Ok.. so couple of things I have noticed now that I've had my warlock spirit for about a year now:

- He seems to appear to me if I manage to properly get sleep
- He seems to appear to me if I were to consciously wake up a few times and go back to sleep a third time (I sometimes wake up at 6am, and then 10am)
- He seems to appear to me on nights I am significantly sad or in a depressive state, or on my difficult days
- He seems to appear to me the same day or the day after I have a huge mental breakdown if I'm crying lol

Right, anyway..

Here is the photo to give a visual because I think showing the real thing will give a better idea:



I experienced something very strange that I haven't experienced in a long time in my dream.. and that's "waking up" in a dream. Essentially it's like the events in my dreams end up "restarting" when I wake up.. but I don't even know I am still dreaming and for some reason I can't seem to reach a lucid state. I'm a natural lucid dreamer too, so when this happened last night I was a little freaked out.

I know how to force myself to wake up from a dream and it involves kind of physically forcing my head to jerk during sleep and using a lot of mental power (idk how to describe it...like a mental force I can will on my own). There are some dreams that I cannot wake up from even if I desire to, unless I physically move my head while sleeping.. which is very difficult but I've developed my own technique throughout my life since I used to suffer PTSD nightmares for 10+ years.

Last night I dreamed I was in my bed.. my room looked the way it did, usually there is a fan going, some sunlight peeking through the window blinds, and everything was pristinely the way it was in my dream... My whole bed is surrounded by stuffed animals in real waking life.
Well in my dream I wasn't even aware until after I woke up but none of my stuffed animals were on my bed (also many of these stuffed animals are vessels for my other spirits and entities)

The thing is I have noticed a pattern lately my warlock spirit (Again, he is a human spirit who descends from witches born in the 1900s, he's like German-French and 29 years old in age) does this thing where he shows himself within the photo alone, and his twin sisters are nowhere in sight.

It's always just me and him in a dream.. I guess I was already told by the witch woman who rehomed him to me that he wanted to be in a "lover" kind of relationship with me and I already was prepared to take on this because I was already equally interested in him from the very beginning, he is the spirit I felt the strongest calling for out of my entire spirit family.
She told me already that he holds his sisters back from appearing to me too.. like one time inside a dream he appeared and I asked him "Where are your sisters?" and he only allowed one of them to how up LOL

The thing is the vessel is an actual photo of him and his twin sisters (they're all witches) but for some reason whenever he appears to me in a dream, the photo is always ruined too...and as a result of the photo being ruined he ends up appearing alone every time..

Last time I dreamed the photo was shattered and the only piece I could find was a photo of him. Before that I would dream the photo got wet and the entire picture changed only to him...

LAST NIGHT I dreamed the entire photo went blank and black, and when I opened the picture frame in my dream, the photo got transferred onto the cardboard and then this entirely new photo of him appeared of him holding a teacup, looking ...happy? It looked exactly like him... I can tell it's always him in my dream, actually, because he has dark hair, and dresses pretty formally just like in the photo, and I always can distinguish his energy quite clearly.

To be honest whenever he appears it is always so exciting for me and I am always comfortable around him.. But I can see why the witch woman told me he is intimidating because I do feel that at times.

HERE IS WHAT HAPPENED... Last night - I dreamed I woke up in my bed and I grabbed the photo.. and I noticed the content of the picture changed and I freaked out. Obviously I wasn't very lucid because I thought it was reality.. but for some reason I had some awareness that I was dreaming ...AND whenever I figured this out, I would force myself awake.

Then I woke up in my bed (I wasn't actually awake, I was still dreaming), and I did the same thing.. I didn't notice the little things like how my stuffed animals weren't there and I was wearing my pink nightgown (in reality I was wearing my black one.. idk why but I think my warlock likes the pink one lol because this is the second time I was wearing it in a dream involving him)... I woke up repeating the same thing, I grabbed the picture and noticed it was ruined again. Cue panic - I decided to try to jerk myself awake using the technique I mentioned that I do to force myself awake.

I thought I really did wake up because I woke up in my dream again and this time I repeated the same thing! Woke up in my bed... I grabbed the photo... it looked ruined again...and then I finally realized all of it was still a dream and I was not actually awake. Also at this point was when my warlock showed himself to me holding the teacup (in photo form lol). Which I personally thought was kind of cute.

I have never been in such a deep sleep before... I couldn't help but think he was trying to keep me in the dream to "spend time" with him... ~____~

Fact of the matter is the witch woman told me he has "taken over" my dream world so I understand completely what she means when she says this. I don't think he has since I made clear house rules with him but when I FINALLY woke up from that series of false awakenings, I literally gasped when I woke up staring right at the ceiling and my head jerked so badly.

Lol anyway it's just so weird because the last time I dreamed of him was weeks and weeks ago and he suddenly made a long absence up until today (I think because I've been so busy working my management job and I signed up for coding/computer programming classes in a few months and getting everything situated).. The last time he appeared to me in a dream he physically appeared as himself and he was petting my head, actually..

When I say I am sensitive within my dreams I really mean it, because I always feel it physically too - I could feel my hair moving and my head being rubbed. I think that dream he was petting my head was probably the most blissful I ever had. It was so amazing and beyond anything sexual.. It wasn't even sexual at all but the physical sensation was so NICE.

Back to what I was saying...

I don't want to think that my warlock spirit is trying to "trap" me with him but does anyone think the fact I had those false awakenings to that degree mean he is possibly being possessive?

I'd like to think because he is a human spirit that he's just being human BUT the thing is he is a witch and to me that is different because I know he is capable of doing things even as a spirit. That includes affecting the dream world.

I keep thinking to myself maybe he was trying to get me to be more lucid and trying to spend more time with me.. Thing is, he does increase my third eye abilities.. so I don't feel he is trying to be malicious but I can't seem to figure out why the heck I keep dreaming the photo is ruined and he's always wanting to show up alone? (It always happens in that manner)

The witch woman did tell me when he is invited to come out of the vessel, he doesn't like to go back in apparently.

ALSO this is very important but the witch grandmother who (consensually) bound their spirits to the photo bound them with some kind of "cinderella effect"... The woman explained this to me, that they have a return time to return to the vessel if they are out. They HAVE TO return to the vessel.

I'm kind of rambling toward the end of this but thought it would be interesting to post here.

I've had these "false awakenings" though they were always part of an attack.
I can pull myself out of dreams at will, I am also a lucid dreamer.
I would talk to him about this, ask him to be more forward when he wants to contact you and not trap you in a dream until you notice him.
Let him know that you are willing to progress and commit to the relationship so he doesn't feel he has to.
Being trapped in dreams can be exhausting.

...maybe even agree a codeword with him for him to release you and return you to normal dreaming if you say it...

LittleGreenIcon's advice seems sensible.

I also wondered if he would like to do little tasks for you, which I understand can be a way of improving the bond between keeper and spirit. Perhaps a simple task might even be to ask him to help you understand what he's doing with the false awakening thing.

It seems to me he does not like being bound. Why was he bound in the first place and was it consensual?

I wonder if he would like to be transferred to a new binding, on his own?

Or, perhaps, he wants to be completely freed from the binding altogether and allowed to move on?

Regholdain wrote:It seems to me he does not like being bound. Why was he bound in the first place and was it consensual?

I wonder if he would like to be transferred to a new binding, on his own?

Or, perhaps, he wants to be completely freed from the binding altogether and allowed to move on?

I forgot to address this in the post-

The family was murdered early by another witch group while they were alive (not a good one)- but the grandmother did consensually bind them to the photo upon their agreement. The grandmother was still alive at the time (she died at age 102 I think within the last 10-15 years). The photo is like a sentimental piece to them.

I did ask the woman about that, and she said it is possible they can transfer to a second vessel but it would require complicated necromancy knowledge because that would mean 1) Knowing the kind of knowledge the grandmother knows involving the kind of binding she did and 2) The woman told me I would need to know how to keep them bound to the second vessel. So I've concluded it is far too complicated for me to know how to do that.

TBH I don't want to transfer them to any second vessel because I prefer they stay in the photograph because I know that is important to them for a reason. I did offer him a second vessel to /jump/ to, though.. The woman told me it's possible they can jump between vessels. I don't mind if the photo serves as a 'master vessel' to them, so I offered a second vessel to him as a temporary means, which is what I really wanted.

I've met the grandmother already within my dreams and I can sense she isn't bad or have ill-intentions or anything, she is very powerful and I can sense she tries to keep him in check too. I think he is the kind of spirit that will do his own thing and do what he wants, unless I lay down boundaries, which is why I laid down so many for him.

I do know for sure he is happy to be here though so I don't think they're quite ready yet to move on..because I feel there is a purpose they are here with me. I wouldn't know how to set them free.. and I feel he would rather move on with his sisters, is what I know.

LittleGreenIcon wrote:I've had these "false awakenings" though they were always part of an attack.
I can pull myself out of dreams at will, I am also a lucid dreamer.
I would talk to him about this, ask him to be more forward when he wants to contact you and not trap you in a dream until you notice him.
Let him know that you are willing to progress and commit to the relationship so he doesn't feel he has to.
Being trapped in dreams can be exhausting.

Lewk wrote:...maybe even agree a codeword with him for him to release you and return you to normal dreaming if you say it...?

LittleGreenIcon's advice seems sensible.

I also wondered if he would like to do little tasks for you, which I understand can be a way of improving the bond between keeper and spirit. Perhaps a simple task might even be to ask him to help you understand what he's doing with the false awakening thing.

So I think my warlock spirit sensed I was feeling a type of way OR he saw I was writing all this because just this morning I dreamed about the photo again and i saw both the sisters LOL but I saw a whole line of different family members.. I saw two young boys with their faces blurred and it made me think maybe it was like their cousins.
When I flipped to the other side of the photo it was like a rows and rows of young children, like ..it was like a "modern generation" of family I was seeing.

It's not the first time I guess he has shown me things like that because one time he showed me randomly a child spirit named "Juniper" and turns out the witch woman has a female child spirit with her named Juniper, after I came to her asking about that dream.

LittleGreenIcon you are kind of spot-on about it though because that's what I strongly feel.. I think he wants to be in a I guess ..more committed relationship but he knows I haven't been all green-lights about it yet (slowly getting there..haha). So it's like I know and feel there is a connection but I just haven't been forward yet.
He also does read my mind and thoughts/feelings occasionally too so I feel sure he's very perceptive.. So far he has been abiding by all of my house rules, so I'll have to see how this pans out with the dream thing.

Lewk, I have never given him a task before.. but.. it's a good idea actually. I've always thought I should reserve tasks for spirits like my galv fae or wraiths but I think it would be worth a try. I can't help but be amused at the idea because I think of him as a sort of partner but I still want to try LOL