World of Dreams.

Dreams can be categorized by the type of experience we have.
If you choose to work with each type of dream, magical techniques for improving your ability to interact with the dream world are included in each category.
Now, as I personally, look into the shamanic studies as well as alot of other stuff,
I found this and wanted to share

Unconscious dreams: Unconscious and uncontrolled dreams are the most common dreams of humans. These dreams are hard to remember, and seem vague and jumbled. Meaning can rarely be taken from them, and the meaning is not obvious. The symbolic meaning must be decoded, and sometimes it takes outside help to truly understand the message from our unconscious. Sometimes the symbols are universal or cultural, and tools like a dream dictionary can help us. Many people find dream dictionaries unhelpful, though, because they are often biased to a particular culture or way of thinking, and because most of them don’t take into account the mystical world of the witch. They are flat and psychological and do not reflect the Shamanic reality. In dreams, archetypal symbols are often mixed with personal symbols that mean something only to you, or to your group of friends and family, not to the author of the dream dictionary. If the symbols are not obvious to you, having a friend, family member or therapist point them out can make the meaning much clearer, if you are ready to hear the message.

Sometimes a dreams meaning is obvious to everyone but us. Other times a dream is just a dream, and may not have a grand message for us. One of the mistakes those new to dream magick are trying to find deep significance in every nuance of every dream. Sometimes dreams are just experiences and do not need to deliver a life-changing message, just as many meditations and journeys are experiences, but not pivotal ones.

Dream Technique 1: Dream Journal To become more conscious of your dreams and gain better recall, keep a dream journal. I suggest that you keep a separate note book on your nightstand. When you wake up in the morning, immediately write down the first things that come to mind, even if they are not a part of a dream. Get into the habit of recording your first thoughts of the day. You can copy them into your regular journal or book of shadows.

Dream Technique 2: Dream Circle
Many people complain that their dreams are filled with images of day-to-day life, including work, home and family. They feel their mundane thoughts are overriding any mystical experience. To clear the resent subconcious, the surface of the “lake” trance your day backwards from the time you went to bed. Think about what you did just before going to bed, and then review your actions before that. Keep going backwards, in as much detail as you need, until you get waking up that day. This is called the dream circle, because you are circling backwards. Most people fall asleep before they get to the time of their waking. If you don’t, get into greater detail with each action the next time you try this technique.

Dream Technique 3: Returning to a dream
If you awaken from a dream before its resolution and feel you were on the verge of experimenting something important, try to continue the dream. You can go back to sleep with the intention of returning to the dream, or you can go to sleep the next night with this intention. To do this, stay in bed and relax into a light meditative state. Retrace the last steps of the dream into your mind, and let it continue in your imagination. Let your imagination wander. What would have happened? Continue the dream like a mediation, and see where it leads you. Because you are conscious, you can ask questions of the beings you meet in hopefully remember the answers. Go to bed with the intention of the remembering and completing your dream.

Lucid Dreams:
The term lucid dreams literally mean “clear dreams”. The lucid state refers to clarity and consciousness that we usually lack in the dream state. You could describe a lucid dream as your mind being awake as your body sleeps. You are awake you are dreaming, and have a certain measure of control over the dream. It can be recalled with greater clarity and feel very real even though you are awake it is a dream. A lot of people want to have lucid dreams but aren’t sure exactly why they want them beyond “it sounds cool”. Some want to have clear visualization experiences because they visualize in their dreams but have difficulties during meditations. One purpose of lucid dreaming is to condition your consciousness to remain alert and aware at deep levels of nonordinary reality. Lucid dreams prepare you for deeper journeys, and eventually the experiences of crossing from this life to another consciously during the death process. The other main purpose of lucid dreaming is to work on manifestation abilities. In the dream world, the time lapse between having a thought and making it reality is very short. Unlike the physical world, where you can send out a spell and it may take days, weeks or months to manifest, in the dream world this process is practically instantaneous. Here we learn the power of our thoughts, good and bad, and how to clear control our unwanted thoughts before they manifest. In a lucid dream, we can consciously create inner magical changes and healing.

Dream Technique 4: Lucid-Dream trigger You can awaken your consciousness and not your body in a dream through the use of a self-hypnotic trigger. Use your instant-magick trigger or a light meditative state and suggest to yourself that when you see a particular image (choose and unusual image), it will “shock” you “awake” you to the fact that you are dreaming. Then affirm that you will see this image in your dreams tonight and it will trigger your lucid dream. Pick something you never dream of. Use the same image for as long as it works, and then find something new.

Spirit Dreams
Dreams are one of the primary ways we work with our spirit allies, guides and totems. Most of us don’t enter nonordinary reality while awake, so this is the only time our spirits have with us. When we become conscious of our spirits, we can place our intentions into those relationships and receive dreams that can give us information, solve our problems, and heal us on the emotional, mental and physical planes. Many pantheons have gods that rule the dream world. In Greek tradition, Morpheus is the god of dreams, while Hypnos is the god of sleep. The dream world holds two gates, one of horn and one of ivory. Dreams that pass through the Gate of Ivory are false and illusionary, while dreams that pass through the Gate of Horn are true and valuable. Calling upon the dream gods can be helpful in sorting out your dreams.

Dream Technique 5: Evoking Spirits

Simply call upon your spirit guides and guardians to aid you while you sleep. I usually ask my guides to protect me on all levels while I sleep and dream. If I have a specific intention, I might ask my spirits guides and higher self to help me fulfill it while I sleep. When feeling physically ill or emotionally upset about something, I will go to sleep and ask my guides to help heal me while I sleep. If you have a specific kind of dream you would like to experience, or if you want to visit a particular place or learn something, ask your spirit guides to help you. Before falling asleep, you can do a meditation in bed and ask to visit your inner temple. While in the inner temple, ask to go to and open the gateway of dreams. Place your intention into the gateway of dreams, calling upon your spirit guides in the temple to help you. Go into the gate way and let yourself fall asleep. You will notice that your dreams are more vivid and purposeful when you wake up in the morning.

Dream Technique 6: Time-Out
If you find yourself physically getting enough rest but always feeling tired, try this technique. Your spirits may be working with you “to much” and not be aware of the rigors of physical life. You need to set some guidelines, since sleep is also meant to be rejuvenating. Before going to bed, simply but firmly say to your guides, silently our out loud:
Tonight I wish to sleep peacefully and rejuvenate my mind, emotions, body and soul. I wish to stay in this world, in this body and simply rest.
Give yourself a break. Don’t do this every night, since dream work is an essential part of your life, but do take a time-out when needed.

Group Dreams:

Some people share dreams with close friends and family members spontaneously. They dream about eatch other simultaneously and share similar, if not exact, dream themes and images. This can also mean that all dreams are not just solely an internal unfolding of the consciousness but also a shared realm where many travel and gather.

Dream Technique 7: Creating Group Consciousness Learning to dream intentionally with another person or group is a powerful technique used to create group consciousness, it creates an opportunity to share spiritual and magical energy, work out issues and forge a psychic intimacy. Covens do group meditations and group dreams to forge a stronger unit. To do this, those involved must all agree to be asleep at the same time. You can ritualize the process with the dream spell technique, holding the intention that you will join your group on the astral plane.

Dream Technique 8: Sending dream
Two people don’t have to decide simultaneously to connect through a dream. One person can send a dream message to another. Witches and shamans are known to send messages through their dreams. Though a powerful and fun technique, it’s not something to be trifled with and done indiscriminately, particularly if the recipient is not normally open or aware of such phenomena. Think of your message in the simplest terms possible. When you go to sleep, focus on the person to whom you wish to send the dream and the message. Hold the intention as you fall asleep. If this is hard for you, you can do it as a dream spell or do a meditation to the gateway of dreams in the inner temple.

Nightmares
Nightmares can reflect inner conflict. On a purely physical level, they reflect physical conflict, of one body system over another struggling for energy when you are sick or have eaten too late in the day. Illness reflects the inner mental and emotional struggles played out in the body, and nightmares can be a reflection of our subconscious issues. They manifest when one is ill physically, emotionally or spiritually. Those who are called to the Shamanic path will occasionally experience periods of nightmares or fevered illness including strange visions. These nightmares can be part of healing the shadow, a warning, or a part of the Shamans initiation process.
On another level, nightmares are the repressed angers, fears and other conflicting emotions that fuel the shadow coming to the surface when you are not consciously in control and are repressing them. It’s an opportunity to get in touch with these energies. Continued nightmares are also a potential symptom of physic attack, but even if this is so, attracting such a conflict to your life reflects an inner conflict. The inner world parallels the outer world. Resolve the inner conflict, and such outside attacks will be rendered impotent. Such nightmarish conflicts are seen as the interference of unwanted spirits attached to our psyche. To some, they are psychological representations of past trauma. To others, they are independent spirits attracted by our traumas, moving through the individual and collective consciousness.

Dream Technique 6: Dream Charms
All the techniques and previous types of dreams can be used to heal our nightmares, soothe our traumas, and create a space to heal and transform our dreams. Dream charms are magical devices used to enhance our dream experience. Now, by adding symbol, herb, or stone, we can add the powers if nature and shape to our dream magick. The following sections are lists of popular stones and herbs that can help in dream magick:
Dream Stones: -Aquamarine -Beryl -Blue aragonite -Blue calcite -Clear quartz -Herkimer diamond -Labradorite/Specrolite -Moonstone -Mother of pearl -Opal -Pearl -Red jasper -Rhodochrosite -Selentine -Silver -Sugilite