The Pathworking and Ritual Diary are really two different things. Pathworking
and dream work on a nightly basis should be part of one of the two diaries. It is the
subconscious mind that acts as the doorway to the invisible. It is through the
subconscious mind that we are illuminated and enlightened. As it is stated in the
Neophyte Initiation, "Let me enter the Pathway of Darkness and peradventure, there
shall I find the Light." That pathway of darkness is really our subconscious mind. Our
egos are but tips of an iceberg. Each one of us knows that deep down below our ego,
our exterior self, there is alot more to who we are, and that there is much of knowledge
and truth and wisdom within. Many times, this truth and wisdom comes out in our
nightly dream work and pathworking. This you could say is the primary reason for
pathworking. It is to elevate our consciousness and become one with our Higher
Genius.
On the other hand, magical and ritual work is really an exterior activity. When
mastered, it becomes an interior state of mind; it should be charted and understood.
The Neophyte should start off on the right path by beginning with the proper method.
This is to say, use two books or diaries of your choice being hardbound or notebook.
Nightly dreams may be recorded in part of one book, and the other part may be used to
record the experiences of pathworking, whether it be on the Tree of Life or other
symbols that you will learn in higher grades to come. The Ritual Diary is a journal that
can be used in recording every detail that would seem significant to you. It will hold any
information of progress, failure and the such. We need to act as occult scientists, and
not as the so-called hocus pocus practitioners. We practice the Western Esoteric
system of the Mysteries. Practicing the Western Esoteric tradition tends to be the most
scientific of all the occult sciences. This is because it deals on a similar level of a
regular scientific basis. In considering this, the diary will inform you of ups and downs
of any particular magical experiment, much like those performed in laboratories.
Moreover, what should be written clearly are any successes, failures, what is to be
expected, pros and cons, etc..
It is not the job of this lesson to tell you how to interpret dreams. There could be
several lessons available for this purpose. As a matter of fact, there are many volumes
of books on the subject. A recommendation on our part would be any book written by
the author Carl Jung, the eminent psychologist who tends to show good credit on the
subject of dreams. Some books dealing in the area of Gishtalt would also be highly
recommended. Please try to avoid the books that give one line interpretations of
dreams. A popular book on the market, 10,000 Dreams Interpreted, is one example of
such a book. Let it be known that in essence, there is no-one outside of yourself that
can interpret your dreams better than you. Remember that you play the role of all the
characters in the dream. This is a fact, because your dreams are also considered the
extended perception of the Astral plane. Consequently, the images of the dream act as
a reflection of your own self.
As a force of habit it would be advisable to keep your Pathworking and Dream
Diary close to your bed. On a nightly basis, as you fall asleep, you may gently remind
yourself that if a dream should occur, you will remember them, and that upon waking,
no matter what time of day or night, you will record the experiences. It isn't necessary to
write out the dream verbatim. Generally, writing a paragraph on the highlights of the
dream will suffice. This is so that even in years to come, in reviewing your past dreams,
the dream will be re-incited into your conscious mind.
It is a good idea to get into the habit of writing the dreams immediately after they
occur, although this may not always be possible. One method that you may use to
remember your dreams would be in the use of affirmations. Every night when you go to
bed simply affirm to yourself repeatedly "I will remember my dreams." Many Adepts on
their own accord will tend to keep an audio recorder next to the bed so that the details
of the dream experience are not forgotten or lost by using the wake and writing method.
Using this latter method will not only keep the information of the dreams intact, but it will
also help overview the details that may have been missed by writing alone. So it is not
uncommon, using the audio recorder, to awaken in the middle of the night to record a
dream. Then at your convenience you may transfer the dream to paper. Moreover,
there have been people who chose to use a floppy disk to record their dreams onto a
computer. This also is a good option. But no matter how it is recorded, just be sure you
don't depend on your own memory for even the simplest details.
In understanding your dream, you will learn more about yourself. This also
reveals the person that you are and it may also reveal any doors that have opened or
those that must be ventured into. In any case, all efforts made are to help in
accomplishing the Great Work. The experience of one person in the Order showed that
by recording his dreams he was able to predict the death of a close family member.
Even more, it enlightened him on how to deal with the after-effects of the situation.
Dreams can be considered an extended aspect of pathworking, primarily the Moon
card, the path of Qoph, the subconscious mind. You'll learn more about this path in the
next grade.
Again, it isn't merely as important to interpret your dreams as it is to write them
down. Interpretation is proven more effective over a chain of dreams that have been
accumulated over an extended period of time. Some suggestions of information you
may want to include in your diary would be adding the phase of the moon, for example,
waxing, waning, full or new. If an astrological calendar is available, you may even want
to include astrological information. Emotions are another good thing to include in your
diary. Weather conditions also tend to be a useful subheading in your diary. All of
these can play an important role in understanding yourself better as you progress
through the grade system.
Pathworking is essentially dreaming that is under the control of the conscious
will. There are several forms of pathworking, such as the Tattwas and systems of
Enochian. Pathworking primarily revolves around the Tarot. In any event, recording
your pathworking experiences is just as important as recording your dreams. Things
that should be included in the Pathworking diary are: The name of the path, moon
phase, card or doorway, major symbols, and any other significant information along with
the experience.
"Major symbols" refers to examples such as: "I saw a large, long, odd -shaped
rock coming out of the ground." It could be the representation of a phallic symbol.
Were you standing over a canyon? This could be noted down as a feminine symbol. In
the Neophyte grade, you are not asked to interpret this information, but you are asked
to keep track of it. This is so that later, as your skill level increases, you will have the
ability to go back and make some interpretations regarding your path in life.
The Ritual Diary, should include all ritual work that you do. This doesn't have to
be too elaborate, it may even be only one sentence such as: "I did the L.B.R.P. and it
felt strong." One important asset that you may want to include are emotions or feelings
that you may have felt during the ritual. Did you feel any energies, did the ritual feel like
it had a good effect or bad one, did you feel happy or sad, etc.. Again, moon phases,
astrological information (if available), and emotional and weather conditions should be
included. Some people tend to carry information to extremes. On the other hand, there
are some who feel that even the smallest detail should be written. However, let's take
for example that one day you feel a tremendous amount of energy and have an urgent
need to commune with the Archangels and the elements. For some reason that day,
you are inclined to do several repetitive L.B.R.P.'s. So, by the end of the day you have
perhaps done six or seven L.B.R.P.'s. Let us say that a couple days later, you receive
a pay raise, or that you meet someone of the opposite sex that you are attracted to, or
something favorable happens in your life. This in itself can be significant. If you repeat
this for another six or seven times, chances are you may be experiencing some good
effects from doing this particular ritual. This is to say that even recording the smallest
ritual would help in understanding the outcomes of the experience. Moreover, it would
give better insight into the details that caused them. The ritual diary should even hold
information that would tell you how long of a time it took before a ritual took effect.
In conclusion, we can ascertain that the true occult scientist of the modern world
uses the ancient secret of old, and that is: Keeping track of his/her work on a daily
basis, whether it be pathworking, dreams, rituals or many others.