New Year's Dreaming Ritual

Hi folks! This ritual was original written as part of my Patreon rewards for December, but I’ve shared it with the kind permission from my patrons, as it’s an extra special New Year ritual. If you’re interested in receiving content like this on a monthly basis, check out my Patreon page - rewards start at just $5 a month :)

I've spent this month contemplating a fun, productive custom ritual to offer Patrons - something that involves the potent energy we receive at the close of the year and the beginning of a new annual cycle, but a little bit different to the "good luck and intention setting" rituals folks are ordinarily working on in their own time.

I settled on a dreaming ritual because I work a lot with those realms myself - I'm inspired heavily by dreams and the subconscious, and I truly believe it's when we're in these states that we're closest to accessing our most magickal selves.

This New Year's Dreaming Ritual was also inspired by the Japanese tradition of Hatsuyume (初夢), the first dream of the New Year. The Japanese pay close attention to the dreams they receive between the 1st and 3rd of January, with particular images and symbols (Mount Fuju, hawks, and - mysteriously enough - an eggplant) considered to be especially good omens. 

Though I can't promise this ritual will deliver turgid purple fruits into your brain pan, it will (hopefully) give you a potent, focused, and maybe even lucid dream to help guide your spiritual path in 2019.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

Folks who've been following me a while know that I believe strongly that props are just that: props. Magick--real magick--is not a capitalist practice. You don't need fancy oils, candles, statues, and crystals to make your practice work. 

That said, certain items are known to have a relaxing and soothing effect on the body, which in turn can help promote lucidity and dream recall. If you have access to these ingredients, great! If not, work with what you've got. 

  • Eyebright or Mugwort tea (available on Amazon in various forms, and likely at your local health food store. Any 'sleepy tea' or 'third eye tea' with Mugwort or Eyebright in it will work just fine!)

  • A sachet of dried lavender or lavender essential oil. 

  • A soothing soundtrack of your choice. Pick music that is calming, transcendental, and designed to put you in a meditative state. There are lots of fantastic sleep apps that have music like this, or you can look on YouTube. Music with binaural beats works beautifully, but in general you just want to look for something with no lyrics/words that won't keep you awake. If music of any kind bothers you or keeps you up, try white noise - or skip this step altogether.

  • A notepad and pen. 

  • One black, one silver, and one gold candle. 

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Image credit: the stunning artwork of Nicoletta Ceccoli

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS

Ideally this ritual is to be completed on the night of the 31st of December, but in keeping with traditional Hatsuyume practice (where folks would typically stay awake all night on New Years Eve), you can also complete it the night of the 1st of January. Perfect for those of you planning to let your hair down on NYE!

Recommended pre-ritual step: change your sheets! So much of our energy clings to the spaces we inhabit regularly, and this is particularly true of our beds (where we spend 1/3 of our lives!) Getting some new linens on your bed will help clear out that energy and give you a blank slate on which to sketch your New Year's Dream!

1. Begin your evening with a cleansing bath or shower. The purpose of this is to make a ritual of washing: you're literally sloughing off all that 2018 energy and purifying yourself for your dreaming practice. If you're bathing, add a few pinches of sea salt to the water along with a few drops of lavender essential oil. Burn your candles while you bathe, and try to avoid turning on any artificial lights during this process. If you're showering, you can add a few drops of lavender to a sponge or washcloth and let it sit in the shower with you as you wash off. Candlelight is still recommended. 

Avoid soaps and lotions as you bath, and don't scrub too vigorously. This is a ritual bath, not a spa treatment. Try to visualize any intrusive thoughts, anxieties, or worries from the past year ebbing out of you and floating away as the water drains out.

2. Prepare your sleepy-time tea! If you're bathing, you can complete this step in tandem with step 1 - if you're showering, do so after you towel off. Make yourself comfortable in bed while you sip on your tea. You can keep burning your candles at this time, or simply use low lamp light. Avoid bright overhead lights and turn off or avoid your electronics (TV, laptop, phone etc). At this point, you can also place a dot of essential oil on your forehead/third eye, or tuck your sachet of dried lavender into your pillow.

3. Set up your sleepy soundtrack. When I do dreaming rituals, I tend to play music on my phone (screen down to avoid light pollution). Make sure it's set at a volume where you can hear it, but it won't disturb you. 

4. Take your notepad and pen and write down a description of your 'dream hub'. Your 'dream hub' should be a comfortable imaginary place, something that symbolizes your transition from the waking world to the realm of sleep. Some folks use a hallway, or a train station, or a bedroom. Maybe you already have such a place - somewhere you've visited in your dreams before. If not, spend some time constructing one now. Write down the description as clearly as possible, in bullet points if you like. 

Finish your description with "Tonight I will visit this place. Tonight I will dream my New Year's Dream."

Tuck your notepad and pen under your pillow, or place it somewhere close to hand.

5. Blow out the candles, turn off or dim the lights, and lie in a comfortable position (I recommend lying on your back, but whatever works best for you). Spend some time focusing on your breathing, making sure your body is perfectly relaxed. When you're ready, begin to build the dream hub you wrote in your notepad around you. Visualize it as clearly as possible - imagine that you are there, instead of in your bed. Be as detailed as possible, and allow your mind to 'fill in the blanks,' adding additional details or exploring beyond the confines of what you wrote down in your description. 

If all goes well, you should, at this stage, begin to drift off. 

COMPLETE THE RITUAL - WHAT TO DO IN THE MORNING

When you wake, make sure the very first thing you do is reach for your notepad and pen and write down whatever you recall of your dream/s. It doesn't matter if it's disjointed or even nonsensical - just let it out onto the page. It's crucial to do this before you get up, before you drink water, before you look at your phone. As soon as we move our bodies in the waking world we begin to lose dream recall. 

These dreams, your Hatsuyume, should give you some insight into what to focus on spiritually for the New Year. Remember: dreams are their own language. If your dream seems mundane or insignificant, try interrogating it from a symbolic standpoint. What kind of emotions did the dream raise in you? Were there any recurring symbols or images? 

At the end of the day (either the evening of the 1st or the evening of the 2nd), revisit the notes you made in the morning and add anything else you recalled throughout the day, or any associations you've made as you've had more time to process the dream. You can use this clearer picture of your Hatsuyume to set goals and intentions for 2019, or to begin a more regular lucid dreaming practice. 

Happy New Year, and sweet dreams!

xxx

Celeste

Elizabeth Groom