Copyright Paula Chaffee Scardamalia
Divining the Muse www.diviningthemuse.com
1. If you have trouble remembering your dreams, date the next page in your journal for the next day. Write an affirmation that you will dream and upon waking, remember your dreams. Keep the journal close to hand so you can stay in a relaxed twilight state upon waking.
2. Give your dream a title. This sharpens not only the dream image but also your emotional response to it. For writers, this is a great exercise in brevity! Enter the title and page number on the Table of Contents page of your journal.
3. Write down the dream in as much detail as memory and time will allow. This is not the time and place to worry about grammar and punctuation. Just record using present tense! Number the pages for easy reference.
4. Do a waking reality check, taking note where people, places and things in the dream reality are the same as in waking reality. Ask yourself if you are being given information or suggested actions for your waking reality.
5. Enter any significant symbol, character, or setting in a special section of your journal and use free association to record any ideas, or meanings that arise. Over time, take note of repeating images or themes. This will become your own dream dictionary.
6. If you want to use this dream for creative fuel, go back through the dream and underline any words or phrases that you respond to strongly or any images that strike your fancy. You can journal more about these, or use cuttings from magazines, brochures, photos, etc., and paste them into place. Add to the image with pencil or crayon.
7. Pay attention to the people in your dreams. They could be messengers or teachers. They could also be great characters for a story, a painting or a sculpture. Many popular novelists have used characters from their dreams in their novels, like William Styron and Stephen King.
8. Look at your dreamscapes. Artists like William Blake and Salvador Dali used dreams as inspiration for their paintings. You can use them in painting and writing, or as mood for music and other creative work.
© Paula Chaffee Scardamalia 2010
The cards Mzzlee drew during the show for her dream interpretation were:
2 of Swords, 6 of Wands, and The Emperor
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