The beginning is the end is the beginning.
Circular dreams and looping dreams can be very persistent, often quite realistic (in the case of dreams where you keep thinking you’ve already woken and gotten up), or indeed quite tiring throughout the night.
But what are they trying to say?
Let’s take an example of a single circle in a dream.
The dream begins with us playing a video game. We see enough to know the scene, the character, and a bit of our direction we’re headed in. The next moment, we are inside the video game, doing the actions or following the path. Whether it continues in videogame style or not, the dream continues on for a bit. At the end, we are headed to sit down on a couch with friends, and we pick up gaming console controllers to start playing a game. We wake up.
Rather than taking a dream-within-a-dream approach here, I’m going to look at this loop from videogame to videogame as a pattern or cycle that’s trying to shake itself out.
Let’s assume that the contents of this dream were unsettling, not a nightmare, but not a pleasant dream. This can often be the case in cyclic dreams. Maybe the scene is a bit dirty, the location a bit shabby, or details are off. Or the feeling is just different to your more uplifting dreams.
What we might say about a circular dream like this is it is attempting to release an old pattern – mental, emotional, something you do or think, or even an old relationship style or pattern.
Through circling, it’s showing that this pattern is not complete, but it could be. It’s like when you imagine a scenario and you re-do it again and again to try to get the best outcome. Or playing a videogame level, you try it again and again to get it right.
Circular dreams are sometimes giving you the opportunity to change the pattern again and again. They let you learn the rhythm so you can make a decision to change the dream. If however, you wake and you feel you haven’t had a chance to make that change, to end or change the pattern, what can you do?
One thing you can do is go back into active imagination, and this could be while you’re still half-asleep or just later in the day. Put yourself back in the dream, either at the end or wherever seems important, and make an empowering change that comes from you now.
Another thing you can do is purify and release the pattern shown in the dream, by visualising whichever method of purification and clearing you prefer. Going into the scene again with a smoke bundle, calling in the metaphysical cleaning squad and getting the dream scene sparkling and new, surrounding it with a transmuting crystal… there are many methods and you can choose the one that comes to you.
Once this is done – either the active imagination or the cleansing action – you can simply let the dream go, let it fade from memory even. Its purpose has been completed and the pattern changed or completed too.
You can do the same for shorter looping dreams, like repeating an action over and over. Often these dreams are about unfinished mental activity of the day, and an even better way of not experiencing these kinds of dreams where you do say a physical action again and again, is to take time to clear your mind before sleep. Recapitulation, or going over every event of the day in a meditative and light way, without attachment, and letting each thing that passes your awareness be released, is a very good way to clear your mind before sleep and avoid repetitive dreams. Or meditation, bathing, or anything that settles, clears and frees your mental space so you can have calmer, happier dreams.
If you have any dreams that are repetitive, try changing something in them or once you’ve awoken, and see what changes in your waking life.