Whimsical, wonderful, bizarre, horrifying, embarrassing, joyous, uncanny … welcome to the mysterium tremendum – or awe-inspiring mystery – of the dream world.
Most of us go to sleep at night and totally take our dreams for granted.
Perhaps we dream of a place from childhood, have a strange nightmare, or some other garden variety dream that keeps re-emerging. But we quickly brush it aside upon waking and continue with our day.
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But dreams, in all of their strangeness, are a powerful doorway to the Soul.
If you’re on a path of self-growth, spiritual development, or simply want to know more about who you are, don’t ignore your dreams.
Dream work is one of the most rewarding and profound inner work practices out there. And I’m here to walk you through it, step-by-step.
Table of contents
What is Dream Work?
Dream work is the practice of unpacking and deciphering the meaning of your dreams for the purpose of gaining more self-awareness, spiritual growth, and life direction.
Dreams themselves have been interpreted for thousands of years. But in recent times, dream work has been popularized and further developed by figures such as psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.
Dream Work & Spiritual Awakening
In the words of German poet Friedrich Hebbel,
Dreams are the best evidence that we are not as firmly shut in our skins as we believe.
Dreams work helps us to take a step outside of the small and constricted ego self (or false self) and access a larger realm of awareness and understanding. As such, they can be powerful allies on the spiritual awakening journey.
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Intense and vivid dreams can even be a sign that a new level of involution (or internal evolution) is about to take place.
And throughout our life journeys, our dreams can guide, warn, and instruct us on the best paths to take.
3 Different Types of Dreams
When thinking about paying more attention to your dreams, it’s crucial to understand that there are different types of dreams – and not all of them offer guidance.
As you journey into the magical world of dream work, you’ll discover that there are:
- Decompression dreams – a weird term, yes. But decompression dreams are essentially just dreams that your brain generates to digest and work through what it has perceived during the previous day. Think of these types of dreams as your brain trying to decompress and unwind. Such dreams have little to no deeper value.
- Psyche dreams – these are dreams that are generated by your internal landscape (or psyche) and they tend to be charged with some kind of emotion. For instance, after having a psyche dream, you might feel excited, scared, unnerved, upset, nostalgic, sexually aroused, or any other kind of emotion. When you have a psyche dream, you’re being called to understand something or work a particular issue out.
- Sacred dreams – these types of dreams are rare and might only occur a handful of times during your life. When we have a sacred dream, there is a feeling that it is “realer than real life.” Such dreams are said to come from the Collective Unconscious or the Akashic Realm and be direct revelations from your Soul.
In dream work, you’ll mostly be dealing with psyche dreams – although when a sacred dream does come along, you’ll most certainly want to unpack that!
Dream Work Approaches
There are also three different ways that psychologists, inner journeyers, and dream interpreters approach dream work. These approaches are:
- Seeing dreams objectively
- Seeing dreams subjectively
- Seeing dreams archetypally
Don’t be intimidated by these approaches. Let me break them down for you plain and simple:
Objective dream work is when we see dreams as like a secret x-ray that reveals to us hidden truths about our waking lives. In this approach, our dreams point to the reality about external events, people, and situations. (Thanks Sigmund Freud!)
Subjective dream work does the opposite of the objective approach, and sees our dreams as pointing back to ourselves. Every person, figure, object, and situation in a dream is thought to represent a part of the ego or self. (Thanks Carl Jung!)
Finally, archetypal dream work builds off the subjective approach in that it sees the contents of a dream as being part of the self. But it also brings in collective patterns, symbols, and myths known as archetypes. An archetypal dream is seen to incorporate universal patterns such as themes of rebirth, quests, and universal motifs like the Mother, Father, Magician, Hero, Lover, etc.
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As the dream worker, you can choose which one of these approaches you like the best.
In fact, you might even agree with all approaches – and if that’s the case, you may choose to use them whenever they feel appropriate.
How to Practice Dream Work (9 Paths)
Dreamwork creates a bridge between our conscious, everyday life and the sacred inner world of symbols. Through working with these images we are nourished by their depth of meaning and purpose.
– Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
You’ve heard it before: we spend one third of our lives sleeping.
Therefore, it makes sense to use our dream life as a rich and rewarding gateway to access a greater sense of wholeness.
Here are some different approaches to dream work that you might like to experiment with:
1. Understand what type of dream you’ve had + choose which approach you’ll use
As I explained above, there are three types of dreams and three approaches to dream work. Reflect on whether you’ve had a decompression, psyche, or sacred dream.
Then, think about what type of approach (objective, subjective, archetypal) you’d like to make use of to explore the dream. If you need help deciding, you can always enlist the help of a dream working professional (i.e., a Jungian psychotherapist).
2. Dedicate a journal to your dream work
You cannot effectively dream work without a journal. So go find one. Dedicate this journal to recording and decrypting your dreams. You can buy a blank one or a pre-formatted one.
Here are a few dream journal possibilities:
- Celestial dream journal (blank, beautiful cover)
- Dream Journal (pre-formatted)
- The Guided Dream Journal (pre-formatted with questions)
If you’d like to learn more, we recommend reading our in-depth how to start a dream journal article.
3. No, you don’t need a dream symbol book
Many people wonder whether they need to buy a book full of dream symbols to effectively do dream work. My response is that no, you don’t need to purchase one of these books (and there are many)!
Why?
My answer is that dreams are extremely personal and the symbology within them is unique to your own psyche. Unless you’ve had a sacred dream that has a more archetypal quality, it’s not worth buying a dream symbol book. They’re just not accurate!
For instance, one person’s experience of a dog might be totally different from another’s experience. You might have been bitten by a dog when you were little and will associate the dog with danger. I might have grown up being smothered with dog love – and will associate it with safety. Same symbol, two totally different possibilities.
Do you see why buying a book with generalized meanings is pointless?
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If you do want to buy a book, get a book like the Signs & Symbols Sourcebook which I personally own and enjoy reading through.
A general symbols book such as this will help you to understand the archetypal meaning behind collective symbols – and how they might shed light on some of your sacred dreams. (Plus you’ll feel like a witch or wizard flipping through it!)
4. Technique #1 – Re-enact of the dream
The first dream work technique is re-enacting a part of the dream in daily life.
For example, if you dreamt of walking down a certain street, go to that street and walk down it in the same manner as your dream character. Repeating parts of your dream in waking life can spark amazing epiphanies that you’d never have otherwise.
Certainly, this dream work technique is not always practical or possible (or ethical). You wouldn’t want to go slap your boss in the face if you dreamt of that – or do something even worse.
So be smart and mindful. This technique is particularly helpful with recurring dreams that you struggle to decipher.
5. Technique #2 – Create a psychodrama
If you have a close and helpful bunch of friends or family members, you’ll benefit from this dream work technique.
The goal is to recreate the dream, similar to the previous technique. But this time, you’ll be assigning roles to your friends/family members.
Make sure that you detail and explain each dream character’s personality and actions clearly so that your friends or family members can stay true to the dream (and not introduce their own theatrical variations).
You’ll play the main role. Let everyone sink into their dream character and let the story play out.
Reflect on what feelings, thoughts, and epiphanies arise. Ask your friends/family members about their own perspective (but ultimately, it’s your dream so you have the last say – but be open to different ideas).
This technique can trigger sudden realizations and discoveries.
6. Technique #3 – Word association
Using your dream journal, note down all the symbols in your dream. Next to each symbol, write a list of spontaneous associations that you have – don’t think about it too much!
Here’s an example:
Mountain: large, majestic, mother, nurturing, protection, milk, danger
Cave: void, shadow, hidden, unknown, lost, scared
Lion: strong, brave, father, angry, teeth, shout, yellow, leo
Then, reflect on the associations you’ve made with the symbols. What stories or patterns emerge?
In the above example, we might interpret that the dream is about one’s mother and father – perhaps a dream from the inner child – about the conflicting feelings of love and fear.
Keep this practice simple and define the top three to five symbols in your dream, then word associate them. Trust your intuition and let your pen flow!
7. Technique #4 – Journey back into the dream
Through visualization, close your eyes and imagine entering the dream again.
This dream work technique is best done shortly after waking up because your mind is still in a fluid and hypnogogic state.
With your half-awake mind, imagine asking your dream character a question to help unravel the dream’s meaning.
For instance, you might ask, “When you said ___ what did you mean?” or “Why did you do ___?”
Make sure the dream character stays true to their dream personality, attitude, agenda, etc. Aka. don’t try to change them!
Journal about what your dream characters say afterward.
8. Technique #5 – Tarot and oracle cards
If you’re familiar with how to use the tarot system or have an oracle deck you like using, incorporate it into your dream work!
Here’s a simple three-card spread:
- What triggered this dream?
- What is this dream trying to tell me?
- How can I apply the advice within this dream?
You can also focus on specific dream characters and pull a card for them. You might choose to ask a question such as, “Who or what does this dream symbol represent?” and “Is there a specific message I’m meant to receive?”
Journal about your findings.
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$3Tarot and oracle cards you might like to check out for dream work include:
9. Final advice: keep a relaxed and fluid mind
In the words of Steve Price and David Haynes in their book Dreamworks,
Dreamwork has its best results when we are open to the experience and relaxed, yet have not turned it into another task to be accomplished.
When we step into the left, yang, or task-oriented mind, dream work can become confusing, frustrating, and ultimately fruitless.
To enjoy and reap the benefits of this awe-inspiring inner work practice, you need to keep a yin and open mind. Carry the dream with you, pay attention to synchronicity, and let it work its magic in the background.
The answer won’t always be obvious and that’s okay. Sometimes the answer is meant to be revealed across a series of months or even years! I know this has happened to me, and it will almost certainly happen with you.
Dreams are one of the main ways your Soul speaks to and guides you. So approach them with gentleness, reverence, and an open mind – this is the key to powerful dream work.
More Resources
If you’d like more guidance on dreams and dream work, see our following free guides:
- How to Lucid Dream (The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide)
- 8 Mystical Herbs and Legal Psychedelics For Lucid Dreaming
- How to Authentically Understand the Meaning of Your Dreams (No Fluff Guide)
What is your experience with dream work? Do you have any advice or tips to share?
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2. Shadow & Light Membership: Seeking ongoing support for your spiritual journey? Receive weekly intuitive guidance and learn to embrace your whole self, including your shadow side. Deepen your self-love and receive personal support from us.
3. Spiritual Awakening Bundle: Ready to soul search and dive deep? Access our complete "essentials" collection of beloved journals and eBooks. Includes five enlightening eBooks and seven guided journals, plus two special bonuses to further illuminate your path.
I’ve had several dreams where real events took place just as in my dream, only years later. Looking back, a lot of my deja vu happened around the time my awakening started.
This is called precognition, Samantha. Wow!
Hi I dream a lot about dead people, and my past?
Maybe there is still something left incomplete or something that you have not addressed in the present. The people can also be representing the qualities that you associate them with.
This is very educating and soul elevating article, I started recording my dreams since 2016 when I came across how to keep a dream journal from some personal development books I read back then, now I no longer bother about nightmares and inconsistencies in some so called dreams interpretation booklets as can now reflect on these dreams myself and juxtapose my dream experiences with my waking realities . In addition to that, my dream journal also accelerated my lucid dreaming experience. Nice work..
Interesting how keeping a dream journal increased your ability to lucid dream, that’s awesome!
I love you all. Thank you for sharing your experiences. Honored. Stay well.
Lots of love to you too Anna! ♥
I am learning to recognise some patterns in dreams – like being unable to walk facing forwards but going quickly backwards, or where there are unseen ghosts moving things around, but when I tell it to stop, it does. When this happens in the dream, I know I am dreaming and try to look around me. What stands out? What did I say to stop things moving and getting out of control? I tell myself that I need not wake up as I am safe but I remain aware that I am dreaming for a short while. I have done this since my early teens and I am now a grandmother so it is a slow process, but I am definitely improving. The ghost dreams terrify me until I realise that I am dreaming and can control it…I think this is a message that most of my fears are unnecessary.
That’s an amazing gift that you have Trudi! I’ve only experienced lucid dreaming a few times in my life so far. Have you ever asked any questions of your dream characters? That might be an interesting way to gain more insight.
This is all facinating, but does not apply to those like me who DO NOT REMEMBER DREAMS. Can’t apply any of these analytic approaches to what I do not have, memory of dreams.
Hi Patricia, this article applies to those who *can* remember their dreams. There’s only so much I can cover in one article. I recommend looking into how to remember your dreams – maybe do a search on Google.
To remember your dreams it is imperative that you keep a dream journal as stated in the the article and reflect on your dream the moment you wake up.
Most dreams on a daily basis for me are decompressed compositions of life over the past few days.
But as one learns to span the depths in meditation deeper elements of the subconscious arise to recall similar themes being replayed or resolved in different forms and actions to become more acceptable to your system. Sometimes it can take many involutions to display and resolve say some minor incident that happened in school days or via a parent. So it seems things get stuck in the under cover and inner mind realms until they are chewed about in dream states and become resolved to spiritual satisfaction.
Others like traumas and inner fear states that go deep can last for months or even years. Sometimes triggered by replays of life cycles in our outer world lives while others rise as old wounds and blocks that have become overgrown in the lower mind’s dust, but arise and bob to the surface and clump together until freed from disturbance with growth is achieved.
Interesting how you correlate the practice of meditation with more material from the unconscious emerging in dreams – that makes sense! Now I’m starting to wonder what meditating before bed would do to our dream life … hmmm. That would be an interesting experiment. :)
This article came at an appropriate time for me. Your content taught me my dreams are probably not as unusual as they feel. For several months I’ve been having dreams of a sexual nature, and I’m trying to unpack and decipher the meaning of them. Do you have any suggestions for deciphering sexual dreams? Mine are almost always with the same person (a former relationship that was unhealthy for me) and extremely erotic. They’re so vivid that sometimes I wake up totally aroused. I have not journaled about them, but because they’re so detailed I feel like I can easily write about them (I’ll give that a try). But to what end? I have no idea why they occur and am struggling to work out what they mean to my spiritual and emotional growth. Am I suppressing something? Am I frustrated or trying to break free of something? Do I fear something? I just don’t know where to begin (other than what you suggest above). Do you have any other specific suggestions or recommendations for dreams of a sexual nature? Thanks to you both.
Hi JP. I recommend trying the above activities with your sexual dreams, I’m sure some kind of new insight will be gained from them. But you have to put in the work. You can also try a technique called Focusing (https://focusing.org/sixsteps), which helps you to unpack physical sensations and what they might mean. If you still can’t get to the bottom of these dreams, I recommend reaching out to a Jungian analyst or dream worker. I hope that helps. :)
I have premonitions in my dreams. The most recent is of what I thought to be my twin flame. How we met, what he looked like, and the obstacles we would face were all concurrent to my dream. The connection between us was intense and magnetic. Neither one of us ever felt this before, so he claims. He turned out to be a narcissist! We no longer speak because he was playing so many mind games and I blocked him. I am so confused by all this because of the dream. Would love to hear your insight?
Namaste
Dawn
Dawn, it sounds like what you experienced was a karmic relationship: https://lonerwolf.com/karmic-relationship/ They feel intense and magnetic (as you describe).
Yes!! I had a feeling it was a karmic relationship! Thank you so much for clarifying. I truly enjoy your work.
You’re welcome ♡
i only know or get one fraction of my dreams right as some of them have repeated so i know some of the dream symbolism but the other 90% might as well be in a forien lanuauge like my writting in fact some of my dreams are jibberish or out of this world
Hi Brian, so for clarification, do you struggle to understand the majority of your dreams?