Bonus Pathworking: The Hall of Cancer
Turn your focus and attention to your breath. Allow the space of your consciousness to move with the rise and fall of your chest and the filling and release of the lungs. Continue in this manner for several breaths; allowing each to become softer, smoother and slower. With each breath your physical body appears to become lighter and your center of consciousness floats upwards towards the inner eye. You feel enveloped by the mist of transition between the Physical and Astral. And as this veil thins you step through a veil of dark blue mist and find yourself standing centrally in a circular room. As you look around you see that this space opens out to a star lit night sky. The velvety blackness above holds a twinkling of starry light that fills the panoramic view above. The walls encircle you and are of a deep bluish purple. As your eyes adjust to this room you notice an archway just ahead of you. The glyph of Cancer, the Crab hovers in the entryway, seeming to glow from an innermost light.
As soon as you step through the archway and the luminous white glow of the Glyph of Cancer the smells of the ocean and its waters permeate your senses. The fullness of moonlight reflects back from water’s edge and there is a sense of stillness and anticipation as the waves gently crest and fall. You feel alive and connected to everything. Your senses are alive with sounds and sights that come in flashes of liquid and heart filled memory. Emotion wells up deep inside of you and the beauty and serenity of this place seems almost more than you can bear. You pause for a moment regaining your composure and take a deep full breath to calm the rising emotions. The scene before you moves you to think back on vacations spent with family and friends at the beach. Cool nights walking barefoot in the moonlight and seeing the familiar and welcoming lights of your summer home. The sounds of laughter spilling like music across the beach and the security and sense of belonging that you so finely crafted within your home.
Feeling content and wanting to spend a bit of time alone, you sit on the cool sand and look out at the moonlit ocean. You feel safe and calm in this setting; almost as though this was precisely the place of energy and state of being that is required to feed and nurture your feeling nature. The sound of the water lapping at the sandy shore creates a mesmerizing and calming feeling within you and scenes of your past experiences pass easily and gently as you close your eyes and relax into the inner screen of your awareness.
You see yourself at the time of meeting your now best friend. You remember the feeling of hesitancy and an awkward shyness at first. This is what you usually feel at first meetings; a little vulnerable and hesitant to share your deep feeling nature. Your friend sensed this reserve and persevered in trying to get to know you and before you knew it trust had been won and you felt at home and at ease sharing your most private thoughts and feelings with this person. Your friend said you were the most loyal and nurturing person they had ever met and that you made them feel more like family than just friends. And, although there were rocky times you have remained loyal and committed to the emotional bond the two of you have. The memories of this time and the longstanding friendship and shared experiences have been deeply treasured.
You also think on a time when you felt so overwhelmed by worry that you retreated for days into your own little world. The normal calm state and kind words that you eagerly shared became sullen answers and silence. This was your mechanism for protecting the vulnerability you felt. You remember the discomfort you felt at reacting this way, wanting to reach out and nurture and heal those around you, but feeling as though there was simply too much to be felt and not enough of you to help relieve the burden of it.
You realize as you think on these two counterpoints how similar they are to the ebb and flow of the waters a few feet away from where you are sitting. The flexibility and sometimes giving fully and at other times retreating back to the larger source for renewal and replenishment are your natural state. Emotions are the waters within you that if they remained never changing would stagnate and dry up. There would be no source to feed the mental processes and no waters of inspiration to draw upon when you are in your most intuitive and creative state. As these last thoughts slowly and fully pass through you a gentle pulse of water brushes the tips of your toes resting on the now damp sand. The tide is coming in and in your reveries you did not notice the movement towards you. It is a reminder to you to remain fully present, even in your place of introspection. That your emotions can be used to inform and to bring you closer to the serenity of the moment, without having to over come and overwhelm you.
You stand and breathe in the fresh salty air. You look up towards the fullness of the moon and once again the feeling of safeness and home permeates and floods through you. You look back towards your house and see that the lights have been dimmed a bit and a warm glow shines from each of the windows. Inside are those you love. And, in the cycle of return you feel their love for you. Your best friend has come to visit for the weekend, as well, and you now see someone approaching from the house and calling out to you to come in for a game of scrabble and cup of warm tea. Feelings of gratitude and great care for those in your life fills you and you take one last look at the expanse of ocean.
As you begin to walk towards your friend to answer the call the images slowly fade with each step until once again you find that you are standing centrally in the circular room. You look upwards towards the night sky and see the full moon shining brightly into the Hall. You take a deep breath in and as you exhale, you feel enlivened and at peace in this space of celestial beauty. You know you will visit many times again as the solar months progress and the thought fills you with anticipation of what each of your journeys will reveal. You gently close your eyes and when you open them you are surrounded by the blue veil of energy that carried you to this inner sky. As you take a few more deep breaths and fill the intent with awareness of your physical being and return to your physical space, the mist clears and the smells, sounds and sights of the room in which you began our journey floods your senses. You feel the floor beneath you and the chair on which you are sitting. Noises of the mundane world come back filling ear and mind with thoughts of going about the rest of your day or evening. You take a deep breath in, savoring the vestiges of your astral journey and the insight it provided, and strongly exhale out affirming your oneness with the present moment of physical time and space.
Excerpted from:
The Inner Chamber: Volume One, It’s Written in the Stars.R.Fennelly.2013
Temple of the Cosmic Spheres 