Avalon Within

by Jhenah Telyndru

  Kneel with legs hip distance apart.

  Extend your legs straight back from the knee at right angles to your torso.

  Keep your back straight, your torso upright, and face your head forward.

  Raise your arms at a 60-degree angle to your body, keeping them bent at the elbows.

  Flex your arms at the wrists, keeping your fingers together. Position your arms and hands to suggest the fountaining forth of the spring waters into the air.

  This posture may be difficult on the knees, so it may be helpful to kneel on a cushion. Alternatively, you may perform this posture sitting upright at the edge of a chair with your feet flat on the floor and your legs and knees opened in front of you, hip distance apart.

  Once you have settled into the position, hold it for fifteen minutes with a rhythmic breathing pattern. Playing a shamanic drumming track while holding the posture is ideal.

  What does the White Spring bring to the surface from the depths of your soul? What is the lesson of its calcium-rich waters?

  Bryn Modron—Modron’s Mound/Chalice Hill

  The Landscape

  The pregnant silhouette of the rounded rise of Chalice Hill overlooks the Avalonian landscape. Said to be the resting place of the Holy Grail, our retraced work remembers this hill as sacred to Modron, the Mother. The faerie hills and earthen gateways to the Otherworld that feature prominently in the myths of the Celts evolved from the ancient British reverence of ancestral burial mounds. The door swings both ways and, burgeoning with possibility, Bryn Modron births forth the energies of manifestation aligned with the Station of Resolution.

  Y Tarddell Wen Posture

  Posture Description

  Kneel with your calves extended behind your torso, keeping them parallel and close together.

  Support the weight of your upper body with your arms straight forward and parallel to each other, bent slightly at elbows for comfort.

  Round your back to approximate the shape of the hill.

  Tuck your head slightly to round your shoulders.

  Once you have settled into the position, hold it for fifteen minutes with a rhythmic breathing pattern. Playing a shamanic drumming track while holding the posture is ideal.

  You may find you need to relax your back for a few moments, or lean back on your knees to relieve strain on your back. This posture may be difficult on the knees, so it may be helpful to kneel on a cushion. Resume the posture when you are able. Remember, your best approximation of the posture will unlock its transformational power in your life. It is better to do the best you can than not to do the posture at all.

  While performing this posture, connect with the corresponding energies within as well as the archetypal essence of this aspect of Avalon. What is the importance of this sacred Avalonian hill?

  Ynys Afallon—The Island of Avalon

  The Landscape

  The Island of Avalon is the embodiment of the wholeness of the Goddess in the landscape. A place of pilgrimage since time immemorial, the unique transformational energies of the Glastonbury landscape have always been considered sacred. Believed by some to be the Heart Chakra of the planet, the place where ancient Avalon once abided still draws seekers worldwide. These profound energies of oneness and connection evoke the transformational powers of the Holy Island that, when taken together, call forth the Station of Integration.

  Posture Description

  Sit with your right leg extended outward from your body at a slight angle. Fold your left leg towards the body, creating a space between the leg and your slightly left-leaning torso.

  Round your arms in front of your body with open, palm-up hands resting on the floor between your left leg and your body.

  Face forward with your shoulders slightly rounded.

  Once you have settled into the position, hold it for fifteen minutes with a rhythmic breathing pattern. Playing a shamanic drumming track while holding the posture is ideal.

  While performing this posture, connect with the corresponding energies within as well as the archetypal essence of the totality of Avalon. What is its ultimate expression in your life?

  Bryn Modron Posture

  Grounding and Centering

  After each posture session, sit in a neutral position with your hands flat against the ground. Continue with your Power Breath, bringing your attention to your personal energy. Feel yourself as present in your body as you can, returning fully from your journey. Breathe any residual energy—any emotional, mental, or physical responses to the posture—through your root and hands and deep into the Earth. Feel these drain away and return to the physical landscape; you maintain the memory of them, and should journal your experiences as an ongoing record of your process and inner revelation.

  When you have discharged this excess energy, reach down deep into the planet, and breathe up rich, vibrant, vital Earth energy into your body and energy field. Feel yourself coming to a solid, centered, stable space as you breathe in this energy, and continue to do so until you feel fully relaxed, fully connected to your body, and fully present in the here and now. Take as long as you need to move into this space. No posture session is complete until you have grounded and centered in this manner.

  Moving Deeper

  As you work with each of these Avalonian landscape postures, consider the following questions to help you deepen your connection to these sacred places and their corresponding energies within you.

  1. How does this posture make you feel emotionally? Physically? Spiritually?

  2. How easy or difficult did you find this posture? Was it easy to assume? Were you able to maintain the form for the entire trance session? What would have better facilitated the experience for you?

  3. Were your sessions accompanied by shamanic drumming? What effect did the drumming have on your work? Did you use drumming at certain times and not others? How did the presence or absence of the drumming affect your experience?

  4. What Western energy center (Root, Womb, Heart, Throat, Third Eye) or Eastern chakra (Base, Sacral, Solar Plexus, Heart, Throat, Third Eye, Crown) feels activated by this posture? In what part of your body does this posture seem to resonate most?

  5. With what elemental energy (Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Spirit) or realm (Land, Sea, Sky) does this posture resonate most? What makes you feel this way?

  6. What images, memories, emotions, or process-oriented thoughts did assuming this posture evoke for you? How did this change over time, if at all?

  7. How did your experience of the posture change over the course of several working sessions, if at all? To what do you attribute any change?

  8. What did your experiences of this posture teach you about Avalon? How did it affect your connection to the Holy Island? What do you think the purpose of this posture is in the context of the work of Avalon?

  9. What did your experiences of this posture teach you about yourself? How did it affect your understanding of your inner process? What do you think is the overall lesson of this posture?

  10. What would cause you to use this posture again? What do you feel it would help you accomplish in your work?

  11. If you had to sum up the energy of this posture in one word, what would it be? How would you sum it up in one sentence? If this posture were a tool, what type would it be and what would it do?

  12. Was this posture similar to any other metaphysical trance experiences you’ve had? If yes, why?

  13. Have you worked with trance postures before? How has your work with the Avalonian landscape postures been the same? How has it been different? Why?

  Ynys Afallon Posture

  The Power of Pilgrimage

  Undertaking a spiritual pilgrimage is a sacred act of devotion and personal sacrifice. These Avalonian landscape postures are a form of pilgrimage that strengthens our bo
dies as well as our connection to the Divine—both the inherent Divinity of the sacred Avalonian landscape as well as our own indwelling Divinity—the Goddess within.

  In assuming these postures, we are able to experience facets of the Avalonian landscape even as we awaken their transformational energies in our own lives. As we explore the Holy Island, we come to a deeper understanding of our own sacred nature. As we connect with Center, we are drawn nearer in relationship with the Source.

  11

  The Mirror of the Self

  Three kinds of knowledge: the nature of each thing, the cause of each thing, the influence of each thing.

  Celtic Triad

  A rare and celebrated fifteenth-century wall painting in Wedmore Church near Glastonbury depicts a being that is half woman and half fish, holding aloft a round looking glass. That this unusual iconography was included in a Christian painting of St. Christopher may point to a continuation of affection for a local Celtic deity or water spirit; some believe her to be the Lady of the Lake herself. The symbol itself is very much in keeping with Avalon’s spiritual essence. The human half represents consciousness, while the fish tail is symbolic of the submerged unconscious. The raised mirror is a call for us to look inside of ourselves with intention, to discover the truth of our inherent Divinity, while also pointing the way down the path of wholeness—the path that leads within.

  An important component of the inner growth process is to bring all parts of the self into consciousness so that we may effect change in our lives. We are each beings of light and shadow, the two parts of ourselves which as the Hermetic Principle of Polarity describes, are the same in nature, differing only in degree. This means that our greatest flaws are often the antithesis of our greatest gifts, and for every issue holding us back, we already have the corresponding tool to propel us forward.

  Though we may desire to, we cannot rid ourselves of our shadow side; it is irrevocably a part of us. Instead, our goal is to move energy from one end of the inner spectrum to the other, so the gift is nurtured while the flaw is starved. Casting light on the inner shadow can be painful work but it is a crucial step along the path to wholeness. Remember—that which is unconscious controls us. If we do not know the nature of our shadows, we cannot know the ways in which they manifest in our lives, and therefore cannot know how to transform their energy to something supportive of our growth.

  The Cauldron Within

  Just as the Cauldron of Ceridwen reveals itself in the Sacred Landscape of Avalon, its transformational powers are reflected in our process of self-understanding. We can apply the major themes of Ceridwen’s story and the Stations of the Avalonian Cycle of Healing to guide our inner course of self-reflection and personal revelation. Unlocking these mysteries of the self is a key element in the journey towards actualizing the priestess within; it gives us the power to consciously choose our Sovereign nature over the unconscious reflexes of the shadow.

  As inspired by an exercise by Franz Bardon in his book Initiation into Hermetics, let us look now into the Mirror of the self—seeking out the building blocks of our essences to understand the people we presently are and to obtain insight on how to become the women we wish most to be.

  Creirwy and Afagddu: Personal Polarities

  the station of descent

  As with all journeys, it is helpful to create a travelogue of your progress. Set aside a blank journal specifically for this mirror work; it will become your Book of Light and Shadows. To set up this journal, write “Mirror of Light” on the first page of the book, and on the last page, write “Mirror of Shadow.”

  After doing some clearing breathwork and grounding, turn your eye within and seek the inner mirror, assessing yourself with clarity and honesty. Concentrate first on the positive aspects of yourself—attributes and potentials that are facets of your priestess self, regardless of how actualized they are in the present. On your Mirror of Light pages, list your constructive qualities: your gifts and talents; special abilities and accomplishments; positive character traits, and challenges you have overcome—everything that supports your growth and connection with the Goddess.

  When you are ready, turn your eye within once more, this time seeking those aspects of the self that dwell in darkness, and list these characteristics on your Mirror of Shadow pages: your fears and wounds; flaws and failings; pain and limitations; doubts and destructive patterns—all those things which are reactionary manifestations of shadow your life.

  These lists are an ongoing record of the inner process and will change over time as we gain inner clarity and effect healing in our lives. For this reason, it is imperative that we be brutally honest with ourselves in this inner inventory. We must see ourselves as objectively and with as much clarity as possible so that our work will be as effective as it can be; do not edit yourself in your mirror work.

  Interestingly, women seem to find it easier to list their shadow aspects than those that dwell in the light. Pay special attention to those things that perhaps have not been supported in our lives—gifts and talents that have gone underused or undervalued. We must learn to live from a place of light and not allow social conditioning or the mechanisms of the lower self or shadow to keep us from being all we can truly be—all that we were meant to be.

  Creating these lists need not be accomplished in one sitting. Take as much time as you need to be as thoughtful and thorough as you can in this process. When you are satisfied with your mirror lists, look at them side by side to see where your shadow aspects find balance in your priestess-self qualities. How are these dualities related? How can you reroute your personal energy and replace a destructive pattern with a constructive trait? Where are the gifts that illuminate the shadow?

  The Dance of Gwion and Ceridwen:

  Elemental Assignations

  the station of confrontation

  After working with your personal Mirrors of Light and Shadow for a while, return to the pages in your journal and begin to look at them with an elemental eye. For each trait, gift, and shortcoming, assign an elemental alignment which best describes its fundamental energy, using the elemental overview from chapter ten as your guide. For example, you could assign the element of Water to your artistic gift, and the element of Fire to your tendency to be quick to anger.

  Go through each list and take your time with this elemental typing; spend a few days working on it until you feel satisfied with your choices. When you are finished, begin to look for any patterns that emerge: Is there one element you have in abundance or which seems lacking? Do you have a preponderance of one element on one mirror and not on the other? Do you seem to have a balance of energies? What would you say is your overall elemental energy? How does this feel to you? Do you notice any common threads with those entries to which you have assigned the same elemental quality?

  Assessing your energy in this way provides many insights into your personality and can shed light on the ways you perceive your environment and choose to act in the world. Working with elemental energies is a powerful method to overcome the well-established patterns in your life. Once the elemental alignment of an issue has been determined, you can make use of what you know about the nature of energy to your advantage. You can augment or negate an elemental energy by introducing another elemental energy into your life using the “Rock, Paper, Scissors” rule of the elements. The following chart gives a general description of actions the elements have on each other:

  Chart of Mutual Elemental Actions

  Let us say, for example, that you are working on an issue that has a very powerful emotional content. Emotions are aligned with Water. If you wanted to delve deeper into the emotion to learn all you could from it, bringing additional Water into your life would increase your ability to connect with this emotion, expressed in the Hermetic principle “like attracts like.” Performing an Immram to the Red Spring and doing the work of the Station of Descent are effect
ive ways to gain insight and work through these issues; they are also aligned with the energy of water and therefore possess elemental correspondence.

  However, if you were to find that water energy clouds your judgment, you could bring in the element of Air to disengage yourself from the emotion, leaving you with some detached clarity. If this emotion threatens to overwhelm you, you could bring in Fire energy to dry it up, or earth energy to bring yourself into balance. Again, performing the corresponding Immram and working with the tools of the Station of the Cycle of Healing aligned with these elements is very helpful in this process.

  The art of the work is to decide which tactic will best address the issue at hand. The beauty of magick is that you can shape your tools to fit your needs; there is always more than one way to attain a goal. If you are trying to dissolve a negative pattern from your life, you can have your work concentrate on the element that best represents the issue, and then reroute that energy into something positive. Conversely, if you are working with a mirror aspect and are looking to encourage the growth of a potential within you, surrounding yourself with a like or compatible energy is appropriate.

  For example, if you are quick to anger and have assigned Fire to this aspect of yourself, infusing your personal energy field and environment with Earth energy, the grounding elemental principle that is the opposite of Fire, will bring you back to balance. In the same way, if you need to magnify an ability to be empathetic to others’ feelings in a particular situation, you can come to the situation having previously channeled Water energy. Further, if you are working on building self-esteem (which we have decided to equate with the element of Fire), you could bring in more Fire to bolster the ability to express your will and perhaps incorporate some Air energy to feed that flame.

  Once you have established elemental alignments for all of your mirror aspects, see if you can group these facets of the self into related families. Are there issues that branch from the same tree? Are they symptoms of the same problem or facets of the same inner endowment? In what way does knowing the elemental alignment of these parts aid in recognizing patterns that run through the whole?