Over the past few years my Gods have been encouraging me to draw more (even though I am not very good at it) and I have been inspired by the work of Ceri Davies at Below the Wood* who has been recording spiritual experiences in words and images.
Recently when I journeyed to ask my guides how to improve my journeywork a black serpent showed me ‘I must begin a journey book’.
Up until now I have been recording my journeys in word documents on my computer and they tend to get filed away and not looked again. I guessed there is something in the old fashioned way of working with hand and pencils on paper and the time and effort this requires that honours the journey, fixes it in memory and brings its transformative potential into the world.
The first step in the process was buying the right book. This wasn’t hard. Knowing Jason Smalley has a shop** selling products based on his animistic photography of our local landscape I looked there first and immediately found the ‘Storm Raven’ journal. This fit perfectly as my patron God, Gwyn, is associated with ravens and the stormy nights of the Wild Hunt as well as the calm in the midst of the storm.
Since then I have been recording my journeys and have felt their effect more greatly in my life.
In one of my journeys behind a waterfall I discovered ‘three joys’ who appeared as three cranes to gift me ‘the dances of creation and destruction’ and ‘the standing crane’.
In a journey I narrated to my spiritual mentor I met a bear spirit who took me to witness the unfolding of a numinous vision of a dark castle in a pool with shadowy entities entering and leaving with gifts. I was told I was ‘not allowed to go in’. ‘I must stay still’ and ‘be the witness’. This was very hard as I like to do and understand things rather than simply witnessing. This has stuck with me as a lesson in the appreciation of mystery.
At the Way of the Buzzard*** Bear Necessities retreat a bear full of stars appeared to me and in a shapeshifting experience showed me how to be more grounded in my body by being aware of all my muscles and slowing down.
Drawing my journeys has not only helped imprint them in my mind but in my body and it is noticeable that I am being encouraged towards embodying insights physically and through movement practices to bring them into my life.
*https://belowthewood.ca
**https://earthlight-images.myshopify.com/
***https://thewayofthebuzzard.co.uk
The Sanctuary of Vindos 
Sometimes the old fashioned ways are the best, besides drawing is a right brain activity whereas writing is a left one – broadly speaking. You may find your drawing gets better as you do more. And your cranes are great, you capture their movement and the bear appears as one I’d not like to meet in a dark forest – nothing teddy-like about him!
That’s really interesting. I hadn’t thought of it as right and left brain before but I’m certainly being led to balance my writing with more drawing, singing, movement… at the same time as the white and red dragons in my meditation practice which I see as relating to right and left brain. I recently read that running puts the left and right brain into the same relationship as sleep when they fit together in the way that leads to leaps of intuition which totally fits with most of my ‘awens’ coming when running.
I love this so much, and your drawings are so evocative and numinous. What a great way to keep this record. I don’t journey per se (and have almost no interior visual capacity) but I do keep a paper-and-ink spiritual journal where I note down significant events, divinations, dreams, rituals, etc. I started this over 20 years ago and am so glad I did, as I now have a detailed record of all my explorations on the path. An added bonus to having it in a physical book is that you don’t have to turn on a computer (and get sucked into that world) in order to read it.
Alan Moore said something once about making art in a certain state of mind provides a way back to that same state, when you view the art later. I suspect having these drawings will help you both retain and even revisit some of these experiences.
That sounds so very valuable. Although I’ve long had an inner and devotional life and recorded it a little it always came second to producing writing and I saw it to reach its end goal in poetry, stories, articles, when I identified mainly as an awenydd. Now I’ve become a monastic that’s changed and my inner life has become as important as my outer works.
I love the Alan Moore quote and the possibility of using my drawings as gateways back to the original experiences.
I find it hugely helpful to have a written/drawn journal rather than just recording everything online. (I may also have an online recording for a backup and for ease of searching but nothing beats an actual journal). it’s something I ask of all my apprentices and students (not academic ones). these days most of them balk, being more used to the computer but we remember things better when they’re hand written, and creating the journal is itself a meditative and devotional act.
I certainly wish I’d begun recording my experiences this way earlier but as I mentioned to Dver when I was more on an awenydd path my inner life was always secondary to creating outer works as service to my Gods but now I’ve come to monasticism that has changed…
These are incredible. Thank you so much for sharing. I can feel the energy and potency of the messages from them. I’m especially struck by the image of the castle, and the direction to “be a witness.”
Thank you for your kind comments and helping lead me in this direction!
Your post comes at a really timely moment for me. Just yesterday I was playing a devotional mixed media game in which you are required to make collages to represent aspects of one’s pilgrimage and the activities you do at the shrine site. Making the collage really helped me get in tune with the game, my feelings, and the numinous vibes I’m feeling as I play.
I’ve been trying to learn embroidery to eventually stitch my experiences, but your post is making me that I could at least begin by drawing (or collage)! I’m not skilled in art either, but I used to doodle a lot.
Thanks for the inspiration ❤
Both drawing and collage sound like really good forms of expression. I haven’t collaged since school!