Using Dream Tools to Interpret Outer Events

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Guest Post by David Rivinus

The home of a woman named Ann abuts a wilderness area. She is used to wildlife. But even she was startled when, one balmy afternoon, while she was enjoying a tall glass of iced tea in her garden, she looked up in time to watch a mature bald eagle land on a tree branch not ten feet away from where she was sitting.

At first she was stunned; she was rendered breathless; she couldn’t believe her eyes. But, by the time she contacted me for another perspective, she had become the opposite: unable to stop her nearly manic chatter. 

“I know it’s a sign!” she bubbled.

“I know exactly what it means; it happened because I’m supposed to help wildlife, especially birds.” There was a split-second pause, and then, “Or maybe it’s telling me that a celestial happening—like some great phenomenon—is going to come into my life soon.” … “Do you suppose this was an angelic being?” … “Or maybe I was an eagle in my last life?” Another split-second pause. “What do you think?”

“I think…you need to…slow……down.”

There is no question that our deepest, most profound insights come as simple, quiet “knowing-nesses.” These insights are like gifts that are subtly inserted into our thoughts while we are calmly minding our own business. But for them to be accurate, and consequently, useful to us, we must be ready and open to accept them. 

We also need to ensure that our own ”suds” level is as close to zero as we can possibly make it. Even then, as Thakar Singh, the great master of the Sant Mat school would say, “Test! Test! Test your insights before you accept them as truth!”

Clearly, Ann was not in a space to do that. And it has been my experience, after working with people and their dreams for many years, that most of us, when we have a powerful dream, are quietly—or in Ann’s case—dramatically, shaken out of contemplative space. Whether we are dealing with a typical “nighttime” dream, or the kind of daytime experience—called a waking dream—like Ann’s, the experience is insisting on our attention, and it achieves its goal by jolting us.

For us, then, to try and thoughtfully interpret these kinds of phenomena is all but impossible. We simply get caught in the emotional charge of the moment and temporarily lose our ability to search deeply within. This is where the tools offered to us in our more mundane lives can be invaluable.

Interpreting an Outer Event as You Would a Dream 

For dreams, these tools consist of a linguistic process of translation. While dreams are extraordinarily multifaceted, it has been my experience that the best place to begin the search for the dream’s message is in the language of metaphor. It’s a simple process—although not always easy. When I work with dreams, I quietly ask the dreamer to tell me about each of the dream’s symbols. Like this:

“So, Ann, tell me about your garden!”

“It’s my place of refuge; where I go to seek quiet and peace.”

“How about iced tea?”

“It’s refreshment; temporary renewal.”

“Tell me about bald eagles landing nearby.”

“Oh my God! I still can’t believe it happened!”

“OK. But tell me about it.”

“I think eagles are amazing. Masterful. Really, like masters themselves. This encounter brought me such a sense of awe, and then peace. I almost stopped breathing for a while.”

Ann had worked with me before, so she knew the next step: I was going to tell her incident back to her. But I would do so using her descriptions instead of her original words:

“I’m occupying the place within myself that is my refuge. I am refreshing myself; it’s like a renewal. Unexpectedly, I am visited by a part of me that is masterful—really like the master that lives inside of me. I was in awe at first, and then I felt such peace; I almost stopped breathing for a while.”

An Opening Door

The change that came over Ann, as she listened to my retelling of her experience, was notable. It’s a transformation I have witnessed countless times. She became centered, still, inward. And all I had done was repeat her own words back to her. But those words opened a door inside of her and gave her clear access to the place within that had been blocked by her own excitement.

Here is what she told me: Ann is an artist, and she had been exploring new and unusual media. This was the present focus of her life. She was working in ways that were atypical for her, and her colleagues were fearful that she would damage the reputation and public image she had worked so long and hard to build. 

She had almost accepted their concerns and abandoned her pursuit. But she was distressed and torn by this possibility. 

Her art is her “refuge”—symbolized in her waking dream by her garden. Just knowing that her inner master was with her in this space—astonishingly close—was all she needed to bolster her confidence and continue her artistic quest, critics aside. She left our session at great peace and with equal purposefulness.

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I could not count the number of times I have seen this very change come about with dreamers, even those who have been working with their dreams for years. And for those who do gain instantaneous (and accurate) insight into a dream’s message, they are often startled to realize how much more they take away from a dream when they go through this simple process.

To put this into perspective: Your guru may be adept at navigating the worlds within. She may traverse the whole universe and sit at the throne of God on a nightly basis. But I’ll bet you a cup of coffee that when she gives her annual address to her assembled followers, she arrives at the venue in the totally prosaic, lower-world conveyance of a car. 

Similarly, she may communicate instantly and constantly via the inner planes. But I know she also spreads her great wisdom through the equally rudimentary language of the spoken and written word.

We, on the lower planes, have many obstacles to negotiate our way past. Why not use the tools that are available to us? Tools are neither good nor bad. They simply are. It is up to us to employ them foolishly or for the sake of wisdom. 

My approach is always to try and take advantage—judiciously—of every possibility that comes my way. And it has been my experience that this combination of all available methods is the approach that brings the most thorough and profound results in dreams.

The author of the book Always Dreaming, David Rivinus has been teaching and facilitating classes and seminars on metaphysical topics for several decades. His specialty is dream interpretation, and he offers group and individual sessions both online and in his home town on the Oregon coast. He can be reached at [email protected].