Dreamwork 101 // What is Dreamwork and How to Get Started in 5 Steps

Dreamwork is the practice of tending to our relationship with our dreams. We’re dreaming every night, but many of us barely remember our dreams, or if we do, don’t spend much time thinking about them or working with them.

(How often have you dismissed a dream as, “oh, it was just a dream?”)

But dreams can have a lot to teach us and offer us when we enter into a deeper relationship with them. The dreamworld is rich with feelings, desires, needs, and possibilities. Our understanding of what the dreamworld evokes and presents can support our physical lives and our connections to ourselves. 

In this blog post, I’ll share a bit about how to start a dreamwork practice of your own.

Dreamwork Lineage

First, I’d like to share my dreamwork lineage. What I know about dreamwork comes from the work of these folks in particular, as well as my own intuition and my ancestors:

• Blanca Villalobos

• Toko-Pa

• Robert Moss

• Tara Burke

• Sanyu Estelle

These are wonderful people to go deeper into dreamwork with if you feel so called.

1. Support Dream Recall + Sleep 

The simplest of ways to begin supporting your dreaming is by supporting sleep and dream recall. It’s difficult to consciously work with our dreams if we’re not sleeping well or can’t remember our dreams when we wake up. Everyone is different, but here are some things you might like to explore to support your sleep:

• Set screen time boundaries for a certain amount of time before bed 

• Drink a tea to support your sleep, like chamomile (always do your own research and check with a professional before ingesting herbs) 

• Create your own sleep ritual that helps you shift into rest mode 

• Meditate and/or do a gentle, restorative yoga practice

• Take a few minutes to journal brain-dump style to help clear your mind. 

To support your dream recall, there are a few things I find helpful:

• Set an intention to dream and to remember your dream(s) before you go to sleep (you can write this down, say it out loud, or just tell it to yourself silently)

• Take a few minutes in bed in the morning before you get out of bed (or look at your phone) to give yourself space to remember your dream.

• Create a dream altar and meditate at it before bed to welcome your dreams to come 

• Pay attention to the dreams you do receive by tending them (more on that below!)

2. Start a Dream Journal 

This is probably the number one tip anyone you ask about dreamwork will give you, and with good reason! A dream journal creates a container for tending your dreams, helps solidify your intention to connect with your dreams, and helps you understand your dreams.

I recommend choosing a dedicated journal for your dreamwork and placing it on your dream altar when you’re not using it if you have one. As soon as you wake up (definitely before you look at any devices), put pen to paper and record your dream. Try recording your dreams in the present tense to honor its aliveness (for example, instead of "I was walking by a river,” try “I’m walking by a river). 

If it feels available to you, you might like to marinate in the dream in bed for a few minutes before actually getting up and reaching for your journal to record.

3. Explore Dream Feelings & Textures

After you record your dream, there are many ways to work with it more deeply and explore the messages it might have for you. 

I like to explore the dream textures: what are the textures, sights, smells, tastes, sounds of the dream? What do those senses mean for you and evoke for you? How do they make you feel? How does the dream, in general, make you feel?

4. Understand Dream Associations

As you work with the dream you’ve recorded, notice what stands out to you. Maybe your red dress feels particularly alive, or the hawk sparks something for you, or you feel curious about a figure in your dream. 

Whatever you feel curious about, do a bit of freewriting about it. List out: what does this thing make you think of? How does it make you feel? 

For example, some associations that come up with hawks for me:

• Hawk feather

• Maggie Smith’s poetry book Good Bones

• Mothers

• Protecting your children 

• Imagination

• Play 

Notice how I’m not so focused on the hawk itself, but I follow the threads of what each thing is associated with! Now I have something interesting to work with and can ask myself questions like, "what’s my relationship with play right now?" 

Some of the associations you make might really surprise you and can offer deeper insight into your dream. 

5. Assign Dream Correspondences 

As you continue to work with your dreams, you start to develop some personal symbols and correspondences. 

Like you saw above in my example with the hawk, I could make a section in my journal where I note that hawk led me to mothers and children and play. When I see a hawk again in my dream, I have that reference and can ask myself if/how it applies to this dream. 

Over time, you can deepen your understanding of your own personal dream symbols and correspondences. I love this practice so much because, to me, it’s not about what a certain symbol means but about what it means to you, how it feels in your body, how it resonates with your ancestry. That’s what feels potent and powerful!

Dreams Aren’t Your Personal Vending Machine 

It feels important to state that working with dreams isn’t just asking a question and receiving an answer. Generally, it’s not a simple or linear way of working. There isn’t one true or hidden meaning that we need to uncover. 

In my eyes, dreams and the dreamworld are alive. So it truly is a practice of engaging in relationship with, of exploring. You might like to ask yourself, "how can I be in equal exchange with my dreams?" How can I honor the dream world and not just extract from it?

Dreams have such potential to expand us out of binary thinking and into visionary possibilities, especially if we acknowledge that power and allow them to take us there!

Going Deeper with Your Dreams 

Another way to explore dream tending and go a bit deeper is by asking for a dream. I share how to do this in the dreamwork ritual I shared for Pisces season, which you can find here.

Feel free to contact us and share: how is your dream practice going? How is your relationship with your dreams evolving? 

Dreamwork Ritual for Pisces Season + Card Spread

Pisces, our mutable water sign and last sign of the zodiac, evokes the artist, the mystic, the dreamer, in all of us with its connection to music, poetry, spirituality, and the dream world.

In this blog post, I’ll be sharing a card spread and a ritual for Pisces season. To learn more about Pisces energy and your personal birth chart’s connection to Pisces, check out our Understanding the Energy of Pisces Season blog post here.

Card Spread for Pisces Season

This card spread can be done using an oracle deck or a tarot deck.

I invite you to create a ritual space for you and your deck to communicate by taking a moment to ground and center yourself; lighting some incense, herbs, or candles that help you drop into your heart space; and opening to allow messages to come through. 

Truly, it doesn’t matter what you do, just that whatever you do helps you feel more grounded, centered, and open. When you feel centered and ready, shuffle your deck and draw a card for each of the following questions:

• What is Pisces energy here to teach me?

• Supportive energies to draw on to support my learning and growth 

• How can I embody the artist, the mystic, the dreamer this season? 

• What dream(s) to tend to at this time.

• How to tend to those dreams 

After you pull your cards, take some time to journal and/or meditate with them to really connect with the full meaning they have to offer you.

Dreamwork Ritual for Pisces Season

As someone who loves dreamwork already, Pisces season is basically a dream come true! This ritual is intended to support you in receiving a message through your dreams, and so is best done right before sleep. You’ll need:

• A dream tea (many herbs support sleep and dreaming. Personally, I like a simple combination of mugwort, chamomile, and lavender tea before bed. But as always, with herbs, make sure you research or check with a professional about what’s right for your body. Mugwort should not be consumed by pregnant or lactating people.)

• A journal and something to write with 

• If you'd like to add some supportive crystals aquamarine and amethyst are great options.

1. To start, brew your dream tea and take it to your altar (or bed, if you don’t have an altar or that just feels better for you). As you sip your tea, start feeling into what you need clarity on (you could sense into this, meditate on this, journal about this, or do anything else that helps you clarify what you want to know). This is the question you’re going to take into your dream space.

2. When you have that question, you’d like to receive clarity through your dream tonight, spend some time meditating with your question and take deep breaths. Feel the question in your body. Feel your desire for clarity. Let your body soften and your crown open. When you finish your tea, set your journal beside your bed and go to sleep.

3. In the morning, record your dream in your journal (or a voice memo on your phone if you’re not into writing) right away. It’s okay if you don’t know what it means (in dreamwork, I often find there are no clear-cut yes/no answers, rather things to explore, energies to connect with, and more questions to ask).

4. Record the objective facts of your dream (what happened, who was there, what you saw, etc.) as well as how the dream made you feel, what stood out to you, and what feels particularly alive or significant in the dream. Do you have any gut feelings about what this dream means for you? Write them down.

5. After you record, spend some time meditating and journaling with whatever sparks curiosity, feels intriguing about the dream, or feels particularly alive or significant in the dream. Notice how it makes you feel, what it makes you think of, what it brings up for you.

It’s okay if you are left with more questions - this is about engaging with your dreams and coming into a relationship with them, not thinking of them like a vending machine for wisdom. The more you consciously dream, the more you’ll start to understand the language of your dreams! 

You can repeat this ritual as often as you’d like - I think three nights in a row is really helpful, with the same question - to get more clarity. 

(And if you want more rituals to support your sleep and sweet dreams this season, check out our blog post 7 Rituals to Help You Sleep Like a Goddess here.)

Happy Pisces season, dreamers! I hope this card spread and ritual support - share your spreads on Instagram and tag us @cassieuhl so we can see them! 

A Card Spread for Eclipse Season

Eclipses can seem scary, and they are certainly a powerful energy! Generally, eclipses are thought to be wild cards, magnifying the energy of a new moon (for a solar eclipse) or a full moon (for a lunar eclipse). I like to think of eclipses as portals for endings and beginnings —things may be “eclipsed out” or “eclipsed in.” It’s common for births, moves, engagements, new jobs, break-ups, new relationships, and more to happen around eclipses and during eclipse season.

Eclipses can also be powerful illuminators, bringing hidden truths and feelings to the light for us to work with and heal through. They’re an important time to carve out space for listening, noticing, and receiving information. You can learn more about eclipses and how they interact with your specific birth chart in this blog post. 

With these current (Summer of 2020) eclipses taking place during Gemini and Cancer season, themes you might expect to come up in your life are around communication, being seen, home and family, and ancestral healing. Litha, or the summer solstice, also takes place during this eclipse season, highlighting themes of joy, vitality, abundance, and growth. 

Tip: If you’re reading this post later than the Summer of 2020, the card spreads are valid for any eclipse season!

Working with tarot or oracle cards can be powerful anytime, but especially during eclipse season. You can use the card spread below to more clearly understand the invitations, challenges, and opportunities of eclipse season for yourself. 

A CARD SPREAD FOR ECLIPSE SEASON

Before drawing your cards, take a moment to ground and center yourself. This might look like just taking a few deep breaths, or laying on the ground and feeling all the points of contact your body is making with the Earth. 

When you feel ready, set an intention for your spread. You might ask your higher self, your spirit guides, your intuition, or another helpful energy you’re familiar with to communicate with you through the cards. Shuffle your deck, and pull a card for each of the questions below:

• What (pattern, limiting belief, structure, relationship, etc.) is eclipsing out?

• Who am I right now?

• Challenge of this eclipse season

• What am I not seeing clearly?

• What healing do I need through this season?

• What (pattern, limiting belief, structure, relationship, etc.) is eclipsing in?

• How am I ready to evolve?

• Who will I be emerging from this eclipse season?

Take some time after pulling your cards to meditate and/or journal with them. This can really help you process and integrate their meanings!If you use this spread, feel free to share your cards over on Instagram and tag us at @cassieuhl! We would love to hear your interpretations of your cards.

The Witch’s Herb // 3 Magickal Uses for Mugwort

Mugwort, or Artemisia vulgaris, is touted as the witch’s herb. Mugwort is a powerful plant that every witch should have in their arsenal, but the richness of its history goes far beyond the witch. Mugwort is viewed as a weed and a nuisance by some, but don’t let this plant fool you, it’s powerful and potent!

Mugwort has been used for thousands of years and has a multitude of purposes, including ancient beer production, acupuncture, and protection rituals, to name a few. I’ll be focusing on ways to use Mugwort in your spiritual and magickal practice. Keep scrolling for four ways to use Mugwort.

Oracle card featured from The Ritual Deck.

Space Cleansing with Mugwort

There’s been a spotlight on the overharvesting of other plants commonly used in magickal and spiritual practices like white sage and palo santo. There’s undoubtedly some truth to these claims, and white sage and Palo Santo are not always the best option. If you do feel uneasy about using white sage and Palo Santo, or simply want an alternative, Mugwort is a pleasant and powerful option.

Similar to white sage, mugwort is an antimicrobial that can be used to purify the air of your space. Science has caught up with what many of our ancestors already knew, herbal smoke of certain antimicrobial plants can kill bacteria, and mugwort is one of them!

Mugwort has a light, earthy, and slightly sweet aroma. Many prefer it to white sage, myself included. To burn mugwort for energy cleansing you’ll need dried mugwort that’s either loose or in stick form. Use mugwort smoke to cleanse your space by wafting the smoke around with your hand or a large feather.

Beyond cleansing the air of your space, burning mugwort will offer protection and enhance your intuition. Keep reading for more about using mugwort for protection and intuition.

Protection with Mugwort

It’s quite astonishing how many cultures have relied on Mugwort as a protective tool. Native American cultures have used mugwort as a form of protection against ghosts, and as an amulet during sleep to protect against nightmares. In China, mugwort was used to dispel evil spirits during the Dragon Festival. There’s even a reference to St. John the Baptist wearing a wreath of mugwort as protection against evil spirits. In Europe, mugwort was often planted around houses as a form of protection.

Here’s a list of ways to employ the protective benefits of mugwort in your practice:

• Burn dried mugwort in loose or stick form to cleanse and protect your space before performing psychic and intuitive work.

• Hang mugwort above doorways to prevent negativity from entering.

• Plant mugwort around your house for external protection. Be careful, this plant is invasive and can spread quickly!

• Make a satchel of dried mugwort to carry with you for protection on the go.

Magick & Psychic Work with Mugwort

Mugwort is associated with the Goddess Artemis and the moon. These lunar ties give mugwort a strong connection to femininity, psychic work, and all things sleep-related. Another reason for using mugwort while practicing psychic work is how protective it is. Performing psychic work makes you vulnerable to psychic attacks and other negative energies. The protective properties of mugwort are another likely reason it became such a popular tool for witches.

Oracle cards featured from The Ritual Deck.

Here are some ways to use mugwort as a magickal tool:

• The next time you’re doing a card reading or any other intuitive work, aid your intuition by burning some mugwort or drinking a cup of mugwort tea before you begin your practice. Note: Pregnant or nursing women should not consume mugwort.

• To enhance your dreams, receive messages in your dreams, and practice lucid dreaming, place a pillow of dried mugwort under your pillow as you sleep.

• Create a psychic protection charm bag.

• Steep mugwort in a bowl of water to use as cleansing water for your psychic tools, only the ones that can get wet, of course! This is a great option for crystal balls, pendulums, and mirrors used for scrying.

• If you have access to mugwort plants, their stalks are hearty and make beautiful wands for circle casting and spellwork.

• Mugwort is associated with the crone phase of the Triple Goddess and is an excellent plant to work with when working with this energy.

Mugwort has been revered for its medicinal uses as well, especially in women, but that’s a post for another day! If you want to learn more about mugwort, I encourage you to continue to research it, and there’s much to gain from this magickal plant.

Three Dark Moon Rituals

The dark moon is one of my personal favorite times of the cycle. It’s the last few days of the waning time of the cycle, when the moon continues to shrink and eventually disappears from the sky.

Different traditions honor the dark moon at different times. Personally, I honor the dark moon when you can’t see the moon at all in the sky--which is technically the new moon. Others honor the dark moon the last few days before the new moon. I recommend using your intuition and noticing how you feel during these days to understand when to honor the dark moon versus new moon.

So what is the dark moon all about?

The dark moon is our time for radical rest, for deep clearing and releasing, and turning within. This is the time to cancel plans, to do shadow work, to go to sleep early and wake up late, and to pull tarot or oracle cards to tune in to your inner voice.

Keep scrolling for a few rituals to consider working with at this time.

WATER SPELL FOR CLEARING

One of my favorite spells to work during the dark moon is this simple water spell. Water is a helpful element for cleansing and purification, and this spell works especially well when the dark moon is in a water sign--Pisces, Cancer, or Scorpio. You’ll need:

• A large glass of water

• A piece of paper and pen

To start, choose what you’re focusing on releasing. Maybe there are blocks to self-expression, fear of being rejected, shame around your path, or blocks to abundance. Once you’ve decided what you’re ready to release (you’re welcome to spend some time journaling on this to get clear), start making a list of all the limiting beliefs and stories that you hold associated with this block.For example, let’s say you’re working with clearing blocks to abundance. Your list might hold beliefs like:

• I can’t make money doing what I love

• People with money are jerks

• It’s wrong to have money when other people have so little, etc.

Keep letting the beliefs flow! I tend to fill up a whole page when I do this spell.

Once you have your list, it’s time to work the spell. Ground yourself, cast your circle, and pick up your list. You’re going to say the first belief out loud, starting with “I clear the belief that ________ from my body” and then taking a big sip of water. Pause and notice, feeling and visualizing the water moving through your body, cleansing this belief from your system on every level.

Repeat this for each belief on your list, taking your time and really feeling the beliefs move out of your body.

Card featured from The Ritual Deck

When you’re done, use the energy of your palms to charge your last sip of water with what you do want - abundance, healthy self-expression, creativity, etc. - and feel your whole body being charged with this intention by the power of the element of water.

Give thanks to water and the Universe for their help, ground yourself again and open your circle.

CANDLE MAGICK FOR RELEASING

For this spell, you’ll need:

• Black taper candle

• Carving tool like a sharp point crystal, toothpick, or athame

• Black tourmaline, smoky quartz, or petrified wood

• A simple oil like grapeseed or bergamot essential oil

• Rosemary

Start by cleansing all of your items for the spell. This can be done by wafting rosemary smoke over them or visualizing light cleansing them.

For this spell, you’ll be carving what you’re releasing into your candle as well as the glyph for Pluto, the planet that helps things die and be transformed. For your words, keep them simple and powerful by carving the basics of what you’re releasing like “fear” or “self-doubt.”

Anoint your candle with your oil and roll it in your dried rosemary. As you carve and anoint your candle, visualize your all of whatever you’re releasing - your fear or your self-doubt as in the example above - pouring into the candle.

Place your crystal(s) and candle on your altar, light your candle, and start meditating on the flame. Continue to visualize all that you’re releasing pouring into the candle, and watch as it burns and turns to smoke. Stay with this meditation until you feel a shift in your energy - until you really feel a release.

Let the candle burn out if you can or snuff out the candle and continue the same spell each night until the candle has burned completely.

SHADOW WORK TAROT OR ORACLE SPREAD

The dark moon is a deep invitation into shadow work.

What is shadow work?

Simply put, it’s an intentional exploration of our shadow side - the parts of ourselves that we reject, that we’re ashamed of, that we stuff down and hide. Click here to learn more about shadow work if you’re new to it!

For this ritual, you’ll want to create a ritual space - whatever that means to you. For me, it usually means cleansing my space with smoke beforehand, lighting incense, and lighting candles. Maybe you also like to take an essential oil bath beforehand, or sprinkle herbs in a circle around you.

All you’ll need for this ritual is:

• A journal and pen

• Your tarot or oracle cards

Spend a few moments grounding yourself, then shuffle your cards and pull a card for each of these questions:

• What part of my shadow is rising to the surface to be worked with?

• How has rejecting this part of myself manifested in my life?

• How can I show this part of myself more love and integrate it into my whole self?

Give yourself the gift of sitting with your cards after you pull them. Spend time meditating on your cards, journaling about them, or even painting with them to process and understand what their messages are for you.

NEW MOON CARD SPREAD

Every new moon, we get a beautiful opportunity for a fresh start. The new moon is the time of the lunar cycle where we get to dream, vision, and set intentions for what we would like to heal, manifest, and create for the new cycle.

Cards, whether oracle or tarot (learn all about the difference between oracle & tarot cards and how to choose here), can be a powerful way to help us gain clarity and understand how to work with the whole cycle holistically. 

Keep scrolling for your new moon card spread and to learn how to work with the cards throughout the whole moon cycle!

Cards featured from The Ritual Deck.

CARD SPREAD FOR THE NEW MOON

This is a card spread designed to help you work with the moon cycle holistically- through all of the major moon phases of the cycle including the new moon, first quarter moon, full moon, last quarter moon, and dark moon.

To ritualize drawing cards, you might like to take some time before getting started to light incense or burn other herbs, ground yourself (click here for suggestions on how to get grounded), and/or do a practice that helps you open your channels such as breathwork, a movement practice, or a visualization meditation.

When you feel ready, you can start pulling cards:

1. What cycle is opening up for me?

2. What wants to emerge, grow, be tended this cycle?

3. What blocks are coming up around this? (Draw one to three cards - let your intuition guide you!)

4. Why this block is here/the shadow underneath the block (draw one card for each blockage card)

5. Advice for healing these blocks (draw one card for each blockage card)

6. Advice for working with these energies to come back to myself

This card spread can offer some beautiful guidance for working with the phases of the moon holistically. I’m going to cover the 5 major phases of the moon below - the new moon, waxing moon, full moon, waning moon, and dark moon.

THE NEW MOON

The new moon is a time of dreaming and feeling into what you want to grow during the cycle. So during the new moon time, you’ll want to focus on cards one and two. I recommend creating an altar based around the themes of these cards.

For example, if the cards showed that in this cycle, spirit is inviting you to work with your creativity, then you could create an altar representing your creative energy blossoming. This might include lush flowers, the tarot cards you drew, anything that represents your creativity to you, and sacral chakra crystals like carnelian, peach selenite, or tiger’s eye.  

Seeds are always a great addition to a new moon altar as well, a symbol of what you’re planting this cycle.

WAXING MOON

The waxing moon is the time for action. It’s an opportune time for taking the steps needed to bring your dream, your desire, into reality. During the waxing moon, you’ll want to focus on the steps that need to be taken to help card number 2 emerge and grow.

This could be internal or external! Often, I find, it’s a combination of both. 

For example, say that your cards showed that this cycle is all about growing your business. During the waxing moon phase, this could be a time where you take more external steps to grow your business (like sending your newsletter, making a content calendar for Instagram and sticking to it, etc.) as well as doing an abundance ritual. 

[Looking for abundance rituals to work with? Find four abundance rituals on the blog here.]

Remember to work with the sixth card, advice for working with the energies this cycle to come back to yourself, to support you through every phase.

FULL MOON

The full moon can feel like “everything all at once,” as one of my teachers says. The water in our bodies is heightened- emotions, intuition, fertility, psychic abilities. This is the last big push in the growth phase of the cycle so it’s the perfect time to do a manifestation ritual around your first and second cards, what it is you’re cultivating this cycle.

Notice any feelings or downloads you receive at this time and take note - you’ll weave them into your work through the waning part of the cycle.

WANING MOON

The waning moon is a time for shadow work, for releasing, for turning inward. It’s our invitation to work with cards three through five of the spread above: the blocks around your dream or desire, the shadow underneath the block, and the advice for healing these blocks.

This is a great time to explore the roots of these blocks and do practices like tapping (EFT) or breathwork to deprogram the stories and patterns that make up those blocks. If any of those blocks feel ready to be released, this is also the time to release them!

DARK MOON

The dark moon is the time of the cycle when the moon disappears from the sky. It’s a deeply internal time for rest, shadow work, banishing work, and cord-cutting.

If you feel ready at this time to release the blocks and work with the fifth card, the advice for healing those blocks, this is the time. A cord-cutting ceremony or banishing ritual would be ideal to help you wrap up the cycle and release these blocks once and for all.

You can return to this new moon card spread with every new moon to help guide your cycle. Want more rituals for the new moon? Click here!