Blue Lotus
The flower of the Egyptian priestesses
from €6.00
TO KEEP YOUR DREAMS
Dream journal: how to keep one, and the herbs of the evening.
A notebook by the bed, a few words on waking, a reread now and then: the dreamer's simplest gesture, and the herbs we drink in the evening to go with it.
A dream leaves with the first movement of the morning, and a notebook holds it.
Dream6 plantsfrom €6.00
Three to start with
Where to begin
The Kichwa of the Amazon tell each other their dreams before dawn, a cup of guayusa in hand; Jung read dreams in series, night after night.
Calea Zacatechichi
The Herb of the Gods
from €7.20
Mexican Tarragon "Yauhtli"
The cloud-herb of the Prince of Flowers
from €7.00
WHAT THE COMMUNITY MURMURSA few feedbacks, after several weeks.
« Fast shipping to Aus. Excellent seller / store, great customer experience. Beautifully packaged. Would highly recommend this seller. Lotus flower is lovely as a cup of tea at night, like camomile on steroids. Love it. Thankyou »
Allywith Blue Lotus « A trustworthy shop. The herbs are fresh and well-packaged, which is crucial for rituals. Delivery is fast and reliable. Thank you so much for the consistent quality. »
La piècewith Calea Zacatechichi
The selection · across the worlds
6 companions for this intention
The path · 4 thresholds
A method.
01
Dream
In the evening
The notebook open at tomorrow's date, a pencil resting on it. A cup of the herb you chose, an hour before sleep, and one sentence for the night: I want to remember my dreams.
02
Dream
On waking
Stay still for a moment, eyes closed, and let an image come back. Then write in the present tense, without sorting: a place, a face, a colour, what you felt. On thin mornings, one word is enough.
03
Dream
A title
Give each dream a title, like a chapter. Titles can be reread at a glance.
04
Dream
Reread
Once a week, or at each new moon, reread the pages. The characters, places and motifs that return show themselves.
How to keep a dream journal
The notebook sleeps by the bed with a pencil, within reach in the dark. On waking, before moving or looking at a screen, write what is left: a scene, a word, a feeling in the body. The present tense helps (“I am walking through a house I don't know”), and a title at the top of the page lets you find the dream again months later.
On mornings when nothing comes back, note the date and the mood you woke in: the page stays open for the next night. Stephen LaBerge, who studied lucid dreaming at Stanford, puts this journal at the very start of the practice: recognising a dream begins with remembering it (Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, 1990).
Rereading your dreams: Jung's dream series
Carl Gustav Jung read dreams in series. In Psychology and Alchemy (1944), he follows a long series of dreams from a single dreamer, the physicist Wolfgang Pauli, and watches motifs return from one night to the next. From 1913, Jung himself recorded his visions in black notebooks, later copied into the Red Book, published in 2009. His dialogue with the figures of the dream: Jung's active imagination.
Rereading your journal does the same at your own scale: underline the places, animals and people that return, and look at the days that came before them.
Sharing dreams: dream groups and dream circles
Among the Kichwa of the Amazon, the wayusa upina begins before dawn: guayusa is drunk around the fire and the night's dreams are told. Among the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), seventeenth-century Jesuit missionaries described dreams told to the village, which the community then helped to fulfil (Robert Moss, Dreamways of the Iroquois, 2005).
The psychiatrist Montague Ullman opened dream groups in the West: a dream is read aloud, each person answers “if it were my dream…”, and the dreamer keeps the last word (Appreciating Dreams, 1996). The journal gives these circles their material.
The herbs that go with the journal
In the evening, a dream herb; on waking, a herb for telling:
- Calea: thle-pela-kano, “the leaf of God”, taken by the Chontal of Oaxaca to receive messages in dreams. It is the herb our dreamers link most often with morning recall.
- Blue lotus: the flower of the Egyptian priestesses, as an evening tea. Several of our dreamers describe more vivid dreams with it.
- Yauhtli: the Mexican tarragon of the Aztecs, yauhtli in Nahuatl, “what is offered”. An evening cup that tastes of anise.
- Undlela Ziimlophe: the root of the ubulawu family which gathers, with Calea, the most lucid-dream accounts among our dreamers.
- Guayusa: on waking, the cup of the wayusa upina. It contains caffeine: a morning plant.
The herbs of dream recall, one by one: herbs to remember your dreams. Towards lucidity: herbs for lucid dreaming.
⊹ FREQUENT QUESTIONS ⊹
The dream journal, question by question
How do you keep a dream journal?
A notebook and a pencil by the bed. On waking, before moving, write in the present tense whatever comes back, even a single image, and give it a title. Once a week, reread the pages: the motifs that return become visible.
Why keep a dream journal?
To keep the dream, which fades fast once you get up. Over the weeks, many dreamers find more dreams in it, and rereading shows the places, people and motifs that return. It is also the first step of lucid dreaming practices.
What did Jung say about keeping a dream journal?
Jung read dreams in series: in Psychology and Alchemy (1944) he follows a long series of dreams from the physicist Wolfgang Pauli. He recorded his own visions in notebooks from 1913, which became the Red Book.
What is a dream circle or dream group?
A group that meets to read dreams aloud. In Montague Ullman's method, each person answers “if it were my dream…”, and the dreamer keeps the last word. Among the Kichwa, the circle meets before dawn, around the guayusa.
What to drink in the evening before writing your dreams?
A dream herb an hour before sleep: Calea, which our dreamers link most often with morning recall, blue lotus or yauhtli as a tea. On waking, guayusa, drunk by the Kichwa before dawn to tell the night.
How long should you keep a dream journal?
As long as you like. Many start with a few weeks, one line each morning. If writing feels heavy, or dreams take up too much room in the day, take a break; the journal waits.
OTHER INTENTIONS · Dream