These are books
that, for the most part, I find seminal, inspiring,
and worth reading or consulting often, or at least
once in awhile. The notes are quite
subjective. Make up your own mind and heart
about them.
The front cover of
this book says “Discover how life speaks to you each day to
help you reach success and happiness”.
Working with this book, one learns to notice the
correspondences between sleeping dreams and things that
happen in waking “dream”. Then
one can go further and actually create “keys”, inviting
Life, Spirit, to give us messages using keys that we will
recognize. Powerful stuff! It’s out of print, but copies are
available on the Internet.
Bryant, Dorothy, The Kin of Ata Are Waiting for
You, Moon Books/Random House, 1971.
This
is a novel, but not really. It’s my favorite book on
dreams and dreaming, to say nothing of community and the
evolution of the human family. Ms. Bryant has said
that it came like a channeling from an emerging feminine
consciousness. I read it every year. (When you
first begin, you’ll think it’s a mistake and this is
really a Mickey Spillane novel, but do persevere.)
Cunningham, Scott, Dreaming the Divine:
Techniques for Sacred Sleep, Llewellyn Publications,
1991.
Scott
Cunningham was a prolific writer, creating more than 40
books in the area of Wicca and neo-paganism, despite the
fact that he died in his late 30s. This book gives a
history of dream incubation in ancient cultures and other
interesting stuff, but the reason it stays in my library
is for the chapters on “Preparing for Sacred Sleep” and
“Dream Rituals”. Rituals are powerful, and since
they partake of a common “world” with dreams and dreaming,
they are especially useful. I like to read his
suggestions for inspiration and then craft my own rituals.S
Jung, Carl, Memories, Dreams, Reflections,
Pantheon Books, 1961.
This
book is very special to me. At a very difficult time
in my life, when I was urgently seeking sources of a
deeper meaning, my then husband Gary was walking down
Irving Street in San Francisco and passed by a
bookstore. He saw this book in the window and felt
compelled to stop. The old woman who ran the shop
caught his eye and nodded, and motioned him to come
inside. He told her he was drawn to buy the book for
me, and she nodded again. He bought it, and it’s
been a companion of mine ever since; it’s now 38 years
later, and I still feel drawn to re-read it from time to
time. This is Jung’s spiritual autobiography.
He inspires me with his courage to explore the
unconscious, the inner life, and awes me with the amazing
psychic experiences he had.
Karcher, Stephen, Total I
Ching: Myths for Change, Time Warner Books, 2003.
I've
been consulting the I Ching for decades, and from time to
time have experimented with using versions other than the
classic Wilhelm version. Nothing ever ended up being
as profound and useful. Then along came this one,
thanks to Caroline Casey (about whom elsewhere).
Now I use them side by side, and actually spend more time
with the Total I
Ching. It's powerful, wise, and deep, and
incorporates several classical Chinese approaches to the
oracle, from different time periods. If you
consulted it on every dream you have, you'd have to quit
your day job, because there's so much material. But
I use it when those blockbuster dreams, or ones that are
particularly puzzling, come along. The question
might be "What is this dream trying to tell me?"
Enjoy!
LaBerge, Stephen, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise
Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and inYour Life,
Sounds True, 2004.
Lucid
dreaming.
I have had only one lucid dream in my life, and it must be
that Taurean stubbornness (ascendant) that keeps me trying. I still
say my affirmation every night that “I will know that I’m
dreaming while I’m dreaming”. It hasn’t happened
yet. I try not to be jealous of my fellow dreamers
who routinely have lucid dreams. But if anything
would help, this book would. It comes with a CD of
visualizations and inductions. I would love to
attend one of LaBerge’s lucid dreaming intensives,
satisfaction guaranteed; if only he would just do one in
an ordinary place where the price is lower than it is in
Paradise (read posh resorts in
I
discovered Robert Moss' work a few years ago, and it has
transformed my own personal dream practice as well as my
teaching and participation in dream groups. This is
his basic text, a really essential guide to working with
dreams and bringing their power into everyday life.
Moss, Robert, The Three 'Only' Things,Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence, and
Imagination, New World Library, 2009.
Three
wonderful keys to a rich, full life connected to Spirit
are often discounted: "Oh, it's only a dream, it's only
coincidence, it's only your imagination." This
book is about all three, and reading it inspired me and
awakened me more fully to the power of these three
footprints of the Divine (that's what they seem like to
me anyway). Very highly recommended.
Moss, Robert, Dreaming
the Soul Back Home ,
Powerful stuff, this.
It's a dreamworker's approach to the shamanic
practice of soul recovery. When dreams show us
parts of ourselves that
have been lost, we can re-enter the
dreams to
reconnect with what are often the most creative and
joyous aspects of ourselves,
frightened away in the face
of trauma or deprivation. Try it, you'll like
it!
Moss, Robert, Dreamgates:
Exploring the Worlds of Soul, Imagination, and Life
Beyond Death,
This is far-out stuff, and
gives a lot of seminal ideas about what we can
do with our dream life, and the dimensions we
can visit and
effect.
Moss, Robert, The
Secret History of Dreaming, New World
Library, 2009.
This book is about
how the dreams of great leaders,
inventors, artists, and scientists, to
name a few, have influenced the course
of human
history.
Reed, Henry, Dream Medicine: Learning How to
Get Help from Our Dreams, We Publish Books, 2005.
Henry
Reed is a dreamwork pioneer who brings a very personal and
artistic approach to the process. One of the
chapters of this book is entitled “Dreams Are a Theater
Experience”. Lots of specific suggestions here for
working with dreams using art, inspirational writing – and
dream pillows.
Reed, Henry, Dream Solutions, Dream
Realizations: the Original Dream Quest Guide Book ,
Self-published, 1989.
This
guidebook preceded Dream Medicine. I
have used it many times; it’s sub-subtitle is “A 28-Day
Experiment in Dream Incubation”. There are four
writing meditations, each to be done after a week of
incubating and recording dreams, in search of inspiration
and guidance for a particular issue or problem in one’s
life. I highly recommend it. I see on the
Internet that there’s a newer edition, 2005.
Available through Amazon and other Internet
booksellers.
Shainberg, Catherine, Kabbalah and the Power of
Dreaming: Awakening the Visionary Life, Inner
Traditions, 2005.
Catherine
Shainberg studied for many years with Colette Simhah
Aboulker-Muscat, a great Israeli teacher of
Kabbalah. This is a “do it!” book: full of exercises
for developing skills to be a strong dreamer. To
really receive the benefits of this book, the exercises
must be done; it’s a serious commitment.
Taylor
Really good stuff
providing depth of context in which to work with our dreams,
from my longtime friend, teacher, and fellow dreamworker
extraordinaire. It helps with a
deeper understanding of archetypes and what they have to do
with dreaming and living.
Taylor, Jeremy, The Wisdom of Your Dreams: Using Dreams to Tap into Your Unconscious and
Transform Your Life,
Tarcher, 2009.
This
is an update on Jeremy's classic Where People Fly and
Water Runs Uphill. Wise, helpful, essential.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas of
Dream and Sleep, Snow Lion Publications, 1998.
I must confess that I
haven’t gotten very far with this book yet, but I’m
recommending it because I have received so much wisdom from
Rinpoche’s book on the elements (Healing with
Form, Energy, and Light: The Five Elements in Tibetan
Shamanism, Tantra, and Dzogchen). I sip this one.
Wilhelm, Richard, The I
Ching or Book of Changes, Princeton University
Press, 1977.
This
is THE version of the I Ching, which I now work with
in tandem with the Total I Ching (see Karcher
above). 'Nuff said.