Enhancing Your Pagan Practice with Dreamwork.

Dreams have been used as a source of power and self-knowledge since recorded history. In some societies they were, and are, seen as messages from the ancestors and/or Gods and Goddesses foretelling the future. Dreams are used for healing or cultural specific reasons such as the ‘soul retrieval’ techniques used by Shamans in ancient cultures and today in native aboriginal practices throughout the world that pre date the written word. Indeed some of the earliest written words were about dream interpretation, particularly in the ancient Middle Eastern cultures of Egypt and the Assyrian civilization.

When talking about the history of dream interpretation scholars used to think that each of the different civilizations had their own set meanings to certain symbols in dreams. But a recent translation of an ancient papyrus at the University of Cincinnati shows that this may not have been the case. Because ancient Egypt was such a centre for learning, culture, and trade it became a ‘melting pot’ for people from all around the Mediterranean who brought their spiritual beliefs with them. In this papyrus the writer goes into great depth about whether the dream messages are in the language of the local or foreign deities particularly if the person seeking answers is from another culture.

The translated texts suggest that interpreters generally preferred the Egyptian meanings of dreams. These were surprisingly modern in nature, taking in the idea of puns, symbols of the house as the personality, and other interpretation techniques that are used by dream analysts today. Classical Egyptian theology also promoted the idea of the ‘Ba’ and the ‘Ka’ as part of a persons’ energy essences. The Ba equates with the current idea of ‘soul’ and the Ka the slightly denser ‘etheric body’ both of which were capable of leaving the body during sleep. This equates to the idea of astral and etheric projection techniques that are popular with many Pagans today.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art174349.asp