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Lucid Dreaming For Witchcraft and Witches BLOG PT1
Lucid Dreaming For Witchcraft and Witches BLOG PT1
Part 1 of a new 5 part BLOG series on learning Lucid Dreaming and Astral Projection for wicca and Witchcraft
As I discussed in a previous blog on our witchcraft online store…. Many would now argue that “Astral Projection” and “Out Of Body Experiences” and the advanced form of Lucid Dreaming (WILD – or Wake Induced Lucid Dreams) are different names for the same thing… I threatened in that witchcraft blog to find and publish in blog form a series of articles I published in a magazine some 15 or so years ago… Much has changed since then! I met my witchy wife and wicca high priestess witch queen partner – Pat… And together we opened our now famous pagan supplies store and witchcraft store online! This article was originally written for Thelema and the Ceremonial Magician and High Occult audience long before we dared to open a wicca store online… So I shall tweak it a little for the pagan, wicca and traditional witchcraft community… But only a little…
Part 1 is a general overview and history in witchcraft and the occult….
Part 2 is the DILD or Dream induced method – the easiest form of Lucid Dreaming to learn for witchcraft, wicca and pagan magick
Part 3 is the advanced WILD – Wake induced Lucid Dreaming method that results in full out of body experiences aka Astral Projection for witchcraft and wicca.
Part 4 is witchcraft Potions, herbs, supplements and other tools and resources such as good books from our witchcraft supplies online store!
So… Buckle up witches! Thusly is part the first…..
I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey……..
WHAT IS LUCID DREAMING?
Lucid Dreaming (LDing) is the art of becoming conscious of the fact you are dreaming, or indeed entering into the dream state while still conscious. This state allows you to become an active participant of your dreams. To control the action. To be the director of your own nightly epics.
Salvador Dali, the surrealist painter, was a famous LDer. He claimed the ability to “walk into his dreams” – he could then control them and do what he wanted. He would then paint the dream images he returned with. So if you look at some of his famous surreal paintings you will get an idea of what’s possible.
We sleep in cycles. These cycles are about 90 minutes on average. Dreaming mostly occurs in REM sleep. REM sleep occurs at the back of each sleep cycle. During the first part of the night our bodies’ main priority is to recuperate – so most of the early sleep cycles are spent in “deep” sleep. After the first 3-4 sleep cycles then REM sleep becomes the priority and so we dream more. Many of you will know or have noticed that we dream most in the morning when we have the luxury of a good long “lie in” or “doze” after a good nights sleep. REM sleep is close to the “wake/sleep” boundary – and it is in this state that the conscious mind can dip into the subconscious dream state and interact with it.
Lucid Dreaming is also a gateway experience to Astral Projection aka Out Of Body Experiences. Some scientists and sleep researchers believe that Astral Projection is in fact a special kind of Lucid Dream (more on this below). I learned about Lucid Dreaming through my attempts to Astral Project while working with YESOD, the cabalistic sphere of Luna, I would find that preceding an OOBE I would first have a strange dream where I became aware I was dreaming and could fly and do anything I wanted. I would then awaken and immediately be hit by “the vibrations” and could then exit at will. With a little research I found out that this “strange dream” was called lucid dreaming – and by understanding and practicing how to LD I also greatly improved the frequency of my OOBEs.
Science has only recognized that Lucid Dreaming is very real state of consciousness fairly recently. Eastern mystics, wiccans, witches and occultists have known about lucid dreaming for many thousands of years.
IS IT EASY TO LEARN?
Yes. About 1 in 4 people LD at some point in their lives spontaneously. Some people have their first LD right after reading about it for the first time. Most people can learn and have their first “willed” experiences within 2 to 4 weeks by following some simple daily practices.
There are two main methods :
DILD or Dream Induced Lucid Dreaming. This is the easiest method to learn and the method by which almost everyone has some early success. The trick is to recognize you are in a dream when dreaming. This is actually much easier to say than to achieve. The problem is that the part of your brain that controls logic and reason is one of the higher centers of consciousness that is shut down when we sleep. This is why all kinds of amazing and weird things happen within dreams that we accept without question. Learning to “spot” these odd events and so realize you are in a dream is the main challenge with a DILD. DILD success is hit or miss, you will have LDs, but you will find they are short and you won’t succeed every time you try. People also tend to lose lucidity – so you become lucid for a moment, start flying or doing anything you want, but lose lucidity and the subconscious takes back over and the rest of the dream passes without any conscious control.
WILD or the Wake Induced Lucid Dream. Much harder to learn – but allows for much longer experiences. Also as you enter directly into the dream state from waking consciousness you are much less likely to lose lucidity. Once mastered your success rate is way higher too. It is also this technique that is the gateway to OOBE’s.
There are various variations to both themes, which will be explored in a later article.
WHAT’S POSSIBLE?
You can control the action, the people you meet, the scene/situation, anything. You can have superpowers, use magick, and summon objects and people. Visit people/places you once loved, visit fantasy worlds, alien worlds. Meet with historical people, mythical people, people you have lost.
The lucid dreaming state is the ultimate example of “Nothing is true, everything is permitted”
Indeed some people use it to explore the psyche, push boundaries and challenge their ego and super ego. In a world where you are god and you can do anything you like without consequence - then what will you do? And what might your actions say about you?
Some use it in witchcraft for self discovery, or mystical voyages of discovery. If you believe that the dream state is some kind of alternate reality, then why not learn to explore this world at will? If instead you believe that dreaming is all in the mind – then use it to explore the mind.
The conscious mind also does not have it all its own way. When Lucid Dreaming the conscious mind is at best a “guest”, in fact a “gate crasher” would be a more honest and accurate description. Sometimes the subconscious mind pushes back and sets situations or dream characters that will NOT be bossed about by the conscious mind. These have been dubbed “independent agents” by some (yes – very matrix like).
Some also believe that you can only do in the dream state what you believe to be possible. Some people have huge issues learning to fly in lucid dreams – they struggle because they don’t believe they can. Some avoid this by getting/summoning/materializing a jet pack or flying boots or some other aid. All depends on your imagination and open mindedness.
As a thelemite and practitioner of Traditional Witchcraft and Wicca, I even wonder if this is also a method by which we can achieve Knowledge and Conversation with the Holy Guardian Angel. I quite recently started demanding to meet my HGA when Lucid – with some quite odd and tripy results so far.
LUCID DREAMING IN HISTORY AND THE OCCULT
Astral projection has been a foundational practice of the occult and witchcraft for centuries. In the 16th century a series of 3 books was published by Henry Conelius Agrippa. Lets look at the title of chapter LXIV:
"How the passions of the mind change the body by way of imitation from some resemblance; also of the transforming and translating of men, and what force the imaginative power hath not only over the body, but the soul"
He talks at length about that which we now recognize immediately as LDing :
"Upon this account some that are in a dream think they burn and are fearfully tormented as if they truly did burn, when as the substance of the fire is not near them, but only a resemblance apprehended by their imaginations. And sometimes mens bodies are transformed, and transfigured and also transported and this often times when they are in a dream"
He goes on to give an account of Harman Clazomenius:
"it is reported that for several nights and days he would leave his body and travel over many countries and return after he had viewed things and discoursed with persons at a great distance. "
The works of Levi and Aggripa featured heavily in the teachings of the Hermetic Order of the Golden dawn at the start of the 20th Century. "Attainment of the Astral" was a core teaching of the lowest grades of the order and had to be mastered before advancing.
Aleister Crowley also knew how to Lucid Dream – only he called it Voluntary Dreaming (as opposed to normal involuntary dreaming or free dreaming as it is known! The following extract is from
“I do not know if many men have the same experience as myself in the matter of voluntary dreaming. For example, I am on a ridge of ice with Oscar Eckenstein. He slips to one side. I throw myself to the other. We begin to cut steps in the ice, my axe snaps or is snatched from my hand. An eagle swoops, I invent a pistol and blow its brains out. And so on through 1000 adventures, making myself the master of each event as it arises. But I am grown old and weary of thrills; nowadays at the first hint of danger I take wing and sail majestically down from the glacier.”
Some very recent occult orders such as the Dragon Rouge no longer teach “Astral Projection” as part of their lower grade curriculums – instead they teach lucid dreaming techniques.
The famous AZOETIA by Andrew Chumbley… Arguably the most famous published modern Grimoire of traditional witchcraft is an entire manual of magick using sigils that Chumbley received in the lucid dreaming state after practicing a form of sex magick very similar to the OTO secret of the 8th degree,
LUCID DREAMING AND SCIENCE
For a long time the scientific community were split about whether LDing was “real” - or just a dream about being aware within a dream. In the 1970’s a British researcher used a technique to have a Lucid Dreamer remember to move his eyes in a given sequence once dreaming. This proved that goals set and controlled by the conscious mind could be remembered and achieved during the REM state while dreaming. Stephen Laberge, an American researcher backed up these findings, and more importantly, in order to better research LDing developed methods to teach people to Lucid Dream so he did not have to rely on a small number of “naturals”. These techniques were latter published by Laberge in a number of books and articles.
At first LDing was used by psychologists to further explore the state of dreaming – and also to teach suffers of recurring nightmares to recognize when they are dreaming and conquer their nightmares. Over time LDing’s recreational and mystical possibilities have become increasingly mainstream.
IS ASTRAL PROJECTION AND LUCID DREAMING THE SAME?
Scientists argue that Astral Projection /OOBEs are a unique and special type of LD. That practitioners of Astral Projection and deep meditation have used the WILD method unknowingly to incubate a dream where they leave the body.
Scientists argue that Astral Projection is a special kind of “hyper real” LD with some unique differences to a normal dream:
1) There is always a feeling of exit.
2) The person exists in spirit form or as a point of consciousness rather than a “real” body” as per in a normal dream.
3) Upon “exit” the dreamer finds themselves in their bedroom or near their sleeping body.
4) Often times there is a connection to the body – a cord of light or other phenomenon.
5) Upon return there is always a feeling of reconnection – a snapping back.
The witchcraft, wicca and occult community tend to argue that it is odd that these “unique differences” have been experienced all through history – and dream incubation cannot explain all recorded accounts.
I actually think it does not matter either way. The experience is amazing, and fills you with awe and joy. It doesn’t matter to me whether the experience is external or internal; it is the value of the experience itself which is everything. To those who wish to define what Lucid Dreaming or Astral projection “is”, I remind them to meditate on what occultist and scientist Robert Anton Wilson had to say on the subject of “is”:
"Is," "is." "is" — the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don't know what anything "is"; I only know how it seems to me at this moment.
IS IT SAFE?
We still do not know why we dream, there are many theories. We do know that it is important somehow. Therefore, its good advice to not try to control ALL your dreams. Everyone should “free dream” at least as much as they LD, let the subconscious do its thing.
Any witch or wiccan who is open minded and well grounded should have no issues with LDing. If you struggle with reality at the best of times then avoid LDing as it blurs realities.
If you are not strong and open minded then I would also avoid LDing. As you can experience things that you would maybe never attempt during waking life then the weaker minded may be racked by guilt. I have read cases of people stressing about whether having Lucid Sex with dream characters is a form of being unfaithful to their real life partners. Some have tried exploring homosexual experiences or deviant sex when dreaming – and then worry about what this means about them as a person in “real life”
As long as you are grounded and know that your dreaming life is different from and separate from your waking life then you will be fine. Or as the Tibetans say… Life is the food of dreams… Sometimes I even dream of running my witchcraft supplies online store…
NEXT BLOG ARTICLE–
Preparation activities and learning the DILD method for witchcraft.
A great book on Lucid Dreaming in terms of what's possible from our witchcraft store online....
Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self
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