Dreams, Magickal Myths, a Visual Hint

Tips For Remembering Dreams

You may not be aware of it, but research shows that you dream every night. In fact, you have several dreams each night. However, if you’re like most people you may not easily remember them. Ease at dream recall improves with practice over time. Be patient with yourself! However, here are some tips or tricks that can help you to remember your dreams:

1) Every night, as you fall asleep, repeat silently to yourself, “I will remember my important dreams when I awake.”

2) If you awake during the night and recall a dream but would rather go back to sleep, take a tissue or piece of paper, ball it up, and throw it into the middle of the floor. As you do so, tell yourself that it will remind you of the dream you just had. When you see the paper in such an unusual position after finally waking, it will trigger a memory of the dream.

3) When you do get up in the morning, record your dreams right away. Jot them down. Even if you are, uh, desperate to go to the bathroom, write something—anything—down on your pad of paper first. As soon as it is practical for you to do so, transfer this—and expand on it as you remember more of the dream(s)—to your dream diary.

4) Record something in your dream diary daily. Make it a habit by doing this daily for a minimum of three weeks.

Magickal Myths

Somehow, a variety of myths have developed over time about getting supplies to use for your occult studies. One of my favorite myths is:

You must never haggle over the price of magickal supplies you are going to buy.

Who came up with that idea? If you can get something for a lower price, by all means do so. However, I do encourage you to support local stores as it helps your community. Personally, I think this myth was developed by an “evil cartel of occults shop owners.” Yeah, I know that no such cartel exists, but it would explain the source of the myth.

I learned about another myth from a few of my students. I hadn’t seen it before they told me about it. According to them:

The only way to get a Tarot deck is to have someone give it to you.

Who came up with that idea? This is utter nonsense. A modification of this is that, supposedly, the only way to get your first Tarot deck is to have it given to you. What if someone gives you a deck that you can’t stand? It could result in your disliking the Tarot for years. I suggest that you look at many decks, find a deck you like and buy it (if you don’t have one at present), and then use it.

Of course, it may be that you will find something by accident or be given a gift that is just perfect for you. You might even say that it was “intended” for you. When I was looking for a sword to use as a magickal tool, I searched all over for one with the right design. I had almost given up when I saw just what I needed hanging on the wall of a martial arts studio. I asked if it were for sale and the man there said I’d have to ask the owner who wouldn’t be back for an hour.

I went away and considered the situation. Well, the truth was, I was pretty broke at the time. I came to the conclusion that I could only afford what I had in my pocket: $34.00.

An hour later I returned to the studio met the owner and asked about the sword. He told me that he had brought it back from China himself. He had intended to use it for practice, but had never done so. (“Perfect,” I thought. “It was “virgin.”) Then he said, “I wasn’t thinking of selling it, but I couldn’t let it go for anything less than…$34.00.

Needless to say, that’s still my magickal sword.

A Hint of the New Cover for Modern Magick

The above two items are just a few tiny bits based on the new edition of Modern Magick. It will be available in just a few months and as I see more and more of the art I get even more excited. This is going to be major! I’ve finally received the okay to release a bit of the way the new cover will look. Remember, the new size is about 8.5″ x 11″ and still over 600 pages. Oh, and for the Web this is a low resolution image. The real thing is going to be brighter and even more exciting!

In coming weeks, I’ll be showing more of the new cover. In the meantime, if you don’t have the current edition of Modern Magick, please remember that when it’s sold out it will never be published in that format again. It’s a collector’s item.