Dreamscripts in the Waking World

By William Kiesel

One of the signs which has become a trademark of being in a dream is

the inability to read the written word or at other times to decipher
numbers on a clock face or elsewhere. Such figures most often appear
to blur before the eyes. There are times when the oneiric traveller is
blest with clarity of vision wherein the characters in the given instance
are crystal clear, but such instances are typically rare. It is significant
that there is a crossover between the experience of legible and illegible
scripts in both the waking and dream worlds.

What is an “illegible” script? Just as “barbarous words of power,” found

among Greek magical papyrii and European grimoires, share in this
intangible intelligibility, written forms1 of secrets2 wear the mask of
sigillic devices, magical alphabets and asemic writing. Visual
“barbarous sigla” act as keys to subtler parts of the universe or
encapsulate the essence of something in symbolic emblemata. In the
mundane sphere such sigil texts would be as abstract as dream text,
yet they convey information and even direct power from its inscribed
purpose. All who would read the runes of Liber Mundi will find that
learning how to read and access such texts in the wake world can lead
to similar readings of dreamscripts while traveling under the veil of
sleep.

In accessing such encrypted arcana concentration is required and this

:
 discipline is juxtaposed with a receptivity which also serves one who is
scrying. Thus a certain gaze, which was developed through the inner
eye, allows for a visual focus or blurring in order to access the clear
view. Those who have eyes will see. However there are outward criteria
that can assist in focusing the sensible eyes upon the patterns of the
sigil itself. Asemic writing expresses itself in a physically visual way,
causing the eye to follow wavy and then straight lines or perhaps
fluctuate between dark and light marks. Sigils are sometimes quite
chaotic, like the massa confusa described in alchemical texts, while at
other times they are very structured and ordered patterns.
Consideration will reveal the atmosphere that such a device exemplifies
and this is a subtle reading from the perspective of the wake world and
yet still a more concretized form or vessel of its essence. One who has
a proficiency with such ‘readings’ can employ the same techniques on
blurred dreamscripts while asleep. By peering through the script the
vision may apprehend the force behind the form.

With the use of oneiric praxis, sigils of the wake world can be brought
to the dreamscape, as well as drawing the dream texts upon the waking
consciousness. No doubt the viewing of sigillic devices could produce
the atmosphere of the dream in the waking consciousness of one
unaccustomed to seeing such scripts. It is this alteration of
consciousness that allows for the ingress and egress of secret
knowledge. Hypnogogia occurs naturally when the consciousness is
falling toward sleep but there are examples of sorcerous use of
hypnogogia in order to create [or receive] automatic writing which also
displays the characteristics of asemic, sigillic and oneiric script.
Whether received or indited, the sigillic device serves as a medium or
bridge between worlds.
:
 NOTES

1. Here I am writing about the visual written forms such as found in

the growing corpus of sigla as opposed to the apophatic language
described in Michael Sells’ recommended book; Mystical
Languages of Unsaying.
2. The use of the word secrets is meant to broadly indicate all occult
matters.

Contributor

William Kiesel

William Kiesel is the publishing director at Ouroboros Press and co-

editor of CLAVIS Journal of Occult Arts, Letters and Experience.
: