The Imagination Zone

Approaching astral projection, journeying, visions, active imagination, etc. as one phenomenon

WTF is a Spirit Journey?

If you ask someone if they can Astral Project, most people would say that they could not. Images of an organically generated virtual reality generated by simply closing your eyes and popping out of your body to fly through space come to mind. If you asked someone if they had ever daydreamed, most people would say they do from time to time. I think that these two experiences are on opposite ends of a spectrum of experiences with a nonphysical plane, realm, or dimension accessed through the imagination.

Ways that people access it, and how they perceive what is happening there vary as greatly as the terminology. Some people are very strong visual imaginers. I envy them, but this place is not just their domain. Peoples’ imaginations vary greatly and tend to lean on certain senses more than others. Luckily most of our outer senses have inner counterparts and you just might be great at sensing one or two inner perceptions. I’d like to assert the idea that another sense we use to perceive reality is imagination.

When I wrote scifi novels, I would carry big stories and a dozen characters in my head for several months while I typed and polished the manuscript. Most of my thoughts are verbal or auditory. I can hear/remember an entire song, for instance. I think in spoken word mostly. This turns inward to having conversations with beings in imaginal places. Through Jui Jitsu practice earlier in life, I learned a bit about using the sense of touch for perception of others. Feeling a certain body part of an opponent on a thigh and then imagining where their entire body was and what they were trying enhanced my ability to defend myself. Certain sensations, like the chill across my shoulders have been key indicators of nonphysical presences for me. There are also certain things I just know about an imaginal place, I’m not sure if that is an inner perception or visual cues that are just kind of soaking in.  I don’t really smell, taste, or see much in my imagination. I’ve had a couple great and memorable visual experiences, but it’s not my current normal experience.

Despite not really “seeing” much, there is still a perceptually rich experience waiting for me that has been improving with practice. I think most people that work at it can get to a level of inward perception that is useful and enjoyable to be in.

But why? It’s easy to just plug in to virtual reality to visit other nonphysical places. Well, as my fiction writing revealed by introducing me to the Muse, there are intelligences we can access by learning to turn within that have access to knowledge about our lives and reality that is obscured to us. Cultures from all places and times in this world have tapped their imaginations in order to make breakthroughs in technology and to adapt to their changing world. Preindustrial societies did so with intention. Innovators in our materialist culture often stumble into the space by accident, but still achieve their goal.

Are these intelligences part of our inner psychology? Ghosts or spirits? Delusions? Well folks, this topic is  outside the scope of science, so I think all those guesses are partially correct, partially useful, and pointless hang-ups all at once. Instead of splitting hairs and armchair debating, let’s see how we’ve interpreted this nonphysical place before, during, and after industrialization, then you can try it out for yourself!

There will be links to instructional articles and books on guided meditations that I find the most helpful at the end.

Preindustrial cultures

All over the world, our preindustrial ancestors, and some tribes still living according to their customs, treated the imagination as a gateway to realms populated by sentient beings. My family is from the Northeast United States, so I chose the first nations peoples of North America, but could easily have demonstrated similar ideas with preindustrial people of any continent.

“The most archaic aspects of technical innovation in hunting and warfare, as well as in healing have their roots in dreams and visions.” Walking the Sky: Visionary Traditions of the Great Plains by Lee Irwin. This statement should come as no surprise. I know when I encounter a problem, I’m often made aware of the issue through a comparative thought like, I could write esoteric articles more if I didn’t have so much other stuff getting in the way. Something similar was likely humanity’s entry point into the Imagination Zone. We need to recognize a problem and think of an ideal outcome before we tackle anything.

“The ethnography of vision seeking reveals three motivations for such a quest: a socially expected obligation usually undertaken at puberty; the search for greater personal empowerment and knowledge; and a communally determined quest to resolve various problems or negative conditions.” Walking the Sky: Visionary Traditions of the Great Plains by Lee Irwin. When it’s time to do some adulting, or when things go wrong and you don’t know how to fix them, our preindustrial ancestors turn to the Imagination Zone.

Reoccurring themes, symbols, and patterns coalesced into reservoirs of wisdom. Each culture shared knowledge of the natural world and how to interact with it through storytelling and narrative. Unlike fiction or nonfiction, these realms are known as myth. “Stories about mythic worlds were in an important sense more real than accounts of observable facts… Myths, as traditionally defined, focus primarily on supernatural beings and the worlds they inhabit… storytellers and their audiences often regard such descriptions as symbolic rather than literal…Indeed, some stories explicitly attribute such mythic descriptions to visionaries who perceive things that most people cannot see… mythic storytellers and their audiences for the most part assume that such mythical worlds and beings are real, even if the words used to describe them are approximations.” Myths, Stories, and Reality by Joel Dubois

How could all of mythology be accurate when so many contradict each other? These psychonauts, or inner space explorers, make real contact through the imaginal to knowledge that is then interpreted by through their mind into an idea, story, or myth. The end message is one part original message from beyond and one part interpretation by the messenger. A whole lot of assumptions, agendas, and ego can get blended into what was originally encountered. “Those who respect and engage in mythic thinking often trust that different mythic stories, even those that seem to conflict, all provide a different perspective on some greater truth. Why, after all, would there be only one telling of an event so complex and mysterious as the beginning of creation, or its end, or the creation of the first people? Even the visionaries to whom mythic visions are often ascribed would only be able to convey part of what they experienced in words.” Myths, Stories, and Reality by Joel Dubois

Some tribes native to North America have contextualized their encounters as the grandfather spirits of the things in their environment. “Anthropologists have reported that one Grandfather is accorded to each species of animal or plant, while other Grandfathers are associated with elemental forces such as wind or fire, or with other objects or human conditions. … These beings wielded great powers which they could bestow upon favored individuals. They were not restricted to a specific form, and often appeared in visions to communicate with humans. They were tangible entities, but were never confused with living representatives of the species.” A Hermeneutic Exposition of a Plains Healer’s Concept of “The Grandfathers” by Young, et al. I’ve had good results attempting to find the spirits of forests, rivers, cemeteries, lakes, mountains, and trees. I like to settle down into meditation near the place, or within it. Then I think about encountering the spirit of the land (or whatever) until I can visualize or imagine a being. Then I talk to it. When I’m around the area in the physical world, I talk to the being. Sometimes I get the chill across my shoulders in acknowledgement.  

Ever heard the expression, As above, so below; as within, so without? The Western Occult Tradition wasn’t the only culture to arrive at such a conclusion. “The Grandfathers constitute a realm of power, ultimately derived from the Great Mystery, which includes our biological ancestors who lived in centuries past, as well as everything that existed in their world. This realm of power is still accessible today because it resides (as a noumenal dimension) in everything, including the human brain.” A Hermeneutic Exposition of a Plains Healer’s Concept of “The Grandfathers” by Young, et al.  Pagan (by this I mean anyone who isn’t monotheist, atheist, or agnostic) belief is that the energy a god or spirit represents as an individual is also an essential part of the energy within someone. In this mindset, going within to connect to the energy of an entity is the same as reaching out for that entity.

“The noumenal realm of power was not always hidden as it is today. At one time, there was a direct interaction between human beings and the noumenal realm of power- to the extent that there was no need for the distinction between noumenal and phenomenal, or the distinction between sacred and profane. Individuals did not have to be taught that trees, rocks, plants, animals, and other people possessed a spiritual dimension. The power of nature could be sensed and used in a direct fashion.” A Hermeneutic Exposition of a Plains Healer’s Concept of “The Grandfathers” by Young, et al. Ahh, the good ol’ days before factories, farms, and cities changed the world forever. Science and materialism, the world of solid matter and repeatable observations, have deemphasized the importance of the mystical experience. It can be dismissed as childish escapism to even consider things like spirits, telepathy, or divination.

Perhaps in our hurry to make technological advancement, we left something priceless behind.

Sure, we’ve got the internet now. Literally every piece of data that has ever been publicly available is now accessible. What could we have left behind to arrive here? The wisdom of experience. There are ways to access experiences of any sort in the Inner Library. An exercise I found in the free section of Quareia’s website guides you through a visit to the Inner Library, the Imaginal repository of all human experience and knowledge. You work with a librarian to find the right book, and then press it into your spirit body. In the coming days in your waking life, the knowledge you sought comes to you. It can be in the form of books, a friend revealing the topic by chance, or anything. It was effective enough that I had to put my visits on hold until I processed all that fell on my lap! “Thus the neumenal world, while dynamic and active, is also a repository of everything that has previously existed and thus a great repository of knowledge. … Carl Jung’s concept of the “collective unconscious” captures the sense in which the realm of neumenal power constitutes a collective but accessible repository of knowledge and power.” A Hermeneutic Exposition of a Plains Healer’s Concept of “The Grandfathers” by Young, et al.

Jung and Modern- spirits get rebranded

I scored a copy of Jung on Active Imagination, and in it found all the lectures I referenced below. I chose Carl Jung because his work marks the turning point in the cultural use of the imagination. Scientific materialism discouraged most people from engaging with their imaginations into their adult years. You can’t prove what happens in your head, after all. Luckily, Carl Jung, one of the founding fathers of Psychology, studied the occult and incorporated knowledge of the imaginal into his psychology. Archetypes and the collective unconscious are still popular ideas.

These arcane insights became the personal improvement regiment of self-examination. “The creative imagination is turned to the creation of age-old cultural forms (art, religion, philosophy, society), while active imagination is turned to the creation of the personality (know thyself).” Introduction.

To Jung, the characters he encountered could not have been a part of his consciousness pretending to be another entity. “Philemon and other figures of my fantasies brought home to me the crucial insight that there are things in the psyche which I do not produce , but which produce themselves and have their own life.” Confrontation with the Unconscious. The imaginal beings we encountered demonstrated a mind of their own. Based on my own experiments and practices over the last couple of years, I agree with Jung on this point entirely.

Instead of a fun game of pretend, these interactions are as serious as the ones we have in the flesh. “The method of active imagination therefore, is not a plaything for children. The prevailing undervaluation of the unconscious adds considerably to the dangers of this method.” The Transcendent Function. The beings Jung referred to often were in a position to provide guidance or to demonstrate a lesson that applied symbolically to Jung’s life. Personally, interaction with an inner ally who embodies water energy has led to tremendous personal growth in emotional maturity and range, as well as heightening my intuition. These allies of the inner realms can see our flaws and will help you become your best self if you can learn to interact with them in the imaginal.

“Civilized life today demands concentrated, directed conscious functioning, and this entails the risk of a considerable dissociation from the unconscious.” The Transcendent Function. Engaging with the Imagination Zone is a great way to tip the scales back in the favor of a balanced mind. People began living in cities and working in factories, instead of interfacing with nature and incorporating some level of imaginal work into their interactions with wildlife. In our shift, we became even more aware of our longing for connection to the imaginal world. This shift in awareness created a blind spot. For all the benefits modern life brought, it also allowed us to create new imbalances. Jung successfully looked to the past and retooled a consciousness technology for the recently adapted modern person.

He realized that it wasn’t more knowledge and process details that would tip the scales, it was more experiential wisdom, born of novelty. “For the important thing is not to interpret and understand the fantasies, but primarily to experience them.” The Technique of Differentiation. Our preindustrial ancestors didn’t know the Latin names for everything within their world. They knew a narrative of their peoples’ relationship with a nonhuman entity. Jung led us back into the imaginal realms of our tribal ancestors, but with a new purpose. One designed to address the city dweller. In the essay Technique of Differentiation Jung says it’s important to take an active role in your fantasies, rather than simply observing them. So we are going in and playing a role rather than dissecting it through analysis or simply witnessing while disengaged, like dreams or watching television.

“Something works behind the veil of fantastic images, whether we give this something a good name or a bad. It is something real, and for this reason its manifestations must be taken seriously.” The Technique of Differentiation.

Modern Magical Context

When it comes to modern magicians guiding us into the Imaginal Realms the best author on the topic, in my opinion, is Josephine McCarthy. Her straightforward explanation of this natural human ability is what finally got me past the hurdles of doubt and confusion and into the practice. Here is McCarthy’s take on imaginal magic:  

“Through visionary work we can interact with various beings such as angelic beings, land spirits, deities, demonic beings, the dead, etc. We find these beings in various inner realms, for example the realm of death, the Underworld, the angelic realm, the desert/Tree of Life, inner temples, etc.

We can also plunge deeper into the inner worlds to experience and interact with forces of nature, of life and death, and of Divinity itself. This interaction is not new and has been used in various ways by tribal magicians, ancient priests, mystics, and visionaries from various cultures throughout time.

In the West we slowly became divorced from this method of working for a variety of reasons from cultural beliefs, religious dogma, scientific rationalism, etc. This divorce has had a massive impact on magical practice in the West and we are only recently starting to slowly recover from the severing.” Magic of the North Gate by Josephine McCarthy. Page 262

We can approach building our own Imaginal world in a useful way for strengthening alliances with nonembodied consciousnesses, energies, spirits, whatever you want to call them. Simply create a setting for them and visit the place, then call out for a guide or mentor from that element, land, or wherever. This is a great way to interface with the four elements, stellar energies, or Underworld spirits.

Creating and enlivening these scenes in your mind allows a consciousness with similar energy to adopt the form you’ve assigned. It solves the problem of not being able to physically see these entities. These places are structures within our own personal fantasy realm, but, as Jung and Seers throughout the ages can attest, sometimes intelligence from somewhere else uses the imaginative space for a communication through speech, imagery, mood, or some other tool from your mind. In this way, we can think of the imagination as a sensory organ into the realm of spirit and these places and characters as the alphabet that the thing on the other side uses as an interface with us. This is how we meet them halfway.

I have been enjoying expanding my awareness of these energies and realms by following several guided meditations listed below and then just going into the space and allowing my ally to show me what is personally relevant. To continue the alphabet analogy, this is making sure I know all the letters!

Symbols and Spirits

I’m still building a vocabulary and exploring ways to get more and deeper contact. I think establishing certain roles, guardians, contacts for certain things may not be accurate in the way that we identify an individual, but it is useful in terms of expressing our role expectations and creating the interface for what will provide agency to act through the symbol. The thing that wears the uniform also tends to do the role’s chores and accept the salary. Are they a certain being? Does it matter? I think the relationship they establish with me is the only important one. I think the value of these pursuits is experiential rather than historical, anyhow.

These contacts and this imaginal work can and should fold back onto both ritual work. In ritual, as instructed by McCarthy, I’m in the habit of visualizing my contacts within my working space while physically working in the space. This is dipping a toe into the practice of dual consciousness. Awareness of the inner and outer worlds simultaneously. Look into Quareia or the Magical Knowledge trilogy for elaboration, instruction, and guidance there.

The other place to take this skill is into the woods! Sometimes I get the feeling that a tree is watching me or that there’s a presence around me. When that happens, I pause, close my eyes, and scan my imagination to see if there is someone there. Sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised. I’ve also made a point to get to know the nature spirits in my town. If you want to try this I recommend first going in person, talking a walk around and picking up litter. Talk to anyone (not other humans, they’ll think you’re crazy) who may be listening. Let them get to know you by saying who you are, where you live, what you do with your time, and why you’d like to get to know them. Later on, go there in the Imagination Zone and see if they’ll present themselves. If this is appealing, you may want to check out the ritual at the end of McCarthy’s Magical Knowledge book one.

Tips and Tricks

• Binaural beats haven’t been studied by science as much as I’d hoped, but I tried them out and the astral projection one from this website got me really deep into the Imagination Zone. It’s free when you create an account.
• Don’t lay down. You may fall asleep. However, letting your body nap while your mind is passively alert is a fun practice called Liminal Dreaming that I’ve dipped a toe in and enjoyed.
• Don’t operate under a different ethical, moral, or value system than you would in the waking world. This work isn’t escapism. That is daydreaming. You do you, but I urge the reader to take this opportunity for personal growth and revelation, not playing Grand Theft Auto in your mind.
• Be careful. Don’t forget what we’ve learned about vetting stuff with divination and spiritual hygiene. These are things to continue doing, not benchmarks to fly past.
• I built up my visualization a bit using an exercise called Image Streaming that you may enjoy

Links to instructional articles and guided meditation books

Great! Now we know a bit of history and why it can be practical. How do we get started? Quareia module one lesson three has an excellent lesson on both inner senses and how to begin navigating the Imagination Zone. It’s free online. I also delved into several of the Visions McCarthy provides on the website’s free books section under Vision Archives.

After I got comfortable exploring, I hooked up with Luxa Strada’s group, the Green Mushroom Council, to explore their shared astral space. I like it so much, I’ve written a few guided meditations that are featured as episodes on the podcast! Here’s the episode that acts as a tour of the Green Mushroom. This is one I wrote called Elemental Exploration of Light and Shadow. Here’s an audio grimoire where we talk about the astral temple.

Here’s a list of books I’m currently working through and enjoying:

Guided Meditations for Witches and Pagans by Cavorta Andrea Grunbaum

Guided Visualizations: Pathways to Wisdom and Witchcraft by Lucya Starza

The Initiate’s Book of Pathworkings: A Bridge of Dreams by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki

Trancing the Witch’s Wheel by Yasmine Galenorn