Beginning Oneiromancy

The art of working with dreams is called Oneiromancy. What I am sharing with you here is an introduction to basic Oneiromantic practice. I plan to provide a few more resources that build upon or support this particular exercise in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, this will be as good a place to get started as any.

Long ago there were temples that people would visit for the chance to receive a dream or visitation that would heal them, give them answers or direction, or bless them with a bit of prophecy. Most of those temples are in ruins these days, but it was never the building that gave the dreams; rather it was a gift from the Gods.

You can learn much from your dreams. Keeping a dream journal is pretty standard practice for many people these days. You can buy them in the big bookstore chains, gift shops, and department stores. If you keep track of what you experience, you have a chance of discerning patterns, going back some day down the road and perhaps spotting something that opens up whole new vistas of magickal exploration and artistic inspiration.

Waiting on dreams, hoping to catch one reminds me of fishing. You don't have to passively wait for a dream to come to you, nor do you have to accept just any old dream that comes your way. While lucid dreaming is something that some of us take for granted, it can be learned, like any skill based upon a coordination of perception and will. One way to start out along the road to developing the faculty of lucid dreaming, getting better at recalling the dreams you do have, or conquering nightmares is to practice the fine art of dream incubation.

Remember those temples I mentioned above? They worked for any number of reasons, but most of all they provided a safe place to receive certain types of dreams. These old temples were sacred spaces dedicated to healing, inspiration, prophecy and so forth. Sure, we don't all have crumbling Greek or Roman ruins in our backyards, but we do have the means to set up a sacred space and to ask for help from the Gods and Ancestors. We can use our creativity and imagination to set up such conditions as are conducive to receiving the types of dreams we are seeking to experience. If we give ourselves permission to dream what we need to, and establish a clear expectation that the types of dreams we seek are welcome in our space, that we're comfortable with their presences and messages anything can happen.

We can effectively program our dreams, to an extent, through the use of symbols, setting and expectation. Whatever symbols you choose to explore or to work with is up to you, but I would like to suggest that you at least consider starting out with something pleasant, simple, and possibly of a healing nature. You can always go tearing through the nightmare realms later, once you've gotten your act together.

Preparation of Self
This exercise is usually performed solitary, but you could adapt it easily enough to promote mutual dream-work, though that is getting a bit ahead of ourselves and I will deal with such things in another article. As far as your personal preparations go, you can get as elaborate as you like, however I would caution you not to cause a lot of stress or to get too worked up over this sort of work. It is essential to your success that you are able to relax, and since a lot of the real work will take place during your sleep-time, the simpler path is often better. Start out with broad strokes and refine your efforts over time as you grow more comfortable with your results. Don't try to cram too much into any one session. You do still need to get your rest.

If you like, take a ritual/herbal bath beforehand. Some people like to prepare chamomille or other types of tea before doing dream work. Whatever allows you to best prepare yourself, cleanse your surroundings, stimulate your perceptions, and to get into the receptive frame of mind and mood is fine and wonderful.

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Tools & Setting
To be honest, besides some place to sleep, you don't need anything else. A journal to keep records in is a very good idea and I highly recommend that you consider keeping one handy. A lot of times you don't necessarily realize the significance of an otherwise forgettable event that years later might just prove to be very important to you.

If you want, you can make use of whatever items you personally deem suitable for inspiring the appropriate aesthetic, expressing the right vibe or atmosphere, etc. I know people who work with Runes, paintings, posters, statues, and other forms of visual stimuli. You can also try using particular pieces of music. You decide what sounds best to you. This aspect of things is a lot like a combination of building a set for a play, magickal interior decorating, and applied Feng Shui. Make yourself comfortable. Create a space in which it is easier to connect to the forces, ideas, or whatever you are trying to commune with. If this leads you build a shrine to Morpheus, then good for you. I'm happy just curling up in a comfortable bed, personally.

One way that I've had considerable luck with is to make use of Tarot cards; staring at a particular card's image before bed-time is usually all it takes to connect with the archetype or energy expressed by that card. This is a good way to get more in-touch with the currents underlying your favorite Tarot deck and can help you gain a better intuitive connection with a particular deck.

Like I said; you can always add as much crap as you want or think that you need to make things suitably complicated, but that's not my way. I'll leave such elaborations up to your inner genius. Make yourself happy.

Preparation of Space
Once you have a place made up for yourself, be it a humble sleeping bag out in the woods, or a massive king-sized sleigh bed in a swanky Las Vegas hotel, I highly suggest cleansing and banishing unwanted influences from your room. Especially in a space that you're only borrowing for a few hours. This can be as simple as burning some sage and sprinkling some salt-water, or you might want to go all out and perform some sort of banishing rite such as the LBRP or the Eight-fold Banishing that Nema provides in Maat Magick. There are an endless number of options. Pick one. Do what works best for you.

Go to Bed
When you have everything in place, you're clean, relaxed and the space is cleansed and it's all ready to go, take a few moments to intensely study whatever object, item, or image you wish to use as your key or focus for your dreaming tonight. Look into the object, scry it if you like, but whatever you do make sure that you have a strong image of it that you can hold in your minds eye once you turn off the lights and start to go to sleep.

When you have a clear image in mind and you're ready to give it a try, turn off the lights or blow out the candles or whatever you're using and holding the image in your mind as clearly as you can for as long as you can, then relax, release the image and let yourself go to sleep.

Sounds simple, doesn't it? Some folks have been intuitively doing something similar for years without knowing it was anything special. Others can struggle for years, buy dozens of books, go to workshops and still they can't quite relax enough to let it happen. The big secret is in letting yourself relax into the image, to let it resonate through you like the echo of a single musical note. Like attracts like. By taking on this particular vibration or resonating this particular symbol or whatever you've chosen to work with, you are drawing those forces represented by this image from out of their hiding places, whether that is within the subconscious, collective unconscious or astral plane. It's your rite; you tell me what you're calling upon and what its home address is supposed to be.

Waking Up
When you wake up; whether on your own accord or from the convulsive shock of the alarm clock, give yourself some time to just relax and let the events of your dream(s) play through your minds eye. You don't necessarily want to fall back to sleep, but hang in the space In-Between for a bit. It's a good place for letting memories fall into view, especially if you remain placid, relaxed, calm and don't make ripples or waves.

Most people prefer to jot down some notes about their experience right away, others wait until they've had a shower. It's up to you. Definitely consider keeping a record of your dreamwork. Keeping a journal when exploring the Inner Realms is always a useful tool, but if you can’t be bothered, well, it’s your trip, after all.

It is also a good idea to clean up your space, put things away and to get on with your day. Don't just sit and stew. You may want to either build up an accumulation of dream essence in your space or banish it again. I leave that choice up to you. Both ways have their good points and bad points. However I would warn you that accumulated dream effluvia seems to lead to melacholy, depression and a tendency to listen to goth music, dress in all black and things like that. Just an observation, the opportunity is yours to make of it what you will.

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