KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

December 19 through December 25, 2022

Christmas week is upon us, but before we get to the weekend, we'll see the Sun move into Capricorn on Wednesday and a Capricorn new Moon on Friday. Both these aspects will set the stage for a shift in focus and direction. Monday and Tuesday could prove quite ethereal under the Scorpio Moon, where we'll be called to go inward to process things on a soul level. Whether we're anxious for the holidays or feeling a bit blue, these two days will be about restoring inner balance before proceeding. Wednesday's transition of the Sun into Capricorn sets off a four-week cycle of review, reflection, and revision, as we close out one year and prepare to move into the next. Wednesday and Thursday's Sagittarius Moon will lift our spirits and move us forward with hope and joy. Friday's Capricorn new Moon promises new ideas and opportunities are coming our way, so we should write down any ideas or thoughts we have about changing the future for implementation after the first of the year. Christmas Eve unfolds under a Capricorn Moon as well, emphasizing family and friends, along with a call to embrace the true spirit of the holidays. An Aquarius Moon hangs overhead on Christmas Day, promoting unity, friendship, and some surprising insights to emerge over the next few days! Happy Holidays and joyful wishes for a peaceful week!

How to Use Shamanic Practices for Dreamwork, by Mark Nelson

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

There is extensive literature on dreamwork, psychotherapeutic applications of dreaming, and, more recently, shamanic dreaming. In this article I explain what shamanic dreaming is and what you can use it for, such as your own development, for purposes such as creativity, or to help others. In this context dreams can include waking dreams or other visionary states, as well as dreams while asleep, all of which you can work with in the same way. Anybody can learn shamanic dreaming, although you still need to learn shamanic practices used in dreams (teaching of these may of course occur in dreams).

A prerequisite for shamanic dreaming (or any other active dreamwork) is to be lucid and to take control of events in a dream. Lucid dreams occur in the final two hours or so of normal sleep, so there are 730 hours each year (30 days) of lucid dreaming potentially available. If you live to be 70 years old, then that equates to 6 years. If you learn to dream lucidly in your late teens, your lucid dreaming may only cover 50 years, so total is 4 years. Let us further assume that you only dream lucidly 25% of the time; that still equates to a full year of lucid dreaming that is available for dreamwork. What could you achieve in that time?

The other consideration relevant here is that your experience of time is different in dream, so an extended period in the dream may occur in a shorter time in physical reality, increasing the "actual" time available for lucid dreaming.

Two particularly useful approaches that authors often mention to help lucid dreaming are prospective memory and reality checks.

Prospective memory is remembering to do something in the future. A usual way of using this is via a trigger question. When you notice an object, person, or event that you are likely to see routinely (but that is unusual encouraging you to notice it), you then ask a question such as, "Am I dreaming?" While awake the answer to this is obviously no, but the act of asking the question encourages you to also ask it while dreaming if you notice the same trigger, which may prompt the realization that you are in a dream and lead to a lucid state. Examples of such triggers may be seeing something of a particular color, noticing a specific animal or animal behavior, seeing the Full Moon, or hearing a particular phrase. Knowing that you are using this technique may also encourage spirit to put the trigger into your dream.

You can also perform reality checks to confirm that you are dreaming. A good example of this is being able to do something that you cannot usually do in physical reality, such as passing your hand through or into a solid object or jumping in the air and seeing if you float rather than fall again.

There are common signs that you are in a dream, such as devices or vehicles not working as they normally would, a location that you know being different to your knowledge of the location in physical reality, or your appearance being unusual (people often notice the appearance or reflection of their hands, feet, or facial appearance being different). These may also trigger lucidity.

In addition, you can also set a specific intention before going to sleep that you will be lucid in the dream, such as, "I intend to be lucid in my dream," and can also use an affirmation such as, "I am able to dream lucidly" in combination with your intention.

Like anything else, lucid dreaming becomes easier and more frequent with practice. The other problem for beginners is preserving the lucid state within a dream once you achieve it. This requires focus on the dream and again becomes easier with practice.

You can direct events in a lucid dream or allow your unconscious or higher self to be in control, or to guide you, so that you are more of a witness to events. This opens new possibilities that your conscious mind may not consider. You may also of course receive guidance from spirit in a dream.

A key to dreamwork is dream interpretation. People often do this with reference to a dream dictionary, but it is important recognize that symbols and metaphors that you see in dreams have specific meaning to you, which may be different from general interpretations. It is also important to ask yourself how a symbol or dream event makes you feel, noting your emotional as well as mental reaction. If you do not understand the meaning of a particular symbol, you can take a shamanic journey while awake with the intention of meeting a spirit to ask them to explain this to you.

Important symbols include archetypal and personal symbols. Archetypal symbols are cross-cultural and span time, such as certain spirits that have an accepted meaning. Birds are archetypal messengers and certain animals (such as rabbits, spiders, foxes, and coyotes) are tricksters. If you see a frog wearing a crown, you might consider kissing it. Personal symbols are ones you already recognize and associate a meaning to. Spirit will tend to communicate with you in dreams using these archetypes and/or teach you the interpretation to use for a symbol or allowing you to infer it from dream events.

You should write dream intentions in a dream journal, as well as the experiences of a dream and your interpretation of it, together with any follow-up work that you perform. Using a dream journal also helps you recollect dreams and in learning to interpret symbols in future dreams. If writing dream contents is not that practical, or will interrupt your sleep too much, you might consider using a phone or other device to record a memo in which you describe the dream content, which might be a more effective method.

Having learned lucid dreaming, dream recollection, and dream interpretation, you are able to do shamanic dreamwork. So, what is shamanic dreaming and how is this different from normal dreaming? The following are differences that help distinguish "shamanic" dreams from "normal" dreams:

• Recognizing that dreaming is not something that happens in your mind, but that dreams occur in spiritual reality, the same three level cosmology of lower world, middle world, and upper world that shamanic journeying occur in. Dreams occurring in the middle world aspect of spiritual reality is one reason they often appear to be confusing and strange.
• Realizing that spirits can be present in dreams, including power animals, other helping spirits or teaching spirits, or ancestral spirits, as well as the spirits of live or dead people who may need your help. Such spirits may provide you with teaching and healing (or even initiation) in the dream.
• Understanding that you can do shamanic work in a dream, including where you intend to change physical reality, in the same way you can use such an intention in a shamanic journey.

In shamanic cultures, people believe that dreams as sacred and real, and that people can dream physical reality into existence, with the dreamworld being the true reality.

As well as normal dreams there may be significant dreams, what Michael Harner and others call "big dreams," which may recur and that may hold guidance that has potential to change your life. Advanced dreamwork aims to try to incubate such dreams.

The following are the sorts of activities that you can do in shamanic dreamwork, which can form the basis for intentions set before you go to sleep:

• Explore the dreamworld.
• Experience activities such as flying or shapeshifting into an animal.
• Do things that you may not usually do as a way of experimenting, or to rehearse future activities that you will perform in physical reality, such as public speaking.
• Fulfill fantasies.
• Take more direct control of your dreams.
• Face fears, phobias, anxieties, grief, or past trauma that you have not fully resolved.
• Resolve issues with past relationships amicably if you meet a former partner in a dream.
• Receive empowerment or recover energy that you have lost.
• Release or return energy or power that you have taken from others.
• Face nightmares, transform them and release their energy.
• Get creative inspiration or input from people or events in a dream. If you are working on creative fiction people in the dream may be characters, and events part of a plot outline.
• Receive or give teaching, or gain or impart knowledge or wisdom, in a dream.
• Learn divination of potential future events, what you can do to avoid them, or how to co-create a desired future with spirit.
• Receive or give healing in a dream or learn healing techniques.
• Learn healing techniques in dreams to use in physical reality.
• Meet the spirits of dead ancestors to engage in ancestral healing or other ancestral work.
• Gain information about, work with, or heal, past (or future) lives.
• Have spiritual, mystical, and ecstatic experiences. This can include experiencing union with the cosmos, the divine, or an equivalent based on your belief system.
• Make changes in the dream with an intention that this leads to changes in physical reality. You can learn rituals to affect this from teaching spirits and will eventually be able to design your own.
• Receive initiation from spirit.

Dream initiation is an advanced topic but can occur spontaneously, even in people new to shamanic work. During a shamanic dream initiation, a person usually experiences symbolic (not actual) suffering and death within a dream including the following motifs:

• Experiencing illness, animal bites, or near-death experiences that change the person and provide them with knowledge or enhanced abilities.
• Descent to the underworld or your being swallowed by an animal and their return with gifts, or ascent to the upperworld to receive divine guidance.
• Symbolic dismemberment such as having your body cut up, boiled in a cauldron, or reduced to ash in a fire) followed by rememberment and your resurrection or rebirth as a new person. Rebirth is an initiation element in all traditions.

As always, we need to consider the ethics of work that we do. Any entity that you meet in a dream may be a suffering being who needs help. You should treat people that you meet in dreams the same way that you would treat a person in real life.

You should also adopt a serious attitude to dreamwork, so it is not just an opportunity to engage in frivolous pursuits, which misses opportunities to undertake work of benefit to yourself and others.

By changing your approach to how you experience and work with dreams, and learning your true potential, you can produce beneficial changes in physical reality, for yourself, for others, and for the world. May you be empowered and guided to do so.

Further Reading:
Moss, Robert. Active Dreaming: Journeying Beyond Self-Limitation to a Life of Wild Freedom (New World Library, April 2011).
Sumegi, Angela. Dreamworlds of Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism: The Third Place (SUNY Press, May 2008).
Tuccillo, Dylam et al. A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming (New York: Workman, September 2013).
Villoldo, Alberto. Courageous Dreaming: How Shamans Dream the World into Being (Hay House, March 2008).

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2022. All rights reserved.

Is there any basis for the idea that spiritual change and renewal occurs every seven years? Are there any other timely cycles that govern our journeys through life? Please advise. Thank you!

Jeanne

Susyn:

According to science, the human body renews itself every seven years. This timeframe can also be applied to spiritual renewal.

There are many different cycles that govern our journeys through life, and one of the easiest ways to recognize them is by studying astrology.

To begin, letís consider the cycles that are most apparent. The months of the year, the four seasons, and birthdays can all be seen as times of change that are dictated and defined by the planets in our solar system.

When you note the physical changes that occur during these phases, you can also see how they affect you emotionally and spiritually. For example, the monthly cycles of the new and full Moons are known to have a big effect on us. The new Moon addresses beginnings, fresh starts and renewal, while the full Moon activates a cycle of release and closure. Because the Moon rules emotions, its cycles govern emotional changes.

The Sun marks the seasons of a year based on its position. We tend to live very differently in the winter than we do in the spring time, and similar changes can be seen throughout the different seasons.

Venus and Mercury create change in one-year cycles that are directly related to our passions and ideals. Awareness of what these planets are up to can help us recognize the change and renewal they create. For example, Mercury travels backwards three times a year, and during these phases, we are primed to review and change various aspects of our lives.

Depending on a particular planetís nature, when it travels through a sign connected with spiritual matters, spiritual renewal occurs. If the planet is moving through a personal development sign of the Zodiac, weíll be focused on self-care and personal growth.

The cycles of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto also affect on our lives in various times and ways. While Mars (movement) and Jupiter (expansion and education) create change and renewal in two-year cycles, the outer planets involve larger timeframes. Saturn brings renewal every eight years, while Uranus, Neptune and Pluto cycles can vary from 12 to 24 years based on their orbits.

Astrological readings are one way to keep track of which area of your life is in transformation and renewal. You can also get daily updates on what cycles are in effect through my horoscopes here at Kajama.

*****

Astrea:

When I was growing up, science taught us that our skin, hair, nails, and other parts of the body that grow and have to be maintained are renewed every seven years. Whether that's true or not, it's probably not the same when it comes to our spiritual growth because some people learn faster than others, and some just never learn. Each Path to Enlightenment is as individual as the person who walks it.

In Nature, cycles tend to be more predictable. Summer follows spring, fall follows summer, winter follows fall, and then it's spring again. Within the natural Wheel of the Year, we all have our own separate cycles, which can be much less predictable as far as time periods are concerned. One person may renew their commitment to their spiritual growth every few years, while another may do it once every ten years. Some people never realize that they're growing at all, and some just fail to grow.

As Global Warming has reduced the time between our seasons and made them more extreme as time goes by, it seems that people on the path to Enlightenment find that cycles of change have sped up as well. Perhaps we don't have the luxury of as much time as we used to, so we are trying to gain more Spiritual Knowledge in less time than ever before.

I think most of us feel more pressure to get it than we did before because the Light workers are trying to figure out how to keep the Earth from dying. At this point, renewal in seven years sounds like a big chunk of time.

Our summers are hotter. Our winters are brutal. Spring and fall come and go faster. Light workers feel the need to come up with solutions in less and less time because time is running out on us and we know it.

Humans follow the Natural Order whether we plan to do it or not, so it's smart to think that we are evolving in tandem with the Universe. Soon the Crystal and Indigo Children will come into adulthood in great numbers and be able to solve some of these problems.

Of course, each of their paths is as different as those of the other humans on the planet, so each individual has to find his or her own way at his or her own pace.

All of this comes down to my advice for you, which is to honor your own schedule regarding your own growth, and avoid measuring your progress by any sort of standardized cycle.

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.