This is a potentially powerful process for uncovering aspects of your unconscious and finding ways to integrate them. I made extensive use of it in my discovery phase of growth. A good example is described early in Chapter 4 of Who I am. In this section I will provide instructions on how to undertake the process, certainly enough for you to try it at least once. If you find that it is something you would like to explore further then I would strongly recommend that you read the book by Edwin Steinbrecher, particularly Chapters 7,8 and 9. This has been out of print for a while, so a PDF version is included in the Resources section (it is the third item in the list).
The following instructions are taken directly from Steinbrecher’s book. A downloadable version is available here. He suggests you start by simply sitting still and closing your eyes; I would recommend spending time to calm down and relax using a breathing technique for at least 10 minutes first.
Read and follow these instructions carefully
When contacting your Inner Guide for the first time, try not to make it hard or think that you can’t do it A psychological state of ease and relaxation is helpful, though not necessary, for the experience. Sit in a comfortable, straight-backed chair, with your spine erect and both feet flat on the floor. Separate the two sides of the body (don’t have your arms or legs touching each other or crossed), with your thighs parallel to the floor and your hands resting lightly on the thighs, palms up and open. Putting the thumb and first finger of each hand together, an Oriental mudra, seems to help achieve and maintain a good meditation level for some. Having the left palm up and the right palm down is helpful to others. Experiment to discover which hand positions work best for you.
There seems to be a specific motion sequence or ‘movement of the mind’ that gets you most easily to the Guide. It is: forward, then left, and then right A movement of forward, left and left tends to bring the false guide. The following visual sequence used for the initial Guide contact is one that has evolved through trial and error over the years. If it doesn’t work easily for you, accept a structure that your own unconscious presents to you, or invent your own. There is no way to do it wrong if you follow the above instructions.
Close your eyes, and invent a cave around you as if you have just walked into the cave and the entrance is at your back. Allow the cave to structure itself as it will, well-lighted or dim, smooth-walled or rough. Try to be like blank film receiving impressions. Accept these impressions uncritically as they come to you from this environment Try not to edit what comes.
Be as sensory as you can. Is the cave moist or dry? Feel the weight of your body as you stand on the cave floor. What kind of floor are you standing on? Feel it with your feet Is it flat and smooth or rough and uneven? Feel the texture of the floor under your feet Is it sandy, rocky or gravelly? Feel the air around you. Are there currents, or is the air still? Smell the air. Notice the colour impressions that come to you. Use all your senses.
Be sure you are observing and sensing this environment while being in your body and looking out ef your eyes. Don’t be watching an image of yourself! Should you find yourself watching yourself, get back into your body, keeping the point of view of your own eyes. If at any time during the meditation you do find yourself watching your own image, each time return to the viewpoint of your body until it becomes a habit Feeling the touch of your feet on the ground in the inner world and the weight of your body on your feet will help to keep you in your body, as does the active use of any of your senses.
Keeping the point of view of your own eyes and body is one of the most important aspects of the Inner Guide Meditation. For a long time I couldn’t understand why some people weren’t getting life results while others were. Then one of the people who got no changes mentioned that he was watching himself and his Guide as if he were watching himself in a film. That was the key. He was ‘un-plugged’. If you are only watching the meditation process and not actively in it with all your senses, the meditation becomes no different than a fantasy or daydream. You may well get information, but nothing will change, heal or transform in your life. Being in your body is essential.
When you can feel yourself in the cave, even though things may still be vague at this point, move forward and to the left away from the cave entrance, and find some kind of doorway or opening there on the left that will lead you out into a landscape. Many people find an actual door in the cave wall. Some go through an arch. Some find a small opening low to the ground that they must crawl through. A few emerge directly into a landscape. Others find a tunnel that leads them out into their landscape. Again, take whatever comes uncritically, and move through the aperture presented by the unconscious.
Take a step out into the landscape when it appears, feeling the new type of ground under your feet. Is it soft or hard, grassy or rocky? What is around you? What is the scene like? Let all these impressions come to you, and let them solidify. What seems to be in the distance? What is the weather like? Be there as totally as you can.
Then with your mind call for an animal to come to you. Let it be an animal you don’t know ( not a familiar house pet or some other known outer world animal e.g., your friend’s horse, the neighbour’s cat, the lamb you had when you were a child), and ask the animal to lead you off to the right to where your Inner Guide awaits you. Concentrate on following the animal, and try not to anticipate the Guide. If the animal appears to meander or stops, give it permission to take you directly to the feet of your Guide. If you lose sight of the animal or the scene, will yourself back to that point where you last saw the animal or scene and allow the action to continue from there. The animals that appear to people come in all varieties. Deer are common, as are squirrels. Sometimes a lion or a dog or cat will appear. People have even had skunks and anteaters. Again, take whatever animal first comes to you, and trust it to be able to lead you to your Inner Guide.
The animal will lead you to the feet of an unknown male figure – your first Guide. The initial Inner Guide for both men and women is an unknown male figure. (This is probably because the horoscopic area which describes his physical being and personality, the Ninth House, is associated with three masculine or yang energies: an odd- numbered House, the Ninth; the sign Sagittarius, the natural sign of the Ninth House; and the planet Jupiter, the Ruler of Sagittarius.) You will generally feel an outpouring of love, protection and friendliness from the figure. Many people weep at this point
Start receiving impressions about the figure. Begin with the feet. Are his feet bare or in some kind of footwear? Then slowly work up the body. Allow impressions of what the figure is like to come to you uncritically, again as if you were blank film. What kind of dress or costume is he wearing? What type of body does he have? Is he fat or thin? Is he tall or short? What kind of hair, if any, does he have? ( If the figure is hooded, ask him to throw back the hood.) Is he wearing anything on his head? Is he bearded or clean- shaven? What kind of feeling about him do you get? Is he an active or passive man? Gentle and introverted or extroverted and out-going? Is he dressed in the clothing of any particular occupation or trade or time period? Any particular country or region of the world? Does he hold anything in his hands?
Let all these impressions come to you as they will. Don’t try to see the Guide’ s face clearly right away unless it presents itself easily. One of the hallmarks of the true Inner Guide is that his face isn’t usually clear at first, although a false guide’s face almost always is. The true Guide’ s face will clear and come into focus later on as you work with him in the meditation process when you stop trying to ‘make him a face’. Be sure to ask the figure if he is your true Guide and if he has the power to protect you in the inner realms. Generally a false guide will answer ‘No’ to this question or will disappear. Then ask the figure to take both of your hands in his, and give him permission to let you feel his feeling for you. If you don’t feel total acceptance and love or caring, you’re with a false guide. There is no love from a false guide.
Then ask the Guide to take your right hand in his left. ( In left handed people this usually is reversed, the Guide’ s right hand taking the person’s left hand.) Feel the hand contact as much as you can. Feel the texture of his skin. Is his hand warm or cool, moist or dry? Is the skin smooth or leathery?
Ask your Guide then to point to where The Sun is in the sky of your inner world. Look to where he points. Is The Sun right overhead or off to one side? Are there clouds, or does it shine in a clear sky?
At the point where you ask the Guide to point to The Sun, a false or ego guide will generally balk, change the subject, try to divert your attention in some way, hedge or will simply vanish. Test for his love again if he remains and your doubts are stirred. If you cannot feel it, stay where you are and look to the right of where the false guide is or was. Another male figure will be there or at least nearby. Feel where the love energy comes to you from and creates a warmth in your chest, and look in that direction. Go through the earlier process of allowing him to appear clearly to you, and ignore the false guide if he is still hanging about. If you happen to get a false guide, your true Inner Guide is close by, and if you call for him and give him your permission to come to you, you will probably see him quickly. (The false guides may be either male or female.)
Don’t accept any known person from your outer world as your Inner Guide. Your Guide is a being who wasn’t alive on the planet when you were born, so if your favourite uncle, or your father, or the current or past President of the United States appears, keep looking past him to the right And if a famous deceased guru or teacher or luminary from the past should appear, test him, and see if another figure appears beyond him on the right
The Inner Guides come in all the many varieties that we humans do, and they are always unknown figures and not celebrated spiritual teachers or avatars of the recent or distant past The Guides tend to wear the clothing they wore when they last lived on the planet ( or so they say about themselves), which is perhaps why they seldom appear in contemporary dress. They also say that they are connected to us through love or duty, and that we have shared a life on the planet with them at some time and may well again. And, most important, the Inner Guides are always human and do not have the powers or attributes of gods. If a sea serpent, a fairy, an angel or a winged man claims to be your Guide, move past it to the right until your true Guide is encountered.
After your Guide takes your hand and points out where The Sun is and you see it, ask The Sun to come down, in human form, to where you and your Guide are. Accept the first form it takes. It may come as a male or a female. It might be a man with a bird’s head or a swirling mass of colours and energy in humanoid form. It may take the form of Christ, or it may be a dwar£ Try not to preconceive what The Sun, as it exists in your inner world, is going to look like. Let it be what it will.
The Sun is the archetype of the Centre of the Self- the lovegiving, life-giving, creative energy that animates each of us and gives life and motion to the other archetypal forces we carry within us. Our true Inner Guide generally delights in the initial solar contact Even if The Sun energy in your particular horoscopic pattern is weak or repressed, the Guide will do all in his power to bring you into contact with this solar Centre figure so that you can begin the assimilation of this vital energy.
When you and your Inner Guide are together with The Sun figure, direct your attention to The Sun and ask it to send as much light and love into you physically as you can handle you. Try not to resist it. It is at this point that most people realize that something real and unusual is happening to them that they’re not ‘making up’, because they don’t know how to make up such an experience. This experience of light and love from The Sun is often overwhelming, generating tears of joy and is the first inner world experience of a non-ego force. If, by chance, you don’t experience this energy physically, give The Sun permission to penetrate any blocks that may be up against its energy so that you will be enabled to feel the energy flow within you. Asking the figure to literally touch you with its hands or with a directed ray will generally penetrate the blockage and allow you to feel the energy flow.
The two questions that I recommend for use when interacting initially with each of the 22 tarot archetypes are: 1. What do you need from me and from my life to work with me and be my friend.’? and 2. What do you have to give me (in the form of a symbolic object placed into your hand) that I need from you.’? The answer to the first question may be a request for a quality such as Love or Trust or Honour. Or it may be a request such as ‘Come and visit me daily’ or ‘Start being kinder to others’ or ‘Eat more oranges’. Take the first answer that comes into your mind, even if your ego views it as nonsensical. This answer may come in code form to get past the ego’s defenses against hearing this information from within. The Inner Guide or the archetype itself may be asked to interpret further or decode its need or request If you reject the first answer or image that comes to you, ego chatter will follow and confusion will ensue. Try to shut off your normal thinking process and become a receiver. Some of the archetypal forms that, in the psyche, are representative of repressed or suppressed energies may initially appear as ‘negative’, ‘evil’ or sickly in the form aspect they present and may request things which are opposed to your moral or ethical values, such as, ‘Poison your dog’ or ‘Shoot the neighbour’. Ask your Guide’ s advice before agreeing to even seemingly innocent requests, especially if your intuition gives you warning or you ‘get a funny feeling’ about the request. Refuse those requests your Guide advises you to refuse, and continue asking the archetype’s need until you elicit an acceptable request, one which you feel you can and will fulfill in your everyday life.
Remember, you’re in foreign territory. Trust and use your Inner Guide to act both as interpreter and counsellor – truly let him guide you. Expect from him what you would from a wise teacher. If you become confused or don’t understand what’s going on there in the inner world, ask him to explain. The true Inner Guides don’t volunteer any information, so don’t hesitate to ask questions in order to get explanations and interpretations. Another thing about the true Guides is that they will judge no one, neither you nor anyone else in your world. Nor will they usually make predictions about you or others. They will never invade another’s privacy in any way. Should your Guide start agreeing with you that someone in your outer world is a ‘bad guy’ or’ evil’, you’re with a false guide. Another thing to look for is the improvement of outer world conditions as you work with your true Guide. These conditions tend to worsen or fall apart when you’ re working with a false guide. Watch results, and don’t be afraid to test the guides and the archetypes. The Inner Guide Meditation is not fragile and can withstand much testing.
The second question that I recommend asking each archetypal form during the first encounter with it is ‘What do you have to give me that I need from you?’ Ask that the archetype respond by placing a symbolic object into your hand. Accept the first object that appears. If it is not clear, ask that the object be brought into focus and made more clear. Again, use your senses. Feel the object Is it round or square, hollow or solid? What material is it made of? Is it large or small, heavy or light?
When you are clear what the object is, ask the archetypal figure to interpret just what talent, ability or power the object represents. If you regard it as a tool, how do you use it? What effects does it produce in the inner world? In the outer world? How do you utilize it in your everyday life?
These initial gifts from the archetypes represent the talents and abilities you were born with having to do specifically with the energy forms that give them to you. You receive the gift in symbol or code form and must then have it decoded. An archetypal gift may have a very common use: ‘It will make you more aware of your surroundings’ or ‘It will keep your neck from getting stiff’ or ‘It will help you sleep,’ or its use may be one associated with the twilight zone of extrasensory perception and magic: ‘It will begin to open your third eye’ or ‘it is the gift of healing with your hands’ or ‘it will allow you to journey out of the body’ or ‘it will begin the safe arousal of the Kundalini’. Remember to check with your Inner Guide as to whether or not you should accept what is offered. If he OK’s it, be sure that you’ve asked enough questions so that you understand just what it is you’ve been given. If you don’t understand, ask more questions until it is clear to you. Ask both the archetypal giver and your Guide to help you understand the gift and the ways you may use it in both the inner and outer worlds.
When you have really understood the talent or ability, ask the archetype that presented the gift to place it in or on your body at a place where you should absorb and carry it Feel where the energy form of the object settles within you. This absorption into the body is usually accompanied by unusual physical sensations in one or more parts of the body.
Again, check out all the steps in the process with your Inner Guide. He’s there to help you, but he can’t help unless he is asked. (The Guides will not act spontaneously on their own except when danger to the ego, physical, spiritual or psychological, is encountered.) Nor can he answer unasked questions.
If you utilize the tarot forms of the archetypal energies, you’ll finally have at least 22 symbolic gifts or powers in object form scattered throughout your body. ( A crystal may be in the centre of your forehead, an apple in the heart, a stick of green wood in the right hand, pearls around the neck, an iron sphere in the genitals, etc.) It is helpful to make an outline of a human body on a sheet of paper and keep it as a record of where each of your symbolic gifts is placed. Experiment with these tools or gifts, and record the results in your journal of meditation experiences, the log of your inner journeys. See if they do what you’ve been told they’lldo. If the Tarot Empress has given you a copper rod which she explained would do healing, think of a sick plant in your environment, and ask your Inner Guide to bring it to where you and the Tarot Empress are in the inner realm. Ask her to show you how to heal the plant with the rod, and follow her instructions. Then observe the plant in the outer world. If you see no improvement within two or three days, have your Guide take you back to The Empress, explain to her that the plant doesn’t seem to be healing, and ask her what you don’t understand about using the healing tool or magical implement you were given. Don’t let negative results lie. Don’t rationalize them. Always go to the giver of the ability and challenge the results until your tools work for you. When you’ve mastered the ability of a certain tool, ask your Guide to take you back to its giver and ask if there is any other power that tool may have that you are unaware of. These tools or abilities are for use in our everyday lives – not just on the inner planes.
The two questions that you ask the archetypal energy images at the first encounter and the answers, actions and objects they elicit, serve to indicate to you just where that energy is within you (whether positive or negative, conscious or unconscious). It also serves to establish an initial balance between the ego and the energy of the form you touch and work with. At the conclusion of each inner working, remember to ask your Guide if all the energies that you’ve encountered are in balance or if anything has been left undone. Remember that all taking from must be balanced by a giving to. To receive from an archetype without giving in return seems to allow that force carte blanche to take what it wishes from any area oflife as a balancing factor. It’s best to know the cost of what you are receiving. The Inner Guide will tell you if all is in balance if you remember to ask him.
I recommend the tarot images as a source of archetypal references because of their correlation to astrology and the individual’s natal horoscope. If these images aren’t compatible with you, however, use any other symbol keys you like: the pantheon of the Greek gods, the Christian religious archetypes, the Hindu gods, the ancient Egyptian neters or ‘god’ forms, cartoon characters from Disney, figures from fairy tales, the Norse gods. For instance, one friend reported that all the archetypal figures that appeared to her looked like biblical characters, the Tarot High Priestess appearing as the Virgin Mary, the Tarot Sun, as Jesus.
Whatever figures you choose or that appear initially will start to shift and change as· you work with them. They will begin to remold and alter your initial target images, going through your memory banks and utilizing the symbols, forms and images which best express their particular energy as it exists in you at the time you are working with and experiencing them. You may begin with an image of the Tarot Empress just as she appears in a tarot deck only to find that her form turns into that of a witch stirring a cauldron, and it remains in that altered form no matter how hard you may try to force it back into the tarot original with your mind. Even as the witch figure changes as you interact and work with her from’ evil’ seeming to’ good’, she will remain uniquely herself, The Empress as she lives in you, unlike any outer image or symbol.
On occasion the figures will present themselves as pure symbol- the Tarot]ustice appearing as an ice cube or a pair of scales, The High Priestess as a crystal ball, The Lightning-Struck Tower as a phallus. Take whatever comes, and try to work with it as it first presents itsel£ Ask why it is presenting itself in that particular form. What is it trying to communicate to you? It will change as you assimilate its force and its message, sometimes in the middle of a conversation. If you have difficulty working with a talking ice cube, ask the image to take a human form and accept the first one that presents itself Sometimes this request for a human form is ignored or refused – it was two years before the Tarot Wheel of Fortune energy within me would take a human form, although I requested this at each meeting. The way to assimilate the energies most rapidly into the ego is to get as involved in the meditative experience as you can. Touch the figures. Utilize all your sensory apparatuses. Voice your disagreements. Complain of their harshness or coldness. Hold onto those who try to leave before the interaction is complete, or call them back or ask your Guide to bring them back if they do depart For those whose response to your questions is silence, give permission to them to answer your questions whether you want to hear their answers or not Demand that they answer. When an archetype is silent, it generally indicates that the ego doesn’t want to hear the information which that archetype has to give. Insist that an answer be given. Give permission that the answer be given in picture form, and then ask your Guide to help you understand and decode it The acts of insisting and giving permission enable the ego to push through its own resistances and defence systems. Give the archetypal forms in your inner world the same reality you would grant any 22 individuals in your outer world, and you’ll find the changes in your life both rapid and positive.
A Master's Path 
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