Wisdom of Sleep
Why sleep is important for the healing journey, the body’s natural detoxification function, and the ability to precognitive dream.
Precognitive Dreaming and Lucid Dreaming
Some months ago, I purchased Precognitive Dreamwork and the Long Self, Interpreting Messages From Your Future by Eric Wargo. It was suggested by my favorite luminous podcaster and necromancer Douglas Batchelor in his What Magic is This? Podcast. It came at a perfect time for me, because I suddenly developed an intense bout of insomnia for months. This was upsetting because every element of sleeping and dreaming are my favorite aspects of being a human being. Not to mention, I was exhausted, grouchy, and irritated at everything.
What Magic is This? Podcast
The Timely Ideas of Eric Wargo, with guest Eric Wargo
Observing your dreams aids in the ability of divination, which Wargo believes everyone is capable of. One piece of advice he gives is to begin a dream journal, and frequently refer back to it. He details that our intuition does not abide by the natural rules of time, and that our future-selves will send messages of certain experiences back to us in the form of dreams. It does not have to make sense today, tomorrow, or next week, but it might sometime in the future when you need it the most. Wargo lists a number of “Principles of Dreamwork”, and among them is Principle #4, which spoke to me so powerfully:
“Dreams build future towers out of past bricks”
Personally, I have always experienced lucid dreaming and precognitive dreaming. Having these abilities felt like a personal power of mine. Lucid dreaming is a type of dream in which you know you are dreaming, and you have the ability to change the plot of your dream. Precognitive dreaming is having a dream of something that comes true later in your waking life. However, after reading Precognitive Dreamwork and the Long Self, my biggest regret is not paying closer attention to all of my dreams- even seemingly inconsequential ones. Once I started journaling my dreams, I saw small connections to my everyday life. Most importantly, my dreams started to speak to me, and offered advice and inspiration. I’ve once heard that once you pay attention to your dreams, even just by writing them down, your dreams take on a “sentient-like” property, and begin involving you in the dream process.
The Power of Sleep and Sleep Rituals
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I struggle with chronic pain and hormonal imbalances due to Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and adenomyosis. In frantically researching ways to heal myself, I came across a gift from the universe in the form of Bailey Haddad’s She Sync’s PCOS Reversal Program. I intend on writing more about how this ever-evolving, information-dense, and inclusive program saved my life in the near future. However, I want to focus on what Haddad comments about sleep and how it should take priority no matter what, but especially when balancing hormones:
“Sleep literally allows you to clear your mind. Recent studies have shown that the space between your brain cells may increase during sleep, along with the amount of cerebrospinal fluid circulating through the brain and nervous system. Scientists have found that brain cells may actually shrink during sleep, making it easier for fluid to circulate. In doing so, waste proteins that accumulate during waking hours and are toxic to the brain can be flushed out. When your brain is running in high gear, it’s not as efficient during this “toxin flush” process.”
Furthermore, in her Chapter “Make Sleep A Priority” in the PCOS Lifestyle Guide, she expresses that eating a little bit of honey before bed is beneficial to the function of the brain while sleeping:
“During sleep, the brain uses a lot of fuel in the form of stored sugar called glycogen. If there isn’t enough fuel in the body (for example, during sleep when you’re not eating), your brain uses liver glycogen before resorting to muscle supplies; as such, giving your body a bit of extra sugar before sleep helps to keep brain activity at a steady level throughout the night. Try having a ½ teaspoon of honey with a sprinkle of sea salt 15–20 minutes before bedtime. The honey helps to restock liver glycogen, while sea salt provides trace minerals that promote relaxation and get you into that deep, restorative sleep.”
After reading this chapter, I realized that sleep should take precedence, and could possibly be the easiest and most natural way to support healing from my chronic condition. Think of it as “low-hanging fruit” of healing. Moreover, I saw how sleep cycles support dreams, especially precognitive ones. I set out to establish a Sleep Ritual. After months of dedication to my ritual, I began to notice tiny differences right away in my mood. Most importantly, my dreams were rich and vibrant like they used to be when I was a kid, which made journaling them pleasant. Sleeping became fun again, which relieved me from insomnia, as well as all its additional symptoms and side effects. Now, I feel like I enter another realm, where my soul gets to explore, have adventures, and gain insight from a source of wisdom not found in real life.
For the Ancient Greeks and Romans, sleeping specifically to dream was so important. For them, they would seek the advice from Gods to help gain insight for divination, healing, problem solving, and inspiration for creativity. In fact, they would have sanitariums for healing and purification. In these sanitariums, the sick would be given herbs like datura and henbane, which would induce sleep and aid in vivid precognitive dreaming. They would often awaken from these dreams with insight on how to cure themselves. It was said that a God would approach them in the dream, and reveal the formula to heal from their specific ailment. The dreamer would then go to the Priest-Healer, and convey the message. The Priest-Healer would be the one to administer the unique God-given recipe to the patient, all while praying to the God that gifted the insight in the dream. The ancients believed that dreaming was just another part of the soul’s adventure, and that we journey to another realm while we sleep.
I truly cannot express how sacred sleep is. Not only do our bodies heal while we sleep, but we can find ways to heal from the wisdom we gain during dreaming. If we are to call ourselves magicians, we should approach the bedroom like a literal altar of sleep, divination, and receiving wisdom from a higher realm. I encourage you to get creative with your bedroom space, and find ways to generate an environment that supports sleep, dreaming, and journeying while sleeping. Discover things that bring ease and relaxation. This could be anything from essential oils, crystals, string lights, drapery, certain colors of bed sets, incense, music, weighted blankets, fuzzy shag rugs, and decoration. Don’t forget that simply cleaning helps clear the stale energy of a room. Never underestimate the power of cleansing and decorating your bedroom [ or any room for that matter ]! The act of the adorning of the ritual is such a crucial and overlooked step in magic. For example, when I lived in a small apartment in America, I put up string lights and hung sheer, shimmery pieces of fabric from the ceiling. The string lights would pulsate very slowly, making a hypnotic effect. The light bounced off of the glitter in the fabric, making a very magical atmosphere. At the foot of my bed, I had a tiny altar dedicated to Neptune. In astrology, Neptune rules Fantasy, Dreams, Imaginary Realms, and Illusions. I also loved to sleep in fluffy and bold-colored bed sheets. Color is very important for me when doing anything, but especially drifting off to imaginary realms. In that apartment, I had the most profound dreaming experiences, ever. I remember when my husband flew in to visit me from the UK, he kept mentioning how the room was captivating. Now that we have a house together, my husband wants to put string lights up in our room, because he remembered how sleeping in my apartment was “the best sleep he ever had in his life.” There are so many books on how to get “better” at dreaming, lucid dreaming, and precognitive dreaming, but none of them that I’ve read mention the importance of the environment in which you rest. So, I am here to tell you that I believe it’s necessary, and I am confident that once you establish a serene and enchanting ambiance for your bedroom, you will find sleeping and dreaming will come easier. This will lead to your ability to have dreams of the divinatory kind. I guess what I am trying to say is: make your room feel like a dream.
After creating a literal Sleep Altar the size of a bedroom, I suggest building a loose sleep routine before bed. In my opinion, you should experiment with essential oils that call to you. If that’s too much, you can always stick with lavender. Make sure to use a carrier oil, like almond oil. I rub my own unique sleep blend on my stomach, bottoms of my feet, and shoulders. Also, I have books about dreaming on my bedside altar, and I try to read one chapter of a book while I am in bed. Personally, this is how I got better with dream awareness, precognitive dreaming, and lucid dreaming. Constructing a sleep ritual should be fun, and totally personal to you. Experiment, explore, and be creative.
Before I drift off to sleep, I will “hear people'' talking in my mind while I drift into the threshold of hypnagogia. Hypnagogia can be briefly described as a sensation you feel before you enter deep sleep. You can feel your body in bed, but you begin to see faces, light, colors, or shapes in your mind’s eye. It’s that in-between state of sleep and awake. Hypnopompia is essentially the reverse: being half-asleep and half-awake, while softly waking from a dream. “Hearing” voices while I drift into sleep is an experience that I’ve had happen to me since I was a baby. Sometimes the words I hear make sense in regards to current events of my personal life, but mostly it’s just nonsensical talk. As a child, I believed I was hearing my spirit guides converse among themselves, and I can only hear them in that hypnagogic state. I felt like a little rebel eavesdropping on angels and spirits. I like to do exercises with these “hypnagogic audibles”. I try to stretch the hypnagogic state, and stay in it as long as possible by “listening in''. I’ll try to preserve a particular phrase that I hear, and I will “hang onto it” while falling into a deeper sleep. These phantom utterances have, at times, formed the topic of the dream that I will have that night. Lately, I have been trying to stay in these hypnagogic and hypnopompic states, and speak back to these voices to try to persuade them to reveal some secret knowledge of the universe. Other than hearing certain herbs being repeated for specific ailments I live with, I’ve not had too much luck, yet!
The Wisdom of Sleep
Douglas Batchelor has stated a few times that hypnagogic experiences can happen while falling asleep in the car because of the sun’s rays coming through the trees. The added effect of the motion of the car makes the hypnagogic sensation come easier and faster. I love falling asleep while traveling, and I can only echo what Douglas has said. In my first year living in the UK, my husband and I were traveling by car, and I fell asleep. The sun pulsated through the tops of the trees, and I felt my body in the car, but I could not move. Then, I heard a strange voice grant me a blessing:
“May the Wisdom of Sleep guide you to your life’s treasures.”
“Wisdom of sleep” not only felt like an implication of dreaming, but also the very importance of sleep as a whole. Sleep’s wisdom includes precognitive dreaming, the natural detoxification function of sleep, and the healing and hormonal balancing properties of sleep. “Life’s treasures” felt like a nod to my path of nurturing my innate ability of divining. I perceived it to signify my goals and highest wishes in life. Even in the very simplest terms, I recognized how important sleep is, so that I may be fully energized and awake during the day. If I am awake, I am present! Being present is key to enjoying what gifts life could bring, without taking it for granted. With chronic illness or a history of trauma, being present can be a lonely inner-battle, or unattainable at times. Taking precious moments in life for granted is sometimes how people with chronic pain live, because we are so focused on just existing in those small occasions when we do not feel pain, whenever those moments come.
In that moment, when I heard that blessing in my half-sleep, half-awake state, I felt validated that I was on the right track of healing myself both physically and spiritually. It is my hope and wish that in your own personal healing journey, the Wisdom of Sleep guides you to your life’s treasures.
Implementing a sleep schedule strengthens the healing process within the body, while creating a Sleep Ritual emboldens the importance of sleep, since you are putting energy into a sacred and intimate practice that is honoring your slumber. Lastly, ancient people of so many cultures across time have put their faith in the wisdom that was revealed to them in their adventures in the Dream Realms.
Alternatively, you can subscribe to my SubStack where I do deep-dives like this and much more. The SubStack is a subscription-based extension to the Holographic Phytomancy blog website. By subscribing, you are directly supporting my work while I am in school for Natural Medicine full time.
My luminous offerings include:
Herbal Monographs, revealing their chemical constituents and planetary rulership, enriched by my personal experiences with these mystical herbs.
Musings on Medical Astrology, unveiling the celestial secrets behind your well-being.
Unveiling the lost language between plant and human: Phytonutrients.
The Zodiacal Color Wheel, illuminating the magical hues that connect us to the cosmos.
Dive into the world of Flower Essences, and learn to harness their transformative powers.
Explore the realms of Hypnagogic and lucid dream experiences, as we venture into the realm of the subconscious.
Messages from meditation, dreams, and encounters with my personal deities, offering profound insights.
Herbal, Healing Food, and Self-care ideas tailored for Creatives, Artists, and Magicians, fostering your creative and spiritual gifts.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I lost all of my jobs, and had to completely restart my life. Things are so much better than three years ago, because I decided to go to school to pursue a very old dream and passion of mine: becoming a Holistic Practitioner and merging Science with Spirituality. I am still in school, and have two years left until I reach my certification. There are diploma courses afterwards that I would like to take to ensure I get the most out of my education. I am still, however, unemployed. I’d like to ask, if you got something out of this post, and you are financially in a place to donate, please do. Every bit counts. It takes a lot of energy, time, and resources to research this much into the blog posts I create, and sometimes I have to take independent courses or purchase books to go beyond my studies. With your help, I can optimize my education by obtaining a diploma, and in turn, can continue to share everything I learn on this website. Click the button below to donate to my Ko-Fi.
