Dream arcs reveal the patterns which exist across time and dimensions.
Interpreting one-off dreams, or dreams over time, or particularly emotive dreams, is rewarding in itself. However, sometimes there’s a dream which presents a pattern or a situation in your life, and then you wonder, “what happens next?”
For example, a dream in which you almost did something you really want to do, or you acted in a way which upon waking, you wish you’d changed. Or an opportunity to learn something secret came to you in the dream and you were unable to participate. Or another dream where upon waking you think, what might have happened if I stayed in that dream?
It can be helpful to see what metaphors came up first. Was this a dream about becoming lost? Looking for something? Getting permission? Missing an opportunity?
Was it about an attitude: being braver, saying Yes, stepping forward, making contact?
We would identify that. Let’s say we were working with thresholds and permission. We had an opportunity in the dream, and we almost took it, but were talked out of it by another dream figure.
We could go into more detail on our dream interpretation but we might also want to say: what happens if I allow myself to engage next time? What if I go ahead and cross the threshold?
This is where a dream incubation comes in. There are many ways to incubate a dream, but I will share one which has worked for me.
While you are awake and interpreting the first dream, you come to the point of deciding you want to incubate a dream to keep the conversation going. In your normal awake state, formulate an open request. Just follow how you feel but it might look like:
– Where am I holding myself back?
– How am I being courageous already?
– What threshold am I at?Decide which question feels right to you, write it down so you remember, and then go about your day.
As you go to sleep, feel the feelings of the question you decided on earlier in the day. Feel what asking it means, feel how the question means more than just the words, but what it means to you in your context, and the context of the previous night’s dream. You might start drifting attention, and this might be the start of the response. Unlike meditation, just let yourself drift off and sleep as per normal.
During the night you may or may not be conscious of your dreaming. Sometimes I am, and sometimes I’m conscious of which dream is the most meaningful in a night, and kind of make a mental note to visit it in the morning. In any case, when you awake, how do you feel? What can you remember of your dreams? Or, what were you just dreaming of as you woke? Some people say that dreams within a night are all holographic and develop their clarity from beginning to end of sleeping, so it’s okay if you can just remember what you woke up dreaming.
if in doubt, pick the most potent feeling dream. Write it all down, even details that don’t seem to matter. These details are often hidden keys.
You may wish to run an interpretation or note down metaphors, symbols, figures of speech about your dream and get a feeling for its communication first.
Then, bring out your written question from yesterday, and look at it in the light of your recent dream. While it is less likely the dream will have continued directly from Night 1’s dream, it will often continue the same themes. Do you see the same themes come up? Where has there been progress or challenges?
You can actually repeat this night after night, and walk yourself through a story arc. Because these are dreams, they can often take the form of very archetypical story arcs. Initiation, the Hero’s Quest, and the like.
This process gives you as much as you give it – it is worthwhile doing, and worth recording small details. They can add up to be significant parts of the overall tapestry. And, they can answer waking-life questions, show you your own development, and show you your progress.
You can make progress and changes in dreams which “stay put” in waking life. You can get healings and support in dreams which take effect in real life. Dreams don’t charge you money for results, only attention.
If you’d like to walk through this topic in more detail and ask questions too, I’m running a class shortly on this (as of May 2025). Sign up to the newsletter below to be the first to know, and come along and learn how to work with your own dream arcs to create changes you’ve always wanted in your life.