KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

December 26, 2022, through January 1, 2023

With the exception of Mercury turning retrograde on Thursday, this week should unfold in easy and flowing ways. Monday's Aquarius Moon could cause some electronic or communication glitches as it joins forces with Mercury, but keep in mind this is designed to get our attention and alert us to where change might be needed. (For example, if you got a new iPhone for Christmas and it's not working right, might be time to take it back to the store for an exchange!) In fact, if you do have any gifts you are looking to exchange, this is the week to take care of that as Mercury prepares to go backward, ideally Thursday or Friday under the Aries Moon. New Year's Eve and the first day of 2023 unfold under a Taurus Moon, offering us a grounded and loving position from which to kick off the start of a new year. New Year Resolutions will be a snap under this determined sign, as we prepare to greet 2023 with better health, more financial security, and tangible progress towards our new dreams. Happy New Year to everyone!

The 5 Most Common Recurring Dreams, by Michael Lennox

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

When I ask people about their dreams, many times they will recount experiences of crazy landscapes where anything can happen (and probably will). But more often than not, what I hear about is the regularly recurring, repetitive dream that has haunted the dreamer their entire life; I hear over and over again from people that they "always dream of ______" (fill in the blank). It is not that these people have no dream imagination; it is much more about the effectiveness of the dream process as a tool for helping the mind achieve balance.

As an example, say you are someone who has a recurring dream of driving a car up a hill. The hill is steep. You keep going, only to get to the point where finally you are at such an incline your car can no longer move forward; you begin to slide backward, out of control. The feeling is terrifying as you completely lose control while the car careens backward, and you are left panicked and useless as you plummet to what is certain death. And then, of course, you wake up.

You dream this dream frequently, perhaps monthly, and have done so for years. This is simply a function of your mind's dynamic response to this particular image: it is perfectly suited to accurately express the various stresses of your individual life. It hardly matters what it is in your waking life that inspires the dream. An argument with a friend or a large credit card bill that you are worried about paying on time could both illicit the very same dream. Both waking-life circumstances are clearly very different in nature, but the dream that helps your restore your psychic balance is the same.

Recurring dreams are not necessarily the most common dreams that people have, but they are the ones that are most readily remembered and frequently talked about when I do workshops. I assume that this is because of the fact that they recur, keeping them in the forefront of the mind of dreamers. And this is, of course, what the underlying purpose of a recurring dream actually is. If a dream comes again and again, it is attempting to do something very specific: it is trying to get your attention.

Stress is a constant companion to us in the Western world. We are born into it, and for most of us, it is a way of approaching life that has become a macabre sort of paradox as an actual tool for getting through life. Presented with obligations and obstacles, we have grown to believe that the ensuing stress itself is what helps us to effectively meet those obligations and overcome those obstacles. This is, of course, a magnificent lie that is not only tragic in its utter fallacy; it is a misconception that is fatal. Stress kills.

There are all kinds of beneficial and scientifically proven stress combatants, from exercise, meditation, medication, yoga, breath work; the list goes on and on. However, there is one prominent, organic tool for reducing stress that is built into the human mechanism, one that is—without a doubt—the most effective one there is: dreaming.

The stress an individual experiences throughout their lives changes. The stressful areas of life that are causing anxiety will change as you age and move through various circumstances and stages of life. What will not always be different, however, is the way in which the unconscious mind will use dreams to regulate that stress and reduce it to non-lethal levels, allowing you to wake up each morning and do it all over again.

Because the human mind is economical, it will often turn to a recognizable image that has worked in the past to convey certain emotional states. We experience this in the form of a recurring dream. These are those pervasive dreams that trouble us from time to time, such as being chased, falling, or being naked in public, to name a few common ones. These are not usually filled with elaborate plots and characterizations, but are rather simplistic with a familiar theme.

Here are the five most common, stress-related, recurring dreams:

1. 1. Being Chased: A person who regularly dreams of being chased will likely not have much detail beyond the act of running from the enemy, who is often unknown to them. Then unknown enemies are remembered as frightening and usually leave the dreamer with residual anxiety. This common dream serves an important purpose when our waking life presents us with scary life experiences. A person under excessive stress might experience this dream image in order to process the unconscious fears that come up as the result of chaos in their lives. Their ability to survive the danger or panic present in the dream may actually be helping them navigate their daytime obstacles. It is in living out the raw blast of unbridled fear in their dreams that allows them to wake up feeling a sense of balance that without the dream would leave them emotionally ragged.

1. 1. Falling: Falling is actually the only fear with which we are naturally born. Everything else we come to fear are notions we add to the mix, but gravity is a very real thing that we must contend with; disrespect its laws and it can be fatal. We spend our entire lifetime controlling our environments in an attempt to protect ourselves from the dangers of gravity. Extend that out a bit and you can see that we also attempt to control all sorts of things in anticipation of perceived dangers, some that exist and most that are imagined. Falling in a dream is to feel out of control. You never know when or where you're going to land, and it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop. This dream will come when you are feeling that you have no control over some circumstance in your life.

1. 1. Back To School: The dream of returning unprepared to a high school setting also falls into the category of helping with daily stress and chaos. It will often recur when one is not feeling ready or prepared for whatever life is presenting. At a moment where the ability to perform is under scrutiny, a person might dream of being back in high school and unprepared for a test. Any dream that points out this sort of vulnerability is helping to balance out underlying feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, or overwhelming responsibility. Since it was in high school that we were first faced with accountability, the same need to prove ourselves in adult life may spark such a dream.

1. 1. Apocalypse: The world coming to an end seems like an awful thing. However, behind this frightening and destructive scenario there is a built-in redemptive quality just beyond the devastation: there will be a new world that emerges in the future. All change includes some element of the death-rebirth cycle; something must be sacrificed in order for something new to emerge. In this way, any image that involves this principle is actually a positive expression about change being at hand. An apocalypse implies that the entire world is coming to an end and is a symbolic expression of so much change all at once, it feels as if everything you know is shifting and transforming. Change is scary.

1. 1. Tsunami: Water connects to our emotional nature and the unconscious mind, whereas land represents the conscious. A tsunami is an enormous wave that is completely unavoidable, and that surges up from the depths and destroys everything in its path. Emotions can act in the same way, rising up from the unconscious parts of ourselves of which we are not typically aware. They overwhelm us. Many people engage in complex inner avoidance mechanisms that will, eventually, cease to work. It is this fear of being overwhelmed by emotional content that is being expressed in a dream of a pending tsunami.

1. Bonus: Teeth And just for good measure, I'm going to throw in one of my favorite, though less ubiquitous, recurring dream images: the one where your teeth crumble, disintegrate, or simply fall out of your mouth. Your teeth accomplish several things. Firstly, they aid in digestion by preparing the nutrition in your food to be absorbed by your body. In this way, they relate to self-care and nurturing. Secondly, when you reveal them in a smile, you draw people to you. In this way, they are related to attracting love. Conversely, if you reveal your teeth in a snarl, you can protect yourself through aggression. Nurturance, love, and protection: without these things, life would feel pretty unsafe—and you would naturally feel quite insecure. This is a dream sparked by moments of insecurity and is usually helping you navigate through a moment when life is causing you to doubt yourself.

So the next time you have any one of these dreams, ask yourself where in your life might you be experiencing the stress that may have caused it. Your dreams are trying to tell you something; the more you pay attention, the more they can reveal. The most important thing to remember is that as disturbing as these dreams can be, they are happening for your benefit. You do, after all, survive the terrifying onslaught to wake up and do it all over again.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2015. All rights reserved.

Around five years ago, my husband gave me a lovely pair of diamond earrings. Last morning morning, I lost one of them. I was in my bathroom at my sink and I took the earring off to clean it. I always close the drain so it doesn't drop down it. As I dried it with a Kleenex, I had other things on my mind. I don't remember if I placed it back on my sink. I couldn't find it anywhere. I checked the Kleenex but my earring wasn't there. My husband and I have searched several times for the earring with no luck. This is not the first time I've lost one of them. My husband gave me the earrings around five years ago. Some time after that, in the middle of the night, I suddenly sat up in bed and grabbed my ear lobes. One of the earrings was gone! I searched where I'd been in the house and went back to bed. For some unknown reason, I told myself to get up and look in front of my dresser, and there it was. The second time I lost my earring, I had been at the doctor's office that day, so I called but they hadn't seen the earring. A few months went by. One morning my husband woke me up, and in his hand was my earring. He had found it in front of my dresser, just like the last earring. My bedroom is vacuumed regularly, so I have no explanation for how it turned up months later in front of my dresser. Can you help me find my earring this time, and perhaps explain to me what happened the other times my missing treasures turned up?

Carol

Susyn:

There is a higher purpose behind the way your runaway earring frequently disappears and then returns. In fact, once you recover it, you may want to mark it in some subtle way, for I sense that it is always the exact same earring that tends to vanish and then inexplicably return weeks or months later.

Like all natural gemstones, diamonds carry a certain energy. Diamonds represent clarity, truth, passion and inspiration; this is why this stone is so often chosen to represent true love. In addition, diamonds tend to have a mind of their own, so when you get an independent one, they can go missing at a moment's notice. They are also often recovered in the most interesting places.

I myself have earrings that tend to separate themselves from each other; I often locate one in the place I left them but not the other. I usually have to go on a hunt before I discover the missing one in a place I wouldn't normally leave it. I have a theory about these wayward diamonds; I think their main purpose is to grab our attention, heighten our awareness, and refocus our priorities.

It's a common metaphysical experience to encounter renegade jewelry. When these items disappear, they may lead us on an interesting search that often reveals other things we've been missing or reminds us of how important these items are to us. Because these earrings were a gift from your husband, they hold greater value to you than if you had bought them yourself. You would never want to lose your husband, so when you lose something that represents his love for you, you feel compelled to find it in order to restore your sense of emotional well-being.

I feel this particular earring of yours likes to hide in your clothing. If you can recall what you were wearing the day it disappeared, you may find it there. Whether or not you dress and undress in front of your dresser, when your attention needs to be grabbed, the earring may choose to let go in that spot, for it knows that you will find it there. I'm sure that your precious earring isn't lost forever, and will return when you least expect it.

Each time this earring goes missing, it is trying to tell you something. Whether it is reminding you to keep your relationship with your husband safe and secure, showing off to call your attention to some important insight or issue, or simply trying to jolt your awareness, it is sending you an important message. Once you get the message, it will reappear either in front of your dresser or in some other unusual place.

*****

Oceania:

Though I've experienced the strange disappearance and reappearance of physical objects many times, I'm not sure how to explain it. Sometimes there are mundane explanations. (Pierced earrings have been known to fall into pockets, drop into turned-up pant legs, or even get stuck in the gap of a ridged shoe sole and stow away unnoticed.) Other times, it's a mystery! Either way, I like to focus on the spiritual lesson behind the lost object.

I play music with a group that recently got together to rehearse. As the guitar player was sitting down, he dropped a brand new, specialized guitar pick. It had not fallen into his guitar - it had utterly vanished! We all began crawling around on hands and knees to look for it, even laying our heads on the ground so our eyes were at floor level in case the pick was blending in with the pattern of the Persian rug underfoot. After a noble but unsuccessful search, we gave up and returned to our seats to begin playing. Just then, a latecomer walked in, casually bent over to pick up the elusive object, and said, Anybody lose a pick?

I marveled at how this baffling incident brought us all closer, bonding us through laughter and a common goal. In your case, the lesson may involve the truth that the connection you share with your husband is more steadfast, real and valuable than any object.

Diamonds symbolize our greatest potential. Tons of dirt must be cleared away to uncover a single carat. Diamonds are the hardest naturally-occurring substance. When cut and polished, their pure, colorless facets disperse white light into sparkles. Given all of this, a diamond is a great symbol of our own strength, beauty, potential and connection to Spirit.

Your matched set symbolizes your marriage. There may be times when one or the other of you goes missing (becomes distant or preoccupied), but you're still a pair! The lost earring episodes could be exercises in trust. It's a circular, cyclical universe: things and people have a way of oming back around.

There's a sweet scene in the movie Harold and Maude where the two main characters sit by a pond, watching fireworks. He presents her with a metal token with the message Harold Loves Maude stamped on it. She smiles and admires it, then tosses it into the water. In response to the shocked look on his face, she explains: So I'll always know where it is! Whether the earrings are in your ears or out of sight, the love they represent is always present in your heart.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.