I came to this post after having an alchemical haunting dream: a terrifying ghost was in a separate bedroom of a recurring dream house, wrapped in sheer curtains. Drenched in terror, I asked her why she was here, and she became the head of a goddess statue that was grossly animate. The ghost had injured and/or decapitated a man, and I realized she was dangerous and I had to get her out of my house. I put her head in a pot, smashed it with a stone, then buried it outside. But instead of getting rid of her, I was horrified to see that she reemerged with short gruesome legs, turned a light gray, and was walking stiffly around. So I knew I would have to invite her back inside my house, because it was her house too. So then she became a normal woman, like myself, and was in my bedroom, once again wrapped in sheer curtains.
This is by far the most fascinating haunting dream I’ve ever had, because of the alchemical transformation, and I am going to give you some credit for it, because you queued up in my psyche the alchemical process when looking at my raviolis (what a hysterical sentence!). And now I’m eager to hold a seance with this transformed ghost, to see what she has to say.
Thank you so much for all your work with this Substack! It has recharged my lifetime dreamwork practice and I am immensely grateful.
This is truly something, and yes, the alchemical interplay continues!!
I am noticing the death moves of decapitation, pulverization and the burying. All are characteristic of the nigredo, and in particular, the operation of mortificatio (dying/killing). The death act on the goddess statue leads to a shift not only in her shape but in her coloring (!!!). This is so classically alchemical that I am just reeling with delight and excitement. Perhaps the nigredo is moving into albedo?
I had an inclination to pull up Hillman's Alchemical Psychology and found this very interesting and fitting quote:
"The tortured and symptomatic aspect of mortification – flaying oneself, pulverizing old structures, decapitation of the head-strong will, the rat and rot in one’s personal cellar give way to mourning....
As even the darkest blue is not black, so even the deepest despair is not the mortificatio, which means death of soul. The mortificatio is more driven, images locked compulsively in behavior, visibility zero, psyche trapped in the inertia and extension of matter. A mortificatio is a time of symptoms. These inexplicable, utterly materialized tortures of psyche in physis are relieved, according to the procession of colors, by a movement toward melancholy, which can commence as a mournful regret even over the lost symptom: “It was better when it hurt physically – now I only cry.”
Hi Alyssa! Really great to hear how you worked with the dream and (as a former dream-weaver told me once), how you “dreamed the dream onward”. The idea of shadow work being a seance is creative and marvelous; it stirs my imagination as having another perspective with dream work. Thank you for your vulnerability and guidance in deepening our awareness into the realm of Psyche. All the best to you.
I love the framing of "dreaming the dream onward". It really helps you tap into that imaginal/unconscious space, even when we are awake. I find the process to be so fruitful.
Very interesting piece (and framing). I find that particular characters that linger long after the initial memories of a dream have faded or hypnagogic states tend to become regular companions in path workings or similar.
Beautiful post Alyssa. And, I loved this part "To me, this demonstrates how different attitudes towards the unconscious can result in different experiences of it. When we are at war against ourselves, we unknowingly create a hostile atmosphere. When we attempt to bridge and relate, we see new paths for understanding." Thank you.
This really resonates for me personally and presents me with an alternate way to work with a recent “childhood bedroom haunting” dream of my own. Thank you!
Haunting dreams are quite common, but the emotional charge can make interacting with them more difficult, I find. Once we meet the resistance, it is interesting to see how the dream may change, or what we learn about a dream we had.
This was amazing to read . I am at the gym in tears haha. I loved the song lyrics of your younger self. I relate so much to the image of a stuck, younger version of myself - not a young child but still without the resources to be helped - longing for a place at my side. Thanks so much for sharing this.
<3 I'm glad the tenderness came through. I was surprised by the spontaneous lyrical expression from the inner figure, it made the moment more impactful. I also dream of singing, or sometimes awake with a melody in mind. It's beautiful how music can show up in dreams and work with the unconscious.
A lot of focus goes to the inner child, understandably. Perhaps for many of us, that is a starting place, since it is so fundamental. How can we tend to the other parts that also need support and care? That's the question I'm left with now.
Exactly - especially as those older parts can have more bitterness and perhaps believe they are not entitled
to the same level of care and protection as the youngest parts are. I personally experienced a lot more “abandoning” from adults in my life as a teenager than I did as
a young child, and I feel it’s these parts of me that are the most powerfully oppositional - and the hardest for me to tend to. Thanks again.
That's a great point. Those older parts, their emotional charge and narrative dynamics, feel more complex. Their defenses and beliefs have more layers of bitterness, hurt, grief, shame, etc that I think requires a different approach in comparison to the child.
Good to hear from you, Gazel. Hope you've been well :)
A recurring dream over the year with some variation. In my childhood home. I am my age now. And it is haunted, I can feel an elusive spirit stalking me, occasionally showing itself through intense feelings of negative energy. Sinmilar to being in a “haunted house”. In some of these recurring dreams the house is empty, the lights might not work in my room, and sometimes I have more courage than usual against this thing.
I like the idea of a seance. I think I have done this in other ways in the last year with hypnosis. Similar?
Have you gleaned any more information about the spirit stalking you in the dreams? Has it ever taken form? Does it show up in certain areas of the house more often than others?
I think hypnosis or other practices that help make you more sensitive to the deeper movements of the psyche can act similarly. It's about communing with the unconscious, creating a direct line to connect and communicate. You may try and take a more focused approach, a tarot reading or hypnosis directed at the dream spirit.
good idea, I think I will try this approach. it has never taken form, but I could sort of tell where it was based on its radiating negative energy. It was usually in my bedroom as I am in my bed, and sometimes as I am leaving the house (the empty version of it) it follows me out to the living room. My guides are telling me that this is my trauma, being elusive to my efforts to heal (I have since done this). I have not had this dream in quite a while, and perhaps it finally faded after I did hypnosis work in the spring. I just had a thing happen, I'll dm you.
It’s ery probably that the work you’ve done has resolved those traumatic elements to a degree where it no longer carries that haunting, negative quality. Perhaps it has evolved, integrated, or is taking new form that is more accessible!
I came to this post after having an alchemical haunting dream: a terrifying ghost was in a separate bedroom of a recurring dream house, wrapped in sheer curtains. Drenched in terror, I asked her why she was here, and she became the head of a goddess statue that was grossly animate. The ghost had injured and/or decapitated a man, and I realized she was dangerous and I had to get her out of my house. I put her head in a pot, smashed it with a stone, then buried it outside. But instead of getting rid of her, I was horrified to see that she reemerged with short gruesome legs, turned a light gray, and was walking stiffly around. So I knew I would have to invite her back inside my house, because it was her house too. So then she became a normal woman, like myself, and was in my bedroom, once again wrapped in sheer curtains.
This is by far the most fascinating haunting dream I’ve ever had, because of the alchemical transformation, and I am going to give you some credit for it, because you queued up in my psyche the alchemical process when looking at my raviolis (what a hysterical sentence!). And now I’m eager to hold a seance with this transformed ghost, to see what she has to say.
Thank you so much for all your work with this Substack! It has recharged my lifetime dreamwork practice and I am immensely grateful.
This is truly something, and yes, the alchemical interplay continues!!
I am noticing the death moves of decapitation, pulverization and the burying. All are characteristic of the nigredo, and in particular, the operation of mortificatio (dying/killing). The death act on the goddess statue leads to a shift not only in her shape but in her coloring (!!!). This is so classically alchemical that I am just reeling with delight and excitement. Perhaps the nigredo is moving into albedo?
I had an inclination to pull up Hillman's Alchemical Psychology and found this very interesting and fitting quote:
"The tortured and symptomatic aspect of mortification – flaying oneself, pulverizing old structures, decapitation of the head-strong will, the rat and rot in one’s personal cellar give way to mourning....
As even the darkest blue is not black, so even the deepest despair is not the mortificatio, which means death of soul. The mortificatio is more driven, images locked compulsively in behavior, visibility zero, psyche trapped in the inertia and extension of matter. A mortificatio is a time of symptoms. These inexplicable, utterly materialized tortures of psyche in physis are relieved, according to the procession of colors, by a movement toward melancholy, which can commence as a mournful regret even over the lost symptom: “It was better when it hurt physically – now I only cry.”
Hi Alyssa! Really great to hear how you worked with the dream and (as a former dream-weaver told me once), how you “dreamed the dream onward”. The idea of shadow work being a seance is creative and marvelous; it stirs my imagination as having another perspective with dream work. Thank you for your vulnerability and guidance in deepening our awareness into the realm of Psyche. All the best to you.
I love the framing of "dreaming the dream onward". It really helps you tap into that imaginal/unconscious space, even when we are awake. I find the process to be so fruitful.
Thank you for reading and your kind words :)
Very interesting piece (and framing). I find that particular characters that linger long after the initial memories of a dream have faded or hypnagogic states tend to become regular companions in path workings or similar.
Are there particular ways you work with those figures?
Beautiful post Alyssa. And, I loved this part "To me, this demonstrates how different attitudes towards the unconscious can result in different experiences of it. When we are at war against ourselves, we unknowingly create a hostile atmosphere. When we attempt to bridge and relate, we see new paths for understanding." Thank you.
Thanks, Chris :)
This really resonates for me personally and presents me with an alternate way to work with a recent “childhood bedroom haunting” dream of my own. Thank you!
You're welcome :)
Haunting dreams are quite common, but the emotional charge can make interacting with them more difficult, I find. Once we meet the resistance, it is interesting to see how the dream may change, or what we learn about a dream we had.
This was amazing to read . I am at the gym in tears haha. I loved the song lyrics of your younger self. I relate so much to the image of a stuck, younger version of myself - not a young child but still without the resources to be helped - longing for a place at my side. Thanks so much for sharing this.
<3 I'm glad the tenderness came through. I was surprised by the spontaneous lyrical expression from the inner figure, it made the moment more impactful. I also dream of singing, or sometimes awake with a melody in mind. It's beautiful how music can show up in dreams and work with the unconscious.
A lot of focus goes to the inner child, understandably. Perhaps for many of us, that is a starting place, since it is so fundamental. How can we tend to the other parts that also need support and care? That's the question I'm left with now.
Exactly - especially as those older parts can have more bitterness and perhaps believe they are not entitled
to the same level of care and protection as the youngest parts are. I personally experienced a lot more “abandoning” from adults in my life as a teenager than I did as
a young child, and I feel it’s these parts of me that are the most powerfully oppositional - and the hardest for me to tend to. Thanks again.
That's a great point. Those older parts, their emotional charge and narrative dynamics, feel more complex. Their defenses and beliefs have more layers of bitterness, hurt, grief, shame, etc that I think requires a different approach in comparison to the child.
Good to hear from you, Gazel. Hope you've been well :)
A recurring dream over the year with some variation. In my childhood home. I am my age now. And it is haunted, I can feel an elusive spirit stalking me, occasionally showing itself through intense feelings of negative energy. Sinmilar to being in a “haunted house”. In some of these recurring dreams the house is empty, the lights might not work in my room, and sometimes I have more courage than usual against this thing.
I like the idea of a seance. I think I have done this in other ways in the last year with hypnosis. Similar?
Have you gleaned any more information about the spirit stalking you in the dreams? Has it ever taken form? Does it show up in certain areas of the house more often than others?
I think hypnosis or other practices that help make you more sensitive to the deeper movements of the psyche can act similarly. It's about communing with the unconscious, creating a direct line to connect and communicate. You may try and take a more focused approach, a tarot reading or hypnosis directed at the dream spirit.
good idea, I think I will try this approach. it has never taken form, but I could sort of tell where it was based on its radiating negative energy. It was usually in my bedroom as I am in my bed, and sometimes as I am leaving the house (the empty version of it) it follows me out to the living room. My guides are telling me that this is my trauma, being elusive to my efforts to heal (I have since done this). I have not had this dream in quite a while, and perhaps it finally faded after I did hypnosis work in the spring. I just had a thing happen, I'll dm you.
It’s ery probably that the work you’ve done has resolved those traumatic elements to a degree where it no longer carries that haunting, negative quality. Perhaps it has evolved, integrated, or is taking new form that is more accessible!