Dream Bibliography

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

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.

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 Hawaii and elsewhere)!

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 , New World Library, 2012.
       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, New World Library, 1998 & 2010.
            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, Jeremy, The Living Labyrinth: Exploring Universal Themes in Myths, Dreams, and the Symbolism of Waking Life, Paulist Press, 1998.

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.

This book is strange, as is much of Wilson’s work. I’ve read it twice now, readings separated by a couple of years, and I got a bit more from it the second time. I spend a lot of time puzzling while reading it. But what I like about it is tantalizing references to dreamwork in classical Sufi literature. I’ll continue reading it every few years.

Bibliography - Books about Dreams and Dreaming