The Guiding Wisdom of Dreams

By Janice DeLuca
 

Dreams reflect the voice of our soul, delivering gifts of wisdom, guidance, balance, support, insight, and healing. They can reveal our struggles and conflicts, offer knowledge and wisdom about the past, present and future, and ultimately act as a ruder, directing(guiding) us to greater Self-awareness and the destiny of our soul.

 Many times we can find ourselves in situations where we aren’t sure which direction we should go, we are faced with difficult decisions, troubled relationships, or wondering if it is time to sell our home, switch jobs, what is the pain in our body trying to tell us. We may ask advice from friends, seek professional consult, or we can choose to make direct contact to our deepest knowing by asking for a dream.

 This dreamer, a client of mine, was in the midst of change in many areas of her life, and was now pressured to make a decision.. she needed to decide whether to keep working alone, or to work with her husband on a very attractive project. They had been discussing it for months, and she was still conflicted. Then she asked for a dream...and was gifted with these images.

The dream opens with the dreamer talking to her long-time male spiritual mentor about her challenging situation, there is no resolution or advice given, the dream shifts and she is outside, it is sunny and bright, she notices she is in a complex of one story buildings surrounding a central courtyard. She enters a building, prior to entering she leaves her tan purse outside the door. The dream shifts and she is outside again and now sees a wise intuitive female teacher from her waking life that she has consulted in the past, wearing a golden yellow satin dress, golden yellow hair, and ruby red lipstick, sitting in a slow moving carriage- like cart...her demeanor is joyful and lighthearted. The dreamer walks along side the moving carriage and shares her dilemma, the jolly wise woman eventually turns to her and with a joyful wave of her hand says... “OH, go write your book!” And poof, she disappeared. The dreamer than goes to retrieve her purse and finds it gone, afraid it had been taken, she looks all around, then finds it at the bottom of the three steps that lead to the courtyard, the purse is now smokey blue, and upon checking, she finds her wallet, money, cards, etc, all present. She awoke.

 To discover the meaning and wisdom communicated through this dream and all dreams there are essential steps to deciphering the awe-inspiring mystery of it’s symbolic language.

Step One: Begin recording all your dreams. It takes only seconds to lose a dream, have a flashlight, paper and pen or voice recorder as close as possible. As soon as you awake begin to recall the dreams content and images, notice your emotions and feelings, what you are feeling in your body, then begin to journal or record. If it is only a snippet or one image that you remember record it, frequently more details will be recalled. The more you commit to your inner life, the guiding Self responds, and offers it’s wisdom.

Step Two: Identify and work with the symbols/images. People, objects, animals, location are all symbols. It is the energy behind the image that seeks our awareness. Start with one that seems to have the most charge for you. What are your associations with this image, write all of them. Notice what you feel, which association seems to elicit the most response within you, a quickening or resonance. Drawing the images, creating them with clay, dancing them, using psychodrama and/or meditating on them, all contribute to understanding your dream.

Step Three: Notice all details of the dream. Where is the dream taking place? Outdoors, in the bedroom, kitchen, living room, garage, in the country or city. If you are in the kitchen it could suggest the dream has something to do with feminine energies, mother, and/or nourishment. The bedroom may indicate something about sexuality or relationship. Notice colors, size and shapes. For instance, in our dreamer’s dream, the wise intuitive female character was wearing a golden yellow dress suggesting a radiance and vitality, a numinous quality. Had she been dressed in black it would give a completely different feel. Remember, a pictures says a thousand words! Always consider the images in context to the whole dream and your personal associations with them.

Step Four: Develop the understanding that people in our dreams reflect parts of ourselves. We are much more than the single “I” we are aware of, the cast of characters in our dreams give us the opportunity to lean more about all of who we are, and what aspects or energies within us seek expression and integration in our lives.

When a person shows up in a dream begin to explore by:

• Describe this person, what are their qualities and traits

• What is your relationship to this person

• How do I feel about this person?

• What opinions or beliefs does this person hold?

• What does she/he represent to you? For example, authority, healer, critic, wise woman...

• Who or what within me is like this person? Why did the dream choose this person to represent a part of me? (Yes, even when the co-worker you just can’t stand shows up in your dream, he/she is reflecting a part of yourself!)

This gives us a wonderful opportunity to grow in awareness of the totality of our being, and embrace our full range of expression and potential.

Step Five: Recognizing Archetypal Dream Images. Many of our dream images are personal and some are archetypal, that is, universal spiritual-psychological patterns and energy systems common to many and timeless. For example the Great Mother, the Divine Child, the Hero/Heroine, the Crone, and Fairy God-Mother to name a few. When we tap these energies we begin to appreciate the larger context of our experiences and our life beyond the personal and time/space. 

Step Six: Begin to interpret your dreams:

• What is the overall meaning of the dream for your life, or how may it relate to what you are currently involved with in your outer life at this time?

• What insights and/or guidance is this dream offering?

• Share your dream with a partner or start a dream group. Telling a dream allows you hear with a different ear and sometimes will give you additional insight into the dreams and deepens your skills and intuitive capacities. Reflections from others can sometimes be more objective.

Using these steps and working with the key images, our dreamer began to feel the wisdom and guidance offered by her dream and came to this summarized understanding: The dream reveals her challenging situation is deeply connected to her soul/spiritual development because she is seeking consul from two mentors who have been her primary teachers in this area of her life. This indicates she is being informed through a deep layer of her psyche. First, she consults with her inner divine masculine, as represented by the outer male spiritual teacher, this part of herself did not offer any resolution or direct guidance, yet contributes to the over-all inner inquiry and is available to her.

 
The tan purse she leaves outside the entry of the building, represents her personal identity. ( purses carry our identification cards and personal resources, such as money, credit cards, brush, etc.. ) 

When she steps out of the building she makes contact with the female teacher who represents her inner wise woman/intuitive nature, and in the dream appears wearing a golden yellow satin dress and has golden yellow hair and ruby red lips. Her appearance and energy reflect an archetypal figure, the fairy god-mother, radiant, round and light-hearted. Waving her hand like a magic wand, she joyfully delivers the message, “OH, go write your book!” And poof she’s gone.

What the fairy god-mother’s response to the dreamer’s dilemma is really saying is, go live your life!

Our dreamer than searches and finds her purse, and the color has changed from tan to smokey blue.

The appearance of the fairy god-mother is a numinous, revitalizing figure, and the change of purse color indicates our dreamer is under going a personal transformational process. She is searching for her “ true blue” soul expression and identity, and the dream indicates she will eventually discover it.

With these revelations our dreamer decided this was not the time to enter into a joint venture. She was given another dream that validated her decision.

Dreams are frequently ahead of our conscious lives, yet can indicate where the energies are moving toward. This may take months and even years. Yet, if we are diligent, journal our dreams, work with the images, and honor their wisdom, we will begin to see the wonderment of our soul’s reflection and realize our unfolding destiny. Dream on!

Janice DeLuca (http://www.chicagohealers.com/hc-temple.html ), is a Chicago Healers.com (www.chicagohealers.com) practitioner and founder/owner of the Woman’s Temple in Chicagoland and Wisconsin.

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