Dark Moon: Dream Work for Beginners

There are few opportunities for spiritual experience in daily life more accessible than the land of dreams.  Our deepest desires and our darkest fears are exposed to us, unlocking the mystery of our inner nature on a nightly basis.

These nightly encounters are our regular appointments with the unbridled wilderness of the soul.

During the dark or new moon phase, conditions for dream work are ripe.

As we enter this phase tonight, I submit to you a few ways to use this time to actively engage in your dream life.  Given that we spend a third of our lives sleeping, this kind of experimentation can be extremely rewarding.  Dreaming with a purpose enriches a landscape in your life that is completely, totally, and uniquely yours.

Bless your dream journal. 

You may choose a simple composition book from the grocery store, or opt for an elaborate blank book adorned with beautiful artwork, but unless you already have a journal dedicated to dreaming, start with a fresh one. 

Bless your journal on the night of the luna oscura.  How you bless it is up to you.  Here are a few suggestions.  You can use one of them, all of them or some combination.

-Surround your journal with purple candles.
-Anoint the first and last page with lavender oil.
-Smudge it with a sage bundle.
-Place a piece of amatista on top.
-Surround your journal with circle of dream herbs like lavender or manzanilla.

Create a bedtime ritual. 

This might be as simple as playing soft music or doing an energy clearing for the space before you lay down.  A simple act of cleansing to raise spiritual energy in your room goes a long way

Write down your dreams. 

Every morning until the next full moon, write down your dreams.

Do it immediately after you wake up.  The moment you are fully conscious, the details of your dreams are already beginning to fade.  Your recollection is the most vivid in the moments after you surface from sleep.  Include everything you can remember.  People, colores, scents. 

Keeping a diario de sueños is certainly not a new idea, but it’s the best way to get in touch with your dream experiences, which are fleeting but extremely valuable for personal insight.  We’re going to use this tried-and-true technique in a new way.

Don’t look back at what you’ve written until the full moon. 

Write down your dreams, turn the page, and forget about it for the time being.

Leave a blank page in between each written page.

We’re going to use it later.

On the night of the full moon, review your dreams. 

You will find that your dreams have patterns in them.  Even if you didn’t have any nightmares between the dark moon and the full moon, you probably had some unpleasant ones related to your underlying fears and anxieties.  Dream researchers have discovered that rewriting your dreams has a profound impact on their quality.  The night of the full moon, go through each dream and rewrite it to “smooth over” the anxieties and fears in them.

As the moon wanes, repeat step 3-5 until the next new moon. 

By the end of this step, you’ll have been recording your dreams for a complete moon cycle, from one new moon to the next.  When you go through your dreams this time, notice the reduction in anxiety and fear-based dreams. 

Anyone knows that your dream life is influenced by your waking life, but few people consider that the opposite is true as well: changes in your dreaming are also reflected in your waking life.  You’ll notice that as your anxiety levels decline in your dreams, they will also be lowered in your waking life.

Try it!Save