NMR ISSUE 43

Antilion Fly, Abalone & Grouse
Astrological Forecast 43
Chant for the Goddess
Colm and the Unicorn
Dark Passages
Editorial 43
Esoteric Symbology of the Tarot
Evolution
Healing for Mild Depression
In the Fire
Meditation
Meditation is the Key
Midsummer's Eve
Mouse
Namaste Part I
Pathworking
Ravel Magick
The $ Word
The Deserted Castle
Working with Your Shadow, II

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Pathworking by Judith Rhoads

Pathworking is the ancient way of teaching/transmitting metaphysical knowledge/experience to a student. It is a special kind of guided meditation. Pathworking is such a wonderful tool, we would like for you to be able to fully appreciate what it is and how best to do it. A pathworking experience is unique and different for each person each time you do it! For those lucky enough to have a group to work with, have someone read the meditation for you after you are down. If alone, you might read the meditation into a recorder. Otherwise, read the meditation enough times to remember where you are going and what you are to do. It may differ a little just remembering the meditation, don't force it, and let it happen.

The best way of doing a pathworking is to first set up a temple to work in. This will usually be your bedroom unless you are lucky enough to have an extra room to devote strictly to magical workings. Mentally place a circle of white light around the room, locate the east wall of the room and mentally picture a doorway there. This doorway can be of any type but we Pagans generally go for the big oak door with iron castings. Of course you need a big iron key for the lock. Now sit or lie down and get comfortable—phone off hook and a do not disturb sign on the physical door. Slow your breathing and quiet your mind, speak to your favorite deity, teacher or guide, asking for protection and illumination. Count down from any number you chose, (8 to 1, 5 to 1, even 23 to 1) slowly.

Imagine a second you standing up from inside you and standing before you. It's always a good idea to notice how your second self is dressed, the mood he or she or even possibly it is in. Your second self can look like anything—opposite sex, both sexes, no sex, mythical creature, beast or even just a color or shadow. In one of my pathworking classes, a friend's second self insisted on being just a pair of big lips. (How Freudian do you think that is?) If your second self comes out with four feet instead of two, make note of it and ask if they will please change to a humanoid form for this trip. (Your second self is always trying to tell you things any way it can.) If the second self insists on staying the way it is, just go on with the meditation. You will of course unlock the door, put the key in your pocket or around your neck if you don't have clothes, and walk through to an astral level.

It's a good idea to build your own astral temple to work out of. It's like having your own sandbox to play in, a place to enter and leave from when you work on the astral. Picture the door in the east wall of your room opening on an astral world with whatever landscape you want. From this local you will cross between the astral and your real room. And nearby you will build your astral temple with your visualizations.

Your temple can be anything you want: a castle (very popular), a Greek/Roman/Egyptian temple (also very popular), or it could be a modern lab—whatever turns you on. Inside your structure will be a temple room with a doorway in the east. Always enter and exit through the east to begin and end your work here. The other walls may have doors too, but it's best not to start out with any.

For those new to this, I offer some suggestions: Have the north wall of the temple be a solid black wall, nothing on it. At some point, after you have been working a while, symbols or words will appear on the black wall. For now just wait and watch. The other three walls may be white and may be adorned any way you wish: lavish wall murals, pictures, symbols or plain. Your altar is in the center of the room and floor with a pattern of alternating black and white tiles. Around your doorway in the east, have a black pillar on the left and a white pillar on the right. Add whatever touches you want to make it personally yours. Don't people your temple for awhile except for one or two assistants who can be anyone dead or alive, real or fiction (like Superman). Eventually ask your High Self and teachers and guides to appear when you are ready.

Now you are ready to go on a pathworking from your own astral ground. The doorway from your bedroom leads into your astral world, and from there to your personal temple room in your personalized structure. Just face east in your astral temple and proceed with your pathworking meditation.

Watch for changes in your second self along the way during the meditation or at the end when it is standing before you. Have the second self turn around so you can check it out from all sides. Always end with asking the second self what it thought of the trip and if it has any messages/advice for you. Have the second self sit or lie back down inside you and notice how it feels when you take the energy back. Does it feel different? Does it fit? Did you have a sensation of cold or warmth? Power? Happiness? Depression? It is a good idea to keep a spiritual journal at times like this! I know, it's work, but it is worth doing. You will come to understand your selves better by keeping a record and looking for patterns and clues in how they appear, how they change, what they say. Hey, this is you talking to you, it can't be boring, right? Enjoy!

The following pathworking is very much like making an astral temple, though Dolores does not go into creating the temple room. It is a place meant for you to develop and visit often.

—JR