Beginning my Journey of Astral Projection

I am not a scientist; I am an artist, a pagan practising witch who wishes to explore the diversity that the universe has to offer by connecting with my conscious and unconscious mind. My beliefs and experiences are that, MINE and I share them with others for the purposes of community, inspiration, curiosity and learning.  Go out there and seek your own journeys.

I have not experienced an OBE or shifting of my body since I was in my early and late teens, and each time I did it has been without the understanding of what was happening, the belief’s I hold now and the support from community, resource material and societal fear feeding each time was a traumatic event. 

I am blessed to be living in a world where information is freely offered, shared, and can be obtained for my own personal use and practice and to share my experiences with others. When it comes to Dreams and the Astral world it has always been a fascination of mine since I could write and draw. I remember keeping an art journal with pasted pictures and stories about U.F.O’s and dream interpretations from magazines and books. I knew from an early age what caught my attention and what I wanted to work with and would spend hours awake at night decoding my dreams with one of my grandmothers dream dictionaries.

Now at 25 a new adventure is calling me. It has been in my conscious mind for the past few years to dedicate a practice to exploring the astral landscape and what I may find within it. The intent was strong, yet my flame was weak. I was trapped in a cycle of fear and not ready to attempt to walk the lines to the edge.  I am now ready to take the steps, to read and experiment and I dare to explore the possibilities that exist in this physical body and outside of it.

Recently I picked up Astral Projection for Psychicempowerment. I knew I would want to reflect on my first thoughts so I decided to jump right in and begin, as one of the manta’s I live by has always been...

START WHERE YOU ARE

Image taken outside my house

I realised while reading through the first few pages of the book that I had been writing scenes in my journals, meditations and most inexplicably in my story [the novel] that reflected the inner journey that was begging to be undertaken. I started highlighting passages, thinking about where I had come in my life and the parallels between where my Main character in the story I am working on has an ethereal body that reaches out to other people and shifts sway from her revealing another side of her. Just the same as I do, an Astral double, a part of me in a different form.

In the world I am creating what I have uncovered is that some people see this as a weapon and others see it as a gift. I realised from my recent experiences, and those of early adulthood that I have experienced shifting and that I  have  been ‘Dream Travelling' for a long time.

This gift is innate  to my character too. It it is innate to me and to all humans. It was when I heard these words and felt them sink into my being that it hit me...this dual life that I was living through dreams and story independently and alongside my character was closer than I imagined.

In my chapters I can see her experience of time shifts, premonitions, alternative realities and doors opening up and I am listening. She has been telling me, showing me all along that this was how she evolved and see’s the world.  

With this awareness, an awakening occurred and I received a strong intuitive message that alerted that all the dream work I am doing now, and research I am learning about has been establishing a deeper connection with my higher guide. This was the seed I needed, the one I had been working towards. It was the awakening of new questions and vivid curiosities that has kept me awake and aided me in the decision to take the story deeper, both creatively and personally. To begin my intentional journey with Astral projection.

It’s nearing dawn and I am awake. The correlations to my fears around travelling and leaving my physical body are now raised in my consciousness and once there, like most shadows that slowly become illuminated through time and constant self reflection my awareness will not allow it to dissipate.

 Once you know you can question something, you can’t forget it.

All of it has led up to this point we’re time and time again I mention travel, ships, walls and lapses and find her [Vesper] in my Journal telling me about her life, her world, her body. I knew it was only a matter of time before she would find me. I know now that both our stories are integral and needed in my practice and her connection with me. Now I am alert...

It makes me wonder what I would find if I went looking, searching and exploring.

How do I know that she is not visiting me, sitting behind her own computer or whatever form holds communication for her, scribing my life story as we assist each other?

The truth is I don’t, but I can journey to find answers to just one of the hundreds of questions buzzing around in my head that have come through my unconscious mind into story or non-fiction form, and things I would like to experience.

I think the main branching questions that my unconscious is asking and bringing to the surface right now are WHAT IF & WHY NOT?

What if I can’t do this
What if I can’t face this?What if I can’t relax enough? WHAT IF I CANWHAT IF I AMWHAT IF I WILL

I mean think about it Netflix or journeying the Astral world?

 A few episode marathons or a chance to practice, play, create and connect with the unknown?

One of the things that scares me admittedly is knowing that my whole perception of life after death will be cracked open. I think I cling to the old paradigm as a safety net. I have since I was a teenager living in a family where death was neglected as am open conversation. So when I lay there at night having flashback memories, OBE and sleep paralysis what the fuck was I meant to think. I would tell my family about them and they would recoil. 

 It is one of the reasons I walk the path with a DEATH GODDESS and experience loss continuously consciously. It it is a path I need to understand. One where I need to remind myself takes time.

 It takes to build a practice, to step into a physical shift on this plane. I need to give myself the same willingness to experiment, to fail and succeed and to know that whatever the outcome of my experiences and experiments I can know within myself that I stepped up to address my fears and made the adjustments to my mind and belief set to not run and hide.

Image from Google

I am beginning to work to change my language around what I can and can’t do and I have my dream world and dedicated work within it and outside of it to thank for it. It has taught me about the incredible power of the subconscious and my intuition and creative potential to implant, to program and to explore different ideas and dynamics inside a container built by me and expanded on by the unconscious. 

It is a symbiosis

My focus has mostly been on coming to the belief that as a writer of any form I am a channel. Now I am re-framing it to look beyond that to what awaits me beyond the physical and being an explorer of the ASTRAL LANDSCAPES. This time I'm consciously looking at what that would look like as a witch and a writer. It has already opened up a whole world of thinking and reflecting for me and tugged the story rug from underneath me. Now I just need to climb on board and ride it !!

Exploring the Shifting the Story Spread - Part 1: Writing Yourself into the cards

A few days ago I shared a spread that has been an awakening both to my creativity, a door way into working with my subconscious and an exercise in shifting stagnant and resistant energy that has been stored in me for years.

Check out the spread here : Shifting the Story Spread

With the encouragement, support and community of courageous soul explorers I continue to work to create healing opportunities for fellow tarot lovers, writers, artist and all creators.  I truly felt the shift for everyone who took the time to play with the spread and venture into the shadowy depths of their psyche and beliefs.

Guided from my own use of the spread, and receptivity for healing I decided to take the spread deeper and unfold the layers to investigate different ways to approach the journaling questions and reflect on what comes up with each question and card.

Today I am sharing with you an exercise I did to write myself into the spread that allows the card to write itself into my current story. I like the back and forth relationship that unfolds between the energy, images and response that I get with each card.

My hope is that you may find something that can aid in taking your relationship with your story to the next level to uncover what is hidden and waiting.

What is the most prominent story playing out in my life right now?

For this exercise the first thing that I like to do is let my subconscious mind know that I am looking for the story not the divinatory meaning. I tell it that knowing what the card means can come later after I have impressed my own meanings onto the card. I can always go into the guidebook or universal understanding of it later if I want to seek out a specific idea or message that comes up in the exercise.  

I find it helps to give the story a title. Go off what you see immediately, or a feeling that it gives you. Once the title is set, I set a timer for 15-20 minutes to aid my mind in knowing it doesn’t have to have the full ‘novel’ of the the specific life issue or story written down, I only need an entrance, a snippet and to start free-writing.

I shift into placing myself in the body of the character, animal or object that I see in the card. If you don’t identify strongly with the character it can be fun to experiment with giving a life and a voice to an object or animal. For my example below I resonated with the man in the image.

When the timer goes off I allow myself the space from the session. You want to come back to it with fresh eyes when you work with the next layer: Creating and communing with the character in your card. If you want to continue writing or looking at different angles this would be a great time to see how many perspectives and voices can offer you different or unanimous messages. You don’t need to stop putting yourself in the cards. You could do one to begin with to test then it out, or do them all. Do whatever feels right for you.

If by chance you find yourself creating a character or that a character begins to speak let whatever comes naturally during the process happen. Sometimes when I work with the cards a persona steps in and I need to work with it rather than the ideal perspective of who I am right now.

Here are some questions that may help you put yourself in the card.

* Who are you in the card? Are you in your female or male aspect?

*What do you see in the card that you also see in your life right now?

*How do your surroundings mimic what you see in the card?

The breaking of the cords

I stand upon the dock as the wild, untamed and turbulent ocean crashes around me making the decking slippery. Salt touches my boot and wet’s my Fox foot, the part of me that is animal and yearns to run wild and away from the reality that I don’t want to see behind me.

Two ships are passing, carried along by the ripples, their masts still in shape, the bottle blue water bringing their dirty sails flapping like birds facing their escape. I feel as if I have been hiding from those ships my whole life. I feel the illusion of joy when I choose to stay on slippery ground, and on the land. Hiding behind the pentacles of commitment and negating my self love. While on the other hand I battle between the spiritual calling screaming inside me and the physicality of survival.

 In this card I am the rescuer, trying to save both of the coins when I know I only can only carry the weight of one of them. It demands decision and I want to drop them both in the ocean right now. If I do I could start a new life, but the story goes that I have always chosen the stone of sacrifice, to carry the burden of both frames of mind and turn them over in turmoil never knowing if the right pentacle was the right choice.

 I always choose sacrifice over my health. People need me more than I need them and that scares me, and sometimes I need people more than they need me. I come to the pentacles for both inner and outer balance.

I am dressed today in my earthy garb of red and brown. I am warm enough and secure. My hat is already growing roots that are expanding beyond the storm and into the sky, putting out branches and feelers for divine guidance. I am looking into the future, a seer, a prophet only in this state of indecision my foresight is foggy like the mists of the sea.

 I spend too much time living in the frame of mind where I question what my future might be like, rather than what is my present. I am looking at what could be. I know if I don’t make a choice and make a change I will spend eternity looking into the future telling myself “One day.”

One day I will leave this relationship.

One day I will create.

One day I will raise my voice.

The storm behind me is a reminder that even in the chaos there are choices to be made and I need to make one.

Do I go it alone [am I ever truly alone?]

Do I need to learn to start rescuing me rather than living a life rescuing others?

Do I need to allow time to recover or wait for the ships to pass me by or the ocean to pull me under because I am paralysed and cannot move?

Do I invest in myself and my resources {where I have a voice} or resist my voice and live in scarcity, in panic because I am scared of the future, and walking it in with my divinity and my power?

One thread, one cord has already been torn, detached from my body and my life while I have been waiting to make a choice. It has been carried away into the ocean and I can never get it back. It has been released, it is free. I am entirely now fixated on the thread and have forgotten the pentacles and the ability I have to choose. Just one is all I need; Just one.

Shifting your Story Spread

We each have stories that we tell ourselves, that we carry in our hearts and memories.  Some of these stories sustain us and allow us to thrive, while others are defeating, destructive and only serve to drain us of our power and potential. This spread removes the veil behind the stasis, resistance and what particular story you are telling yourself.

 There is an amazing parallel between with the fictional stories that affect our lives through books, movies and art and the stories that we are told through family, friends, work and society at large.

I created this spread to be used for both personal story introspection or to better understand the resistance to a fictional story you may be working on. You can adapt this spread to suit both pathways. Have a play around with the questions.

You may find that you have an internal character/ persona inside you that is telling you their story that no longer resonates with you or that your character has something to offer you about the stories that are underneath the surface of your own personal belief, practice and life.

Each card will come with Journaling questions you might like to use to expand on each question and deepen your understanding and power around the story that needs shifting the most in your life at the moment. I have highlighted these. 

1.What is the most prominent story playing out in my life right now?

This addresses the focal story that is playing out in your unconsciousness and manifesting into world.

What have you been re-telling yourself that you no longer believe?

What are you telling yourself that you do believe – Why do you believe that?

*

2. Why am I resistant to this story?

Bringing awareness to the resistance –uncover what may be stopping it from being addressed.

What feels heavy when you tell this story to yourself or others?

Where did the conditioning come from? Can you pin point it.

*

3. What Paralyses me to the point of procrastination or status?

Where did the story originate. You work to find the root of paralysis.

What is holding you back from understanding or addressing your story?

Where does this come from? Can you find it in your body?

*

4. What Shadow surrounds this story right now?

Positive or Negative what lurks beneath the roots of the story you are telling yourself.

Is it a story you have been told, been sold, or one you adapted to help you survive?

Where is this story allowing you to stay in the dark?

*

5.What message awaits me beneath the layers of this story?

With the root, it’s time to expose the branches.

 What purpose has this story held for you?

Why are you attached to this story?

What does this story want to show you?

*

6.What will lift the veil?

What will help you to de-condition or release this story from your consciousness?

What steps can I take to burn and release this story?

What skills or techniques can I employ to cut my connection to the story?

Do I need to connect with anyone and discuss how to shift this story?

***

Thank you for being willing to take the time for inner reflection.

Join me in my next post where I explore this spread, and share my reflections <3

I would love to hear your experience using the spread.

Feel free to share on Social Media with the HASHTAG #Shiftingyourstoryspread