The Women’s Shamanic Circle that I began attending in the past couple months is having a Dark Moon Esbat this week. To prepare for the Circle, we have been given homework. We are to journey to our Sacred Space with the intention of discovering where we are going, what is our next step in life, and who we are becoming. Last night, I chose to go on this journey.
I prepared for this journey the same way that I do all of my journeys. I cast a circle and sat in meditation. Then I entered my Inner Sacred Space as soon as I felt my mind was free and quieted. Once there, I saw the same stairway in the ground that I had seen on a previous journey, less than a week ago (it is documented in this blog as well.) Being not afraid of the “Underworld,” I did not hesitate but began walking down the stairs.
The stairs were different this time, however. In my previous meditation, there was a stopping point with a gate which I attempted to pass, but was jarred out of my journey before this was possible. In this journey, there was no gate, only stairs that stretched on seemingly forever.
I, in my waking physical life, am a bit claustrophobic. In my inner and astral worlds, I am not, but the passageway kept getting smaller, and I truly descended a ridiculous number of stairs. I started feeling truly claustrophobic, and found myself considering turning around and RUNNING back up to ground level. I was worrying about being stuck down there, which has never happened to me. I have never had any sort of fear within a meditation.
Journeying is not a new thing for me. I have been a lucid dreamer since I was a wee child, and have lived between worlds for longer than that. As such, I know that I will not encounter anything that I do not have the power to deal with, especially with my guides present. This being the case, I was able to reason away my fears and continue deeper.
After confronting this fear, I did not have to journey much longer before I came to a large, open world. All around were crystal formations that sparkled and gave light to this space. There was water trickling beneath my feet, and cattails were growing here and there. There was no one else there, only me. At one point I did encounter one of my totem animals, the frog. I was please to see him there, as he has not been present in any of my recent journeys. In addition to the frog, I saw a dragonfly. (I have always had a love for dragonflies, they are not a totem, but they do appear as a theme at very specific points in my life, and I feel they are a very good sign for me.)
This space was so serene and comforting, I stayed there for a while just walking and playing. I was getting ready to journey back, close my circle, and return to bed, but another scene began to play out as I reached the top of the stairway. I was in a city. This city was immense in size. I was walking down the street, in some very lovely shoes I must add. I got to a door in a very large building. As I walked in, there were a couple of ladies that greeted me by name. They took my coat and began preparing me to enter the next doorway beyond the initial one. Then I came out of the journey.
It is customary for me to do a tarot and or rune reading every day. This morning, I wanted clarification about my journey, so I chose to do a tarot reading. I picked up my deck, shuffled, and chose a card. It was the Hermit. I was not terribly suprprised.
In the interest of clarification, or more information, I chose three more cards. Let me emphasize, before I state which cards those were, I have had this deck for a while. I have shuffled it countless times, and made certain they are in random order. As such, you can imagine my shock when I pulled the Page, Ten, and Nine of Pentacles in succession. Hello Universe, I am Listening!