The Importance of Lucid Dreams
I had a couple lucid dreams the other night. This isn’t a super uncommon experience for me - I’ve written a number of times about dreaming and the strange things I experience in this space. For some reason though, I’ve been more fascinated than usual about the most recent episodes, I think because I intuit they have much to teach us about not just dreams, but the nature of reality as a whole.
So, what is it about lucid dreams? For anyone whose had one, you will recognize that remarkable feeling when reality clicks and then shifts - that moment you realize you’re in a dream. It’s as if some great epiphany has been bestowed upon you and now, you’re in this elevated, illuminated and liberated state. And for the most part, the dream usually looks the same even once this realization is achieved, but the feeling you have while in it is what’s been altered. It’s exciting - the prospect of no longer being bound to the rules of the world! You can do as you please, at least for as long as you can remain in the dream.
When I think about this though, it all starts to sound a little metaphorical and analogous, doesn’t it? I mean, when we talk about peak experiences, awakening, expanding our consciousness, gaining illumination and being in the NOW…are we not talking about the same kind of thing?
It feels to me that what’s happening in our dreams when we become lucid, isn’t just an opportunity to explore the dream space, but an invitation to extrapolate that experience into our “real life” too. In other words, lucid dreaming can not only teach us about becoming more and more lucid in dreams, but it can also show us how to wake up in life.
With all this swirling around, Tim and I pulled a few cards to see what additional insight Spirit could lend. I admit, the line of questioning was loose at best, and I was worried that my lack of clarity would get in the way of the outcome. Fortunately, that was not the case. The cards delivered above and beyond what I could have expected.
Here is how we essentially approached the reading.
Card 1 - What is the purpose of lucid dreaming? The Tower
Card 2 - How can we apply lucid dreaming to ordinary “waking” life? The High Priestess
Card 3 - How can we become lucid in dreams and in “real life”? The Magician
Let’s go card by card…
The Tower
What is the purpose of lucid dreaming?
The Tower makes a lot of sense because what is the point of it if not to break us free from the chains of illusion? The Tower brings destruction of false ideas, giving way to the truth. The lightning strike allows for a brief glimpse of reality beyond the veil and darkness of the night. It is in every sense, a wake up call. In Tarot Fundamentals, Paul Foster Case describes The Tower perfectly along these terms, coining this key “Awakening”. He goes on to say…
“Key 16 is the second stage of spiritual unfoldment. It is awakening the nightmare of bondage. The first stage, represented by Key 15, is the realization of the nature of bondage, that is, ignorance. And when we understand the truth, the lightning flash illuminates the darkness, and the bad dream is over.”
“It is the first moment of clear vision, after which, we are never quite the same as we were before. It is like the hatching of a chick from the egg. Another life opens before it. So it is with us. At the moment of sudden illumination, pictured by key 16, we receive an initiation, and from then on, we see the world with different eyes. We belong to a new order of creatures.”
And if that doesn’t exactly describe the moment of snapping into lucidity within a dream, then I don’t know what does! It’s here to show us these shifts in perception and collapses in reality as we know it, are possible. Not only can we wake up, we were designed to, and at some point, we simply must.
The High Priestess
How can we apply lucid dreaming to ordinary “waking” life?
The High Priestess is a perfect symbol for the dream state (along with The Moon) because she represents the subconscious realm. When we enter into dreaming, we are literally swimming in the seas of our subconscious. It’s a murky land of strange symbolism and abstract ideas. While it makes perfect sense on its plane, it’s quite puzzling to the rational mind. But, let’s remember, this card is meant to address how we can apply lucid dreaming to the “waking” state - like, what’s the parallel, or how are they analogous?
Well, I suppose even when we’re awake, we’re often asleep. Consider for a moment just how much of your daily waking life is automated. Pretty much everything running our bodies is automated. Many of our daily routines are. Lord knows our reactions are! There is so much automation happening in our daily living, that it probably does resemble something of a dream like state much of the time.
Perhaps The High Priestess is a reminder of this fact. Just because you’re awake, doesn’t mean you’re awake! There are so many moments when we get caught in the current of our emotions and our thoughts, and unless we can “pop our heads out of the water”, that current can sweep us up, make us believe it’s real or even consume us wholly!
Just like our dreams are both real and not real, this life - the one you’re living as you read these words right now - is both real and unreal. Sure, it appears solid and sturdy, but so do our dreams when we’re in them! In fact, whenever I’ve become lucid in a dream, it’s felt 100% real - I can taste, and feel and touch. It’s not like my hand goes falling through the walls of my imagination. No - I literally had a recent lucid dream where I spent a good deal of time touching my leg in awe of how real it felt. So, go ahead, touch your leg! It’s pretty real, right? Or is it?
I think The High Priestess wants us to understand that even our real life has a lot of question marks - things we’re yet to understand - an air of mystery. Keeping ourselves open to this is likely an important component to furthering this work. When we get swept in its currents, it’s just like going along with the dream without question. Let’s ask more questions! This place is pretty fucking weird - maybe weirder than our dreams or certainly weirder than we presently imagine.
The Magician
How can we become lucid in dreams and in “real life”?
This response feels pretty straight forward. To enhance our lucidity, both in dreams and in life, we need to embody the faculties assigned to The Magician. If the High Priestess represents subconsciousness, then The Magician is their self-conscious counterpart. It is this self-consciousness that sees above subconsciousness when we employ it. Using attention, concentration, will, focus, directed energy etc., we can catch when we’re in the stream, notice an absurdity, remind ourselves to ask questions and remain vigilant. This is a key to waking up.
So while The High Priestess allows us to receive the stream we’re in (whether it’s dreaming or awake), The Magician, using attention, shows us how to break free from it. Perhaps this is something akin to entering the witness or watcher state. If you look at the imagery of The Magician, you will find they don’t handle any of the elements directly - they’re not involved in that way. They have one hand extended to the heavens and one to Earth, meaning they are a channel between the two. Arguably, we could say those two realms are represented by the other cards pulled. The High Priestess as subconsciousness and The Tower as super or cosmic consciousness (or at least, a doorway to accessing it).
Overall, based on the cards pulled, I would summarize the message as such. Lucid dreams are here to literally show us how to wake up, so we may see reality with new eyes. We can understand the lucid dream state in relation to our waking lives by examining our subconscious. Even when we’re awake, we’re sometimes asleep. Recognizing this tendency to be in the stream, even while awake, can help us see parallels between the “waking” and “dream” states. In order to wake up (whether we’re in dream or in life) we must become what The Magician represents - concentrative, directive, focused, willful and alert. It is possible to become lucid - to wake up - and part of that might lie in realizing, first, that we’ve been asleep.
“Be alert to the life around you. Use every instrument of sensation to gather accurate information. Resolve to see life, instead of merely looking at it. You will find the world transforming itself before your eyes. This is one of the greatest fundamental secrets of magic.”