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Seeking Direction and Turning Keys
September 21 - 22, 2005originally published October 8, 2005
by Jeffrey Pierce
On Monday, September 21, I sat cross-legged in the corner of my couch and pulled on a pair of headphones that were playing a haunting Norwegian ballad in an endless loop. My intent was to revisit a meditation that I'd had a couple of years ago in hopes of finding some guidance for the current portion of my path. In the original meditation, I had found myself on the deck of a Viking longship with a handful of other Northmen. (A good chunk of my ancestry is Norwegian and I have a pretty strong connection to that energy). We were floating in a fiord (which we never left during any of the three days of the meditation) and I was given the name Toren to use as my Craft name. While I was able to get the sails of the vessel up and the longship underway, we were still in the fiord when the series of meditations ended.
I had found a comfortable position on the couch and was preparing to enter the meditation, when I suddenly got the urge to connect with the energy of a large stone (about the size of a half-flattened basketball) that I had collected a couple of years before on a beach that I use as a sacred site. It's a gently curved, dark stone with some subtle markings and a single, hole-like depression on one side of rock. Taken as a whole, it looks like a snapshot of a whale's eye and the area immediately around that portion of the whale's anatomy. Since everyone's first impression is, "It's a whale!" the stone has become known as "the whale stone."
I retrieved the whale stone from my bedroom, returned to the couch and began to meditate, when I realized my hands were rhythmically pulsating. Having worked my shoulders extremely hard at the gym a couple of hours previous, I thought it was an aftereffect of my workout. I let go of the stone and the sensation immediately stopped. For good measure, I rotated my shoulders before returning my hands to the rock. As soon as they touched its surface, they once more began to pulsate. Deciding that it must be the energy of the stone (which had never responded in any manner previous to this night), I accepted the occurrence and began to meditate.
Instantly, I found myself on the deck of the longship. We were under sail and the other Northmen around me were busy at their tasks. The experience was so deep and so complete that I could feel the ship moving beneath my feet as it rose and fell with the waves, I could feel touch of the cold north wind, and hear the men around conversing in what I can only assume was Old Norse, but which I instinctively understood. What's more is that we quickly left the fiord that I had previously been unable to escape and were soon on the open sea.
As I was experiencing the journey, I realized that there was a completely separate journey occurring beneath the journey with the longship, as if two movies were playing simultaneously, one laid on top of the other. I expanded my awareness and found myself experiencing two concurrent journeys. In the first, I was on the deck of the longship. In the second, I was holding onto a large whale who was diving for the depths. What was more is that its face was identical to that portrayed in the whale stone.
At this point, I discovered that if I tried to focus on either level of the journeys, that both would begin to crumble and I'd start to come out of the shamanic state. The only way that I could experience them was to keep an open, expansive and spatial perspective of the journeys; any attempt at linear or analytical thought and they began to fall apart and I began to emerge into a conscious state.
What was more is that as I allowed myself to embrace both journeys simultaneously, I became aware of a third journey running beneath the first two. The longship took place on the surface of the ocean, the whale was in the mid-ocean and diving deep, and the third journey took place in the oceanic abyss, the darkness lit only by the phosphorescent light of the deep sea inhabitants. The only way that I could experience any of the journeys at this point was to maintain an expansive, unfocused state of mind that simply allowed all three journeys to simultaneously exist. Any attempt to do otherwise, or a faltering in my ability to maintain that unfocused approach, and I would immediate begin to emerge from the all three journeys and my awareness would begin to return to my living room and my couch.
While the longship headed for even deeper waters and the whale pulled me deeper into the dark depths of the sea, a beautifully illuminated jellyfish slowly pulsed into my vision, moving from right to left. As it centered before me, the jellyfish transformed first into an elaborate seed pod and then into a beautiful silver key. The key approached a glowing ball of golden light and inserted itself into it's midst. My perspective in that journey and that journey only shifted and the glowing globe became and intricate and softly illuminated silver lock. There were three tumblers, each covered with spokes and every surface of the metal inscribed with magical sigils. The key inserted into the first tumbler and turned a full clockwise circle. The spokes and tumbler each turned and the first tumbler unlocked. This was repeated with the second tumbler (smaller than either of the other two) and finally the third (which was the biggest of the group). As the final tumbler unlocked, a brilliant globe of white light appeared in place of the lock, growing in brightness and I suddenly came out of the meditative state, ending all three journeys simultaneously.
I went in the kitchen and began to make a late dinner. (My evening had been very rushed and I had almost called off going to the gym as I was very tired). Suddenly I got the sense that I needed to go to the Oregon coast. I replied to the spirit world, "I'll go tomorrow after work. I'm way too tired tonight." The request came again, this time accompanied by the image of a cliff with the vision of me throwing the whale stone from the cliff into the water. I stopped making dinner and thought, "I'm simply too tired. I wouldn't be safe behind the wheel of the car." A response came back that essentially said, "If you don't complete the rite, the energy will fade unused." I was shown that I needed to physically toss the whale stone into deep water for the energy of the rite to physically manifest.
I went to check the tidal charts, realizing that it would be useless to go if it were low tide. The image of the seaside cliff and the symbolism of the three journeys made it very clear that the stone needed to be cast into deep water. According to the tidal charts, I'd make it to the location almost at the peak of high tide. What's more is that the clock read 11:11, shorthand for a vibration that, among it's other properties reminds us that we're spiritual beings experiencing a physical existence as well as indicating a significant shift in consciousness. So I began to pack for the journey.
Among the standard supplies I also took a chunk of amber that I had recently purchased at a favorite pagan store, intending to give the amber to the sea as a gift as it reminded me of the ball of golden light that I had seen in the third layer of the shamanic vision. I felt like I was supposed to take an amulet of the rune Tyr (a warrior's rune) that I had carved from a beach stone, filled with a combination of beeswax and dragon's blood resin, and tied with a hand-woven cord. In the bottom of my daypack I inexplicably found a disc of pitted white stone that looked very similar to the current phase of the moon. To this day I'm not entirely sure how that stone ended up in the bottom of that particular pack.
The piece of amber.
Even after all of this, I was still questioning whether I had to go that night as it was almost 11:30 PM, I was extraordinarily tired, live an hour away from the beach, and had to get up at 5:30 AM for work the next morning. Signs in my world are often given in a series of three. I was wearing the warrior rune and when I stepped out of the house and looked up at the night sky (a habit of mine) and the first celestial body that I spotted was Mars (named after the god of war). Upon climbing into my car and turning on the radio, my ears were immediately met by Pat Benatar's "The Warrior." In my world, the warrior archetype is an active energy and it was symbolized by the rune, the planet, and the title of the song. In other words, it was a sign to push forward to the coast, not stay securely at home.
As I began to head toward ocean, I realized that I needed to cut the amulet from its cord and throw it into the ocean after the whale stone. The concept came to me simply as an instinctive sense of what should be, not as a clear vision. Throwing the amulet into the sea would create a parallel (and sympathetic magic) between the shamanic journey and the real world rite, tying the two events together. I put a lot of myself into the amulet and it was my favorite piece that I had crafted to that date.
I drove west and arrived at a very rural section of the Oregon coastline about thirty minutes past midnight. During two breaks in the coastal forest, I was able to spot the ocean and saw that the waves were relatively calm with a very light surf. It was extremely late on a weeknight, so there wasn't another soul anywhere in sight. The entire landscape was painted a pale slate blue by the light of the full moon. There was very little wind and an almost cloudless sky - it was a very beautiful night.
I reached my destination and hiked out to the edge of a cliff overlooking the Pacific. The air was saturated with power and the same goddess that had appeared in the sea cave a few weeks ago was already waiting for me. Waves were violently crashing into the rocks all around me and their was a massive surge to the level of the ocean as if it were experiencing a powerful storm localized on the cliff where I was standing. The sea was absolutely primal (it wasn't even a fraction of the same intensity when I'd looked at it at two others spots during the drive) although the wind was still calm and the sky completely clear. The surface of the ocean would surge upward until it was level with the top of the cliff where I was standing and waves were crashing into the cliff all around with such force me that the spray was rocketing ten feet in the air above me. Considering that I was standing at the top of a cliff, the spray from the sea was shooting thirty feet above the level of the ocean and there a twenty foot surge in the surface of the ocean in front of where I stood. I found myself standing in a amphitheater of thick spray staring out at the ocean that was rising to meet me. There was a massive roll of water surging up to the top of the cliff directly in front of me and I was surrounded by walls of surf. Everything around me was soaked (except for my person), the landscape was continually obliterated by thundering walls of surf - the only place where the surf isn't striking the rocks (at all) is directly in front of where I'm standing, so I had a clear, unobstructed view right into the heart of the surging ocean.
The cliff where I stood and the sea rose up to meet me.
I think it's the only time that I've been truly scared during my entire path. It didn't last long, but there was one clearly defined "holy crap" moment when I wasn't sure what was going to unfold and I was unsure if I was going to remain on dry land. After all, the sea was rising over my head all around me and on three sides of me it was doing so in a thundering collision between ocean and land. I'll tell you what, working directly with a goddess is a very humbling and awe-inspiring experience! The sensation of fear quickly faded and I did my best to essentially wade into the middle of a violent storm without being afraid that I'd be swept out to sea.
The view from the top of the cliff.
I had transferred the white disc of stone from my daypack to the pocket of my cargo shorts and I held it in my left hand, raising my fist to the heavens to form a link between myself and the moon. I said a few choice words and hurled the whale stone into the sea. In a similar manner, I held the moon disc aloft and hurled the amulet into the sea as well, tying my energy (through the pendent) to the energy of the whale stone, both of them mirroring the second level of my earlier journey in a shamanic state as they dove toward the depths of the sea together.
A natural stone circle (filled with water) where I performed the rite.
I thanked the goddess for calling me and left the spot, tying the amber to the hand-woven cord that had once held the amulet. As I approached the car, I felt a circular opening about the size of a quart Mason jar lid open on the back of my neck at the base of my skull open and grow icy cold. It was a warm night and the spot felt like a December breeze. I could feel a gentle frigid breath steadily blowing on that spot and an immense amount of power began to flow through the opening and into my body, completely filling me. The process continued even after I was in the car and driving for home, taking approximately five minutes to complete.I arrived at home at 2:15 AM and, later that morning at work, one of my pagan co-workers immediately noticed a substantial shift in my energy as soon as I arrived at work a few hours later.
Exactly a week later, I returned to the spot to get a better feel for the energy of the site and gain some perspective on the power of the particular goddess that I worked with that night. It was windy, the sea was much rougher than a week before, but as I hiked out onto the cliff, the air was completely tame and absent of the previous power. Although the surf was much heavier than before, I couldn't see the ocean from my vantage point. Only a week before, on a much calmer night, the ocean had surged up before my eyes and the surf had shot up over my head. Now I could hear it crashing against the cliff face far below me, but the water was nowhere to be seen.
When we're looking for direction on our path, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. The first are doorways which the spirit world has opened for us. When it first came to me, the longship meditation simply appeared on it's own without me doing anything to seek it out. I was working through a difficult portion of my path and struggling with a transition that eventually took the form of a physical illness. In the depths of a fever-induced meditative state, the journey came unbidden and helped clarify the steps before me and the general direction that I needed to head in over a longer period of time. I hadn't reached the end of my work with that particular journey. The ship was still in the fiord and I hadn't sailed to any destination. If you look at the journey from a symbolic perspective, the energy had been raised but had yet to manifest into a conclusion. Even though the initial journey had begun a couple of years prior to this experience, it was still valid and active as the energy had yet to be grounded.
The second thing to consider are the themes that are present in our own paths. I was specifically seeking direction for the next portion of my path, so I asked myself, "Are there any tools that I've used to seek direction that are still viable to me at this time?" There are always portions of our path that we outgrow and leave behind. For instance, about a year ago I took a class in reading the tarot, mostly because I hadn't taken it before and felt like I should at least explore a divinatory skill. I had a good experience with the concepts and techniques, but divination doesn't resonate well with my path, so I had set it aside. Although it's certainly a tool that can be used to seek direction, I had left it behind and "closed the door" on its energy, so it would have been inappropriate for me to return to it as the energy I was seeking was intended to lead me forward, not backward on my path.
A lot of what I do on my path is pretty instinctive and spontaneous. It helps being a Pisces (we're pretty adept at going with the flow as a whole) and the inspiration to work with the whale stone wasn't much deeper than that. It was simply a sense that it would be appropriate to do so. I've talked to a lot of my students and fellow practitioners over the years and a good portion of our paths are simply that. We get a sense of what we should do and we either ignore it or we go with it. I try to follow that instinct more often than not and in this particular case I went with the flow.
The simultaneous journeying was a first for me. I've never had anything similar happen before and I can only see trying to intentionally do something similar under extraordinary circumstances. There were two things that I thought were particularly interesting about the experience. The first was that the journeying manifested in a series of three. I'll most likely write an article on the magical implications of the number three sometime in the future, but the key is that it establishes a mystical pattern on which you can manifest energy. Whenever a series of three appears in my world, it's almost like a flashing neon sign that reads, "Shift in reality ahead." The second was that the journey illustrated three levels of experiencing the same element - the surface of the sea with the longship, deep water with the whale, and the depths of the oceanic abyss. When combined in this manner, it creates an immersive connection to the present energy. If I work this into a meditative or ritual technique, I'll be sure to share the results and the details of how I constructed the approach.
Once you learn to open to the spirit world on a daily basis, themes appear in your world that hold all of the symbolism of the most intense dream. (I'll be sharing some insight into dream work and dream interpretation in the next series of articles). The three manifestations of the warrior energy and the 11:11 vibration are both examples of this concept. If I get the opportunity, I'll write a stand-alone article on this concept as well, but it will definitely be worked with in-depth in the book.
The direction to head for the ocean didn't come in a spoken voice or even a clear linear concept. Usually when this sort of thing happens to me it appears like a dream whispering in the back of my subconscious, as if a part of me is still open to a shamanic state. It's the same non-linear, very spatial feel that dreams have – that, "It made sense when I was dreaming, but not so much when I woke up," sort of flavor. Most of the work we do with the spirit world can be separated from our own subconscious by the fact that the very structure of the spirit world is spatial. Existence on that level is dictated by relationships and flow, not cause and effect. If you learn to work with your dreams and the symbolism that you encounter in the Dreamtime and use those interpretive tools in your inner work, your meditative work and shamanic journeying will be greatly enhanced and significantly easier to gain information from.
The giving of the two stones (the whale stone and my amulet) to the depths of the sea is an example of sympathetic magic. At it's core, sympathetic magic usually involves a physical parallel to the magical rite. For instance, in the second level of the shamanic journey, I accompanied the whale as it dove toward the depths of the sea. Throwing two stones into the deep ocean creates a parallel to the journey in the physical world. The whale stone obviously paralleled the energy of the whale. When I created the amulet right around Samhain a few years back, it was intended to represent the energy of my path for the coming magical year. Since its crafting was intentionally tied to my own energy, it served as an excellent representation of my own role in the journey.
Severing the cord from the amulet symbolically severed my own energy from the previous portion of my path, essentially closing a doorway so the only direction I could move was forward. By replacing it with the amulet on the cord with the piece of amber, which I personally connect to the ball of light that was unlocked at the end of the three-tiered journey, I'm ritually accepting and manifesting the energy that was unlocked by the key into my life and my path.
Using the white moon-shaped disc to connect myself to the lunar energy during the rite was a technique that I hadn't used before, but it's more of a tangible tie to the phase of the moon. In many Traditions, the core phases of the moon (new, waxing, full, waning) are associated with varying types of energy. While we can hold our rites during these times, the use of the stone intentionally ties the energy of the rite to the energy of the moon. The technique that I use is pretty simple. I hold the stone in my receiving hand (the one that I don't use to write my signature), hold it aloft and visualize the energy of the moon merging with the stone, flowing through the stone and into my body, and then merging with the energy that I'm directing into the rite.
There's a system of belief that the soul is physiologically found (or can be accessed) at the base of the skull. The goddess mother of both of my children has a spirit lock tattooed at that spot for exactly this reason. When the opening formed in that location and I felt what I associated with the energy of the ocean pouring into me, it was a pretty amazing sensation.
The cliff overlooking the sea, the journey of the whale stone, the lock and key, and the space on my back are all intimately connected to a series of dreams that I had when I was a child. If space permits and they serve as a useful illustration of the material, I'll share them at a later date.