Despite many practices we have given in this teaching, as well as this course, many people struggle to interpret their dreams. We have spent some time discussing principles and teachings that help to understand what we experience when we dream. Despite these tools, and the efficacy of their depth, of their application, a lot of people still struggle with doubt. They struggle to really have certainty or confidence in what they dream, to verify that a particular vision is authentic, is real, is divine.
It is the purpose of this lecture to talk about meditation, to know how to meditate on dreams. If any of you have followed this course or this series and have studied with our school, as well as Glorian Publishing, you often hear that we should be practicing meditation very deeply. It is the core practice of Gnostics. Meditation is essential for understanding our dreams. We will talk about how to meditate on our experiences, some questions that we can ask ourselves when we inquire within, in order to gain certainty in our perceptions. Every dream teaches us something deep. Something about our psychology is reflected within our inner experiences. If we wish to live our waking life with greater knowledge, wisdom, and intelligence, we have to understand and reflect upon our dreams. As Sri Swami Sivananda wrote in his book The Philosophy of Dreams: A dream presents a demand to our waking consciousness. If rightly interpreted, it shows the way to be at peace with ourselves. ―Swami Sivananda, Philosophy of Dreams
Many people have a dream or experience and feel pain, uncertainty, doubt. They wonder what it is they have actually seen in themselves. They may try to find an answer in a dream dictionary, go into a book, approach a scripture, speak to an instructor, or to friends, always seeking in the external to understand that which is internal. We are very explicit when we say that this is the wrong approach.
A dream is highly personal to us. It is something intimate of the soul. Inner visions come from divinity and manifest within our dreams in a particular style that is specific to us. Those messages come within our interior in order to teach us something, not other people. Therefore, if we wish to really understand the language of dreams, we have to suspend and renounce everything that is external to us. We have to go within. We have to introspect so that we can rightly interpret what is going on. When we sit and relax, close our eyes, suspend our senses, withdraw our mind, concentrate internally, relax and imagine a dream we witnessed, and we put aside our attachments, our preferences, our cravings, our fears, it is only when we let go of that which is superficial and immediate in order to find that which is permanent and lasting―comprehension. To comprehend, to understand, to intuit, to go deep within a dream and to unpack its meaning gives us peace, gives us certainty, gives us clarity. However, I am pretty sure many of us can identify with having gone to other people looking for advice, and while necessary and good, it is not primary. Often times it is a distraction to look for answers outside of us, because that language from divinity comes from within. It is something that we have to learn. Just as you go to school to learn English, or any language, or any subject, you have to train. You have to strive. You get help obviously. In this metaphor, the instructor is the divine, the spirit who is showing us a higher way of being, a deeper knowledge that we have to grapple with, that we have to look at, but that requires that we abandon our tendencies, habits, filters. We have to look at what is “there” and to understand who in us or what in us seeks answers. Certainty provides peace when we understand a dream. When we contemplate it deeply within ourselves, we no longer have to worry. We do not divide our mind between options, that “Maybe this dream means this or that,” or “This book said that this symbol means this.” We have to put that all aside. It is secondary. Divinity speaks to us in a way that is unique to our own soul, and in order to engage in that mystery and to enjoy the magic of dreams, we have to learn to be independent, to develop serenity, to not be anxious or worried. This is why when we are examining our dreams in order to really reflect on what they mean, we have to study ourselves. 
Serenity: The Door to Interpreting Dreams
We have here an image of the human machine. We see here five centers that we have discussed many times.
Serenity is the prerequisite to comprehension. It is the beginning of meditation. It is not meditation itself. Meditation is the capacity of the soul to understand and interpret new information, the novel, the unique. However, we cannot comprehend anything when our mind is in chaos, when our heart is distraught, when our body is agitated and sick, when our impulses and instincts drive us relentlessly. If you want to see clearly within yourself, you need serenity. It is impossible to interpret rightly any circumstance of life, or even in a dream, if we are in affliction. If you take a jar filled with sediment, rocks, dirt, stones and water, and shake it violently, the contents will be mixed, clouded, obscured. You cannot see its contents. The same thing with our mind. For if our mind is clouded, obscured, agitated, afflicted, in pain, we have no means to see and comprehend what is going on. However, if you let the jar in our metaphor sit and rest, the water settles, the sand stratifies, the stones go to the bottom, layers appear, the water clears. That is when you can begin to see yourself. That is when we can learn to see objectively. Dream interpretation, analysis of dreams within meditation, begins with equanimity. What we do not want is to fight for our preferences. Perhaps we dream something. We may have fear, or pride or anxiety that wants the dream to mean something that it is not. However, to really assess accurately, we need to be calm. We cannot follow the whims of our preferences. We need to look at it with equanimity, tranquility, and to be content, to accept what it is, to not assume anything of it, but to look with clear eyes, like a scientist at a phenomenon―no theory, no preconception, no a priori assumptions―just observation. Self-observation is the beginning of serenity. It is how we focus our attention within ourselves so that we can see our psychology, so that our mind, our emotions and our impulses to act no longer cloud our experience. They do not filter like a lens and change an experience into something it is not, in the same way that light can become a specific color depending on our glasses or shades. When you look and calmly introspect, when you do not expect anything, but merely watch, you begin to see a lot in yourself many elements which will gain serenity and calm the less you feed it, but just look, not trying to change anything, but accepting it. This is the beginning of real peace, when the consciousness, “the soul,” is activated. It is looking inside. It is the consciousness that can interpret dreams―not anger, not pride, not despair or morbidity or fear. It is the Essence, the consciousness that, when it is awake, gains clarity, the more that it sees and the less that it invests its energy into these disparate, subjective elements that we call the ego: our desires, our attachments, our prejudices. Concentration and Imagination: The Foundation of Meditation
This is how we learn to concentrate. As you are focusing your attention within yourself throughout the day, but also focusing on a candle or any other observation practice, we begin to develop a more profound attention. We have given practices in the past in order to develop serenity of mind, but also our concentration, our ability to focus without being distracted.
One example was a candle. You observe the flame and merely watch, observe it. In the moment you will observe how thoughts will come within the screen of our attention: distractions, memories, daydreams, worries, preoccupations, plans, projects. The point is to merely look at that, to observe it and let it go. Return to the candle. Observe it. Be aware that you are observing. If you get distracted, gently bring your attention back to the candle. See it for what it is. Observe the flame, its hues, its light. Examine its fluctuations. You can even observe its smell. Merely look and attend to the candle without thinking of other things. This is the first skill we learn when we are seeking to meditate. Now concentration is not enough. Having serenity of mind is merely the beginning. When you are calm of mind, you can focus and sustain your attention on one thing, longer and with uninterrupted periods, with discipline and practice. There is something more that we need to develop if we wish to access the state of meditation, comprehension, understanding in which we receive new wisdom about a given thing, in this case, about a dream. In order to meditate on a dream, you need to imagine it. Visualize it. Bring it within your mind’s eye. Evoke the dream, the situation, its colors, its hues, the experience within your imagination. Imagination is merely the capacity to perceive nonphysical imagery, and it is this faculty which is activated when we dream. As we discussed in our previous lecture [Why Do We Dream?], imagination is the faculty of the consciousness to perceive. It is that which allows you to see within dreams. The more robust your imagination, the more you can see within the astral dimension. Not only concentrating upon a candle, but you can practice, close your eyes, visualize the flame, imagine the candle and its wax, every detail with as much depth, profundity, and clarity as you can. That skill will allow you to not only perceive your dreams with greater range within a spectrum of consciousness, but it will open the doorway to real meditation, which is the capacity to comprehend, to understand. Concentration and imagination lead to meditation, whereby you focus on the memory of a dream. You imagine it. You can focus on a specific detail of what happened. Sustain your attention and imagination of that one thing, that event, maybe a detail, a particular situation, a character, a symbol―and then you wait. Rest your mind but have your consciousness active. Hold on to that image and be patient. Suddenly new information will arrive within your consciousness. You may see a new experience. You may witness new things. You may suddenly (snaps fingers) gain a spark. You know the depth of that particular experience. It comes to you. You do not have to think about it. However, calm abiding, the state of serenity, is the foundation by which real insight can emerge, and when that insight hits you, you feel joy, ecstasy. This term in Latin comes from ecstatuo, which means “to stand outside yourself.” In this way you are standing outside the normal range of your perceptions to see something new. It is that spark of alert novelty and freshness which inspires―that is mediation. That is comprehension. That is awakening. These are the principles by which to really understand a dream. But it is also important to understand, particularly from the meditative traditions from the past, the importance of these two principles: serenity and insight, or concentration / imagination, calm abiding and special insight. These two qualities are particular skills that the consciousness can develop. When the consciousness develops both serenity and insight together, we open up the full gamut of our potential. We can really gain profound wisdom about anything and go into the depths of a dream to see its roots, its real implications. 
Balancing Serenity and Insight
Tsong Khapa, a great master of Tibetan Buddhism, explained these principles very beautifully in The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. He explained that neither of these qualities alone is enough to experience the state of mediation.
I will read it for you at length: Why is it insufficient to cultivate either serenity or insight alone? If you light an oil-lamp for the purpose of viewing a picture in the middle of the night, you will see the depictions very clearly if the lamp is both very bright and undisturbed by wind. If the lamp is not bright, or is bright but flickering in the wind, then you will not see the images clearly. Likewise, when looking for the profound meaning, you will clearly see reality if you have both the wisdom that unerringly discerns the meaning of reality and an unmoving attention that stays as you wish on the object of meditation. However, if you do not have wisdom that knows how things are―even if you have a non-discursive concentration in which your mind is stable and does not scatter to other objects―then you lack the eyes which see reality. Hence, it will be impossible to know how things are no matter how much you develop your concentration. And even with a perspective that understands reality―selflessness―if you lack a firm concentration that stays one-pointedly on its object, then it will be impossible to clearly see the meaning of the way things are because you will be disturbed by the winds of uncontrollably fluctuating discursive thought. ―Tsong Khapa, Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment
A lamp is a perfect metaphor for meditation. If we are thinking too much, it is like wind passing through our mind, and the candle flame or the lamp light will flicker. Therefore, we need stability of mind, to focus unwaveringly on one thing without being distracted. Likewise, even if there is no wind, if the light is dim, we will not see the same with our imagination. This is why we practice visualization exercises: imagine a candle flame. You can visualize a light in your mind, a sun, any image that you want.
The Dynamics of Meditation
When our serenity and our visualization capacities are very strong, the combination opens the door to real wisdom, to understanding reality or the higher realities of the inner dimensions, which are mapped out in this diagram.
We use this glyph, the kabbalah, the Tree of Life, not only to represent the universe but also to represent ourselves. Kabbalah is the Jewish mystical tradition, and this Tree of Life is a map of our psychology and our universe. It maps out the dimensions of our inner being. It also maps out the signs of meditation. We have included only the lower seven spheres of the Tree of Life, which will be the focus of this segment. These spheres, representing qualities in us, aspects of our consciousness, but also dimensionality, these are also places we visit when we dream. More importantly, these spheres represent us, who we are at a given moment, what we are, how we function, how we subsist in life, how we meditate. To begin meditation, we first relax the body. We learn to suspend or withdraw our attention, our senses, from our physicality. This is the bottom sphere known as מלכות Malkuth in Hebrew, which means “Kingdom.” This kingdom is nature. It is our physical world. It is also our human machine, our physical body. It is the vehicle we operate with, in the vigil state. To meditate, we first relax the body. We adopt a posture and Asana, whether it is full lotus or half lotus or Western style, whatever is most comfortable for us, and we withdraw our attention from the body. We get comfortable. We relax the body. We make whatever necessary adjustments we need in the beginning―then we forget about it. Let it go. As you withdraw your attention, you begin to notice energy, which is our vital force, our etheric or energetic vehicle, the “Chi” of our life, of life force in our body. This is known as יסוד Yesod in Hebrew, which is the “Foundation.” It is the foundation because it is the energies that we use to enter meditation. We may sense, depending on the moment of our day, in which we have more or less energy, depending on our health and our behaviors. Some activities waste energy, some conserve it―depends upon our attention, our work, our mindfulness. When we relax our body, we can work with vital energy. We can become aware of any sensations in our energies, our body. We can do a breathing exercise: pranayama. Pranayama means “to yoke the energies or winds,” the vital forces of our constitution. By breathing deeply, inhaling through our nostrils, exhaling through our mouth, we can raise the energies of our body, to our mind, and then to our heart. We can also do this through interchangeable nostril breathing, pranayama proper, in which you circulate vital force so that the body relaxes, the heart relaxes, the mind settles. You can also work with mantra, sacred sounds, vocalizations, so that you charge your body and your energies. You activate your vital force. You circulate it willingly and activate your consciousness. Then you have to let it go. Let the body settle. Let the energies calm. Let them become clear, radiant, pristine, luminous, peaceful. This energy helps us to develop a serene mind. It helps to settle our heart. This is related to the emotional sphere of our being, of the astral dimension, the world of dreams itself, הוד Hod in Hebrew, “Splendor.” When our heart settles, when it calms, we deepen ourselves in prayer. This emotional center becomes very inflamed, inspired with superior qualities, like compassion, love, diligence, patience, and joy. We can pray deeply. We can ask for guidance from our inner divinity to help us understand a particular dream that we want to go deep within. As we are praying, we also look at our mind, thought, נצח Netzach in Hebrew, which means “Victory.” We are victorious when we calm the mind. When we look at it, we observe its chain of thoughts, their emergence, sustenance, anticipation, how they fluctuate within the screen of our awareness like a cloud, which eventually disappear as we observe and let them go. Simply watch. Observe your thoughts. Withdraw your attention from them. Do not invest yourself in memory, preoccupation, plans, projects, fears. Observe and let them go. This is where we get to a fundamental skill known as concentration. This relates to the sphere of תפארת Tiphereth in Hebrew, which means willpower or “Beauty.” It is willpower in the sense that it is our ability to focus attention on one thing without being distracted. It is our human soul in us. Right now, it is a seed that can become fully developed and matured. But for that it has to develop. It has to be activated and worked with. Willpower is very subtle, that is not as obvious as thought, or emotion, or energy, or physicality, and yet we are driven by will all the time. We can even examine our intentions and impulses, our will to attend this lecture, to approach a study of this kind. Willpower is the inclination to do, what is very subtle and refined. But it is something that we can consciously manage and activate, sustain. As we are learning to concentrate, we also visualize, imagine what we want to understand. This relates to גבורה Geburah, in Hebrew meaning “Justice,” the divine soul. It is our capacity of our consciousness to perceive the divine. It is the translucence or the immediate apprehension of a given thing. We can not only pay attention to something, but we also see it and understand it. That relates to our consciousness. Likewise, when we attend to something, and look at it and wait, we will receive knowledge from our inner spirit, which is חסד Chesed, “Mercy” in Hebrew, the inner Being. That is comprehension. That is wisdom. Our spirit, आत्मन् Atman, our genuine authentic self, is the origin and the goal of our studies. We want to understand our inner Being, the dreams that come as symbols from Him. As we deeply understand an experience, we are connected with our spirit, because that connection is what gives us understanding. For that we have to suspend all the lower qualities of our psyche in the same analogy as the jar full of sediment and stone. Let the inferior elements settle to the bottom and the more refined, clear, and pure qualities will rise to the top. The same thing applies to this diagram and to our meditations. 
Analytical Meditation
It is important to reflect upon ourselves, to understand who we are and who in us is perceiving in a given moment, or what in us taints or obstructs or clarifies what we see. The essence of analytical meditation is to first comprehend the perceiver. We have to understand and to question ourselves, to look, to see, to investigate if we possess any elements within our psychology that contaminate our experience, then filter what we see that do not allow us to see reality.
Buddhism beautifully teaches this dynamic, and that to understand anything of value, we have to put aside the self. By this I mean the egotistical self we are carnally affiliated with―pride, anger, resentment, hatred, lust, laziness, gluttony, etc. We have to put aside the ego because our desires, our defects, our vices, our prejudices do not see reality. When we are angry, we think through anger. We process life through that particular cage. We justify ourselves. We reason. We excuse our wrongdoings, even though later we may find through suffering that we were wrong. In those moments we were perfectly animated and justified by what we saw. We were thinking through a bottle, or seeing light through a bottle itself, not seeing the reality. To analyze a dream, we have to put ourselves aside and learn to access that which is genuine and authentic, the comprehension of the Being―our real identity. This is why the Dalai Lama in the book Stages of Meditation stated: In order to meditate on the special insight that realizes ultimate reality, we need to develop the wisdom that understands selflessness. Before we can do that, we must search for and identify the self that does not exist. ―The Dalai Lama, Stages of Meditation
When he says we have to search for and identify the self that does not exist, he is talking about our terrestrial self, our ego, our defects, those elements like pride and anger and hatred which do not have a real truth to them. They are not substantial. They are provoked by circumstances, and they emerge in relation to specific events. They are not eternally, intrinsically existing in and of themselves, but they depend on other factors because they are dependent on other people’s praise, or job promotion, adulation, or respect from others. These qualities do not have independent existence. They are not real. They are an illusion, and yet, because we grasp to the feeling and identity of self in the moment, we suffer.
We do not see the truth. These elements are not permanent. They are not eternal. They are not חסד Chesed, the spirit. The spirit is what is real, the divine, “God” for a lack of other words. If we do not put aside our own egotistical self, we cannot see our real identity. Therefore, we cannot interpret our dreams. This is why Samael Aun Weor in his book Sexology, the Basis of Endocrinology and Criminology, enforced or supported the Dalai Lama by saying: Symbols must be analyzed coldly, without superstition, maliciousness, mistrust, pride, vanity, fanaticism, prejudgment, preconceptions, hatred, envy, greed, jealousy, etc. ―Samael Aun Weor, Sexology, the Basis of Endocrinology and Criminology
He is saying the same thing. If you want to understand ultimate reality, those symbols which come from the ultimate truth within your dreams, you have to be like a surgeon operating on a person―to be indifferent, to be cold, to not assume one thing or the other, but to look and be conscious, attentive, unfiltered.
The Definition of Analysis
Before we go into some real detail about analyzing specific qualities of a dream or characteristics of a dream, I want to actually provide a bit of a definition, because this will help preface the rest of our format for this lecture. We are going to go into a lot of depth asking specific questions about particular parts of a dream, things that we can ask ourselves when we meditate.
Analysis means:
By asking good questions we can go into real learning about ourselves. We will get into the essence of what a dream communicates. What we are going to look at are particular qualities about dreams we can focus on, specifically when we meditate. But also, we will present particular problems that we can analyze deeply, the problems that dreams present, as well as the solutions for how to overcome them. We will look at a couple of statements that reflect what that examination looks like, and we are going to break down the totality of a dream into its parts. So that by looking at aspects individually, we can look at how they are cumulative and supportive of one another, how everything ties together. 
A Dream Analysis Example
In order to demonstrate this, I am going to provide an example.
I had this dream when I was six. I was walking through a park at night. There was a lot of moonlight present. This was a park where I grew up with a lot of trees and a pond. I remember walking through this park in the moonlight feeling a sense of haunting and dread, because everything was bathed in a profound twilight. I was passing through a playground, and I remember feeling that the playground itself, being abandoned and alone, in a sense reflected something about myself. I was very conscious and alert, seeing a lot of color in the hues, a lot of intensity in my perceptions. It was very vivid. I walked towards the lake, and I came to my mother, a sibling, and my family. At this point, I saw myself third person with them. We were like silhouettes in the night sky, holding hands, and we all looked up. I felt my vision was compelled to look up at the horizon where I saw a powerful, intense, luminous, and deadly moon―full, bright. Then while looking at this moon, I felt a sense of pain, a lot of longing in my heart, but also the feeling of dread, that something awful was happening. Suddenly, a silhouette of a wolf soared across the moon, howling silently in the dark. I awoke. This dream, while simple, contains a lot of elements. I am going to model for you an example of dream analysis through meditative questioning and meditative comprehension, in order to unpack this experience, but also provide a concrete structure by which you can learn to analyze your own dreams. 
Now in this dream I did not see any numbers. Obviously, dreams relate to the tarot, numerology, and the different cards of this deck relate to principles manifesting within dreams. As you see right here, we see Arcanum 18: Twilight, a white jackal and a black jackal, or you can even say, a white wolf and a black wolf howling at the moon. Obviously, I saw that symbol, which is very deep and very menacing. I will relate what these all mean and how they connect, but I will preface this analysis by showing that this arcanum was present in the dream.
Levels of Cognizance
Some questions we can ask ourselves can relate to how cognizant we are.
What was our level of cognizance in the dream? Were you aware that you were dreaming? This is very important. If you are more conscious in that state, it can indicate that it is more objective. Your divinity is trying to show you that there is something more that you need to understand, and therefore your consciousness was expanded in a deep way, in a powerful way, so that you can receive the teaching, the wisdom that you need in that given moment. In the dream that I provided, I was very awake. I would say that I was more awake than my physical existence. It was that hyperreal and intense. How aware were you in the dream? That is the question. What is the lucidity of your experience? Was it profound? Were you aware that you were in the astral world? If you are awake and knowing that you are out of your body, you can have greater confidence in your experiences, more often than if you were just drifting through it, asleep on autopilot. If you are aware that you are dreaming, you have some type of agency and assurance that you are approaching your inner experiences with greater wisdom and alertness. Oftentimes those very vivid, lucid dreams are showing us teachings from our inner God that we need to be aware of. How long were you aware that you were dreaming? Was it for a moment? Did you suddenly realize you were in the astral world, but then fell into sleep again? You became unconscious? Or was that sustained throughout the night? The more extended your awareness, the more probable it is that you are actually being taught something, because God is pushing you to wake up and is showing you that you need to pay attention, that you are receiving something valuable, or better said invaluable, something priceless. How frequently did you dream throughout that time, at night? Was it in pockets? Was it sporadically? Was it sustained? Was it often? You may find that you have periods in your dream yoga discipline where you are suddenly more awake than you usually are, and oftentimes that is an indicator that divinity is trying to teach you something because you have to be awake. Therefore, our inner Being exerts super efforts to teach us, to get us to rise to a higher level of being. 
As you see in this image, William Blake depicted Jacob’s dream of the angels ascending and descending upon a ladder to heaven (Genesis 28:11-19). It is a symbol of how we wake up within the dream state, to go towards the light, to gain light, to understand more, to perceive more
How amplified and penetrative was your dream consciousness? Was there a lot of lucidity? Were you able to see with a lot of detail? Was there more depth to your perceptions? Was there more color? In the example I provided, the playground in the park was bathed in a twilight. Still the hues and the colors in that spectrum of light was very intense and detailed. I saw shadows but I did see a lot of color in that silver like luminosity. That gave me a feeling of dread. It was very impactful. Also, we should consider, how did the quality of your dream fluctuate or change? Did it stay the same? Did it progressively increase? Did you start off unconscious in the beginning and suddenly become vivid and awake that you were dreaming later on? That tendency is very common when divinity teaches us something valuable. We start off being in a somnambulist state, not really aware that we were dreaming. Suddenly we begin to realize that we are not in our body. We are receiving a vision. In this dream when I was six, I felt in the beginning a bit unaware, thinking that it was the physical world. As I began to progress in the dream, I realized that this was something different than the physical plane and impossible, but yet it was more real. Lastly, did the quality of your dream stay the same? Did it become intense? Did it change or did it remain constant? Usually when dreams are very constant in their depth and quality, their luminosity, their amplification, their quality of being, when that state is sustained, as I said, it can often indicate that this is objective, and that all the details should be apprehended with a lot of detail. We should try to remember everything we dreamed because these are important facts that we need to understand. Any little detail can be significant, for example, like the playground (a psychological gymnasium), which I am going to elaborate upon. 
Situational Factors
So, we have to examine the situational factors.
What happened in the dream? Who were the characters or people involved? In my dream, I was walking through a park, in the moonlight, and I was with my family, my mother and a sibling, and that was very significant. We have to look at the examples of the people or characters or the situation because that is the content that we have to analyze and reflect upon, how they relate to ourselves, but also what are they representing. We should also consider how were you involved in the dream, in the drama in the dream? Were you more active in the dream, were you a witness? Did you kind of sit back and let things happen, or were you the agent and the hero of the drama? In my dream, it began with me walking alone in solitude and loneliness, walking through this dark night under the moonlight. Eventually I became more involved with my family members. Another question to consider is, how were you a witness and/or participant of the dream? Sometimes in our dreams, you may find that you are walking as in first person, like a narrative, seeing and experiencing all these things. Then suddenly you may see yourself outside of yourself. Like in the dream, I was walking in the park at first, but then I saw myself holding hands with my mother and a sibling. I both was a witness and a participant. Sometimes divinity will shift our point of view in a dream to show us something very significant. I remember looking at myself holding hands like a silhouette in the night with my family members and feeling that somehow there is deep meaning in my relationship there. Also, how did you interact with the dream’s constituents, meaning, how did you basically respond and react to all the different elements of the dream: the people, the place, the environment, the situation? This contributes to the next question, which is, what was the overarching narrative or sub-narrative of the dream? This is very significant, because every dream is a story. What was the overarching story, and were there sub-stories to this dream? In my dream, it was me walking in the park at night, but then it became enmeshed with another story, which is my family. Somehow the symbol of the Moon, the wolf, the twilight, and the night, all compounded and connected to my relationships with my family members. Therefore, the mood of the dream was deeply connected with the people there. Sometimes the story is enmeshed in a larger story, kind of like an Alexander Dumas novel, who is considered the king of plot, and that he would have many stories within larger stories―very complex―and dreams can be like that. So, it is good to reflect upon what is the overarching theme. What is the narrative, the story? How do we contribute to it, and were there other little narratives or stories within the dream itself? In this case, in my example, I was deeply afraid and seeking comfort from my family, from the wolf and the Moon. In a sense that was the story that I felt, and I was thinking to myself in the moment. Lastly, what were the relationships between different dream events? We have to examine every event in the dream. How do they connect? What happened first? What happened second? Was there a chronology present? In my example, I walked through the park first. I was alone, and that set the tone for the dream immediately because it was about loneliness, the Moon, sorrow, pain, twilight, uncertainty. I walked through a park, amongst a playground that was abandoned, thinking about how lonely I was at that time. Eventually I ended up being with my family members, trying to find comfort with them. Therefore, the first event, walking alone in a park, was connected to me eventually seeking comfort and solace from my mother and sibling. That connected with the Moon and the wolf, because as symbols, they were showing me something about the need to understand my relationships, how all of it was connected to these symbols, which we are going to unpack. 
Ambience
Another thing to consider is the ambiance of a dream.
What were the sounds and colors of the dream? Sound and color are significant. Darkness, shades, black, and pale colors can indicate dread, sorrow, pain, fear, dark emotions. Likewise, sound. Are they pleasant sounds or are they fearful sounds? In the dream I had, I was listening to the wind. It was very silent. I could hear my footsteps on the soil. So those contributed to an ambiance or emotion of great uncertainty. Also, where did your dream take place and what was its tone and atmosphere? The places we dream are really important. Oftentimes, we dream about our home, familiar neighborhoods, and surroundings. They are representing qualities of mind, qualities of consciousness, aspects of ourselves, because often our identities are very much enmeshed terrestrially in place. We have certain attitudes, habits, and behaviors that we adopt in our physical life in accordance with our environment, the places we go, the school we were educated in, the friends and people that we associated with in those spaces. Those often contribute to a sense of tone, and likewise, dreams, when they show us a place, are showing us something psychological, in relation to our mood as well. So, they all contribute to an ambience or initial feeling that is like a signifier of the overall impact or emotion of the dream, what its quality is going to determine for us. We should also consider the weather. What was the weather like in your dream? Was it stormy? Was it dark? Was it chaotic? Was there rain? Was it calm? Was it peaceful? We know even in movies and in literature that storms, and weather, often preface or present forebodings, omens, challenges, pain. So, the weather and its qualities, whether its pleasant or its dark, can signify something important for us in relation to our quality of mind and heart. What was the overall tone, mood, or quality of the experience? Basically, when you woke up from your dream, how did you feel? How did you feel towards the dream and its elements? That’s really important. That tells us whether or not the dream is authentic. If it hits you hard, you know it means something. Therefore, we puzzle and puzzle over what it can mean. So even in this dream that I had when I was young, I felt that it was very important, even though I had no concept of what dream yoga might entail. But I knew in the experience this was something very prophetic, impactful, moving. Lastly how did the characters, entities, or objects in the dream respond in relation to you? Often times our environment can change in a dream. The characters or entities themselves can change in response to our interactions, and also the mood of the dream can change depending on our behaviors, our responses. 
Spiritual and Egotistical States
Some things to consider too is spiritual and egotistical states.
We go back to the human machine. With time and meditation and practice, we begin to recognize the quality of our dreams. Some dreams feel more real, more authentic, more objective, and they reflect qualities of mind that are not egotistical. We referred to the superior intellectual and superior emotional centers, which are aspects of our human machine that reflect the superior aspects of dreams. Some dreams can be more intellectual, like to memory, thought, concepts, preoccupations. Some dreams can be more emotional. Some involve a lot of action related to the motor brain, the motor center, as well as our instincts and sexual drives. When we are meditating on our dreams, we have to reflect on that quality, like we are tasting a drink. People who reflect deeply can really begin to discriminate a unique taste to a superior quality or a superior vision, which do not have anything to do with the incoherent, chaotic, conflicting, afflictive, and disturbed states of the ego. We should ask ourselves when we dream, when we meditate, which center of the human machine predominates in a dream? How are we dreaming? Which center was manifested? What was the quality of the dream and your psychological states? What egotistical thoughts, emotions, or impulses were expressed? Did we think negative evil thoughts, disturbing emotions, and perform or commit any harmful actions in our dreams? We have to reflect on that. That is signifying what kind of dream it is, depending on what type of elements were present within our psychology, what was driving us. Likewise, as we reflect more upon the difference between our soul and the ego, we can begin to understand what real visions are. What conscious understandings and sentiments manifested? Did we understand something deeply in the dream that perhaps escapes our logic? Was there something very deep and intuitive there that we feel but we do not necessarily intellectually comprehend? That is also a very unique quality of a superior vision. It indicates something that is objective. You know there is something more there that we may lack the intellectual knowledge to define. Like in my dream when I was young, I knew that dream meant something deep, but I had no idea how to identify it. I just knew that something bad was going to happen based on the mood and the symbols in the dream and the overall impression that it made. Also, what was the overall quality of the dream’s logic? Did the dreams narrative make sense? Was there something unifying all the events in the dream in a coherent narrative? Did it make sense or was it gibberish? Was it nonsensical? Were there many elements that were just garbled and jarbled together? We have to analyze that. Lastly, what types of actions did the dream inspire within you? Do we feel longing to explore ourselves, become more profound, to reflect upon the meaning of our life? Because those dreams can inspire us to deeper insights, to push us, to inspire us, even if we do not know what they mean at first. Or do our dreams perhaps reflect merely chaos? We have to analyze that. Intentions and Outcomes
Every dream has an intention and an outcome. Every dream reflects a desire to do, as well as a particular ending. Any story has a beginning, middle and an end. So, we have to reflect upon:
What is our intentions in the beginning of the dream, but also what is it that we seek or how does it actually turn out? What was the desired outcome of the dream? In my dream, I wanted comfort from my family. I wanted them to protect me from harm. I wanted to be safe. I did not want to feel threatened and alone. I sought comfort in the twilight, to be consoled and comforted by my mother and my sibling, but I found that I actually in the dream could not. Reflect, what was the actual outcome? What was the result of the dream? What was the outcome of your actions of the situation of the dream? I know that when I sought comfort by holding hands with my family members, I looked up at the Moon and the wolf and realized that I could not be protected from that. So, I felt haunted and afflicted. How did you feel in relation to the situation or characters? I thought and I felt that I could be comforted and protected, but the reality is that I could not. Lastly, what was your mood in the end of the dream and its result? Oftentimes the end of the dream is the most compelling because it stamps or finalizes/concedes to whatever the overall message is, the overall warning, as well perhaps potential consequences that might play out in our life. Identifying Symbols
This brings us to the very interesting topic of symbols.
We talked a lot about the different laws of dream interpretation. We spoke specifically about philosophical analogies, contrary meanings, correspondences, and numerology. We have to look at the symbols of the dream. What was the philosophy or what philosophies are the symbols associated with? The Moon, as a symbol within religions, is a symbol of suffering, moral pain, affliction. It is also associated with the wolf. The wolf in Egyptian mythology, or a jackal in Egyptian mythology, can relate to Anubis, the law of karma, cause and effect, and that for every action we have a consequence. So, after many years of meditating on this dream, I began to see some connections. The Moon was “suffering” and the wolf was “karma,” and that in my youth and my adolescence I would have to suffer, and that while seeking comfort within family members, it would not be attained. But also, as a philosophy, those traditions like Egypt or any religious tradition can teach us deeper background knowledge about what we need to know about ourselves and how the dream is unfolding. It also helped me realize in my dream that I was facing the inevitable, with something that I could not change. It was eternal, permanent, related to karma. It was something that was going to happen that could not be avoided. Also consider, what is the contrary meaning or opposite of a symbol? The opposite of the Moon is the Sun, which is light, life, luminosity, the divine, happiness. What does the symbol correspond with? What is the symbol related to? Obviously, symbols in diverse religious traditions have a lot of depth. This why we study many traditions throughout the world in our studies. 
Like we see in this graphic. Starting from 12 o’clock going clockwise, we see symbols of the Baháʼí Faith, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Native Spirituality, Sikhism, Taoism, Unitarian Universalism, and Zoroastrianism. These are symbols surrounding the Sun, which is a symbol of the divine.
Likewise, as we are analyzing and identifying symbols, we should consider what these diverse traditions teach, because these symbols compact a lot of meaning. For example, the symbol of Islam is the Moon and the star of Venus. It is by working with love that we transform our suffering. That is the essence of Islam, the Muslim tradition in its esoteric sense. Likewise, these symbols teach us about truths that we should understand and dive into so that we can really unpack our dreams. Lastly, what numbers were represented? Numbers are very deep. They encode the sacred arcana of The Eternal Tarot of Alchemy and Kabbalah. We study them so that we can go deep within numerology and numbers in our dreams. The Intersection of Dream Symbols
Something to consider too is the intersection of dream symbols. We should consider how multiple symbols interact, how they all connect, because the way they relate to each other can unveil many deep symbols or deep connections that are very intricate and very significant.
What different kinds of symbols were present in the dream, and did multiple symbols interact? If so, how? I saw the Moon and the wolf, sorrow and karma. They are very intimately related. They actually represent two aspects of the same thing, that by our own actions, we reap the consequences. Also, consider, which symbol or symbols predominated and why? Maybe one symbol has greater attention in the dream, or maybe they both share the same space, but perhaps one of them is more prominent. We should ask why because if a symbol is on the forefront or has the most impact in our dream, it probably means that that is going to set the overall tone and has the most significance for us. Like, by seeing the Moon, obviously I realized that I was going through a lot of pain and suffering. Then the wolf kind of contributed to that, showing that it was karma. How did the dream situation relate to the number, symbol or dramatization? 
This dream can relate to Arcanum 18: Twilight, the Moon, affliction. So, symbols can relate to numbers, and situations can play out in relation to those numbers, or the symbols of those cards, as we are going to elaborate upon. The dramas all relate to the numbers themselves and the particular symbols.
Also, how are the numbers both individual and cumulative in the dream? Did you dream of a number, maybe many numbers? What do they mean individually as arcana or tarot cards, but also how do they add up together? How do they all contribute to and add significance to each other? Because when you examine that, you begin to look at a very deep language. 
Predictive Solutions
So, the arcana of the tarot are symbols and images that teach truths, philosophies, principles, forces of nature, qualities that we need to develop in our soul, but also qualities that we need to overcome.
Every card has a bit of a dual significance. There are positive and negative attributes to these cards, pretty much in all cases, but there are a few cards that have perhaps more of a negative than a positive meaning. Now, when you receive a number in a dream, you have to analyze in relation to the tarot card itself that is present. What does it symbolize? What is represented in the card? What are the problems and challenges associated with the arcanum, that law, that moment in our particular spiritual experience, but also what are the solutions that it represents? What potential or actual solutions were presented to the problems in the dream? When you get numbers or receive symbols in dreams that relate to these cards, they are showing us what is the reality of our spiritual situation, but also what we need to do to overcome them. So, the potential solution in my dream with Arcanum 18: Twilight, the Moon, was to seek comfort in my family. I thought that they would protect me from the wolf and the sky, and as a symbol, it was showing me that even though I looked for comfort in perhaps family members in my childhood, I still was a victim of my own secret enemy, because Arcanum 18 relates to the secret enemy: our defects, our egos, our vices. It is our own ego which pulls us from the path, which makes us suffer, which produces karma. What should have happened in the dream in relation to the symbol or sacred arcanum? In the dream you may receive a number. Maybe it relates to a particular quality in yourself. Perhaps in Arcanum 18, I was experiencing solitude and loneliness, the uncertainty of facing my own self while growing up, my own defects. In the dream, what should have happened was that I wanted to run away. I did not want to be there and that the symbol of the arcanum itself is teaching that one has to face their own selves―light vs. darkness, or white wolf or jackal and a black wolf or jackal, good vs. evil. What should happen is that we should face ourselves or in the dream, I should have faced myself, faced the ordeals that were coming.
What principles or guidance are implicit within the dreams manifested numbers? So each card not only presents a problem, but a solution.
The solution of Arcanum 18, if you add the numbers together, is 1 + 8 = 9, because in kabbalah, numerology, you add numbers together to arrive at a deeper synthesis. You can even take the numbers individually. 1 is The Magician, the first card, the one who initiates the spiritual way of being. Arcanum 8 is Justice, patience through ordeals, sufferings through hardship. The synthesis of those two, by initiating a spiritual path and waiting patiently for its results, we enter Arcanum 9: The Hermit, which is the initiate. Notice that in Arcanum 9, the hermit walks upon a moon, but is guided by the Sun. Implicit within Arcanum 18 is that one should use their willpower and face the hardships of life, the ordeals and sufferings of existence, in order to become an initiate. That is how we really overcome the uncertainty of twilight, when it is neither day nor night, when we are clouded by our own mind and perhaps do not know the right path. Something to also consider is, how did your dream actions embody the virtues or weaknesses of the sacred arcana? So were there particular actions in our dream, things that we did that show us the virtue of that arcanum, or perhaps its weakness? Were we a hero or were we a villain? Perhaps we were both in some moments. Does the dream inspire ethical or unethical behaviors? Are we impelled or driven to be more spiritual as a result of these dreams, or do we feel more inclined towards our own negative behaviors? The cards show us many truths, philosophies to think about, which relate to particular circumstances in our existence. They can predict many things for us, but also show us the way out of problems… 
Initiation is Your Own Life
…which is why we study our own life. Initiation is our own life, lived intensely, with rectitude and with love. Dreams often show us what is going on in our physical existence.
We should consider, what specific ordeals are you facing now in the physical world? Because a vivid dream can show us what we are facing, show us the reality of the situation, show us a deeper dimension and internal experience, how we think and feel about them, of the truth of those challenges that we may not be willing to face yet. We should also consider, who is currently involved in our life, struggles and challenges? Who are the people involved in our life at this moment? Are there people we have a conflict with, that we disagree with, that we have arguments with, fights? Who is involved in our life that is the most immediate importance in impact? Because our dreams can show us our relationships, but also what we need to do with them. We should analyze the characters in our own life story, who is involved in our saga, so that we can understand what to do. Also, how are other people agents, or actors, within your karmic situation? What are people doing in our life that are repeating or producing a problem that we are trying to solve, that we are trying to fix? What are your reactions to individual or collective events? Are there are specific scenarios that are in our life that repeat, that are compounded, that accumulate, that have been going on and on? Or was there just an individual moment that we want to better understand? ― because our dreams can connect with that. We can analyze what is going on in our life now so that we can understand the connections to our dreams, because our dreams can be reflecting those dynamics in a deeper way with images, and characters, and narratives with the story. We should also reflect upon: how are we choosing to behave in defined circumstances and why? Oftentimes we may ignore our worst enemy, which is us. How we are choosing to behave in life in certain circumstances? What really motivates us, why are we doing what we are doing? Unless we are self-observing, we are not going to see that. We are not going to see the connections within our dreams and our own defects, because our ego is what produces problems. Our defects are what cause pain. So we have to observe that. What different egos have you observed in your daily life? What are you working on now in your spiritual work that is of most importance to you, as well as the wellbeing of your loved ones, your acquaintances, and strangers? What defects have you looked in yourself and have seen that are producing all the tragedies, comedies, and dramas of life? Which defects are causing the most problems for you and why? We have to look at that. If you want to understand dreams more, understand your own life―look at the connections. Our dreams can be showing us things that are going on internally. I know that in that dream example that I provided, when I was very young, I sought comfort in my mother as well as a sibling, very much identified with them, trying to get their attention and support, and yet those influences were not enough to sustain or go against, perhaps, the sense of loneliness or pain relating to karmic situations that came up at that time. So, we have to examine all that. 
The Internal is the External
What are our defects?
What do we need to change? This is how we draw connections between the internal with the external. How did the symbols or dream situations reflect your daily life? How did the symbols represent what is going on physically? In one sense in my dream, my mother was perhaps my Divine Mother, and holding on to the hand of a sibling was perhaps the spiritual community that I sought. Yet despite looking for those things and seeking comfort, I did not receive it because of karma, of pain, the Moon. So how did the symbols or dream situations reflect that? How do our dream actions reflect our physical actions? What are we doing in the dream that is being repeated in physical life, maybe not literally, but symbolically? What mood or sentiments permeate both your dream and waking life? Because the quality of a dream can often reflect the quality of a particular state in our physical existence. The two are connected and if we are very diligent and vigilant and awake, we can see it. How do your dream states reflect your daily psychological states? Does the dream reflect an emotional quality that you find represented in your life? Meditate on that. Examine the connections. How is a particular moment in your life related to the Moon, to repeated sorrows, to pain? How might your dream and its symbols warn you about your behaviors, situations, or other people? Obviously when you see symbols of people or representations of family members, they often can represent something divine in us, maybe our divine parents, maybe a spiritual community. Maybe they are warning us about what we should expect in our physical existence. They also could warn us about how we are behaving and what we are doing in relation to other people that should be reconsidered, that should be meditated upon, that should be rectified. How might the dream present the right course of action in a vigil state? Sometimes a dream will show us perhaps what we should do, what we can do, and how we should proceed, that relates to our intentions but also the actual outcome. Lastly, does the dream contradict or align with scriptural, prophetic, ethical, or spiritual conduct? Is there anything that the dream is pushing us to do that may align with or go against the scriptures, what the prophets have lived, their ethics, the conduct that they expect from their disciples? That can often tell us whether the dream is objective or not. If we are meditating on it and we see that the dream inspires us to better behavior, we can be more assured that it is probably objective, and it is inspiring us to be spiritual. 
Recurring Dreams
Some dreams repeat, as we showed extensively in a previous lecture on How to Consciously Enter Dreams. It is important to reflect on which dreams are repeating in ourselves, because if they repeat often, it can mean that there is a problem that we are not fully addressing and that we should take deep consideration of.
We should ask ourselves, what elements repeat themselves in our dreams? What repeats? How frequently does the dream repeat? More importantly, are there variations among each dream occurrence? If you dream of the Moon perhaps, are there different types of moons that you see? Are they eclipsed? Are they full? Are they crescent? Are they waxing. Are they waning? That type of dream can indicate variations in our psychology. A full moon can mean pain, but a crescent moon, a waxing moon, or better said a waning moon, when the moon is diminishing in its luminosity, can perhaps show us a bit more of reduction in perhaps egotistical states. It is important to reflect upon whether or not this recurring dream, perhaps of seeing the Moon, is changing every time we see it, because that’s reflecting back to us how we are changing. Also, how do your behaviors change or stay the same in these dreams? Are we just repeating the same thing and suffering more? Or are we gaining traction and ground, progress? Perhaps the Moon is diminishing or vanishing from the night sky in the astral horizon. Perhaps the Sun is replacing it. These are very positive symbols, real progress, real change in representations of how our quality and level of being is elevating. Do you experience the same or different reactions to each dream? Even if you see the Moon again in a dream, do you react the same as you used to? Or perhaps, do you feel serenity even in the face of hardship, or perhaps whatever omen that this prophecy is presenting, that even though something bad might happen in one’s daily life, we face it with courage, with indifference? Do you ever experience recurring situations in life that are reflected in your dreams? We should reflect. Again, if a dream is recurring, it probably means that we have a life situation that repeats, especially in relation to Arcanum 10: The Wheel of Retribution, karma, the wheel of suffering, existence. But also, the last question we should think about is, why do you have this recurring dream? What is driving it all? Again, if you examine whatever situations in your life repeat, if you meditate on the connections between that and a particular dream, you can gain better understanding about what is driving it all. Where does it come from? What defects are propelling the situation? When you understand and work upon that defect, it no longer has power over you, does not determine your life, and therefore those dreams change. 
How to Proceed
So how to proceed?
Some people get really paranoid or afraid of dreams, that they have a bad dream, that somehow their day is going to turn out bad, or something awful is going to happen. We should be indifferent to whatever comes. Do not worry about or identify with the outcome of the dream. Whatever will happen will happen. What is important is that we are indifferent to both victory and defeat. We should also be careful of self-fulling prophecies, fatalism, nihilism. You dream of a moon, do not think that everything is going to turn out bad, “Therefore, let me just give up.” Some people get like that. The important thing is divinity is showing us a symbol, is warning us, not to fill us with despair, but to help us have courage and to change and rectify the situation. Therefore, we should extract the lessons from our dreams in waking experiences, because the two are different sides of the same coin, that these are life lessons. They all connect. We should always be learning, learning from our dreams, analyzing our dreams, so that we can better inform our actions. Be careful and be sure to identify the connections between the dream and waking life without fear, anxiety, or desire―wanting there to be a connection that is not there, or feeling fear or anxiety about what the dream is prophesying for us. We should also understand that both good and bad dreams can be obstacles―if we become attached. So having dreams is good, but being identified, dark and morbid and despairing over a dream, or being too overly confident, are not good reactions. We should just take them for what they are. They are messages. We should apply them as best we can and then move on. Be patient. 
Resources
Here are some resources to study if you want to go deeper into the practice of meditation as well as analytical meditation.
We have Meditation Essentials and Meditation without Exertion from Glorian Publishing. These courses go into a lot of detail about how to develop concentration, serenity, as well as imagination, so that we have a very robust consciousness. We also have two courses on our website, one Gnostic Meditation and the other, The Sufi Principles of Meditation, which also gives some practices as well that build on each other in sequence to prepare for real deep comprehension. We also included a link to our course on The Eternal Tarot of Alchemy and Kabbalah. I know I touched on a lot of different aspects of the tarot, and it can be confusing for some who are very new to this topic, but I recommend that if you want to go into a lot of detail about what the tarot cards mean and how to use them, you can study this course. Exercises
At this point in time, we are going to open up the floor to questions. Questions and Answers
Question: Hi, I understand that what often needs to be analyzed in a dream sometimes can be pointed out by the dream itself. Waking up, sitting with it, something in the dream happens that gives a direction in terms of what we need to look into. Sometimes in my experience it has been not so clear what needs to be looked into and what method of analysis from the dream itself. And sometimes we are in circumstances in our daily life that make it so getting calm to do that, to figure that out, or to let the come to me very difficult. You listed a lot of really helpful things, and it seems imperative that we have all of them. Would you feel confident or comfortable in telling me kind of the top two that you would suggest in terms of… I want to analyze this, but I’m not doing it. It’s not easy to figure out how to do it. What is a couple of go-to’s that you would list as important? I know that it really depends on who it is and what the dream is and stuff. I just wanted a few if you might say.
Instructor: Great questions! I would say follow your heart in terms of what is your emotional impact from your dream. I think that perhaps the easiest thing to analyze is your mood in relation to the experience. How did you feel in relation to the dream? What was your reaction to it? How hard did it hit you? What was your emotional state? Because our emotional state will often preface more important things, like perhaps the gravity of the situation, what actually happened in the dream, its parts. Now, I know that a lot of what I presented covers a lot of ground and that definitely, if you are meditating, you do not necessarily just want to make it a check list and say, “I am going to follow this step, followed by this,” etc. Meditation does not work that way. I broke it down in a very explicit and hopefully comprehensive manner, because these are things that we can consider. But as you said, some dreams may have more prominent features. Some dreams might not have any numbers in them. Maybe there is just a symbol, or maybe there is just an interaction with a character or a person. Regardless of whatever elements are in the dream, I think the two most important things to consider are: what is your emotional impact, like how did you feel in your dream and its result, but also, what actually happened? I started this analysis by talking about the situational factors. I think that to really go deep into a dream, we have to look at the narrative, like, who was involved, what was there, who are the characters, how are we a part, but also how do we feel in relation to the dream? Obviously, the more impactful dreams are going to have some symbols to them, very deep symbols. They can be related to religion or numerology. But some symbols may not be that obvious. I think the best way to start, is at least for me, I reflect upon what happened here, and how did I feel? Because those together are kind of the baseline. They are the thread that weaves together the whole story. So, if you are looking for a beginning, you can start there, for something concrete. Then if there are other elements that present themselves in the dream, obviously you can approach them in that way. But again, meditation is very intuitive. What I was presenting today is hopefully a list of guidelines or principles that can be applied depending on our circumstances. But knowing how to discriminate on what to focus on is a difficult thing, like you said. We have to rely on intuition. Follow your heart. If something is bugging you about the dream, meditate on that. Meditate on your hunch, your uneasiness, your uncertainty, maybe your fear, maybe your longing. Again, that has to relate to ambiance: the emotional impact of the dream, your heart. Remember that the astral dimension is the world of the heart. It is the world of superior but also inferior emotion. So obviously that is going to register the most impact for us, is how we feel. I hope that answers your question. Question: With this process of analyzing the dream and learning from it, is the end goal to reach a stage where we are not dreaming at all, or having only positive dreams? Instructor: It is important to clarify very specifically what we mean by dreams. A dream, in very strict esoteric language, often relates to a subjective quality of our perception―relating to our ego, our defects. A dream is often merely a reflection of our negative, subjective, psychological states. I kind of was being a little bit dualistic with my use of the term, but I want to be specific here that a dream, often in Gnostic terms, is a projection of the mind, our defects, an illusion. It is kind of like a projector showing a film on a screen, and yet we see the images and contents of the film, which is our mind, and the astral dimension is reflecting that experience. So, it is not something that is really authentic and real, or objective. Now a vision is something else, in which we see reality for what it is, when the consciousness is not projecting anything, but merely receiving new information. We are seeing what is actually there, and these visions have to do with objective experiences and prophecies, omens, or teachings from the divine. Now the end goal of these studies is to no longer dream, but to be awake, to no longer be seeing what our mind wants, but to see what is actually there. For that we have to learn to analyze our dreams. We can analyze our own illusions and how we are egotistical and asleep, not only within dreams, but in waking life. But also, we want to learn to be conscious citizens of the cosmos, so that when we are physically asleep, we are in the internal dimensions awake, seeing that dimension for what it is, without any filter. In that sense, we are no longer dreaming, but we are illuminated. Now the point of these studies is not necessarily just to avoid bad dreams, but to comprehend their roots, understand why we suffer. These dreams teach us something about, or perhaps better said, visions, teach us something about how to live our life. They teach us how to change, how to be initiates, so that we can stop suffering and help other people to be upright human beings. We cannot do that by only having positive dreams, but facing the darkness, facing our own cages that we have built. The way that we analyze our dreams is going to open up the understanding of how to change physically, how to live a more ethical lifestyle. So, we study and analyze our dreams so that we can have a better impact, and receive knowledge and wisdom of how to live. So, it is not just to avoid bad dreams, but I guess in the sense, a positive dream would be, or better said, a vision would be, having illumination and vividness and awakeness in the dream state. We no longer sleep there, but we are conscious, to be fully awakened. Question: I have heard certain dream yoga teachers recommend telling yourself that you are in a dream even during waking life. What do you think about this? Instructor: It is true! We give a whole lecture on this “How to Lucid Dream,” because in our physical life, we are constantly distracted, inattentive, asleep, within ourselves, within our body. We think we are vigilant and awake, but we are not, evidenced by the fact that when we go to bed at night, our consciousness enters the astral dimension, but without awareness, because the soul is not trained during the daytime. We are asleep as a soul when we daydream, fantasize, reminisce, get lost in a chain of thought, fantasy. We are not really paying attention to the moment. If you train yourself in the daytime to be awake and vigilant and learn how to test yourself in the physical world, perhaps by jumping in the air to see if you float, or pulling your finger to see it stretch―obviously, you don’t do this physically; it is impossible to fly in the physical world―but if you get in the habit of testing yourself, eventually when you go to sleep at night, you do the same test or technique―pull you finger―and suddenly you may find it stretch. You realize that you are in the dream world. Or jump in the air and you find that you float, because physically you trained yourself to do that whenever you come upon something anomalous or strange in your waking life, and then you transfer that same questioning skill to your dreams. We give a whole lecture on that. I recommend you study “How to Lucid Dream,” where I talked about that. Any other questions? There are no other questions. We will conclude. I thank you all for attending! The next lecture will be in person in Chicago. It will be the last one in this course “Navigating the Internal Worlds.” We will talk about all the different things that we can do in the astral plane, since we have gone over many techniques to experience and interpret dreams. I will talk about how to actually navigate the internal worlds. Thank you all for coming!
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