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The Inner guide as a technique has many parallels to development in psychology. In particular Jungian psychology uses a less structured formed of exercise know as 'active imagination' Ed Steinbrecher technique embraces astrology and especially tarot imagery and is a readily accessible tool for those on a spiritual journey. Isarael Regardie in the forward praises the technique and reminds the reader that it bears many similarities to ancient esoteric methods.

The method of contacting your guide is outlined below and takes the form of a free form visualization.

-Create a cave, enter the cave engage all of you senses in exploring the cave.

-Proceed into the cave and locate a door/exit in the left hand wall again explore you environment with all your senses sight, touch, smell etc.

-Step through your exit into a landscape again ensure you remain firmly within your own body not viewing yourself from a distance.

-Call for a spirit animal to come and lead you to your guide. The animal when it approaches you will lead you off to the right.

-When you meet your guide you need to test him to ensure that you have not created a false guide. You can do this in a number of ways. Firstly ask you guide to point to the inner sun of your inner world, a false guide will not do so. Secondly take the guides hand a feeling of universal love and comfort should flow from the guide.

-Once in contact with your true inner guide ask him to call down the Sun and ask the sun what it require from you to be in balance with you. In return the Sun will give you a gift, the significance of which may not be apparent, that you can absorb into your body.

To recap the connection progress is forward, left then right. Below is an example of someone who has worked with the inner guide.

• list of keywords to help remember steps effortlessly
  • cave, sensory exploration, exit left, landscape, spirit animal, right, test guide, inner sun, call down sun, balance with sun (stay inside body).

In connection to the the validity of the experience all I can say is that you should allow what happens to unfold at its own pace over rationalisation results in self doubt inaction and ego triumph! However this doesn't mean you should passively follow the guide around and do exactly as told you should continue to question and test the various forces ect that you encounter as you would within skrying or evocation.

Meeting with your guide is an event that will change your life. Ed Steinbrecher developed Inner Guide Meditation in I968 and continued to spend years working with thousands of participants to discover the secrets of the psyche. Through trial and error Steinbrecher accessed the portal into the subconscious mind where the inner guide resides, a tool he's taught countless people through his book, Inner Guide Meditation. He's found that there are certain pathways to take to successfully meet your guide. For example, it is important to follow a specific directional route as you travel forward through a cave and then out onto a landscape. The cave represents the entrance to your subconscious mind, and the landscape represents your inner subconscious structure. Using an animal, which represents your instinctual nature, also seems to help most people find their guide.

It is necessary to keep your sensory awareness in your body as you visualize so that you experience the scene directly, and not as if you are watching someone. It is important to establish if the being you meet is actually your true guide. In the presence of your true guide you will feel overwhelming love, protection and total acceptance. After you meet your guide, every time you venture into your inner world it is absolutely necessary to have your guide with you for protection and guidance.
The difference between eastern meditation and Inner Guide Meditation is that eastern style requires a quiet mind or at least the patience to sit still and practice quieting the mind. Most of us from western cultures find that sitting still and tuning out our thoughts is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Inner Guide Meditation is perfect for westerners as it gives our active minds something to do, and from there we can learn to still the noise and have greater inner peace. Another benefit of Inner Guide Meditation is that as you work with your guide and archetypes on the inside, your outer world changes. Habits you had that were not in your best interest begin to taper off. Life opens up in many ways. Change happens where change is needed. You get to know parts of yourself that you have long neglected. You meet your life in full, and you begin to really take care of yourself.

Doing this type of meditation seems like it takes a good imagination or at least the ability to visualize clearly, but it really doesn't. When I go inward, I usually see hazy images, but I know what they are. Just as in dreaming where images are not clearly seen, we know what those images are when recalling the dream later. It is definitely working with senses that we don't use when we look at the outer world with our eyes. The more I've practiced Inner Guide Meditation, the better I understand what is being presented to me in that inner realm. I've learned to trust the images and to let go of the idea that it's not real just because I've imagined it.

In my initial meditation, my facilitator, Susan, instructed me to visualize myself entering a cave, and from there to turn left out into a landscape. As soon as I left the cave, she told me to look for an animal to lead me to my guide. A deer walked up to me and led me off to the right. As I walked along, sensing every part of the experience as if it were real, I became aware of the presence of another being. I first saw his feet, then my eyes went upward and I saw his body; he was dressed like someone from another time. I then saw his face, and his eyes reflected a deep love for me. I asked him if he had the power to protect me in the inner realm, and he said "yes." After questioning this being and watching my responses to his answers, Susan felt he met all the necessary criteria, and she was certain that he was my true guide.

Susan told me to ask what his name was, and I immediately saw the name "Hakim." The letters of his name seemed to spell themselves out in the air. I repeated the letters to Susan, who was taking notes for me. I felt like I made it up, but it was a name I had never heard before, and it fit him perfectly. Hakim is about sixty years old, with brown skin, brown eyes, and white hair. He is very youthful and energetic for his age, and one time when I went to see him, he picked me up and spun me around and around. He has a sense of playfulness to him, and he often laughs when we're together.

After I met my guide, Susan suggested I meet with some of my archetypes-the living energies of instinctual behavior and thought which project themselves outward onto those around us. As life energies, archetypes continuously influence our waking and sleeping lives, as they function beneath the level of conscious awareness. Carl Jung referred to the tarot deck as symbolic pictures of archetypes, and Steinbrecher also uses tarot images to represent archetypal energies in his meditation process. Each archetype has a role to play, and as we get to know each one, we learn more about ourselves and we discover ways to bridge our conscious and unconscious realities.

When meeting archetypes for the first time, besides having your guide with you, it is important to ask the archetypes what they need from you to establish a healthy relationship with them; that is, what you can do to feed that part of yourself that the archetype represents. Then it is important to ask the archetype to give you a gift, something they will give you if you do what they ask. This process may sound silly, but after having worked with a number of my archetypes, I have found that nurturing this inner relationship works. Some of the things they ask me to do are things I know I've been avoiding, but I know that if I give that part of myself expression, I will be rewarded in other areas of my life.
One of the first archetypes my guide introduced me to was the World, who was male, and Susan directed me to ask what he needed from me to be a healthy, conscious energy. The World told me to go out into and appreciate Nature more often-something I want to do more of, but don't. Susan then told me to ask him what he had to give me that I needed. The World, who looked like the Green Man in Celtic lore, gave me a handful of dirt as a gift. When I asked what the dirt symbolized, I immediately saw myself digging in a garden on a piece of land that was my own. I loved what the gift represented and wanted to do what the World needed from me, but I also knew myself. Susan told me to ask the World how often he needed me to spend time out in Nature, and we worked out a compromise. Since I began working with the archetypes, meeting with them and doing what they ask of me, I've noticed beneficial changes to my outer life. I have a greater sense of who I am and how I operate, and I've learned to accept the responsibility for all that occurs in my outer world.

While Inner Guide Meditation uses the twenty-two major arcane of the tarot deck as figures to represent the archetypal forces within, learning this meditation process does not require one to know the tarot in great detail. I had only learned a few figures of the tarot when, during a meditation experience; I was suddenly introduced to someone calling himself the Fool. I was surprised at this figure, mostly because I knew I hadn't made him up. My Guide, who is present at every meditation, assured me that the Fool was an archetype and to listen to his message. Another time a scantily dressed woman who looked like she came from an 1800s saloon came walking up to my Guide and me and introduced herself as the High Priestess. Her request required me to use more effort than I thought archetypes would ask but I knew it was important for me to pay attention.

The most profound experience I had was when I met my female Shadow. I was still new to the meditation process when I met her, and I really thought I had an over-active imagination from what I encountered. A rather large woman appeared when my Guide asked my Shadow to come forward; she looked Germanic in dress and almost manly, but she had a very loving and peaceful energy about her. I asked her name, and I heard "Helga." I wanted to ignore this unlikely manifestation that called itself my Shadow, but Susan had me continue. I asked Helga what she needed from me to be a healthy, conscious energy, and she told me to play more, a task that is harder than it sounds. When I asked what she would give me if I did as she asked, she handed me a little green frog, which I had difficulty accepting. I really didn't want to take it because I knew it couldn't be right. Why would an archetype hand me a frog? When I asked what the frog symbolized, not expecting to get any sort of logical answer, I immediately saw a ring in the frog's mouth. My body felt like it had been shocked; to me the ring was symbolic of a long-awaited partnership. And although I don't have any beliefs in fairy tales and frog princes, I knew then not to doubt what my subconscious brought to the surface.

You can learn Inner Guide Meditation on your own by following the book, which explains the history and process, and includes an informative question and answer section and a detailed astrology and tarot section. If you would like to find an initiator near you, or if you'd like to order the book, you can call Stephen Connors at the D.O.M.E. Inner Guide Meditation Center in Los Angeles at 323-851-9333. Inner Guide Meditation, by Edwin Steinbrecher and published by Samuel Weiser, Inc

This page is referenced by: Meditation

Created by: neil last modification: Saturday 15 of November, 2008 [10:12:36 UTC] by anonymous