What Is the Inner Journey?
“Be not the slave of your own past—plunge into
the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so
you shall come back with new self-respect, with
new power, and with an advanced experience
that shall explain and overlook the old.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
At Joan of Sparc, we’re pioneering some new terrain: igniting an
inner journey, bringing humans through a hero’s and heroine’s
creative process to encourage the death, rebirth, and transformation
cycle as a way of life.
The inner journey is a timeless invitation to reclaim the parts of
ourselves we’ve long ignored. And to discover the treasures of our hearts,
we must have the courage to face ourselves in ways we haven’t yet dared.
Humans have been traversing this psychological and transpersonal
terrain for longer than our minds can reach conceptually.
Traditionally, the approach has been in silence or
within hermetic circles, secret societies, and mystery schools.
The process takes one through rites of passage and rituals
to mark and define the crossing of particular thresholds of
understanding. What we know is either through experience
or passed down in myths and through the art of storytelling.
Regardless of a particular faith, religion, or philosophy, every
one of us has an inner world yet to be discovered.
No one else can claim this or take this from you . . . unless
you give it to them. Unfortunately, there are many in the world
who seek to manipulate and coerce seekers on their path. Stories
and tales of this tragic reality have been on archetypal
repeat throughout time, where the dynamic between guru and
disciple goes awry. This is why we are so inspired to share in a
way that is in alignment with a Guru Free Philosophy.
Your path is yours alone, unique while also sharing commonalities
with others on their path. Now ask yourself, are
you willing to seek the jewels of your innermost self if the cost
is giving up some of the ways you currently think and feel?
Sometimes we are deeply attached to certain ways of being
that are harming ourselves or others, yet due to familiarity or
if they induce pleasure, we choose them again and again.
And this is just the beginning . . . again. It always is. This
is not about arriving anywhere specific; the journey itself truly
is a jewel in the rough. We are exploring a cycle of nature, our
true nature, and within a condensed period of time. This container
will force us through certain chapters and moments,
giving us a full-spectrum perspective and experience of a
cycle.
When we review the current maps of the hero’s or heroine’s
journey, it is typically shown as a circle with arrows
pointing to the right, down, back up and around. It is implied
that one can walk around and around. Instead, I invite you
to imagine opening the circle as if it has a door with a handle
on the right-hand side. As you draw the door toward you, see
how the circle actually becomes a spiral and that each cycle
around the circle is one loop on the spiral of our psychological
process.
It doesn’t really matter where you are on your personal
spiral; what does matter is that you are walking through the
doorway, working to know yourself on an ongoing basis.
Would it make sense to continue to live unconsciously if
the opportunity to become more conscious is within reach?
This work is designed to invoke a wellspring of inspiration
amidst the peaks and the valleys you will inevitably encounter
along the way.
This exploration is for all levels of practitioners and initiates
on the path of inner work. Regardless of where you find
yourself with experience as a deep diver of the inner realms or
as a newly curious explorer, you will be able to source exactly
what is needed for you.
You may actually already be on the journey at one stage
or another. The intention for us here is to collectively and
individually learn through experience what is already occurring
unconsciously. When we bring the unconscious to the conscious mind,
everything is possible, including extraordinary levels of understanding,
healing, and integration.
There is no magic pill for enlightenment, yet there are
tried and true explorations and excavations through layers of
our psyche that can fully provide an experience of the liberation
of our essence. Because this is such a deeply personal
process, we are simply sharing what we have learned and what
we know is possible through self-inquiry, self-observation, and
all the other tools we’ll discuss throughout our time together.
You will come away with a symbol of transformation etched
into possibility as you continue your inner and outer journey
of life.
The inner journey is an offering from the heart; we are not
claiming this to be the way or your truth. It is a space to share
wisdom gained through experience in the hopes that it may be
useful for your life, deaths of self, and transformation. We’re
excited to go through this deep voyage with those of you who
are change agents, visionaries, and transformers, whether you
know this about yourself yet or not.