By Amanda Moreno
In general, my dreams and I are fighting these days. I’ve had more nightmares in the past few weeks than I’ve probably had in my entire life combined. They’re not really the kinds that lead to me waking up screaming or anything, but they have been disturbing and chaotic.
It’s probably not helpful at all that I’ve been reading about “evil” and “psychic self defense” before bed, but I digress.
A few weeks ago I gave you a glimpse into my New Moon ritual process. As I sit here reflecting on my intention — When I make time to still my mind, to listen and perceive, I act on the inspiration that comes with dedication and ease — I’m laughing at the “still my mind” part.
My mind has been anything but still. But I’m realizing that I have been making the effort to listen and perceive. And my dreams have been the direct means of getting inspiration for writing and living and loving.
The fact of the matter is that I’ve been picking up little communications from dreams and then acting on them. I do, however, find dream work to be somewhat exhausting and tedious sometimes. It requires time and effort. And although the pay off can be huge — seeing as dream work provides a means for getting to know the images of our own unconscious minds — I tend to be inconsistent in my efforts.
So what is dream work, anyway? To my mind, dream work is yet another tool for healing and understanding because it connects us to the language of the psyche. I see it as different from dream interpretation. Dream interpretation, for me, is more about “what does the dream Mean,” whereas dream work is more alive and fluid. It’s about unpacking images and emotions. Dream work includes interpretation to a degree, but moves beyond it to see the dream as a constantly changing dynamic.
The gist of dream work is that dreams are alive, that they are multidimensional and multi-layered, and that they are communicating with us through images that are full of meaning. The images that appear in a dream are specific to the particular dream. Therefore there can be no universal meaning for “water,” because the context of the water (is it still? clear? warm? salty? menacing?) describes the image further.