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Creating a Dream Pillow, by Karen Glasgow

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Every question has an answer. Every problem has a solution. Every soul knows the direction of its path. This empowering and all encompassing knowledge lives in the collective "inner mind" realms of the universal unconscious.

This realm of knowledge is accessible to anyone at anytime. The proof of this accessibility is most often seen when we are performing the tasks (like showering, crafting, walking, etc.) that encourage the mind to relax and detach from the "goings on" of the physical plane. This is the mind state that ushers in those incidental "ah ha" moments of inspiration. This is the mind state that transcends the ego imposed, limiting "I can'ts" of the conscious mind.

Transforming the incidental moments of "ah ha" into the intentional periods of "oh, wow, AH HA" can be as simple as vision questing during meditation and during the dream (and pre-dream) states of our sleep.

Everyone dreams. Even if not remembered, dreams are a consistent occurrence in our nocturnal life. Dreams can be rich in caricature and symbolism, or they can be as vivid as today's waking events. Regardless of their seemingly superficial content, dreams carry the messages of the collective unconscious. Any mundane intent and action that honors the dream state increases the clarity and the flow of these "AH HA" messages.

The mundane intent of this article is the action that creates this crocheted dream pillow. This pillow is approximately a square thirteen inches and bears a full moon design (that symbolically shines light on the knowledge of the ancients) on the front side.

The back side of this pillow has a small pocket that can hold gemstones, herbs, written intent, runes, or any item that carries the intent of your quest.

To make this pillow you will want to gather two skeins of background color worsted weight yarn, and one skein of each the moon and the tree color in worsted weight yarn, and a size "E" crochet hook. The addition of the leaves can entail the use of worsted weight yarn and/or the use of novelty yarn or thread. The use of the worsted weight yarn makes a very dense leaf grouping while the use of a size 10 thread makes the leaves very light and lacy. Novelty "fuzz" yarn was used to make the leaves in the model pillow. You will also want to have fiberfill, a large eye needle, and a 7/8 inch button with sewing needle and thread to complete the project.

Creating this pillow involves crochet and the magic of intent. The magic is created in both the selection of materials and the focused intent as you work each stitch. Additional materials that you can add include herbs or gemstones to the fiberfill and charms to the branches of the trees. You can choose the leaf color depending on the attributes of the seasons that will empower the magic of your intent.

The stitches that you will use in this pillow are a chain (ch), single crochet (sc), slip stitch (slpst) and half double crochet (hdc). The additional branches and leaves are made using a surface stitch crochet. This stitch is created much like a slip stitch that is worked from the front to the back of the crocheted piece. Place the piece with the right side facing you. The yarn is placed underneath the piece and held in place by your "yarn holding hand." You insert the crochet hook in the fabric of single crochet and pick up (or yarn over) the yarn. Draw the strand back through the fabric piece to the right side. Insert the hook into the next desired stitch, yarn over the hook and draw the loop back through the piece and through the existing loop on the hook.

You will also be working from a graph. Each block of this graph represents one single crochet stitch. The odd numbered rows are worked from right to left and represent the "right" or presentation side of the fabric. The even numbered rows are worked from left to right and represent the non-public or "wrong" side of the fabric. The unmarked squares belong to the background color yarn. The squares with the diagonal slash mark the placement of the tree color yarn and the dots make up the squares of the moon color yarn. To change color, work the stitch just prior to the change to the last step, change color, and complete the stitch. Carry the unused yarn to the wrong side of the work. As you may not want to carry several strands of yarn at one time, you can create small bobbins of yarn by winding "butterflies" over your index finger and thumb. Hold the yarn secure with a twist tie. You will want to weave in the ends using your large eye needle as needed.

Focus your intent of questing for knowledge with each stitch that you are about to take.

• Begin the pattern by chaining 66.
• Work a single crochet in the second chain from the hook and in each chain across. This will leave you with 65 single crochets completed in row one.
• Work row two through 65 following the chart. Cut and fasten off your yarn.
• Add the leaf embellishments as you choose.
• Begin the back of the pillow as you did with the front through row one.
• Work one single crochet in each single crochet in each row from rows two through 65. Cut and fasten off your yarn.
• For the back pocket, chain 14.
• Single crochet in the second chain from the hook and in each chain across for 13 single crochets.
• Begin row two with a chain two, (which will count as the first hdc in this and the next seven rows.) Work a hdc in each sc across for a total of 13 stitches.
• Work rows three through nine as you did row two.
• Begin rows 10 and 11 with a chain one.
• Work one single crochet in each stitch across.
• At the end of row 11, chain One and make two sc in the last stitch of row 11.
• Evenly space 18 sc along long side of pocket to bottom corner. Work three sc in the bottom corner.
• Evenly space 11 sc along bottom to opposite corner and work three sc in that corner.
• Evenly space 18 sc along long side to top corner and work three sc in that corner.
• Evenly space 11 sc along top side to corner and sc in that corner.
• Join to beginning sc with a slpst.
• Cut and fasten off yarn.
• Make the pocket flap by chaining 14.
• Work a single crochet in the second ch from the hook and in each ch across for 13 stitches for row one.
• Begin row two with a ch one. Work one single crochet in each single crochet across.
• Begin row three with a ch two (this counts as the first hdc now and for the rest of the pattern). Work a hdc in each stitch across.
• Begin row four with a ch two, Work hdc in next four stitches.
• Chain three.
• Skip three stitches.
• Hdc in next five stitches. This creates the button hole.
• Rows five through seven begin with a ch two. Work hdc in each stitch across (work three hdc in the ch three of row four).
• Rows eight and nine begin with a chain one.
• Work one single crochet in each stitch across.
• At the end of row nine, chain one and work two sc in the same stitch.
• Evenly space eight sc along the side to the bottom corner.
• Work three sc in the bottom corner.
• Evenly space 11 sc along bottom to opposite corner. Work three sc in that corner.
• Evenly space eight sc along side to top corner and work three sc in the top corner.
• Evenly space 11 sc to last corner.
• Work one sc in that corner and join to beginning sc with a slpst. Cut and fasten thread.
• Place the pocket and flap in the center of the pillow back. Using the background color yarn and the large eye needle, whipstitch the pocket and flap secure.
• Using the sewing needle and thread, secure the button in place.
• Hold pillow front and back together with right sides facing out.
• Join the yarn with a slpst at any corner.
• Ch one and work two sc in the same stitch as joining.
• Work 63 single crochets along the side to the next corner, work three sc in the corner.
• Repeat the 63 single crochets and the three sc corners until one side remains open.
• Stuff the pillow with the fiberfill and single crochet the final side to the corner.
• Work one sc in this corner and join to beginning sc with a slpst.

To begin your quest, focus on your question or desire. Place either your written intent or a symbol of your intent in the pillow pocket. State these or similar words, "The knowledge that I seek is given in dreams tonight. The darkness yields to wisdom's light." Ask that you be a partner in your dreams and that you remember the content of your dreams.

If your dream pillow aids in your physical comfort, place it as you would your normal pillow.If it seems uncomfortable, place the pillow under your regular pillow.

Use meditation techniques to relax your mind and body.

As you work with your dreams, you may begin to recognize a hypnogogic state that borders between wakefulness and sleep. This period is generally heralded by vivid sensory perceptions. As you learn to recognize this state, you can remain "asleep but aware" during this phase and enter a lucid dream state where you become an active (asleep but aware) participant in the dream. This enhanced awareness allows you to more actively direct the content of the dream, and can provide more of a direct route to the knowledge or the vision of your quest.

As with the development of any skill, the messages of the dream may take time to manifest in conscious memory. Even as they manifest to consciousness, the initial snippets of dream memory may be rich in caricature and may be comprised of (seemingly) nonsensical events that are difficult to understand. Allow yourself patience. Allow yourself a few moments prior to leaving your bed to journal these snippets of dream recall. Trust that the subconscious mind misses nothing. Your conscious memory may not recall or make sense of the dream, but your subconscious will know the intent of your quest and the answers to your questions that were revealed by your quest. Trust that those incidental "ah ha's" of inspiration will amplify to the intentional "oh WOW, AH HA's" that is the knowledge of the collective universal mind—the knowledge that you have quested for and found in the mind of your dreams and visions.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2007. All rights reserved.

I recently saw an episode of The Ghost Whisperer that sort of freaked me out. In it, there was a dark entity like Satan that was battling for all the souls of the people who had died in a plane crash. I always thought that our own choices and actions would determine what happens to us after we die. Is there some dark force or being that may try to steal our souls away when we cross over? Is there really a battle between "good" and "evil," like a competition to see which side can get more souls? Thanks for your advice!

- Heather

Dreamchaser:

I just knew when I watched that episode that it was going to make people wonder about this, and fear that there is some dark entity like Satan out there fighting for our souls. I'm sure that like many Christians, there are lots of people who truly believe that Satan is a singular entity that exists and is very powerful in today's world. However, as I discussed here a few weeks back, the "devil" was created during the Crusades.

After a successful hunt, pagan people had a tradition of giving thanks to the God of the Hunt. The God of the Hunt was depicted as having a man's face and body, but also antlers. He had the leg and cloven hoofs of a deer. The Crusaders took that image and turned it into a devil - an evil being that would steal your soul, complete with horns, cloven feet and a tail.

Of course there are dark forces at work. With light, there is darkness; with day, there is night; with right, there is wrong. Everything has an opposite.

However, we are either on the light side, or we are on the dark side. People who choose to live on the dark side are not evil or possessed by demons; they are just giving in to their own personal demons. Our own personal demons are things like rage, fear, doubt, lack of self-love, etc.

When we give way to our demons, we are not walking in the light - we are walking in the dark. Sometimes people choose nothing but the darker side of themselves. People like that are the ones who end up committing crimes upon others or themselves. They are the ones who feed off of others' negative energy.

So rest assured: there is no dark man in a dark cloak running around, trying to steal your soul.

If you ever feel any negative or evil force around you, simply stop, breathe and say, "I command you to leave this space in the name of God (or whatever name you choose for the higher power put your faith in)."

The area around you will then be clear of all negative entities. This also works for just clearing out any space, whether it feels negative or not. This statement is your spiritual armor against any force you feel is dark or negative in any situation.

There is definitely not a battle being waged for the souls of the newly departed. When we die, our souls all go to the same place. We get debriefed on what we learned in this life, what we did wrong or could have done better, and we begin to prepare for the next life.

When we finally learn everything our soul has to learn, we ascend, and do not come back as a human any more. Hell is something we choose to live in LIFE, not in death - but that is another column.

I wish you knowledge of higher truths.

*****

Astrea:

In a world where Christian churches are showing The Da Vinci Code to their followers with as much rabid glee as they presented The Passion of Christ, it doesn't surprise me that you were freaked out by a weekly television program.

You should write to the show, because that's probably the response the writers were trying to elicit from its viewers: Fear. People LOVE to scare themselves with thoughts of the Devil!

I haven't seen that episode myself, but SO MANY people have brought it up with me in conversation that I must try to see it when it repeats, or get the first season on DVD when it is released.

During the days before and after 911, most of the psychics I know (myself included) were bombarded with "voices." I don't like to think about that time, but I can tell you, EVERYONE in that massacre went to heaven just as quickly as they could accept that this was where they belonged.

Not many of those souls hung around, wandering the lower astral. God "took them up" in the way that the Christian fundamentalists perceive "the rapture," except for one crucial difference: God takes EVERYONE, not just the people who fit some abstract idea of "good." Those people were ALL rewarded with fast and easy entrance into Paradise. It was the least and the best God could do for them.

The battle between Good and Evil is probably the first and oldest story of humankind. It's a great story, too - so many things can be taught with it. We learn about choices and the consequences of those choices, which is one of the basic lessons of life.

Television, movies, and literature all love to push the scary idea that there is a battle being waged for our souls. Unfortunately, shows like The Ghost Whisperer have done a lot to mangle and misrepresent what really happens when a medium encounters an earthbound spirit.

When a person is "lost" between worlds, it takes more than 48 minutes (not counting commercials) to help that soul cross over to the Other Side. Some people go so far with evil, unethical behavior that when they die, they don't feel they deserve to be in Paradise.

All the world's religions have their own versions of the story of the battle between good and evil, and they all end with the people who made poor choices suffering. What a shame that we are taught through fear of pain and suffering instead of desire for Spiritual Harmony.

Personally, the only battle I see that is being waged for our "souls" is going on within us. We try to live a moral and ethical existence. When we don't, the Devil doesn't win, but we certainly lose an important part of ourselves.

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.