Pathworking, Visiting the Spiritual Realm Options

I'm a practitioner of Wicca, the Correllian tradition specifically. I've read and re-read Living the Wiccan Life (part of the Witch School series of Witch School International) twice now, and the most appealing aspect was that of pathworking.

Pathworking exercises in the book help guide you to visiting your Higher Self, ancestral spirits, spirits/guardians of physical world places, your power animal, and the Goddess herself.

However, the author puts a lot of emphasis on one instruction.
"Do not have any pre-conceived ideas as to what the spirit you're seeking might look like. Let it come to you in whatever form it chooses."

So my question is: Does anybody else have a hard time NOT having a pre-conceived idea? I have not yet attempted pathworking in the fear that the ideas that I've developed for myself will ruin the experience.

Help/advice is much appreciated! ^^




P.S. Feel free to post stories of personal pathworking experiences!

This post has been edited by JHunt609: Mar 10 2010, 09:13 PM

I do, but I also believe a lot of the time that preconceived image is put there by an external force (usually the spirit itself) and this is the way it feels most appropriate for us to view it at the time! In my experience, it's best to go with the flow - make sure you're grounded and protected, get to know the spirit and ask why it presents itself like that to you and if it would be comfortable showing you itself in another form. As far as I can tell there are no set rules as to how a spirit should appear; my patron deity is traditionally portrayed with the head of an ibis or a babboon, yet I've encountered him in several forms.

Also, something I've found helpful in this situation - if you're worried that what you see isn't their actual outward appearance, try to become familiar with how their energy feels, this is a great way to recognise (and sometimes understand) spirits you encounter.

Anyways, good luck with your pathworking! I've not read into it much, but I'm now going to go have a little search on the internet (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy.gif)

Pathworking is good for all sorts of things, contacting various deific powers and specific spirits among them.

It is best to have mastered a state of conscious emptiness before going into pathworking, but not an absolute pre-requisite. Being able to enter into the trance state with a still mind allows the experience to unfold itself in a direct interaction with your subconscious mind. THe conscious mind tends to get in the way and dress things up in costumes, put voices to conceptual communication, etc.

However, you can do pathworking without that stillness. It is more difficult and can be very confusing, but the communication you receive will become clear eventually. Like a Zen Koan, much of your experience will occur in layers long after you actually do the pathworking exercise itself. There's particular benefit in this long way, which is to develope a kind of rapport between your conscious and subconscious mind.

Having a preconceived idea of what you will experience works against you in two ways - for one, without the ability to maintain a stillness in your mind, it will take your expectations and weave illusions from them. There may still be some communication coming into that tapestry from elsewhere, but you are unlikely to see it and it will be, essentially, tainted anyway as you will have to separate your own imagination from the experience which is nearly impossible to do objectively. Secondly, related to the first, it is possible to contact the wrong energy and not realize it. With your fidgety mind trying to make everything fun and colorful and your ego excited about gratifying itself, it doesn't matter what kind of energy it is, you will likely create a positive and empowering experience for yourself - which is mostly just fortify your ego.

When you are able to maintain a perfectly still consciousness for some reliable period of time, then your pathworking will take you to unimaginable heights. You can get to a certain point before then, but it has a limit. Where you can go from stillness is unlimited, and the information and communication you encounter will be far more valuable to you in that state.

peace

yoga can help, breath control helps, as will meditation


This post has been edited by esoterica: Jun 8 2010, 09:46 AM