In my dream, I am away from home, sleeping in a strange bed. During the night, I was frightened, like a child, by the sense of something under the bed. In the light of day, I decide to brave up. I get down on the floor, reclining on my right side with my feet towards the head of the bed.
Cautiously, I raise the white eyelet dust ruffle, breathing a sigh of relief when it appears that the box springs (in black and white ticking) go all the way to the floor.
But then I realize it is only fabric. Something is pulling that fabric up and inwards. Out of the darkness, a black-gloved hand shoves a magazine, cover down, and a pen out from under the bed, as if he (it feels like a he) is finished with those items. Even as I take this in, several thin, hardcover books the size and shape of children’s books are pushed from under the bed up by my feet…. As I observe those, the gloved hand pulls at my bangs. No longer fearful, I understand that it is trying to get my attention. It points a finger at me and then makes another gesture to convey some message to me…
And so ends a recent strange dream that I titled, “The Monster under my Bed.”
Per the Lightning Dream process (learned from Robert Moss), after titling it and recording it in present tense in my dream journal (you do keep one, don’t you?), the next step is to ask myself how the dream made me feel. Trepidation at first, but by the end of the dream, I am curious and receptive.
The next question is, “What do I want to know about this dream?”
When I teach dream work, the usual response is, “What does the dream mean?” A reasonable response, but often, more valuable information can be gleaned by asking more specific questions, as in my case, “What or who is under the bed?”
For you and your creativity, who or what is under your bed is an important question, since “under the bed” represents that dark place of the unconscious, the realm of dreams, intuition, inspiration and fear.
If it were your bed, what or who would be under there? Worries? Fears? Childhood dreams and fantasies? Secrets?
In shamanic dream work, power resides in what frightens us as long as we can turn and face that fear. Note that in getting down onto the level of my imagination in my dream to see what was hidden and therefore scaring me, I moved from fear to curiosity.
Curiosity about who or what is under there. And, as a writer, why has it pushed out this printed content? And a pen?
For the moment, I feel that what lies beneath my bed is connected to my Muse, is masculine (perhaps because of the black glove on the right hand) and is powerful, directive and concerned.
To get more information about this dream and the being beneath the bed beyond the immediate dream process, I can:
- Do Conscious Dreamwork with the aid of a frame drum or a recording of one. The repetitive beat puts the brain into theta state so that I can re-enter the landscape of my dream and speak with or see more of that dream entity.
- Do dream re-entry at night, letting myself fall asleep thinking of my dream to see if I can dream the dream forward.
- Pull some tarot cards for more insight. I did this and one of the cards I was expecting to show up did, the Two of Swords. Lots of information and insight in that card as well as the three others.
- Do some free writing in my journal to just let whatever wants to do so, surface.
- Talk with some of my dream-savvy friends.
I know that with further work, I will uncover something valuable…even magical. You can use these same techniques for uncovering more insights and information from your dreams.
What lies hidden beneath your bed? I dare you to look…then share your discoveries with me.