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The Initiate's Book of Pathworkings: A Bridge of Dreams
Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, an internationally known esoteric teacher, teams up with her daughter, Tamara, to reveal the pathworkings (or guided meditations) used by The Servants of the Light School to help students train their consciousness to access cosmic wisdom. Within the mind of every human being is a cosmos that matches the physical cosmos atom for atom. If you can learn how to tap the motherlode of wisdom in your inner cosmos, virtually anything in the universe comes within the realm of your understanding. You will cultivate your visualization skills, feed your creativity, and understand the true potency of rituals performed by only using your imagination! These pathworkings take you through ancient civilizations Egypt, Greece, Celtia, and Alexandria and even into the new millennium. You'll find your way into the mystical realms of the Tree of Life, the Angelic, and Elemental worlds, or explore shamanic workings, the Craft, and the Fairy Faith. From each pathworking you will gain new insight into timeless truths, and the wide variety of pathworkings in this book will help you find a path that works best for you. You can also refer to a working that is appropriate for the specific life situation in which you find yourself. Soon you'll be able to project your consciousness into astral scenery of your own making to find solutions to your personal challenges or to open up new opportunities in your life. If you can visualize it, you can make it happen!
- GenresReference
264 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1999
54 people want to read
About the author
Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki
40 books34 followersDolores Ashcroft-Nowicki is a third-generation psychic who has worked with magic since childhood. She studied under W.E. Butler and with him was a founding member of the Servants of the Light School of Occult Science, of which she was Director of Studies.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 7, 2017
A book that explores a meditation technique called pathworking.
I understand that directed pathworkings are an actual technique that has been used by mystery schools for centuries to explore consciousness. I just don't see its usefulness beyond a sort of tourist trip through what "may" be in your mind rather than what "is".
Let's compare it to riding a bike. Directed pathworkings are like watching a video of someone riding a bike. Passive pathworkings are like hopping on that bike and riding it all over your neighborhood. You get the visceral experience of being there. Yeah, if you've never ridden a bike before, watching the video might be safer, but it certainly isn't more fun.
If we look at the Initiate's Book of Pathworking as a journal of an adept's inner work, it feels rather rehearsed and stilted as opposed to the out of body work that was chronicled in Multidimensional Man.
If we consider the different approaches between Ashcroft-Nowicki and Ziewe, it also makes more sense that these pathworkings have a clear beginning, middle, and end as opposed to Ziewe's offerings which are more like real life: random and, at times, nonsensical.
Because (I'm assuming) an adept from The Servants of Light School created these pathworkings through actual experiences on the inner planes, it has the curious side effect of unfolding like a structured lesson plan.
In Nick Ferrell's book, Magical Pathworking: Techniques of Active Imagination, he discusses the importance of writing pathworkings like a story with a beginning, middle, and end for its consciousness shaping potential, but he never talks about how naturally occurring pathworkings or passive pathworkings, present themselves in that manner, organically.
I suspect that mystery schools experienced some pathworkings through their consciousness research, recorded the patterns that occur, and then sought to imitate that inner perfection by scripting pathworkings like the ones found in this book.
There is value to be found in this book as it provides a nice introduction to pathworking in general: "What is a pathworking? It is similar to a virtual reality trip. Pathworkings are perfectly natural and can occur spontaneously in the form of daydreams. Used as a structured series of visualizations, they hold many possibilities for the student." Introduction, pg x
I found some of this book silly like the Healing Spring (Women only) pathworking on page 61. Women only? We're dealing with consciousness here which is neither male or female, but pure being. If a guy wants to run the Healing Spring pathworking, I'm not going to be the one to say no.
Some of the poetry in the pathworkings is very beautiful and felt authentic, which again made me wonder who wrote these for the SOL. W.E. Butler? Dion Fortune? So curious:
"Forest Lord, with twelve-tined crown,
Now we come to bed thee down.
Rest content when sleeping deep,
Leave the Summer Queen to weep.
Rest thee well till comes the Spring
When harebells in the wood do ring;
Then rouse thee up the maid to wed
And seek the joy of the greenwood bed.
Hunter, blessed be thy sleep;
Choose a maid thy bed to keep.
Dreams of silver, dreams of gold
Will guard against the winter's cold." pg 190
To give you a comparison, here is a chant from some pixies in a passive pathworking that I experienced a couple of months ago:
"Awake the trees, awake the night, awake the shining moon.
Feed the plants, free the life that dwells within the bloom.
To keep the forest growing tall, the pixie people sing,
We bring the song and dance the call to wake the Forest King.
Awake the night, awake the moon, awake the powers old,
We’re the ones that call upon the Spirit of the fold.
Dance the dance, sing the songs, make the forest wake,
In our stead, these plants have fed the thirst that never slakes.
Feels very similar, yes? That's the fascinating thing about consciousness research to me. It feels so familiar but, at the same time, infinitely unknown.
It's just my opinion but, I think, in addition to space, our own minds are the next frontier of human exploration.
"These "serial" workings will grow with you as you explore them, and can bring about many strange events, both in your astral life and in your physical existence. They are more potent than they seem, so take them slowly." pg 214. One a week has worked pretty well for me. I feel like I'm learning and growing but not being overwhelmed by the changes.
A dated portion of this book that I found rather amusing, especially since the recent kerfluffle over the year 2012: "As the year 2000 comes ever closer, speculation as to the future of the world gets wilder. Exactly the same kind of hysteria hit the known world in the year 1000... The year 2000 will usher in a time of adventure, opportunity, and yes, a lot of changes. But we will survive. Things may be very different a hundred years from now, but we have survived big changes before and will do so again." pg 231 Amen.
"One of the things an initiate learns is that every man and woman is essentially a "multi-versal" being. That is, we exist simultaneously in many dimensions and parallel universes. We have a consciousness in each one, a life in each one, a purpose and destiny in each one. But each is minutely different. With every passing moment in time, we change our future in each universe by constantly making decisions that affect the course of that future." pg 240. I don't know that I agree with everything in that passage, but isn't it a beautiful view of reality? Layers within layers of truth, all interacting and changing each other, eternally.
If you liked the guided pathworkings in this book, you may want to read: Magical Pathworking: Techniques of Active Imagination, Pathworking and the Tree of Life: A Qabala Guide to Empowerment & Initiation, or the second half of A Garden of Pomegranates: Skrying on the Tree of Life. If you want examples of (mostly) passive, out of body experiences, read: Multidimensional Man or Psychic Warrior: The True Story of America's Foremost Psychic Spy and the Cover-Up of the CIA's Top-Secret Stargate Program.
I understand that directed pathworkings are an actual technique that has been used by mystery schools for centuries to explore consciousness. I just don't see its usefulness beyond a sort of tourist trip through what "may" be in your mind rather than what "is".
Let's compare it to riding a bike. Directed pathworkings are like watching a video of someone riding a bike. Passive pathworkings are like hopping on that bike and riding it all over your neighborhood. You get the visceral experience of being there. Yeah, if you've never ridden a bike before, watching the video might be safer, but it certainly isn't more fun.
If we look at the Initiate's Book of Pathworking as a journal of an adept's inner work, it feels rather rehearsed and stilted as opposed to the out of body work that was chronicled in Multidimensional Man.
If we consider the different approaches between Ashcroft-Nowicki and Ziewe, it also makes more sense that these pathworkings have a clear beginning, middle, and end as opposed to Ziewe's offerings which are more like real life: random and, at times, nonsensical.
Because (I'm assuming) an adept from The Servants of Light School created these pathworkings through actual experiences on the inner planes, it has the curious side effect of unfolding like a structured lesson plan.
In Nick Ferrell's book, Magical Pathworking: Techniques of Active Imagination, he discusses the importance of writing pathworkings like a story with a beginning, middle, and end for its consciousness shaping potential, but he never talks about how naturally occurring pathworkings or passive pathworkings, present themselves in that manner, organically.
I suspect that mystery schools experienced some pathworkings through their consciousness research, recorded the patterns that occur, and then sought to imitate that inner perfection by scripting pathworkings like the ones found in this book.
There is value to be found in this book as it provides a nice introduction to pathworking in general: "What is a pathworking? It is similar to a virtual reality trip. Pathworkings are perfectly natural and can occur spontaneously in the form of daydreams. Used as a structured series of visualizations, they hold many possibilities for the student." Introduction, pg x
I found some of this book silly like the Healing Spring (Women only) pathworking on page 61. Women only? We're dealing with consciousness here which is neither male or female, but pure being. If a guy wants to run the Healing Spring pathworking, I'm not going to be the one to say no.
Some of the poetry in the pathworkings is very beautiful and felt authentic, which again made me wonder who wrote these for the SOL. W.E. Butler? Dion Fortune? So curious:
"Forest Lord, with twelve-tined crown,
Now we come to bed thee down.
Rest content when sleeping deep,
Leave the Summer Queen to weep.
Rest thee well till comes the Spring
When harebells in the wood do ring;
Then rouse thee up the maid to wed
And seek the joy of the greenwood bed.
Hunter, blessed be thy sleep;
Choose a maid thy bed to keep.
Dreams of silver, dreams of gold
Will guard against the winter's cold." pg 190
To give you a comparison, here is a chant from some pixies in a passive pathworking that I experienced a couple of months ago:
"Awake the trees, awake the night, awake the shining moon.
Feed the plants, free the life that dwells within the bloom.
To keep the forest growing tall, the pixie people sing,
We bring the song and dance the call to wake the Forest King.
Awake the night, awake the moon, awake the powers old,
We’re the ones that call upon the Spirit of the fold.
Dance the dance, sing the songs, make the forest wake,
In our stead, these plants have fed the thirst that never slakes.
Feels very similar, yes? That's the fascinating thing about consciousness research to me. It feels so familiar but, at the same time, infinitely unknown.
It's just my opinion but, I think, in addition to space, our own minds are the next frontier of human exploration.
"These "serial" workings will grow with you as you explore them, and can bring about many strange events, both in your astral life and in your physical existence. They are more potent than they seem, so take them slowly." pg 214. One a week has worked pretty well for me. I feel like I'm learning and growing but not being overwhelmed by the changes.
A dated portion of this book that I found rather amusing, especially since the recent kerfluffle over the year 2012: "As the year 2000 comes ever closer, speculation as to the future of the world gets wilder. Exactly the same kind of hysteria hit the known world in the year 1000... The year 2000 will usher in a time of adventure, opportunity, and yes, a lot of changes. But we will survive. Things may be very different a hundred years from now, but we have survived big changes before and will do so again." pg 231 Amen.
"One of the things an initiate learns is that every man and woman is essentially a "multi-versal" being. That is, we exist simultaneously in many dimensions and parallel universes. We have a consciousness in each one, a life in each one, a purpose and destiny in each one. But each is minutely different. With every passing moment in time, we change our future in each universe by constantly making decisions that affect the course of that future." pg 240. I don't know that I agree with everything in that passage, but isn't it a beautiful view of reality? Layers within layers of truth, all interacting and changing each other, eternally.
If you liked the guided pathworkings in this book, you may want to read: Magical Pathworking: Techniques of Active Imagination, Pathworking and the Tree of Life: A Qabala Guide to Empowerment & Initiation, or the second half of A Garden of Pomegranates: Skrying on the Tree of Life. If you want examples of (mostly) passive, out of body experiences, read: Multidimensional Man or Psychic Warrior: The True Story of America's Foremost Psychic Spy and the Cover-Up of the CIA's Top-Secret Stargate Program.
Displaying 1 of 1 review