Imagination · “Feel It Real”
The Four Inner Temples & Faery Contact
Build, in guided imagination, a four-fold inner temple keyed to the directions and elements — and from that established sacred ground, make respectful contact with faery and otherworld presences, receiving what arises while staying firmly bounded and grounded.
Four Inner Temples & faery contact: Light a flame; chant OAI three times on one steady tone to still time, space and movement. Align to East/Air, South/Fire, West/Water, North/Earth and the centre. Build one temple in vivid detail; move inward through its three courts as far as is right. Make respectful contact — greet, state purpose, receive. Close, extinguish the flame, record and ground. Built and held by your own mind.
What it is
Alongside the downward journey, R.J. Stewart teaches the building of a stable inner sacred ground from which contact with the otherworld is made.
In his Inner Temple meditations the imaginal space is organised four-fold by direction and element: East — Air, instruction and inspiration; South — Fire, initiation and illumination; West — Water, donation and reception; North — Earth, destruction and regeneration.
Each temple opens inward through three courts — an outer court of practical skills and forces, a middle court of deities and powers, and an inner court of pure spiritual communion. Established on this ground, the practitioner makes faery contact: in Earth Light and The Living World of Faery Stewart teaches visualization exercises — the Tree Below, the Four Cities, the Dark Goddess, the Weaver Goddess — “placed firmly in age-old Celtic traditions” and intended to “enable contact with otherworld beings.” Where a one-off journey passes through, the four temples are a kept, repeatable structure you return to; faery contact is the relational work done from within it.
The Method
A faithful working method drawn from Stewart’s Inner Temple and faery teaching:
- Set the sacred space. Light a candle as a focal flame — in Stewart’s framing the “terrestrial fire” is recognised as one with the “celestial fire.” Sit upright and settle.
- Still time, space and movement with the voice. Chant the vowel sound “OAI” three times, elongating the vowels on one steady tone — in Stewart’s teaching the three sounds serve to still time, draw space inward, and still movement. The toning quiets the system and opens the inner frame. (See the dedicated toning practice, below.)
- Align to the directions. Establish your alignment to East, South, West, North, and the still centre — the four-fold frame that holds the temple.
- Enter and build one temple. Choose one direction and build its temple in vivid, multi-sensory detail — its element, light, and atmosphere (Air/East, Fire/South, Water/West, Earth/North). On early visits you are making it; later you simply arrive. Move inward through the three courts only as far as is right for the session.
- Make contact. From this established ground, open to what is present — a guide, an otherworld figure, a faery contact, or one of the visionary forms (the Tree Below, a city of the Four Cities, the Dark or Weaver Goddess). Greet it with respect, state your purpose, and receive what arises. Stewart’s tone throughout is relational and courteous, not commanding.
- Close and return. Withdraw from the courts, thank what you met, and leave by the way you came. Gently extinguish the flame and return awareness to the outer world.
- Record and ground. Write the contact down at once and ground fully (light, movement, food). (Sourcing note: the four directional temples, their elements and three courts, the candle-flame sacred space, and the OAI vowel chant are from Stewart’s published Inner Temple meditations; the Tree Below, Four Cities, Dark Goddess and Weaver Goddess are the named faery visualizations of Earth Light. A faithful synthesis; the respectful, relational framing is his.)
Source & Lineage
R.J. Stewart (b. 1949) developed his faery and inner-temple work from Scottish and Celtic lore — Robert Kirk’s “secret commonwealth” of faery especially — within the North-Western mystery tradition he had practised since c.
1968, working with sacred space, the four elements, and inner contacts. The four directional temples and the OAI toning are from his Inner Temple meditations; the faery contact exercises (Tree Below, Four Cities, Dark Goddess, Weaver Goddess) are developed in Earth Light (1992) and The Living World of Faery (1995), with the land-contact work in Power Within the Land (1992).
Visualization is one of his five fundamental arts (with concentration, meditation, ritual pattern-making, and mediation).
The Traditions' versions
The kept-inner-location-plus-contact pattern recurs widely; Stewart’s version is distinctive in its four-fold elemental/directional temple, its Celtic faery contacts, and the OAI toning that opens it: - Inner temple & astral doorway (Ashcroft-Nowicki) — a kept inner location entered by a fixed doorway, the closest neighbour.
- Sphere group working (Florence Farr) — building a shared symbolic inner space.
- The Sacred Garden (Hank Wesselman) — a kept inner place for meeting inner contacts.
- Active imagination / working with inner figures (Jung) — relational engagement with autonomous inner figures.
Common refinements
Skipping the toning and the sacred-space set-up. The OAI chant and the flame are what shift you into the frame; without them the work stays shallow.
- Rushing the build. Construct the temple slowly and concretely on early visits; a vaguely sketched place won’t hold.
- Going too deep too soon. Move into the inner courts only as far as is right; don’t force the middle/inner court before the outer is stable.
- Commanding the contacts. Stewart’s whole tone is respectful and relational — greet, state purpose, receive; don’t summon and order.
- Treating figures as infallible. Engage seriously but with discernment.
- No clean close / no grounding. Always withdraw, extinguish the flame, and ground; never leave the working open.