Stories of the dead haunting the living have been told for thousands of years. But have you ever thought that maybe they just have something to say?

Just because someone crosses over, doesn’t mean that they are released from the cares and concerns of the earthly life they once knew. Many times the dead worry about family, friends and loved ones, or perhaps they have important information to share about their own death, or an upcoming event.

Keeping a dream journal is by far one of the best ways to work with your dreams. But it’s very important to write down your dreams first thing in the morning. Dreams are ethereal things, and tend to fade the moment we awaken.

When most people see a piece of artwork depicting a mother cradling an infant, thoughts of nurturing, mothering, or love may come to mind.

The symbol of the mother is a universal symbol, so from culture to culture, many people would view this expression of motherhood in the same way.

Universal symbols are symbols that have similar meanings around the world, no matter the culture. Examples of universal symbols would be a dove, water, a snake, the mother, the father, the child, the moon, a circle, a star, or a rose.

One of the very strongest dream recall techniques is simply to get yourself a dream journal and state to yourself that you will write down your dreams the next morning. Honestly this works! When you wake up the next morning, if all you remember is “I was dreaming of something Orange,” write it down! Because tomorrow you may remember “I was dreaming of something orange and it was an orange!” Fragments are important because you never know when you will see something else during the day that triggers another memory which can lead to full dream recall. If you have already forgotten the fragment, you may not receive the trigger later on. When I have kept up my dream journals I will sometimes remember five or six dreams from the night before. When I slack off I rarely remember anything.

Dream: a series of thoughts, images, or emotions, occurring during sleep. A state of mind marked by abstraction, or release from reality. ~ The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Every night it seems we are the guest at a special screening of our life in pictures. Sometimes these images are pleasurable or they frighten us, sometimes they make sense and sometimes they leave us scratching our head in wonder.

For thousands of years, cultures around the world have honored dreams, and the occurrences of the dreamtime, to such an extent that in certain cultures if a man dreams his wife is unfaithful, he will wake the next morning and accuse her and her lover!

Sadly, in these modern times, dreams are most often shrugged off as fantasy, or as left-overs from a busy or stressful day. Sometimes this is true, however, most often dreams are images sent from the subconscious as a way to communicate with the conscious mind.

Your sub-conscious mind knows you in a way you could never imagine. It knows the direction you need to go for healing and transformation, and it sends you these messages of guidance through your dreams. But sometimes dreams can seem so complicated, whimsical, or even frightening, that it’s nearly impossible to understand what your sub-conscious could possibly be saying to you.

I dreamed I was in a classroom. I was flipping through a book, but didn’t recognize the language. Yet somehow I knew I was learning something. I suddenly remembered that I’d been here before, but always forget on waking. Somehow this morning the classroom floated in my memory.

Symbolically, to dream of school could be your subconscious mind’s way of telling you it’s time to learn from life, or maybe it’s literally time for you to go back to school or learn something new. You may be dreaming of taking a test that you didn’t prepare for, which could mean that in real life there is something you’re not ready for. But dreaming of school can be much more than subconscious messages about your life path.

You are running down a dark alley. You feel a sinister presence, and the hair on the back of your neck stands up. You are running from something, but you are not sure what it is; only that your very life depends on escaping… yet somehow your feet just can’t move quick enough.

There are many types of dreams, and when doing dreamwork, though it’s not necessary to know what kind of dream you may have experienced, it can be helpful. Some people dream mostly symbolic dreams, while others may have more telepathic dreams. Many may even have precognitive dreams, but think they are having symbolic dreams. Even past life dreams can fool us. In the case of this dream, it would be helpful to know if it was a precognitive dream, because then you could avoid dark alleys!