What we need now are the diaries of explorers. We need many diaries of many explorers so we can begin to get a feeling for the territory.
—terence mckenna, the archaic revival
In any endeavor, the question must always be asked: What are we doing? Why are we doing it? And are we getting results? If so, what kind? The mystic arts (whether shamanic, Qabalistic, or occult) are indeed an art form, but even the arts require, within the artist, the critical eye of scrutiny and testing that befits the methodology of science.
These inquiries must be considered on an individual level. Notwithstanding, we can collectively rest assured of esotericism’s roots in classical philosophy—specifically Plato’s legacy—providing an empirical framework for the mystic process. Though scholars disagree on whether or not Platonism provided any actual esoteric application, being primarily intellectual in nature, there are signs that the Neoplatonic tradition does address esoteric practice.
Neoplatonism arose around the third century and persisted for around two hundred years. Inspired by the work of Plato, the Neoplatonists vary in their approach to Plato’s philosophy yet usually agree on the idea of a singular creative principle in the universe. Plotinus is generally considered the founder of Neoplatonism, but his student Iamblichus of Syria is worthy of study in the analysis of psychonautics. Iamblichus’s contribution to the occultism of the Western Mystery Tradition cannot be understated; his legacy inspired the Roman Emperor Julian to help ease the threat to pagan shrines in the early Christian world, influenced the Renaissance magical operations of Marsilio Ficino, and even contributed to some of the practices used in the earliest Christian sacraments. The correlations to Qabalah in Iamblichus’s work are profound. In remembering the Ain Soph Aur—the Veils of Negative Existence—and their turning point from nothingness into the first Sephirah, Kether, and thus the rest of the Sephiroth, regard the following from Iamblichus’s De Mysteriis: “God produced matter out of the scission of materiality from substantiality, which the Demiurge, receiving as a living substance, fashioned into simple and impassible spheres and organized the last of this into generated and mortal bodies.” 89
Iamblichus is credited most with concretizing the philosophy and practice of Platonic theurgy. Theurgy is different from theology, which is differentiated by prominent Iamblichan scholar Gregory Shaw: “For theology was merely logos, a ‘discourse about the gods,’ and however exalted, it remained a human activity, as did philosophy. Theurgy, on the other hand, was a theion ergon, a ‘work of the gods’ capable of transforming man to a divine status.” 90
In other words, theurgy dealt with rites and sacraments that executed the Great Work itself. To illustrate the underlying approach to theurgy, I would like to return to Usrula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, specifically the work of the lead protagonist, Shevek. As stated earlier, Shevek is a physicist who is sent to Urras to develop and share the results of his research, what he calls “Simultaneity Theory.” Simultaneity Theory revolves around the idea that time is happening all at once, rather than within a sequence of past, present, and future. During a conversation in the novel, Shevek says,
Within the strict terms of Simultaneity Theory, succession is not considered as a physically objective phenomenon, but as a subjective one.… We think that time ‘passes,’ flows past us, but what if it is we who move forward, from past to future, always discovering the new? It would be a little like reading a book, you see. The book is all there, all at once, between its covers. But if you want to read the story and understand it, you must begin with the first page, and go forward, always in order. So the universe would be a very great book, and we would be very small readers.91
Perhaps without knowing it, Le Guin hearkens to the sympathies of tapping into Kamasqa and the imaginative space in order to grasp the immensity of scope contained in Simultaneity Theory. Regarding the development of his theory, Shevek muses, “It is only in consciousness, it seems, that we experience time at all.… In a dream there is no time, and succession is all changed about, and cause and effect are all mixed together. In myth and legend there is no time.” 92
Neoplatonist philosopher Iamblichus, it just so happens, provides a similar take on the sequence of time and its interplay with consciousness: “Although the cosmos is eternally in being the exigencies of discourse separate the creation from the creator and bring into existence in a time sequence things which are established simultaneously.” 93
How convenient it is that Le Guin introduces in her treatise on anarchism a quantum theory—bordering on mystical illumination—that has to do with time or the lack thereof within human consciousness. Given Le Guin’s level of sophistication as an author, we can only assume the overlap of the two themes was intentional. The correlations to Iamblichus’s time-space universal framework coming into sequence “simultaneously” cannot be overlooked. So what then can we make of the sacred anarchism she offers in the initiatory revelations of the scientist Shevek? Why the focus on time and its lack of sequence in regard to psychonauticism, specifically within a shamanic Qabalah?
Iamblichan scholar Gregory Shaw, in providing a distinct rationale of theurgic practice, offers an intriguing interpretation:
Thus, although in the Timaeus Plato describes creation as a sequence of events, the work of the Demiurge was simultaneous. For Iamblichus this meant that the cosmogony did not take place in a chronological past but always present in illo tempore, and was therefore always accessible by means of theurgic ritual. The chronology of the Timaeus simply portrayed ontological grades of being simultaneously present in the corporeal world. The separation of corporeality from its principles was an impossibility that could occur only in abstraction, not in actuality. In other words, at the “moment” the Demiurge exists the entire corporeal world exists, and in every sense. There was no spatial or temporal separation between the Forms and their sensible expression.94
The purpose then of theurgy is to relive the creative act—the Kamasqa principle—within a ritual context. The Tree of Life is itself a map of creation, and walking the Sephiroth becomes the very act of walking the sequence of creation. As a composite symbol, the Tree of Life displays that sequence within a single, simultaneous cosmos.
Pathworking
There are as many ways to be a psychonaut in the cosmos as there are human beings on the planet. Each person is equipped to be the prime expert in their own psychonautica. As an ages-old shamanic tradition, psychonautics is as varied a methodology as there are cultures around the world, each approach with its own individual flavors as information gets passed on, retried, tested, and refined over time.
The great thing about the Tree of Life is that it is not only a symbol but also a composite one that can carry within it an innumerable amount of images from almost any tradition across the planet. It can place these magical images into categories that can then interact through relationships via the paths between the Sephiroth. Psychically and astrally exploring the symbol-systems on the Tree of Life is most generally referred to as pathworking.
There is no better way to define pathworking than through the living maestra of pathworking herself, Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki. In Highways of the Mind, she writes,
A pathworking is a journey between this side of the mental worlds and the other side. One of the most exciting journeys mankind can take because it offers a path, a map through the landscapes of the mind, landscapes that are as yet barely explored and offer one of the last great frontiers. They are Doorways between the known and the physical and the unknown and the non-corporeal. They accomplish their work through the medium of the creative imagination … the seed from which everything made and produced by mankind has sprung. They can and do cause actual physical effects in the everyday world in which we live, which is one of the reasons why they have been held in secret for so long.95
Pathworking, in the context of Western esotericism, is the process of journeying with the imagination through the various paths and Sephiroth of the Tree of Life. If the paths are the roads, the Sephiroth are the destinations, and the symbols upon each are the markings and road signs pointing the way, allowing passage, and keeping you on the right trail. It is easy to get lost in the imagination. Just because one is able to induce visuals within the mind does not mean one is pathworking. The symbols are very important. One should imagine that the pathways on the Tree of Life are covered in a fog at night, and the symbols are light posts keeping you from veering off into the ditch, your own altar the headlight of your vehicle paving a beam of illumination ahead.
This is why it is very important to follow a ritual process of some sort. These ceremonies have been designed to facilitate an efficient use of these symbols and motions within the subconscious, opening the appropriate doorways of access to the intelligences associated with the tree and its machinations. As our master teacher Dion Fortune says, “It is well known to mystics that if a man meditates upon a symbol around which certain ideas have been associated by past meditation, he will obtain access, to those ideas, even if the glyph has never been elucidated to him by those who have received the oral tradition ‘by mouth to ear.’ ” 96
Furthermore, these ceremonies have evolved. As evolution progresses, the dross burns away, what no longer works finds its place in obscurity, and the new, more effective methods grow into pristine channels of reception. Dion Fortune herself was no slave to tradition for tradition’s sake, especially if it stymied the evolution of a system.
When I was majoring in studio art for my undergraduate degree, the professors expressed time and again that, for now, learn the basics, learn the rules, learn from the masters that came before. Then, when the foundation is set, take off from there, be creative. Take what they did and deconstruct it, bend it to your own will, make it work for you. In essence, experiment. But you can only do that by truly learning the system first. My instructors could spot from a mile away someone who built something new from a foundation of aesthetics and technique, and someone who was just randomly trying to be abstract: there was no substance to the work of those who didn’t take the time or energy to school themselves in the masters of old first.
The following pages will provide some sample ritual protocol to follow in order to engage in a pathworking on the Tree of Life. However, your journey is your own, and I cannot define it for you. Ceremonially, you must find what works and what doesn’t. But, once you do discover your niche, stick to it, take it seriously, and become as expert as you can at it. It is only through expertise that true results come. So goes the common adage, practice makes perfect.
Sacred Space
First, create a space in which to perform your work. Ideally, you will want a lodge space that is private and in which you can easily close away the outside world. However, because the modern world doesn’t always afford us all with such opportunities, at least carve out for yourself a space within your home: a corner, a cleaned-out closet space, and so on. You need a place that is dedicated solely to the Work itself. This amps up the power of your pathworking and also provides a focal point of concentration that is required for an effective theurgy. There needs to be a clear delineation of the outside world and the inner one.
Add to this sacred space an altar of some sort. I, of course, have recommended the use of a Pachakuti mesa in this book, but you must choose whatever vehicle of ritualistic paradigm works for you, whether Golden Dawn, Wiccan, Lakota, and so on. Whatever altar system you have in place, study it, and study it thoroughly. Make it your life’s work. Working an altar is not a trifle matter. It requires attention, love, and care. Immersing yourself in the mythology of the tradition you are practicing is essential, as it adds to the depth of the pathworking experience.
Ideally, in your study and expertise, you will need to immerse yourself in the tradition or lineage of that altar set. Learn how to “turn on” and “turn off” the altar as you would a computer. Learn how to operate it effectively, how to provide the commensurate offerings that will feed its etheric nutritive organism. In the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, we burn incense like palo santo or copal or use scented waters like agua de florida to feed the ceremonial grounds. This starts the dialogue, the discourse with the unseen; your altar is the interface, just as the web page you may look at on the internet is the user interface for the unseen code behind the application. Regardless of the altar set in use, incorporating the elemental matrix is vital. From there, it is recommended to carry over certain ritual practices from the Western Mystery Tradition in order to provide the core curriculum of a viable pathworking in the Qabalah Tree of Life.
The Qabalistic Cross
After opening the space, you will want to begin the practice of rituals designed to prepare you for journeywork upon the tree. One specific ritual is typically what any practicing Qabalist uses after opening the ritual space. It is called the Qabalastic Cross. Israel Regardie best describes the purpose of the Qabalistic Cross meditation in The Middle Pillar: “The Qabalistic Cross … indicates [an] awareness of other levels of consciousness, and the necessity of bringing them into operation within the human psyche. Not only so, but it recognizes that these newly awakened levels of power and consciousness may be deeply disturbing to the novice who attempts this voyage of discovery. Therefore, what is essential is that not only should they be awakened, but that they should be recognized and equilibrated in a balanced disposition.” 97
One does this by ritualistically and imaginally simulating the coniunctio upon the body, calling forth the balance of the forces of the cosmos from the unconscious. The ritual motions imitate the motion of the cross much like in Roman Catholic ceremonies. When intoning the ritual phrases in the following rituals, it is important to focus more on the vibration than the notes, as in the mesa opening described earlier. The vibration is typically low, with less of a focus on volume than the resonance being generated within the physical body. The usual Western Mystery Tradition paradigm of the Qabalistic Cross goes thus:
1. With your right finger (or a ritual wand) touch your forehead, imagining a white glow of light emanating into your forehead area, and intone, “Atoh” (meaning “Thou art”).
2. Bring the finger down, drawing an imaginary line of white laser-like light, and touch the breast, intoning, “Malkuth.”
3. Now bring the finger up to your right shoulder, imagining a white glow of light emanating into your shoulder area, and intone, “Ve-Gedulah” (meaning “glory,” another name for the Sephirah Chesed).
4. Bring the finger across your body, again drawing an imaginary line of white laser-like light, and touch your left shoulder imagining a white glow of light emanating into your shoulder area, and intone, “Ve-Geburah” (meaning “power”).
5. Imagining the laser-like cross of light you have just created over and throughout your body, clasp your hands in a prayer-like fashion over your heart, and intone, “Le Olahm, amen” (meaning “forever, so be it”).
Those with a Christian upbringing will recognize the doxology—sometimes added at the end of the Lord’s Prayer—embedded throughout the intonations of this ritual: “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” Whether Christian or not, it is a fine prayer or mantra to emulate the Hermetic axiom “as above (for thine), so below (is the kingdom).” It represents the two Pillars of Manifestation—Chesed and Geburah, masculine and feminine, glory and power—within one’s physical form as well.
The Qabalistic Cross can be, more so than any other ritual, one of the most important tools one can use in the process of initiation. It can be utilized, adapted, and meditated upon for lifetimes. So, it is important to find a use for the Qabalistic Cross in such a way that it works and makes sense to you.
Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero, adepts of the Golden Dawn Tradition, have created many additions to Israel Regardie’s work and offer a Native North American shamanic version of the Qabalistic Cross.98 The intonations are as follows, with added modifications of my own. A prime addition is that the second step is completed at the stomach. The spiritual stomach is a major energetic center in the body used in shamanic cultures around the world. The Native North American Qabalistic Cross is as follows:
1. With your right finger (or a ritual wand) touch your forehead, imagining a white glow of light emanating into your forehead area, and intone, “Wakan Tanka” (Great Spirit, Creator of the Lakota).
2. Bring the finger down, drawing an imaginary line of white laser-like light, and touch the stomach, intoning, “Michabo” (Great Hare Trickster god of the Algonquin).
3. Now bring the finger up to your right shoulder, imagining a white glow of light emanating into your shoulder area, and intone, “Ioskeha” (human benefactor god of the Iroquis and Huron).
4. Bring the finger across your body, again drawing an imaginary line of white laser-like light, and touch your left shoulder, imagining a white glow of light emanating into your shoulder area, and intone, “Whope” (goddess of whom the Lakota White Buffalo Calf Woman is a manifestation).
5. Imagining the laser-like cross of light you have just created over and throughout your body, clasp your hands in a prayer-like fashion over your heart, and intone, “Aho mitakuye oyasin” (meaning “All are related, so be it” in Lakota).
In terms of the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, I have developed a version of the Qabalistic Cross that incorporates the directions and qualities of the mesa. As don Oscar teaches, each direction not only contains an elemental and tutelary as well as healing attributes, they also provide standards of virtue by which to uphold one’s character and actions. These virtues provide a template for living one’s life in alignment with goals of the Great Work, and are attributed to the mesa thus:
• Pachamama (South—Earth): Llankay (pronounced YAHNG-kai), which means hard work, right action, and pragmatic industriousness.
• Mamakilla (West—Water): Munay (pronounced MOON-ai), which means compassion and unconditional love.
• Wiracocha (North—Spirit): Yuyay (pronounced YOO-yai), which means a nonembodied understanding, a Remembering of who we really are as spiritual beings.
• Intitayta (East—Fire): Yachay (pronounced YAH-chai), which means wisdom, knowledge, and mindfulness.
• K’yuchi (Center—Aether): Huñuy (pronounced HOO-nooee), which means to join, to unite or reunite, to bring together in harmony.
Taken together, if we were to follow the spiraling of the mesa from south to center, the words themselves form into a sentence that is itself a mantra to be taken into meditative consideration:
Llankay, munay, yuyay, yachay, huñuy.
Bringing these concepts together in English, we have this mantra:
Right action, borne of compassionate spiritual wisdom, unites.
Pulling these attributes into the Qabalistic Cross not only invokes the power of these virtues, but, when aligned accordingly, it also replicates the power of the mesa onto one’s very own body. The following steps are considered the Qabalistic Cross of the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition:
1. With your right finger (or a ritual wand) touch your forehead, imagining a white glow of light emanating into your forehead area, and intone, “Yuyay.”
2. Bring the finger down, drawing an imaginary line of white laser-like light, and touch the stomach, intoning, “Llankay.”
3. Now bring the finger up to your right shoulder, imagining a white glow of light emanating into your shoulder area, and intone, “Yachay.”
4. Bring the finger across your body, again drawing an imaginary line of white laser-like light, and touch your left shoulder, imagining a white glow of light emanating into your shoulder area, and intone, “Munay.”
5. Imagining the laser-like cross of light you have just created over and throughout your body, clasp your hands in a prayer-like fashion over your heart, and intone, “Huñuy.”
As I stated earlier, the function of initiation is to shepherd one into a process of labor. By simulating the virtue of llankay into our stomachs, the area in our bodies most industrious in breaking down what is no longer needed, we make way for the other virtues to manifest within our form.
The LBRP
Although I will not provide as thorough a study for it as for the Qabalistic Cross, the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP) is nothing to ignore in the slightest. Together with the Qabalistic Cross, it is one of the most basic and preliminary of magical techniques taught in the mystery schools. Donald Michael Kraig, the renowned occultist who authored the best-selling Modern Magick, has said, “I cannot overstress the importance of the LBRP. Becoming proficient in Magick is a precarious task, and the LBRP is the rather tiny support. If you are not proficient at the LBRP, the entire system can fall down around you. This is why the LBRP is taught right at the beginning. In fact, other than initiation rituals, it was the only ritual given out to members of the Golden Dawn until they entered the Inner Order. This would take over one year of practice.” 99
Because this book is focused on mysticism and not magic, more focus is devoted to the Qabalistic Cross ritual. However, even though the LBRP leans more toward the magical territory, it is an important one to integrate into your practice. There are many reasons to do this ritual, chief among them being to widen your scope of the celestial presence in preparation for theurgic pathworking. It is also designed to remove (or banish) any influences from the ritual space that could be dangerous or undesired. This is in actuality what the pentagram is for. Although it has been bastardized by popular culture as a symbol of evil or witchcraft, the pentagram in the Western Mystery Tradition serves as a vital tool for protection. The pentagram relates wholly to Geburah, the fifth Sephirah on the Tree of Life, as the pentagram is a symbol for banishing unwanted forces.
The LBRP seals your ceremonial space in preparation for travelling the Tree of Life, ensuring that your sacred intentions remain clean and clear. It acts as a filter, removing any dross that may want to make its way into your ritual. It should be followed thus:
1. After the Qabalistic Cross ritual, ensure you are facing east. Extend your right hand and with your index finger trace a five-pointed star into the air, the line manifesting as a white or blue beam of laser-like light. Start with the lower left point, going to the top, then down to the lower right point, up to the upper left point, over to the upper right, and completing the pentagram by tracing it back down to the lower left point. With the pentagram complete, touch the center of the pentagram you have created in the air, establishing a white point of light in the center. Intone the God name for the east: “YHVH,” Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh.
2. Then turn to face the south. Complete the tracing of the pentagram the same way as before. Then touch the center of the pentagram you have created in the air, establishing a white point of light in the center. Intone the God name for the south: “ADNI” (ah-DOH-nai).
3. Turn to face the west. Complete the tracing of the pentagram the same way as before. Then touch the center of the pentagram you have created in the air, establishing a white point of light in the center. Intone the God name for the west: “AHIH” (eh-HEH-yeh).
4. Turn to face the north. Complete the tracing of the pentagram the same way as before. Then touch the center of the pentagram you have created in the air, establishing a white point of light in the center. Intone the God name for the north: “AGLA” (eh-GAH-lah).
5. Return to face the east, holding your arms and hands out horizontally, extending to your left and right. And state clearly, visualizing the pentagrams you have created surrounding you, alive and glowing vibrantly, “Before me Raphael (RAH-fai-el), behind me Gabriel (GAHB-ray-el), on my right hand Michael (MIH-chai-el), and on my left hand Auriel (OHR-ree-el), for about me flame the pentagrams, and in the column stands the six-rayed star.”
After this, it is conducive to repeat the Qabalistic Cross a final time. There is plenty of scholarship available on the LBRP in occult literature, and I advise you to study it thoroughly and make it a part of your daily practice, along with the Qabalistic Cross.
Now that you have the space created, turned on, and sealed, and the angelic intelligences of each direction called forth, it is time to begin your pathworking on the Tree of Life.
Animal Totems of the Sephiroth
There are various ways to ensure an effective pathworking with the Tree of Life, especially by meditating or journeying with various symbols associated with the Sephiroth and paths, such as the tarot cards, the Hebrew letters, and other provided imagery. Another way can be to deepen one’s connection with the natural world … particularly animals. Our animal relatives are great teachers; they are often used in shamanic practice to receive messages from Spirit or assist in healing endeavors. Either in physical reality or in meditative journeywork, animal totems are key allies in interpreting the otherwise misunderstood powers of the universe around us.
The Sephiroth of the Tree of Life are regularly represented in terms of aspects of God or angelic powers. However, this can sometimes usher in a layer of abstraction that is difficult to integrate into the material world. Being our next of kin in consciousness, animal allies provide a relatable translation of perception of the universal powers inherent in the Tree of Life. In the shamanic sense, the late great Ted Andrews wrote, “The image of the animal helps the shaman transcend the normal, waking consciousness so that he or she can more easily attune to the more ethereal realms and beings.” 100 An animal totem provides an access point to a specific universal archetype or energy, in much the same way as the other symbols associated with the Sephiroth.
There are many good references for the meaning of various animal totems, but like interpreting a dream, the meaning is mainly subjective to the experience of the receiver. Also, to my knowledge, no one has made animal totem attributions to the Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, so this is my interpretation only. I will provide basic information here and in the individual sections on the Sephiroth in futures chapters, but only you—like for all symbols—can derive its most potent meaning for yourself.
To develop a vital animal totem cosmology for the Sephiroth, we must review the Tree of Life in terms of creation, from top to bottom, Kether to Malkuth. Producing an animal guide for each Sephirah is akin to telling the story of life itself:
1. Kether—Sponge: It’s surprising to some, but the sea sponge is actually classified as an animal, not a plant. In fact, it is one of the oldest species of animal on the planet, which is why it is the representation of Kether, the fount of all creation. The sponge is our oldest living relative that still resides in the primordial waters of our birth.
2. Chokmah—Shark: Still residing within the waters of life, the shark represents the prime masculine concept within the Supernal Triad. The shark is still an ancient being that connects with our archaic origins on the planet.
3. Binah—Alligator: A being that lives within the waters but makes its way onto land, the alligator represents the bridging point of Binah as a purveyor of creation into Form. Still, the alligator is an ancient being, like the shark, but with legs to bridge from one state of being into another.
4. Chesed—Deer: From the waters, we now evolve onto land for the next three Sephiroth, the Ethical Triad. This is where life really begins to take shape, and the deer represents that elegance and grace that Chesed exudes.
5. Geburah—Wolf: The wolf counters the deer, representing those aspects of Binah that organize and break down the aspects of creation that are yearning to become Manifest.
6. Tiphareth—Buffalo: A semblance of perfect balance and a reflection of Spirit in many native cultures, the buffalo resides in the center of the Ethical Triad and indeed the entire Tree of Life.
7. Netzach—Dragonfly: From land now evolution lifts off the ground, metaphorically, to reach its perfected state of Manifestation in the Astral Triad. The dragonfly perfectly replicates the creative energies of Netzach.
8. Hod—Bee: The bee colony is one of the most accomplished organizations in nature, where the bee is a pristine example of the organizing principles of Hod.
9. Yesod—Raven: A long-standing symbol of magic and mystery, the raven has often been associated with the powers of the moon, Yesod’s prime planetary body.
10. Malkuth—Snake, Dolphin/Whale, Eagle/Condor, Puma/Jaguar, and Llama: Even though Malkuth is often associated with the four holy living creatures (explained in chapter 10), the five tutelary animals of the Pachakuti mesa are another shamanic attribution worth considering. Although the animals discussed above corresponded with elements (from water, to ground, and then to air), I propose that these elements are a higher level of archetype; the animal totems in Malkuth are a grounded, tangible depiction of the physical elements here in Manifestation.
This layout, like all the other symbolism in this book, is not meant to be taken literally. The dynamic of the animal totems on the Tree of Life is merely a story, meant to convey a magical image to interact with a certain level of consciousness as a psychonaut. Every animal provides a certain level of medicine for the soul, a teaching that shows us a little bit about our own behaviors and interaction with the world around us. To receive these teachings with open arms is the modus operandi of the shamanic journey.
The Journey
To be truthful, there is actually not much to be written about shamanic journeying itself. If you look, you will find a plethora of books, YouTube videos, workshops, and seminars that will drain thousands of dollars of your money and thousands of minutes of your time, just to teach you all these different steps on “how to journey.” But, truth is, journeying is the most simple, primal skill that any conscious being has.
You journey every single day. Frankly, you journey every single moment of every single day, because life itself is journeying, is dreaming. But, to break it down and make it simpler to understand, you journey whenever you dream at night. You journey whenever you are in the car and you zone out for a minute. You journey whenever you are sitting in class or at work and you are thinking of being someplace else. You journey whenever you are in a conversation with someone and you are painting in your mind’s eye exactly what they are saying, a visualization of what it is they are describing. One of the more common and creative forms of shamanic journeying that has extended throughout all time is storytelling. Since the inception of fire at human hands back in the Paleolithic or Neopaleolithic era, humans began to gather around the hearth, established community, and devised a way to transmit their dreams. Because before that, they wandered at night, they had to stay quiet, and they had to spend all day foraging, hunting, and gathering. But with the hearth came leisure time. Not only could we cook and eat our food in new and different ways, but the hearth also gave us light and the ability to gather around a central, magical flame to exchange ideas and tell stories of our days, tell stories of our dreams. And we’ve carried this tradition throughout time.
This tradition has evolved and turned into songs, plays, novels, and nowadays most commonly television and movies. But the novel is an interesting format for journeying because, if you think about it, as once tweeted by British writer Katie Oldham: “Ever realised how fucking surreal reading a book actually is? You stare at marked slices of tree for hours on end, hallucinating vividly.” 101 Reading is basically the art of hallucinating, visioning, journeying into the world of words that the writer is painting for you as on a canvas.
The most common format for pathworkings to be transmitted through literary form is through guided meditations or visualizations. And these are wonderful and amazing. Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki’s meditations specifically are the most efficient visualizations for any novice. However, whenever reading a guided visualization, it’s almost as if the experience doesn’t become one’s own, because after guided visualization, Ashcroft-Nowicki, among others, will always recommend to continue the work, to go on your own journeys.
We’ve all forgotten how to dream for ourselves. Dreaming, in the Aboriginal Australian tradition, is a way of creating one’s reality, a way of forming the material world from behind, from the unseen. And we’ve lost these ways in the modern world. We always start with the material first rather than the concept, and we try to work backward. But we must start any endeavor in the dreaming, in the astral, in the Kamasqa, and formulate the material world from there. Because when we do that, we are essentially simulating the re-
creation of the universe, over and over and over again. And by that measure, what is created is pure.
So in essence, my practical instruction ends with this:
Sit comfortably. Always have your back straight. Never cross your arms and legs; keep them open, your palms open or resting comfortably in your lap. I personally recommend to not lie down, because it is easy to slip off into sleep, and you want to be in control of the journeying. You want to be able to be in both worlds, this one and the other, and by lying down it is much too easy to give in to sleeping consciousness.
Breathe normally. There are many good breathing methods out there, some that work very efficiently for specific purposes. Just learn to breathe in a normal, comfortable rhythm and to visualize your breath moving in you, through you, throughout your body, as if you can imagine the oxygen flowing to every limb of your body and then the carbon dioxide flowing out with the exhale. This breath and the way that it moves in and out of your body are like the gears and pistons of a great machine, an engine that facilitates your experience.
I recommend spending at least five to ten minutes anytime you sit down for ceremony just to experience your breath. And if other thoughts come in, that’s fine … we’re not trying for Buddhahood here. Just be patient with yourself, move the thought to the side, and keep your focus on your breath.
And then, working with your altar, use your altar space as your central grounds of operation. Your altar space, your mesa, is your portal into the unseen, your wizard’s table in mixing the alchemical formula necessary to do the Great Work. The code for the software of teleportation has already been set within the mesa, which incorporates all the elements of matter.
The simplest of visualizations is to imagine (with just your pure imagination, your daydreaming—it doesn’t matter if you feel like it is real or not, just imagine) a cord of light extending from your crown. Imagine it as if it were an umbilical cord but made out of light. This is traditionally the connector between you and the other realms. It is what mystics throughout the centuries in almost every culture have used to maintain their connection to the material world while traversing other dimensions. And now allow it to extend out to the center of your mesa, your altar, establishing a connection between you and your altar space. Before doing anything and going anywhere, just allow it to be. Just allow that connection to settle between you and your sacred ground.
Then, imagine a simulation of yourself, your body (many traditions call this the astral body or astral form; in the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition it is called the sombra), forming inside you and flowing out of your physical body and into the cord of light, almost as if that cord were a tunnel of light you are traveling through. This astral form, this sombra, is nothing more than the reflection of you in the unseen world. Flowing through that tunnel, allow yourself to move into the center of your mesa, into whatever medicine piece resides in the center of the altar space, and as you move through that center piece, imagine that centerpiece as a portal that transfers you into the unseen.
As you exit, just imagine pure darkness, just like the darkness that resides behind your eyes. And as the darkness unfolds slowly, you notice that you are in the Temple of Malkuth (described on page 141), which is the gateway into the rest of the Tree of Life. From there your adventures begin. Knowing what you know, allow yourself to go there. Explore. Read other books, gain more knowledge, get training, because it will all help you along the way.
A Final Word
Receive the information as presented and use it as you will, because this narrative is only my personal experience and knowledge base of a shamanic Qabalah. It can only truly belong to me. I could tell you a story, but it will never be your story. You must create your own story and be your own creator. That is how humanity will truly save itself from destruction.
The following section, “SIMULACRA,” is only one of many interpretations of the symbols involved in pathworking and what may lie behind them. They are mysteries, waiting to be unlocked. The Sephiroth and the paths among them act as keys. No one person’s interpretation can unlock, or most especially lock, them all. This is your work, the Great Work. You have to exhibit llankay, some industriousness in finding a way unveil the mystery of the tabernacle. That’s the whole gig of esotericism, occultism, or shamanism. It’s a very individual process in which you do truly own the means of your production. You are the only one who can capitalize on your own efforts, no matter how much you try to sell your ideas or interpretations. The daimonic realm only works at the level of soul, and soul will always find a way to evade detection, banality, and commercialization. Soul is wild, the river of Kamasqa, and will not be tamed by our efforts, no matter what symbols we slap on its visage.
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Take the information, add it to your brain-space library, and create your own keys. Civil rights activist June Jordan read this reminder, often attributed to a Hopi phrase, from “Poem for South African Women” to the United Nations in 1978: “we are the ones we have been waiting for.” 102 In a sense, this is true. One reason humanity seems to feel so lost and chaotic nowadays is because we are lost and chaotic in our minds. The ancients long ago uncovered ways to help us sharpen our wits. I argue that the ancient mysteries must be studied so that we can evolve these archaic symbols and techniques into a new era of simulacra that will support and conduct the consciousness of the next seven generations and beyond.
89. Iamblichus, Iamblichus: The Platonic Commentaries, trans. John Dillon (Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1973), 141.
90. Gregory Shaw, Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus (Kettering, OH: Angelico Press, 2014), 5.
91. Le Guin, The Dispossessed, 221–22.
92. Le Guin, The Dispossessed, 222.
93. Shaw, Theurgy and the Soul, 30.
94. Shaw, Theurgy and the Soul, 39; underlining added.
95. Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, Highways of the Mind: The Art and History of Pathworking (Sechelt, BC, Canada: Twin Eagles Publishing, 2010), 19–20.
96. Fortune, Mystical Qabalah, 6.
97. Israel Regardie, The Middle Pillar: The Balance Between Mind and Magic, ed. Chic Chicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2000), 50.
98. Regardie, Middle Pillar, 204.
99. Donald Michael Kraig, Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts, 2nd ed. (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1988), 165–66.
100. Ted Andrews, Animal Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1993), 8.
101. Katie Oldham (@KatieOldham), Twitter, December 9, 2014, 8:02 a.m., https://twitter.com
/KatieOldham/status/542348626711019520.
102. June Jordan, “Poem for South African Women,” Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan, ed. Jan Heller Levi and Sara Miles (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2007), line 35.
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