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The Inner Guide Meditation: A Spiritual Technology for the 21st Century
A completely revised edition of this best-selling title. Describes the transformational journey to enlightenment and awareness using the tarot, astrology, the Qabalah, the alchemy of transformation, and analytical psychology.
288 pages, Paperback
First published April 28, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 2, 2012
This was the first metaphysical book I read in the late 80's. It introduced me to the power of the imagination, journeying to other 'realms' and meeting with my Guide- an experience that has been the most life changing event of my life. His writing is a bit dogmatic. Ed was an astrologer and a Jungian Analyst. He had very particular beliefs and he shared them. What is most striking about his contribution is that he offers others a path to find out their own truth. So, if you get hung-up on Ed's truths about reality, Guides and the afterworld then you should simply follow his lead and find your own answers. Thats the best a teacher can do. For myself, I treat this book with great reverence despite it's 'flaws'. I'm old enough to know that I don't have to buy everything a teacher is teaching in order to learn and prosper from the learning. Enjoy this most powerful calling to connect with that part of your being that will change your life for the better.
March 31, 2015
Read and Follow These Instructions Carefully
(All quotes are from the Second Impression in 1983 of The Aquarian Press publication dated 1982).
There is one thing about human beings that is consistent throughout the world: we do not follow instructions carefully. The reason for this title is to get your attention.
Sit in a comfortable, straight-back chair, with your spine erect and both feet flat on the floor. Separate the two sides of the body (don't have your arms or legs touching each other or crossed), with your thighs parallel to the floor and your hands resting lightly on the thighs, palms up and open. The reason for this is to prevent the circuit of your energy being closed.
Close your eyes, and invent a cave around you as if you have just walked into the cave and the entrance is at your back. The cave will become clearer as your mind begins to see its details, like having your eyes get used to the dark.
Be as sensory as you can Use all your senses. As in Hypnotherapy, the more the senses are used, the more 'real' the impressions that are received.
Be sure you are observing and sensing the environment while being in your body and looking out of your eyes. It would be so easy to watch an image of yourself, but then you wouldn't be present in the experience, you would be disconnected.
When you can feel yourself in the cave, even though things may still be vague at this point, move forward and to the left, away from the cave entrance, and find some kind of doorway or opening there on the left that will lead you out into a landscape. This first part of the movement is necessary for the rest to work. It has some connection to ancient spiritual processes.
Take a step out into the landscape when it appears, feeling the new type of ground under your feet. The landscape will feel real, so be there, in that space.
Then with your mind call for an animal to come to you. Let it be unknown to you.
Ask the animal to lead you off to the right to where your Inner Guide awaits you. Let the animal lead you, and keep from anticipating where that might end.
The animal will lead you to the feet of an unknown male figure - your first Guide. The initial Inner Guide will be an unknown male figure for both men and women.
Start receiving impressions about the figure. Allow the impressions to come to you uncritically. You will be presented with significant information, which will be useful when you review the experience later.
Be sure to ask the figure if he is your true Guide and if he has the power to protect you in the inner realms. If he's a false Guide, he will disappear.
Then ask the Guide to take your right hand in his left. (The reverse would be appropriate for left-handed people.) Again, make sure all your senses are in play during this portion of the process.
Ask your Guide then to point to where The Sun is in the sky of your inner world. As the position of the Guide is in the Ninth House of your birth chart, the relative position of the Sun in your chart should correspond to where you see it in this environment. If it doesn't, or the Guide does not point out the Sun, you are with a false Guide. Look for another Guide to the right of the false Guide, and know that he is nearby. Call to him, and give him your permission to appear to you. (Don't accept any known figure from your outer world.)
After your Guide takes your hand and points out where The Sun is and you see it, ask The Sun to come down, in human form, to where you and your Guide are. It may appear as a man or a woman, so try not to preconceive its appearance.
When you and your Inner Guide are together with The Sun figure, direct your attention to The Sun and ask it to send as much light and love into you physically as you can handle at that particular time. Absorb the energy as it comes. This is when the experience may suddenly feel 'real' because none of us know how to make something like that up.
Now is the time to ask two questions: 1. What do you need from me and from my life to work with me and be my friend? and 2. What do you have to give me (in the form of a symbolic object placed in your hand) that I need from you? The request may be simple, it may be complex, but does it feel 'right'? Ask your Guide's advice before agreeing to anything. The symbolic object will be whatever you perceive it to be. Accept whatever comes.
Ask both the archetypal giver and your Guide to help you understand the gift and the ways you may use it in both the inner and outer worlds. If it isn't clear, keep asking until it is.
When you have really understood the talent or ability, ask the archetype that presented the gift to place it in or on your body at a place where you should absorb and carry it. Feel where the energy form of the object settles within you. You may feel physical sensations in one or more parts of your body.
Again, check out all the steps in the process with your Inner Guide. He's there to help you, but he can't help unless he is asked. You are in foreign territory. He knows how everything works there, you don't.
Say thank you to all you encounter there, and then return to 'normal' consciousness when you are done.
My Inner Guide Experience
There are some that say there is nothing real in imagination. And yet, where does reality start but in imagination? If you cannot imagine something, it does not exist for you, even if it stood in front of you and poked you with its finger.
My Inner Guide Meditation was done on my own. Normally it would be helpful to have someone read out the instructions to you while you were going through the process, but in my case it wasn't necessary.
My induction process was simple: I just imagined a building, then I walked down steps to the basement, walked through the door and into the cave.
The cave did take some time to get used to, I must admit, but then the turning to the left, walking through a tunnel into a walled garden, worked easily. The animal that came when I called it was a horse. I held onto its tail when it took me to another part of the garden to our right. (That movement is important: left, then right.) The horse brought me to the boots of an American Staff Sergeant. I was surprised, because I'd had such an aversion to war and the armed forces.
My Guide was a man of few words. In fact, for most of the time he just grunted a 'yes' or a 'no', depending on my question. But the feeling between us was one of a band of brothers, so I suspect we had been friends in our previous existence together (during WW II, I would imagine).
The Sun, when he pointed to it, was low in the sky and slightly to the right , but otherwise directly across from us. That fitted where it should be (as far as my birth chart shows). When the Sun came down in human form, it was like Apollo, and that made sense to me. The jolt of electricity that went into my body when he shared his energy with me was truly electrifying. The hands were where I felt the energy the most.
What the Sun wanted from me was to be mindful of his existence every day. What he gave me was a skeleton key. The reason for the key was to unlock secrets of the universe. He placed it in my heart and that was to remind me that I had to 'feel' how others feel, in order to help them with healing.
I came away from the experience as if a light had been turned on in my body.
Conclusion
We are so wrapped up in the 'job' of living that we forget that at the centre of our being is a spark that needs fanning, in order for our spiritual light to shine.
We all have that spark, even those who do not believe in such things. What we wait for all of our lives is to have someone or something set the spark afire. To quote the last paragraph on page 84, "The Inner Guide Meditation places spiritual authority back within the individual - its true and holy place, Your Guide exists to teach you your spiritual path, your way to God, not someone else's." Amen to that.
(All quotes are from the Second Impression in 1983 of The Aquarian Press publication dated 1982).
There is one thing about human beings that is consistent throughout the world: we do not follow instructions carefully. The reason for this title is to get your attention.
Sit in a comfortable, straight-back chair, with your spine erect and both feet flat on the floor. Separate the two sides of the body (don't have your arms or legs touching each other or crossed), with your thighs parallel to the floor and your hands resting lightly on the thighs, palms up and open. The reason for this is to prevent the circuit of your energy being closed.
Close your eyes, and invent a cave around you as if you have just walked into the cave and the entrance is at your back. The cave will become clearer as your mind begins to see its details, like having your eyes get used to the dark.
Be as sensory as you can Use all your senses. As in Hypnotherapy, the more the senses are used, the more 'real' the impressions that are received.
Be sure you are observing and sensing the environment while being in your body and looking out of your eyes. It would be so easy to watch an image of yourself, but then you wouldn't be present in the experience, you would be disconnected.
When you can feel yourself in the cave, even though things may still be vague at this point, move forward and to the left, away from the cave entrance, and find some kind of doorway or opening there on the left that will lead you out into a landscape. This first part of the movement is necessary for the rest to work. It has some connection to ancient spiritual processes.
Take a step out into the landscape when it appears, feeling the new type of ground under your feet. The landscape will feel real, so be there, in that space.
Then with your mind call for an animal to come to you. Let it be unknown to you.
Ask the animal to lead you off to the right to where your Inner Guide awaits you. Let the animal lead you, and keep from anticipating where that might end.
The animal will lead you to the feet of an unknown male figure - your first Guide. The initial Inner Guide will be an unknown male figure for both men and women.
Start receiving impressions about the figure. Allow the impressions to come to you uncritically. You will be presented with significant information, which will be useful when you review the experience later.
Be sure to ask the figure if he is your true Guide and if he has the power to protect you in the inner realms. If he's a false Guide, he will disappear.
Then ask the Guide to take your right hand in his left. (The reverse would be appropriate for left-handed people.) Again, make sure all your senses are in play during this portion of the process.
Ask your Guide then to point to where The Sun is in the sky of your inner world. As the position of the Guide is in the Ninth House of your birth chart, the relative position of the Sun in your chart should correspond to where you see it in this environment. If it doesn't, or the Guide does not point out the Sun, you are with a false Guide. Look for another Guide to the right of the false Guide, and know that he is nearby. Call to him, and give him your permission to appear to you. (Don't accept any known figure from your outer world.)
After your Guide takes your hand and points out where The Sun is and you see it, ask The Sun to come down, in human form, to where you and your Guide are. It may appear as a man or a woman, so try not to preconceive its appearance.
When you and your Inner Guide are together with The Sun figure, direct your attention to The Sun and ask it to send as much light and love into you physically as you can handle at that particular time. Absorb the energy as it comes. This is when the experience may suddenly feel 'real' because none of us know how to make something like that up.
Now is the time to ask two questions: 1. What do you need from me and from my life to work with me and be my friend? and 2. What do you have to give me (in the form of a symbolic object placed in your hand) that I need from you? The request may be simple, it may be complex, but does it feel 'right'? Ask your Guide's advice before agreeing to anything. The symbolic object will be whatever you perceive it to be. Accept whatever comes.
Ask both the archetypal giver and your Guide to help you understand the gift and the ways you may use it in both the inner and outer worlds. If it isn't clear, keep asking until it is.
When you have really understood the talent or ability, ask the archetype that presented the gift to place it in or on your body at a place where you should absorb and carry it. Feel where the energy form of the object settles within you. You may feel physical sensations in one or more parts of your body.
Again, check out all the steps in the process with your Inner Guide. He's there to help you, but he can't help unless he is asked. You are in foreign territory. He knows how everything works there, you don't.
Say thank you to all you encounter there, and then return to 'normal' consciousness when you are done.
My Inner Guide Experience
There are some that say there is nothing real in imagination. And yet, where does reality start but in imagination? If you cannot imagine something, it does not exist for you, even if it stood in front of you and poked you with its finger.
My Inner Guide Meditation was done on my own. Normally it would be helpful to have someone read out the instructions to you while you were going through the process, but in my case it wasn't necessary.
My induction process was simple: I just imagined a building, then I walked down steps to the basement, walked through the door and into the cave.
The cave did take some time to get used to, I must admit, but then the turning to the left, walking through a tunnel into a walled garden, worked easily. The animal that came when I called it was a horse. I held onto its tail when it took me to another part of the garden to our right. (That movement is important: left, then right.) The horse brought me to the boots of an American Staff Sergeant. I was surprised, because I'd had such an aversion to war and the armed forces.
My Guide was a man of few words. In fact, for most of the time he just grunted a 'yes' or a 'no', depending on my question. But the feeling between us was one of a band of brothers, so I suspect we had been friends in our previous existence together (during WW II, I would imagine).
The Sun, when he pointed to it, was low in the sky and slightly to the right , but otherwise directly across from us. That fitted where it should be (as far as my birth chart shows). When the Sun came down in human form, it was like Apollo, and that made sense to me. The jolt of electricity that went into my body when he shared his energy with me was truly electrifying. The hands were where I felt the energy the most.
What the Sun wanted from me was to be mindful of his existence every day. What he gave me was a skeleton key. The reason for the key was to unlock secrets of the universe. He placed it in my heart and that was to remind me that I had to 'feel' how others feel, in order to help them with healing.
I came away from the experience as if a light had been turned on in my body.
Conclusion
We are so wrapped up in the 'job' of living that we forget that at the centre of our being is a spark that needs fanning, in order for our spiritual light to shine.
We all have that spark, even those who do not believe in such things. What we wait for all of our lives is to have someone or something set the spark afire. To quote the last paragraph on page 84, "The Inner Guide Meditation places spiritual authority back within the individual - its true and holy place, Your Guide exists to teach you your spiritual path, your way to God, not someone else's." Amen to that.
April 25, 2014
Carl Jung admitted that his methods of inner exploration (Active Imagination) were risky, but it is not until this work was published that a safe and reliable way to conduct shamanic work has been established.
"The Inner Guide Meditation" is a superb collection of tips, guidance, and ideas on archetypal inner work. The author seems to conflate inner and outer levels of truth at times, which can lead to unintentional absurdities, but if you regard his pronunciations of inner truths as his experience only, they become excellent points of exploration.
The meat of the book is the meditation itself, which is idiosyncratic and the only safe way known to undertake this kind of archetypal work. But the questions and answers section is excellent, providing enormously helpful tips on how to actually negotiate the many sticky situations one inevitably finds oneself in whilst exploring these inner realms.
In summary, the book represents not only a unique contribution, but a definitive discovery of great utility for spiritual research: a safe way to access and initiate into shamanic realms and return in a stable and progressive way. This alone makes it a remarkable underground work, which should be read by many more.
Edit: on a re-reading, this book keeps getting better for what it is.
"The Inner Guide Meditation" is a superb collection of tips, guidance, and ideas on archetypal inner work. The author seems to conflate inner and outer levels of truth at times, which can lead to unintentional absurdities, but if you regard his pronunciations of inner truths as his experience only, they become excellent points of exploration.
The meat of the book is the meditation itself, which is idiosyncratic and the only safe way known to undertake this kind of archetypal work. But the questions and answers section is excellent, providing enormously helpful tips on how to actually negotiate the many sticky situations one inevitably finds oneself in whilst exploring these inner realms.
In summary, the book represents not only a unique contribution, but a definitive discovery of great utility for spiritual research: a safe way to access and initiate into shamanic realms and return in a stable and progressive way. This alone makes it a remarkable underground work, which should be read by many more.
Edit: on a re-reading, this book keeps getting better for what it is.
July 18, 2025
An astonishing work, based on long experience, describing a path to spiritual growth and transformation based on the Western approaches of tarot and astrology.
The author has a lot to say, and packs a great deal between the covers of this one volume. I'm already trained in astrology and am quite familiar with the tarot, but I found myself encountering many ideas that I had not heard of before and generally having my mind stretched every which way; if you're not conversant with those things, you may find this book overwhelming, or, at least, will need to gear down and take it slow.
The basic idea is that we, any of us, including children, can, by a technique of quiet visualization, come into contact with our Inner Guides: actual persons who dwell on planes other than the physical that we're used to, and who have a relationship with us that began long before our present life and will continue long after it. These Guides, who are no other than the daimones of the ancient Greeks and genii of the ancient Romans, have a wise and loving concern for us, and stand ready to help us develop along our spiritual path toward wholeness and fulfillment. But if we want their direct help, we have to ask; we have to seek them out. And the Inner Guide meditation is a methodology for doing just this.
The Inner Guides can bring us into contact with the archetypes: 22 divine energies or entities that are symbolized by the 22 Major Arcana of the tarot pack. These archetypes, like the Guides, exist independently of us, of our egos, and, being divine, are extremely powerful, and thus dangerous to approach without the help of a Guide.
I recognize that the things I'm typing here may sound incredibly flaky, and indeed I have not yet attempted the meditation myself, since I am still involved with the preparatory work. But I see no reason to doubt the author, and nothing about what he says is inconsistent with my own observations of life, based on having lived and observed it for 61 years. The basic message is: whatever is happening in your life, and whoever is involved, you are creating that situation yourself on a deep level. If you want to change things, then you need to go within and work with the archetypal energies that are creating the world you perceive and think you live in. Change yourself, even slightly, and your world will change. Change yourself for the better, and your world will improve.
If you're open to New Age thinking and practices, then take a look at this book. You may find it transformative.
The author has a lot to say, and packs a great deal between the covers of this one volume. I'm already trained in astrology and am quite familiar with the tarot, but I found myself encountering many ideas that I had not heard of before and generally having my mind stretched every which way; if you're not conversant with those things, you may find this book overwhelming, or, at least, will need to gear down and take it slow.
The basic idea is that we, any of us, including children, can, by a technique of quiet visualization, come into contact with our Inner Guides: actual persons who dwell on planes other than the physical that we're used to, and who have a relationship with us that began long before our present life and will continue long after it. These Guides, who are no other than the daimones of the ancient Greeks and genii of the ancient Romans, have a wise and loving concern for us, and stand ready to help us develop along our spiritual path toward wholeness and fulfillment. But if we want their direct help, we have to ask; we have to seek them out. And the Inner Guide meditation is a methodology for doing just this.
The Inner Guides can bring us into contact with the archetypes: 22 divine energies or entities that are symbolized by the 22 Major Arcana of the tarot pack. These archetypes, like the Guides, exist independently of us, of our egos, and, being divine, are extremely powerful, and thus dangerous to approach without the help of a Guide.
I recognize that the things I'm typing here may sound incredibly flaky, and indeed I have not yet attempted the meditation myself, since I am still involved with the preparatory work. But I see no reason to doubt the author, and nothing about what he says is inconsistent with my own observations of life, based on having lived and observed it for 61 years. The basic message is: whatever is happening in your life, and whoever is involved, you are creating that situation yourself on a deep level. If you want to change things, then you need to go within and work with the archetypal energies that are creating the world you perceive and think you live in. Change yourself, even slightly, and your world will change. Change yourself for the better, and your world will improve.
If you're open to New Age thinking and practices, then take a look at this book. You may find it transformative.
April 29, 2009
Presented a way to find your guide,but presented it as if it's the only way.
The section on "projection" made me understand how I see myself in others, rather than seeing others; made me see that I need to learn more about projection.
The author had some odd ideas, like, "The accidental arousal of Kundalini can produce the phenomenon called 'spontaneous human combustion.'" Oops.
The section on "projection" made me understand how I see myself in others, rather than seeing others; made me see that I need to learn more about projection.
The author had some odd ideas, like, "The accidental arousal of Kundalini can produce the phenomenon called 'spontaneous human combustion.'" Oops.
April 21, 2023
An important introduction to 'inner work'. Uses elements from the Western Magical Tradition and Jung. Guidebooks on actually doing inner work and Active Imagination are few. Steinbrecher's book is orientated toward practical and simple methods that work.
April 18, 2013
Ценна книга. Но част от инфото беше неизползваемо за мен.
June 6, 2020
This is a very important book. Edwin really knows what he is talking about. There is some dogma in this book that can be ignored by the discerning student. The techniques in this book detail a very powerful tool for self-transformation. Don't worry if you're not overly familiar with Astrology or Tarot, your subconscious will literally do all the work for you, in a powerful and symbolically coherent way.
January 24, 2022
I don't want to say "this book is garbage" because that would be judging an entire belief system. Or a mishmash of belief systems assembled by the author. I'm just saying it MIGHT be garbage.
February 25, 2021
An interesting but ultimately maddening how-to. Useful only to the more intrepid seeker, as the primary meditative exercise (the Inner Guide Meditation of the title) is incompletely presented - the author gives very specific directions on how to meet one’s guide and what to do/ask once one has done so, but then goes off on some tangent (as he tends to do throughout the rest of the book, most of which is useless, daffy, and/or besides the point) and offers no method for returning to normal waking consciousness. Which, for a meditation requiring no little amount of focus and discipline, is absolutely necessary. Recommended for those with some experience in guided meditation, but if you have that experience you probably don’t need this book. But if you’re a psychonaut particularly interested in working deeply with the tarot archetypes vis-a-vis your natal chart then I’d suggest you skim the inane, overlong “Questions and Answers” chapter, (which, for what little useful info it does impart, is placed, nonsensically, prior to most of the material to which it refers) and dive in to the rest of it.
September 6, 2016
A highly intriguing method I look forward to practicing. Just make sure to take Steinbrecher's own advice while reading this book: if something doesn't feel right, don't go with it.
While on the whole, Steinbrecher's method seems sound, some of the applications and contexts he's writing about seem very much the products of their time, especially in regards to human sexuality.
While on the whole, Steinbrecher's method seems sound, some of the applications and contexts he's writing about seem very much the products of their time, especially in regards to human sexuality.
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January 21, 2019read
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