Tonight the moon is in the sign of Cancer. Dreams during the moon in Cancer have a tendency to be about light-dark issues. “Is there light to be found in the dark, or does the light come from heaven above” might be a question to meditate on tonight. Or you could ask a dream about how to embrace and accept your own shadow in the next year. The incubations I share below (accessible exclusively for logged-in MoreMindfunda members!) Edit: We will be back in 2016, this year it will be available in Mindfunda Courses., is focussed on the month of January 2016. Use the day to meditate on the incubation and make it your own.
Full Moon
For the first time in 38 years, there is a full moon during Christmas. There will not be another one until 2034. It is a perfect night for incubating some dream magic. During full moon, dreams tend to be weird and wonderful.
Just the right juice for our creative spirits. You might suffer a bit of sleeplessness, because the light of the moon can alter the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Whenever you wake up, take the meditation and let your mind wallow round the thoughts suggested in it.
Shadow
Living in a society that gives grades at school and punishment for breaking rules, almost all of us have survived by “being good”.
I remember that, when I was a little girl, I was punished severely when I told my mother I was jealous of my sister. I was not supposed to feel such an emotion. It was clear to me that I’d better keep those emotions silent. Many years later I found great joy in this Jung quote:
“Filling the conscious mind with ideal conceptions is a characteristic of Western theosophy, but not the confrontation with the shadow and the world of darkness. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious”.
“The Philosophical Tree” (1945). In CW 13: Alchemical Studies. P.335
The ego projects images unto other persons and dream images. A dream is like a film being projected on a screen. Tonight you will ask your conscience ego to show you a projection of your shadow, your own dark side. When we unwrap the dream tomorrow you will see the power and the strength entangled in the image. It gives us the strength to acknowledge what might be hurtful to us and how to gain access to something that is helpful.
“Much of our unconscious potential is perfectly benign, and some of it is extremely valuable, like buried treasure. Nonetheless most of us don’t want to go there because we suspect it might contain something unworthy, unlikable, and maybe even bad… Whereas the unconscious is everything we don’t know about ourselves, the shadow is everything we don’t want to know about ourselves”.
Healing the Sacred Divide, Jean Raffa p130
In preparation for tonight you might want to make a list of people you really don’t like. You don’t have to show this list to anyone. Put one word after each name. Just one, the thing that disturbs you the most about those people. Search in your inner mind how that characterization applies to you. I have, for instance, a mother in law who knows it all. It can really drive me crazy. But at the same time I really feel good when I know better and things go my way. It is just a good feeling, I know it’s wrong but it just feels fine.
Having said all this to you, let’s tune into the incubation. I hope you will read it a few times before falling asleep. Don’t forget to share your dreams tomorrow.
Incubation December 25th
Tonight, when you step into your bed, envision a spiral of light that encircles your body like a spiral. Envision that this spiral of light is like a friendly vacuum cleaner that sucks away bad experiences you suffer from. Suck them out and let them disappear into the depth of Mother earth who will take care of all your issues. You don’t have to solve anything. You just have to be.
When you feel that you are mentally clean, envision a golden egg. Step into this golden egg and feel how a spiritual light fills you with energy. Your totem animal lies upon your heart, and it is there to love and protect you. Fill yourself with this nourishing energy.
You start counting back from 10 to 1, and with each count, envision yourself stepping down a stair. You are going deeper and deeper, getting more relaxed with every step. When you reach number one, you see a road. This is the road that is going to lead you into your first holy night dream.
While you gently step into this road you tell yourself that tonight you will dream about the most nourishing way to embrace your shadow. You can feel this road leading to the month of January and you will remember and understand your dream in the morning. While walking your path, you see a light shimmering in the distance. You decide to walk towards this light. Step by step, you come closer and walk towards a big oak tree.
Under this tree is a wooden treasury. The light that guided you is comming from within. The key to open it is underneath the tree. You catch it and put it into the key hole. It cracks while you turn it around. the wooden lid of the coffin creaks while you open it.
There is your treasure. Explore it. Gentily take it out. Talk with it. Embrace it. Fight with it, if you feel the need to. This night you will meet a part of your shadow that will help you in the next year. You will remember and understand your dream.
Mail me your experiences and stories, and I wil share them anonymously in tomorrow’s blog. Or just leave it in our private area below (it will be sent to Mindfunda, not show public):
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Here are the results of day 1, only visible to the other participants:
Our first night incubation asked us to look for the balance between shadow and light. Here are the submitted dreams:
Susanne:
Lessons from the dressmaker
In my dream, I see an elderly lady, whose face is partially dark. She is very strict in her way of sewing, very strict about the pattern and very strict about the tempo I have got to maintain in making my stitches.
I feel challenged but I am also looking for an excuse to get out of this. Because I know I hate being told what to do and how to do it. And I also realize that her high and strict demands are what makes her the best teacher.
E.O.D. (End of Dream)
I woke up with the feeling that I have been working very hard. When it comes to my shadow part: I know I really dislike people who only obey rules. I always feel like my creativity dies, and I usually look for the fastes way out. But this dream shows me another side of rules: they are also necesarry to weave the web of life, they ensure that there are patterns in the fabric.
Lidia Crown Tremblay:
Here is the dream I had last night. I read on your site about the light and darkness, and yes, this is something that I work a lot with. While the dream was inspired by a Doctor Who Christmas special, I can also look at the dream in terms of ‘light’, being surrounded by the golden glow of the newly-born Sun as he makes His way to the northern hemisphere again:
WITH RIVER SONG
December 26, 2015
This dream was completely inspired by the Doctor Who Christmas Special I saw last night:
I am in a large enclosed area, much like an atrium or lounge of an exclusive club. It is cluttered with gold ribbons, balloons, and lights. It is obvious there was a quite a party going on here the night before. At some level, I recognize that I am here to help with cleaning this up. As I look around, I also see large potted plants with yellow flowers (I think they were chrysanthemums) arranged along the edges. Among the plants were huge golden glass goblets. I was rather awed by the grandeur of the setting, and eagerly began to gather the streamers littering the floor, and looking around for a way to dispose them.
At the end of the atrium, I see doorways. One of them is slightly opened, and I see a young man sitting at a desk. He looks quite busy with his job to notice me, but it’s also obvious there is someone else in the office, because he keeps either nodding or shaking his head in response to whoever is speaking to him. I now have gathered an armful of the glittery paper and am making my way to a trash can I spied on one side of the room, and dump my load into it. As I go for the second load, something catches my eye in the midst of the party leftovers. That ‘something’ shines with a different kind of light, and even before I get a close look at it, I know it’s The Diamond! As I pick it up, the office door opens a bit more and now I see who the young man is talking to.
It’s River Song!
I am torn between simply pocketing The Diamond and taking it to her. She turns her steely-eyed gaze at me as though to ask why I’m staring at her and not doing my job, and at that instant, The Diamond breaks in two. I am deeply alarmed, and without further thought, I start walking towards her, my arm outstretched.
“I found this,” I stammer, “And I think it belongs to you.”
She looks at the two pieces, and smiles, gently folding my fingers over the pieces. “The Man (obviously referring to The Doctor) is not here right now, but I’m sure he would want you to have it.” She gives a negligent wave towards one side of the atrium, where I see a small rock garden. “He has many of these stones already.” The rock garden takes on a glimmering shine. “Even broken, its value is great,” she says, smiling at me.
I smile back, and tell her how happy I am to have seen The Doctor and her back together, for however short a time it may have been. Thanking her for the gift, I pocket it, and together we go back to tidying up the room. For a moment, I don’t want to – I just want to stand there, in the midst of yellow ribbons, balloons, plants, and lights; to drink in the energy of the golden light. Vaguely, a memory of being here at the party scuttles across my mind. Both River and I simply enjoy a moment of remembrance, and then slowly, leisurely, start picking up the broken strings and streamers again…
Susanne’s reflections on this dream:
I am very impressed with the depth of your dream! The yellow flowers in the opening scene are filled with promise. They are on the edges of the room: did you know that Carl Jung always attributed the number 4 to wholeness? in the second scene you pick up the diamond. Harder, tougher as glass, it can break the glass in scene one: to me this shows progress, spiritual progress. River Stone says the diamond in two pieces belongs to you. What is so precious now that it is broken? Can you make the broken diamond shine more light? What does the dream say about it? What solution does the dream suggest? The golden light from scene one returns, making it a perfect circle. The dream seems to be about broken pieces but you make full circle by concentrating on the golden light.
Lidia’s respons:
I AM THE DIAMOND! And I belong to no one but myself! But my life – the diamond, is also a gift from the Goddess and God (here personified as River Song and The Doctor). Being broken does not mean I am useless – it means I’m just that much stronger for the experiences of life!
Carol:
Long dream but only part remembered was I was underground I feel like there is subway train station here but with dirt walls. There was something about liking and sharing pictures of people catching fish. Three people were upset theirs were not shared and posted. It was unintentional. I mention one connected to someone I know with birthday February 3rd. I say the last name is “Wilson” reminded me of Tom Hanks Soccer Ball in the movie Castaway.
Susanne:
If this was my dream, underground would be the subconscious. A train station for me is always going along in my journey of life. The dirt on the wall, to me is like the first stage of alchemy: the black (dirt) starts to transform and will be turned into gold.
The pictures of people catching fish: this reminds me of the Fisher King: Jesus is called the King that fishes for souls. Jung described the fish as a symbol for God (The Ichtus). The three people would be -in my eyes- the Holy Trinity. Might your dream tell you that you need more spirituality in your life? Or another kind of spirituality? But it is unintentional: you do not intend to ignore spirituality. If it was my dream I would be inclined to go and look for my fish, my way of perceiving spirituality.
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