Our inner journeys abound with metaphors, synecdoches and hue filled images from our psyche. The allegories of our inner landscape are of assistance to us in our manifestation from the intangible into the tangible. With discernment, we can throw a bridge across the chasm that separates the sublime from the density of the 3D world; we can shapeshift our way of life on the planet.

HHere are different kinds of inner journeys we can go on. Some have permissions and gateways to negotiate. And before entering another realm, it is advisable to check whether we are allowed to enter those spaces or not, as some pathways may not lead to the most beneficial space. For example, we may be entering the dream of a lover, or someone else's sacred and intimate place.  For the journey to our inner sanctuaries, our axis mundi, we ask the trees who guard the pathway if we may enter. In Kabbalistic writing, they speak of guardians along the path and we must ask permission in the correct way, or have a password, to continue.

When we do plant journeys, we also need to ask permission or blessing of that plant as vehicle. Journeying provides insights into your life, its meaning and purpose. It trains your ability to move from the 3D world into an altered state where healing can occur. It is a valuable skill as you can vitally empower yourself by creating a safe and sacred place in your axis mundi from which to do your journey work. From this place, you can be guided to source and clear up issues, place your intentions.

Often these days, in our 3D world, we are trying to make money or a better life for ourselves in some way that we THINK, is the correct way. But we are not our minds, our thoughts or our bodies. We are Spiritual Beings experiencing this material world in these human clothes – our bodies. We have an innate aspiration to Ascend and release the Divine sparks of light enclosed in the depths that we encounter. So we go inside to find out what is in our hearts, the center of our selves, and in this way, with proper intention, we become empowered to co-create the 3D world we live in.

We can ask questions, but it is important to ask the right questions, for the structure, our relationships, are different in altered states. The rules are not always in the way we think of it as being from our experiences in this realm. That is why we need a teacher, or a power guide to decode this inner, shamanic narrative and show up the true felt-sense of our hearts.

We need the discipline of our protocols to ascertain the axis mundi in journey work. For instance, we can become smitten by playing out there in the cosmic soup without any boundaries, so first learn the place of your axis mundi, your own sacred space of creation. It is representative of the symbiotic tension of constraint and creation. Besides engraving the tracks and signposts upon your neuron pathways, constraint is also needed for creation. Space, in our world, is necessary for events to happen and thus we need to constrain ourselves in order to create this space for them to grow. Also, by constraining ourselves, we are able to control the energy flow. The more consciously we can do that, the more clearly we are able to determine that energy flow. Energy does not pour out in flamboyant bliss when we are constrained. We need to separate the "this" from the "that", to notice the spaces and the relationship between, so that we can prepare the space for our creativity. It is as though we make river banks to allow the waters to flow. This is the time of separation from the mundane and the waiting on information from Great Spirit as to how to fill the space. Only then are we to allow something into the space.

We have given a structure of meaning to the word "Creativity", and it is spatial and innovative, it has a certain unfolding or enfolding dimensional temporal quality. It is metaphorical, conceptual, has form, poetic even. It is transformative in that we participate in it. It is the mysterious process by which we come up with new ideas and new ways. If we don't have this then we have no more movement, no more transformation, no more challenges in life - in other words, no more humanness. By paying attention to our inner images, the allegories of our inner landscapes and what they say, we are asking the wisdom of our inner guidance to help us to move more lucidly through life.

There is an "energy from beyond" that vivifies our bodies. By engraving these pathways of emergence and by being disciplined about acknowledging them, we can get to know the Way, we can make signposts. These protocols have been handed down to us from the Ancient of Days. They are well defined, and we engrave them by going there often. It is like any practice. Any discipline.

In the beginning, it is like going on a holiday to a new place. Arriving at night, we notice the traffic lights and hotel. We go in and sleep. Upon awakening in the morning, we notice that the traffic lights are still there and that the hotel is pink. But now, in addition, we notice that there is a shop on the other side of the road and the beach is around the corner. The following day we notice more. Spaces and structures come to light and negotiating the area becomes easier as now we have noted the signposts that help us to stay on track. This is similar to negotiating the sacred space of our axis mundi which resides in another realm, just as our eyes only go to where we have told them to go to bring back information.

We create from chaos, and chaos knows no bounds—feminine as she is. Order defines the boundaries so that the throwing of our dreaming bodies into new possibilities does not land in a chaotic mess. Structure holds the vessel in which we meet the future that we have created. Be still. Understand and allow the beauty of Saturn—the great teacher of measurement, structure and constraint—to in-form the possibilities of our futures. It is within that crystalline structure that life has the most degrees of freedom.

We can call upon complexity theories to show us how it works but to stick to simple language, when practicing magic one does not stand in the cauldron but steps back, separating oneself from the quickening, in order to allow it to express itself.

One of the most profoundly creative journeys we can do for our well being is a forgiveness journey. We may have forgiven a person or event time and time over, letting go of patterns as we do these days but still, it hurts. It is because as we hurt, we create armor, a husk, a shield, to protect us. This is painful to be trapped in. It is this armor that we forgive ourselves for holding. It is almost like our personal ventilation system that is blocked close in to our self. Compounded by fear we hold this shield for our vulnerability, in case…in case…we hurt again. It is an expression of our separation and creation of space that fear can reside in. So we fashion the sacred space of our own axis mundi to forgive ourselves first, removing the heavy energy residing in our bodies and placing it outside, in the manifest world. When I prepare for this ceremony, I place a bowl of water near to me.  My guides assist me to find the place where the felt-sense of the hurt resides in my body. I take it out and place it in the water. This energy can be signified by any variation from black muck to darts or arrows. When I return from the journey, I bless and thank the water for holding that dense energy for me and pour it into the earth. By letting it go, and placing it with Mother Earth, who deals well with it, who takes it, I become cleansed of hurt and anger.

Explanations from neuropsychology on how the brain functions during a shaman’s journey link Heidegger’s debate that understanding is “always ahead of itself” thus projecting expectations that interpretation attempts to clarify. Physicist Von Neuman asserts that “we futuristically collapse a wave function in ways that cause a fundamental, unknowable disturbance in the system”—creating and spontaneously bringing into existence something that did not exist before. Therefore, it can be said that we “know” already, what the synecdoche and metaphors mean, when they are retrieved from our inner conscious by an artist of the spirit who brings them forth into creation.

We are all artists of the Spirit

An authentic artwork is not always a comfortable narrative. Its beauty comes forward from a unique personality in an expansion of individuality “and that in one divine moment, and by selecting its own mode of expression, a personality might make itself perfect”.