Before setting out on a journey, like a pilgrimage to Lindisfarne for example, it’s wise to make preparations – in my case filling the tank with petrol, checking the route map to get there, arranging a place to stay etc. All sensible practical planning to ensure a favourable (and comfortable) outcome, while also accepting that circumstances can change so it’s wise to be prepared for the unexpected. All well and good in the scientific/physical world, but what about travelling in the Otherworld, the world of the psyche and emotion, I certainly didn’t have a route map for that. When it came calling in the form of existential crisis it was disorientating, unbalancing and frightening to discover that the world I once held dear was built on some dodgy foundations. I was unprepared for dealing with it, it was an awakening in shamanic terms, where the old self was dismembered, lying in pieces around me like so much rubble in a period of psychological distress, emotional turbulence and restless nights filled with vivid dreams. It seemed I had been called, but would I answer; for Matrix lovers this was like a red pill/blue pill time for me, but I wasn’t really in a position to choose yet. I needed to find a way of building a new bridge between the two worlds as psychological preparation to continue the journey of life.