Customer Reviews

The Initiate's Book of Pathworkings: A Bridge of Dreams

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Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, the Director of Studies for the Servants of the Light school of occult science, has been an innovator in the spiritual practice of "pathworking" since her earlier classic, "Highways of the Mind." Pathworking, traditionally an inner guided journey on the paths of the Tree of Life, was once a closely guarded secret of the Western Mystery schools offering initiation. The spiritual path of Qabalah postulates a Tree of Life mandala of ten aspects of Divinity and twenty-two paths or states of consciousness. Initiates pathworking the paths of the Tree of Life would activate and awaken these various states of consciousness, latent within the neophyte (beginner), to full potency within their own sphere of sensation or aura. The initiate completing such "inner journeys" would then have incorporated the Tree of Life within and have access to its various potentials and powers for spiritual fulfillment and expression. The spiritual changes for the better effected by such inner journeys compelled Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki to make this powerful tool available to the world at large. Her work has revolutionized this technique from its sole use in Qabalistic training to encompass all the major traditions of the Western Mysteries. Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki has taught through her experiental workshops that pathworking the various ancient traditions can also stimulate into activity within the sphere of sensation of the practioner the spiritual fulfillment and expression offered by the ancient initiatory paths of the past. Readers of "The Initiate's Book of Pathworkings" will find many of her most powerful pathworkings illustrating the spiritual potency and richness of the Western Mysteries. The reader will encounter the ancient gods of Egypt, Greece and the Celtic people. Alexandria, "the city that faced upon the world" will also be explored. The reader can also look forward to pathworkings related to the Craft of the Wise and the Fairy path. In addition, she offers a new approach towards experiencing Shamanism. Two of my favorite sections of her book offer innovative work with the Angels, and the Elementals who can empower the magical potency of the initiate. Finally, pathworkings written solely for the new millenium are offered illustrating a possibility of the work that lies ahead for the spiritual aspirant as well as giving hope. I wholeheartedly recommend this rich collection of pathworkings as incomparable spiritual tools for the sole practioner or working group to empower their spiritual development into the new millenium.

This book gives detailed help on the how and why of pathworking. It gives progressive information and basically takes you by the hand and leads you down the right path. A 'must have' for those just starting out. Not bad for those who have been on the path for a while either though it does cover some very elementary ground. Pathworking is something that is a cornerstone to our faith and sadly is neglected too much. Hopefully this book will help to change that.

This book is truly a marvel for both group working and the solitary practitioner. Do not be fooled by the book's approachability; the pathworkings contained within are potent indeed. One of Dolores' talents lies in her ability to take the occult and make it perfectly presentable to the layperson. This is shown in many reviews where the commenter thinks that a book must be an intro a beginner's book, not realizing just what they have in their hands. I adivse that one not only read the book upon purchase, but work the guided visualizaitions therein, your work will be well rewarded.

I have to admit that I wasn't expecting anything like what the book was, so in a way it isn't that the book is bad, but rather just definately something not for me and I can't imagine suggesting it either. I have read another book by the auther and was extremely happy with it, but this book is very specificly for a certain purpose. That purpose is a very particular way to do pathworking.
First I have to say that I had an idea of what pathworking was, because I am very familiar with the occult. That is a guided meditation.
This book though reads very much unlike the guided meditations I am used to. The pathworkings in this book are written like stories except the main character is in first person. And in every pathworking the main character is doing some sort of ritual that is akin to a particular culture.
I do not have the book with me and I am going off memory but for an example, one pathworking would be an Egytian neophyte which you take the role in this first person experience and go through his/her initiation as them step by step.
The beginnings of the chapters are wonderfully written to give a short explanation of what type of pathworking the chapter will go into, it was the actual pathworking that I got caught on and couldn't get "into". It was the lack of detail, the lack of allowance to experience more then the limited guided meditation offers, and mostly it was the not so easy role that I had no affinity towards that it thrusts you in with out any emotional appeal. If you already do pathworkings then this book could be of great interest to you. If you want an idea towards how you can mentally create a good guided meditation then this might give you some creative idea. Otherwise I would recommend you purchase this book after you have had the oppertunity to look at it because I can only imagine its appeal to particular readers. I do like the author, and I do like the basis of the book, but the actual pathworkings did not fulfill my expectations.
There are many books out there with a lot of easier to use pathworkings that I would suggest to the general reader. Though I don't think there is a general reader for the new age world.

This is a nice text, some nice images but it was going over old ground so I never actually finished it.