Journeying, also known as ‘shamanic journeying’ is a very ancient method of entering a ‘waking-dreaming’ state of consciousness; allowing us to access the dreaming realms from a waking state. To practice journeying we lie down, close our eyes and relax, allowing our rational, thinking mind to take a backseat, while our creative, imaginative, dreaming mind leads us on a journey through the imaginal landscapes of our inner world.
Traditionally people have used monotonous drumming or shakers to aid this shift of perception and these methods continue to be extremely powerful, as are their modern equivalents – binaural beats and isochronic tones.
The idea is not to fantasise or ‘force’ the experience, but to allow ourselves to be guided and to ‘receive’ a flow of incoming information from beyond our conscious mind. We then continue our journey as if we are in a dream ~ responding and engaging with these imaginal visions as if they are real, alive, separate entities and living landscapes.
At first, we may see only vague images or experience subtle sensations, however with practice our journeys will become clearer until we are able to step into a new realm that is just as tactile and sensually engaging as a lucid dream. Experienced journeyers can even travel directly into the astral realm.
For most of us beginning our journeying practice, it will feel like ‘just our imagination’. And unfortunately we in modern times tend to discount our imagination as not ‘real’ and think that we are ‘fooling ourselves’ when we engage with our imaginal world. However, if we can put this conditioned reaction aside while we journey and just observe what happens when we allow our imagination to show us what it wants to show us, then we are usually quite amazed by the information that we receive. We also begin to experience the power of the Journey; ie. how ‘real’ it feels for our psyche and how richly it nurtures our inner-world.
As we continue to practice journeying and observe our results, we gain confidence and begin to relax and accept the validity of the messages that we receive through the channels of our imaginal world.
Carl Jung, famous for his work with the psychology of dreams, coined the term ‘active imagination’ for this kind of journeying, and he was a huge proponent of its value and power in exploring different realms of the psyche – both personal and collective.
Journeying is a really amazing way to enhance your lucid dreaming skills because it is a practice of bringing your waking and dreaming minds together into relationship. While lucid dreaming has the goal of bringing our waking mind into our dreaming realm, journeying is focussed on inviting our dreaming mind into our waking realm. Each of these practices can help to enhance the other because they are both making pathways and bridging connections between the waking and dreaming states. However, because a journey begins from the waking state it is much easier to plan and practice than lucid dreaming, which is often interrupted by the many variables of tiredness, disturbed sleep, fuzzy dream recall, and so forth.
For our guided astral journeys I will guide you through the preparations of relaxation, grounding & protection, intention setting and building an imaginal space to journey from. You will then travel into your own realms of lucid imagination with the aid of binaural beats and isochronic tones.
Its then important to record all the details of your journey in your dream journal. The symbols and themes of your journeys then can be dreamworked and reflected upon just like any other dream.
Dream Re-entry Journeying
Once we have dreamed a dream, the memory of it becomes a powerful portal through which we can access the dreaming realms from a waking state. This is kind of Journey is known as a ‘dream re-entry’ journey. A very effective way to dreamwork with a specific dream is to journey back inside the landscape of the dream and ask questions to the characters and symbols themselves.
To take a dream re-entry Journey, lie down and allow your body to relax and your mind to drift into a light state of trance. Now imagine yourself vividly back inside the scene of your dream ~ remember the landmarks, ‘feel’ your feet on the ground as you look around the dream scene, reach out and touch the dream objects with your imaginary fingertips, feel the wind and smell the air. Transport yourself completely back into the world of your dream using the power of your memory and your imagination.
When you are ready, begin your Journey by allowing yourself to engage with your dream world as if you are lucid dreaming. Explore your dream landscape and engage with your dream characters as if they are real, separate beings. Move through the dreamscape consciously, but allow the dream visions to materialise around you from beyond your conscious mind. Allow the Journey itself to surprise and amaze you, remembering that you are always safe, and that you can return from your Journey whenever you wish.
Once you have received the information you need, gently return to your waking state and record the details of your Journey in your journal. Your Journey can then be further reflected upon, explored, sketched and dreamworked on the dreamwork pages of your journal. Your Journey will be full of symbolism and multi-dimensional Mystery, just like your dreams.
A Dream Re-entry Journey can also a powerful launchpad into a wake-induced lucid dream if you practice in the pre-dawn hours of the morning and allow your physical body to relax into sleep as you Journey.
You can experience my guided dream re-entry meditation here.
~ Art by Moki Mioki ~