New Moon — Dreaming Our Life into Being
- 21 hours ago
- 6 min read
Prefer to listen to this as a podcast? You’ll find it on Spotify and Apple Podcast
Welcome to the Wild Wisdom Monthly Practice.
Each New Moon, you are invited into a monthly practice designed to support your spiritual life in a grounded, lived way. These practices draw on the rhythms of the Earth and the cycles of the Moon, offering reflection and simple ritual you can return to throughout the lunar month. They are created to help you stay steady and in relationship with your inner wisdom as life unfolds.
Our practice this month is: Dreaming Our Life into Being
Our prayer is:
Bless to me this night
Bless, Oh bless, the dreams I have
Bless to me a deep calm in my heart
The peace of deep peace
The dreams that I need
Bless to me the dreams that guide my way
Throughout history, dreams have been regarded as a source of wisdom, healing, creativity and guidance. In the Old Ways, people understood that alongside the visible world runs a deeper current — a place of imagination, intuition, memory, vision and mystery. In the Celtic traditions, this realm was sometimes known as the Otherworld and people sought relationship with it through prayer, contemplation, pilgrimage, inner journeying, vision quests and dreams.
Traditional people knew that dreams are not separate from life. Earth herself is alive with story, symbol and meaning. The natural world — rivers, trees, animals, rocks, stars and seasons — is woven into an ancient dreaming that is continually unfolding. When we pay attention to our dreams, we begin to recognise that we too are part of this larger dreaming.
This month we are exploring our relationship with dreaming. The dreams we experience in the night. The dreams that accompany us through our days. And the dreams we carry for our lives.
A night-time dream can be carried through the day as a contemplation, a feeling, a symbol or a question, creating spaciousness for the dream to continue unfolding. In this way, dreaming becomes a practice of attention, presence and participation.
The Three Forms of Dreaming
Nocturnal Dreaming is natural magic in its purest form. These are the dreams we enter while we sleep that unfold through image, symbol, feeling and story.
Dreaming Awake is the dreaming of imagination, contemplation, inner journeying, wonder and creativity.
Dreaming Into Being is the dreaming of our lives. The dreams we carry for ourselves, our communities, our ancestors, the Earth and future generations. It is the larger dreaming seeking expression through us.
These forms of dreaming are woven together, each informing and enriching the others. The boundaries between them are often fluid and what we experience in one form of dreaming may continue to unfold through the others.
Our practice this lunar cycle begins with nocturnal dreaming and our relationship with the dreams we enter while we sleep. We are also going to explore dreaming as it unfolds in our daily life.
THE PRACTICE
I had a vivid memory from my childhood. I have often written about going to the beach and how the ocean captivated me, but I also had a deep relationship with trees that has continued through my life.
We had an enormous almond tree in our back garden. From day one I was drawn to that tree and taking my books with me I would climb up into its generous branches regularly.
One of its branches stretched out like a giant arm with a bent elbow, and I would lie back against it feeling held and safe.
I was in love with books written by Enid Blyton and for a long time my favourite was the Magic Faraway Tree series. This was my magic faraway tree. And like the tree in the book it grew food. I loved it when the almonds were ripe — I would peel and eat them, read my book and, if I stayed very still, birds would land close to me. Everything I needed was right there.
The almond tree was a refuge. It was a place I could retreat to, a place of solitude removed from difficulties but where I never felt alone. It was a portal of imagination and freedom.
On the other side of the fence lived Mrs Banks. She told me that our tree had grown from an almond from hers — the mother tree — and I was captivated by the idea. Her garden was full of plants the likes of which I’d never seen before. It was nothing like the other gardens in the area and seemed to go on forever. It was beautifully wild, full of flowers of all shapes and colours and hidden corners, exotic and mysterious, another world waiting for me just beyond the fence.
That almond tree, the mother almond tree and where they originated, held a sense of wonder and awe. Life holds mystery, beauty and hidden connections and this was transmitted to me through my relationship with these trees and their stories. Beyond the visible world there are mysteries and adventures waiting to be discovered and experienced.
As we begin our exploration of dreaming this month, contemplate a childhood memory of wonder, no matter how simple or fleeting. You might also recall a story you loved.
What captivated you as a child?
What held your attention for hours?
What drew you into wonder and imagination?
Throughout this month, we will deepen our relationship with our nightly dreams and carry them into our days through attention, reflection and contemplation.
Dreaming begins before we fall asleep
As evening arrives, create spaciousness around the transition from waking to sleeping. Dim the lights, write in your journal, say our prayer, stand beneath the stars or simply sit quietly for a few moments.
As you prepare for sleep, bring to mind a question, dream, desire or area of your life where you seek greater clarity, guidance or understanding.
You might ask:
Show me what I need to know.
Bring me a dream that serves my life.
Help me understand this more deeply.
Or simply:
Tonight, I will remember my dreams.
Then release your request and bring your attention back to your breath. Allow sleep to come naturally.
Upon waking, remain still for a few moments before you get up.
Allow whatever is present to surface naturally. A dream may arrive as a complete story, a fragment, an image, a feeling, a colour, a place or a conversation.
Record whatever you remember.
A fragment is enough. Even a single image or feeling can hold great significance.
Don’t worry if you don’t remember anything. Notice your first thoughts, feelings, impressions or images. These too arise from the deeper current of dreaming.
Take your dream into your day. You might also choose to work with an older dream that still feels alive for you. Some dreams continue to unfold for years, revealing new layers of meaning over time.
When a dream lingers, stay with it.
Contemplate it.
Write about it.
Draw it.
Carry it with you on a walk.
Let it accompany you through your day.
Include reverence for your dreams on your altar or create a small space dedicated to them. It might be as simple as a candle, a natural object, a drawing, a symbol from a dream or a few words from your journal.
Rather than asking what a dream means, notice what it reveals.
Notice what it invites you to pay attention to.
Notice what feelings stay with you.
A dream can continue to unfold long after we’ve had it. It might keep revealing itself through a memory, a story, a feeling, a chance encounter or a moment of unexpected beauty.
Find a day during this month where you can take a dream with you into nature.
Sit beneath a tree.
Walk beside water.
Watch the moon rise.
Listen to birdsong.
What comes alive in your imagination?
Remember the Earth is dreaming too
All life — trees, rivers, stars, winds and animals — participates in a larger dreaming that is continually unfolding.
As you spend time with your dreams in this way, come back to our original reflection.
What captivated you as a child?
What filled you with wonder?
What drew you into your imagination?
Notice any connections between your dreams, the natural world around you and these early experiences of wonder.
What continues to call to you now?
At the end of the month, return to your journal and read back through your dreams, reflections and observations.
What has revealed itself?
What continues to feel alive or active?
And most of all, notice how your relationship with dreaming has deepened.
With love
