Fascination with dreams has engaged the spiritually astute from the beginnings of recorded history.

In the early fourth century BCE, the ailing flocked to the shrine of the god Asclepius in Epidaurus Greece, in hopes their dreams would reveal strategies for treatment. The Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, 2100 BCE, depicted the hero’s reliance upon dreams before making decisions. Agamemnon’s dream to attack Troy opened Homer’s Iliad, 1194 BCE. Both the Old and New Testaments abound in dreams of guidance and affirmation. Plots construed by Shakespeare, Paul Bunyan, Dickens, James Joyce, even Stephen King often turn on dreams. Closer to our time, psychiatrists Sigmund Freud and C. G. Jung mapped the dream landscape for the resolute to follow.

Why this captivation with dreams that draw some toward actualizing their authentic selves? Once engaged by the unconscious, however there is no turning back. This is soul-work like none other: interfacing with the bedrock of Being.

But it’s really not that difficult. Once within REM asleep, our Night-Teacher weaves snapshots of our lives and others into symbolic stories that reveal warring powers within our psyche, that exorcise madness, that jolt awareness, that soothe quaking limbs, and that prod us toward still further healing.

Simply record these stories in a notebook. Mull over them like the ancients did until they reveal their secrets. In such company, we can’t help but be restored to the original design of our birthright.