The Intimacy & Sacredness of the Quiet Journey

As a facilitator, I have found its the quiet journeys that require the most sensitivity and attention from the guide. It’s easy to believe that big emotional expressions are the most challenging to support. Yet although big emotions require a skilled capacity to support regulation with compassionate care- they are by their very nature, direct and explicit. The inner work taking place in the quiet journeys is deep, subtle, and highly nuanced. An intimate challenge for those stewarding that vulnerable space.

When the medicine encourages someone into a state of distilled silence – Although by appearances they appear calm, there is often a very delicate teaching taking place by their healing intelligence. Work that moves down beneath the attentive mind into the deeper recesses of the subconscious and even soul orientation of the journeyer.

There is also a rapt sensitivity to all aspects of the ecosystem. Attunement to music, sounds, and scents is profoundly amplified – and in my experience, the very presence and awareness state of the guide is also acutely felt. As a ceremonialist, I often feel guided by an inner intuitive sense in these spaces – igniting a dance of both action & inaction to curate an environment of steadfast alliance in the labyrinth of their inner landscape. A psychic link is established, and a shared coherence. And in that precious space, I can think of no greater gift of courage, trust and vulnerability by a client to the facilitators care.

Unless a guide is aware of the depth, breadth and profundity of that inner landscape themselves (including the shadow aspects) – It is very difficult to support the delicacy of what is genuinely transpiring. That’s why essential training is not solely in therapeutic knowledge, but learning to listen in the deep silence – to discover the unique “song” of each journey and become a harmonic steward and not a disruptive agent in its unfolding. This is a delicate artistry, that evolves through numerous attunements to the intelligence of the medicine in both embodied and supportive ways. It’s a patient and humbling rites of passage into the power of stillness. Yet for those who drop down into the quiet timeless soul odyssey of a non-dual medicine journey, it makes all the difference in the potential healing impact in that timeless sacred expanse.

Art By Jay Coby