I woke this morning from a disturbing dream. The interpretation of the dream helped me get past it’s disturbing quality. Knowing that my dream was not literal and was a metaphor for what I am going through I could find it’s meaning. This is the kind of discernment we use for dreams. It got me to thinking about journeying as a shaman and how sometimes our journeys are much like dreams. For when we journey we go out into the planes of dream. Some shamans would say that our physical world is just another dream. To be “awake” to the meaning of a journey or an omen we must interpret it like a dream. Interpreting anything uses intellect and intuition combined. You must know yourself and what your subconscious signs are. You must have the intuition to be able to know if it is true for you. I like to get into a light trance to talk to the aspects of the dream or journey. I flat out ask them what they mean. This can be done with anything in the landscape even inanimate objects.

One of the most helpful things I have found is to talk about a dream with a friend who knows where the metaphorical bodies are buried in your mental landscape. Sometimes getting an outside perspective can help get us get clarity in our blind spots.