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Pathworking, as guided meditations are sometimes called, it a term which somes to us through ceremonial magic.  It is the most potent tools we have for aligning ourselves with the energies of deities and mythic figures.  The term "Ppathworking" has been adopted by Pagans who define it as a guided journey into the inner-world, or universal/archetypal/astral plane, for the purpose of acquiring a lasting change on both the conscious and sub-conscious mind of the journeyer.  Other terms which are synonymous with pathworking are journeying, inner-plane work, exploring alternate realities, seeking, astral world, going within, going out-of-body, inner world journeying, self-hypnosis, and vision questing.

     Pathworking, sometimes referred to as an "advanced: magical practice, is as old as the art of storytelling itself, an art highly prized by the Celts.  Their itinerant storytellers (called seanachais) have, by uing these ancient myths, helped transport many persons into the inner realms and back againwithout their ever knowing such a transformation occurred.

     Pathworking allows us to stretch our personal pwoer as it gently massages our deepminds to stimulate meetings and interactions wiht mythic figures, but also to provoke creativity, aid in other astral projection, facilitate past-life recall, energize spell work, open channels for divination, and many other endeavors of importanct to seekers on any spiritual path.

    Jungian psychologist Edward C. Whitmont summed up the essence of pathworking in his book, "The Symbloic Quest", when he began his chapter, "Archetypes and Myths," with these words:

    "In order to affect a contructive and lasting change in our lives we must strive toward a transformation..by reaching [our] archetypal cores.  Such transformation can occur only when we have cone beyond the personal diemension to the universal.  This process is sustained by guidance from the objective psyche through dreams and fantasies."

    Pathworking provides these fantasies and takes us from the personal to the universal becuase above all else, it forges a link between the conscious and sub-conscious minds, allowing each access to the memories and capabilites of the other.  This has benefits beyond the performance of magical and ritual.  It has lasting effects, reaching far beyond the boundaries of the working itself into the everyday life of the journeyer.  After all , this iis the place where the divine beings of the Celtic pantheion can step out of the withered and yellowed pages of library tomes to live and breathe, speak, and hear, show and teach.  Once you train your mind to send fourth its consciousness to them, once you learn to roam freely and safely in the inner-realms, and once you learn to understand divine archetypes and the meaning they have for you, you can roam these worlds without aid of a guide and explore new ideas, meet new entities, and expand all your potential.

  Archetpyes are universal.  They are defined by Funk and Wagnalls as a "standard pattern" or a "prototype."  Archetypes speak to us in an ecumenical language.  They are the images which cloud our dreams, they are the inherent power of our deities, and they are the machinery which makes Tarot and all forms of divination possible.  Archetypal images are used heavily throughout pathworking, foe this is the only language our sub-conscious (sometimes called our super-conscious or deep mind) can understand, utilize, and with which it can communicate back to our conscious minds.