Guidelines
The journey through this forest is an active meditation to understand more of yourself using archetypal symbols ~ your imagination will suggest answers to the following prompts.
- *Always go with your first instinctive answer.*
- In brackets alongside some prompts, examples have been given to clarify them ~ there is no limit to where you might take the prompts ~ let your imagination run free.
- If you feel you won’t remember your answers, please use any preferred method to record them.
At the end of the walk there is a link to a page that explains what the symbols mean and how you might interpret them.
A Journey into the Forest..
Close your eyes a moment and imagine you are on the border of a forest. It can be any type of forest your imagination conjures. As you proceed; take note of any impressions or emotional reactions to the prompts that come up.
Look around you and determine: What time of day is it?What is the weather like as you stand there?
You see a path into the forest.What kind of path is it? (Is it thin, rocky, and claustrophobic or wide and smoothly paved? etc.)How do you move on this path? (eg. Slowly walking, jogging, running through terrified, riding a bicycle.)
As you make your way into the forest, you come up to a wall across the path. What does it look like?What do you do in response to the wall? (Do you dismantle the wall, climb over it, stop your journey here?)
If your journey stops at the wall, please skip to the end of the page to retrieve the answers to the previous prompts.
As you proceed, take some time between each prompt to get back into a neutral headspace if you need to ~ you can always close your eyes and imagine travelling down the path using your preferred method.
If you continue your journey, you come across a bear.What kind of bear is it? (Is it imposing and ferocious, is it friendly, is it a teddy bear?)How do you react to it?
If your journey stops at the bear blocking your path please skip to the end of the page to retrieve the answers to the previous prompts.
If you keep travelling down the path, you eventually come across a key. What does it look like?What do you do with it?
As you continue, you find a book along your path. What does the book look like?What do you do with the book?
The next object you encounter is a coin. What does it look like?What do you do with the coin?
As you journey on, you find some kind of box or container. Describe the object.Then; do you open it?If not: why not?If you do: Is there anything inside?What do you do with what you have found?
Next along your path you find some kind of cup.What does the cup look like?What do you do with it?
Making your way further down this path, you come across a body of water.What kind of body of water is it? (Ocean, lake, waterfall, stream, etc.)Describe any details about the water that stand out to you.What do you do after seeing this body of water? (Do you get in and swim, do you drink, etc.)
Lastly along the path; you find a structure of some kind. What does it look like?Do you have any further senses about the structure? (Is it scary, off limits, welcoming etc.)What do you do upon encountering it?
If you instinctively do not enter the structure, please skip to the end of the page to retrieve the answers to the previous prompts.
Only if you enter the structure: What does it look like inside?What does it feel like?
