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?”)
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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!
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.
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.
Magical Moonstone Meanings & Uses
The magic of moonstone has been fawn over for more than 2,000 years. Ancient Romans and Indians believed that moonstone was a moonbeam in physical form, which sounds pretty lovely to me!This soft, feldspar-based stone can be found all over the world in a variety of colors. The most prized variety being rainbow moonstone with its blue sheen that appears to radiate from within. I’ll be focusing primarily on rainbow moonstone today, but the magical attributes and rituals shared can really be applied to all of the moonstone varieties.
The magic of moonstone has been fawned over for more than 2,000 years. Ancient Romans and Indians believed that moonstone was a moonbeam in physical form, which sounds pretty lovely to me! This soft, feldspar-based stone can be found all over the world in a variety of colors. The most prized variety being rainbow moonstone with its blue sheen that appears to radiate from within. I’ll be focusing primarily on rainbow moonstone today, but the magical attributes and rituals shared can really be applied to all of the moonstone varieties. Beyond its beauty, moonstone comes with an abundance of magical properties and uses. Here’s a guide that covers some benefits of moonstone, read on for five ways to use moonstone in ritual.
Moonstone Meaning
5 Moonstone Rituals
Moonstone Travel Ritual
Moonstone has been used as a protective stone for travel since ancient times, especially for night travel. Next time you’re going on a trip hold a piece of moonstone close your eyes and ask the stone to protect you as you travel. If your moonstone is a piece of jewelry, you can wear it for the duration of your trip. If your moonstone is a tumbled stone, consider carrying it in your suitcase or bag as you travel.
Moonstone Bath Ritual
Moonstone corresponds to the water element (learn more about the four elements here). To take advantage of moonstones watery vibes, place a piece of moonstone in your next bath. Take this ritual to the next level by enjoying your moonstone bath at night under the light of the moon. Add candles and some ylang-ylang essential oil to help you tap into the feminine energy of moonstone.
If you’re a water sign (Scorpio, Pisces, or Cancer), balancing your water element will feel like being at home, cozy and comfortable. If you’re a fire sign (Aries, Leo, or Sagittarius), balancing your water element can help balance your intense and fiery traits. If you don’t fall into either of these categories, you can still benefit from this ritual. Restoring your water element will inspire femininity, creativity, and cleanse you energetically.
Moonstone Sleep Ritual
Because moonstone is associated with the moon, it is connected to your sleep patterns too. Keep moonstone on your nightstand or under your pillow to inspire deep sleep and lucid dreams. If you’re focusing on your dreams or trying to have lucid dreams, consider keeping a dream journal near your bed too. Learn more about dreamwork here.
Divine Feminine & Sacral Chakra Moonstone Meditation
Ancient Romans believed the Goddess of the moon, Diana, could be found in every piece of moonstone. The moon has long been associated with Goddess energy, especially in the Triple Goddess symbol, which you can learn more about here. Follow these steps to help call in more Divine Feminine energy and open your sacral chakra with moonstone. This meditation can help you tap into your sensuality, feel more feminine, balance your menstrual cycle, and improve fertility.
The ideal time to practice this meditation is at night under the light of the moon, but anytime will be beneficial.
Find a comfortable seat and wear or hold a piece of moonstone.
If you have a specific Goddess you’d like to focus on you can place an image of her in front of you. This step is optional, tapping into the collective Divine Feminine energy source will also be beneficial.
Close your eyes. Send your breath to your lower belly and focus on your inhales and exhales.
In your mind or aloud ask that you be filled with the energy of the Divine Feminine, or of the Goddess you’re focusing on.
Imagine your sacral chakra area (between your belly button and top of your pubic bone) glowing orange. Visualize a beam of light the color of a rainbow moonstone streaming down from the Universe, through the top of your head, and into your sacral chakra. With each inhale and exhale, visualize the orange ball of light in your sacral chakra increasing in size.
Stay here as long as you’d like. When you’re finished take care to thank The Universe for sharing this Divine Feminine energy with you.
Moonstone Intuition Ritual
The next time you’re planning to do an oracle or tarot card reading take a moment to amp up your intuition with this moonstone ritual. Moonstone corresponds to your third eye and crown chakra, both of which are essential for your intuition to be on point. With a piece of moonstone handy, lie down and place a piece of rainbow moonstone in the center of your brow bone where your third eye is. Stay here for 2-3 minutes and focus on your breath. Imagine the moonstone opening and unblocking your third eye and crown chakra allowing information to flow freely to you.
I hope these rituals offered you some useful ways to bring moonstone into your practice.
