Writing Guided Visualisation and Pathworkings
By Gabby Cleary
Meditations, visualisation and pathworkings are useful tools in the study of witchcraft. Through the use of these techniques, we can gain an understanding of some of some of the mysteries at the heart of our experiential paths.
Many groups will have set meditation cycles that they use as ritual and teaching aids, and I am sure that most of you in the workshop have experienced at least some form of a grounding and centering meditation or visualisation.
There are many different forms of meditation from many varied traditions and paths. For the purpose of this workshop we will be examining guided visualisation or journeys, rather than the ‘clear your mind’ forms of meditation.
A guided visualisation allows the practitioner to enter a trance like state, often to gain an understanding of a particular subject or to experience another plane of reality. They are ideal for inner work, to see and experience a problem from a different perspective or to enter a particular realm and just observe or ‘be’ in the space.
We also use guided visualisation to build up our visualisation skills for working magic, as visualisation is a key part of this practice. In our guided meditations, we learn how to manipulate our environments or specific objects. We can see their energies in a way that might not be possible in the mundane or waking world.
Pathworkings are slightly different from the grounding and centering styles of visualisation. They take participants on a journey, literally along a path. They also usually form part of a set of visualisation that build up a body of experience, mystery and understanding about a particular set of subjects. Examples of these are the pathworkings that take a participant along the paths between the sephira of the Qabala or the Hermetic journeys to an Astral Temple and from there to elemental realms.
Both Qabalistic and Hermetic pathworkings are usually guided, at least when you first encounter each journey. This means that someone is vocally leading the participant along the path, rather than the whole journey coming from within. Both of these journey cycles are safer if led by someone experienced, who is physically in the room with the participant, rather than listened to off tape. Some people have difficulty leaving the journey and it is good to have a guide who can see if the participant is having such difficulty. The guide can then adjust the exit phase of the meditation accordingly and on-the-fly. Once a journey has been completed however, it should be fine for the participant to then re-do the journey off tape if they so wish, or to visit the particular realms by themselves.
As these pathworkings are used in sets, when the participant moves through each journey they build up stronger and stronger thoughtforms of landscape and action to create a very powerful experience. Key phrases are absorbed that enable trance to be achieved quickly. A common practice in pathworking sets is to have a standard entry and exit point for each visualisation in the set, even if the main journey is wildly different from the one before. As the participant becomes used to the entry and exit phases, their visualisation becomes stronger, thus making the body of the visualisation stronger as well. As with most aspects of our craft, pathworkings take practice.
So how do you go about writing your own guided visualisation, and from there, pathworking sets?
Well step one would of course be to experience a wide variety of guided visualisation for yourself using some of the established forms and journeys. These could include “grounding and centering”, animal trance journeys, elemental journeys, journeys to find deity within or visualisation of sabbat mysteries. You will soon begin to understand what language and style works for you. You can then use this experience to gauge your own visualisation writing.
After you are familiar with the forms, then you can start to work out which style of visualisation you need to write. Will it be simple or very descriptive, short or long. How you choose the style will of course depend on the goal and purpose of the visualisation, the Why! 
Elemental Meditations and the Ritual Goal.
As a practical example of a goal and purpose of a visualisation let’s take a look at the main ritual for this weekend. Participants will be sorted into elemental groups and taken to an elemental altar. These groups will be responsible for the cleansing, blessing and consecration of their elements, ready for the circle cast. The participants will also be helping to call in the Quarters later in the ritual. However, we will be using a specific set of directions and symbols for the elements. These aspects and symbols may not be the same ones that our participants use in their own practice. So I needed to find a way to impart this symbolic information to a large group of people and to have those participants interact with a being that they would later be calling upon. This then is the goal. One of the easiest ways to achieve this goal is to use a meditation. 
Once I had decided that I needed a meditation (or four as I needed one for each element), I then had to work out what type of meditation I would use. When taking people on a journey to meet an elemental King for example, as I needed to do for the main ritual, I would usually take them through a complex Hermetic journey using astral temples and elemental gateways called the Tattwas to allow them access into the Elemental realm. Participants would already know how to call the King and ask him to appear to them, they would know how to connect to an elemental altar. Obviously this would not really be appropriate for our ritual tomorrow, as there would be too much presumed knowledge and the Hermetic pathworkings can take rather a long time to run. So I quickly ditched the idea of using those pathworkings.
So I needed a set of four short and simple meditations that imparted the information and mystery required, but did not overwhelm the participants or leave them wallowing in a trance state. I looked at several books of elemental meditations and at my own meditation writing, but I couldn’t really find any that would work in this particular context. So I wrote a new set of meditations.
I knew my goal, so firstly I had to work out who it was I wanted the participants to meet and where this would occur. For the Air meditation, I knew that I wanted to achieve a manifestation of Paralda, the King of the Element of Air. So I looked at what symbols, correspondences and landscapes I thought would be appropriate for this to occur. 
So what information did I have. Well I needed a landscape for Air. I decided to use a mountainous landscape where the participant could feel the wind in their hair and see a wide view. I associate Air with the East, so I decided to set the meditation at sunrise, that way I could use the rising sun as a way to reveal the landscape in stages. Once the participant had seen their landscape I also needed to have some way of getting them to connect to the landscape and then do something that would cause the King to manifest. To achieve this I have an animal that relates to Air, in this case - a bird, bring an object to the participant. They can connect with the object and to essence of air. When that occurs, Paralda will appear, they can meet him, ask him a question and absorb the lessons of their element. When they return from their journey, they have a knowledge base for their magic and they share a common experience with the rest of their group.
Once I had the form for the first meditation, it was much easier to write the other three as they are really just variations on a theme.
Finding the Goal of the Visualisation
So think about what you want your participants, or indeed yourself, to achieve from a visualisation exercise. Do you wish them to learn a basic skill, such as grounding, to commune with deity, to understand a mystery, to contact a guide? Do you wish participants to dwell in the realms of the elements, the star signs, or the planets? Maybe you wish to work on understanding the mysteries that lie behind divination tools and systems such as the tarot or the runes, or the nature of certain animals?
When you have worked out your goal, you can then begin your research. Depending upon the nature of the goal and the subject matter, this research may be quite extensive. You may wish to take a folk tale or myth as the basis for the journey, you may also wish to discover certain symbols that aid in accessing a particular mystery, this is what I was trying to achieve with the four elemental meditations for the main ritual. You could research a deity you would like to work with in the visualisation, find out what landscapes are sacred to them, key phrases, offerings that would be appropriate. If you are describing a landscape, make sure that you are familiar enough with it so that you can visualise it and pass this information on to your participants by building the description into the visualisation. There is no use telling someone that they are standing by a Yew tree if they have no idea what that tree actually looks like.
The research should provide you with a key to your goal, provide you with inspiration. Once you have your research you can draw from it to create a framework that resonates to the goal of the meditation.
Just remember, writing a journey is like writing a story, but here the participant is experiencing the story first hand and is fully immersed in it, whilst being guided by the storyteller’s voice. And like a story, you will need a beginning, a middle and an end, both as the framing for the visualisation, as well as within the body of the meditation itself.
In the large scheme of things, how do you start? How do you get your participants into a trance state? Is there a launching pad for the journey?
Think back on the meditations that you yourself have experienced. Do they start with breathing, chanting, intoning, or maybe drumming? You need to find some technique that shifts the awareness right from the start.
Entering the Visualisation
A grounding visualisation may start with getting comfortable, breathing in certain patterns, then sinking into the earth. Hermetic meditations work with the vibrations of a golden cross at the solar plexus, combined with breathing patterns.
Once you have established how you would like to get your participants into trance, you then need to work out what will happen when that awareness shift has been achieved.
Do the participants find themselves standing in a forest, on the top or bottom of a mountain, on the beach or in a field of stars? Where is your beginning landscape?
In pathworking sets, this initial landscape will be the same for each journey as it serves as the launching pad for the individual journeys. For example, in the Hermetic sets, you vibrate the golden cross, rise up into a field of stars, connect the arms of the cross (in six directions) to the universe, draw upon the power, everything goes dark and you descend through flashes of gold and silver to land within your astral temple. The astral temple is the launching pad to the next stage of the journey. It also contains the exit point, which we will discuss later. In the Oghamic tree journeys that I have written the participants spiral up a hill to a flat plateau. In the centre of this is a standing stone that they draw various oghamic symbols upon and then pass through into the Otherworld. This sacred landscape is used for each journey and return. In my experience, both the astral temple and the hill build up their own strength and substance over time. They become real places and sometimes acquire new scenery or objects on their own. My astral temple will tell me if I haven’t been there for awhile, it gets dusty and a telltale broom will be leaning against the altar. 
If you are using a standard entrance and exit point, as you can see, they need to be crafted with care. Also remember that these launching landscapes will be used often, each time you visit the images will build up faster. Sometimes just the key phrase from Hermetics of ‘rise up to the self made perfect’ is enough to throw a regular participant into their trance state.

Exiting the Visualisation
Where you set your launching place does also depend on where you wish it to lead. But as you have probably not worked out the details yet of exactly where it does lead, it is a good idea to focus now on where you want your participants to be at the conclusion of the journey. This where you work out your exit point as previously mentioned.
Are the participants returning via the same landscape, i.e. returning to the hilltop, the beach or the grove. Are they returning to their Astral Temple where they can descend the staircase that is hidden behind the altar? Are they looking for a doorway that stands alone in a landscape where no door should be? Is there a standing stone at the end of the path that will provide a passage back to their own realm? Do they shape shift into something that allows them to fly back to the exit. 
You may not have worked out how to get your participants back to the door, but at least you know that at some point you will need to lead them there. Keep this in mind as you write. You need to be consistent in how participants are moved through the journey. This includes how they leave the journey itself.
So you now have some idea of a beginning or entrance point and launching pad, you also have some idea of an exit point and end. You can of course, adjust these ideas as you flesh out the meditation, to make them more complimentary to the overall feel of the journey.
Outline: Finding the Focus
Now you can return to your goal and work outwards from there. Look at your research again with fresh eyes. Is there something within it that you can use as your touchstone, keystone or particular transformative aspect? This can be your central idea. How then do the participants encounter this idea? Are they led to it via a pathway or escorted by a guide or guardian?
Here you are just creating your outline, you can fill in the details later.
If we have decided that the participants will go down a pathway or meet a guardian do they then need to acquire skills to access this path, make a gift or find one for the guardian? Do they need to gain insight before the pathway is opened or cleared for them? So we come once again to the central premise of the journey. 
As you can begin to see, writing meditations is not always a linear exercise. You can write them as stream of consciousness, but this is generally easier to do within a large body of work, where you have already established your methods of entrance and exit and a particular flavour, symbology and style.
You now have your participants where you want them, at the focus point of the meditation. They have found what they have been searching for. Do you leave them time to examine this and absorb the mystery? Do they need to do something with what they have found, will they receive a message?
Is there a random occurrence, an animal coming into the clearing, do they plant a seed? 
Are you describing a landscape or is there a void? Do your participants need to pick up an object to be used later in the journey? What are they wearing, are there any gates to pass through or obstacles to overcome?
Is there a tool hidden under a rock, or hanging in a tree? How do those objects affect the senses. Bring sight, touch, smell, hearing and taste into the journey and description.
Outline: From the centre to the exit.
You have worked out how the participants will trance, where they have to go, what they have to do, how this affects them. Still in your outline phase, you can then work out how you will get your participant to the exit point. To do this, you will need to work from your focus point, or centre, to the end of the meditation. There may be many little journeys within the main journey, the participants may not be leaving the meditation as soon as they reach the goal. Your central premise may be just another starting point.
Outline: Moving along the path.
One of the biggest obstacles in meditation writing is finding or creating a coherent plot with its own internal logic. If you take participants up into the air, you need to bring them down again before you tell them that they are now inside a room. If they are in a cave and you then need them to be in a forest clearing, create some kind of exit, a doorway if you will, have them draw a rune on the wall to open the way. If they are underground and the next section of the meditation takes place in a field or in a clearing, then they can become a seed that then germinates and bursts through the soil into the clearing.
You are creating a world and a suspension of disbelief. People will fall out of trance if a plot point does not make sense or does not flow. 
The Reveal
You can also use a ‘reveal’ to move the plot along and to engender a sense of wonder.
If, for example, you have your participants walking along a pathway into a clearing, but there is actually something within that clearing that you want to be a surprise, you don’t necessarily want them to see that object or person straight away. However, you do want to describe the clearing and its landscape to give the participants an idea of where they are. Many people will build up fairly detailed images in their minds, suddenly describing something in a landscape that you had not mentioned before can cause confusion and bring about disbelief in the journey.
The way to get around this problem of premature description is to have some method of plotting that allows for the revelation to occur. The participant may be able to see all of the clearing except the centre which is shrouded in mist. You then have them perform some task or what ever it was they initially had to do within the clearing. When then task is complete, the mist will dissipate and your next section of the meditation can begin.
For example, you want participants to make a wand from a tree in the clearing, it will be used to summon something later on or to perform a magical act. So you let them see the trees that they may use to make the wand. When the wand is ready they raise it up and point it towards the mist. The mist clears to reveal a standing stone, or a well or a stairway that leads downwards. Maybe it is a large and ancient version of the tree that is revealed. Again, you want that sense of wonder and of awe.
Another method of slowly revealing a landscape or feature is to use light. Take the participants into a darkened space and then use light to bring about the reveal. You could describe the breaking of the dawn and it’s light slowly reveals the space, or maybe the moon is rising and that provides the illumination. If you do use the Sun or Moon as your light sources, remember to keep track of where they are during the rest of the meditation. If the Sun is rising, suddenly describing it as being high in the sky or even setting, could cause confusion. If you require the Sun to move through the sky to get you to your next section, then it is easy to just mention that the Sun is moving. E.g. As you walk slowly along the path, the Sun is becoming higher in the sky. As you arrive on the shore, the Sun is at it’s peak and a bright, harsh light shines from above... 
The same theory can apply to the use of the Moon. If you describe the Moon as being Full, be careful to keep the Moon full throughout the meditation instead of suddenly saying that they are seeing a waxing crescent. Keep track of your light sources. Your meditation will be less disconcerting if you do.
I once wrote a Samhain meditation where participants followed a firefly into a darkened cave of the ancestors. The firefly then flew around the rock walls to illuminate cave paintings and drawings that told the stories unique to each person and their ancestors. When the participant had looked at all of the paintings, the firefly flew down into a fire pit. The fire burst into flame and the participants saw their ancestors and teachers sitting behind the fire. They were then able to commune or converse with the spirits. When they had finished they followed the firefly back to the ritual space. The firefly was the guide, the psychopomp and the light source for the meditation.
Whatever method you use to create a reveal, keep it consistent with the rest of the meditation. 
Filling in the Detail - Objects
We are still dealing with our framework or plot outline. Now you can begin to fill in the gaps with specific descriptive language. Describe the action and landscape using the senses. Work out how much detail you will leave for each person to fill in for themselves.
If you look at your major plot points, work out how much detail you need to describe something that is being made or revealed. If you need a very detailed description then use that, otherwise you may just be able to give the participants the bare bones.
Instruction such as: “you cut a branch from a tree”, or “pick up a piece of deadfall”, are okay. However if you need the stick to be forked for a later purpose, then tell the participants to search for a large forked branch rather than a twig!
Making an object is always much faster in the Otherworld than on this plane. Encourage participants to use their visualisation and magical practice to complete the task set before them. It won’t take hours or days to forge a knife in their minds. It should take minutes, although in the Otherworld, it can feel like days.
Filling in the Detail - Music
If you want the participants to hear music that speaks to them personally, a heartbreaking melody of longing, it would be better to leave that sound to their imagination rather than play a CD as your idea of that style of music may be very different from the participants. If your meditation will lead participants to meet a character who is playing a harp or a flute, then what they hear in the meditation can be described earlier and the reveal is who was actually playing the music. The music they hear can become the device for leading them along the path, they go to find the source.
Filling in the Details – Characters
So far we have looked at action and landscapes. These will be your basics when writing stand alone meditations or pathworkings. We have touched upon the introduction of characters that the participants see or interact with, but how you deal with these characters adds another layer of complexity to detail to the piece.
If you are calling a mythological figure, are they already within the landscape and reveal themselves at the appropriate moment – such as the example of the musician drawing the participant along the path? Or is the character summoned, literally invoked?
If your participants already know a standard invokation or call for the particular being that is to be called, then you can just say something along the lines of... ”you invoke Brigid, or call Paralda... ” If your participants don’t know any standard calls, then person reading the meditation will have to perform this function. This should be smoothly done and fit into the style of the meditation. Try to make the language and style of the meditation echo the recited piece or vice versa, especially if the invokation or recitation is the focus or heart of the meditation. This will give the participants the keys they need to be active within the meditation.
When we performed the Samhain firefly meditation that I talked about earlier, the entrance to trance was via a song and a lone fire dancer. The words of the meditation used some of the phrases of the song to emphasise certain points.
Go back and look at your meditation once more, if you have a character appearing, then add in the relevant calls or reveals. You will also need to work out what happens when the participants moves on from their encounter with the character. Will the character just be left behind, will they be given a gift or give a gift? Will the character fade away or introduce the participant to another character altogether? Each character requires an entrance and exit just as the participants do.
Reviewing – Safety and Confrontation
So now you have written your meditation. You have read it back and made any adjustments. Now examine it for moments of confrontation. 
Is there anything that you can find within the piece that may cause problems for the participant? Will it evoke strong emotions. Do they have to come to terms with something before they get through a door. Are they supposed to bring an aspect of self into balance, what if they are unable to do this?
Here is where you need to understand your participants. If you are doing this meditation for a group of disparate people that you don’t know, then it is probably wise to remove anything deeply confrontational or emotional from the meditation. In a working group you can run the meditations as a series to build up the level of confrontation. You can gauge reactions and feedback as you go. Each cycle can become more intense as each lesson is learned or mystery understood.
If you do think that you may have a section in your meditation that some participants will not be able to complete, and you really want to leave that section in, the you may like to build something in the mediation such as: “if you have been unable to balance the scales at this time, that is okay, you can always come back to this place another time. Make your way back to the door and wait for the instruction to pass through. Look around at the landscape but do not leave the path. While you wait, think about what you need to work on. Remember you are safe in this space and can return at any time.”
So now you have examined and covered your moments of safety and confrontation and given your participants a way out if they require one. Remember that in leading guided meditations you are messing with or have the potential to mess with, people’s minds, putting them into trance. If they are apprehensive they won’t allow themselves to go with the experience. You need to put them at ease and not betray their trust.
Reviewing – Flow and Internal Logic
So once you have your detailed filled in, read it back to yourself and visualise the action in your mind. See if there is a point that needs clarification, or has too much detail. You may find that a section or scene is no longer needed or can be moved to another point in the timeline.
Also check to see that it makes sense and that it flows with an internal logic
Re-examine your entry and exit point to see if they now require adjustment.
Now read the meditation aloud. You may find that the language is too complicated, or is stilted when vocalised. You may have written some tongue twisters.
Fix any problems.
Presentation - Pauses
Once you have your final draft you can then work out where you need to place pauses, both short and long. Give participants enough time to complete their task, or think about a question.
However, you don’t want to wait too long and have people go exploring on their own. Always remember to instruct them to stick to the path unless you say to leave it.
Presentation – Vocalisation
When guiding a visualisation or pathworking there are several points that you will need to remember in terms of vocalisation. Always read the piece slowly and clearly. Annunciate your words but don’t go overboard and make your delivery clipped. You can use dynamics (i.e make your voice louder and softer) but try to keep your voice from becoming too sing-song. Ideally you should drop your voice down a bit from your normal speaking tone if all possible. Make sure that you speak in a lulling manner, you want your voice to wash over the participants, not jar them. 
Presentation – to Learn or to Read
If the meditation is short and not particularly detailed, then it is probably a good idea to learn it by heart. This is easier than it seems, as you are actually learning the story of the visualisation and reciting what you see. Otherwise, if the visualisation is very detailed or has a complicated plot, you may wish to read it aloud. If you are going to read from a piece of paper, make sure you have a good light source that will illuminate the paper but not distract the participants. A candle in a shielded glass lantern is ideal if outside or just a candle in a holder for indoors. Flaming torches also provide a good light, just make sure you don’t set your paper alight. Please avoid electric torches or mobile phone lights if at all possible as they can be too bright or incongruous to the ritual setting.
Also please remember to keep paper shuffling to a minimum. 
Using Meditation within Rituals
If you require your participants to discover a mystery before continuing with a ritual, a meditation is a good tool to use. If they need to inscribe an object with a symbol, they can find the symbol via a meditation. You can use a meditation to set the scene of the ritual or to replace a ritual play that would be impossible to stage. Use the meditation to explore the fantastic.
However, sometimes the meditation IS the main body of the ritual. If the meditation is a complex one, you can use ritual practice to impart information and technique that will be used within the meditation. 
I have spent the last four years writing a complex series of pathworkings on the Ogham, using journeys amongst the sacred trees. Not everyone who undertakes these meditation knows what these trees actually look like. So before the meditation we look at pictures of the tree, handle the wood, handle the Ogham of the tree, make an offering to the deity associated with the tree, if there is one. If I am describing an obscure object such as a coracle or a crannog, I will show the participants pictures of one during the ritual.
In the Oghamic series, I eventually came to a point where some trees were only able to be understood in relation to previous trees. These journeys had been undertaken over several years, i.e. some of the previous trees had been worked with 3 years before. To remind everyone, and to reconnect them, I designed a series of rituals to be used before the combination tree meditations. These rituals enabled participants to re-connect with each group of trees (there are 5 in each group and 4 groups in total), and understand them from a different perspective. This built upon work that had gone before.
Participants confronted the trees and gained new insight ready for their next step on the journey. They each drew an ogham and then stood upon the sigil of that ogham marked along a spiral on the floor. They then connected to that tree by holding onto the ogham and a branch, and thinking about that tree. They were painted with the sigil of the tree and a particular aspect that they needed to connect with and understand, such as Focus, Harmony, Conflict, Learning or Manifestation. When each person was done, they moved along the spiral to connect to the next tree, in the next aspect. The interesting thing was that watching the ritual unfold was like watching a live divination. People who had an issue with one particular tree, discovered that was the tree they had in learning. A tree that they loved, would be theirs to connect with in conflict etc. So the ritual complemented the meditation series and vice versa.
The point of this long series of meditations, there are 20 in all plus 4 spiral rituals, was to build up understanding over time, and I’m still going. 
Sometimes, and only if the ritual really requires it, you can pull people out a visualisation half way through, perform some physical action and then return them to trance. We have used this technique in sabbat rituals that intertwine both the physical and trance. For a Yule ritual, all of the participants witnessed a mid-winter hunt run past them. A couple of warriors and a man dressed as a stag. The participants followed the hunters to the main ritual site where the action froze. The participants were then tranced down and guided on a journey where they became the hunters and sometimes the hunted. When the time came for the stag to be killed, the participants were ordered to open their eyes. The scene was played out in front of them, a ritual drama of the warriors of the stag. The participants were then returned to the meditation for the rest of the story and perspective to play out. The stag became a sacrifice, a winter shaman, a priest, an old man in a red cloak. If anyone is familiar with Terry Pratchett’s “The Hogfather” you will see that we took his idea of the shapeshifting boar or winter shaman and changed the imagery to a stag. 
We needed the hunt to end in the metaphorical death of one of the characters, however, having participants witness this, or participate in it whilst in trance would have been way to confrontational and dangerous. This is why we broke the trance and replaced it with ritual drama.