In our dreams we hold the blueprint to alter the course of our day, and ultimately the destiny of our planet. Our night visions are the catalyst for what we see in the daylight.
Graywolf here, for as far back as I can remember, I have always been a huge fan of my imagination, and all the altered states it could drop me into, night, or day. I have always loved dreaming in all its forms, especially the vivid, visceral experience of what I discovered at a young age was called lucid dreaming, and the absolutely magical experience of astral travel.
I really was the kid who lived in his imagination and the world I lived in was a lot of the time, a pretty crazy party zone of real and imaginary (real for me) forces.
So, it will not surprise you too much, that I totally flipped my lid when I came across the range of Active Dreaming books written by Robert Moss. Here was a practical guide, crafted from Robert’s own insatiable drive and love for ancient and modern wisdom, shamanic tradition, psychology, myth, quantum science, and spirituality – a simple daily, and nightly, practice to support becoming a Dreamweaver. I was hooked!
Robert’s teachings are highly recommended if you are seeking to harness the potential of your dream experiences, for your growth and discovery.
You are born to fly, and in dreams you remember
the soul has wings. 
—Robert Moss
Becoming active in our dream time opens a gateway to our deepest self where we can use our dreams to navigate and manifest our life more consciously. By mastering our dreams and honing our ability to seek, collect, and weave together the threads our dreams reveal, we raise our awareness, and integrate more of our conscious and unconscious states, so we can live a more holistic existence. There is a butterfly effect to this that we may never truly realise the impact of, for ourselves and the world around us.
When we choose to open a gateway into the dream realms we discover a profound opportunity for personal transformation. This practice illuminates the healing path, resolves inner conflicts, and reveals our life’s purpose. It’s a powerful method for aligning with our true essence and manifesting our true potential in the waking world.
I have seen and felt the effects of this work individually and in small groups. I get very inspired and excited when I imagine a Global network of dream weaving councils, all working to heal, expand and create great change in the world by actively bringing into balance the forces of our majestic imaginations whether we are asleep or awake.
Engaging the dreamscape collectively, we can gain access to universal insights and inspire a wave of enlightened solutions for peace, abundance and sustainability across cultures, marking a significant shift in how humanity confronts its greatest challenges.
Thank you Alis
Firstly I would like to offer a deep bow of honour and gratitude to Alis Anagnostakis, who introduced us to Robert’s work after training with him to become a facilitator of the Active Dreaming method. I am currently working through the online version of this course.
Alis has a Masters in Positive Psychology applied to leadership, and went onto complete completed a Ph.D. exploring transformative learning and leaders’ vertical development, She is a top shelf space holder and curator, a student of consciousness, an executive coach (PCC) and founder of the Vertical Development Institute, developing wiser, more conscious leaders.
I learned so much from Alis about the Active Dreaming processes and about how to curate space, and about shamanic drumming, which is the primary medicine tool used in this work.
Thank you.
Dream Weaving Basics
We collaborated with Alis to co-create and curate Dream Weaving ceremonial workshops offering participants all the basic principles and techniques of Active Dreaming as well as a number of guided dream experiences.
Each participant had to keep an active dream journal for a minimum 2 week duration before coming and this was used as our primary source during the workshop.
The Lightning Dreamwork Game
During the workshop, we all learned and practiced the Lightning Dreamwork Game – a short, simple process for sharing your dreams in a group of two or more. In Robert’s words, “It is a fun way to share dreams, get some non-authoritarian and non-intrusive feedback, and move toward creative action.”
Here is a link to Robert’s blog explaining the steps of the game:
https://mossdreams.blogspot.com/2020/02/lightning-dreamwork-is-enlightening.html
One of the things I love about this game, which was a profound shift for me once it sunk in, is in the step where you offer the dreamer feedback on their dream. Here, Robert stresses to always preface whatever you say with, “If it was my dream, I…” and keep everything you share in the I, from your own perspective. In my course, on this subject, he remarks how it takes practice, as a lot of people will begin with “I” statements in the first sentence or two, however they quickly cross over to “You need to…” or worse, “I think/feel that you should…”
No one can tell you what your dream means to you!
We recognize that the only experts on dreams are the dreamers themselves. We uphold the dreamer as the final authority on the meaning of his or her dreams.
—Robert Moss
Everything I had ever read about the study of dreams up until this point was always someone’s analysis of the dream; telling me what every aspect of my dream means, or worse, just a list of things you might dream about with what each one means. This sabotages our ability to lean into, intuitively, what is being communicated, by us, to us. And it doesn’t have to be a big story, or even able to be captured in words, some dreams are pure feeling and subtle shades, the important thing is what did it make you feel? And how can you integrate that into your waking experience?
The beauty of hearing others offer their version of what it means to them is there can be real nuggets of insight in what they share, that lead you to investigate further for yourself, without any pressure for you to take on their version as yours.
This was an important step in my understanding of the sovereign power of my own truth. How I can to be accepting of another’s truth, honouring them when their insights influence and enhance my truth, without blindly taking their truth on as my own.
Dream Re-entry
Defined by Robert as, “the practice of making a conscious journey back inside a dream in order to clarify information, dialogue with a dream character, or move beyond nightmare terrors into healing and resolution.”
First we practised this individually, each person choosing a dream from their journal that wished to re-enter. The shamanic drum carried us into the dreamtime and we had our experiences. splitting into pairs and threes for another round of the Lightning game to support integrating our experience.
We had a break for lunch and continued to discuss what had happened during the morning. For me, it was so empowering to not only return into a dream scene I had previously dreamed, but also, to be lucid, able to choose what to do and interact, and enact to some degree, I am sure it gets easier with practice, but strange stuff still happens and things rarely go how you plan in dreams and I try to go with the flow.
Robert talks into this in much detail in his courses, on the importance of identifying the things that “hold juice” for us as this is where the opportunities are, the knowledge, wisdom, creative sparks, as well as the healing. the juicy things are also the things that scare us, the nightmares – which Robert frames are interrupted dreams, where we bailed out when it gets too much. He is passionate about the Shaman’s work in soul recovery and how it can be achieved in this work. He sees it as our sovereign duty to face our fears in our dreams and find a way through to acceptance and transmutation of whatever the scary things are, for in his experience, they always reveal his greatest teachings and healings.
He also shares that we don’t have to do it alone, organising dream weaving groups so the space can be held for each person as they journey to face their fears. Holding space in both the physical world and in the liminal; which brings us to the next level of dream re-entry we experienced at the workshop with Alis – doing it as a group!
Dream Re-entry – as a group
We split into groups of 4 or 5. In each group we went around the circle and quickly shared the dream we would like to re-enter and why. The group then selected one person we would support by all holding the intention of entering their dream as we dropped into the beat of the drum.
In my group we chose a young woman who was having recurring nightmare set in her bedroom and was looking to break the cycle of it.
I did not have the experience of actually meeting anyone from my group in the dream realm, though others did. I definitely entered the space described and meet the dog she had mentioned. This dream was a recurring nightmare that ended with the entire building being crushed by a bigger building – and that is exactly how it played out for me and others, but not all.
We came back and quickly journaled our experience and then used the Lightning game to share. It was astounding how many details we each shared of the space which were confirmed as correct by the dreamer, though she had not described some of these in such detail, or at all. The single most noodle bending thing was the dreamer had indeed mentioned her dog was in the room and the dog’s name; but not its breed or colouring. All of us shared that we had meet a black Labrador retriever in that dream.
The Dreamer shared that she felt very safe during her experience and was very grateful for this as a step toward her coming to terms with whatever the nightmare represented for her.
Practice makes us better at what we practice. These experiences have re-ignited in me the magical connection I had with my imagination and dream worlds as a child. I am ready to explore more, lean into juicy, scary things, and honour what I am shown by integrating the experience into my waking world.
Which brings me to the fourth and final move of the Lightning Dreamwork game…Honouring the dream.
Robert recognises some crucial questions to ask the dreamer, or for dreamers to ask themselves, once they are awake and reflecting on their dream time experiences.
What are you going to do now?
What action will you take to honour this dream or work with its guidance?
Journal it!
Journaling as soon as you can after waking is the best way to capture your dreams, just let it come out, some will be full stories, with characters and settings and so much to describe, while others will be vague, muted, fast and fleeting, and others will just be a feeling, or even an echo of a feeling.
Regardless of what has lingered, capture it somehow, words, symbols, colour, scribble, just express it with the intention of capturing the feelings it invoked and if you can what elements of the dream invoked what feeling. Anything that really strikes you, sticks with you, these are the ‘juicy’ bits I mentioned before and these are the sign posts into a deeper understanding.
Record the date for each dream entry in your journal, and the time, if known and significant e.g. when doing re-entry sessions in the day. Also come up with a unique title for each dream, get creative, like the titles of books, movies, or the chapters in an ongoing series if you have experiences that run over the course of multiple dreams.
What are you going to do now?
What action will you take to honour this dream or work with its guidance?
Harvest the Juice and plant the seeds
Find the ‘juicy’ things from your dream and do something to bring them into your day. If you dreamt about cooking some delicious cookies, then get baking and use the process to drop into the feeling this invoked for you. If you dreamed about swimming, then get in the water.
When it is more of a feeling or vague sensation, try to create a way to invoke that feeling throughout your day, so you can continue to express it and release it, be mindful if it is a negative or aggressive energy, that you find a way to express this that does not distress or harm anyone. You want to invoke the feeling enough to let it out and then sit with whatever comes up, more feelings, memories, words, thoughts as well as any noticeable pain, blocks, or newly flowing energies in our body, mind, spirit.
If you can, find one or more people who are journaling, and play the Lightning Dreamwork game with them on a regular basis.
Sweet dreams are made of this.
—Annie Lennox
There are no rules here, except those you create your self. See this as a lifetime, daily cycle and keep playing with it.
Let your nightly dreams produce the seeds you plant in the waking world and vice versa, so your entire life becomes a bountiful harvest of your finest creations.
“Today was a day filled with magic and playfulness. A day for the heart. A day when we invited hard reason to take a break and imagination and playfulness to step in. My first chance to drum for a group in an active dreaming workshop in Australia, in a beautiful location, in the midst of nature, on sacred land that belonged to many generations of dreaming aboriginal people whose energies can still be felt today.
Thank you, Karen and Mark for bringing us together and planting the seeds for another community of conscious dreamers.
And thank you, Robert Moss, for bringing dreaming into my life and for teaching me and so many others how to dream together a world that is a wiser, more conscious and compassionate place. You were in our minds, hearts and dreams today.
It is one of my dreams that, before long, you’ll be drumming with us here too. Feeling grateful.
Alis Anagnostakis
In loving service 
