Exploring Inner Wisdom Through Astrology and Dreams with Special Guest Dr. Michael Lennox

In this episode, Dr. Michael Lennox joins us on the Living Out Love podcast to share his unique blend of wisdom of the mind through science, astrology, and mysticism. He takes us through the journey of how he uses astrology to help others heal and explore their spirituality. Dr. Michael Lennox also shares his perspectives on dream work, shadow work, and forgiveness. Finally, learn how you can follow him and access his resources online, including his upcoming book "Psychic Dreaming: Exploring the Connection Between Dreams and Intuition," coming out in January 2024. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in exploring their inner self and uncovering the hidden depths of astrology, dream work, and intuition. Don't miss it!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Explore the Connection Between Dreams and Intuition: Explore the connection between dreams and intuition by delving into shared dreams, visitation dreams, and more.

Combine Science, Mindfulness, and Mysticism: Dr. Michael Lennox explains how the merging of science, mindfulness, and mysticism helps to gain more wisdom in life. Using this combination when exploring self-investigation issues will provide clarity and understanding.

Unlock Soul-Level Connections: Experiencing soul-level connections with others is possible and can be done through astrology. A deeper dive into the cosmic powers will help unlock insights that might have been previously hidden.

Explore patterns from childhood - To work on personal development, it's important to explore patterns from your child of origin or upbringing. Dr. Michael Lennox teaches classes on modern Shadow Work, using myths and fairy tales as the template to explore themes of our humanity.

Look for Natal Chart Clues: In order to use astrology powerfully, look for clues in your natal chart. This exercise is a great way to gain further understanding about yourself.

LINKS

https://michaellennox.com

Michael Lennox - Facebook Page

Michael Lennox - Instagram Page

Michael Lennox - Youtube Channel

Michael Lennox - TikTok Page

TRANSCRIPT

Michael Lennox  00:00

Ooh, now the recording light has come on and the counter has come on. Yes, yes. Okay.

Amy Hageman  00:09

Well, Dr. Michael Lennox, welcome to the living out love podcast. I am freaking excited that you're here. And I have come to know you through your podcast conscious embodiment. It's the number one reason to wake up on a Monday.

Michael Lennox  00:24

Thank you, Amy.

How Dr. Michael Lennox got into the field of astrology.

Amy Hageman  00:25

Yeah. And so I've come to know you as a psychologist and astrologer and a dream interpreter. So for my audience, can you just give us the background? Like how did you come to be those things?

Michael Lennox  00:36

Right, right, right. It is a little bit of an odd sort of combo. When I was a kid, I was fascinated with my own dreams. And somehow Freud's interpretation of dreams came into my view at 15. It was shut up on my mother's shelf, and I read this book. And I got that there was this thing about dreams that they could be worked with. He used the word analysis, he could analyze a dream and get some meaning of it. And I just used that idea to sort of have some Moxie in high school. And kids would say, I had the craziest dream last night, I'd be like, Well, tell me why your dream. And I think I might have something to say about that. And there was something weird that happened to me, I would tell people dreams, and I would just speak. And people would be fascinated by what I had to say. And I later figured that I just I had a gift, I had a gift for universal language where symbols have meaning. And I was able to hear people's dreams without projecting my own thing on them. When I could listen to the symbols in a dream purely. And so I just kept doing it.

So even as a you know, a person in my 20s, like, I was known as the guy who interpreted dreams. I even did my first like workshop in that area in my like, late 20s. While I was still working in the entertainment industry, in the business side of things like I was always on the left side, kind of exploring my own spiritual practice, and then teaching about dreams and dream interpretation. Then, in my 30s, when the internet kind of exploded, I don't know why I got crazed for astrology, I had my first astrology reading at 25. And the astrologer made a copy of the chart for, for me, the client. So I was looking at this chart while she was talking. And I recognized some symbols of Mars and Venus, because they're the masculine feminine symbols that you see out there in the world. And I was having this profound experience of astrology at 25 of I get this. Yeah, like I fundamentally got it.

So when the internet made connecting to material, a possibility that didn't exist before it. I just went nuts for studying astrology. And it captivated me and it grabbed me. And then in my mid 30s, just having a little crisis, I broke up with the boyfriend. I was like, I don't know what to do. I think I'll go to grad school. And I knew I didn't want to be a therapist, per se. But I knew I wanted to help people. I knew I wanted to speak and talk. I have a background as an actor, and I'm a performer at heart. But I didn't want to do that I wanted to teach. So I thought, well, I want to be a therapist, but I need to know more about how the human psyche works. Let's go to grad school. And so by the time I hit like 40, I was done with my master's half done with my doctorate had done this TV show on the Sci Fi network on dreams, dream interpretation, which kind of like, codified me as an expert air quotes expert in the world of media. And then I was just off to the races. And it was like the career that I enjoy now developed itself. But it was that I had done all of this prep work in my 20s and 30s. That when it was really time to have a radical sort of midlife crisis and a life change, this world opened up to me and now I run like two businesses in doing astrology readings, astrology, teaching, dream interpretation, I've written three books, a fourth one coming out in January. So like, like, this is my whole life is consciousness teaching people about that through dreams through astrology through our human experience of wounds that we can heal. And that's my life.

Amy Hageman  04:22

Yeah. I'm obsessed. So I own I own two of your dream books. And I go to your, the, you know, the rest of the encyclopedia. Yeah, I go to that all the time. Yeah. All the time. So, um, yes. I want to start with like the basics, like, What are dreams?

What are dreams and why do they matter?

Michael Lennox  04:44

Well, this is a great, unanswerable question, you know, fundamentally, we don't know. Okay, we know a lot about the brain and brain structure and brain chemistry and one of the hubris sort of aspects of science is that so ions will come up with something that happens, say in the brain that relates to a mystical experience. And then suddenly science says the mysticism isn't real, it's like, That's bullshit. We're just discovering what the brain is doing. While a mystical experience is happening, it doesn't eradicate mysticism. So there are things we know about REM sleep, we are processing memory. In REM sleep, we're going over everything we experienced in the day and picking out the important material and turning it into short term memory and discarding the rest. That's really important, because if we didn't, our brains would explode with data, and we'd begin hallucinating.

Also, the brain poops, just like every cell in the body creates metabolic waste, so the brain cells, but the brain can't use the lymphatic system to clear that metabolic waste out. Because there's this blood brain barrier, the burden has to be protected from the rest of the body. So the brain has this crazy way of like shrinking itself, filling the in between the cerebral spinal fluid and the cells expand back up, pushing the waist out and then shoving all of that cerebral spinal fluid into the spinal column and out of the brain in that way, that's how we clean the brain off. And that happens during REM sleep. So the scientists would say, dreams have no meaning. There is no mystical connection. It's just detritus from the day's data, and this inner phenomenon of the brain. That's nonsense.

It's great that we know what the brain is doing. But the idea that dreams aren't profoundly mystical or transformative, or they're not reflecting our unconscious processing is nonsense. They are, do I know what they are? No, I don't do I know that we visit a kind of multi dimensional landscape and dreams, yeah, anything can happen, and probably will in a dreams state. Because we're in not normal space. So I think that that dreams are a snapshot of what's in our immediate psyche, on the moment that we have them. So they will reflect things that we're struggling with, or, or working on. I think that's why dreams that are scary and difficult or more memorable, because they're reflecting conflicts that we're working out.

And this multi dimensional experience of tapping into material where the three dimensional limitations of life no longer apply. That's why in dreams we can connect with people who have passed, who once were in bodies, and now are no longer but there they are in our dream life, where we can have a dream and someone else that we're close to has a dream at the same time about the same material. So if that's happening, then there's got to be something more mystical, that the dream is, even if science can't describe that, the mystic certainly can. And so I would certainly describe dreams as access to everything that's happening below the surface of our conscious awareness, and our ability to tap into our mystical sensibility and have a greater experience of that.

Amy Hageman  08:18

That's a much more beautiful answer than I was anticipating. So do all dreams matter? Or like so some people will be like, Oh, I just had a stress dream?

Why are animals weird in your dreams? 

Michael Lennox  08:30

Yeah, that's a great question that I, I, the answer is you do not have to interpret every dream. And I think you'd go nuts trying to, does that mean that some dreams have meaning and others? Don't? I'm not sure that that's true. Exactly. But I certainly have heard 1000s of people say, Oh, wow, this dream grabbed my attention. And like, what does that even mean to the person who's had the dream? All they know is they can't stop thinking about it. Yeah. And so the idea that there are dreams that grab our attention like that, well, then that has to influence how I would answer this question. Because I do believe that the psyche or the soul tells us when we need to pay attention by making a dream more memorable. Now to what you said is like, is that just a stress dream?

I'll answer that with this little sort of tidbit. There are standard recurring dreams that everybody has, there's a category of them, you know, the typical ones are flying, falling, being chased tsunamis or big zombie apocalypse is our big if you're under 40, because of all of the, you know, influence of media and video games. So we dream about that a lot. teeth falling out. If you have one of those dreams that you've had 1000 times in your life. That's a standard stress dream. But there are recurring dream themes that can come up that are not one of those standard stress dreams but thematic in nature. And now suddenly we're in like a place where I'd have to say, oh, yeah, no, the psyche wants you to pay attention to this.

Amy Hageman  10:12

Yeah, minds always snakes.

Michael Lennox  10:15

Yeah, right. Yeah. Know that, you know, your psyche has a vocabulary, that snakes are scary snakes are stressful. And that's the dream that your brain says, ooh, Amy's stressed. Let's throw her that snake dream. And then if we add the symbolic meaning and interpretation of snakes, they're always about change and transformation. Life is filled with change is scary. Amy has the extremes when life is changing. Yes. We just wake up the next day and face the changes.

Amy Hageman  10:45

Yeah. And for me, I feel like my dreams are often bringing to me what I haven't acknowledged that I need to acknowledge Oh, yeah, that's beautiful. With the snakes. It's like I often dream it when I have a lot of fear about change. But I haven't acknowledged that I'm feeling fear.

Michael Lennox  11:01

Oh, well, that's perfect. That fits right into my view of the dream purpose has something to do with the unconscious needing to let us know, this needs your attention. So it is a brilliant example of that playing out in your regular dream life.

Amy Hageman  11:21

So I'm going out of order the way I thought I would ask these questions. We just talked about snakes. What the heck is up with animals in dreams? Like, I feel like, every time I have a dream about an animal, it's scary, or they're like peeing on me, or they're biting me like, it's what? Is that? Just me? Why are animals weird in dreams?

Are dreams related to past life dreams?

Michael Lennox  11:41

Well, let me start with the idea of animal medicine. Okay, that we have a desire in the human psyche to elevate certain symbols that live inside of us and animal medicine is part of that. And that certainly comes back from a time on the planet where we were revering mother as a goddess, and and animals and our immediate environment was informing us before, you know, 4000 years ago, and the colonization of the West sort of started. It is in our DNA, to respond to images of animals as sacred psyche. That's why there are websites and books and all sorts of, you know, resources that tap like a modern Western culture into these animal meanings that First Nations people all over the world like that's, that's their, that's their spiritual structure.

So I want to start by saying this any and every dream about an animal for my money is reflecting the soul's expression of powerful archetypal energy that's either part of your soul's expression or necessary at a moment in time where the struggle or the stress would benefit from the medicine that the animal in the dream represents. You know, spiders are about patience, because they spread their little, you know, fabulous weapon, they go to the corner and they await. They're not sitting there complaining, where's my fly, they're just waiting for the flight to come. Because they trust abundant flow. But patience is necessary.

So suddenly, a dream about a spider might be oh, I need some patience, you know, bears know when to hibernate, but also have great strength and power that they don't need to, like exhibit in order to show us like, no one's looking at a bear thinking, Oh, that's a skinny little thing that I don't have to worry about. So Bear might show up when strength or fortitude or hibernation is necessary, right? So this is a couple of examples. As a person who has heard 1000s and 1000s of dreams throughout my life, I this is hyperbolic and I don't mean it. Absolutely. But I've never heard people that said to have not never heard it, but it's so common for animal totem dreams to express fear, rejection and terror. When the animal is present, like your experience of being urinated on or bitten, that is so common and for my money, it's still an animal totem dream, and most of us are more afraid of our power than we know.

And so the dream that says, here's the essence of the energy that's in you, that's powerful that will assist you might come along with some fearful imagery as we acclimate to allowing the strength to come up and be integrated by us. But even just the idea of being bitten or urinated on by an animal in a dream, both of those are very sacred. In interactions with the animal, the animal bites you, that's an extension of their penetration of you. And urination, I mean, my God, there's nothing more powerful than an animal marking its territory with urine. So if you get urinated on by an animal in your dream, I would call that a sacred interaction with the animal medicine. Wow.

Amy Hageman  15:29

Wow. So do you, do you ever think that dreams are related to past lives? Or you might have like a past life vision and a dream? That's a question I get asked.

Michael Lennox  15:48

All the time. Now that this is actually interesting for me personally, because I, it's not like I don't vibe with the idea of past lives, I do. I'm more inclined to thinking that we've been everybody like, that we've connected to that we can connect every life there's ever been. And that when someone vibes on a past life, it's not because they had been this person in the past that no one else has been that person. Right? So I have this sort of belief that it's private and personal. I don't teach about this. And the reason they don't teach about past lives is because I have these sort of ambivalences about declaring that it looks like this, I don't think we know what it looks like. And so I personally, but I will tell you, Amy, I have heard many dreams, where I just what flew out of my mouth. Was this feels like a past life dream. Yeah. So then, okay, well, then, why would that be there has to be some quality of the dream, to cause me to save that. And I would assume that it's some kind of wholeness and completeness of environment that looks and feels like a consistent other place, where most dreams are so amorphous, from setting to setting to setting in rapid succession of change in chaos and that dream like way, past life, dreams tend to have an environment that feels more solid, as if you were having a dream of visiting a place, right? Yeah. And so the dreamer might say, I was in a place or in a town or at a history, you know, a lot of law. And in the listening for me, it might be like, Hmm, sounds like a past life dream. Yeah. And so I believe in the mystical potential of dream states, so why not? Might not have that be something that's possible.

Amy Hageman  17:42

Right. I like your ambiguity around past lives. I really resonate with. I mean, I get I do readings for people where we look at their past lives, and it comes up in their dreams. And so yes, that's, that's really interesting.

Michael Lennox  17:57

Well, a part of it is my half scientist, half mystic perspective. And that's how I describe myself right on the fence. I am fully Whoo, as they get like, fully, fully, fully. But I have a scientific mind. And I was raised by a scientist, right. So I was raised to see the world empirically. In fact, my mother was like, There's no such thing as God, there's no such thing as intuition. There's no such thing as psychic ability. And I'm like, Look, so that pushback was helpful to me in the long run, although painful, you know, in some ways. So because I have to have some scientific sort of backing before I would declare something to be so I know that we're connected to the past, I have felt it I have heard it, there's just no questioning that that I that we are somehow, but the idea that anybody can describe something that is ultimately a mystery. It's like, you do know that it's a mystery, right?

I did a workshop I didn't do the workshop is facilitating a group that did like bi monthly workshops for the gay community in Los Angeles years ago. And we had a past life regression, person calm and she did a whole whiteboard presentation about how every buddy has 12 people in their soul group and this that and the other thing and I was standing in the back of the room with a colleague was like, How does she know that right? Now, I'll counter this last I had no idea was gonna have so much to say about this ball countered my last sort of thing to say about that notion of like, how do they know that? People also have their private wisdom that they get revealed? I have not had the revenge the revelation about past lives for me to say yes, this is what happened. But what if she's right, what if there are 12 and she got that revelation right. So I, I always maintain some measure of respect, but the language that will come out of my mouth will always be right in the middle of Have of I think this is so I still don't have proof and I'm glad you like it.

Amy Hageman  20:05

Yeah, yeah. Oh, definitely. I one of the themes of my, like leadership background has been explaining to people we have to increase our tolerance for complexity. I love that as a species, this growth we need. Yeah. Love that. That's kind of brilliant. Um, okay, another question that I'm dying to know, because it irks me. Why sometimes in a dream, do we dream of a person, but it looks like someone else. And here's my example. Like, I'll dream of my husband. But it doesn't look like the sexy man that I married. It looks like my college boyfriend. That was not a great relationship. But in the dream, I like I know. It's my husband. It just doesn't. 

Everything is a holographic reflection of us. 

Michael Lennox  20:52

Okay, first of all, you get points for asking a question that I don't think I've ever been asked before. So I have to sort of lean in like to this the way that I work is like, I don't know the answer that question. But there's a part of me that does. And we're tapping into that part right now. I think that, because everything is a reflection in life, everything is this holographic reflection so that the people we know the people we love the people we relate to, is part of this holographic reflection thing, even your spouse or your partner is really just a projection of the part of you that is your inner beloved. I mean, there's a whole field of psychology around that called a Mago psychology where you do couples counseling based on, you have an inside image of Your Beloved, so does your partner and then that's the projection you're struggling with to like figure out like who you both are, because you're projecting something onto each other.

So from the perspective of this holographic projection, mirror consciousness that we are, I do believe that dreams are often taking us into the parts of us, that are well reflected by someone in our life. So even the dream about your spouse or partner, it's not about them, it's not their dream, it's about the part of you that they reflect or they represent. So we do this with all people who appear in a dream and what I call the inner circle of interpretation, there are other ways to interpret dreams. And people in your dream might be reflecting actual outside relationship stuff with them. But the pure sort of inner circle is just when Well, everybody in my dream is a part of me a reflection of me. And so very often, that's very obvious. You dream about your friend who's the most sort of discerning and careful and sort of, you know, move slowly and mindfully because you need that, at that moment, not impulsivity, then then, when that's literal, we get that like, it's like, it's not Marcy, in your dream, it's Marcy's qualities that you need right now. So that's a standard thing that we do in the world of interpreting dreams. So to your question, why sometimes to somebody look one way, but feel clearly like they are someone that we know me orient to. And so my answer to that is back to your thing about complexity.

There's two things going on in that moment. One is the felt deep sense that you're perceiving spouse. But in the wild, multi dimensional landscape of a brain, that's just flipping out on 1000s of you know, impulses, per millisecond. Also processing memory, also clearing out metabolic waste in this crazy chaotic place. It's like, sometimes who shows up will look like that, but feel like this. So that that's my best answer, that I wouldn't go immediately to the idea that there's purpose and meaning that the person looks different, but feels like something else I would go with, well, the feeling counts more. You know, it's just like a home. It's like, Oh, I was in a home that I wasn't my home, but I knew it was home. Well, then we know we're having a dream about the sense of self that homes reflect even if it looks different. So we might interpret a dream about someone who looks different or seems different, but it's felt as someone that might, you know, engender a really interesting conversation about your relationship with that person. If I was sitting with somebody, really dissecting the dream. Yeah, there might be meaning in the ambiguity to interpret. But I think at the heart of it, it's just it's all that chaos and complexity. We go with the felt sense

Amy Hageman  25:00

That's interesting. I had wondered, and I'm going to read you a dream later that includes that theme. But I hadn't wondered if, if it was like the version of me that was in that relationship. If it was that version of me that was acting out the dream, like if it was a sign that my subconscious was taking me back to, this is what your life would be like if you weren't growing up. Oh,

Michael Lennox  25:24

I like that. Listen, one of the beautiful things about dreams and dream interpretation is, is that we always have to respect the dreamer. More than the outside was like, Oh, that dream doesn't mean that honey, I No matter because I'm the dream expert. It's like, Yeah, but it's your dream, right? So I love the way that you have contextualized something that's part of your dream vocabulary. So therefore, we have to honor that honey, because you You are the Guardian have your own soul? Not a dream interpreter. 

Dreams not visitations.

Amy Hageman  25:58

Hmm. Well, what's funny is, so I'd already had that question, like ready to go, because that's something that happens for me a lot. And when I went on Instagram, and ask people like, what are your questions? A friend of mine whose dad has passed, he passed many years ago. She's been dreaming about him, but they seem like dreams, not visitations. And she said that in her dreams, he has not aged. But she has. And she was like, so what is that?

Michael Lennox  26:27

Now he's passed? Yes. Okay. Yeah. So I think this is a perfect example that he, especially if she says their dreams, not visitations, you know, visitation dreams are very simple. They're very singular and setting, they often take place in that a lot of benches in these rooms, on a bench sitting on a bench in a park, or right in the bedroom that you're sleeping in. And there, you know, the person is usually not saying anything, but conveying a sense of love or all as well. If they do say something, it's often I love you and all as well, it's like, that's the visitation dreams have a very specific thumbprint and signature. dream dreams are just dream dreams and dream dreams can you know have people who have passed in it and as long as the storyline of the dream is dream like and not singular? Then you're right.

Your friend is describing dreams where she is processing stuff that relates to her father's influence her father's participation in early life. And so the age she shows up in like, if I knew this about her, and we were working together, I'd be like, well, how old were you? When your father looked like he was in the dream? And that might yield some interesting things about why she's perceiving him at a particular age. That's younger. 

Amy Hageman  27:49

Yeah. Oh, gosh, it's so beautiful. I just love the mysticism with it. I just love it. So what about black and white versus Color Dreams? Is that significant?

The absence of passion vs the presence of passion.

Michael Lennox  28:03

Well, it is only significant in that people say, Oh, I dreamed in color. So then there's this ipso facto idea that other dreams are in black and white. Now, if I've heard 3000, people say to me, it was in color. Maybe I've heard it like I'll say like, maybe just to like, circumnavigate my propensity for hyperbole, because that's me, I just speak in big grand gestures. I don't think I've ever heard anybody say I had a dream and black and white. So my experience tells me that when someone reports, I'm dreaming in color, it's because the dream is somehow amplified in a colorful way. And that might be making it more memorable.

It might be part of why it's stuck in the waking life, I'd have a strong belief that the dreams we remember, is on purpose, that our unconscious is doing things so that we will pay attention more and vibrant colors enough to lead someone to describe the dream that way, is a more memorable experience. But I don't think that people judge even black and white when they're not having those vivid color experience. I just think the color is irrelevant. In most dreams. And, you know, certainly I'll be on the base on this question. I'll be on the lookout again. Like a weapon I'm telling you, it's not something I've heard much applique.

Amy Hageman  29:35

I do dream in black and white. But most of the time I dream in color.

Michael Lennox  29:39

Tell me about that. 

Amy Hageman  29:40

I had a very memorable dream once there was in black and white. And I remember in the dream, realizing that I was like, not that I was Jesus, but that I could do everything that Jesus did is good. Okay. And I remember in the dream, there were like a bunch of people that I was trying to protect. And I was like, I'm, I'm like Jesus, I can just, I can just do this. And I made myself kind of big and like, was a dome over them. And this person was like whipping me and I was like, doesn't hurt, doesn't hurt. And I woke up and I remember thinking, that was in black and white. So that's my most memorable black and white.

Michael Lennox  30:19

And what a perfect, what a perfect, vibrant and passionate dream for me to like, then reflect back to, there's always the ability to interpret something. And so there are two interpretations that come up for me with black and white. One would be the absence of passion versus the presence of passion, right, we could think of black and white as sort of having, you know, loss of something that is vibrant when color is present. But you can't escape black and white as a notion of this or that either or, like a real binary.

Either God is in you, which was the message of Jesus, or he's not. You either have mystical power to protect others, or you don't, it's black or white. Right. And when we boil belief and mystical ambiguity down to something like that, it's like God either is or not. And I gotta say, for your listening audience, when I use the word God, I'm I'm more in alignment with atheists and quantum physicists that I'm not talking about the God of religion, that is a human projection of nothing. It's got nothing to do with the divine that as I am describing it, but yeah, I think that it's one of those things that if there is black and white, you either have that Mojo and magic in you because you're a child of God, or you don't, it's black and white. And and clearly in that dream, what the, as I hear it, the dream is about that you can and then you did. Yeah.

Amy Hageman  32:01

That's so interesting. Every other black and white dream I've had, it's like, I woke up and I was like, Oh, my brains just processing. Like I was just remembering this and stressed out about if I was going to remember to fill out that form. So I remember having other black and white dreams, but that's the only one that was actually memorable.

Michael Lennox  32:18

Well, I love that you had a memorable one to share with me. And again, now, two extra points for you. You asked me a question I've never been asked before. And then you provide an experience that I don't know that I've ever heard, like, you know, express as blatantly as you did. I have dreams of black and white.

Amy Hageman  32:38

So yeah, yay. So I want to be mindful of the time. But I have to ask before I'm going to read a dream for you. But before we do that, what do you think is the value like if you had to sell people on why it's worth paying attention to your dreams? What do you think is the potential?

Michael Lennox  32:57

I don't think that there's anything more valuable than self exploration, self knowledge, the healing of wounds, the releasing of trauma, and then the integration of an integrated self. Like that's, that is, that is the most important thing that there is to do, because everything else comes from that. When we're aligned in our integrated self, when we know who we are, when we're not shoving things into the shadow, we have better lives. I believe that even without remembering dreams that the function of dreams has at least one of the function of dreams is we practice living. So you go to bed, you have a dream, it's wildly stressed, you can't get where you want to go. You can't find your keys, you can't pack in time for the plane, you're rushing on Well, bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. That's like your psyche, saying I need to get better at being a human managing my time having my fears and doubts having my heartbeat I have to get better at that. And so we practice our stressful experiences in dreams so that we can wake up and face life on life's terms. After dreaming of the difficulties.

I believe that this is happening for every human being and probably animal kingdom as well, that somehow, just as the brain is doing something rational in the REM state of collecting important experiences and turning them into memory. The soul is extracting important information about how to be a better person in a body so that we wake up wiser on a Tuesday than we were on a Wednesday. And I believe that dreams is where we integrate the stuff that's below the surface of our consciousness that we're typically too frightened to know or marinate in. But in the dream world, we we hop right down there into the scary different called, you know, the circumstances of the dreams put us through, and then we wake up and we are better at being a human being. I think this is happening organically all by itself as part of the function of sleeping and waking.

If we then participate in that process from an awake conscious place, by remembering our dreams by writing them down by sharing them with another by seeking an interpretation, and the best thing you could do with a dream is to respond to it creatively draw the dream imagery. Dance around the living room in the spirit of the dream. I mean, any write a poem about the dream content like that, to me is the Kahuna of responding to the dream material by sort of saying to your unconscious, I'm paying attention. I sometimes call dreams a knock knock joke from the unconscious. Who's there? Well, if you don't say who's there that the unconscious can't give you more information. So having a dream is the unconscious knock knocking you paying attention to the dream is to say to the unconscious, who's there? And the next night, the unconscious says boo. And then you say, boo hoo, the third night the unconscious is boom, you're crying or whatever that silly joke is. The point being, that when we in our waking state pay attention to what our unconscious is doing, we amplify its efficacy. We grow faster when we're actively shepherding the experience of self exploration that dreams allow.

Dream about a giant wooden cricket.

Amy Hageman  36:54

Yes, preach, preach. Okay, so I'm gonna read dream that I had months ago so that my audience can get an understanding of why I'm so obsessed with you. Before I do, shout out to XO, your co host who's adding picking and raw dreams. And I want to say the a this was one of those dreams that was memorable that I woke up and was like, somebody's trying to tell me something. But but be there were a few things in it that I couldn't find in your dream encyclopedia. Yep. And so I was like, Okay, this is it. All right. All right. I was in an office. It felt perhaps like a dean of a college. It was a professional conversation, but also personable. I was complaining about something and the older man, the authority figure was hearing me out and validating my grievances, but also bolstering me, I don't remember the specifics of the conversation, but it felt like the only way through it is through it type of sentiment. I left the office and started walking around what felt like a big campus or small town. Everyone I saw annoyed me, I felt trapped.

I even saw my husband in the dream, but it looks like my college boyfriend but I thought of him as my current husband. I was walking fast so no one would see me and try to talk. Then I saw a dry cleaners and I thought it was the perfect place to hide like no one expects to find somebody studying or working in a dry cleaners. So when I walked inside, it was a huge open warehouse. It had bright white walls, some roundtable tables covered and white table linens. The walls were lined with tall glass display cases. way at the back was the dry cleaning. And a man on the phone who nodded at me as I looked around. The display cases were filled with table decor like tchotchkes gemstones, artwork, antiques, books, anything old or weird seem to be there. Eventually, I found my way to a table and decided to get to work. The tables also had lots of small objects, many rocks and spear heads. As I was picking up some of the rocks I realized that most of them were shaped like animals. The first time I looked at a rock I didn't notice anything. But when I looked at it again, it looked like a bear. Then the door rang and two women walked in. I realized it was my mom and grandmother. I was so relieved. It was my mom, no offense to grandma, but I kind of ignored her.

Not only was I relieved that it wasn't someone annoying, but I was genuinely thrilled to see my mom. I immediately started showing her the subtle animal shapes found in the old rocks and I was so excited to share that experience with her. Then there was a large object in the middle of the table. It had a green patina to it. We weren't sure if it was painted or if it's somehow age that way. Then we realized it was made of wood. We started touching it and realized it was a cricket. The object was about the size of a 10 pound dog but it was definitely shaped and sculpted like a cricket. After closer inspection, we realized that someone had made this cricket it had rods which created the ability for the crickets wings to move. And we marveled at it. Then my mom glanced at an adjacent table and saw another one. But this one had something wrong with one of its wings. So she went to try and fix it. As she mess with it, I realized that the giant wooden Cricket was alive. And I said, Mom, the crickets alive back up. Look, it's alive. Mom said, Oh, good. I bet he'll be so happy if I get his wing fixed. Then I saw the wooden cricket turn its head and bite down on my mom's arm. And that's when I woke up. Yay. I know so long, but it was so long. 

The power of the divine connection.

Michael Lennox  40:39

I was losing my fucking mind that oh my god, I'm so so that's why I type I don't know if you can hear me typing if anybody heard clickety clacking? It's because I'm 60. Now and I have to type notes.  When I was younger, I could have heard this dream and kept every bit of it in my mind without having write it down. I am 60 The plane the brain is not that plastic anymore. So yes, this is a long dream. But I have to start by telling you that today.

The day we're recording this podcast, I went out onto my porch, and next to my welcome mat and my sneakers than that I keep out on the porch because I'm in no Shoe House. There was a dead cricket. And I marveled at it. I was like now that's an interesting, living dream. Yeah. And then when I came back from yoga and chiropractor, I saw it again. And my thought was, you need to pick this cricket up and do something with it. Sacred wise, you know, which I haven't done because I had to get home and like work. But I'm sure the cricket is still there.

Anyway, the power of the divine connection that that unites us all is greater than our conscious awareness can ever understand. This is an example of that. It's just a synchronicity. But that's what Synchronicities are there little rips and tears in the fabric of structure that tell us we're more connected than we know. So I'm gobsmacked by the Cricut piece. Yeah, I'd have to start with that.

Amy Hageman  42:19

Me too. And crickets aren't in your encyclopedia. I was like, What do crickets mean? 

Michael Lennox  42:23

Are they really not? I mean, I believe you like I have no idea. Like I don't remember anything about writing. Like I've read a book that's coming out in January and mystical dreams. And I don't remember writing any of it, but I wrote it all last year. Anyway. So crickets, where you end up with you know, crickets are a powerful sort of animal totem that connects to we certainly have wisdom with Jiminy Cricket, he's entered the zeitgeist of Western thought. You know, so we end with cricket. And that'll be important. I don't want to say anything more about cricket because at this moment, I have no idea what I'm going to say about cricket until I get there.

But let's let's start with that you begin in an office. So we know that you're in consideration of the sort of left brain structural aspects of your life not the things that bring you juicy joy. We get there the warehouse is about that right? But we start with something about this consciousness of everything that's not mystical in your life. The fact that that there's this potential Dean of College and a college thing that we're also in like, how did you enter your adult life? You were perhaps, you know, indoctrinated into the office consciousness but you're being told by that sort of left brain authority in you like how do I manage the office aspect of being a human the only way out is through the only route is through right there so this authoritative power that saying and so we'll call off his consciousness as all of the important stuff and none of the interesting okay, I had a I had a boss once you know at MGM where I was doing sales he was like Michael, you're really good at the interesting but you got to get better at the important important like fuck that I want to do the interesting stuff. So this is I think a dream about you.

Understanding the things that you have to get through and that are important are the things you just have to do you have to the only way through is through. That annoys you. Right so the annoyance piece is interesting because the first act of the dream is bumping you into well, what's the problem of the problem is all this stuff I have to get through and where you go in the third act is where all the rich juicy stuff is So the second act is where you're then walking through this big comp campus or small town. So that has something to do with a sense of community, you're walking through your experience of community, thinking about who you are now, with the connection to the past, even your husband in the dream that looks like your high, your college boyfriend, means that you're in consideration of who are you now, visa vie, how you were indoctrinated into being an adult in this life College. Now, okay. So I love the fact that a dry cleaner is, is where you go to sort of off shed this annoyance and get to the next thing, right. So we could go anywhere with dry cleaners, as you know, poisonous and awful chemicals, right? But it's not real life. It's and the dry cleaner leads you to this expansive part of you that's rich and juicy. So we for me, then the dry cleaner, which you think is the perfect place to hide indeed, is so then it's about cleaning off something. And it's cleaning off material in your psyche that won't clean off simply, fat based soap ain't gonna cut it.

To help you offload your office mentality, you're gonna need something stronger, more powerful, dry cleaning. And indeed, as you go through the dry cleaner, then it's like your psyche opens up and says, look at all of this that you have stored up, you own this warehouse, warehouses about an enormous part of your psyche that you can store all kinds of stuff and material. And if you go in there, and you get weighed in the back, so you really entered this place now then you find that you're not only have access to all of this rich, juicy material, some of its old and ancient, some of its just colorful and interesting. It's displayed, it's shown to you. So to me, then this warehouse is your inner resource for everything magical, mystical and powerful that relates to your past and your present and your future. And a little bit of magic thrown and wow. And it introduces you to the animal medicine, consciousness, rocks and stones and arrowheads and things like that are about the Earth's ancient memory. Rocks are her memories, right? The rocks, remember everything that the earth will reflect her, you know, it'd be the ground reflects the Earth's, you know, past and history. Right. So there's all of that piece of this. This inner resource that then you have to consider the ancestry here, because mom and grandma come up. Are there ways that your mother in couraged your mystical thinking?

The generational aspect of the dream.

Amy Hageman  48:21

And hindsight, I would say yes. And she and I have a really good relationship now too. So literally, I was like, Well, that makes sense.

Michael Lennox  48:31

And why do you suppose you were less interested in grandma?

Amy Hageman  48:37

She and I have similar wounds. And I've so I find her triggering like I it's not a mirror I look like like looking into.

It's your dream. 

Michael Lennox  48:46

Okay, okay. Okay, interesting, then I would say that because you focus on mother and ignore grandma, we're gonna we're gonna call that for you, not against you, right? It's not a dream about you're not looking at what you need to look at. I think she's there because there's a generational aspect to the dream because mom and grandma and you make for three generations of passing down consciousness. And it's just grandma's is less important, right in this dream. And unless grandma was like helping you be mystical as a child, then then that's not really interested. Okay. So I love that you have a dream about bear. And I've sort of grabbed bear to talk about like at the top of the show. So that's another little synchronicity and connection between you and I, you know, so bear is an interesting symbol for power, because it's power that doesn't need to show you that it has power. It's known by just looking at the strength of bear and their understanding of the earth cycles. bears hibernate when the earth is hibernating.

Winter is Earth hibernating. Metabolism slows growth low goes away. In some areas of the world, it's covered with cold and snow. Right? So Bear knows this bear goes to sleep when the world goes to sleep. So Bear has got a lot of mystical power. I love the green color that shows up before we meet cricket. There seems to be a transition, I think between bear and cricket through the green patina on the large object. So that gets your attention first, right the green, the size and the green, this gets your attention. Green is the color of the heart chakra in the seven chakras of the body. And the seven colors of the spectrum when you align them. The red is the root chakra orange goes to the sacral chakra the solar plexus is yellow, and green is the heart. So I love that this figure is both green and wood meaning it's very organic. Right? It's if it was made out of plastic, it'd be a different you know, sort of meaning.

So you come in this great warehouse where you have access to all your mysticism. you zero in on something that turns out to be crickets sizeable. It's 10 pounds. You said 10 pound dog possible. So we think of everything right? Why 10? Well, 10 and zero is one one in numerology is beginnings. So there might be something about this connection with the with the cricket dog would figure that's about beginning a heavier, larger access to whatever cricket energy might mean. Right mom, who's the ally in the dream is all about making sure that this part is fixed wings help us fly. It's your dream and ain't the cricket dream. There's no cricket out there suffering with a broken wing having a dream about some woman who tried to fix it. Maybe there is a cricket out there around her dream as I'm gonna try to fix it. But from the perspective of it's your dream, you've been given this gift of cricket that isn't quite ready to fly and need some help. Right.

So if the dream is taking you away from office consciousness and into mystical stored up consciousness, you're still not quite ready to fly. Because the there's a broken wing that needs to be sort of fixed. And, and somehow mother energy or even if it's self nurturance, and it doesn't have to do with your mom, but but that you in caring for yourself more directly, then you get access to cricket. Crazy that I didn't put cricket in the dream dictionary. But as we were sitting here, I went to the best dream dictionary in the world, which is Google. And I just Googled cricket, animal medicine and the first thing I came up with, and this makes sense. I've heard this before prosperity, wealth and abundance. That makes sense to when you think about crickets and locusts, they show up in great numbers. There's an enormity when we're in the consideration of that particular animal. So the final sort of message of the dream is you have access to all of your mystical powers. They're right there in that little warehouse, you started all up. There's tables to work on it, which is great, because there's some work to do, you got to fix the wing of your inner Cricut. So that you can enjoy more of the abundance and prosperity that is your birthright. That's, that's my take on the dream.

Amy Hageman  53:59

I love it. I love it. That's it. Yes, it resonates. So I'm going to We're almost out of time. I'm going to say one more thing. And then we're going to let you close this out with how people can work with you and find you in all that. I I think we need more than one word for wisdom. And I feel like the kind of wisdom that you bring. I mean, you said it yourself that you're the combination of science and mind and mysticism. The kind of wisdom that you bring to me is quick, it's clear, but it's deep. And it just it it resonates. So wherever you're at at a soul level. I always just feel like I vibrate with you and I just I so appreciate your flavor of wisdom. And so thank you for bringing it to the podcast.

Michael Lennox  54:52

Thank you, honey, I'm moved. I mean that's I mean I'm moved like literally moved and thank you, I feel seen.

Amy Hageman  55:03

Good that's the goal for my Leo friend over there.

Michael Lennox  55:07

That's right, baby! maybe yeah. 

Amy Hageman  55:09

Okay so for everybody that the pleasure of knowing you how can they find you follow you work with you what do you offer?

Michael Lennox  55:16

MichaelLennox.com is my website and that is certainly just the place to go. I am active with astrology every day on social media so on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook in two places I put out daily videos called Red Robe Astrology so I've I've have completely free and you can find those places through the website. So rather than like because all my handles are different, like I didn't, okay, like I wish I had the foresight you know, 15 years ago to keep all the handles the same but MichealLennox.com will get you to my social media where I put out daily astrology sort of videos every morning in my bathrobe with my bedhead. I teach astrology and I also teach sort of consciousness, Shadow Work and Self Exploration.

There are two very distinct ways that I'm teaching. The classes that I teach that are self investigation classes, those are in the realm of like modern shadow work, we take a look at patterns that are in there from your child of origin, you know, childhood, upbringing, stuff, and wound healing. I have a whole series where we use myths and fairy tales as the template to explore themes of our humanity. At this moment, I'm done with all of my process classes for the year, there'll be eight or nine of them that will show up next year that I teach one on forgiveness, one on shadow work for them using the myths and fairy tales. What I'm doing right now, like right now, when this podcast comes out, I it 18 and 19. I was teaching astrology in a big way.

But the pandemic came along and this other teaching grabbed my attention. It just had a go with it for a couple of years. So I really put astrology teaching away until this year. So what I'm creating at Michael index.com is a complete comprehensive astrology school. So it starts with right now I'm teaching a class I call it astrology 101. It's a comprehensive, long class that will introduce someone to how to read their natal chart and you can't really use astrology powerfully unless you can read your chart. So for people who are just starting out who might have a curiosity about astrology, I You can literally go there and start your journey. It ain't cheap. And it's a big and you know, it's both a big investment and investment of time because astrology is very complex. But once this class is over, it's available forever. And then later in the year and in the years to come. There will be all sorts of astrology classes and workshops from teaching about lunar cycles to advance transit work. And so it's growing starting this year, but you can start studying astrology with me right now. Again, all of this is at MichaelLennox.com.

Amy Hageman  58:12

I'm so excited and your books are on your website?

Michael Lennox  58:15

Yeah, books are on the website as well. There's dream site as IG ht, there's low Whelan's complete dictionary of dreams. There's low Whelan's little book of dreams. If you haven't figured out by now, my publisher is Llewellyn. And the book that's coming out in January, I'm kind of excited about it's called psychic dreaming, exploring the connection between dreams and intuition. And it's all about shared dreams, visitation, dreams, that kind of material. So that that will be book number four coming out January 7th.

Amy Hageman  58:48

So I encourage everybody to get on your email list. And to follow you because I'm so excited and I will be in your future. I've already done the one on one astrology classes by proxy, but I will be in some of your future classes for sure. So I love that. Thanks again, Michael. Just what a treat.

Michael Lennox  59:08

This was great. I'm so glad to have been here. Thank you for asking me. 

Amy Hageman  59:12

All right. Have a great day. Bye.