In this meditation,
You will travel through time to meet an ancient wise ancestor,
Who represents the best qualities of the virtues archetype which is embodied in your upper left wisdom tooth,
Or the space where that tooth would be.
This may be an ancestor from your family lineage,
From the indigenous lineage of the land where you are,
Or an ancestor by affinity.
Before we start,
Take a moment to get in a really comfortable position,
Sitting or lying,
Whatever feels best for you right now.
When you feel settled,
Close your eyes.
Take a slow deep breath in through your nose,
Feeling your lungs fill and your belly rise and then fall as you breathe out through your nose,
Feeling warm air trickle across your top lip.
Following your breath with your attention,
All the way in and all the way out.
Slow,
Steady breathing.
With your tongue,
Or just your attention,
Touch your upper left wisdom tooth,
Or the space at the back of your mouth where that wisdom tooth would be.
With relaxed curiosity and an open mind,
Invite the essence of your upper left wisdom tooth,
The virtues archetype,
To meet with you.
Picture yourself in a garden full of herbs and flowers which support your health and happiness.
Breathe in the different scents.
Let your eyes linger on bright colours,
Intricate shapes and varied textures.
It's early morning in the garden when the air is fresh and clear.
Dew drops are still sparkling on petals in the soft light.
When you see a favourite flower growing abundantly and flowering profusely,
Reach out and pluck a single perfect bloom.
Gaze into the complexity of its petals and stamens.
Breathe in its distinctive scent.
Then tuck the flower gently into your buttonhole so it won't get crushed.
When you look up from your flower,
You see someone whom you love dearly from one generation older than you.
They are standing at the start of a long line of people,
Winding through the garden.
Your beloved elder extends their hand,
So you take it in yours,
Returning their warm smile.
Wordlessly,
They pass your hand back through time to someone loving from your grandparents' generation.
Feel the light touch of warm,
Dry fingers brushing yours.
Catch a glimpse of vintage clothing and relax with a tangible sense of their kindness.
Without hesitation,
This beloved elder of your grandparents' generation passes your hand along to the great-grandparent generation before them.
Now,
You are passing hand to hand through your lineage,
Back through the generations,
Moving faster and faster so that the centuries become a blur,
Yet you might also glimpse a stranger's face which reminds you of someone you know,
Or you might get a feel for a significant episode in the history of your lineage.
But mostly,
These many ancestors hand you off lovingly in a blur of strong hands that gently guide you back through time.
In these few moments,
You have magically travelled back through millennia,
Generation by generation,
Until,
At last,
The handovers start to slow and eventually,
You come to stillness.
In the presence of an ancient ancestor worthy of your respect,
The Virtues Archetype,
Your upper left wisdom tooth embodied.
Virtues is tending their own garden on the edge of a forest.
This wise ancestor looks up to assess you with a long glance that soon turns into a warm welcome when they recognise you as a relative returning.
Now,
Virtues beckons you inside their little home,
Into a shadowy,
Intimate space lit only by glowing embers in the hearth.
Your host bids you to sit by the fire,
Which they stoke with dry branches so that the flames start to leap and dance,
Crackling and casting shadows in the gloom.
They set a pot of clear water on the fire and crumble in a few fragrant herbs.
You offer them the flower you have carried from the garden in your own time and after looking at it with appreciation,
They add it to the pot.
You sit side by side with your wise ancestor,
Both gazing into flames below the pot of simmering herbs.
The flickering of light and shadow from the fire is mesmerising.
You feel soothed by the warm herbal scents filling the air.
As steam rises you can feel it carrying away any rigid self-judgement or harsh self-criticism that has ever influenced how you feel about yourself.
All that remains is how Virtues sees your inner essential goodness revealed in the clarity of kindness.
Your wise ancestor is sharing their insight about your access to the values that really matter,
Which are aligned with your truest self.
Virtues sees the parts of you which are generous and loving in your evaluation of what's right and what's wrong.
They trust you,
Trust your intuition,
Trust your body's inner guidance.
Let's pause now to allow space for any other insights your wise ancestor has for you today.
The flames are turning to embers under the bubbling pot of herbs,
Which is a distillation of Virtues' ability to see yourself from their timeless perspective.
Watch them filter the pure infusion into a small glass flask.
Then Virtues places a drop of the infusion over your heart so you can love yourself unconditionally.
A drop on your throat so that your inner dialogue is always kind and generous.
And a drop on the centre of your forehead so you can always discern what is true or not in other people's perceptions of you.
Finally Virtues places a drop on each of your palms.
You rub your hands together,
Feeling it soak in like a soothing balm.
They tuck the sealed flask into your pocket so that you can use its medicine again whenever you need to.
When that feels like sufficient time with Virtues for today,
Say farewell with gratitude,
Knowing you can return anytime you need to.
You walk back out into the daylight to see your ancestral lineage ready to guide you back to the present time.
As they hand you forward through the centuries,
The balm on your palms is shared with each ancestor so that its kind,
Generous,
Loving energy becomes part of your family's DNA.
When you land back into your healing garden where you started,
Tuck the little flask into a safe place in your memory as though filing it with the upper right wisdom tooth in your mind's archive.
Take a deeper breath and start to come back into the here and now,
Wriggling your fingers and toes,
Stretching,
Opening your eyes when you are ready.
Look around the space you are in,
Find something pleasant to rest your attention on for a moment.
You might like to take a few minutes now to journal about what you saw and learned while meeting the Virtues archetype of your upper left wisdom tooth before you forget.
I'd love to hear about your experience,
So feel free to share about this in the Secret Lives of Teeth discussion group on Insight Timer.
