Tag: patterns

The Great Game Handbook: How to Play and Level One

The Great Game Handbook: How to Play and Level One

Originally posted on my Patreon page, July 9, 2026.

Welcome to the Great Game Handbook for the Light Congress!

When I first began my explorations into the other worlds, I didn’t know that what I was experiencing was a universal journey, one which has been codified by religions and philosophers the world over. It felt brand new to me as if I was the only one who had ever had this type of experience.

However, through time and various life events, I quickly realized that I am on a path to self knowledge that every one travels. Throughout your life journey you will face challenges and certain developmental steps if you live long enough, very much like the physical body goes through the process of puberty and aging.

Lucky for us, philosophers like Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell have mapped out parts of this journey through their work. By applying their frameworks to my writings of The Light Congress, I have found that various gates lead to key points in a seeker’s spiritual development.

Read on for some amateur analysis of the symbolism from the Light Congress based on both Jung and Campbell’s theories. (And my own personal life story behind the visions as the author of the Light Congress.)

The Great Game: an Introduction

Have you ever noticed certain patterns or symbols appearing in your life again and again?

Have you ever felt connected to the world and people around you in some indefineable way that makes perfect sense to you when it happens but later, when you look back at the experience, feels unreal?

Have you ever wished you knew why you were born?

If you have, this is your entry ticket to the worst kept secret on the planet. Welcome, friends, to what has been called the Great Game.

The name itself is up for debate, but the game itself is undeniable. If you are alive, you are playing, whether you know it or not.

How does one engage in the universal game? Easy answer, existing. Did you eat today? That’s a game. Did you get dressed? Another game. Do you work a job? That’s one of the biggest games of all.

Breathing is its own special category in the game. Some cultures have even worked with this basic biological function with explorations into manipulating the breath in a mini-game called meditation, but you see my point.

Every moment, you are engaging with reality in some way and, from a level of universal spirit, this is participation in the game of life.

Making the Universal, Personal

How do I usually engage with the Great Game? I write and look for meaning in what I write. I walk around and look for meaning in the world. I listen carefully to others and music, allowing their wisdom and understanding to become a part of my experience through shared time and space.

I take mental notes of what happens to me during the day. What made me feel something strongly or react in a manner I do not usually act in?

If whatever I noticed enters my experience again in life or dreams, usually going through a similar moment is enough of a prompt to bring all of that prior learning and knowledge back to my mind. I like to interpret these similarities or patterns as a hi or a simple hello from my Inner Worlds to my Outer.

There’s something to learn here, I can almost hear the spirits say. Are you learning, Heidi?

Using this manner of quiet observation and acknowledgment of both my inner thoughts and feelings while living what’s going on outside of me, I go about my day in a sort of dual mode, uniting my conscious and subconscious mind in one form.

That’s my favorite way of playing.

Beyond my writings about the Light Congress and its associated symbols, I also pick symbols out of the art, media, and real world around me. You can find my personal symbols for the Great Game at the end of the reviews of film and books that I’ve shared on my Patreon page.

What’s the point of that? Well, some say the Great Game is built upon recognition and associations between concepts. It is a lot of fun too- to realize you are part of an intrepid group of consciousness explorers who have been around since humankind has had the ability to perceive their surroundings and express these inner experiences to those around them.

How to Play

Pick a symbol, any symbol. Look at that garden gate, we say to ourselves. What does that make you think of? What pops into your head when you see it?

  • That’s a hi from spirit
  • A gate to another world
  • An escape
  • An opportunity
  • A protective device
  • Sign of civilization, etc. etc.

You can immediately go down the rabbit holes into the associated symbolism listed above or stick with a further exploration of a garden gate like so- Do you remember any other media in which a garden gate appears?

If nothing comes to mind, you can always search the internet, but I generally find my most unexpected and personal connections by examining my initial impressions first without a search engine’s assistance.

  • The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
  • Garden of Eden
  • The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
  • Little Women film from 1994

Now you have a couple of different works of art connected by a single concept. Are there any further associations that pop into your mind when you see your list? When was the last time you watched that film, read that book? If you read or watched it again right now, would you focus on the same concepts or learn something new from your new point of understanding in the Great Game?

Once you have a baseline for yourself, consider adding another player to the game. Are you with someone right now? What do they think of when they see the same garden gate that started our current round of play? How are their impressions different from yours?

And that is how the game is played.

With this style of game play, you have endless paths of learning and discovery available to you. This applies to the world and people around you, but also yourself.

I’ve discovered all sorts of interesting associations in this manner. Generally, it is a total surprise too.

Would you like to get started? Choose your own symbols and make your own meaning out of the hodge-podge of constant stimulation that is reality.

It’s that easy. Welcome to the paths of self knowledge and the Great Game!

Parting Thoughts

I hope that you find yourself in these pages in order to form a new understanding of shared spiritual experience rather like a D&D guide for the spiritual explorer.

Pick and choose your symbols and look for them in the world around you. Assign whatever meaning you want to them or use the meanings listed in the handbook.

Record these symbols somehow. Do you like to write? Journal. Not a writer? Take a photo or video. Neither method appeals? Tell someone, preferrably someone you love, but the stranger standing next to you in line at the grocery store works too.

If you see one of my symbols, please interpret it as a friendly “Hi!” from the Light Congress to you. Heck, give yourself an extra point or two- whatever that means to you.

Keeping score is another game, one which I don’t play in the traditional manner. If I feel like I did everything I could to be the best version of myself I can be on any given day, then I win! On the days when I don’t, there’s always tomorrow.

Until the tomorrows run out.

I hope you have fun on your journey and remember to be kind as you’re running the Great Game. We are all on the same game board, even if it seems otherwise.

Thanks for reading,

Heidi

For the rest of this blog post and a discussion of Level One, see my original Patreon post: https://www.patreon.com/TheLightCongress/posts/great-game-how-163383541

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