Machiel Klerk - Dream Guidance: Connecting to the Soul Through Dream Incubation

In this very accessible book, Machiel Klerk explains the brass tacks of dream incubation. The how-to and the why, the history and the ancestry. Dream incubation gives us access to healing and creativity. It was just waiting for a simplethough not simplisticguide. Here it is.

Robert Bosnak, author of A Little Course in Dreams

Dream Guidance offers an easy, open, and effective approach to engaging our inner wisdom and its advice! If you are looking for a way to connect with dreaming and your deeper self, try these incubation practices and discover your own dream guidance.

Robert Waggoner, author of Lucid Dreaming

Dreams respond as oracles, offering guidance to one of lifes most precious treasuresthe Soul. Few know the ways of connecting to these oracular powers. Machiel Klerk offers a step-by-step process of asking the focused questions that unleash the guiding wisdom of dreams. This book breaks new ground, opens new possibilities, speaks to the heart and soul. It is a must-read for those following the way of the dream.

Dr. Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D., founder of Pacifica Graduate Institute and Dream Tending

Dream Guidance offers a rich resource of ideas and practices for incubating, working with, and learning from dreams. Machiel Klerk serves as a knowing guide as he draws knowledge from ancient practices and Indigenous healers to psychology and his own compelling insights into the wondrous realm of dreams.

Michael Meade, author of Awakening the Soul

Machiel Klerk has written a remarkable book on dreams. You will learn much from him how to make dreams a part of life. The book is clear and lively and doesnt get stuck in minor arguments and subtle theories. Its an adventure. You need to make dreams a part of your daily life, and this book is a helpful guide and inspiration.

Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul

How do you live your Souls call? This beautiful, engaging book offers guidance for tapping into the deep wisdom dreams offer each night. Put it by your bedside, and it will change your life.

Tina Stromsted, Ph.D., LMFT, director of the Souls Body Center

Machiel Klerk has been exploring the dream world for over 25 years. His deep and sustained interest in the dreamscape has come together in this book, which will help you to connect and explore your own dreams and their meanings. With Machiels experienced guidance, you will learn to allow your dreams to inform, reveal, and enhance your life.

Diane Musho Hamilton, author of Compassionate Conversations

Learning the language of dreams and their wise and holy power to guide us into our most authentic life is a great source of joy and wisdom. In this beautifully written, wise, and original book, Machiel Klerk draws on the wide variety of world traditions and his own deep experience to offer a new way of working with our dreamsand a way to light up our waking lives.

Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope and Engoldenment

Dreams are wise friends, and they wish to help us. With illuminating examples and a lively mix of cultural traditions and history, Dream Guidance leads readers step-by-step into the ancient and highly practical art of dream incubation. By emphasizing the power of ritual and the art of asking the right question, Machiel Klerk guides readers to their inner wisdom.

Dr. Clare Johnson, author of The Art of Lucid Dreaming

In the introduction to Dream Guidance, Machiel Klerk describes how when he was lost, dreams helped him find his way home. That homecoming has been an ongoing journey that is now presented in this fascinating, wise, and practical guide through the five steps of dream incubation. It is especially relevant in todays perilous times, when collectively we need the wisdom of dreams to chart a way home.

Robert D. Romanyshyn, Ph.D., author of Victor Frankenstein, the Monster and the Shadows of Technology

In Machiel Klerks dream work, questioning is like open-heart surgery, where the human heart is eager to open if the instrument of the right question is implemented. With dream incubation: ask the right question and prepare for unforeseen surprises!

Dennis Patrick Slattery, author of The Way of Myth

Dream Guidance is a small but powerful gem. Machiel Klerk has devoted much of his life to gleaning the wisdom found within this book from many traditions. This book is a most helpful guide to those seeking to engage the dreaming psyche in search of soul.

Joseph Cambray, Ph.D., author of Synchronicity

Machiel Klerk understands that dreams are not only apertures into the mystery within each of us but also summonses generated by the soul to engage consciousness. He has assembled a rich collection of ideas, tools, and examples showing how to open a dialogue within and be guided by that source which knows us better than we know ourselves.

James Hollis, Ph.D., author of The Broken Mirror

Copyright 2022 by Machiel Klerk

Published in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com Published in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au Published in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Project editor: Anna Cooperberg

Cover design: Micah Kandros

Interior design: Karim J. Garcia

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tradepaper ISBN: 978-1-4019-6819-9

E-book ISBN: 978-1-4019-6820-5

Audiobook ISBN: 978-1-4019-6821-2

To the world of dream and its guiding inhabitants

When I was lost, dreams were what guided me back home. It started in my early twenties, when I had entered into a grim one-way street in my life. I had not dealt well with the grief and loss of my fathers death when I was 10. This, and other issues, had led to a meaningless and purposeless existence. By chance I stumbled upon the works of Carl Jung, which introduced me to the marvelous, magical, and life-enhancing world of dream.

After that, dreams started to show me where I was in life and gave me direction for the future. Dreams connected me in a wild and gentle way to my father, and to my vocation. Life became exciting again, full of meaning, color, and purpose. From then on, dreams became my passion, and I have been studying them ever since.

By now, I have filled dozens of dream diaries. I have read almost every book on dreams that I have been able to find, and have worked with dream therapists, shamans, and Jungian analysts.