Imaginal Journeys in the Underworld

  These Imaginal journeys almost always surprise me. Today, I was meditating and not intending to ‘travel’ at all when I realized I was staring into a wide, soft brown eye. It blinked and I was dazzled by the golden depths of the iris. I knew this eye belonged to an animal, not a human. Sure enough, the vision expanded and I was standing in a gorgeous, grassy field. A small donkey was grazing before me, placidly munching, a few blades of grass hanging out of its muzzle. It was looking up at me with those soft, brown eyes. The immediate feeling was one of gentleness and kindness and ease. In fact, the sheer innocence of the gentleness brought tears to my eyes. I felt so jaded when confronted with this sweetness; it softened my heart. I bowed to the beast and then patted it on the head, looking around as I did so. It was a sunny day and the grass was bright green. Insects buzzed in the air overhead. To the north, just a few steps away, was a forest. The trees were newly leafed out an...

  I have been intentionally not going into the Imaginal for the past week in order to simply meditate. This strategy works but it also takes effort because it requires me to consciously ignore my heart center. If I let my heart center do its thing, it opens and invariably I am transported to the Imaginal. It’s kind of a conundrum because both things take effort: Not going to the Imaginal and going to the Imaginal. (Being in the Imaginal requires effort because it takes a lot of ‘processing power’ to discriminate what is showing up and also to figure out what I am being asked to do. I know I can sit back and let it happen but still find myself efforting when I’m there.) This morning, I first became aware of standing on the surface of a turbulent sea. It was cold. A violent wind tossed the waves and storm clouds scudded overhead. Everything was blue, gray and green. Before me, the sinuous forms of sea serpents twined together on the surface of the water; they were obviously mating. B...

  This morning’s visit was brief and laden with symbolism. I found myself staring at what turned out to be a knight’s breastplate. It was stained red, whether that was from blood or because it was red, I don’t know. I could tell the knight was a handsome, virile young man beneath his helmet. He didn’t appear to see me, though. Instead, he had a terrified expression on his face and was staring aghast down at his lower half. I looked down and an enormous, black toad was in the process of swallowing him whole. Wherever its mouth touched was covered in black slime. There were strong undercurrents of sexual tension here. Not healthy tension, mind you. The knight was unwillingly turned on even as he was being devoured. Soon, the toad had eaten him whole and I followed him down into its stomach which was a vast, dark cavern. The knight’s entire body was covered in black slime and it proceeded to transform him. Again, there was a sexual charge but it was twisted. Slowly, as his naked body ...

  All these layers of Reality! No wonder some Eastern traditions say that we’re asleep and dreaming. It’s true that the ego is a form of delusion, preventing us from seeing Reality as it is. But there are also many layers to Reality and the physical world is but one. We humans seem to operate on several levels simultaneously but are mostly oblivious to all but the most obvious. Today, I found myself with a demonic horror. She seemed to have a vertical mouth that, when open, exposed vertical teeth and a blood-red maw. She was tall and slim and shapely, clad in silky, black and white robes. Despite this description, I knew she wasn’t evil and was actually benevolent. When I looked down at myself, I realized my body was similarly demonic. My skin was black and I was naked. I have no idea what my head looked like but it probably wasn’t pretty. I understood that my appearance was appropriate for where we were, which was one of the darker realms, home to innumerable demons. Further, I un...

  It took me a while to figure out what was going on this morning but I’m pretty sure I’ve figured it out now. I suspect that I was called to assist a living person’s trip to the Imaginal that had been facilitated by a psychedelic substance. I’ve wondered about these so-called tourists into the Imaginal and know that sometimes people have a bad trip. I suspect that what makes a bad trip has to do with the person’s lack of preparation, lack of a guide (in the physical sense) and lack of a guide (in the Imaginal sense.) I’m sure mental health and the overall capacity of the person to handle intense, confusing and possibly terrifying experiences are also factors. Today, I was meditating when I became aware of a goat-like man. He was standing amidst pine trees and was glowing silver. He was clearly fey. He led me through a dense pine forest, weaving among trees until we reached a small clearing. It was nighttime and at first I thought the glowing silver orb in the middle of the clearin...

  Ah, the Symbolic Realm! Always such a weird conundrum. I have to keep reminding myself that these experiences are, well, symbolic and therefore the imagery is merely pointing toward a truth. It’s not meant to be taken literally. Today, I thought at first that I was staring at the full moon. Then it seemed like it was a giant eye, rendered mostly white from cataracts. And then I understood what I was looking at: It was an egg case. I was underwater and staring at the egg case of some strange, aquatic creature that was getting ready to hatch. The little nymph or whatever inside was curled up around its long tail. Its body was like the iris of the eyeball I thought I saw and it did move around like an eyeball in a socket. As I watched, the egg sac ruptured and the creature emerged. It was sort of like a tadpole but, I soon realized, it was actually more like a fish. It possessed two large eyes that bulged outward, bigger than most of its body. I immediately thought of a hammerhead s...

  This entry may sound a little disturbing but the experience was not. If anything, it was the opposite. Images sifted through my mind before finally settling. First, it was Medusa’s head, then a snake with ruby eyes. The snake slithered through the grass, curling around a human skull. The eyesockets of the skull were black. I entered the blackness and found the body of a warrior. He wore the armor of Greek antiquity. I thought perhaps I’d been called there to assist him but he was not the reason. He was lying, unconscious or dead–I couldn’t tell–on the floor of the cranium of the skull. Beneath him was a bed of something reddish purple. A fungus? It was a mat of succulent fruiting bodies, so close together they formed a spongy carpet. I looked around and the walls of the cranium were likewise covered the fungus. It was pulsing, clearly alive. It’s weird, though, that decay wasn’t the prevailing feeling. Rather, it was life. I understood that this fungus had a function similar to t...

  I’ve always been slow on the uptake, especially when it comes to the Imaginal. There are certain things that have been present since the beginning of these journeys that I haven’t understood fully and have just written off. Well, now I’m beginning to understand something critical: The transmission of wisdom isn’t one way, it’s reciprocal. I’ve taken the beings that I meet in the Imaginal to be the source of wisdom and it’s true that they are. However, as a human being from the physical world, I bring wisdom with me.  I believe that traditionally the function of the Imaginal Realm has been to serve as a meeting place for creatures of the physical world like me and beings from the spiritual realms. We meet to share wisdom. There is a reciprocity that enlightens the realms ‘below’ as much as it does the realms ‘above’ - of course, there is no such thing as higher or lower or above or below. I use that language merely for expediency So, a few days ago when ‘Gabriel’ was showing ...

  I think I reached my current maximum for layers of reality that I can stay connected to at one time: Four. Today, I was called to retrieve a young man who had exceeded his limit and was stuck in a dreamland. Fortunately, while it was close for me, I could do it, although I pulled him out of a fifth layer of reality that I didn’t visit. I only witnessed its effect on him when I pulled him back out of it. I suspect he was of indigenous background because the realms were not Christian. I feel like I’m the typical American mutt in these excursions, having been brought up nominally Christian but also having lived as pagan and (probably) Buddhist in the past. I guess in some ways this allows me to traverse realms that may not normally be accessible. Realm One: The physical world. This is the world where I am sitting down to meditate. Realm Two: A Christian realm that borders on the pagan. I found myself inside a cozy, beautiful house in front of a Christmas tree. There were presents be...

  “You are not your body.” This seems to be the message from today’s excursion into the Symbolic Realm. I started out seeing a black dragon-like creature who reminded me a lot of the character, ‘Toothless,’ from the animated movie trilogy, “How to Train Your Dragon.” Hey, I know that things get plucked out of my imagination during these journeys and this was no exception. Toothless was a goofy, doglike dragon full of energy and enthusiasm. He led me into a mountain range covered in misty conifers. The prevailing colors were evergreen, gray and brown. It was quite beautiful. Toothless took me to an old man who appeared to be stuck in the ground, like a fallen tree that had been partially absorbed into the earth. This man’s body did, in fact, appear to be wooden and he merged with the earth such that it was difficult to tell where his body ended and the earth began. The earth around him was extremely dry and the man’s wooden body was likewise very dry. His mouth and eyes were open bu...

  This morning I first became aware of the outline of a humanlike creature but could only see its outline; its body was black. “He” - I’ll call him male for now - had an outline like a slim, elegant man, kind of a dandy. The setting was strange and it took me a while to figure it out. It was nighttime and I felt like I was in a desert environment. Of course, this is the Symbolic Realm so nothing is quite as it seems. It took me quite a while to figure out what I was looking at. The black figure seemed to be on a rise. The rise seemed to be covered in colorful jewels. Though pretty, there was something unsettling about the scene.  After some concentration, I realized the ground covered in jewels was actually alive. We were on the belly of a giant. The jewels covering his skin seemed almost painful. And they weren’t really jewels. I didn’t determine until later that they were actually crystalized sugar; in other words, they were candy. The giant, while obviously in some pain, se...