Thought I might share this, as so many friends are going through unpleasant medical treatments right now. The human body becomes flooded with adrenaline, the Fight of Flight hormone, but there is no Flight from your own body, and everyone around is trying to help, so the Fight has to become Internal.
As the Will and Imagination are always creating, the anticipation to a painful procedure is difficult and stressful. Going through the pain is also no fun, and both create tremendous power. This power radiates out of Geburah on the Tree of Life, and like pain it follows the RED Ray with flashes of Lightning. So to drain and use the power of anticipation, did a preparatory ritual… after purifying myself (RC), purifying my surroundings (LBRP), engerizied my True Self (MP) to rise through the Astral, through my True Self and Angel touching in Tipharet, and then raise into the RED World of Geburah. As a phantom (and it being several hours before the surgery) there is no pain. There is no land or Island, so I raise the Emerald Castle (from Wizard of Oz, hey, you go to Trance with the archetypes you have, not the archetypes that are mere intellectual constructs) from a sea of fire. Entering it, I scattered seeds which grew into a new garden in the courtyard as I walked to the main building and entered. I noticed the staircase, and decided to wait until the surgery to explore it. I looked backwards, and the garden had grown magnificently in moments, and there is now a statue in the center, near a gazebo (like our own ground level Treehouse). Another focus for exploration after I explore the Tower and castle, it being a long surgery.
I returned, and will find the right talisman to trigger this Journey at the time of most need.
If this technique interests you, please adapt it to your own Treasure house of Images for greatest effect.
PART II: Field Testing – Into the Breech
Much of the anticipatory anxious energy was successfully used to create the Emerald Castle and surroundings, thus setting up a series of explorations for my Astral Double as it abandoned my body to the medical procedures. After settling in the chair, RC, LBRP, Archangels in full supplication, and MP, rose to the stars beyond the atmosphere and daylight, past them into the Dark, then through the kaleidoscope of my Yesod of Images, to my True Self unified and perfected (for the moment), in the Sun. My Angel descended to join me, and (unusually) gave me a reflective Shield with a Medusa head carved on the inside and two snakes from her hair forming the handle. Can’t remember the last time I got something so …solid from HER.
Holding up the shield to the Sun, I saw the RED ray separate from it and followed the Ruby Road to Geburah and the Discipline in the face of Challenges I need. In the distance (past the poppy fields) was the Castle, and as my body shook outwardly I danced down that Path. The Gate was big, and wood with leather hinged. The anteroom looked a lot like the entrance to Gillette’s Castle, with a stone staircase on the Left. I climbed it, missing any other door, and reached the top of the tower. From that exalted view, could see the garden has blossomed and could now make out the statute, Hermes running on air with winged feet and helmet, double snake wand and nothing else.
Looked around for any Goddess or Healing figures, but, seeing none, went down the stairs and out into the garden. It was laid out like a maze, with shorter plants on the outside, getting taller as you approached the statue, benches, pool and Hermes statue (bout twice my height). The Sun shone so fiercely it hurt my eyes, and I clenched so hard the doctor shook my shoulder. To relax, did an about-face and looked at the scene in the Medusa Mirror Shield. That took the intensity down a notch, I relaxed my face and walked carefully backwards into the pool.
The water was cool, a welcome relief from the pain and heat in my face. I drew it up my Middle Pillar to cool my brow, and it steamed rather than rolled off in clouds. The clouds shaded me from the Sun. When my back touched Hermes’s foot, I closed my eyes, turned, and laid my aching face against the cool marble sole of his flying foot.
“Hermes, Hermes, I follow in your footsteps, Hermes, Hermes, make me lighter than the Aire, water my garden with your Wisdom, sculpt my body as clay into my Perfected Self, and channel my Fire into the Furnace of creativity.”
Eventually I began to merge with the statue, after staying in that position for what seemed like a long time. The Doctor was tapping me and it was time to return to my bruised body. I promised to return, then rode the RED ray down into a world of pain.
The next day I revisited the Shrine and the statue was even bigger. My whole face fit into his insole. It was a healing and cooling spot for my aching cheeks. Still could only look at HIM through the reflected glory in the Shield.
PART III – Analysis
So, to the skeptical, once could ask “why do all this”? Will and Imagination are constantly creating. If your Imagination is focused on FEAR, especially real pain you know is coming soon, you go into the experience weakened. On the other hand, if Will leads Imagination, you can channel pain into creativity and distract the focus of the mind from the body’s urgent signals. Being naturally curious, the puzzles I set up for myself (What’s up the stairs, how does the garden grow, Who is the statue representing?) helped me change my focus from pain to exploration, a pleasant experience. It didn’t eliminate pain, but it made the experience much more tolerable.
Adapt as you see fit, using your own methods and symbols, of course.
