Dream Charms

D was a difficult letter for me.  I was thinking of doing a post on Dowsing  as the pendulum is one of my favorite tools. But I thought that I might save that for down the road when we hit the letter P.  That would allow me to fully explore the pendulum in all its glory.

Then I thought that I might do a post on Deosil.  I decided against that when I started doubting my ability get an entire blog post about ‘sunwise’ written without sounding like a school teacher.

I was running out of ideas, so I started poking around on the PBP Facebook page to see if anything posted there might help to inspire me.  And as it happens, it did.

This post on Defensive Magic got me thinking about charms that I used to make and recipes that I’ve collected over the years for the protection of loved ones, and This post on Dream Pillows brought me back around to one of the occult subjects that has always been a passion of mine, Dreams.

Prophetic dreams tend to run in my family, and I’ve dealt with heavy duty nightmares since I was about 2 years old.  When I was about 10 or so, I learned the lucid dreaming techniques that I still use to this day to pull myself out of dreams that threaten to spin out of control.

I knew that when I had children, they would likely face similar night time troubles.  My own daughter at just 9 months old already suffers from night terrors on occasion (which, despite the name is not as horrid as it sounds – it’s a type of parasomnia caused by lack of quality sleep and stress).

Over the years I have amassed quite a catalogue of dream charms for when and if I needed them.  Dream pillows are a good place to start.  These tend to work well with older children, teens, and adults – anyone who isn’t likely to eat something they find either under their pillow or inside the pillowcase.

Dream pillows are wonderfully versatile, and can be used in a number of applications from prevention of nightmares to stress relief to journeying, and even the creation of nightmares if you’re into that sort of thing.

If you grew up in the 80s, then you know about everyone’s favourite new age spiritual item, the dreamcatcher.  This one is a great way to get your kids involved in solving their own nightmare problems.  I can still remember making dreamcatchers for my room when I was small.

Hung above the head of your bed, the dreamcatcher allows pleasant dreams through, and hopelessly entangles any nightmares before they can strike.  To further empower your dreamcatcher, use protective stones for the beads, and colors that correspond to sweet dreams, protection and happiness.

Another of my favourite protective charms, especially for children, is the poppet.  Poppets are also very versatile, and are often used in sympathetic magic.

If you are able to sew, knit, or crochet, you can easily put together a rag doll for your child, sewing a protective bundle into the foot or the head.  Charge the poppet, and give it to your little one, assuring them that this special doll is trained to fight off bad dreams.

Most children grow out of bad dreams; and as they learn to deal with the stresses in their lives, dreams become an entertaining digest of information or a simple processing of routines.  Once old enough to understand the purpose of dreams, it can often be useful to begin keeping a dream journal.

Dream journals can be helpful in remembering details and clues that can be used to decipher the meaning of a dream. They can also can help with the practise of dream recall.  I’m sure that we’ve all dreamt of the solution to a problem or had a brilliant idea while asleep, only to have it vanish from our minds upon waking.

We spend a third of our lives asleep, and aside from investing in a decent mattress, seeking a peaceful night’s sleep can help to ensure a healthy and happy disposition during waking hours.