Hi Reader,

Welcome to the Dream Studies Newsletter!

This weekend is Lugnasadh, a traditional European harvest festival celebrated on and around August 1st. (pronounce it like this: “Lu - na - Sah- ga"). It’s considered a “first fruits” harvest, a time to get together and enjoy the bounty of all the hard work we’ve been doing. Traditionally, the celebration centers around the themes of baking bread, tending to the hearth or fire, picking berries, and getting together with friends to renew relationships. Lugnasadh especially is known as an auspicious time to make new alliances or as we say today, collabs.

I love Lugnasadh because it gives structure to the summer break, a time when I begin to wonder what day is it? Why are the kids always home? Who am I really when not doing dishes, sorting socks, and prepping meals?

Lugnasadh is a cross-quarter day, halfway between the solstice of June and the equinox in September. Around my neck of the woods in the eastern woodlands, you can really feel a shift in the air around this time, the dog days of August, and right on schedule it’s also the time I start seeing advertisements for backpacks and pencils. The fireflies are out in the fields, the crickets are loud in their back and forth call in the cool nights, and the first harvest of sweet corn is at the farmers market. Seriously, “Fresh Jersey Corn” is literally the call of Lugnasadh.

Like all earth-centered holidays, it’s a time between time, a break in routine, a chance to pause and get grounded and reflect on our lives.

It’s also a great time to incubate dreams!

Why incubate dreams during Lugnasadh?

As dreams tend to reveal information that we already know but are overlooking or have not consciously acknowledged, the Lugnasadh calibration is focused on recognizing the treasures of the season.

We can ask our dreaming minds questions like this:

What bounty am I overlooking in my life?

How can I enjoy the fruits of my labors?

Who can I trust more in partnership or let into my inner circle?

If you're looking for more support in your dream incubations, I invite you to check out my Dream Portal community. We will be sharing our Lugnasadh dreams this weekend and how we are honoring what fresh bounties show up. I have a coupon code for you for 20% off membership at the end of this newsletter.

New podcast episode is out: Lucid Dreaming and Sacred Geometry

In this episode, I sit down with dream researcher and author David L. Kahn to explore the archetypal landscape of lucid dreaming. Drawing from his new book Oneironaut's Odyssey: Discovering Ancient Wisdom Through Lucid Dreams, Kahn shares vivid personal dream accounts featuring sacred geometry, the Tree of Life, underworld journeys, spiritual guides, and ancestral healing.
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Trigger warning: the last part of this episode touches on themes of the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and suicide (time stamp 28 minutes+).
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​In this episode, we discuss:

• The hero's journey as it plays out in dreams,
• Mentors and guides in lucid dreams,
• Precognitive lucid dreams,
• Ancestral trauma uncovered through dreaming,
• and practical guidance for cultivating a more lucid life.

Archaeology of Consciousness Update

My essay series Archaeology of Consciousness is heating up on Substack. The Archaeology of Consciousness explores the intersection of the imaginal and material domains, through the lens of my adventures as a field archaeologist and consciousness researcher. At the heart of this exploration is a journey into the Paleolithic operating system that still operates in our own minds.

So the big news is I've just opened up to paid subscriptions. Every article is still free to read, no paywall, but those who do support my work can get closer to the project as I build it in real time, with bonuses like extra field notes as well as access to the video versions of the Dream Studies Podcast. Founding members also get a rare dream amulet mailed to their homes.

Next week, by the way, I'll be in conversation with self-described "Paleolithic psychologist" Robert Moss on these topics on the Shift network - I'll let you know the details when I get them.

If you're curious, check out the welcome post where I outline the Archaeology of Consciousness project in greater detail. It's really a different flavor than the work I do here at Dream Studies, allowing me to delve back into my creative nonfiction roots as I serialize what will soon be a full scale book.

The Elsewhere Dream Journal is here

I’m excited to announce that my independent publishing house - Dream Studies Press - has reached a new milestone. We are collaborating with Elsewhere.to and together have created the world’s first connected dream journal system.

In a lot of ways, the project epitomizes the central mission of my work, which has always been about integrating the best of 21st century thought with the intuitive ways of knowing prized by our ancestors: dreams, visions and imagination: "the best of the old and new.”

What is a connected dream journal?

The connected dream journal system lessens the friction of reporting, archiving, and analyzing on your dreams like never before.

It solves a problem I have personally had for years – how to get all the cognitive and mindfulness benefits of dream journaling by hand, and also be able to easily digitize the dreams for thematic analysis after the fact. If you’re like me, you might dozens of old notebooks of dreams, and no way to track changes in your dreams over time. Or, you've got a massive word doc with hundreds of dreams, but have missed out on immediacy of recording them and sketching the powerful visual images.

Now you can do both!

With the Elsewhere Dream Journal, you can record your dreams old school style—pen and paper— then scan the page using the Elsewhere app on your smartphone or tablet. The app digitizes your handwriting (it’s remarkably good at this: I have to correct only a few words each time) and then you can watch your dreams come alive with analysis, image generation, and symbol mapping.

You can pick up the Elsewhere Dream Journal: A Place for Dreams, exclusively available on my newly redesigned Dream Studies Press.

Looking for more support?

If you are looking for a safe place to share and understand your own extraordinary dreams for creativity, healing and spiritual discernment, this is exactly what we do in the Dream Portal, day in and day out.

The affordable Foundational Level tier supports you as you supercharge your dream life ... safely and sustainably. This community hub serves as a private social network where we geek out about all sorts of dreaming practices, including for working with lucid dreams, sleep paralysis, and out-of-body experiences.

It's a community, and it's also a roadmap. You can take the included on-demand courses to solve whatever problem you're working with right now: minimizing nightmares, getting more rest, encouraging more dream recall, and of course, inviting powerful lucid dreams and other kinds of extraordinary experience.

Right now you can join the Dream Portal for less than $16/month if you use this coupon in the cart and save 20% recurrently: NEWSLETTER20

And don't forget the coupon code when you register. And if you find out it's not for you, we have a two week refund policy, no questions asked.

May you sleep well and dream strong!

Ryan D. Hurd, founder of the Dream Portal and Dream Studies Press