Stuff happened.
Field Notes 20260612 - Friday
A low-key theme has been running this week, and today was no exception. Instead of going on my longest run of the week, I got up at the same time as usual and spent three hours trimming trees and hauling debris. It needed to be done, and before the temperatures started to climb into the 90s and beyond. The lemon tree was my biggest foe this morning and I’m fairly beat up from that “exercise”.
Needless to say, I knew what kind of a session I was approaching this afternoon with depleted energy reserves.
Today’s Field Notes illustration:
The Emperor is the fourth card of the major arcana and the Rider-Waite-Smith deck’s portrait of structure itself. Pamela Colman Smith renders him as an armored figure seated on a stone throne, ram heads carved at its corners as the mark of Aries, an ankh scepter in one hand and an orb in the other. Behind him rise barren, ungiving mountains; at his feet runs a thin ribbon of water. The card speaks to order, authority, and the discipline that turns raw impulse into lasting form. Where the Empress before him is growth, the Emperor is the container that growth requires. As a meditation focus, his lesson is less about command than about foundation — the routines, boundaries, and steady structures that make deeper exploration possible. Armor under the robe, stone under the seat.
Afternoon
Meditation
- 40 Minutes.
- The Gateway Experience, Free Flow Journey in Focus 21.
Based on how my morning went and how much I was craving a quiet “lay down” after lunch, I figured this wasn’t going to be as deep of a trance session as I typically like them to be. Instead of fighting to keep my awareness sharp, I went with an easier assignment: a guided free flow session for Focus 21 (bridge).
I’ve done this one a few times in the past; it’s genuinely a really good guided session with a good chunk of time at the end for your own exploration. Given the low energy levels, I figured this was the best shot at an F21 session, but I also knew not to expect too much.
Mostly everything went fine, prep was good, and by the time I got to the “free flow” portion, that’s when the deficit hit the hardest. It was difficult keeping my attention sharp and avoiding engaging with hypnagogic scenes. The scenes themselves that eventually would turn into mini-dreams weren’t random, but I do not remember them.
I did have just enough active awareness to cast the following query: “Show me the cup.” Since I rarely get traction with open queries during the trance session itself, this was honestly the only goal of today, and I succeeded in pushing it to all parts of my consciousness, and in all ways.
So, I have a good feeling “stuff happened”, but my access was limited by my overall physical state affecting other faculties. Again, this has been a strong theme for a while recently and nothing I haven’t experienced before. Plenty of sessions ahead!
