Asking about Life

Recently, I began a course on lucid dreaming and dream analysis. One part that I have found interesting is about using our dreams at night for problem solving and to help understanding our lives better. Some methods to do that that  we have been learning include visualizing what you want to dream about (want help with) right before you fall asleep, asking to advice or for something that will help you understand better to come to you in the dream, and methods to remember our dreams better.

All this felt to me like an interesting topic to ask about here. It's something common to us all, we all dream. And I think something quite interesting. So I will be asking about dreams for you this month.

 I've decided to use the Voyager Tarot for you, by James Wanless and Ken Knutson. I thought to use it as the card images of this deck feel "dreamlike" to me and also because I thought I would like to share this deck with you now. It is a deck that has been very special to me in my life, and one that changed my life with the advice it gave me

The questions I asked are:
 

Question 1: What can we learn about life and ourselves by analysing our dreams at night?

Card 1: Child of Crystals (Learner)

 This card basically says that if we pay attention to our dreams at night, and try to see and understand any messages they may contain for us, it will help us see things more clearly afterwards in our waking lives.

This card is the Child of Crystals. Crystals are related to the suit of Swords in other decks. They are about out thought patterns. But the suit of Crystals always reminds me of thinking things out to remove any distortions, until we can see things in a pure "crystal" clear way.  And the child himself is about a sense of newness, seeing the world through new eyes, and without pre-set conceptions.

So what this card is  saying here is that when we look to our dreams for meaning, this can become a catalyst that allows us to drop some of our preconceived ideas and see things in brand new ways, in a new light (the child here is literally lit up inside). And this can allow us to see things much more clearly.

And here you have the child in this image, full of inner light and fascinated with looking at his own hands. Sometimes we may think we know ourselves "like the back of our own hands", but there are always new ways to see things, always something new to discover about ourselves and the world we live in. And that can be fascinating. This card says there is more going on behind us in this world than we usually see, more richness of experience and more mystery and beauty. Looking at our dreams can give us glimpses into that. As you can see, this card is called "Learner", so looking at our dreams can help teach us to do this.


Card 2: Flipped 6 of Cups (Sorrow)

 This is card (and the next as well) are flipped cards. A flipped card is one that "flipped" out of the deck during shuffling. When a flipped card comes up in a reading that means that there is something deep in the answer of that card. It tells you that if you stop and think about the card meaning, you will likely see something more to it than you saw at first glance.

This card is the 6 of Cups. Cups are about our feelings and the 6's are about love. This card is about the more difficult feelings related to love. It IS called Sorrow. And well, it's an image of things turned upside down. The flowers we were given in a romantic moment, turned upside down and falling out

Although all lives have ups and downs, here is the good news: this card says that if we ever are in a period where we are having some difficult feelings about the loves in our lives, looking to our dreams can be very helpful to dealing with that, and to healing.

More than that, and on a deeper level, energetically there are two main kinds of energies; fear-based energies and love=based energies. This card is also saying that at those times in life where we are giving in to the fear-based ones more than letting go, going with the flow (trust is a love-based energy), and feeling at one with all in the world...., that looking at our dreams can get us back on track and help things flow back quickly to the right direction in our lives for us. Our dreams can very much give us insights on how to get back to that place.


Card 3: flipped Woman of Worlds (Preserver)

And this is the Woman of Worlds. The suit of Worlds symbolized the world around you, the goals you can set and what you can achieve in the world around you with what you have been given. I particularly like in this deck that this suit is called "Worlds" (plural) showing that there are worlds of opportunity available to each of us.

The Women in this deck are like the Queens in another deck, at least in the way I use this deck. They are about teamwork, working towards a common goal in the most universally helpful ways, cooperation, democracy, equality, a good communication, mutual respect and anything and everything that contributes to working effectively together in mutually beneficial ways

As you can see the focal point in this image is the beautiful pregnant woman. So really this card is all about working together to bring something beautiful into the world that comes from equal parts of all involved. Creating something naturally together with all the amazing things the world puts in our paths to work with.

This card IS called "Preserver" so it is about preserving all that. The question I asked here was about what we can learn about ourselves and our lives by paying attention to and thinking about our dreams at night. this card is telling us that it can teach us how to dance (work) together with others in the best and most harmonious ways.

This card is saying that in dreams we are open to different world of experience. It is a quite different world we are in than when we are awake. We have the ability to act differently (fly for example) and to see things differently than we normally do.

And some even believe that some of the time at least that we are in a real place when we dream and are interacting with other real beings, which allows us to create harmonious paths to work together.  But even if that is not part of your belief system, talking about our dreams together afterwards can be bonding as we all dream and it is something we all have in common. And what bonds us helps us work more harmoniously together afterwards.



Question 2: How can what we learn in this way (in our dreams) to help us to live our lives in the best way?

Card 1: 9 of Wands, reversed (Integrity)

This card is from the suit of Wands, about what we want to create in and of our lives. It's also a reversed 9, which is related to warmth, healing, joy, feeling good inside, So the gist of the answer from this card is that the things we learn in our dreams can help us to live our lives more and more in this way. To create more warmth and connection, healing, joy and well being in our lives.

In the center of his image is a church. And before it is another spiritual building with someone climbing the stairs to go inside. This says paying attention of the messages of our dreams can help us become more spiritual. It can help us climb to higher and higher spiritual levels. The person climbing those stairs is heading towards the light. So it can help us to become more enlightened.  And that allows us to act with more and more personal integrity.

To the left in the image is someone walking a path with birds flying all around. This says that in dreams our souls are free to fly wherever they wish, and that can help us see the best path for us more clearly, which may well be one that may never have occurred to us when awake.

There are also two hands in the image, each holding a feather, saying that the spiritual is easier to grasp when asleep. And the spine of an ancient animal to the right of the image says that the state we are in when asleep is an ancient one, that has existed as long as man himself. And that it is a place where we can get down to the "bare bones" of things and see certain things more clearly.


Card 2: Ace of Wands, reversed (Illumination)

This card is again from the suit of Wands, about what we choose to create in our lives. A reversed Ace, for me, is about justice and fairness. And finding the path that  treats everyone in the fairest way.

And what you have is an X-ray type vision of a hand. In life we may THINK that we know and understand the situations in our lives like the back of our hands. We may think they are totally straightforward and there is nothing more to it. But in our dreams we can gain access to "an Xray" view of the situation(s) we are facing. We can be shown things going on beneath the surface that we otherwise have no access to or knowledge of. It can illuminate certain things we are unaware of.  And that knowledge is power. The more we know the better decisions we can make. And of course the fairer decisions we can make for all concerned.

The image shows the hand reading towards a sun and towards fireworks. If the right decision is something that helps all concerned feel inner warmth and beauty, this says again that what we learn through our dreams can help us fulfill that in the bets ways.


Card 3: flipped 4 of Wands (Aspiration)  

And this is a flipped card too saying that if you think on its message you will come to see something beneath its surface that you did not see at first.

It is the 4 of Wands. Once again about what you want to create in your life and your innate power to create. All 3 cards in Question 2 were from the suit of Wands. So the answer for you here as to what we can learn through our dreams that can help us live our lives in the best ways, all boils down to what you can create with what you learn in your dreams, and how you can learn to create.

4's for me are about completion and the totality of a thing. And this card is called "Aspiration". And I have to say right here that I really really really like this answer and what a great way to end this reading. Just for a bit more precision, I looked up the word aspiration in one of my favorite online dictionaries: The Merriam Webster and this is what I found: "a strong desire to achieve something high or great" in can also mean an inhalation of breath that you draw upwards through your body.

So what I am getting here from this card is not only about mundane goals, but the desire to reach for something truly higher and greater, to become that, to reach for the stars. And this card is saying that the wisdom we gain through our dreams can help us to do, to complete our aspirations and to achieve them in the real world.

We can breathe in that knowledge that we learn into higher and higher places inside of us, until it raises us to a higher place. It is a very spiritual image. And what it shows is the light and energy of the universe working with us. In the left hand side of the image (representing the past)  is a hand reaching upwards for something higher and more. but it does not seem to be connecting to anything it can grasp onto.

And in the right hand side of the image (representing the future)  is ...the Statue of Liberty,. And her torch is connecting with the energy of the universe and shining brighter than ever with that.

This saying that....well that dreams and what we learn from them form something like a bridge that can help us reach for our aspirations more easily. They help us connect to the power of the universe in a different way and that can help us achieve and reach for higher and higher things. They free your mind and soul to connect to that energy in way that you could not do when awake. Dreams can help you achieve things that if you tried to only when awake you would come up empty-handed.