One is haunted by a monster with a gruesome head. Another sleeps for years with the window closed afraid of a giant raven. A third tries to escape a terrifying golden egg that is hunting her. There are even those who dream that their entire world is ruled by an invisible virus so they must avoid all contact for fear of infection.
Nightmares come in many forms and are precisely tailored to make people 'awake'. Awake means 'aware of what is really going on beyond drama and illusion'. Everyone knows the moment when you wake up terrified and suddenly realize 'thank goodness this was only a dream'. By waking up you see that you were caught in an illusion.
Something in us connects with the illusion, the story, the drama and can get attached to it so much that it becomes a 'reality'. That 'something' is also called 'ego'. If the ego had free rein we would continue to believe in our illusions and dramas and never wake up. Fortunately, there is also another force in us that is concerned with being awake. This force is called ‘soul’ and it’s dedicated to scare the hell out of our ego to make sure that we have to wake up.
In dreams we can monitor the play of ego and soul within our self. In doing so, we can deepen our awareness. We are able to unpack the gifts in our dreams when we are able to reflect on them. Reflection is a skill that opens the magic of life. It is based on one simple principle that neutralizes the splitting forces of our ego. The rule is ‘everything is reflecting us’
We are all the spasms of our ego trying to evade the nightmare and we are the power of the soul that continues mercilessly until we wake up. We are the monsters in our dreams that haunts us with its grotesque head full of 'mind'. We are the magical raven archetype symbolizing our hidden (occult) abilities and we are the one who is afraid of magic. We are the golden egg symbolizing the power of the sacred feminine and we are the one running away from our female qualities. We are the virus contaminating our own system and forcing it to stop old habits.
In dream reflection we make a distinction between ‘real’ and ‘true’. The fears of the monster, the raven, the golden egg and the virus are as real as it gets but the question is…what’s the truth when we look beyond our ego drama.
If you want to learn more about (dream) reflection. You can download my ebook ‘Dream on’. I hope it will help you embrace your nightmares.