General guidelines for inner journeys
By Jacob Moth
There are most likely several reasons why you experience the call to embark on an inner journey. It can be out of pure curiosity to learn more about yourself and the Universe. Perhaps you are looking for more ecstasy in your life. It may be that you have a pain, a longing for meaning in life, are in a crisis, or something completely different.
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Joseph Campbell describes this call as “the call to adventure”. Once you have received the call to travel into your own psyche, there are several important things to be aware of. Embarking on inner journeys and becoming your own hero/heroine on the adventure of self-discovery is probably the most exciting and rewarding thing one can do in life. At the same time, it requires great courage, confidence in the process and self-discipline.
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Many eminent books have been written about this journey (at the bottom is a booklist with a selection), and I would strongly recommend reading and studying some of them. I have described my own inner journey, which stretched over 16 years, in detail, in my book “Land of the Nocturnal Butterfly - An Inner Journey”. It contains detailed travel guidance and inspiration. As a traveler in The Magic Garden, I recommend reading it in order to give you insight into the adventure of self-discovery and the whole background for our "space station".
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In order to get the most out of inner journeys, I will give you some general and in my opinion essential guidelines:
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Individuation
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Firstly, it is important to realize that the individuation process - as Jung called the inner journey and self-clarification process - is a process that often extends over many many years. Occasionally, people have rapid breakthroughs after just one or two ceremonies. But in these cases, it is often because the individuation process has been going underways for a long time and on other levels. They have done a lot of “homework” and therefore just need the crucial. Because of this, I advise you to be patient and enjoy the process. At some point, you will discover that the goal is the process itself.
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Daily practice
Generally, ceremonies go hand in hand with daily spiritual practices, as well as exercise and a healthy diet.
Whether it is meditation, Yoga, various forms of martial arts (aikido, karate, etc.), Sufi dance, Tai Chi or something else is up to you. Combine it with running, cycling, swimming, or whatever appeals to you, and eat healthy foods.
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Dreams
It is always a good thing to pay attention to your dreams. Freud called dreams the royal road to the unconscious. Therefore, I suggest that you have a dream book lying next to your bed. If you have a fixed sleeping rhythm, set the clock a little earlier than your duties require, so you have time to write down your dreams. With the right techniques, practice, and experience you will learn to recognize your dream language. You will be able to decode and understand the wisdom they contain and use the guidelines they give you.
An inner journey in a ceremony is a three-phased course: Preparation, the journey itself, and integration.
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Preparation
In the week leading up to the ceremonies, we recommend eating a light vegetarian or vegan diet. Plant-based foods make the system more open to deep transforming experiences.
During this period, there is often extra activity in your dreams. Be aware of this and give yourself time to be introspective. Take long walks in nature, meditate, keep a diary, give time to yourself and be loving to yourself. Turn off the phone, the television, and the computer, and seek as much peace as possible. If you have children, give them some extra attention and play with them. In our often stressed daily life, we cannot hear our inner voice. Listen, listen carefully and let pictures, images, feelings, memories, and fantasies come to you.
All of this contributes to opening the door to your inner world more, and you gain easier access to strong and deep experiences.
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Ceremony preparations do not have to take several hours. If your days are busy with work, family and kids that require your attention, try to give yourself small moments during the day, wherein you have time to do some of the above-mentioned things.
When you have decided to embark on an inner jouney and to transform your life, it is perfectly normal that this huge decision causes various inner processes to start. One's system starts undergoing various changes. Sometimes this means that you might experience days, where you can't sleep. This is perfectly normal. If this happens to you, know that everything is okay.
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Specific guidelines for the ceremony
Landing
The ceremony itself lasts about 6 - 8 hours. During the landing phase, we encourage painting and drawing of mandalas. Expressing yourself visually is a great way to integrate the experiences from your journey. When everyone has landed, we make a circle where we share our experiences and insights. This is an important part of the process, as it is very rewarding to share your own experiences, get feedback on them, and to hear about other people’s experiences.
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Integration
The most optimal situation is to have the day off after the journey. You are in an afterglow mode where you are still open, extra sensitive and where your experiences are very close to you. The integration phase is as important as the journey itself - perhaps even more important.
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Write your experiences down
Start writing your experiences down. In this writing process, you will experience several things. You can probably remember more details, you will feel moods, feelings and see your visions again, and you can have breakthrough experiences and other insights.
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Integrate your experiences with the help of music
During the ceremony we play live channeled music. The music is professionally recorded. After the retreat you can join our tribe online at our membership platform where you can listen and use the music for integration. The music is very powerful and many people have tell us of their experiences of deep-founded contact, security, presence, and peace when they use the music in their daily life. Experiment with it and see how it works for you.
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Interpretation of experiences
Sometimes we can get very clear messages on our journeys about what to do. It may be a message about which career you should be interested in. It can also be a clear and well-defined creative idea to be accomplished - be it a picture to be painted, or precise architectural drawings for a house to be built. The creative field is a very exciting area of medicine.
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It is important to be aware that the unconscious and the superconscious often speak to us through metaphors and symbols. If you are a woman, you might have experienced that you are to marry a certain man. You may feel an impulse to contact him immediately after and propose to him. When you paint this vision and write down the experience, you can get the insight that the man has some qualities you are looking for - some qualities and properties that have been stored deep down and call you. Your unconscious has projected your inner man - your Animus as Jung called it - on that man. Your experience of marriage was an invitation to the “sacred marriage” - Hieros Gamos - an invitation to become an entire human being.
Therefore, do not make any rash decisions. Always wait until the day after a journey or preferably longer before making final decisions.
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Action
The medicine helps you gain insights into what to do to optimize your life, but you still have to act on it and do what you have been told from within. We live on planet Earth, on a dual-level, and it’s of utmost importance to get your experiences down to earth and integrate them into your everyday life.
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On the adventure of self-discovery, you are the hero/heroine in your own life
As I wrote earlier, the adventure of self-discovery is a journey that takes time. You are the heroine/hero in your own movie - your own life. All great movies, myths, and adventures are variations of the hero’s journey as Joseph Campbell described it in his book “The Hero of the 1000 Faces”. This journey contains a wide range of experiences and states that help give life color, meaning, and content. It’s a journey that takes you down to the Underworld, where you will meet your shadow sides and regain and discover your hidden potentials. During the journey, you can experience periods of more or less chaotic states, when your old ego is about to dissolve in order for your new true self to be born. These are natural states. There is nothing to be afraid of.
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When you are ready and go deep enough, you will have experiences of death-rebirth. All pre-industrial cultures have had rites of passage in order to induce death-rebirth experiences. These experiences lead to mystical experiences, which have shown to be extremely healing and transformative. You will experience cosmic ecstasy when your old body armor is melted away and gain access to spontaneous daily ecstasy.
Be prepared for your life to become more exciting and trust the process and the Universe. Think of all the times when the hero/heroine at the last minute finds an exit or is saved, often with the help of supernatural beings.
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The goal
The goal is to get “high” off a glass of water. Live life fully and be completely present in the now, enjoy and be present in what you do. Bring Heaven down to Earth.
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It is this individuation process, that I and the other guides, here at The Magic Garden, are looking forward to, and feel called to support you in.
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6 books I would recommend you to read:
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Stanislav Grof - Psychology of the Future
C. G. Jung - Memories, Dreams, Reflections
C. G. Jung - Man and His Symbols
Christopher Bache - Lifecycles
Kyron Legrief - Rebirth of the Hero
Jacob Moth - Land of the Nocturnal Butterfly - An Inner Journey
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Light, love, magic, and blessings
Jacob Moth