<aside> 💡 Take a moment to consider this metaphor of “root” instructions.

Roots are where a living tree begins — they are what anchor and nourish the plant all through its life; but roots aren’t static things. Roots grow and twist and change shape. They meet challenges and adapt to them.

These instructions are roots the way a tiny sapling has roots — you’ll start here, but as you continue to practice, grow, spread out, and adapt, these roots will grow with you. Over time, your practice will come to barely resemble these original root instructions at all. Your imaginal acts will grow into a strange, twisting, interlocking and nourishing root system that’s entirely its own unique shape — though with patterns that are recognizable to anyone else who’s gone through the same process.

So start with these instructions, but don’t be afraid to notice, once you’re firmly anchored in practice, how they want to change and re-direct you. Don’t get too attached — but also don’t risk uprooting yourself entirely.

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Basic Imaginal Journeying.mp4

How To Use These Instructions:

For your first few rounds of practice, don’t open up the toggle lists. Practice with only the top-level instructions. That will give you a broad, maybe clumsy view of the territory. After you’ve done that, you can open the toggles on any topic that feels difficult or troublesome for you — anything you have questions on.

If you don’t have any questions, there’s no need to open the toggle yet. Save it until questions or uncertainties come up.

Me asking you to slow-roll the instructions like this isn’t homework — it’s an invitation. If you read an entire manual in one go, you’ll forget most of it; it all becomes a bunch of words. If you read it bit by bit, while experimenting with its lessons, then the later information becomes more salient because you have an experiential grasp on the earlier material. You learn faster and more robustly by moving more slowly and delicately. —Obviously you can do what you want to do with any of the material, but those are the intentions behind my invitation to take it step by step.

1. Drop into a meditative trance.

2. In your body-mind, hold the image you’ll be exploring. Give yourself plenty of time and space to let that image knit itself together within and around you.

3. Patiently, spontaneously attend to the image, inviting it to wake up or come alive when it wants to. (This may feel like ‘making space’ for someone to talk in a conversation.)

4. When the image wakes up, take a listening posture — simply let it unfold and continue in whatever directions it wants to unfold in.

5. If, after letting the image unfold, you feel called to step toward the image or participate somehow in its unfolding, allow yourself to do so. This might mean taking a particular action in the scene, or speaking to one of the figures there, or even zooming out from the scene to see what’s around it. Keep following this as long as feels good.

6. When it feels like everything that’s needed to happen has happened, say goodbye to the image, drop back into meditation, and stay there as long as feels natural. Then stretch out, let your body move, let your mind come back to your day-to-day life, and continue on your way.