Some years ago, I wrote a book about dreaming. I wrote it in no small part because most of the dream material I've seen doesn't work for me. It's usually too focused on finding meanings, in a way that strikes me as reductive and pointless. I had a lot of things to say about how personal and nuanced symbolism in dreams can be, and that taking meanings from dictionaries is unlikely to give you much.
I'm not a fan of trying to get control of your dreams. I've had experiences of lucid dreaming, but those have come unsought and I prefer it that way.
If you can control what happens in your dreams, then all that will happen in your dreams is what your conscious mind chooses. Dreams are an opportunity to meet your wilder and more unconscious self and to experience yourself in ways that your conscious mind might not allow. Repressed feelings can come to the surface in dreams. Issues you aren't dealing with, aspects of your shadow self and things you are in denial about can all be there waiting for you when you sleep. Exploring this offers so much, and trying to be in control won't let these things come to the surface.
There's wisdom in the unconscious. If you've crushed yourself down trying to fit what you think is socially acceptable, your dream life may be where much of your soul has taken refuge. If you don't seem to dream at all this can be a sign that you aren't letting yourself look at all kinds of important things.
We don't have to tame everything. We need to learn how to make room for the wild things, and there's a lot to be said for starting with ourselves. Honouring our animal bodies, recognising our connection with nature and seeing how nature manifests within us is critically important for this. Dreams are wild, natural things, arising from our animal bodies, our fundamental needs and our emotional lives. We can also do a lot of processing and making sense of things through dreaming, and there's a lot to be said for not interfering with that process.
You can find out more about the book over here - https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/moon-books/our-books/pagan-dreaming
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