Dreamwork: An Astral Projection Ritual
Astral projection is an ancient, esoteric practice that allows you to transcend your material body.
During this process, you are disconnecting your consciousness from your physical body so that you can travel to places within the earthly world and other realms. I’ve traveled to other countries, connected with spirit guides on the astral plane, visited the past, and seen future events through my travels.
With a bit of patience and practice, anyone can master this spiritual dreamwork. The ritual below will help you connect with your astral body and begin to explore the astral plane.
Suggested Tools
Bowl
Water
Salt
Pen & Paper
Your Bed
Optional
Supporting crystals - Blue Calcite, Herkimer Quartz, Labradorite, Clear Quartz, Rhodonite, Opal, Sodalite
Supporting herbs - Mugwort, Blue Lotus, Passionflower, Vervain, Wormwood, Valerian Root
3 Tips for Dreamwork
One of the most critical pieces of dreamwork is practicing good sleep hygiene. Here are a few quick tips to help you with your nightly routine. Besides allowing yourself to slide into the dream world more easily, you’ll also find that you’ll have a more restful sleep.
End screen time at least an hour before bed or nighttime rituals. This is probably the most challenging task in our day and age, but it works wonders.
Cover up any mirrors in your bedroom, and leave the electronics out of your bedroom. At the very least, put them in a drawer to cover the screen and create a physical barrier.
Maintain a consistent sleep schedule. Set a target time for bed each night, and keep your wake-up time uniform.
Part One: Preparing for Lift-Off
When we connect with - and journey - in our astral body, we are more open to outside energies. It becomes crucial to prepare yourself for this ritual by clearing your mind, as well as your emotional and spiritual bodies. This allows you to maintain more control over the kind of energies that connect with you on your travels.
Clear yourself and your space using your preferred method. You can take a ritual bath or shower, use incense, or even use sound with bells, singing bowls, or music to clear your space and yourself. If using a Dream Steam to support your connection to your energetic body, this is the time to add that to your ritual. The goal here is to create a relaxed and positive state that is conducive to connecting with your consciousness.
Fill a small bowl with water and sea salt (table salt will work just fine, too). Put this in one of the corners of your room where it won’t be disturbed. If you sleep with your pets as I do, you’ll want to put the bowl where it’s out of reach. This serves two purposes - water helps us connect with the spirit worlds and salt protects and absorbs negative energies.
Part Two: A State of Trance
While not necessary, I find meditation helps me immensely when it comes to getting into a deep trance state. I usually use a guided meditation from Insight Timer, because that’s what works best for me. You can use your normal meditation practice here. Reaching a deep trance state can happen differently for everyone.
You will know when you connect with your astral body. I usually feel either a sense of falling or pressure over my chest and body - almost like another person is laying on top of me. It may take some time to reach, but you will get there if you practice. The more regularly you practice, the easier it will be to access this state.
Part Three: Off You Go
You may find it helpful to envision your energetic body sitting up in bed and swinging your legs over the side. Alternatively, you can begin by wiggling your energetic fingers and slowly lifting your arms. These practices help you to get more comfortable in your energetic body before going off on your adventure.
Once you connect with your astral body, begin to set intentions for your journey. You may want to communicate with a spirit guide, travel through time, visit places around the world, or seek answers to guide you on your spiritual journey. The options are truly endless when it comes to astral travel, so having a specific goal or destination is useful.
Part Four: Bringing It Home
After returning from your travels and waking up in your physical body, I encourage you to write down your experience. It’s not likely that you’ll forget, but I’ve found it incredibly helpful to keep a record of my travels and look back on the insights and wisdom that I’ve gained.
You’ll want to repeat the first part of the process by cleansing to ensure that you didn’t pick up any unwanted energies over the course of your journey. If you’re practicing regularly (which I hope you do), you’ll want to change your bowl of saltwater out every week or two.
*Note of Awareness: Astral projection commonly involves sleep paralysis which can be jarring, even scary, especially if you’ve never consciously experienced it before. Remain calm and embrace the experience. Deep breathing can help here if you find it difficult to remain calm.
The fear comes in because the unknown can be scary at first. Most (if not all) of us astrally project nightly during sleep, so it’s a perfectly natural and safe practice. Keep in mind that fear is also a state of consciousness. Once you face it and move through it, it no longer exists.
Additional Resources:
If you’re interested in learning more about astral projection, I’ve included a few resources that I found helpful.
This sub-reddit is an amazing, free resource filled with others who practice astral projection and those who are looking to learn.
The Committee of Sleep by Deirdre Barrett