How to Dream Like a Pagan - History Documentary
Personal...when being taught to understand and interpret dreams of importance (not all are, believe it or not...) one of the ways I learned to coerce myself into lucid dreaming re the subject matter I wanted to discover was in sensory deprivation. In the same way flotation tanks were once a “thing”, ancient Celts and other cultures had similar methods (one involving being sewn inside bullhides which was also a rite of passage but provided symbolic, life changing dreams and visions).
Now, lacking flotation tanks (and I wouldn’t go there, tbh) I found the beginning of “Jive’s” pretty trippy vid bringing back memories. My trade in life was as an animal hide tanner, so sheepskins and deerhides I’d no lack of. My father also tanned red deerhides. So I learned to sleep on deerhides (over time, they soften to buttery beauty) and to put sheephides under them, and cover myself with more deerhides, when I wanted to delve into the dreaming world.
The red deer is a creature that means a great deal to me. Aged thirteen I dreamed of riding a red stag across a hill nearby our crofthouse and into a cave in the hill (that didn’t actually exist in “real” life). Since then my life has always been tied up, in many ways, with red deer. (Take note of what Jive says about animal skins btw)
This was my “trick”, my thing, a cocoon, the method I used that primed my mentality to kickstart the subsconscious and let it know what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go. And most of the time, it worked. I developed the routine so that it became as natural as breathing whilst at the same time, nothing commonplace. This was *my* version of being bullhide sewn, or horsehide sewn, this was my version of something my ancestors did and that link with the past helped train my mind to seek what I wanted to find.
There are good *reasons* most shamanic traditions use ritual, theatrical acts and specific practices.
And of course, being Scots born, the practice of finding a hollow hill, barrow or “druid’s temple” to sleep upon isn’t an unknown thing.
I’m retired now (health reasons) but still have many skins and hides with me that I will keep. When I’m ill, I automatically sleep on top of sheepskins. And it automatically makes me feel that bit better, immediately.
The hides and the way we can interract with the spirit of the animal that once wore them is also an aspect of animism.