DREAMS IN HOODOO
Many spiritual traditions, occult and otherwise, place a lot of importance on the significance of dreams. Even the biblical traditions from the Old Testament to the New give us numerous stories of how people used dreams as revelations from God to know what to do. Figures like Joseph used his dreams to parlay and negotiate a better life for the Hebrews in Egypt. Like Jacob, who dreamed of the Angels’ Ladder and those spirits going up and down from heaven to earth. Prophesies talking about old people dreaming dreams during hopeless times. And perhaps most dramatic, the entire book of Revelation could be understood to be a waking dream (one greatly aided by hallucinogenic mushrooms on the island of Patmos!).
Hoodoo is one of these traditions as well. Between the indigenous African remnants, which always have dream interpretation as part of the spiritual practice, and the Abrahamic elements I just named, Hoodoo developed its way of working with dreams. Chief among them is the tool of the dream book. There are many of these things across the history of Hoodoo. They typically contain lucky numbers, basic astrology to orient how things like the lottery are best betted, and other related information. They also often have a correspondence key that tells you that, for example, a dream with dogs dying means a good friend may betray you.
As I understand this tool, only some people are good at prophetic dreaming. Some have the skill, while others do not. I think we also have the ability to varying degrees, shades, and means. For me, the biggest challenge in working with dreams is getting the accuracy of what they mean and not assuming every single dream I have is essential or has some profound spiritual message. That is an absolute, and I am suspicious of too many of those in my spirituality.
I don’t cover dreams specifically as a unit in my flagship courses. But it’s something I likely will at some point because I know we all DO dream and often have no idea what to make of them most times. In the meantime, I would love to have folks join me in my recent cohort of my Introduction to Hoodoo class. If you do, see you in class!
The link to join is here: https://www.theblackthorneschool.com/courses/working-the-roots/.
