For thousands of years, civilizations across the globe have been fascinated with dreams. Various temples throughout Greece had a longstanding tradition of practicing dream incubation for healing as well as for prophecy. Dream magick is featured in the Welsh medieval mythology known as The Mabinogion, in which the Roman emperor Macsen Wledig is compelled to to search for the woman who will eventually become his wife. Indigenous peoples have also revered dreams. This includes (but is not limited) to the Amazonian people known as the Achuar, who start each day with a retelling of dreams for the purposes of interpretation and guidance for the day's events.

Of course, the usefulness of dreams is neither an ancient nor an isolated phenomenon. Various artists, authors, and even athletes have shared how their dreams inspired them in some way. Below are ten powerful potential benefits of working with your dreams.

1. Improved sleep. Many pre-dream work routines have an added benefit of helping us to get a good night's sleep. Things like taking a bath to cleanse and purify or using aromatherapy with oils such as lavender also assist in relaxation. Turning off electronics in order to focus on dream work helps eliminate blue light, which inhibits melatonin and can interrupt our slumber. Even something as simple as lighting incense each time we undertake dream magick can act as a trigger, telling our mind that it's time to settle down.

2. Deeper self-understanding. Our minds work in mysterious ways. Our conscious minds tend to communicate with us with words, whereas our subconscious often communicates throug symbolism. These symbols and allegories tend to show up in our dreams when our conscious mind is at rest and less likely to interfere with what our subconscious is trying to tell us. By learning to understand and interpret what these symbols mean, we can get a better understanding of the wisdom our subconscious has to share with us. Creating a personalized dream dictionary helps us to decode meanings that are unique to us as opposed to universal meanings that may not always be accurate for every individual.

3. Help with shadow work. Our subconscious has a lot more power over us than we often realized. Our subconscious is the domain of our shadows—those parts of us we have repressed due to factors such as trauma. Yet despite being elusive, our shadows and personal demons manifest in our day-to-day lives without us realizing it. They are often the impetus behind patterns of behavior or choices that don't really serve us. Healing takes place when we can identify, understand, address, and release these aspects of our shadow self with love. Given that our subconscious relays messages about these shadow aspects in our dreams, keeping a dream journal to look for clues about patterns in our lives that cause us misery and/or that inhibit personal sovereignty can help us begin the work of healing.

4. Creative inspiration. What do authors and songwriters such as Stephanie Meyer (author of the Twilight series), Paul McCartney, and Robert Louis Stevenson all have in common? They all took inspiration from their dreams to create some of the biggest hits in music and literature. This phenomena is not limited to these three, however. Many creative types, including Salvador Dali, have shared the powerful impact that dreams have had in spurring their creativity.

And, it's not just artistic types who have benefitted from inspiration found in their dreams. Dreams are also known for helping with problem-solving and innovation. Professional golfer Arnold Palmer is said to have overcome a slump as a result of recreating a golfing stance he saw in one of his dreams. Innovations such as the sewing machine were also said to be created as a result of a dream. Practicing intentional dream magick might just inspire you to create something amazing!

5. Stronger intuition and psychic ability. I believe that we all have some level of psychic ability, yet our inner critic as well as our society's culture often dismisses these occurrences. Many cultures throughout history have reported prophetic dreams. Some of the most famous documented prophetic dreams include Abraham Lincoln's precognitive dream about his assassination and 76 accounts of dreams predicting the 1966 Aberfan landslide in Wales.

It's not uncommon for people to have dreams that come true. The difficulty lies in both remembering our dreams and discerning between what is a prophetic dream and what is simply our subconscious processing the day's events. Working with a dream journal and using dream magick aids such as crystal grids and herbs can help us to experience better recall dreams and identify any particular signs that indicate that a dream may be prophetic. Doing this regularly can help us to strengthen our psychic ability and better trust our intuition.

6. Connection with those who have passed over. There are a lot of similarities between sleep and death, to the point that sleep was once called "the little death." When we are dreaming, our mind knows no limits. Time and space are not required to follow the rules that bind them in our daily lives. Perhaps this is why many people have experienced visitations from deceased loved ones during their slumber.

Ancient civilizations in places such as Greece and Egypt believed in the ability for the dead to communicate with the living through dreams. The Necromanteion in Greece, also known as the "Oracle of the Dead," is just one of many places where people practiced dream incubation for the purpose of receiving messages from the deceased. In a 2023 study conducted by the Pew Research Center, 53% of Americans reported having been visited by a dead family member through methods including dreaming.

7. Greater sense of empowerment and confidence. As previously mentioned, dream magick can help us validate premonitory dreams as well as visits from the deceased. Lucid dreaming is another method that can help us build confidence in our daily lives. When we lucid dream, we become aware that we are dreaming and in some cases can actually change the course of our dreams. Lucid dreaming does take practice, but the more one actively attempts lucidity while sleeping the more we are able to take control of our dreams. This can allow us to "try out" scenarios and actions that we may consider in our waking life with minimal risk, thus building our belief in our ability navigate life's challenges.

8. Enhanced manifestation efforts. What happens when our subconscious mind is in control can influence what happens during the time that we are conscious. It's therefore not surprising that our subconscious can be an effective ally when we are trying to manifest something in our lives. By honing in on what it is we wish to manifest and using dream magick to solidify this desire and experience what manifestation would feel like, we are more likely to align our conscious thoughts with the energy of manifestation.

9. Help in resolving nightmares and other sleep issues. Individuals who struggle with continual nightmares and/or night terrors can experience a decrease in their quality of life due to sleep loss, stress, and, in some cases, reliving childhood trauma. In rare situations, night terrors can result in physical harm. The good news is that many dream magick activities-such as keeping a dream journal and creating a relaxing bedtime routine-are the same activities that doctors recommend to help with night terrors. In addition, I have found that working with deities such as the Morrigan can also help us to better understand what these types of dreams may be trying to tell us.

10. Enhancement of spiritual practice and devotion. With so much going on in our lives, it can be difficult to set aside time for a disciplined daily spiritual practice. The good news is that one third of our life on average is spent sleeping, so we have ample opportunity to incorporate dream magick without having to set aside a significant amount of time during our waking hours. I have personally found that by actively engaging in dream magick, I have developed a stronger commitment to my spiritual practice and a deeper understanding of myself and the deities with whom I work. This allows me to be of greater service to others, as well.

Many of us have not intentionally paid attention to and/or worked with our dreams on a consistent basis. Therefore, keep in mind that dream magick takes time, practice, and patience. Have fun with it! The more you approach dream magick with a spirit of wonder and play, the more likely it is that you will see results. I encourage you to make dream magick a part of your life.