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January 9 through January 15, 2023

Doors can magically open on Monday, as the Leo Moon urges us to reach for the stars and start pursuing our dreams. Tuesday the Moon moves into Virgo for a three-day visit, bringing out our detailed and organized sides. Watch for criticism or stubbornness over the course of the week, as Virgo can tend to bring out our idealistic sides. Mars will turn direct on Thursday after a two-month retrograde cycle, and officially kick off the new year with action, action, and more action! Get ready to rock and roll! Friday and Saturday’s Libra Moon will be a call for balance, as we clear out the remnants of the last year and start preparing for the new one. If you haven’t hung your calendars, dusted off your day planner, or set up your virtual scheduling apps, now is the time. Sunday’s Scorpio Moon will cast a spiritual vibe all around us, compelling us to stop, pause, and look internally for the balance and intuitive direction we need to move forward.

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.

Since childhood, I have had the same dream about two or three times a year. I appear to be a peasant with long dark (Asian?) hair, working in a field of some kind in a wooded, mountainous area. I can't tell my gender; it seems to be unimportant. I see myself in the third person. I am near a village when I become aware of an army of enemies preparing to attack my village. I begin to run toward the village to warn them of the impending assault. I am spotted so I run in another direction so as to lead them away from the village. I am chased by the invaders. It feels as though I run for several miles through dense woods and undergrowth. I experience the feeling of crashing through the brush and the tearing of the skin on my arms. I hide in a small wooden structure and am discovered. I am crouched under something and receive multiple blows to the head and bleed to death. I do not feel the blows or experience any pain during the assault. I do not see the faces of the attackers or recall any describable objects. I always wake up exhausted and sweating. I am not disturbed by witnessing my death. The dream was always exactly the same until about three years ago. Now the situation is the same, but I am on a horse and the village has become a community that lives in some sort of a bunker underground. I do not hide but am knocked off the horse and killed. Logic tells me this is a past life memory of a death, but the feeling I get from the dream is that it is future tense - not past - and has not yet occurred. There is the sense that this is a warning of some kind; I feel compelled to warn others but I don't know what I am warning them of.

Linda

Susyn:

I feel these dreams hold memories of a past life, for the common details and events you recall are too specific to not involve an event you actually lived through. When past life memories come up, we can often see clues to them in our current lives. For example, though you are not an Asian peasant this lifetime, you may have always had a fascination with Asian culture.

When we recall the moment of death in a past life, it can influence our health in some way in this lifetime. For example, many people who lost their lives due to blows to the head experience inexplicable headaches, while those who were killed by hanging may be uncomfortable with having anything around their necks like ties or scarves. The crashing through the brush and tearing of the skin on your arms could manifest as rashes or skin irritations in this life that crop up for no apparent reason.

I see a couple of different ways to interpret these dreams that seem to be of the future. Sometimes we can tap into Collective Memory and dream of a past life experience of another person we've been close to in both lifetimes. This could explain why you dream in the third person; perhaps this dream is answering a question you have long held about what happened to someone you loved well in another life. It is likely that you know or are related to this person in your current lifetime.

The second interpretation is that you are indeed dreaming of a future event, though without having more information, it is impossible to predict the time or place of its occurreence or to warn others about it. Premonition dreams can be particularly upsetting, for seeing the future can make us feel like we are responsible for preventing or influencing it whether that is possible or not.

As a Gemini born in May, you could find it particularly difficult to distinguish past life memories from current life issues. You carry the imagination and intellect of a Gemini, but because you were born in May, you also have the earthy, physical influence of Taurus in your astrological makeup. This can make your dreams seem more intense and make it harder to determine whether they are past events, future events, or symbolic of something you are currently going through.

Though there are lots of movies and ideas out there that suggest the End Times are near and that people could indeed be hiding out together in bunkers in the future, I strongly feel that this second dream is arising from Collective Memory, by which I mean that you are dreaming the experience of someone close to you and not an event you are doomed to experience in the future.

*****

Oceania:

There are some clear themes in your dreams: trying to evade harm, being attacked, and yearning to spare others from suffering. These could be things you personally experienced as a child or something you witnessed. It's important to note that the Vietnam War was taking place throughout your childhood, so you may have been exposed to disturbing news footage without consciously remembering it.

Along with real life experiences, children can be traumatized by upsetting news and fictional violence in books, games and movies, especially if they're not allowed to talk about it. Children can survive most trauma emotionally intact if they have an opportunity to process it with a loving witness. Damage can be done when children are forced to push upsetting feelings aside, but it's never too late to heal.

Your mind may be using elements in your dream to contain some of your own feelings. Seeing ourselves in the third person is an element of dissociation, where the mind leaves the body and observes events from a distance, detached from pain. Trauma victims often describe this phenomenon of observing from afar in a detached manner. While this is a valid way to cope and survive at the time, to find freedom, we must consciously acknowledge repressed feelings and express them in some therapeutic way.

We go through life much like bellhops, pushing a cart of baggage. While we might manage to ignore the baggage most of the time, it's always there, taking up psychological space, sapping our energy, even popping open to spill out into the present. The only way to free ourselves is to stop and sort through it in a safe setting.

Because your dream happens two or three times a year, it is likely triggered by something in your life today that is reminiscent of your original trauma. Start keeping a log of these nightmares and think about what happened and what you were exposed to just before they occur. With some good detective work, you can decipher why you keep having these dreams.

What was happening for you last year? Did you do some personal growth work, expand your circle of support, or undergo a spiritual awakening? That may be when the dream symbolism changed for the better. Instead of running on foot, you began riding a horse, which suggests that you began to feel carried and assisted by a higher power.

You're also no longer alone, and you don't go into hiding. That the community you are hoping to protect has moved underground suggests that it is better defended. These changes suggest that you've been feeling more empowered for the past three years, and are progressing through a healing process.

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.