Written by Ivo Dominguez Jr • Narration by James C. Welch
Music and sound editing by Ivo as well.
Pathworking:
This pathworking is a journey to seek the Shining Self and the Mantle of the Sun.
Close your eyes and move inwards. Take a deep breath and become aware of any distractions from the outside world— sounds, sensations, thoughts and feelings that came with you to this moment. Gather these distractions together ••••• and bid them depart until you return from this journey. •••••
Open your eyes briefly and then close them again holding within yourself the image of where you are in the here and now. See a sparkling mist rolling, slowly filling your vision. See it grow thicker, and thicker, and thicker until you are enveloped in swirls of pearly mist, rosy mist, that glistens with sparkling motes. ••••• Although you are still, you feel motion all around you. Although you are still, you feel the fog swirling all around you. ••
It feels like you are walking. The mist begins to lift and blow away. You find that you are walking in a city. You can feel the heat rising from the sidewalk. The tall buildings offer shade but the thick warm air makes it clear that it is high Summer. •• The city feels familiar and uncanny at the same time. You are walking purposefully with a strong stride. Though you can’t remember your destination you know how to get there. ••
As you walk block by block, the sidewalks and roads become less congested. • Some of the buildings are vacant as well. • There are fewer cars and people ••• You hear a faint song and turn your head to hear it more clearly. •• You notice a streak of reflected sunlight on a building that looks like an arrow and decide that is confirmation to follow the song. •• You are watching for signs and listening for the song as you walk. It is like walking an invisible labyrinth made as much of imagination as it is of buildings and crosswalks. •••
You stop cold. Something has changed and you know you’ve gone too far, but you aren’t sure how you missed your destination. You turn around and start walking back slowly • carefully looking for clues. •• You see some spray painted street art of a sunflower on the plywood boarding up a shop being renovated about 10 paces away. • With each step toward the sunflower you feel a tug that grows stronger. •• You are standing at the shop looking up at the sunflower. ••
Someone taps on you shoulder and asks, “Did you hear something?”
You turn around and see someone wearing a cap, sunglasses, and a jacket covered with so many enameled pins, embroidered patches, and fabric paint you can barely see the denim underneath. The glare of the Sun behind them makes it hard to see their face clearly. •
You say, “Did I hear what?” • They ask, “Did you hear the song?” ••
Cautiously, you say, “Yes” • “Come with me” they say and they duck into an alley. You follow, picking up your pace to catch up with them. It is cooler and darker in the alley. • It looks like the alley dead ends but they turn left into a narrower passage, just the leftover space between buildings built without planning • They open a door in a high fence and you follow them in. •
You are in a courtyard formed by buildings. There are no windows and it looks like there used to be a building in what is now the empty space of the courtyard. It is not barren nor overgrown, but filled with flowers and the lazy drone of bees. • Someone must be tending the space.• About two dozen or so people, of all kinds and styles are in the courtyard standing in a circle. Your guide has vanished but a tall woman with dark wavy hair and coffee brown eyes waves you over to join the circle. •
She smiles and asks “Shining Self?” • You say “Yes, but how did you know?”
She answers, “You have the look. • Watch and listen and when the time comes, it is your choice.” You join her in the circle and all hold hands. •
Two people step out from the bounds of the hand-held circle. As they move around the circle, the blank walls of the surrounding buildings vanish and the meadow of flowers seems to stretch to the horizon. A cylinder of brilliant blue light surrounds the circle as they walk. •
They circle round again and pause in the East and you hear singing.•
The powers of the Four Elements are being called forth. The world shakes with their coming. ••
You feel static electricity move across your skin lifting each hair. Everyone drops hands in the circle. The sky above the circle has turned to night sprinkled with stars but somehow the Sun is shining directly overhead. •• The Sun is perfectly still in the heavens, • it is the eternal now, the stillness of the solstice. ••
A person walks into the center of the circle and lifts their hands. • A chant begins in the circle. •••• The golden beams of the Sun descend and form a mantle, a cloak, of brilliance upon their shoulders. You gaze at their face and marvel at the flow of their emotions as they awaken the Sun within themselves. They take a visible breath and return to their place in the circle. ••• You watch as two more people take their place in the center and return. ••• No more have gone to the center. • The person to your left says, “You can if you wish.” ••
You make up your mind and take your place in the center. •••••
The power is warm and soothing. •••
The power is enlivening and empowering.
The power is clarity and centeredness and motion and stillness. •••
You return to the circle feeling changed. You hear a voice call from every direction.
I ask you to become
I ask you to become a child of the heavens, bright with blessings
I ask you to become a child of Earth, rich with the fragrance and juice of life
I ask you to become the crest of the wave of ancestors that brought you to this moment
I ask that you become a living crossroads whose every step opens the way
I ask you to become a wide walker striding at the edges.
I ask you to become whatever you can lend to the work of the world.
You are the Shining Self and you are not alone. So mote it be••
A glowing fog begins to roll in and the hidden courtyard fades away into the glow. •• The fog carries singing voices and you listen. •••• Although you are still, you feel motion all around you. You feel the swirling and the turning all around you. ••
Little by little, the fog lifts and you flutter your eyes open and find yourself back in the here and now. Back in the place where we began. Back in the place you held in your memory so that you could return. •••
Take a deep breath. Move your toes and fingers. Be here and in the now. Be here and in the now. And you are here!