[Mapping] Forests of the Gods/spirits

[Akhila]

I don't know where to start, so I decided to go through my records and pick-up a place I visited/journeyed to, and if it rings a bell to anyone we could cross first impressions and ideas, gather whatever we know about related places and just discuss and go from there.

I want to say I'm sorry that my conscious memories/knowledge is so full of holes; this is very specific to my practice of journeying which rely heavily on dreamwalking, and I have a confidence and memory over there that I cannot rely on fully when I'm awake, for now (something that I'm trying to work on). I have visited a vast array of places, but cannot detail everything unless I'm on "dreamwalking" state again. I actually remember dreams better than these; this is pretty much like a security/safety mechanism.

So, sorry for any vagueness for this and my future entries. : ) What I do write, I am sure about, if not I let the reader know.


How I got there

First of all, I don't think I was with any animal guide at the time, but I was travelling/journeying with a small group of individual I met dreamwalking (I think there are a couple of individuals I meet regulary) so I wasn't entierely on my own (we were 4). To access this forest, we had to bargain/play with a gambling demon/spirit to pass a test and be given a sort of key. I suspect that more experienced shamanists have guides willing to carry them directly or other, safer ways to access the place than bargain with such gatekeeper spirits.

Just for the records, what we played was a sort of chess game, and we found our way through this - from what I remember, it was another helpful individual or spirit that had told us how to do beforehand. I think I was the one who had been told and knew, because it wasn't my first time coming.

The gambling spirit wasn't very benevolent but accepted his defeat, and gave us a bunch of little rocks that were deep blue in colour, as well as a feline figurine and a necklace of the same material. [In my records, I wrote "lapis-lazuli" for the necklace and I just checked for colour, I think now that all items were made of this.] I'm not sure which of the element was the key, but I think I needed all those items for future bargains or other uses in the otherworlds. The spirit opened a door that led us through an abandonned urban landscape which itself opened to the actual forest.

In retrospect, I'm glad we didn't fail the test because I'm not sure what the demon-spirit would have done; this seemed very dangerous at the time.

From where we came, the forest seemed in the middle of the urban landscape, but I think it was more like two places connected to each other rather than one single land; but it does put the emphasis on the liminal aspect of an already liminal setting (the forest). The urban place was more like a tunnel or way that had enabled us to get there, but I think the gatekeeper and how we came there can be relevant to the actual place we're mapping.


What was it like

This was very much a sacred forest, and not just a forest relating to an existing physical place. It was a haven of some sort for a lot of different forest spirits, and the place felt really good overall (at least from my point of view). The trees were very old and very high (sequoia-tall, but not conifers), some light was passing through the foliage, but mainly the ground area was darker and cooler than the top. Moss was covering everything, and the air was pretty moist, though this wasn't an equatorial forest. (Although the forest felt "welcoming", I can't tell if this was the case for all the individual spirits we could have crossed there; probably not).

I could hear insect and birdy songs, though the atmosphere was rather quiet. It was just not "silent". On each trunk of those huge trees was a sort of engraved mask or symbol ressembling a mask, related to a specific animal. Some related to existing animals, some to animals I've never heard of, but which names I sometimes seemed to know but that did not fit with a specific earthly animal that exists or has existed (I remember specifically a sort of pale iguana/bearded dragon cross with some unusual features).

We walked a lot of tracks/paths through the forest to reach a specific animal spirit and complete a specific task, but I didn't remember any of those after I woke up. Perhaps it was related to my feline figurine, but I honestly can't remember. Originally we went there to help/heal one of the individuals in the group. There was a lot of pathways leading to other places as well. This seemed very much like both a hidden place and a crossroad between different worlds. I know that if I was taken back to that place, I would remember everything, from what I learned to how to return on my own; but this is the skill and discipline that I'm lacking right now.

Anyway I hope my input still offers a good starting place to discuss otherwordly places. I assume this one is located in the middleworlds but let me know what you think and let's talk about if you've visited a similar place (forest of the gods/spirits), and what it was like for you, what you performed and such.
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http://akhila.feralscribes.org/

[Paleo]

I've never been to a place such as you described, so this is just musing and speculation on my part. The fact that you say you had to pass through an urban setting to get to the forest realm makes me suspect that this realm might have an Earth-based anchor...a place that was forest but is now city.

When you met the gambling spirit, did it seem like he was "just doing his job" or do you feel like he maliciously wanted you to fail? Maybe there is a way to bypass meeting him and others like him (certainly worth looking into), but some realms might have a hard rule about having to be tested to enter.

[Akhila]

The city felt like a distinct world/area and was not or did not seem part of the forest itself. The limits/borders between the two felt pretty clear though there was some steps merging with each other; you were walking among buildings and poof, then you were walking between trees. It was an abandonned city, but the forest was more ancient than that. The atmosphere felt quite different and that's what I'd say intuitively, that they're not the same place, though connected to each other. Additionnally, it felt more like the forest was bound to extend into the city and claim the territory, rather than the other way around.

I didn't stop to think about what was this urban-world and it is true that it may have an earth-based anchor; at the time it only felt like a backdoor to access the forest-world, not a place of interest in itself, so I only walked through it with the other people and we did not stop. It may be an interesting question to explore to find out. : )

I didn't think much of it but there may be a reason why this specific spirit is keeping this specific door leading to the forest through an urban landscape, instead of another type of access/world. I've never through about it before, but there probably is much meaning into this. The chaotic aspect of both the spirit and the landscape... yeah. Probably another kind of gatekeeper spirit would access to a different type of world? Or a different world would be related to a different sort of gatekeeper. This is all suppositions, I had never thought much of it before.

Concerning the forest, it seemed connected to a lot of different worlds, with a lot of different pathways, and I can't tell if all of them had gatekeepers, and if they do, if being tested is a hard rule to enter. Afterwards I supposed that I had to use this way because I seemingly had no totem or spirit to carry me directly to the forest, and such alternate methods. The place doesn't seem easy to access, for sure, so whatever the method used to enter, it serves as a test in itself - apparently I couldn't do this alone and required the help of others, or at least we needed each others and went together; and apparently we also had to ask other spirits for tips (about etiquette and the specific test as well), so there was a network support there that not everybody may have.

Just like being a shamanist and having spirit helpers to assist you isn't given to just anybody, or they may refuse to assist you for certain tasks. This is the same sort of selection to me, and what you say is true in that the access to this forest is definitively restricted in that way. I just don't know if my way was the only way, and I felt more like I could have done differently if I was skilled enough, but I may be wrong. ^^' This is a good question as well.

I honestly don't know if the spirit was "just doing this job" or trying to be malicious. It didn't feel clearly cut like that, in that it looked like both. I don't know what were his domains of influence other than what I just saw (the gambling/game and gatekeeper aspects), but he was the man of the situation for our problem and we didn't have the choice. He also was pretty fair since he respected the fact we won, but he certainly didn't feel like someone you would trust.
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http://akhila.feralscribes.org/

[Akhila]

I'd think this was a more commonly known place : / I almost started with my "forest of the dead" type of journey instead of this one, but I have more chunks of memory missing about it...

Nobody ever visited this sort of forest of the gods/spirits in my original post? : (
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http://akhila.feralscribes.org/

[bewylderbeast]

[Ravenari]

I haven't been here, but I WANT to visit here, and it's on my mental list of places to check out once the whole Ehrembi debacle is over.

The whole masks-affixed-to-trees thing is what won me over.

[darakat]

I feel that I have been to a similar place under the guidance of one of my guides about a year or so ago. I think it was in relation to retrieving a object I lost in the other-worlds and needed to get back, but I will have to check through my archives.
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µ!

[Akhila]

[darakat]