Dream Shielding

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Dream Shielding

Postby Aislin Ni MorRhiaghan » Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:26 pm

Dreaming is a healthy and wonderful outlet for our fantasies, fears, and emotional and physical stressors. It's a healthy way for the body to sort out problems into a workable format, to analyze events going on in our lives, visit other verses, access the astral, feed, and even work magick. It is also a way for less ethical individuals to stalk and terrorize individuals who can't or don't know how to protect themselves. A basic knowledge of psychic self defense and shielding is important for every member of Nightkind community and especially so if one is being plagued by an overzealous and unscrupulous dreamwalker.

There are many different ways of handling someone like this but the primary thing to remember is that in every dream you are in control. This is your world, your thoughts, your mind, your time on the astral or aetheric. This is not someone else's time unless you invite them in or allow them to control the sequences and events in your dreams.
When you dream you open your mind to depths, experiences, and abilities that on the physical level are not possible.We can fly, shapeshift, achieve heights of magick that are matrixian, and disolve the physical rules of engagement. They simply do not apply within our dreams. A good working knowledge of lucid dreaming and suspension of disbelief is important but also the belief that you are completely and utterly protected during your night excursions. The purpose of dream shielding is not to make one a better predator but to make one more aware of the boundaries we set not only around ourselves at all times but also of the energies around us.

Lucid dreaming occurs when we know that we are dreaming and can control our events within the dream sequence itself. Since this is a complicated subject worthy of another article I'll leave it to that and suggest instead that you practice realizing when you are dreaming and when you are not. Recognise the shift in energies, events, and locations. Be aware of your energy and the energies of others. Also be aware of sudden changes or shifts in the dreaming state. Have you suddenly become more aware, do you find yourself answering your own questions or thinking as you're dreaming. All of these things play a role in recognising possible dream interruptions and the dreaming process itself.
Before you can construct a shield (please see the article on basic shielding), you must consider what it is that you want to achieve while you're asleep. Are you trying to keep things out or control the events that transpire within a free range of dreaming? Are you trying to protect against an eros attack, psi attack, or forced communion with a hostile entity? Do you want something that is for basic protection or do you need something that is multipurpose? How much energy are you preparing to put into this dreaming firewall? How much energy are you capable of putting into it? Your antagonist is also a consideration. What kinds of tactics to they employ? Are they sexual or seductive? Do they prefer degradation or physical brutality? Or are they using your fears against you? Do you wake up with bruises, metallic tastes, or scratches that you didn't have when you went to sleep? Do you want to reflect negative attacks (a means of return and deflection) or cloak while you sleep? Make a list of what you need to shield against. Make another list of things that make you feel safe. Do you have a symbol, a sigil, a particular place, or totem that you feel is protective? Choose one or several, but in the beginning start with one. You will be constructing it, charging it, commanding it, and putting it into effect. You will give it a switch and will bring it to life when you turn out your inner light. In the beginning make it flexible because you will probably be changing it to suit your needs as you grow and learn more techniques and have a greater sensitivity to the energy around you.

The Diamond
Creating a diamond to surround you and protect you against unwanted nocturnal attention is an ideal manner of protection and very simple for newbies. Diamonds are multifaceted and highly reflective. They create prisms of pure radiant color that shimmer, entrance, and distract the eye. The prisms radiate colors of the chakras and of the tree of life. They radiate the colors fo pure beings and of light. When countering a malicious entity you don't want to counter them with hostility. Never give your personal energy to someone who is seeking to cause you harm. Never allow yourself to be reactive in a dream attack. They are seeking a response and the more you give to them the more they will bother you. Some understanding of the diamond as a crystal may help you as well. Diamonds are said to be the crystallized sperm of the gods in some traditions and are full of lore and mysticism. Long sought for their beauty and brilliance, they are potent magickal ingredients and a powerful crystal to use when constructing your shield. Diamonds are reknown for their strength, purity and cleansing energies. On a magickal level, diamonds brings strength, fortitude, protects from evil, maliciousness, disease, and plagues. If set in gold it drives away night terrors and nocturnal pests as gold is symbolic of solar energies.

Sit quietly in a cool dark room. Have an image of the gem handy. If you have a diamond take it in your hand and look at it closely. Begin to see it as a room, a place with no doors and every window as being highly reflective and inpenetrable. See it as a sanctuary that radiates only pure white light and allows no dark light to penetrate it's walls. It is a delicate fortress that can not be broken. Imagine walking among the many angles, playing within it, familiarize yourself with the interior of this striking stone. Watch the light reflect from it in prisms of rainbows. The rainbow itself is a bridge between the physical and spiritual realms, the astral and the physical, the Divine and the mundane. It is a symbol of hope, of acceptance, and of joy. Remember how you felt the first time you saw a rainbow in the sky. Imagine playing among those colors. Wrap them around you so that you are cloaked in glorious radiant color. Familiarise yourself so closely that you can see this diamond when you close your eyes. You can visualize yourself playing in its facets, feel them around you, and are familiar with the strength of this stone. You see it coming from the Earth, itself a nurturing, stable, protecting place. When you are able to visualize this gem and its properties by mere thought you are ready to construct your dream fortress.

Sit in a cool room. Light a candle associated with earth (brown, black, green, whichever color you easily associate with the element of earth), a candle in a shade of blue (blue is associated with fluidity, flexibility, and dreamwork), and a white candle to reflect any negativity. Place either a diamond or the image of a diamond (it could also be a crystal shaped like a diamond) on your altar. Sit with your legs crossed and get a good mental image of the stone. Close your eyes and still your mind. Feel the energies around you. Place your palms flat on the floor or ground beneath you. Feel the energy of the earth under you. Visualize yourself sinking into it and the warm earth rising up to meet you. Feel the stability and safety it offers. Feel the energy of the earth rising up through the floor and into your palms. Visualize it infusing you with strength and protection as this soothing energy travels up your arms and into your center. Imagine it resting there before moving on. You feel strong, grounded, your center is protected and safe. Slowly this energy begins moving upward and outward and your palms may tingle and feel warm. This slow moving energy moves through your limbs and upward to your crown. As it reaches your crown hold it there. Imagine reaching into this energy and pulling ribbons of it into your palms. You begin pulling the diamond ribbons around you, shaping them and molding them into facets. You begin placing them around you and as you construct them higher around you, you feel their strength and security, the power of millions of years of dwelling within the earth's core and absorbing its energy protecting you. As the gem is constructed around you slowly raise your hands so that you're pulling the energy from the earth up and around you giving the stone shape. As you do so tell the gem why you need it. Give it a clear image of who or what you wish to block out. Command it to appear when these things come into view. See yourself surrounded in a castle of diamond facets and reflective surfaces. When you feel as if your gem is constructed and you can easily see yourself within it bring your energy down through your body, bring your hands down to the floor by yout sides. Ground the excess energy into the earth. Keep your eyes closed and see the excess energy moving into the earth while the diamond around you remains in place. Practice calling this image into place several times. You can also use this technique to create a gem around your bed.

The Mirror

The mirror is another highly reflective surface also of the element of earth. Glass is created by firing silica (an ingredient in sand) and is smooth and highly reflective, especially with a black backing. So both the elements of fire and earth may be used to charge this shield. Glass is used in contruction in many ways. It can be used as mosaic tiles for backsplashes, artwork, or in crafts. It may be used in thick blocks to provide semi sheer walls that let light in but aren't entirely clear so that it provides a distorted image. It can even be used as a floor without the black backing, as a glaze, or covering over table tops, walls, doors, and of course as windows. Glass is used to maginify as well as diminish, clarify images as well as distort them. Glass can be very soft or painfully sharp. This is a very flexible medium and very effective against uglies.
To contruct a shield from this medium again decide what you wish to shield against. Create a space for grounding and centering, draw the energy from the earth or from fire and ground it into a form of glass. Since glass can be used in many different variations find the means that works best for you. The more complicated the imagery the more time and energy you will have to put into it. In Basic Shielding ( see article) you learned how to construct a basic mirror shield. Using the many aspects of glass create a wall around you or a building that houses you and protects you while you're sleeping. Give it no doors and make the windows highly reflective or with distorted visuals (much like a fun house mirror) so that when something is peeking in it gets only a distorted image of itself. After a few minutes of expending the energy to bug you, not being able to get a clear image of you, it's likely they will leave and find simpler prey. Glass blocks are very good for this method as are mirrored tiles that offer many reflective images of the same thing but won't allow inner viewing. Generally speaking, malicious entities or energies don't like viewing their reflections. In some traditions the disembodied or astral entities will react to a mirror in two ways. They will either dislike what they see and leave, or they will be trapped within the glass until it is broken. Both are incentives for them not to continue pestering you. Reflective surfaces also prevent negative energy from coming into your sacred space by returning it to its host. This is why many magickal people have mirrors on their altar or near their bed.

While this technique may prove to be easy for the initiate, it may prove to be easy for a more experienced energy worker or vampyre to maneuver around. For best results I suggest layering this technique with another one.

The Wall of Pikes

For some of you the phrase brings to mind the infamous Vlad Dracul who became famous for his creative use of pikes. Most people in those days shuddered at the mere sight of a single unadorned pike. Today it's not such a popular means of torture and defense but it is an effective means of dream protection. The pike belongs to the element of fire and it lives up to the strength and power of fire by being light weight, versatile and very very sharp. Below are several variations of 1798 pikes (http://www.iol.ie/~98com/weaponry.htm.) any of which are very effective. In the middle ages they were used as an extension to long poles and were used to stave off an attack, propped up against stones or shorter walls to ward off charging stampedes of warhorses (in which the riders would fly over the stopped horse's head and be impaled on the waiting pike), as direct weaponry as instruments of impaling, allow combat via horses, or as means of execution.




As you dream erect a wall of pikes surrounding you, your bed, or your home. Line them up with the sharp edge pointing outward. Command them to only allow love and light into your domain and as they are charged they will be a formidable obstacle to someone wanting to get through your offenses. I've found that spring loading them works best so that should someone manage to get through one line of protection these automaticly rear up to defend their domain.

Thoughtforms
Just as one can construct inanimate objects to protect and defend while you sleep, someone can certainly create an animate object to do so as well. Thoughtforms are just that, a being that is created and crafted with a specific purpose in mind. You may want to go back a couple of blogs to read the article on Thoughtforms if you're not familiar with it.

Thoughtforms are sometimes referred to as elementals if they are charged with either a specific element or several. Before you begin, you must...just as with the other forms....decide what it is you want the thoughtform to do. What is it's purpose, function, and how long will it hold it's position in your home? Will it be an inside guardian, outside guardian, or an astral guardian? Will it come to life when you go to sleep or will it be a constant? What will it look like? What will it's correspondances and abilities be? How much time and energy are you putting into it? Remember the larger the thoughtform the more energy has to go into the creation, the control, and the maintenance of it.

Once you've worked out the details and created and charged your guardian, you'll want it to keep it maintained by infusing your guardian with your energy. This not only forms a bond with it, but also allows you greater control over your creation. When it has served its purpose, thank it and release the energy placed into it, or assign it a special place on your shrine to be called up whenever it is needed and only then.

The Spiral
Sometimes ancient symbols are your best and simplest form of protection. The spiral has long been a symbol of rejuvenation, strength, inner piece, and eternal life. It is the symbol for the cosmic dance of creation and destruction. For women especially, this symbol can be a very potent deterent. For the most part it can be one of the more passive defenses, however true strength comes not in showing force but in showing wisdom in trying situations. Being constantly harassed by a persistent dreamwalker can certainly be one of those situations and especially terrifying for women.


The spiral works in many ways at once. It creates an environment that is hostile to the straightforward attacks these individuals must use to feed. It causes them to have to expend more energy and to become less focused on maintaining control of the dream sequencing and more focused on getting around an endless spiral of which you are the center. Lastly, in a more aggressive setting, it may be combined with the pike nearer the center where you will be so that it not only provides an aggravating deterent but it also lets them know that you are not their victim. Easy prey is what they are seeking, not someone who can hold their own.

When creating a spiral get a clear image of it in your mind. You may utilize whatever elemental force you see fit to charge it with and it may be constructed of stone, a hurricane, tornado, or any spiral shaped force that you feel comfortable working with. Iron is a good choice or you can create a spiral of diamonds, mirrors, or pikes (or a good combination of them all). See yourself standing in a space that feels comfortable and safe. Imagine the spiral starting at your feet and winding around you. It is not connected to you, but instead wraps around you in a protective fashion. It whips around you and widens more as it moves along gradually forming a multi layered labyrinth. In order to get to you he or she must get through this. It can be as long as you want it to be or as short, the longer the better. Charge it so that when you come in contact with hostile forces on your nighttime excursions it will automaticly form around you.

Creating physical barriers
You may at some point want to protect yourself as you are dreaming not only on the astral but also on the physical realms as well. Some ways to prevent them are to create dream sachets, pillows, wreathes, witch's balls, charging mirrors, and creating an herbal barrier around your sleeping place.

Sea salt is a powerful natural mineral that protects with both earth and water elements. Sprinkling sea salt outside of your home, especially around the windows of your bedroom, placing salt on your window sill, or around your bed provides a strong physical barrier against unwanted negative energies attempting to pass through.

Graveyard dirt is also a powerful deterent especially when taken from a relative's final resting place. Never take it from the grave or from the earth around the grave. Never take anything from a graveyard without asking permission from your relative as this is their sacred space. If they are compliant dust a wee bit from the top of their grave and leave something in return for their aid. Fresh flowers, or bird seed for the sparrows are always good.

Tobacco is commonly used as an offering to spirits and guardians of the crossroads. Ironicly it is also commonly left at crossroads under a full moon as an offering. In some traditions vampyres could only be killed at a crossroads, on a full moon, by stakes made of specific woods (pine, elder, or oak). Used around your home it can welcome these protective spirits to watch and protect you from any outward invasions. Leave a little raw tobacco along the path to your home and around your window or on an outdoor shrine.

Lavender, sage, orange, dragonsblood, or lemon washes for doors, windows, floors, and the outside of the bedroom will prevent uglies from sneaking in. Cedar chips will also do the trick, especially if they contain iron statuary or stones with natural iron chips. These can be acquired at metalworking shops. Dream sachets stuffed with lavendar, sage, and chamomile will allow you to have a peaceful sleep but will also protect you while you are sleeping. Place one under your pillow.

As a wreathe, these herbs can certainly add not only beautiful touches to your home but also induce sweet and safe dreams. Eucalyptus, chamomile, roses, lavendar, cedar, rosemary, dried citrus, sage, frankincense, sandalwood, or myrrh, cinnamon, and sea salt. An infusion of frankincense, sandalwood, myrrh, cinnamon, or sea salt can be made and sprayed onto any wreathe to give the same elements of protection.
Being the prey of a dreamwalker can be annoying and sometimes debilitating should it continue long enough. Sleep deprivation can certainly cause any number of illnesses and hazardous situations. It is important to understand that even though this practice is shown in the most negative of ways here, it has other potentials as well. If something can be used to hurt, it can likewise be used to heal and those who actively explore many means of energy work along their path may find that while healing is not their gift on the physical plane it comes quite easily on the dreaming plane. General understanding of the dreaming process, how the body and mind reacts during dreaming, and basic means of protecting oneself during such a vulnerable time can certainly lead to a greater understanding and appreciation for the role of mysticism and energy working within dreams.

Eternally,

Aislin Ni MorRhiaghan © 2007
Aislin Ni MorRhiaghan
 

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