Dream journal

The practice of recording dreams; in Wicca often with the moon's phase noted.

A dream journal is a notebook, diary or app in which you record your dreams, preferably right after waking up. It is one of the oldest and simplest ways to work with dreams, and is used in many traditions: from wicca and Buddhist dream yoga to psychology and research into lucid dreaming.

The reason is practical. Dreams fade quickly: within a few minutes of waking you have often lost most of it. Whoever writes down immediately what they still remember preserves details that may take on meaning later. Moreover, many people notice that after a few weeks of keeping one they remember more and clearer dreams, because their attention to them grows.

A good approach is simple. Put something to write with next to your bed, move as little as possible after waking, and note first the feeling, then the images, people, colours, places and words. Fragments count too. Write in the present tense, without judging or explaining straight away. Add the date later, and possibly what was going on the day before.

In wicca many practitioners also note the moon's phase and the nearest festival of the Wheel of the Year. In other traditions people look at the time of the dream or the day of the week. A dream journal thus becomes a source for reading within your own tradition.

The greatest value often lies in looking back. After a few weeks or months patterns become visible: recurring places, figures, animals or feelings, which say much more than one single dream. Dreamkin is made to do exactly that: record dreams, and see which symbols keep coming back.