Pathworking, help?

[KylalaKitty]

I'm currently reading a book called Advanced Witchcraft by Edian McCoy and in it it mentions pathworking. I dont have a lot of experience in that, in fact I've only done it once. It says in the book to record and read out aloud a guided meditation thats already scripted and play that back to do the pathworking if you're on your own but I have a few issues here. One, I HATE the sound of my own voice, I think its horrible and annoying and, yeah. and Two, I live in Kansas, where I almost lost my job for being Im wiccan, so there isnt many other pagans here to help me. I could have a friend pre-record these for me but I'm kinda afraid that the familiarity of their voice might be distracting. Is there, like, pre-recorded pathworkings on CD or DVD that anyone knows of? Has/does anyone else have this problem?

[ffetcher]

Hmmm, an interesting thought. A quick search of the web reveals a number of sources, but nothing leaps out and many are way expensive.

(Actually, I can understand that. In my now long past youth I recorded a few technical 'talking books' for blind students. It's a lot of work - fluffs that don't seem to matter when you're working live have to be painstakingly re-recorded and edited, because they become annoying if you listen more than once. I agreed on the Sisterhood of Avalon thread in 'Advanced Paganism' that if you're doing stuff on a regular basis you either need to charge or you go bust or burn out.)

But... if we sorted out copyright and such, then I'd be happy to do one or two short recordings as MP3s: there must be others on MW who could do the same and maybe make stuff available, maybe in exchange for an 'honesty box' style donation to MW's hosting fund. If the effort was shared and we weren't working to deadlines, it wouldn't be that onerous.

Let's see whether anyone else bites - and if you want a male baritone with a Brit accent, PM me and you might persuade me to have a go towards the end of the month.

blessings
ffetcher

[Shawn Cameron]

I'll bite as both a reader and a listener if the legality are sorted out.

[KylalaKitty]

there must be others on MW who could do the same and maybe make stuff available, maybe in exchange for an 'honesty box' style donation to MW's hosting fund. If the effort was shared and we weren't working to deadlines, it wouldn't be that onerous.


sounds fair to me.

[Ben Gruagach]

There are prerecorded guided meditations (what some people call "pathworkings") available. Look in your local music store in the New Age section, or in any New Age stores. You can also order them online from all sorts of places including Amazon.com.

If you have iTunes (which is a free program for Windows and Mac computers -- go to http://www.apple.com/itunes/ to get it) you can go into the iTunes Music Store and search for "meditation" to get more. There are free podcasts available there which provide meditation scripts read aloud.

I've written a few meditation scripts which have been published in my book, "The Wiccan Mystic," and in Circle Magazine (http://www.circlesanctuary.org/circle/). I've recorded some of them and have put them up on my website as free MP3 downloads. My website is http://www.witchgrotto.com

If you have a friend who can get together with you to practice then you can take turns reading the scripts aloud while the other person does the meditating. However, recording them and playing them back would let both of you do the meditating at the same time.

[Ben Gruagach]

Oh, and just for interests' sake, the term "pathworking" technically means a guided meditation where you are exploring the Qabalistic tree of life. Guided meditations that are not based on exploring the Qabalah are properly just called guided meditations.

I know the term "pathworking" has been used to refer to more than just Qabalah work, but that is how the term started. And I'm sure some ceremonial magick sticklers would make a fuss if the word was used incorrectly. Personally, I don't care too much one way or the other. It's usually not too hard to figure out if a meditation is about the Qabalah or not.

[Morgane]

What a wonderful site, Ben! Thank you for drawing my attention to it...I rarely read signatures, so I might never have noticed it!

[Sollie]

But... if we sorted out copyright and such, then I'd be happy to do one or two short recordings as MP3s: there must be others on MW who could do the same and maybe make stuff available, maybe in exchange for an 'honesty box' style donation to MW's hosting fund. If the effort was shared and we weren't working to deadlines, it wouldn't be that onerous.

Let's see whether anyone else bites .

blessings
ffetcher I'm for it.

[Ptolemy]

I don't know of any pathworkings on Witchcraft, but if you are into Qabalah they have some good ones at www.pathworkings.com

[Against The Tide]

I was going to offer to read and record some of those scripts but it looks like its all been sorted now - excellent linkage guys and gals. I'll look into those this evening :D