Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard

42 Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard

Another charm against nightmares goes like this:

Thou evil thing of darkness born

Of tail and wing and snout and horn,

Fly from me from now till morn!

—Valerie Worth

Lesson 5: Lucid Dreaming

There is another world we may enter through dreams,

which is sometimes called the Dreamtime, or The

Dreaming. This is a psychic realm we share with all

other dreamers, both human and non-human, and it

has its own established landscapes and geographies.

Within The Dreaming are the countries of Faerie, the

Afterworlds of all faiths, the realms of gods, spirits,

and ancestors, and all the fantasy worlds of myth and

story. And within The Dreaming, you can be or do

anything you can imagine. When you have learned to

clearly visualize anything you want, you will be ready

for the next step. This is called lucid dreaming. The

idea is to be conscious in your dreams, so you can go

places you want, do things intentionally, and remem-

ber them when you wake.

When you go to bed at night, use the skills you

have already learned of meditation and visualization.

Lie down, close your eyes, put yourself into a medi-

tative trance, and begin to visualize that you are walk-

ing along a path. As you go along, various things will

begin to appear that you are not visualizing intention-

ally. As this happens, you will be entering The Dream-

ing. Stay conscious, but let these unbidden visions

come. When you are fully in the World of Dream,

hold your hands up in front of your face. Turn them

around; open and close your fingers. As long as you

can keep seeing your hands and controlling them, you

will be control of your dream-self.

Another important part of lucid dreaming is to

visualize and hold images of your wand, athamé, and

other magickal tools. Try to see yourself wearing your

magickal robes in your dreams (see 3.III.3). This will

help you maintain your dream-persona as a Wizard.

In this state of lucid dreaming, you can become the

most powerful magician you can imagine. Use your

wand and other tools in your dreams. Just like in a

video game, you can transform things, hurl fireballs,

levitate, and develop all the martial arts skills of the

characters in The Matrix. You will be able to chal-

lenge and defeat your nightmares, and enjoy wonder-

ful adventures. My own favorite thing to do in lucid

dreaming is levitation and flying: I “pull myself up”

to float about a foot off the ground, and then I “swim”

through the air exactly as if I was swimming under-

water—sometimes just at room level, and sometimes

soaring like an eagle high above the treetops. Every

time, I study how I do this very carefully, hoping that

one day I will be able to carry this skill back into the

Waking World!

The whole trick here is to remain conscious. As

with every discipline, the main thing is practice—do

this every night, and you will get good at it. Time can

be stretched within The Dreaming so that a few hours

asleep can seem like days or longer. And if you prac-

tice your magickal skills in The Dreaming, where you

have all the time in the world, you will also increase

your magickal abilities in the Waking World.

Lesson 6: Journeying

and Dreamwalking

As you master the skill of lucid dreaming, you will

eventually be able to set a course within The Dream-

ing to particular Astral realms, places, times and di-

mensions—such as Faerie, the Afterworlds, histori-

cal eras, or even the lands of myth and fantasy. This is

called shamanic journeying. You will be able to fly to

such places by levitation, or even transport yourself

instantaneously by teleportation. You will be able to

seek out, meet, and converse with anyone you wish—

living or dead, real or imaginary—including dragons,

totems, spirits, Gods, and Goddesses.

But beware! Some of these places and encoun-

ters can be very dangerous and can trap the unskilled,

unprepared, or unwary. There are places that you re-

ally do not want to go! Do not attempt such journeys

until you have mastered control of your own dream-

body. And when you have achieved such mastery, after

years of practice, you may become a Dreamwalker—

able to enter the dreams of others. But this is a great

Power, and hence a great Responsibility, and not for

the novice Apprentice. It is an ability used by Sha-

mans and psychic healers.

When I was young, before I had acquired any

discipline in my psychic abilities, I would sometimes

find myself apparently accidentally dreamwalking in

someone else’s dream, as the images and symbols

clearly did not belong to me. The most common of

these “wrong dreams” were ones involving large num-

bers of snakes—often poisonous ones. These seemed

clearly intended to be someone’s worst nightmares,

as if they belonged to Indiana Jones. Trouble was, I

really liked snakes, and I was always finding them

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