Ritual · “Repetition Rewires”
Treasure Mapping
Build a single deliberately composed picture (drawn or collaged) showing the wish already fulfilled, charge it with concentrated feeling, and contemplate it daily so the image sinks into the deep mind.
Treasure Mapping: Pick one clear wish. Make a single picture — drawn or collaged — showing it already fulfilled, with you in it, in the present, wholly positive. In a relaxed state, gaze at it and pour joyful, fulfilled feeling into it. Look at it daily with that same feeling, then let go and take action. One objective, charged with feeling, contemplated and released.
What it is
Treasure Mapping is Denning & Phillips’s signature externalised-imagery method from The Llewellyn Practical Guide to Creative Visualization (1980). A “treasure map” is one deliberately composed picture — drawn, painted, or collaged from cut-out images and words — that shows your wish already fulfilled, with you in it, in the present tense. Unlike a sprawling mood-board of many vague aspirations, their version is disciplined: a single, focused objective per map, composed with care, then charged by gazing at it with concentrated positive feeling and contemplated daily so the image is impressed on the deep mind.
It is their bridge between trained inner visualization and a physical anchor — the picture exists so the imagination has a fixed, repeatable form to return to.
The Method
A faithful summary of Denning & Phillips’s treasure-map procedure (short attributed phrases only):
- Choose one clear objective. One wish per map, defined and specific — not a scatter of hopes. They warn against vagueness and against mixing many unrelated desires on one sheet, which divides the force of the imagination.
- Decide the materials. Either draw/paint the scene yourself or assemble it as a collage from magazine images, photographs, and lettering. Skill at art is not required; clarity of intention is.
- Put yourself in the picture, fulfilled. The scene shows the wish as already accomplished, in the present, with you present and enjoying it — not “I want this” but “this is so.” Use a real likeness of yourself where you can.
- Compose it positively and completely. Include the desired result and the feeling-tone around it; keep the imagery wholly affirmative (no images of the lack, the problem, or the “before”). Add a short present-tense affirmation or title if it helps.
- Charge the map. In a relaxed, settled state, gaze at the finished picture and pour concentrated, joyful feeling into it — see it as real, feel the satisfaction of the accomplished wish. The feeling is the operative ingredient, not the artwork.
- Contemplate it daily, then release. Place the map where you’ll see it (or keep it private and revisit deliberately). Look at it daily for a short while with the same fulfilled feeling — then let go of anxious checking and take practical action toward the goal. Repetition impresses the image; clutching it re-asserts lack. (Sourcing note: technique name “treasure map” and the one-objective / charged-contemplation shape are Denning & Phillips’s, attributed; descriptions are faithful paraphrase, not reproduction.)
Source & Lineage
Melita Denning (Vivian Godfrey, 1920-1997) and Osborne Phillips (Leon Barcynski, b. 1942), senior officers of the Aurum Solis, wrote the Llewellyn Practical Guide to Creative Visualization (1980) to teach trained imagination as a structured discipline rather than vague positive thinking.
The treasure map is their physical-anchor form of that discipline, drawing the older New Thought “mental picture” lineage into a Hermetic frame.
The Traditions' versions
The externalised picture of the wish recurs widely; Denning & Phillips’s version is distinguished by its single-objective discipline and the explicit charging-with-feeling step: - Generic vision board / treasure map — the looser modern collage of many aspirations; Denning & Phillips insist on one focused objective per map.
- Gawain’s “treasure maps” — same lineage, gentler/energetic framing; she popularised the term for the New Age generation.
- Assaraf’s vision board — a contemporary structured version with explicit emotional engagement.
- Behrend’s “write and destroy the picture” — the inner mental picture impressed then released, without a permanent physical object.
Common refinements
Cramming many wishes onto one map. Denning & Phillips’s whole discipline is one objective per map; a crowded board dilutes focus.
- Picturing the “before.” Include only the fulfilled result; images of the lack or problem re-impress exactly what you don’t want.
- Making it once and forgetting it. The repetition and re-charging are the active part; an unvisited map is just a poster.
- Cold, feeling-less gazing. The concentrated positive feeling is the operative ingredient — a flat look does little.
- Anxious checking. Looking constantly to see “is it working?” re-asserts lack; contemplate, then release and act.
- Treating it as a substitute for action. Use the map to clarify and energise, then do the practical work.