So I seem to be wandering the abyss. I have arrived at Chapel Perilous, which is where one is so utterly lost in the abyss that an alien higher intelligence begins helping one. Anyone have any advice on how to move through the abyss and out of the other side of it?

How long have you been there?

at least since 4/20 or so.

I've never been there....but I would guess that's not a very long time to be working your way through there. The alien....is it helping you? What does it say about the time frame?

His main advice to me so far, is to repeatedly warn me: "Don't fall off." whenever I am too close to an edge.

Well, that's not very helpful.

I'm sorry I can't be more help. When I find myself in a place I need to find my way out of I usually just follow my gut instincts and start moving. Or make a map. Follow the yellow brick road. It's never failed me yet.

My issue is that I am trying to find a specific path through a place that I can barely tell that I am in. I'm trying to take the hidden path, up the middle of the tree of life.

Straight up, huh?

My advice is to just keep going. You'll find your way. It's just the nature of things to work out eventually.

This is basically what I do as well. My instincts were to retreat to a safe place. Then start over again with the aid of a map and spirit guides I can trust. Then I have a yellow brick road to follow as Ruth suggests, plus I have spirit guides walking along with me illuminating the way.

It takes time and patience to build such a map. I've been working on my map for a few years now, but I've made phenomenal progress in that area. In fact, I'm doing so well with the map construction, I'm almost just content to sit here and look at the map.

But alas, I'm preparing to start out on a journey once again in the very near future as I now have a paradigm I can work with.

This is my crew:



It took me a long time to even realize precisely what was required. And then longer yet to select the archetypes that work well for me. But I've learned so much in the process. Getting to know the archetypes and how they fit into the larger picture is important. The levels of consciousness are deep and therefore require all of these various archetypes if you're going to truly find your way around.

Of course, the "gang" I put together here is what I have personally been drawn to. The exact members of the archetype is not so important. However, their roles with respect to the cosmic conscious is somewhat important. Elementals are different from divine consciousnesses, (you might think of them as the workers who do the actual work of manifestation for the divine consciousnesses). The archetypal messagers used for communiqué with the divine consciousnesses are also important. I perfer to work with three types; hermaphrodites, yin, and yang. But I suppose a single communiqué archetype could also suffice for many people. I have my own reasons for using a three-gender scheme.

In addition to the above Archetypal map I also use the orientation map shown below:



This Qabalah Tree helps me to navigate from one consciousness to the next and helps to bring them into alignment when working in harmony toward a specific higher goal.

By using this paradigm I am never lost, or without spirit guides that I know and trust. Getting to know the spirit guides is of paramount importance. If you just travel into the world of consciousness on your own without asking for guidance or setting a specific desired destination. You're bound to get lost and confused. It's a complex world.

In fact, from what I've read, there are infinite 'trees within trees' kind of like the Mandelbrot set. Although, the good news is that they are indeed fractals. So once you've gotten a good handle on one Qabalah, you're in great shape to navigate just about any level of it imaginable.

Anyway, I thought I'd just share what I'm doing. I'm well aware that my paradigm and use of a Qabalah tree with Tarot pathways is only one possible model. There are many other models to choose from. It's just so much easier if you have a good map (and spirit allies) before you dive into the depths of consciousness with no real destination in mind.

At least that's my thoughts for whatever they're worth.

Thanks, Abra. You are so good at this. I'm very "fly by the seat of my pants" when it comes to this stuff and I'm not much help to others.

Well, I don't know if I'm any help either.

But I have been studying my butt off.

And it's paid off big time for me.

I think that is so wonderful.

And, maybe I'm just a little jealous.

Well, I've discovered that studying pays off.

One of the greatest things I've learned is that nothing is carved in stone, and if you dig deep enough into almost anything you'll find arcana that you never believed could be possible.

For example, it's been over a year since I first learned about the Qabalah. As I learned about it I had an extremely intuitive desire to swap the positions of Binah and Chokmah. They just seemed entirely wrong to me and totally out of place. Yet by swapping them (as I have in my picture above) they work perfectly. I couldn't believe that this tree had them "backwards".

Well, just the other day it was brought to my attention that the placement of those two sephirah was indeed highly debated amongst the earliest magi and some of them did indeed swap them as I have them in my tree. The older literature calls them out numerical and suggests that Chokmah and Binah can be placed in either the second or third position depending on the preference of the magi. So I'm just tickled pink, because now I have "permission" to make the swap "legitimately".

I took it upon myself to rearrange the Tarot to my own liking. That came much later, and to be perfectly honest I think the "formal" placement of the Tarot onto the Qabalah is pretty lame. All they did was place the cards from the top down in numerical order. Doing that makes absolutely no sense at all (at least to me).

At the least, I would have started at the bottom and worked up. But even then a strick numerical assignment made no sense to me. So I just tossed out the numbers and went with placing them intuitively and that's how I ended up with my current arrangement. (I see I do need to change a couple tarot paths now), but only because I just now swapped Chokmah and Binah and forgot to make the appropreate adjustments to the Tarot pathways. I'll work on correcting that real soon.

Another thing I learned much to my delight is that the Archangels, Uriel, Raphael, Micheal, and Gabriel did not originate from the Bible as I had always been lead to believe. Those archetypes are much older rural pagan folklore that actually made their way into the Bible. In fact, there are very few mentions of these Archangels in the Bible, and when they are mentioned they are always mentioned in terms of a shamanic dream that someone had. So now I can think of them as being "pre-biblical" archetypes, and I really like that.

The Archangels are an incredible source of help....at least they have been for me. I knew they had been around longer the Bible. I'm not very familiar with Uriel. I'll have to look him up.

The Bible is sometimes called the best spellbook ever written. If you know how to read it correctly.

I know for a fact that the 8 archangels were around at the very, very, very beginning of creation and the universe. Way before people.

8?

Yes, I too read that there are more than these four. But these four were all I required for my archetypal model.

Like all myths and folklore, there are many different stories. Raphael supposedly died in a heavenly war. Although it's hard for me to imagine an archetypal consciousness dying.

I guess in a sense it could always be viewed much like the death of Jesus. A 'death' that wasn't truly a 'death'.

In any case, Raphael is alive and well in my archetype.

Gee, I just realized that I have the power to bring an Archangel back to life.

Pretty cool.

I'm going to look the rest up.

1st Archangel: Samael
2nd Archangel: Christ
3rd Archangel: Michael
4th Archangel: Gabriel
5th Archangel: Raphael
6th Archangel: Uriel
7th Archangel: Seriel
8th Archangel: Shekinah/Malkura