Tag Archive: dream interpretation


The Green Man

Filed Under: Dreams, Spirits, Strange Phenomena by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on The Green Man

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I’m confused about a strange dream (or OBE) I had. I had never seen apparitions before, but this one was quite clear. I saw a man with green skin who had leaves and vines for hair and all over his body. When I saw him, I was scared and tried to hide by lying down flat. He came toward me and before I shut my eyes tight, I saw his glowing green aura over my shoulder, then I felt him lie down on me. Is he a threat to me or did I misinterpret something? Is the Green Man good or evil?
Nicole

Dear Nicole:

Even people who aren’t familiar with the term the Green Man have probably seen images of him in sculptures and illustrations, which depict a male face emerging from dense foliage. Images of the Green Man can be found in many cultures around the world and traced back to before the dawn of Christianity.

Generally speaking, the Green Man is thought to symbolize rebirth as well as humankind’s connection to nature, as he appears to be something of a hybrid between plants and human beings. He may be a symbol of the interconnectivity of all things, even those that seem on the surface to be unrelated. In this way he may symbolize our spiritual path and how everything happens for a reason and leads us organically to whatever we most need to experience in order to learn and/or fulfill our dreams.

This notion of the Green Man representing the invisible connections between all things is interesting because as a nature spirit, he would exist somewhere between this world and the spirit world. Nature spirits are like hybrids between physical and spiritual beings, composed of substances just beyond the physical realm like plasma or ether.

Your experience sounds like an astral encounter to me, but since you mentioned the possibility that it was a dream, I’ll start there. To interpret this dream, we need to examine your personal associations with the idea of the Green Man before this experience. If you had never heard of him, it’s unlikely this was just a dream. If, however, you had read or heard about him before, then it’s possible that this figure was somehow symbolic. Of course, if you had heard about him before, it’s also possible that some other astral entity took on this form in order to evoke a certain response from you.

Other people have had dreams of the Green Man. In fact, many people dream of him who have never heard of him before, and only learn about his mythical status upon researching his image. I find it fascinating to explore the connections between ancient myths and alternate realities. When people from many different cultures and backgrounds see or believe in the same sort of being, it makes sense to consider that this may be something real in another dimension that may only interact with us when we’re in an altered state of consciousness and able to perceive beyond the normal spectrum of awareness.

Other dimensions are populated by a whole array of fascinating creatures, which is where our myths about elves, fairies, satyrs, unicorns, mermaids, dragons and the like come from. Most ancient cultures, such as those of Greece, Rome, China, Egypt and India, believed wholeheartedly in these mythical creatures. Even many of the world’s great philosophers, such as Plato, Socrates and Paracelsus, were aware of and perhaps guided by non-physical entities. (I’d argue that all great minds are somehow guided by intelligences from beyond this world, but most aren’t consciously aware of where their inspirations come from.)

To one whose consciousness is rooted in the physical, the very idea of nature spirits no doubt seems preposterous. However, there was a time when the idea that tiny invisible monsters were responsible for illness and infection seemed just as ludicrous. Once we developed the ability to see these creatures with our physical eyes, however, they became known as bacteria. So just because we can’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

It is said that at certain times, nature spirits become more visible to the naked eye. Further, to one who seeks connection, who loves nature and is open and sensitive, nature spirits may be sensed intuitively and/or encountered in strange and wondrous ways, either spontaneously or by inducing altered states of consciousness. This is also true of those who actively befriend them, for then the spirits may try to reach through to the physical to interact with us. Further, by looking for them and loving them, we may achieve vibrational harmony with their sphere of existence, and thus open a window of perception into their world.

The most common facilitators of encounters with nature spirits include dreaming, out of body experiences, and drug trips. There are certain hallucinogenic plants that seem to lead to encounters with particular beings. Entheogens are plants that are used as sacred sacraments, and many people who use entheogens report meeting the spirit of the plant, which may be perceived to be a plant god or goddess similar to the Green Man.

During entheogen trips, the Green Man has been known to appear to help people get out of their heads and their bodies in order to explore other realms. In fact, in Sufi and Arab mysticism, hashish was smoked for the express purpose of finding and connecting with the Green Man/Khadir in hopes of accessing the divine mystery. The same sort of thing was practiced by shamans using hallucinogenic mushrooms and plants.

When we consider that all these people are meeting the same strange beings and having the same strange experiences, we’re wise to wonder what is going on, and if perhaps instead of them just imaginingthings, they are indeed opening windows to another objective reality. I like to think that perhaps to beings in other realms, we are like the mythical beings of folklore, and when we meet in the grey space between this world and their realm, they are just as curious about us as we are about them.

As for whether the Green Man is good or evil, I think it’s wise to resist the temptation of simple labels, for this is like asking if human beings are good or evil. Just like people, it’s believed that if you are on the good side of nature spirits, they will help and befriend you. If, however, you abuse their trust and good will, they can turn against you and make you sorry you ever met them.

According to those who have encountered him, the Green Man may feel wild but he doesn’t usually feel threatening. Indeed, many people report feeling strongly drawn to him. Often the Green Man appears to help people in some way or to warn them about something. If you love nature and the Earth, the Green Man may appear to help you. If you’ve become disconnected from nature, he may appear to call you back. Many people have had encounters in dreams, astral projection, and full on waking visions of the Green Man trying to help, reassure or comfort them in some way.

To sort out this experience for yourself, ponder your relationship to nature. Also, examine energies of renewal and rebirth in your life; any incidents that followed this experience that it may have been trying to warn you about; and perhaps most importantly, the interconnections between all your experiences and how they all contribute to and compose your spiritual path.

For some great ways to consciously cultivate friendships with nature spirits, check out this article at realitywalker.com.

– Soul Arcanum

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Receiving Spiritual Guidance via Dreams

Filed Under: Divine Guidance, Dreams by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Receiving Spiritual Guidance via Dreams

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I am a Hindu by religion. Recently sages or ascetics have been appearing in my dreams and preaching some mantras. The problem is that I forget them totally after I awake. What does this indicate?
Dr. Rao

Dear Dr. Rao:

For those who are unfamiliar, in the Hindu tradition it’s considered wise and powerful for spiritual seekers to have a guru (spiritual teacher) to guide them through the twists and turns of the journey to enlightenment. These gurus are usually physically incarnate, but they can also be beings from beyond this dimension.

Whether they are incarnate or not, they may visit their students in dreams and even manifest to them across great distances when they are awake. It’s unclear if they leave their bodies via astral projection to achieve this feat or if they somehow bi-locate. (Great spiritual masters are said to be capable of all sorts of amazing feats, and are known to be highly cryptic when questioned.)

It’s also believed that gurus, sages and ascended masters will sometimes visit a student in his dreams to initiate him into a higher level of spiritual power and experience. This may be achieved by giving the student a special mantra to chant during meditation or by delivering some profound spiritual knowledge/wisdom. This initiation sparks the release of kundalini and thus a new level of spiritual awakening for the student.

A mantra is a word, phrase, or collection of sounds designed to lift one into a higher vibration or achieve a certain aim. Many people are familiar with the mantras Om, and Om mani padme hum. There are many mantras common to certain spiritual paths, such as those of kundalini yoga.

It is said that a mantra that is given to a student by a guru is far more powerful than a common one, for it is personal to the student and is charged with the guru’s divine essence and wisdom. In fact, some say that when the guru gives the mantra to the student by speaking it out loud, the student may be spontaneously awakened at that very moment by its power.

Our dreams reveal much about who we are deep down and where we are spiritually at the time. When we have recurring nightmares, for example, we know that there are some big fears at work deep in our psyches. When we have generally pleasant dreams, it’s a sign that we’re on top of things in our waking lives. Remembering dreams like the ones you describe is unusual, for these are the dreams of a highly developed spiritual seeker.

We all work out problems and receive guidance in our dreams. Most of the time when we dream of spirit guides, we don’t realize that is what’s happening. In our dreams, spirit guides may take the form of another person who tells us where to go or what to do. We may dream of sitting in a classroom, listening intently to a teacher lecture, but not be able to remember anything that was said. (This is entirely different from dreaming that we’re in school again and can’t get our locker open or haven’t done our homework.) Spirit guides may also appear in dreams as doctors, therapists, coaches or healers of some kind. They can even get messages through to us by simply speaking as a disembodied voice or creating a scene we watch in the dream like we might watch a television show.

I believe that the spirit guide many of us experience as a nameless, faceless presence in our minds is often that part of us that remains in the Spirit world – what some may call our own higher self. I also know that we can communicate with our own selves in other times and dimensions; thus our future selves can deliver a message to our current selves and come across as a different individual.

I mention this because I believe the key to consciously accessing spiritual guidance is to trust in our own higher selves/inner wisdom, for this is the bridge between our conscious mind and all that lies beyond this world. I don’t think it really matters whether the guidance we need comes to us from our higher selves, a spirit guide or a guru, or even if these are fundamentally different in nature: the important thing is to be able to work with our experiences in a constructive way.

To draw information from dreams into our waking awareness, we need to create a bridge between the subconscious and the conscious mind. I assume you’re already writing your dreams down as soon as you awake. If not, this is the first thing to try. If you make a habit of this, it will get easier to remember your dreams, and you will also attract more spiritual guidance through them. It’s like telling the Universe: I’m paying attention now, so send more my way!

You can also program yourself before you go to sleep to dream of whatever you want or need at that time. When you close your eyes, affirm that you will not only receive what you’re wanting in your dreams, you will also clearly remember it all when you awake. You may also find it powerful to develop the ability to lucid dream and astral project. This will enable you to visit with spirit guides and gurus and forge a strong bridge between your conscious and subconscious, which will make a far broader range of spiritual insights and experiences available to you.

To consciously access your guide while you’re awake, you need to raise your vibration and then alter your state of consciousness. You can do this most readily via hypnosis or guided meditation. The goal is to make what is subconscious conscious – to bridge the gap between the two. Basically, you will reenter the dream state while maintaining at least a thread of conscious awareness.

As this is tricky, it can be very helpful to have a skilled hypnotherapist guide you. The therapist can then ask you questions and record your answers should you not be able to remember what you experienced when you are brought back to full conscious awareness. If I were working with you as a hypnotherapist, I would guide you into a very deep trance, into a dream within a dream within a dream. Once you were there, I’d have you recall the dream in which you received the mantra, and simply ask you, If you could remember the mantra, what would it be? If that failed, I’d dialogue directly with the spirit guide through you.

Your own higher self can guide you to what you’re seeking, but to do this, you must get into a high vibration and then let your conscious mind step aside and your intuition take over. If I were you, I’d get into a high vibration via yoga and meditation and then just begin to tone. Start by vocalizing an Ahhhhh sound, and then let your voice just open up. (It’s best to do this when you’re home alone, so you don’t feel inhibited.) Allow your voice to shift as it will, and any pitches, words or sounds to just flow out. As you relax and open up, you’ll find that something begins to shift your voice without you being consciously aware that it is going to happen, and soon you’ll be repeating tones, melodies, words and phrases, which may lead you to the perfect mantra for you.

Finally, it’s wise to trust in our experiences – even the blocks that frustrate us. There is a reason why we remember some things and not others. So if you can’t remember this mantra for now, it may be that you’re doing work in your dreams that you’re not meant to be doing yet in waking life. At the same time, you can trust that your keen desire to remember is leading you somewhere, so keep pursuing this – just do so with trust that you will have what you desire when the time is right for you.

– Soul Arcanum

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Dreams of Future Life Reunions

Filed Under: Dreams, Karma, Past Lives by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Dreams of Future Life Reunions

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
Dear Soul Arcanum:

I have been separated from my husband for two and a half years, but I still frequently dream of him coming back. In these dreams, instead of asking, he just walks back into my house and my life. I find myself angry and resentful about that, as I can’t tell him to go since I know the children want him there. I’ve had this dream frequently, with the story changing only slightly. In the most recent dreams, he comes back with his new wife’s children, the youngest of which is his own biological child. (In real life, they don’t have any children yet.) What is most upsetting is that I have these dreams when I pray to have good dreams that night. I can’t figure out why this is happening, as I don’t want him to come back because we are happier now that he’s gone. Many thanks! – Michelle

Dear Michelle:

This is a very common type of recurring dream, especially in people who have been separated or divorced. Whenever we end a major relationship, it’s normal to continue to dream about that person, which can be a bit unsettling.

Many people dream of their ex-spouses more than they dream of their current partners, especially when some big transition has taken place. For example, those who are newly divorced, who have just begun to date again, or are recently remarried tend to dream about their exes a lot. This only makes sense because there are all sorts of repressed feelings and issues that need to come to the surface to be processed, healed and released.

This is the common psychological explanation for what you’re experiencing, but there is a higher metaphysical purpose behind these recurring dreams as well. While they are guiding you to heal and resolve the painful feelings and issues you’ve carried from the end of your marriage, the reason you’re being nudged to do this goes beyond your well-being in this lifetime. Your soul is urging you to realize that this relationship is not really over and never will be, for you two have a timeless spiritual bond and a lot of work to do in clearing up the karma between you.

I strongly feel these dreams are foreshadowing that your ex will indeed come back into your experience – in future lives. Further, you can’t prevent this from happening, but you can work on making it the most positive experience possible for all concerned. The main thing to realize is that where you pick up with him next time around will depend on how you leave things this lifetime.

In fact, what you experience in a future life with him will be very similar to what you experienced in this life unless you make a conscious effort to create something different. Our unconscious minds are ever prompting us to repeat the same experiences time after time until we see the light and resolve old psychic wounds and issues. As a result, many people struggle with the same troubling relationships or problems lifetime after lifetime until they find the wisdom and strength to create something better.

Many of our most painful relationships are rooted past life issues that were never worked through, healed and resolved. By contrast, many relationships between soul mates that seem easy, loving and rewarding for both partners arise from past life bonds in which the partners worked very hard to make their connection the best it could be.

In your dreams you know that your children want your ex there because on some level you know that their spiritual relationship to him is just as strong as yours, though most likely it is more pleasurable in nature. Since we reincarnate with the same people over and over again, to be with your children in other incarnations, you will also have to deal with your ex – even when you’re not directly pursuing growth and healing in your personal relationship to him.

It’s also highly likely that you have a strong karmic connection to his new wife and perhaps their past and future children. This only make sense, since he is obviously very central to your own journey, and anyone who is very central to his journey may have been in your own past lives.

For example, I have memories of being my husband’s ex-wife’s sister in a past incarnation, and sense that we may have an even deeper history together than my husband and I share. If you think about how people come into each other’s experience lifetime after lifetime, it only makes sense that this would happen. I always find it fascinating to meet the friends and family of people I sense I have known in other lives, for there are frequently all sorts of intense connections to be discovered.

I recently had the wonderful experience of facilitating healing in the relationship between my husband and his ex, and in large part, I was able to motivate them to reach for forgiveness by explaining to them that they would be together again in future lives and would pick up right where they left off. Since they both experienced tremendous emotional pain and suffering as a result of their relationship, they were both highly motivated to reach for something higher.

Also, despite what people may tell themselves, the pain of destructive relationships does not end with the break-up; it is just pushed aside until healing can occur. So while my husband and his ex believed they were happier apart, in fact, in the decades since the end of their marriage, both continually struggled with all sorts of heartaches, conflicts and dramas on both an inner and outer level as a direct result of all the anger and bitterness they carried for each other.

This is because deep psychic bonds don’t begin with a marriage ceremony or end with a divorce decree: they have an eternal life of their own. When people realize that relationships never truly end, they realize how wise it is to work on healing them and making them the best they can be.

It’s interesting to me that you’re getting these dreams when you pray to have good dreams that night. It seems your inner being is trying to tell you that if you want to have happier experiences now and in the future, then you must first work on healing and transforming whatever is heaviest, most painful, or darkest in your life. These dreams are showing you that the most powerful thing you can do to create new happiness in your life is to find a way to make peace with your ex.

After deeply painful experiences, it’s normal to feel like we need some time before we can forgive, and that’s fine – we are always free to do as we desire. However, it helps to know that until we heal the pain of the past, it will hold us back from fulfilling our highest dreams for peace, love and happiness.

We are led back time and time again to whatever is heaviest for us because that also happens to be the most powerful thing we could work on. When we summon the strength and the courage to tackle our darkest fears and heal our deepest wounds, we also tap into our greatest power to create big changes in our lives.

When the time is right and you feel ready, open your heart, mind and spirit to the possibility of truly healing this relationship. If you come from a place of humility, compassion, tolerance, honesty, integrity and faith, you will set yourself free to enjoy a much brighter future than your past in both this incarnation and all the other lives ahead of you.

– Soul Arcanum

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