Alice in Wonderland Meditation: a themed walkthrough and guide to exploring your inner Wonderland
How I got the idea
I meditate for different purposes. To ground myself in my home frequency. To cleanse myself of psychic and energetic baggage. To work through a seriously daunting emotion. One of the things I do is that I allow my imagination to guide me to interact with the various archetypes that are present in my life right now, to gain better insight about my current experience and to learn from that experience. This morning as I meditated, I took myself to the depths of Wonderland by descending down the magical rabbit hole. And before I drifted off into the fantastical realm, hey, why not create a walkthrough for visualization and meditation exercises...with Alice in Wonderland as a theme? I mean, I have themed tarot readings, so why not themed meditation walkthroughs?
This walkthrough will resemble an archeyptal journey, in which you descend into "Wonderland" (your subconscious, your psyche, an experience, a memory). You can use this guide as a general exercise and see where your imagination takes you: you may encounter the nutty White Rabbit, because you may be consumed with deadlines. You may meet the Mad Hatter and the March Hare as you try to break free from the invasave chaos that is overtaking your life right now. Who knows--you may even dream up original characters that symbolize certain dynamics that are present in your life.
You can also use this guide to address a specific memory, issue, or relationship.
This walkthrough requires you to be open, and to settle into a meditative daydreaming. It also requires you to be honest and non-judgmental towards the images that you are going to see in your mind's eye. It might help if you take out the Moon card from your favourite deck to get you into the zone.
And also, just so you know--don't expect to see the images in total clarity, like an inner HD movie. What you see with your inner eye is more impressionistic, with highlights or strong vibrations of colour. It's more about what you intuitively register. It's very liquid, and very drifty. At least this is the case in my own experience. I am sharing this not to limit what you may see but I want you to know that if you don't see a magical movie play out in your head with all the colours on the spectrum--you don't need to be disappointed, as in like "daww I just don't have any spiritual powers". These types of experiences are so personal and for all I know your meditative experience could be highly scent oriented and sound oriented.
As you go through this meditation and visualization exercise, it's a pretty good idea to keep a voice recorder nearby, as you can blurt out whatever it is that you are feeling, seeing or interacting without any interruption.
Anyhoo. Enough babble. Let's begin! Please feel free to change or modify any of these instructions to suit your own meditative practice.
BEGIN
Begin your meditation as you normally would. Start with a prayer to your spirit guide. Ground and centre. Cast a circle. But if you don't really have a set intro to your meditation, this is how you can begin. Sit or lie down comfortably. Take a few deep breaths to settle into your body. Relinquish the control that you have over your physical self. You are no longer a centralized skeleton with limbs to move. You are a cloud, a consciousness, pure energy. You sink into your body and melt into it. You engulf it like a dream, like soft breezes in a forest, like ocean water. You feel into your own depth. And in the corner of your eye, you see the White Rabbit.
You are like Alice, heeding the White Rabbit's call, you follow its hurried footsteps and arrive at the rabbit hole. The White Rabbit beckons. He says that you are needed in Wonderland and asks you to prepare yourself.
As you approach, hold the purpose of this meditation in your mind. (Are you entering Wonderland to heal, to find a solution, or to explore? Are you addressing a particular relationship, an incident or a memory?) Visualize the rabbit hole. What does it look like? How do you feel as you approach? Note down your feeling for reflection later. How you feel walking towards the entrance of Wonderland may reflect how you feel about the issue at hand.
You fall through the rabbit hole. Leaves, dried-up branches snapped and rustled past you as you descend into a whirlwind of darkness. There is no gravity here. The laws of physics don't apply. The fall seems to last forever, when at last, you begin to slow, and alas! There is some light. A classical mirror levitates--or it appears to be levitating since it is falling at the same speed as you. As it hovers, you hear a voice next to your ear: You get to choose how you will enter Wonderland.
Choose your costume: what you will wear, what you will bring to Wonderland. You can imagine yourself in Alice's iconic blue dress, borrowing her archetype as you descend into Wonderland. You can imagine yourself in comfortable sweat pants and a t-shirt, as this meditation is meant to be a relaxing exercise. You can equip yourself with a gun, a tea-pot cannon, or a dragon-slaying sword for you know once you set foot in Wonderland, you will fight the Jabberwocky. Whatever it is, imagine yourself as the best version of yourself with everything that you need for this particular trip. If you're not sure, imagine a vast open sky within your heart-centre, and set the intention for growth, adventure, and fun.
Now that you have chosen which version of yourself you are bringing into Wonderland, you look down and see that you are fastly approaching the ground.
Where are you landing? In the round little room with the Drink Me Bottles and Eat Me Cakes, or in a open field of grass? Are you in Queen of Heart's royal palace, or the solemn Wonderland Court? This place doesn't have to be a location that preexists in the fictional Wonderland. It can be a scene of your own making. You can be standing on top of a continent-sized mushroom, the back of a sea-turtle, or inside a rainbow-coloured bubble. Allow your imagination to build the landscape for you. Note down the texture and details of the landscape for reflections later. Note down how you arrive (did you stumble, land gracefully, or did a Wonderland creature rescue you?) The construction of the landscape may reflect how you perceive the external circumstances surrounding your issue. How you land and how you enter Wonderland may speak to your attitudes about getting closer to the heart of the issue.
Once you have landed, a resident of the Wonderland signals for your attention and approaches you for a conversation. Visualize the character, the creature or being that comes near you. Notice their appearance, their mannerisms, and how they approach you. Allow yourself to interact with this character. Who is this character? What does this character represent? Here are some questions you can ask upon its approach:
Who are you? Why are you here? Do you have any messages for me? What am I here to learn? What can I learn from you?
Allow your imagination and intuition to flow. Whatever it is: words, fragments, nonsense, random images--allow them to surface. Do not judge them and do not censor them. Remember, you are protected. This is your Wonderland. You are here to learn and explore. It is a journey for your highest good. Do not be afraid or flustered. Allow yourself to be touched by whatever emotion or insight that reaches you. Interact with them metaphorically. If the character attacks you and bears malevolent intent, you can visualize the Vorpal Sword and deflect its strikes. Pay attention what your imagination is bringing up. If your first instinctual move is to bend the knee and surrender to the attacker, then that is a useful piece of information to remember. Perhaps this is telling you that you're not used to defending your boundaries when people are being nasty to you.
Or, if your Wonderland experience isn't unfolding so intensely: if the creature invites you for afternoon tea in a friendly manner, you can either accept the invitation or decline it. Maybe you feel paranoid that the Mad Hatter is going to throw a brainless fiasco and disrupt the proper routines and etiquette of a tea ceremony. Again, pay attention to how you feel and what these images are bringing up inside of you. This image may be telling you that you tend to have perfectionist tendencies when it comes to getting things done, or it could represent your frustration with some of your friends who keep making false promises when you are supposed to be hanging out and doing an activity together.
Once you are done interacting with the character, end the exchange with a prayer of gratitude. Say to the character, "I appreciate the time and energy that you've spent with me. Thank you for helping me grow/heal/problem-solve. I hope to converse with you (or never!) again." Something like that. Say this in your own words. It doesn't have to be any way that is not a reflection of who you are. If you are a "Catch you later, bruh! That was really awesome!" or "See you laters alligators!" type of person, say that. Say whatever it is that is in your heart at that moment.
If you're not exactly "grateful" of the exchange (maybe you've just been royally crushed by the Jabberwocky), depending on how you are feeling as this meditation draws to a close, you can even say, "Fuck you! I am so mad that you did this to me!" While acknowledging your negative sentiments (which is an important thing to do--you don't want to pretend to be in a rejuvenating, jovial good mood when you're not), you should still say something that has a more empowering tone. For example, "Fuck you! I HATE YOU but it's good for me so I am going to try my best to work through this clusterfuck of shit that you just threw me! SERIOUSLY BYE."
Whatever it is that you want to say to the character, be honest, then use your words or a prayer to remind yourself that you are in the seat of your power, and that the positive experience that you have just had is reminding you of all the good things you need to cherish in your life, or the negative experience that you just had is giving you an opportunity to release the hurt, resentment and anger that you have felt. Whatever it is, leave the conversation with words that remind you that you are a powerful being capable of choice.
As you depart, take a few deep breaths. Imagine yourself exiting Wonderland in whatever manner you see fit. Summon an elegant carriage pulled by majestic unicorns. Do a Superman pose and shoot off into the sky. Snap your fingers and teleport back to wherever you are meditating. Cry for your Spirit Guides to appear and drag you out of there because you are still being crushed by the Jabberwocky's foot. However you choose to leave is up to you. Allow your imagination to escort you out of Wonderland. Note down the scenes you conjured for reflection later.
And you are back. Back into your body. Back from Wonderland. What treasures, wisdom, objectives have you brought back from your trip?
Share your experiences down in the comments below!
I would love to hear about your experiences in "Wonderland"! What "costume" did you choose? Which character (or characters) did you encounter? What did you learn? Do you have any questions about this walkthrough? Or do you have any suggestions that will help improve this walkthrough? Let me know! :)
