THE DIGGING METHOD / as outlined by Carl Jung

In your customary meditation station, relaxed pose and low lighting, close your eyes

Picture yourself in a familiar and safe place, outside, in daytime - a backyard, a meadow, a grove, a garden

Note the sensations - the sunlight filtering through trees, the breeze on your skin, bugs droning, birds chirping

In your hands you comfortably grasp a shovel

Break the earth, driving out wedge after wedge

You are digging a hole

As the dirt piles up around the rim, you pass below daylight and into shadow

Descending deeper and deeper

As you progress, you may unearth things, remains and artifacts, buried in the soil

Take note and move on - as long as there is still dirt under your shovel, keep digging

Allow what surfaces to surface but don't stop until you hit bedrock and can dig no further

When you hit the bottom, set your shovel down and look around

You have reached the nadir, the lowest boundary of your conscious awareness

If there is a door, pass through it, otherwise just wait

Dwell in this space for as long as you are able and allow all that happens to happen

You may encounter entities, ancestors, objects, scenarios, forms, ideas, landscapes, memories, dreams

You may apprehend things both familiar and totally alien

Hold it all and do your best to remember everything

When it is time to leave, call down a rope into the hole with you, grab onto it and let it pull you up

When you reach the surface, you may wish to picture the hole filling in again or you may simply end the experience

Open your eyes, return gently to your surroundings

With as much detail as possible, make note of everything that you unearthed

Reserve all judgement - you are only the observer, the witness

You are morally responsible only for your actions, not the things encountered in your mind