posted August 18, 2006 11:44 AM         

A JOURNEY INTO SELF

posted August 18, 2006 02:11 PM         

It helped (is helping) me so much I couldn't help but pass it on.

posted August 21, 2006 11:38 AM         

INTERPRETING THE SYMBOLS
Now that you have taken this inner journey, read through the symbol correspondences below. Remember, there are no right or wrong interpretations. This exercise is to give you information about yourself and your perceptions of various areas of your life where negativity may reside. If there is anything you do not like, remember that you can always change it. Life is not static, it is always in flux. You are in a continual process of growth and change, even when you are not aware of this. Once you have done this meditation, you can re-enter the experiences you encountered and make any changes you desire. It is our ability to change the images we produce that gives us the power to bring forth the sacred in our lives.
This exercise is a powerful guidance tool to show you where you are in your attitudes at any time. You can repeat it as often as you like. Once you have learned the steps, you can activate your symbol making faculty to tune into your current inner state, changing anything you want. That’s the beauty of the sacred mind - it’s there to help. Its power to create images allows us to reprogram ourselves by changing images we carry that are not right for us. While you cannot change your past experiences, you can rearrange how you think about them, thereby releasing feelings that may inhibit you from becoming your authentic self.

1... THE STARTING PLACE:
The starting place represents the environment to which you naturally resonate. This is important information. If your starting place gave you any discomfort, you may fear beginning new things. If the experiences was unpleasant in any way, or unexpected, you may feel timid about embarking on a new course of action in your life, such as taking up a spiritual practice.
If your starting place was comfortable and felt good and safe to you, you are already on your way to accepting the great adventure of living through your SELF and building a temple within.

2... THE PATH:
The path represents your life’s path as you currently view it. If your path was open, broad, smooth, and free of obstacles, you view your life as proceeding along quite well. However, a Path free of obstacles may indicate that you are unwilling to take risks or forge ahead in new directions. It can indicate a satisfaction with the status quo.
If your Path was narrow, difficult, hilly, rocky, or otherwise difficult to traverse, you are generally unhappy about your life as it is now unfolding. You see your way as difficult and obstructed. However, a difficult Path can also indicate that you are a person who overcomes obstacles and does not fear a rocky or uncertain way.

One client’s image was of a deep rut in which she was walking two feet below the surface of the surrounding ground. The message was unmistakable, she felt she was in a rut - and she was. This information, revealed by her sacred mind, enabled her to face a reality that she had been refusing to acknowledge and make corrections.

At a time of transition in my own life, I entered this mediation and found my Path to be a level bricked walkway, very pleasant and lovely for walking. On one side it was landscaped like an English garden with neatly clipped hedges and well-tended flower beds tame and civilized and totally in order. But on the other side (the left side) it was bordered by a virgin forest - dense, dark, unknown, wild. The garden side held no charm nor challenge, but the wild side pulled me to want to know what was beyond the safe, neat path I had chosen. I could hear rushing water in the distance, deep within the forest, and I imagined a swift-running, deep, clear river of great power.
The imagery told me that I had a choice between continuing on a safe and orderly, but unchallenging way or risking the adventure of going off into the unknown, uncharted region of myself, which promised exhilaration as well as hinted of possible dangers. I chose the forest of living by my authentic self, no matter what others thought or how it affected what gave me order and safety. I found my wild side to be full of exotic flora, and fauna that I would never have experienced in the English garden, and peopled with magical beings. I would never have met except in the mysterious dark forest.

The image of the path is an important one. It can reveal a great deal about how you approach the spiritual journey that is your life. Examine your feelings about your path. Did you enjoy being on it? Would you like to continue on this path or create a different one?

3... THE WATER:
The Water represents sex, how you feel about it, how you experience it in your life. Attitudes and feelings about sexuality are deep and far-reaching. They can cause conflicts and inhibitions. There can be compulsions, obsessions, fears, or lack of interest. Again, nothing is right or wrong. This is all information to enable you to release blocks so that you can become your authentic self and bring forth the sacred in your life.
Water that is calm, and placid, such as a quiet lake, represents a passive (or inhibited) sexual nature, on that is not easily aroused but that gives little trouble. Or, it might represent a temporary period of quiescence or abstinence when sex is not an issue for you. A rushing river, deep and dark, can mean a turbulent sexual nature, exciting but at the same time frightening. The ceaseless ocean indicates a restless sexual nature that makes it difficult for the person to settle into a monogamous relationship. A country pond bordered with flowers, with ducks swimming on it, suggests a person who is either sexually content, or not sexually adventurous, preferring to remain with what is traditional. A fog-shrouded bay indicates someone for whom sex seems mysterious or unobtainable. A stagnant pool, where nothing grows, implies being cut off from spontaneous sexual feelings. A cascading waterfall represents abundant sexual energies that need to be appropriately channeled.
Your image must be interpreted by you. What you feel about the image you produce is the key. Sexuality is a vital and intimately personal element in our makeup. No two people are alike in their inner sexual beings. Like every other human energy, sexuality ebbs and flows- with the days, with the months, with the seasons, with the years. How we use our sacred sexual energy is up to us, but it is important to realise that this is a power source within, never to be misused or taken lightly. It is worth pondering the image your sacred mind gives your for the Water. Ask yourself how you felt about the image, whether you liked it, or if you wanted to immerse yourself in it, if you wanted to leave or linger. Were you comfortable with it, or did it make you feel uncomfortable, shy, or embarrassed? Did you enjoy the experience? Was there anything about the water you’d like to change.?

4... THE KEY:
The Key represents the value we place on ourselves. The image you received tells you how you feel about yourself and its worthiness, way deep down. It is not the description of the Key that matters, but how you react to what you find inside yourself.
For example, one woman found a key that was ornate and beautiful, but she didn’t like it because it seemed useless. She was a Trophy wife” - young and beautiful and decorative to her rich older husband - but she felt herself to be of no use or value in any significant way.
On the other hand, a man found an ordinary looking house key. It seemed uninteresting - merely utilitarian. But upon careful examination and reflection it proved to be a master Key capable of opening all locks. Because he considered himself to be just a plain and simple guy, his self-esteem was low. But his sacred mind knew better, and it showed him that he was a master in his own right, possessing many abilities, which he did not value because they seemed ordinary. After doing this meditation, he began to appreciate himself more.
An artist who felt that her talent was limited in comparison to what she wished to achieve found a very small key. It was, however, made of solid gold and beautifully worked. This image allowed her to acknowledge that her talent was, if not commercial, nonetheless genuine and valuable.
Consider your Key carefully. What feelings does it call up in you? Are you happy to be the possessor of such a key or dismayed to own it? Would you be upset if you lost it, or does the Key generate negative feelings in you? Do you dislike it? What would you change about it? Would you prefer a substitute? If so, what?

5... THE CHEST:
The Chest represents the value we put on our mind/brain and the knowledge it has gathered to date: An open Chest signifies that we feel we can access and use our mind/brain freely. If the chest is locked, it tells us we feel locked away from our own inner resources, an indication we do not feel that our mental faculties are readily available. When the Key fits the lock of the Chest, it is an indication that we are in possession of the key to our own minds. If the Key does not fit the chest, we feel we may mistrust our mental abilities or feel they are unavailable to us.
The contents of the Chest gives us clues about what we think we possess in the way of mental attributes and about how we value those, such as knowledge and experience, our intelligence and intuition.
The size and shape of the Chest are indicators of our attitude toward our mind and its abilities. The Chest can be old or new, large or small, plain or fancy, open or closed, full or empty. You must interpret the symbol your sacred mind gives you in the light of your own self-knowledge. An empty chest need not be a negative - it might just be waiting to be filled up. A student just beginning school, for example, experienced a shiny new chest, like a footlocker, that stood open and empty. He interpreted it as waiting to be filled with knowledge and experience to see him through his life. An overflowing chest may indicate a cluttered mind, or one filled with inappropriate knowledge, or it may indicate an abundance of mental riches. No one but you can say what your chest means to you.
One client’s Chest was locked tight and bound with iron. Her sweet little key, the kind a young girl has for her diary, was totally ineffective for the huge rusty lock. As she had never been good at left-brain, rational-type schooling, this woman felt her brain was a cumbersome thing of no use to her at all. Although she had artistic leanings, she had never bothered to try to discover or develop any talents she might posses for fear of failing. Her parents had make her feel small and childish (the child’s key), even in adulthood. At age 42, she did not feel like a grown up. Once she saw what was blocking her, she was able to access her sacred mind and discover the truth about herself. Her artistic talent flowered as she progressed on her spiritual journey into the SELF.
Another client, an accomplished intellectual, not surprising, encountered a Chest both open and well stocked with books. What was surprising was that this man found the book filled chest a burden and kicked it off his path. I instructed him to dump out all the books to see if there was anything else at the bottom. There was - a music score. He was a frustrated composer who had been forced into an academic career by his father - and he had lost his authentic self along the way. But, thought it was buried under the books, his sacred mind showed him it was still there. He now plays in an amateur string quartet and writes on weekends.

6... THE CUP:
The Cup represents our attitude toward the positive and negative polarity of life. Was your cup half full or half-empty? Was it a sturdy mug, a fragile china teacup, or a throw away Styrofoam container? Did it contain something lovely to drink, like a fragrant tea? The cup is how we feel out the hand life dealt us, and the experiences we have sustained. Remember, whether your cup was full or empty, beautiful or ugly, you have the power to change the feeling it represents by changing the image and recovering your authentic self.
As with all of these symbolic representations, you are the best interpreter. You are already the world’s expert on yourself. Meditation upon these images you receive will clarify their meaning. What is ‘good’ for one person may be negative for another, and vice versa.
For example, one woman’s cup was a lovely piece of porcelain, of great monetary value. It was a delicate teacup. A nice image, isn’t it? But she hated it because it represented her constricted lady-like life which required her to give ‘proper’ tea parties and always be the soul of decorum. Wife of a rich man with traditional values, she was restricted to doing charity work and caring for a large, expensively furnished house. She was slowly dying, she said, of things. In a return to the meditation, she smashed the porcelain cup - to break out of her restraints. Now she has a job and a sturdy earthenware mug.
In another example, a young man, who thought life had given him a raw deal, found a discarded Styrofoam cup that had once held coffee. A cigarette had been crushed out in the bottom, leaving a disgusting looking mess. He was revolted by what he saw and threw the cup away, which was what he wanted to do with his life. In a return meditation, he decided upon a brand-new cup, white, clean, shiny - which he could fill with his authentic self. By contacting the feeling that his life was fit only to be discarded and using his sacred mind, he found the strength to make changes.

7... THE BEAR:
The Bear represents the outside world and our feelings toward it. It also stands for authority of all kinds imposed upon us from without. The Bear gives important clues about the factors that have prevented us from realizing our authentic selves and how they operated in us. It also shows the way to reconciliation of the inner world with the outer world. Bears come in all guises - cuddly teddy bears, fierce and scary wild beast, threatening, neutral, or friendly. If your bear was a mean one - well, just remember he is your Bear and you can change him at will. Sometimes we don’t actually see the Bear - he is off in the woods somewhere and we only hear him crashing around or sense his presence. Again, the important thing is not the bear itself, but how we feel about it.
A talented singer who had run aground in the commercial music industry had retreated to the safety of giving music lessons. In her fantasy, she dressed as a little girl and when she saw the big bad Bear coming, she scampered up a tree. Safe upon her high remote perch, she watched as he went his way. Later, we returned to the meditation so that she could confront her fear. This time, she offered him a large jewel she had taken from her Chest. He ate it with relish and gave her a bear hug!
Her talent - represented by the jewel from her Chest - served to neutralize the Bear. By eating it, he was saying he wanted to assimilate it into himself. She realized that with holding her talent from the world was harming her authentic self, a performer who wanted to be onstage.
An actor, in a constant and unsuccessful struggle to get good parts, saw his Bear as an adversary whose intention was to block his path. This Bear made him very angry. He wanted to kill it, but he realized he was not strong enough, which engendered a high level of frustration. On a return to his meditation, he took the Bear a large pot of honey and made friends with him. The experience allowed him to accept that the world was not against him, that struggle is part of life. It is our attitude toward adversity that either gives or removes its sting.

8... THE HOUSE:
The House represents your goals in life. You may be surprised at the difference between the image your inner mind presents to you and the conscious image you have of your aims in life. Remember, your sacred mind gives you the true picture.
One man, a powerful lawyer, saw his life goals as becoming politically powerful and being able to help other people. He considered himself an humanitarian, interested only in the ‘welfare’ of the people. However, the image presented to him told a different story. His House was an old stone hut, almost primitive, in a remote place where there were no people at all. The territory was rugged and demanding, the ideal place for a loner who wanted to seclude himself away from all humanity. He became a lawyer to please his liberal parents and devoted himself to ‘their’ code of altruism, under which cloak his authentic self was hidden from him.
Your House may have one or many rooms, be a cottage or a mansion, full of laughing people having a party or uninhabited. It may be cozily furnished with everything to make you comfortable, sparsely furnished, or totally bare. What is important about this image is what you make of it, how you react to it.
One client found a houseful of partying guests - and was dismayed. She wanted to be left alone to do her painting, or so she thought. The fact was that she had retreated into her artwork to avoid the pain of shyness and difficulty making friends, yet her authentic self loved being around people and longed for a house full of friends all having a good time. The image distressed her so much she burst into tears. They were healing tears, however, for the image allowed her to glimpse her authentic self and its needs.
Whatever your image of your House is, it is a vital component of who you are and where you are going on your spiritual journey. If your conscious goals conflict with the aims of your authentic self, you are going to have difficulties reaching them, or if you do reach them you will feel dissatisfied because they are not what your true self desires. Finding out what blocks you on this level is fundamental to building your temple within.

9... THE VASE:
The Vase represents our perception of love. What we love and how we love is basic to all human life, and love perhaps more than any other human characteristic comes from the deepest, sacred level of our beings. We can no more rationally choose a love partner than we can choose what we will dream tonight. We can marry for rationally reasons - he’s a good catch - or his profession pleases her parents, she will be a good hostess and mother, or her beauty will enhance his business aims. But LOVE is another matter. Love springs from within, from that deepest level of the soul, which knows what is right for us. The image of the Vase will tell you about love and your perception of it.
Whatever your image of the Vase, trust it to reveal your innermost secret feelings about what love means to you. If you fear or distrust love, or think it is difficult to find and keep, your Vase may be cracked or broken, old and dirty, or hidden away in a closet. In a dramatic rejection of what she found, one woman said vehemently, “I don’t want that vase”!. It is chipped and ugly and I inherited it from my mother. We returned to the meditation and she smashed the old vase of her mother’s interpretation of love and replaced it with a lovely new one of her own choosing, for her authentic self was a closet romantic who believed in love. Trying to love by her mother’s standards was thwarting her fulfillment on both the personal and spiritual levels.
Another woman found a beautiful crystal vase, but she was distressed because it was empty - never used. She went to the garden of the house and picked a bouquet of flowers to put in it. Upon contemplating both the image and her response to it, she discovered that her authentic self was a very loving person who had not allowed herself to fulfill her affectionate nature.

10... THE FENCE:
The Fence represents our perception of death. Many people fear death or consider it an unfair intrusion into life. We all know rationally that death comes to all, that nobody lives forever, yet most of us consider death to be the enemy - to be conquered, coerced into going away, or, failing that, ignored. Yet, death is as much a part of life as is birth. Whether there is ‘life after death’ in the sense of a continuance of this life, no one really knows for sure. But this does not mean that death is the end of everything. It is the end of a chapter, not the end of the book. Or, it is a sequel. Whatever you believe about death, it will come one day, and your perception of death, embedded as it is in your psyche, colours how you live. Fear of death is a great inhibitor of living our life fully. It prevents you from experiencing the sacred on a daily basis. The image of the fence will reveal your issues about death. Facing it means looking at it from within your inner temple.
Having stared death in the face more than once, prior to experiencing this meditation myself I was convinced I was completely reconciled to my own demise. I was not bothered by the desire for an afterlife. However, my first view of the Fence was of a high brick wall close behind the house, and I was furious that my view was cut off. This sent me in search of deeper levels and eventually my Fence became a low stone wall far off in the distance, with grass, and wildflowers growing through the cracks in the masonry. Beyond it, I could glimpse the sea gently rolling in upon the shore.
An old man I knew experienced a weathered picket fence, already lying flat on the ground. He saw himself stepping over it into a broad meadow filled with light and flowers. His life was almost over, and he was at peace with that.
Whatever your feelings about death, it remains for all of us a mystery. It’s not death itself that’s important - for it will come and others will come after us - but how we live that matters. Fear, anxiety, anger, and depression about death are only thoughts, and the sacred mind can choose what it wants to think. A positive relationship with the end of life makes the living of it more pleasurable and productive. Fear of death is a roadblock on the spiritual path. If you are angry or fearful about the fence, you can confront the feeling safely and make necessary changes.
One man, raised with visions of eternal hellfire, saw a frightening vision of flames leaping beyond a high concrete wall, like that of a prison. He returned to the meditation with a fire hose and in drenching the hellish flames realized he had nothing to fear. Hell is a construction of the mind, not a real place He had believed that he no longer was influenced by his parents’ fundamental religion, but the fear implanted in him as a child was still active. Armed with that knowledge, he was finally able to shed the rigid and crippling notions of his past and free his authentic self. There are many images for the Fence. Contemplate yours for the information it can give you.

posted August 21, 2006 10:33 PM         

Thanks for sharing. a journey into self coincides with what I am currently doing an reading. The following books are great: Sahaman's Path, Shamanic Experience, Shamanic Journeying. I have a mentor who is a Shaman; their work and their love for nature is admirable. I recently learned about power animals; it has helped me understand my connections.

Silverstone
------------------
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

posted August 22, 2006 12:34 PM         

you know - once you do this exercise and you get the interpretations. you can always go back to the journey and concentrate on things you saw, you would like to change and change them but AFTER you do the initial exercise.

If the word shaman, shamanism, and shaman's path aren't the most deja vuish type subjects in my life. I've been meaning to read about them - i had the chance in college but i was way too young and i didn't pay attention.