Here's an item from month four of the Nine Moons - three exercises toward establishing a complete and well-equipped Inner Grove, the Threshold-state 'launching pad' for further Otherworld adventures. One of the points of the trance-journey techniques in the system will be to move students from using scripted trance-inductions to independent, ubscripted work. This is an early-intermediate step in that process. Three Trances for the Inner Grove
• Outline of Basic access and work in the Inner Grove
1: Basic trance, induced by whatever method you prefer.
2: Rise in Vision, stand up from your body and place yourself behind you Inner Eyes. Behold the Hallows in the common world
3: Call the Mist to obscure all
4: Envision the Gate Sign with your personal key-symbol.
5: Hold your goal-will as the Inner Grove, and step through the Gate out of the mist into a Threshold landscape containing the Hallows in the Inner.
6: Remember the Grove and recognize it as you have made it.
7: Recite a Grove Charm at the Inner Fire to establish your presence
8: Do any other works.
9: Return
Exercise 1: The Road to the Inner Grove
This work develops a personal habit and inner ritual of vision journey that allows you to easily reach your Inner working space – the Inner Grove in which you will do several works. This script is offered as an example, though it can be used as written.
• Seat yourself comfortably upright, back straight.
• Work a short blessing of the space, or the full Grove opening and Gate if you wish - in your first exercises it might be best to work the full opening, with the Gate.
• Renew and strengthen your Earth and Heavens contacts.
• Feel the cool Earth Power and the hot Sky Power meet in your head, meet in your heart, and meet in your loins.
• And from the meeting-places, feel the mingling of the Powers flow out into your whole form – into your hands, into your form, into your eyes. Where you have eyes of flesh, so you now have eyes of vision.
• Open your eyes of vision, and use your memory of the setting of your Shrine and tools. As you remember them, envision them, so that it is as if you see them with open eyes. It is the eyes of vision that open in this way, and it is in the eyes of vision that you will move.
• With your material eyes closed, decide to stand in your vision form. Allow your eyes to rise, effortlessly. You rise to your natural height, and take a moment to gaze upon your Shrine and Hallows as if you had stood in flesh. Allow the details of your Shrine to become clear.
- And in the meeting-places, feel the mingling of the Powers begin to produce the Mist - the streams of vapor pouring out of your Inner Cauldrons, flowing out from the roots of the Tree, where Fire and Water meet.
- visualize the Mist gathering and thickening, beginning to accumulate. The Mist gathers, growing thicker, and collecting around your feet... around your hips and loins... around your arms and chest. It grows thick and opaque, and rises, at last, to surround your head.
- Now, standing in the Mist, it is time to begin... in your imagination’s eye... in your Inner Vision... not with your physical body... but with the will of your mind and your power of vision… you create the Gate Sign before you. You remember the presence of the Threshold landscape that you have visited before…
- With your awareness firmly centered in your vision-self, step forward toward the Sign… and step through the Sign…, and steo out of the Mist… the Mist thins away... now, with memory and will... you see the scene resolve before you... your goal-image, your Nemeton, revealed in its Otherworld form... elements of the place you left behind in the common world… it resolve in your Inner Eye... You behold the Inner Grove resolving before you... you see the details more clearly now...
The Return
- Standing in vision in your Grove... remember your body… where it sits before the Hallows in the common world… Look out to the edge of your Grove, and there, see the Gate Sign appear… and the Mist beyond it… walk across the Grove, and passeasily through the Sign, remembering your body as your goal… and step out before your Fire in your common Hallows…
- Remember your Hallows, and see yourself seated there before them… go to your body… turn, and step backward into the space where your body is sitting... raise your spirit-hand before you... and make a tuathal triskel in the air before you... sit down into your body... renew your center... feel the Earth and Sky Powers meeting in your flesh...
-Remember your body, and let your awareness be firmly behind your eyes... feel the air flow in your lungs... the blood course in your veins... remember all you have seen and done in this work… open your eyes, and know that your spirit has returned fully to your flesh... stretch... and be finished with the trance.
Exercise 2: Building the Inner Grove
- Come to your Shrine or Hallows, Bless all and open a gate.
- Use your Short Road to the Grove:
Rise in Vision, and see your Hallows
Call the Mist
Make the Gate Sign
Step through the Gate Sign into the Grove
Envision and remember the Grove
- So you come again into the Grove… you pass through the gate and onto the ground of your Threshold locale… and allow the scene to resolve before you… remember where you have placed your Well… your Hearth of the Sacred Fire… see the World-tree as it stands in this small personal place…
- you have been working with forms for your Inner Hallows… now you must choose how you will build and make them, for your next phase of work… a Well... a pillar or Tree... the Fire in the Tintean... Simple or grand, earth-mound or golden temple… you will decide and create… as you begin to envision the shaping and detail of your Inner Grove…
- You might begin with the Well… for no place is whole without fresh water… go to the Well you have seen before… and consider what a more ideal form might be… what shape would inspire you?… go then to the Fire, as it has been before… envision what a true altar for your own Inner Fire might be… and turn to see the Tree or Bile as it has appeared… and consider how you would see its presence here before you…
- Let them be built by your will and vision… consider the bricks and stones, the substance and color… note how the things you build combine with the images of nature or environment present in the space… images of your own hands placing the materials may enter your mind… but it is by will and vision and shaping that you determine the form that your Grove will keep for some time to come… spend some while at this work…
…
- Now, in your vision body, turn and look around you... turn to your right... and to your left... turn at last and look behind you... you note clearly the form and nature of the things you are building… see them again, your Inner Sacred Grove… as you look at the Inner World around you...
The Return
- Standing in vision in your Grove... remember your body… where it sits before the Hallows in the common world… Look out to the edge of your Grove, and there, see the Gate Sign appear… and the Mist beyond it… walk across the Grove, and passeasily through the Sign, remembering your body as your goal… and step out before your Fire in your common Hallows…
- Remember your Hallows, and see yourself seated there before them… go to your body… turn, and step backward into the space where your body is sitting... raise your spirit-hand before you... and make a tuathal triskel in the air before you... sit down into your body... renew your center... feel the Earth and Sky Powers meeting in your flesh...
-Remember your body, and let your awareness be firmly behind your eyes... feel the air flow in your lungs... the blood course in your veins... remember all you have seen and done in this work… open your eyes, and know that your spirit has returned fully to your flesh... stretch... and be finished with the trance.
-
Exercise 3: Working in the Inner Grove
- Come to your Shrine or Hallows, Bless all and open a gate.
- Use your Short Road to the Grove:
Rise in Vision, and see your Hallows
Call the Mist
Make the Gate Sign
Step through the Gate Sign into the Grove
Envision and remember the Grove
- Remember and re-establish the Inner Hallows, and the surrounding environment.
- Stand at your Inner Fire, and bring the Two Powers into your vision body… hold up your hands, and know that whatever sacrifice you have given in the common world will also be available to you here in the Threshold… so make your usual offerings to the Hallows, and speak as you will…
- Let silver come to your hand… and give it, a substance of yourself, to the Well… and speak in the voice of your vision…
- Let precious scented oil come to your hand… and give it, a substance of yourself, to the Fire… and speak in the voice of your vision…
- Let burning herbs and pure water come into your two hands… and with them, substance of yourself, honor the Tree, sprinkling its roots and perfuming its leaves… and speak in the voice of your vision…
- pause and feel the presence of the place… its weight and solidity… its weirdness and limnality… remember…
- It is proper to do any other small bits of ritual you wish here before the Inner Fire…
The Return
- Standing in vision in your Grove... remember your body… where it sits before the Hallows in the common world… Look out to the edge of your Grove, and there, see the Gate Sign appear… and the Mist beyond it… walk across the Grove, and passeasily through the Sign, remembering your body as your goal… and step out before your Fire in your common Hallows…
- Remember your Hallows, and see yourself seated there before them… go to your body… turn, and step backward into the space where your body is sitting... raise your spirit-hand before you... and make a tuathal triskel in the air before you... sit down into your body... renew your center... feel the Earth and Sky Powers meeting in your flesh...
-Remember your body, and let your awareness be firmly behind your eyes... feel the air flow in your lungs... the blood course in your veins... remember all you have seen and done in this work… open your eyes, and know that your spirit has returned fully to your flesh... stretch... and be finished with the trance.
• Outline of Basic access and work in the Inner Grove
1: Basic trance, induced by whatever method you prefer.
2: Rise in Vision, stand up from your body and place yourself behind you Inner Eyes. Behold the Hallows in the common world
3: Call the Mist to obscure all
4: Envision the Gate Sign with your personal key-symbol.
5: Hold your goal-will as the Inner Grove, and step through the Gate out of the mist into a Threshold landscape containing the Hallows in the Inner.
6: Remember the Grove and recognize it as you have made it.
7: Recite a Grove Charm at the Inner Fire to establish your presence
8: Do any other works.
9: Return
Exercise 1: The Road to the Inner Grove
This work develops a personal habit and inner ritual of vision journey that allows you to easily reach your Inner working space – the Inner Grove in which you will do several works. This script is offered as an example, though it can be used as written.
• Seat yourself comfortably upright, back straight.
• Work a short blessing of the space, or the full Grove opening and Gate if you wish - in your first exercises it might be best to work the full opening, with the Gate.
• Renew and strengthen your Earth and Heavens contacts.
• Feel the cool Earth Power and the hot Sky Power meet in your head, meet in your heart, and meet in your loins.
• And from the meeting-places, feel the mingling of the Powers flow out into your whole form – into your hands, into your form, into your eyes. Where you have eyes of flesh, so you now have eyes of vision.
• Open your eyes of vision, and use your memory of the setting of your Shrine and tools. As you remember them, envision them, so that it is as if you see them with open eyes. It is the eyes of vision that open in this way, and it is in the eyes of vision that you will move.
• With your material eyes closed, decide to stand in your vision form. Allow your eyes to rise, effortlessly. You rise to your natural height, and take a moment to gaze upon your Shrine and Hallows as if you had stood in flesh. Allow the details of your Shrine to become clear.
- And in the meeting-places, feel the mingling of the Powers begin to produce the Mist - the streams of vapor pouring out of your Inner Cauldrons, flowing out from the roots of the Tree, where Fire and Water meet.
- visualize the Mist gathering and thickening, beginning to accumulate. The Mist gathers, growing thicker, and collecting around your feet... around your hips and loins... around your arms and chest. It grows thick and opaque, and rises, at last, to surround your head.
- Now, standing in the Mist, it is time to begin... in your imagination’s eye... in your Inner Vision... not with your physical body... but with the will of your mind and your power of vision… you create the Gate Sign before you. You remember the presence of the Threshold landscape that you have visited before…
- With your awareness firmly centered in your vision-self, step forward toward the Sign… and step through the Sign…, and steo out of the Mist… the Mist thins away... now, with memory and will... you see the scene resolve before you... your goal-image, your Nemeton, revealed in its Otherworld form... elements of the place you left behind in the common world… it resolve in your Inner Eye... You behold the Inner Grove resolving before you... you see the details more clearly now...
The Return
- Standing in vision in your Grove... remember your body… where it sits before the Hallows in the common world… Look out to the edge of your Grove, and there, see the Gate Sign appear… and the Mist beyond it… walk across the Grove, and passeasily through the Sign, remembering your body as your goal… and step out before your Fire in your common Hallows…
- Remember your Hallows, and see yourself seated there before them… go to your body… turn, and step backward into the space where your body is sitting... raise your spirit-hand before you... and make a tuathal triskel in the air before you... sit down into your body... renew your center... feel the Earth and Sky Powers meeting in your flesh...
-Remember your body, and let your awareness be firmly behind your eyes... feel the air flow in your lungs... the blood course in your veins... remember all you have seen and done in this work… open your eyes, and know that your spirit has returned fully to your flesh... stretch... and be finished with the trance.
Exercise 2: Building the Inner Grove
- Come to your Shrine or Hallows, Bless all and open a gate.
- Use your Short Road to the Grove:
Rise in Vision, and see your Hallows
Call the Mist
Make the Gate Sign
Step through the Gate Sign into the Grove
Envision and remember the Grove
- So you come again into the Grove… you pass through the gate and onto the ground of your Threshold locale… and allow the scene to resolve before you… remember where you have placed your Well… your Hearth of the Sacred Fire… see the World-tree as it stands in this small personal place…
- you have been working with forms for your Inner Hallows… now you must choose how you will build and make them, for your next phase of work… a Well... a pillar or Tree... the Fire in the Tintean... Simple or grand, earth-mound or golden temple… you will decide and create… as you begin to envision the shaping and detail of your Inner Grove…
- You might begin with the Well… for no place is whole without fresh water… go to the Well you have seen before… and consider what a more ideal form might be… what shape would inspire you?… go then to the Fire, as it has been before… envision what a true altar for your own Inner Fire might be… and turn to see the Tree or Bile as it has appeared… and consider how you would see its presence here before you…
- Let them be built by your will and vision… consider the bricks and stones, the substance and color… note how the things you build combine with the images of nature or environment present in the space… images of your own hands placing the materials may enter your mind… but it is by will and vision and shaping that you determine the form that your Grove will keep for some time to come… spend some while at this work…
…
- Now, in your vision body, turn and look around you... turn to your right... and to your left... turn at last and look behind you... you note clearly the form and nature of the things you are building… see them again, your Inner Sacred Grove… as you look at the Inner World around you...
The Return
- Standing in vision in your Grove... remember your body… where it sits before the Hallows in the common world… Look out to the edge of your Grove, and there, see the Gate Sign appear… and the Mist beyond it… walk across the Grove, and passeasily through the Sign, remembering your body as your goal… and step out before your Fire in your common Hallows…
- Remember your Hallows, and see yourself seated there before them… go to your body… turn, and step backward into the space where your body is sitting... raise your spirit-hand before you... and make a tuathal triskel in the air before you... sit down into your body... renew your center... feel the Earth and Sky Powers meeting in your flesh...
-Remember your body, and let your awareness be firmly behind your eyes... feel the air flow in your lungs... the blood course in your veins... remember all you have seen and done in this work… open your eyes, and know that your spirit has returned fully to your flesh... stretch... and be finished with the trance.
-
Exercise 3: Working in the Inner Grove
- Come to your Shrine or Hallows, Bless all and open a gate.
- Use your Short Road to the Grove:
Rise in Vision, and see your Hallows
Call the Mist
Make the Gate Sign
Step through the Gate Sign into the Grove
Envision and remember the Grove
- Remember and re-establish the Inner Hallows, and the surrounding environment.
- Stand at your Inner Fire, and bring the Two Powers into your vision body… hold up your hands, and know that whatever sacrifice you have given in the common world will also be available to you here in the Threshold… so make your usual offerings to the Hallows, and speak as you will…
- Let silver come to your hand… and give it, a substance of yourself, to the Well… and speak in the voice of your vision…
- Let precious scented oil come to your hand… and give it, a substance of yourself, to the Fire… and speak in the voice of your vision…
- Let burning herbs and pure water come into your two hands… and with them, substance of yourself, honor the Tree, sprinkling its roots and perfuming its leaves… and speak in the voice of your vision…
- pause and feel the presence of the place… its weight and solidity… its weirdness and limnality… remember…
- It is proper to do any other small bits of ritual you wish here before the Inner Fire…
The Return
- Standing in vision in your Grove... remember your body… where it sits before the Hallows in the common world… Look out to the edge of your Grove, and there, see the Gate Sign appear… and the Mist beyond it… walk across the Grove, and passeasily through the Sign, remembering your body as your goal… and step out before your Fire in your common Hallows…
- Remember your Hallows, and see yourself seated there before them… go to your body… turn, and step backward into the space where your body is sitting... raise your spirit-hand before you... and make a tuathal triskel in the air before you... sit down into your body... renew your center... feel the Earth and Sky Powers meeting in your flesh...
-Remember your body, and let your awareness be firmly behind your eyes... feel the air flow in your lungs... the blood course in your veins... remember all you have seen and done in this work… open your eyes, and know that your spirit has returned fully to your flesh... stretch... and be finished with the trance.
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