When I read what has been written on the subject of dreaming I hear people stuck in a dichotomy. The act of trying to make sense of dreams shuts off the dreaming process. Sense will stop a dream from continuing to open up. You have to incubate dreams to a certain degree, and sit in stillness with them in order to have something come through. I have meditation dreams and sleep dreams. The meditation dreams incubate and the sleep dream ground the meditation dream in manifestation.
Ancient alchemists believed that a person’s presence could transform lead into gold. Carl Jung called this kind of person a Soror Mystica. Though we’re not transforming lead into gold such a relationship exists in my work with dreams. My own Soror Mystica is a person who dreams in complete parallel with what I dream but roots the dream in an outer way. My Soror Mystica, who is also my partner, can decipher the fabric of a dream with visions, and like King Solomon’s description of a vanity of vanities she can ground it. A way this works is seen in the example of a person who had asked me to answer five questions for him. I did not tell the Soror Mystica what his questions were. I read one question to myself on my side of the bed. I did not communicate with her, instead I went to sleep. Having never heard the question, my Soror Mystica provided his answer to me in the morning. For five nights in a row we did this. I’ve come to know that dreams quickly point to how intertwined we are.
The many years I’ve spent dreaming have shown me that we come to this work slowly beginning with ourselves. In dreams we process all kinds of situations that we have to address and deal with. The work can be a very tough process. Don’t think that you can’t get beat up by the dream world.