This article presents my experiences with building a dream bastion – a means for control and defense of the demesne of my dream lands. There are many resources and techniques for lucid dreaming and improving dream recall, practice with those techniques may be required to fully utilize the exercise described below.
As we proceed, keep in mind that dreams are highly individual. The symbolism used here comes from my own experience and will differ from what others find.
We imagine stone; strong material to work with; something enduring, weathered but timeless; strong and unbreakable. As this image builds up in front of us, we call to mind our seat of power. This is the place we feel most in control, the most safe, the most commanding:
A personal library.
In a stone-walled room, shelves of books rise around us. This library is filled with comfortable places to sit and read, desks to work with pen and paper. The space is illuminated by gentle candlelight and large windows—glassless and un-shuttered—that open to the countryside.
This library sits atop a sky-high tower made of stone. It offers sweeping views in all directions of the lands of dreams. At the center of the room, a large, clear space waits expectantly.
Stepping into that space, we take a moment to center and firm ourselves for the task at hand. Then we cast a circle about us in fiery, bright colors: a circle of power in cold flames, similar to, but more vivid than, the waking world.
Feel the power ring out from our words, our will, to all corners of our lands, “Let all attend to us. We stand in our place of power. This realm is ours to command. Let no one pass its borders without our leave, no changes wrought without our permission. No one stands higher than us inside our own demesne. Our bastion is unassailable.”
With this final exclamation, we reach out and search our lands for its borders, "From this seat to the edges of imagination, all is ours!"
Push imagination to its limits. View all the lands and places we have ever dreamed—all that can ever be conceived. Keep pushing, pushing, pushing until the walls of our dreams reach the cusp of all we can envision.
There, at the border of the conceivable, beyond which we are blind, deaf, and numb, we place our boundary stones and build our walls: walls of Silence and Daring, walls of Power and Will, walls of Love and the Flame of Knowledge.
Know that nothing can breach these without our knowledge nor our permission.
"From this seat to the edges of imagination, all is ours!"
Repeat this process three times over six consecutive days of lucid dreaming. The days not spent building the walls and laying our claim are spent with grounding power into our realm: laying triggers and traps that wake us to lucidity if needed. This could take a whole other article to cover, suffice to say that much can be done to prepare your dreaming mind to wake into a variety of levels, full and partial, of lucidity.
Knowledge of the purpose behind my personal symbolism might provide some illumination for others when confronted with differing symbols that serve the same function.
The stone. Note the qualities of weathered endurance. It brings to mind an aged castle, something that has withstood the assault of time and invaders. Any other symbols that provide you with this same sense of lasting security and protection will serve the same purpose.
The seat of power, a library. The importance here is a place that brings that feeling of control and command, somewhere that gives the ability to act along with the knowledge needed to do so effectively. It is still wrapped up in that earlier symbol of safety and protection. This is the center of the bastion and is similar in many ways to an astral temple.
How the bastion will work: like an astral temple, the bastion works as a central point equipped with the tools of magic and the sources of power needed for your dream magic to be worked successfully. Here, many of the actions will mirror those used in magic in the waking world. See the tools and rituals of whatever framework or tradition is most familiar to you.
The boundary is indescribable and will be so for everyone that reaches it. It is the very border of your own thoughts, feelings, and the reach of your imagination. If you can see anything beyond it, then you haven't truly reached that border and must push further.
The walls and boundary stones can take any form and, at least in my experience, will frequently change in appearance when they show up in dreams. These walls won't be physical objects, but are made of ideas and willpower. Walls properly constructed out of these ephemeral things will link them tightly to their creator. It allows them to expand as the mind holding them expands with new knowledge, giving them the strength your own will and conviction.
May you have warm dreams until we meet again.
Candy Russell, The Changling Witch. Fae/faer
