Worms in Dreams: Unearthing the Gifts of Earthworms in the Dreamscape

Worms. Naturally fascinating, or immediately repulsive?

What else?

And … how about in a dream? (Pictured here are my little ones when they were much littler, in a "naturally fascinating" frame of mind.)

Recently I got to do a few acupuncture/dreamwork sessions with someone who'd had two dreams of worms, and we walked (crawled?) down several fruitful paths of meaning-making and direct experience. For all the diagnostic tools I have through Chinese Medicine, and even with how intimately many people know their own symptoms, triggers, and ways they need healing, I am forever amazed by how dreams bring us right to the heart of the matter.

The first thing to come up was the "parasite" association, which we checked into through the dreamer's own felt sense of truth (the dreamer is always the one to recognize the truth of their own dream). This possible meaning didn't resonate for her as relevant.

Next came the physical movement of the worm. She spontaneously moved like a worm in the earth as she shared the dream, and this brought release of physical tension, as well as relief to be moving so slowly. Some emotion arose, and moved through.

As we reflected on the earthiness of an earthworm, she resonated with the idea of tending to the Earth element within her own body (hunger, digestion, flesh, clarity of thinking), where many of her physical symptoms show up.

I shared that earthworm is used as an "herb" (medicinal) in Chinese Medicine. We call them "Di Long," or literally, Earth Dragon. This herb has an action akin to burrowing in and making tunnels, opening up the channels of the body where there has been blockage, opening the passageways of the lungs when breathing has been difficult. The dreamer loved the notion that these dream-worms might be opening up small, long-stuck places within her. (She lit up with that, "Ooh, that's cool" feeling – one way an "a-ha" moment can show itself.)

Finally we opened up to worms as facilitators of transformation in the process of death and decay. Like me, this dreamer sees our society as pathologically growth-focused, and deficient in Metal phase qualities, like letting go, falling away, and turning toward long quietude, rest, and reflection.

I shared with her my take on the kids' movie Epic, which has some pretty charming characters and a fun story, but is also one of the most death-phobic things I've ever seen, in a blatantly death-phobic culture. 

In the movie, which takes place in a forest among little beings who are mostly unseen by humans, the good guys are for life, and the bad guys are for death.

Just like that. Black and white. Life is good, death is bad.

As though the forest is a story of "life vs. death," not an endless cycle and synergy between the two. As if life doesn't require death. As if death doesn't nurture life.

As though infinite growth were not only possible, but desirable. (Hm, sounds familiar…)

The dreamer and I both felt a similar sentiment: Immersed in a culture with that worldview, how wonderful to dream of worms! Praise to the transformers of what's fallen away, cyclically providing for new life.

By the conclusion of our time together, this dreamer had experienced 

• release of physical and emotional tension, and a new sense of ease in her body (through the somatic process of moving like a worm, along with my hands-on acupuncture/CranioSacral Therapy treatment that followed the cues of her body and her dream)
• clarity that she wanted to tend to the Earth-element organs and channels in her body, and Earth-element aspects of her life, like how she eats, how she gives care, and how she receives nourishment and care from others
• and an anchored knowing about how essential worms are, and how essential is the underground transformation that bridges death and life.

Have you ever dreamt of worms? Or other creatures of the underground, the deep sea, death and decay, transformation?

Share in the comments if you like, or contact me here. If you're curious about one-on-one dreamwork like this with me, let me know and we can set up a free call where we'll see what it's like to engage with one of your dreams, and I can answer any questions you have.