

Yolo :-)