The Cardcast
The Cardcast is a quiet exploration of life, one oracle card at a time. In each episode, we pull a single card and reflect on how its message weaves through the everyday — the moments, questions, and patterns that shape our world. No predictions, no prescriptions — just space to notice, connect, and listen in. Whether you're card-curious or card-devoted, come sit with the symbols.
The Cardcast
Dreams and the Language of the Subconscious
In today's episode, we explore a card from the Santa Muerte Oracle to unpack dreams, shadow work, and Jung’s idea of individuation as a gentle, lifelong path toward wholeness. We link ritual dream work and REM sleep to practical rest so you can process emotion and move with more honesty.
Deck: Santa Muerta Oracle by Fabio Listrani
For more insights on the cards, and to see the cards we talk about in the episodes, follow me on Instagram @the_cardcast and on Substack as Novel Natasha.
For a closer look at the cards, follow me on Instagram @the_cardcast. For more about mental wellness and psychology, sign up for my newsletter at www.natashasheyenne.com.
Thanks for listening!
Hi there, and welcome to the Cardcast. I'm Natasha, and I'm so glad you're here. Together, we explore the art of noticing. The symbols, stories, and quiet patterns that surround us every day, and how they connect to our mental health and lovely. I do this through the link of Oracle cards, using the cards as a mirror for reflection and reading. An invitation to anchor yourself more deeply in your own unfolding story. So take a deep breath, settle in, and let's see what today's card has to offer. Welcome to season two of the Cardcast. This season, we're doing something a little different. Instead of a daily episode, we're gonna have one longer episode that's released on Monday that we can use as a guide for the week. I'll have some other fun stuff that I put on Instagram and Substack throughout the week too, so be sure to follow me on those platforms for that stuff. I'm on Instagram at the underscore cardcast and on Substack as novel Natasha. This week we're journeying into card number 23 from the Santa Muerta Oracle deck. This card is pointing to dreams and the subconscious. On her card, we have a skeleton who lies in repose. So not death, but surrender. The long hair, folded hands. She has this posture of rest and of stillness. And above her, there's an infinite mandala of eyes that are radiating outward from this single point of light, kind of to looks like the all-seeing consciousness. In the Santa Marta tradition, this card would be considered sitting between worlds. So the realm of the dead and the living, the seen and the unseen, and the conscious and the unconscious. And those eyes represent awareness, the many perspectives of the psyche. And they suggest that even when we're asleep, some deeper part of us is awake and witnessing. On the card, also we have water that's flowing around the bed. And water is the universal symbol of emotion, intuition, and the boundaryless ocean of the subconscious. And then we also have the color palette. We have these indigos and violet and black, and those colors are all inviting us into the liminal. It's the color of the third eye, that place of inner sight. Psychologically, this carverly mirrors what Carl Jungs called the process of individuation, which is the lifelong journey of integrating the parts of ourselves that we've hidden or denied or forgotten. So imagine your mind as this vast landscape. There's mountains and caves and forests and rivers, each representing a different part of who you are. Most of us live only in the sunlight, in the parts that we know and that we show to the world. That's what would be considered our conscious self. But Jung believed that beneath the surface lies an entire inner world, the unconscious, that's filled with forgotten memories and hidden motives, unacknowledged emotions and untapped potential. So this process of individuation is the lifelong journey of exploring that inner landscape and integrating all of its parts into a balanced whole. It's not about becoming someone different, but it's about becoming complete. And this begins when something in life disrupts that surface identity. There can be a loss, a conflict, a sense of emptiness. But these moments act as invitations to descend inward. There, we encounter the shadow, the part of ourselves that we deny or avoid. Our jealousy, fears, our desires and insecurities, all the traits that we prefer to keep buried. I know I do. Jung said that until we face the shadow, it controls us unconsciously. When we recognize and accept it, that all that hidden energy becomes a source of authenticity and strength. As we explore deeper, we meet our inner opposite. And these are archetypes that symbolize the qualities that we've disowned: sensitivity, intuition, assertiveness, sometimes even creativity and rationality. This individuation requires balancing these opposites within us, blending that thought and feeling, that logic and imagination, that strength and vulnerability, so that we're not trapped in one-sidedness. I think that we've certainly met those people who, and this is there's no judgment here, but we've met those people who are almost optimistic or have a perspective to a point where they seem out of touch with reality. Because it's not about being all depressed or always having to reframe and see the other side, but there is something to, I don't feel happy every single day and every single minute. So it's just not realistic to always have that presented outward because we're all human and we want to be able to connect and we connect best through our humanness. When we do this in our work and we integrate the shadow and we reconcile our inner opposites, something larger begins to form. And that's what's called the self. But it's the deeper, wiser center of our being. It's the part that holds our potential and our purpose and unity. The self represents the harmony between the conscious and the unconscious mind. So a state where we act not out of fear or habit, but from authenticity, from that humanness. It's interesting to this kind of work because sometimes we go through it and I know for me, I'm like, that's enough self-development, right? Like I did it complete, we're all set because it's really hard work. But individuation, I want to mention, is never finished. It really is a continual process of meeting new aspects of ourselves, especially during life's major transitions. Each challenge actually invites a deeper layer of integration. So to Jung, this journey was sacred. It was psychological, but it was also spiritual. It's the unfolding of a person's true nature, the process of becoming who you were always meant to be. So, in essence, individuation is the art of becoming whole. It's walking into your own depths and meeting what you find there without judgment and returning with a more honest, grounded sense of self. Since the image on the card, the individual on the card does appear to be sleeping, let's also talk a little bit about dreams. So, dreams are one of the primary ways that our unconscious communicates with us. Dreams are not random. They're symbols, they're stories, and they're metaphors that help our psyche restore balance. When you dream of falling or being chased or losing something or finding something unexpected, those aren't just messages from outside you. Rather, they're reflections of what's stirring beneath the surface. In neuroscience, dreams serve a really vital purpose in maintaining our mental health and emotional balance. During REM sleep, the brain is anything but resting. It's actually actively sorting, integrating, and making sense of the day's experiences. This stage of sleep, it acts like an overnight therapy session. So the brain can replay memories, especially those charged with strong emotion, and it begins to resort and refile them into long-term storage. But it doesn't do this mechanically, it does it really creatively. Neural networks that are associated with emotion and memory and imagination interact in ways that they don't when you're awake. And this allows the mind to safely revisit distressing events, but in a symbolic form. I know for me, sometimes I will feel emotionally charged about something and I'm not sure why, right? Logically, I know I shouldn't be charged about that, but I just, it's sticking to me and I just can't get rid of it. And then I go to sleep, and the next day I wake up, and while there may still be a little stickiness there, I have processed it differently now, and it doesn't feel as distressing as it did the previous day. So dreaming is really how we are metabolizing emotion. So just like your body digests food, your mind is digesting feelings. In our dreams, fear and grief, love and longing are transformed from raw, overwhelming experiences into something that our psyche can actually hold and understand. This is why dreams often feel strange or surreal. The brain's performing that complex emotional alchemy and it's turning that heavy metal of daily experience into something lighter, more integrated, and more meaningful, something that we can really gain traction on. When we don't dream or when REM sleep is disrupted, these emotions can remain unprocessed. And so they linger in the nervous system like undigested energy. Over time, that contributes to heightened anxiety, mood instability, and emotional exhaustion. So dreaming then is also not just a luxury of the mind, but it's a vital psychological metabolism. And it's one that restores balance between emotional and rational systems of the brain. Again, in my experience, and I know I'm not unique in this, I will maybe not get the right amount of sleep, or my sleep will be interrupted. And all of a sudden, I have trouble processing any emotions. I have to start to compartmentalize, and I'm suddenly like I've used all the compartments, and this stuff is just not being able to move forward. So keep in mind that when we're dreaming, that's what's really helping us to clear out those compartments, to make space for the new things and to help us really process this other stuff. Because when you dream, your mind is literally healing you. It is clearing space, it is creating meaning. The skeleton that also exists on this card can also represent the framework of the self. So the bones that hold the structure, while the dreams, like water, move through and around us, and that all those things together help keep us whole. On a more mystical level, this card invites dream work as ritual. So dream work at its essence is the art of listening to the languages of the unconscious. And when we approach it intentionally, it can become a ritual. So every night when we fall asleep, we cross a threshold between the conscious and the unconscious mind. The dreaming brain is doing its quiet work, that sorting of emotion, integrating experience and weaving images that speak to metaphor and symbols. And when we engage with our dreams consciously by writing them down or reflecting on their patterns or simply sitting with their emotional tone, we turn this natural process into a sacred act of dialogue with the self. So to treat dream work as ritual means we don't rush to decode or control our dreams. Instead, we approach them the way we might approach a piece of art or a moment with nature, right? It's with curiosity, with reverence, and a willingness to be changed. It's less about asking, what does this mean? And more about what is this trying to show me? So ritual in this sense provides a structure and attention, and it's a way of honoring that inner life. And then each dream, remembered or forgotten, becomes a part of this ongoing conversation between what we know and what we're still becoming. So, how does all this show up for us in daily life? Often, when we feel exhausted, unmotivated, or creatively blocked, it's not just a lack of energy, but it's a lack of integration. Like I was saying earlier. We've been awake for too long. We've been operating only from the conscious mind. And, you know, when we're just operating from that surface self, then rest, real rest in this is more than just sleep. It's allowing that unconscious to do its work. So here's how you might invite this this week. So you can first notice your dreams, keep that dream journal. You don't even have to call it a dream journal. Just keep a notebook by your bed and you can jot down whatever fragments from your dreams you remember when you wake up. And with this, you don't have to analyze them, just record them. You can pause during the day for letting your mind wander without agenda. And that's called micro dreaming. So we're not fully going into a REM cycle, but it is that opportunity for your mind to stop intaking content and intaking things and just letting it wander without an agenda. Daydreaming has also been shown to strengthen our creativity and our emotional regulation because it helps the brain to weave meaning. So think of dreams as your psyche's nightly workshop where emotional clutter is cleared and wisdom quietly emerges. As Jung wrote, until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. So this week, let our card remind you that not all healing happens in the light. Some of it happens in the dark, behind closed eyes, where old stories dissolve and new ones have the opportunity to take shape. Rest is not idleness, it's participation in the larger rhythm of the universe that inhale, exhale, dissolving and reforming. So sleep deeply, dream honestly, and remember, even here in the quiet space between worlds, you are still becoming.
