Pagan Dreaming: The Magic Of Altered Consciousness

by Nimue Brown

Mixing the pragmatic and the spiritual, /Pagan Dreaming/ goes far beyond the standard dream dictionary to offer instead a range of ways for making dreaming a meaningful part of your spiritual life. Exploring symbolism, the physical implications of dreaming, dreaming as learning and problem solving it then places the spiritual dimension of dreams in a context that will help readers go beyond x=y interpretations towards something that will enrich and re-wild their lives. The book includes an array of techniques for working consciously with dreams and developing a Pagan spiritual practice around dreaming.

Genres: Paganism

222 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 28, 2015

About the author

Author of fiction and non-fiction works.

Born in Gloucestershire, Nimue writes Pagan non-fiction, speculative fiction and poetry.

Green, queer, woke lefty Druid, passionate about life, creativity and building a better world.

Reviews

[Fr H0ll3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pagan Dreaming is a nice little introduction to general dream work. I liked the authors down to earth approach and was happy to read her dream diary entries, which reminded me in my own (unlike those several pages long, otherworldly adventures in Robert Moss‘ or Jonathan Dilas‘ books). I also agree with her view on lucid dreams and that you miss out, if you focus only on them.

However I was actually hoping for a more inspiring and new approach from a spiritual perspective and found the book not really living up to the title. I am sure there is a lot more to discover (if we would f.i. look how animistic cultures nowadays deal with dreams or what traces of dream work we can find in ancient cultures etc.). For someone who never read a book on dreams, I think its a good start, but for me it was too basic.

[Mark Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating

[Danni · Rating 5 out of 5]

For too long the world of dreaming has been relegated to finite descriptions of interpretations found in the varied Dream Dictionaries already published. Anyone hoping to learn more about the magic and mystery of dreams is forced to do a great deal of independent research and shifting through the limited books of dream symbols. Nimue Brown has changed that with her book Pagan Dreaming. This book instead focuses on the processes used in dream work, the many varied influences (physical, cultural, momentary, ect) on our dreams, and how one can use dream work in their Pagan practice.

What I love most about this book is that the reader is wholly respected. The author spends a great deal of time walking the reader through the process of dream work without ever reducing dreams to mere acts of neuron randomness or elevating dreams to an illogical height of mystical power. Balance is both the key to dream work and the success of this book. One of the biggest take aways for me is that the meaning behind a dream is dictating by many elements and the best person to bring those elements together with clarity is the dreamer.

I myself have only done limited dream work. I've never kept a dream journal or intentionally set out to have a deity inspired dream. My dreams are just a fantastic part of my night that I enjoy reflecting on in the morning or sharing with friends. I recognize when my dreams are just reflections of the day before or when they are bringing up problems I'm not addressing in my daily life. This book has empowered me to continue in this work and put more energy into recognizing the patterns in my dreams.

I found this book to be fascinating and easy to read. The author does a wonderful job making her point of view understood without saying it is the only method or idea that is correct. For instance, towards the end of the book the author talks about different lifestyle and cultural choices that can impact ones dreams. If one hopes to re-wild their dreams, there are certain elements that might be useful to change. The author points out many of these elements including porn and video games. As a reader I didn't agree completely with those points in particular. Never did I feel like the author didn't allow for the disagreement. Such issues can be hot button issues and they were handled with grace and clarity.

If you are looking for a book to kick-start some dream work or are just curious as to how dream work might enhance your practice or understanding of self, you should pick this book up. Skip the dream dictionaries and go right for the juicy stuff!

[Tommy /|\ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dreaming is a state that most people don't comprehend or pay much attention to. Dreams are considered to be "nonsense" or just the mind at play. This may be true, but sometimes dreams are much more than that. Nimue explores just that in this very nicely written book. Chapter Six, which works on the details of dreamworking ("Developing Dreamwork") is worth the price of the book in its own right, in my opinion. If you have ever wondered about how you can or might want to look at your dreams - this book is definitely an excellent first step to take.

[Nimue Brown]

This is a quote from the introduction of my Pagan Dreaming book, I think it gives something of a flavour of where I've been going with this work, and why. It's not a dream interpretation book - the interpretation of dreams is a very small part of what I think dreams are about, and there's far more to explore in terms of how we might engage with our own dreaming.