Three Steps to Strengthen Dream Recall
Drinking from the waters of Lethe
In this edition of The Artemisian, I'll be answering a question from a paid member. If you'd like to submit one of your own, consider joining the membership community. Upgrading allows you to deepen your studies and inner work via monthly classes, gain access to the resource library and more.
A paid member writes…
“I would like more information on how to increase my dream recall.”
“Each dream is a child of Night, affiliated closely with Sleep and Death, and with Forgetting (Lethe) all that the daily world remembers. Dreams have no father, no call upwards. They come only from Night, and they have no home other than in that dark realm. Such then is the genealogy of dreams, the myth of their origins, describing their archetypal kinship, telling us where they belong.”
— James Hillman, The Dream and the Underworld
Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, is one of the main bodies of water that wind its way through the Greek underworld. It flows through the cave of Hypnos, shrouding our sleep in a haze of half-formed images. We awake in the morning light certain we have been somewhere, awash in mysterious symbols and strange interactions that slip further and further from our grasp.
We call out to Mnemosyne, mother goddess of the muses and patron of memory, hoping she will bless us with clarity, that we will remember our nightly wanderings. Sometimes she hears our quiet prayers, blesses us with a remembrance that inspires and strikes our curiosity. We want to know this dream-world more, to take its content and mull it over, pull out its meaning and apply it to our lives.
This is not a task I denounce. Developing skills of interpretation, strengthening symbolic literacy, building a relationship to dreams so we may see the path of inner work with greater perspective are acts I engage in often through my writings and teachings. But what I want to offer in my response today is an invitation to see the strengthening of dream recall in a new light. Or rather, as a turning away from the light, an immersion in the dark realm of psyche.
Hillman (per the quote above) reminds us that we are mythically situated in the underworld1 when we engage with dreams. Eternal night is experienced when we fall asleep, dipping into the unconscious streams that are always present below the threshold of ego’s awareness. Rather than petition archetypal gods and goddesses of the sunlit world, we must turn to Lethe and drink deeply of her waters.
Forgetting becomes a pathway to a new kind of seeing. Our eyes begin to adjust, night vision sharpens, and shapes begin to take form in the shadows. Let us consider three steps, three points in a cyclical dance that helps strengthen our relationship to dreams.
I — Shift Ego’s Perspective
The images and symbols we meet in dreams, the quality of experience in that liminal space, will never match that of waking consciousness. Our desire to fit it into a rigid mold is futile. Rather, we are the ones who must shape shift to the unconscious’ beats and rhythms. Not as a form of total surrender of consciousness, no. But as a joining that gives rise to a new way of being.
Spend time in dreamlike states. In waking hours, practice the art of active imagination, immerse yourself in fiction and let the drama come alive in the mind’s eye, lean into states of reverie, fall into a flow state through dance or paint or another creative act. These teach the ego to release its grip, to find ease in liminal spaces.
See the archetypal realm in the everyday. We are inundated with overly rational, literal interpretations of life. Many of us have lost the vital link to the imaginal layer of psyche, to the mythopoetic richness found in the archetypal, which is the lifeblood of dreams. When situations arise that call your attention, ask yourself, “If this were a dream, what would it mean? What is the archetype underlying this dynamic2? What symbol arises spontaneously to represent this situation?”
II — Walk to the Water’s Edge
Consciousness is not the dreammaker3. We tumble from the upper world and find ourselves in a creative landscape that is familiar and yet not at all. Before Hypnos takes us, we can walk intentionally to the water’s edge, the threshold of waking and sleep. It is an opportunity to welcome the change and prepare for the descent.
Reach out to your dreams, invite them forward. Curiously, the unconscious (and ego’s role in experiencing it) seem to react when we reach out. Setting an intention before bed (to be more aware, to receive what is below) often results in better recall. One can play with this method in several ways: draw a tarot card and place it on your nightstand, incubate a dream on a particular situation or write a note and place it under your pillow.
Engage with water as a symbolic portal to the dreamscape. Water is a common symbol of the unconscious. It is an agent of solutio where fixed attitudes are dissolved and reborn. It can provide healing through life-giving springs or drive fear as ominous beings emerge from the murky depths. How might you engage ritually with water before sleep? Consider taking a warm or cold bath, placing a vessel of water near your bedside, or drinking a special beverage to mark the transition.
III — Lie In Stillness & Quiet Upon Waking
Some have a natural gift for entering the underworld and carrying the memories of dreams forward. For most, dream recall is tenuous, making it easy to push the act aside and move on with our day. This space of forgetfulness, of dampened images and faraway dream adventures, is where we want to stay.
As much as possible, do not move the body. Somatic stirrings awaken the body and psyche, drawing us further from Hypnos. The dream sinks back into the depths, lost. Try to lie in stillness, embracing the oblivion that Lethe brings. Often, something begins to emerge in the void when we give it space.
Gently follow the emerging thread. Dream fragments may surface as image, color, mood, feeling, body impression, phrase. Gently follow what has come up, not with a grasping forcefulness, but as a witness, as a companion. This is often the seed that unfurls the rest of the dream. Hold it with care and see what follows.
Join the conversation
How do you strengthen dream recall? Which mythic figure do you associate with the realms of sleep and dreaming?
Archetypal Guidance Q&A
Paid Members — Are you struggling with an aspect of your inner work? Do you need guidance on navigating a period of change, a recurring psychological pattern, or an experience that feels difficult to decipher? Are you seeking deeper insight into a dream, myth, tarot card, or other archetypal symbols appearing in your journey? Submit your inquiry below!
For more on the Hillman’s Archetypal psychology approach, see Dreamwork Foundations: Introduction.
For more on this, see my post The Archetypal Ground.
“A dream presents itself to us: we do not consciously create it.” — C.G. Jung, Psychological Types (CW 6)