Dreamwork & Lucid Dreaming: A Mystical Guide to the Dream Realm

By Nicole, Founder of Mystic Ryst

Every night, you die a small death. Your conscious mind releases its grip, and you slip through a doorway into another realm—a place where the laws of physics don't apply, where time is fluid, where you can fly, where the dead speak, where your deepest truths reveal themselves in symbol and story.

This is the dream realm. And most people treat it like meaningless static, forgetting their dreams the moment they wake, dismissing them as "just dreams."

But mystics, shamans, and spiritual practitioners throughout history have known the truth: the dream was a door. A portal to the subconscious, to the collective unconscious, to other dimensions, to divine guidance, to your soul's deepest wisdom.

When you learn to work with your dreams—to remember them, interpret them, and even control them through lucid dreaming—you gain access to a powerful tool for healing, creativity, problem-solving, spiritual growth, and magic.

This guide will teach you how to unlock the mystical power of your dreams.

Why Dreams Matter

Dreams Are Messages from Your Subconscious

Your subconscious mind processes everything you experience but can't always communicate directly with your conscious mind. Dreams are its language—speaking in symbols, metaphors, and emotions.

Dreams reveal:

• Repressed emotions and unprocessed trauma
• Hidden desires and fears
• Solutions to problems you're facing
• Warnings about situations or people
• Your authentic self beneath the persona

Dreams Are Spiritual Experiences

Many spiritual traditions view dreams as:

• Visits to the astral plane
• Communication with guides, angels, or ancestors
• Prophetic visions of the future
• Past life memories
• Soul travel and exploration

Dreams Are Creative Fuel

Countless artists, inventors, and visionaries have received inspiration in dreams:

• Paul McCartney heard "Yesterday" in a dream
• Mary Shelley dreamed the story of Frankenstein
• Elias Howe solved the sewing machine design in a dream
• August Kekulé discovered the benzene ring structure in a dream

Your dreams are a wellspring of creativity waiting to be tapped.

Types of Dreams

Processing Dreams

What they are: Your mind sorting through the day's experiences
Characteristics: Mundane, fragmented, often forgettable
Purpose: Mental and emotional housekeeping

Symbolic Dreams

What they are: Messages from your subconscious in symbolic form
Characteristics: Vivid, emotionally charged, memorable
Purpose: Revealing hidden truths, processing emotions, solving problems

Lucid Dreams

What they are: Dreams where you know you're dreaming
Characteristics: Conscious awareness within the dream, ability to control the dream
Purpose: Exploration, healing, creativity, spiritual practice, fun

Prophetic Dreams

What they are: Dreams that show future events
Characteristics: Extremely vivid, feel "different," often come true
Purpose: Warnings, preparation, guidance

Visitation Dreams

What they are: Dreams where deceased loved ones or spiritual beings visit
Characteristics: Feel more real than regular dreams, bring peace or messages
Purpose: Communication, closure, guidance, comfort

Nightmares

What they are: Frightening dreams, often recurring
Characteristics: Fear, anxiety, feeling chased or threatened
Purpose: Processing trauma, facing fears, warning signals

How to Remember Your Dreams

Most people forget 90% of their dreams within 10 minutes of waking. Here's how to change that:

Before Sleep

1. Set the intention:
Before sleep, say: "I will remember my dreams tonight. I will wake with clear recall."

2. Keep a dream journal by your bed:
Pen and paper (not phone—the light disrupts recall). Make it easy to write immediately upon waking.

3. Avoid alcohol and heavy meals:
Both suppress REM sleep and dream recall.

4. Use dream-enhancing crystals:
Place under pillow or on nightstand:

• Amethyst (vivid dreams, spiritual connection)
• Moonstone (dream recall, intuitive dreams)
• Labradorite (lucid dreaming, astral travel)
• Clear quartz (dream clarity, amplification)
• Azurite (prophetic dreams, visions)

Upon Waking

1. Don't move immediately:
Stay in the same position you woke in. Movement disrupts dream memory.

2. Keep eyes closed:
Recall the dream with eyes closed before opening them.

3. Work backwards:
Remember the end of the dream first, then work backwards to the beginning.

4. Write immediately:
Even fragments. Even single words. Write before doing anything else.

5. Record emotions and sensations:
Not just plot—how did you feel? What stood out?

Dream Journal Format

Date:
Dream title: (Give it a name)
Dream narrative: (Write in present tense: "I am walking...")
Emotions: (How did you feel?)
Symbols: (Key images, people, objects)
Interpretation: (What might it mean?)
Waking life connection: (What's happening in your life that relates?)

How to Interpret Your Dreams

Universal Symbols vs. Personal Symbols

Some symbols have universal meanings (water = emotions, flying = freedom), but YOUR personal associations matter most.

Example: Dogs might mean loyalty to most people, but if you were bitten by a dog as a child, they might represent fear or betrayal in YOUR dreams.

Common Dream Symbols

Water: Emotions, subconscious, flow of life
Flying: Freedom, transcendence, spiritual elevation
Falling: Loss of control, anxiety, fear
Being chased: Avoiding something in waking life
Teeth falling out: Anxiety about appearance, loss of power, transition
Naked in public: Vulnerability, fear of exposure
Death: Transformation, endings, new beginnings (rarely literal death)
Houses: The self (different rooms = different aspects of psyche)
Snakes: Transformation, healing, sexuality, hidden threats
Pregnancy: New project, creativity, potential (not always literal)

Questions to Ask

1. What was the dominant emotion?
2. What's happening in my waking life that relates?
3. What part of me does each character represent?
4. What is my subconscious trying to tell me?
5. If this dream were a movie, what would the message be?

Shadow Work Through Dreams

The "villain" or threatening figure in your dreams often represents your shadow—rejected parts of yourself.

Instead of running, try:

• Turning to face the threat in the dream
• Asking: "What do you want? What are you trying to tell me?"
• Integrating the message in waking life

Lucid Dreaming: Becoming Conscious in Dreams

Lucid dreaming is the practice of becoming aware that you're dreaming while still in the dream. Once lucid, you can:

• Control the dream narrative
• Fly, teleport, create anything
• Face fears in a safe environment
• Practice skills
• Receive guidance from your higher self
• Explore the astral plane
• Have incredible adventures

How to Induce Lucid Dreams

Reality Checks (Throughout the Day)

Train your brain to question reality:

Several times daily, ask: "Am I dreaming?"

Then perform a reality check:

• Try to push your finger through your palm (in dreams, it goes through)
• Look at text, look away, look back (in dreams, text changes)
• Try to breathe through pinched nose (in dreams, you can)
• Look at your hands (in dreams, they're often distorted)
• Check a clock twice (in dreams, time is inconsistent)

Do this so often that you do it IN dreams, triggering lucidity.

MILD Technique (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams)

1. As you fall asleep, repeat: "I will know I'm dreaming"
2. Visualize yourself becoming lucid in a recent dream
3. See yourself recognizing dream signs
4. Fall asleep with this intention

WBTB Technique (Wake Back to Bed)

1. Set alarm for 5-6 hours after sleep
2. Wake up, stay awake 20-30 minutes
3. Read about lucid dreaming or review dream journal
4. Go back to sleep with intention to lucid dream
5. You'll enter REM sleep consciously

WILD Technique (Wake Initiated Lucid Dream)

1. Lie still as you fall asleep
2. Keep mind awake while body falls asleep
3. You'll experience sleep paralysis (don't panic)
4. Visualize a dream scene
5. Step into it consciously
6. You're now lucid dreaming

(This is advanced and can be intense—start with other methods)

Dream Signs

Identify recurring elements in your dreams (flying, certain people, impossible physics). When you notice these in a dream, you'll realize you're dreaming.

What to Do When You Become Lucid

1. Stay calm: Excitement can wake you up
2. Stabilize the dream: Rub your hands together, spin around, or touch objects
3. Explore: Fly, teleport, create, ask questions
4. Set intentions: "Show me what I need to know" or "Take me to my guide"
5. Practice: Skills, conversations, facing fears

Crystals for Dreamwork

Amethyst - The Dream Stone

Use for: Vivid dreams, spiritual dreams, protection during sleep
How: Under pillow or on nightstand

Moonstone - The Dream Recall Stone

Use for: Remembering dreams, intuitive dreams, lunar connection
How: Under pillow, wear to bed

Labradorite - The Lucid Dreaming Stone

Use for: Lucid dreaming, astral travel, accessing other realms
How: Under pillow, hold before sleep

Azurite - The Prophetic Dream Stone

Use for: Prophetic visions, psychic dreams, third eye activation
How: On third eye before sleep, under pillow

Clear Quartz - The Amplifier

Use for: Amplifying dream recall and clarity
How: Program for dream work, place under pillow

Lepidolite - The Nightmare Soother

Use for: Peaceful sleep, reducing nightmares, calming dreams
How: Under pillow for gentle, soothing dreams

Dream Rituals

Before Sleep Dream Ritual

1. Cleanse your space with sage or palo santo
2. Place dream crystals under pillow
3. Light a candle (blow out before sleep)
4. Hold crystals and set intention: "I will remember my dreams. I will receive guidance."
5. Write in journal: "Tonight I will dream of..." (specific question or intention)
6. Meditate for 5-10 minutes
7. Sleep

Full Moon Dream Ritual

1. Place crystals in moonlight to charge
2. Write a question for your dreams to answer
3. Place paper under pillow with charged crystals
4. Before sleep, gaze at the moon
5. Ask for dream guidance
6. Record dreams upon waking

Lucid Dreaming Induction Ritual

1. Create a dream altar with labradorite, amethyst, moonstone
2. Light purple or blue candle
3. Meditate on becoming lucid
4. Visualize yourself recognizing you're dreaming
5. Set strong intention
6. Sleep with crystals

Working with Nightmares

Why Nightmares Happen

• Unprocessed trauma or fear
• Stress and anxiety
• Medications or substances
• Sleep disorders
• Spiritual messages (sometimes)

How to Transform Nightmares

1. Face them in lucid dreams:
Become lucid, turn to face the threat, ask what it wants

2. Rewrite the ending:
Upon waking, imagine a different, empowering ending

3. Shadow work:
Journal about what the nightmare represents in your psyche

4. Protection ritual:
Before sleep, visualize white light surrounding you, place black tourmaline under bed

5. Seek help:
Recurring nightmares may need professional support (therapy)

Prophetic Dreams: Seeing the Future

How to Recognize Prophetic Dreams

• Extremely vivid and memorable
• Feel "different" from regular dreams
• Often in color with clear details
• Emotional intensity
• Sense of certainty upon waking

Developing Prophetic Dreaming

1. Keep detailed dream journal
2. Note which dreams come true
3. Before sleep, ask: "Show me what I need to know about the future"
4. Use azurite or amethyst
5. Practice regularly
6. Trust your intuition

Important Note

Not all prophetic dreams are literal. Many are symbolic warnings or possibilities, not fixed futures.

Astral Projection Through Dreams

Some lucid dreams are actually astral projection—your consciousness leaving your body to explore other realms.

Signs You're Astral Projecting

• Vibrations or buzzing sensation
• Feeling of leaving your body
• Seeing your sleeping body
• Visiting real places and later confirming details
• Meeting other astral travelers
• Extreme clarity and vividness

How to Astral Project from Lucid Dreams

1. Become lucid in a dream
2. Set intention to leave your body
3. Visualize floating upward
4. You may experience vibrations
5. Explore the astral plane
6. Return by thinking of your body

Protection: Always set protective intention before astral work. Visualize white light, call on guides, use protective crystals.

The Dream Was a Door

This phrase holds deep truth. Every night, you're given a doorway:

• A door to your subconscious wisdom
• A door to healing and integration
• A door to creativity and inspiration
• A door to spiritual realms
• A door to your authentic self
• A door to infinite possibility

Most people walk past this door every night, never turning the handle. But you—you're learning to not just open the door, but to explore the vast realms beyond it.

Your Dreamwork Practice

Start tonight:

1. Place dream journal and pen by bed
2. Put dream crystals under pillow
3. Before sleep, set intention: "I will remember my dreams"
4. Upon waking, write immediately
5. Do this every night for a week
6. Notice what emerges

Dreamwork is a practice. The more you engage with your dreams, the more they engage with you.

Final Thoughts

You spend roughly one-third of your life sleeping, and a significant portion of that dreaming. That's years of your life spent in the dream realm.

What if you treated those years as sacred? As opportunities for growth, healing, creativity, and spiritual exploration?

What if you stopped dismissing your dreams as "just dreams" and started honoring them as the profound experiences they are?

The dream was a door. And you hold the key.

Welcome to dreamwork. Welcome to the realm beyond waking. Welcome to the infinite landscape of your sleeping mind.

What's your most memorable dream? Do you practice lucid dreaming? I'd love to hear your dream experiences and insights.