Setting up a Pathworking!!!!
To set up a Path working, first you must decide some of the particulars of your trip, such as the reason you are journeying, your path or destination, and whom or what, if any thing, you'd like to encounter, bear in mind that you may encounter all sorts of things you didn't plan for while journeying. You should also decide what image you'd like to use for your induction, or transition between the material world and your journey. You can use the door, gate, or tunnel ideas, or create you own.
When you've chosen these factors for your trip, you have the frame work of a story. The frame work has three parts: the induction, which is the part where you enter the trance and path working; the "body", where you do whatever itis that you need to do in the path working; and the "closure," where you exit the path working. In many path working, including the following: sample, induction and closer are closely scripted, but the body is not. This is because you can't plan for everything that happens in a path working if you could, there would be no point in going.
Write down your framework. Once you have done this, you may want to read it into a tape recorder so you can use the sound of your own voice to guide you into your path working. Be sure to read very slowly and clearly, and pause for a bit after the induction and before the actual journey starts. If you don't want to tape yourself, you can ask a friend to record your induction instead, or when you get to the actual journey, you can have hem or her read the induction to you, or you can simply imagine the starting point for yourself. The steps for path working are vary similar to those of a meditation:
1. Choose a safe, quite place to do your work. Turn off the phone. Put a "Do not disturb" sign on the door. Relax.
2. Use one of the grounding techniques to ground, Preferably one that requires no Props.
3. Close your eyes, if they’re not close already. Turn on the tape recorder, tell your friend to start reading, or begin to visualize the entry point into your journey. Listening to or imagining the induction of your story should serve as a trance inducer in most cases. However, if you find you are having trouble shifting consciousness, try square breathing while you are listening.
4. Listen to the induction. See yourself at the door, or gate, or tunnel. Take a moment to fix that place in your mind. See yourself reaching out to touch the door, gate, or tunnel. feel how real it is.
5. Once the image of your starting point is solid in your mind and you have achieved a light trance stat, begin your journey.
6. As you experience your path working, pay careful attention to details that you see, touch, small, hear, and taste, and tell yourself that you will remember them even after you have finished the path working and are no longer in a trance state. Sometimes the information you receive in path working is subtle and contained in the small things we encounter rather than in the large ones.
7. If you encounter anyone in your path working-humans, gods, fairies, elves, animal spirits, ghosts, folk lore characters or any other being-be polite! Don't touch or pet anything that doesn't want to be touched or petted, and if someone or something tells you to leave something alone, do so. The beings you find in a path working operate on a different there. If you are respectful and take the time to examine a situation for close as to how you should behave, the beings you encounter are more likely to help you and be receptive to your returning. Think of it as attending a formal dinner in a foreign country where you don't know the language or customs, and approach it accordingly. And never, never, take anything unless itis obvious that it has been given to you. If you were at that formal dinner, after all, you wouldn't steal the forks. Items pilfered from spiritual realms, and/or the owners of those items, tend to come back to haunt the thief later, so it's a matter of common sense as well as etiquette.
8. When your journey in complete, return to your starting point. Shift your consciousness to the "real" world, and ground. As with meditation and trance, if you think you may have trouble coming back, ask a friend to rouse you gently from your trance at the end, or set an alarm clock to go off at a certain time. Neither of these techniques take the place of grounding, though. Always ground after path working.
The following is the sample path working framework. For this simple, I am assuming that you will be either reading the script into a tape recorder or having someone read it to you. Note that path workings can be more structured than this one, with nearly every piece choreographed, or they can be much less structured, consisting of an induction, a period of time for you just to wander around and experience whatever there is to be experienced, and a return, as with everything in Wicca, you will want to experiment to see what level of detail you want to include in your path working script. I've put pauses in the script for the person reading the script. They are not meant to be read out loud. I have also noted where the inductions, body, and closure begins and ends so you have a frame of reference for creating your own.
"Sample Path working"
[Beginning of your Introduction.] Close your eyes and relax. Pause....... Breathe deeply. Allow your body to relax more and more with each breath, until you are very relaxed, but not asleep. Pause....... Allow yourself to slip gently into a trance state. If necessary, try square breathing until you are fully relaxed and in a trance.
Pause.......
Focus on my voice and my words. Breath. Relax. Pause....... You are going to take a journey in your imagination, your mind's eye. To begin, see or imagine that you are standing at the edge of a thick forest at night. You can hear the rustle of the wind in the leaves of the trees, and full moon glows overhead. In the moonlight, you can clearly make out a path that begins right in front of you and leads off into the forest. To the right of the path, just at the beginning, is a tower of stones set one on top of the other. The tower is about three feet tall, and the stones that form it are roughly the size of cinder blocks. Sitting an top of the tower is a glowing lantern. This tower is your starting and ending point for this path working. Touch the tower and know that it is real.
Pause.......
Begin walking down the path into the forest. Do not take the lantern with you, because you will not need it. The moon lights your path, so you have no difficulty finding your way. you can feel the soft earth beneath your feet. The trees are tall and dark, but this is not a frightening forest. It is some how familiar, comforting. You walk on and on, toward the center of the forest. Pause....... Soon the path gives way to a large clearing, illuminated by the moonlight. You can see the blips of fireflies in the grass along the edge. In the center of the clearing, there is a large, flat stone-large enough for you to sit on. You walk into the clearing and sit on the stone, under the moonlight. You realize that you are in a sacred place.
Pause.......[note: this is the end of the induction-the part of the path working that leads you into trance and into the sacred place where the work will be done.]
[Beginning of the body.] From your place on the flat rock, you see a woman emerging from the trees. As she walks across the clearing toward you, you notice that she is wearing a flowing white dress and a silver band with a crescent moon on her forehead. It is difficult to tell how old she is. As she walks slowly toward you, you are not afraid. Infect, you are filled with anticipation, knowing that this woman bears knowledge of information for you. The woman stops in front of you. Listen to what she has to tell you. Long Pause.......[Leave enough time for the person doing the path working to hear the whole message.] When the woman finishes speaking, you think her. She turns and walks back across the clearing to disappear between the trees once more.
Pause.......[End of body.]
[Beginning of Closure/Exit from path working.] When you are ready, stand and begin walking across the clearing toward the path that you took to get here. When you find the trail in the bright moonlight, begin walking back to your starting point. As you walk, remember the details of the message that the woman gave you. You walk on and on, enjoying the worm light and the beautiful forest. Pause....... Ahead, you see the glow of the lantern, and you know you are almost back. You Approach the edge of the forest and glowing lantern, and touch the tower of stones. When you touch the stones, you immediately and completely return to the mundane world. [End of closure.]
i hope this will help anyone who wants to try path working, and that you will at least try this..
if you try this let us know how it went.. also if you jest read this please tell me if you like it or if it will help you at all..
as always HAVE FUN!!!!
ISIS
