Welcome to the next few moments of respite and tender care for the soul,
The heart and soul and holding deep space of gratitude for giving yourself this time of self care and finding a comfortable position to sit or lie,
Allowing yourself to sink a little deeper to the surface below you,
Allowing yourself to become more aware of the fabric under your feet,
A deepening in heaviness in the feet as you start to connect with earth's energy and perhaps place both hands over heart centre for a moment and hold gratitude for all that you are or if you've been,
Feeling that rise and fall of your breath,
Allowing a deepening with each breath and feeling that motion of restorative breath as if it's an ocean's gentle tide,
Breathing in as if the tide is coming in and breathing out as it ebbs away,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Creating your own flow,
Soothing,
Slowing,
Healing and as I lead in to this next part of your journey,
Allow the words of this meditative story to flow.
If thoughts come in,
Just acknowledge them and release them and come back to my voice,
Come back to your breath,
Come back to the story and allow your spirit and your heart to wander with the words.
The fire was soft with that kind of crackle that gets inside your soul,
This pungent heat weaving its path into the elevated fibres of my being and softly nestling in the depths of my body.
Gentle soft music surrounded me to the point where it was now part of my breath,
Part of my being.
The air had its own song but hummed melodiously in time with each passing moment.
I looked to my left where a man sat peacefully working with a rope and wood.
His presence was gentle and why.
Glorious hands lined with such wisdom that only the unique swirls of his journey could ever translate it.
With emotion of his own,
He said,
Remember your place,
Remember your journey,
Remember this moment.
As the words landed,
I tentatively replied,
What is my place?
I have forgotten.
His eyes creased with a sign of infinite lifetime and he said,
To be present,
To be now and to be nothing more than this moment.
I faltered,
But my past comes and troubles my mind.
It pulls me when I'm least expecting it.
With a gentle turn of his body,
He said,
The past is an illusion,
A trick to keep you from the now and test you to be present.
He swapped the rope in his hands.
Can you touch the past?
Can you become the past?
I breathe the night I see air.
No,
I replied.
He shifted for a moment,
Gently rocking to the motion of the flames and said,
It is your time to see.
I'm giving you a gift,
Trust.
I looked into the star thing night sky with such illumination of light that small tears journeyed down my face.
Far off,
I saw a form flying towards me.
It came closer with graceful sweeps and I saw that it was a magnificent raven.
With careful claws,
It took my soul.
We left my outer body resting at the warm glow of the fire and in the safe hands of the gentleman.
We soared into the night until I could see no more.
Looks of the raven.
We flew into past lives of ancient times and teachings.
I saw myself as many things.
Some lifetimes of basking and joy,
While others bathing in torment and destruction.
Some in human form while others as part of nature itself.
We flew to the future where lifetimes were endless.
Over and over,
An ending past and future.
Faster and more swiftly we flew until breath and sight were gone.
We stopped as suddenly as we had started.
See,
Said the raven.
I saw.
I saw colours vibrating in shapes and forms extending from my soul.
Extending before time and into infinity.
I looked down.
My outer body was hardly indistinguishable to that of the fire,
The tree or the illuminated figure.
I could pluck at any moment in any time and strands of pathways played out in front of me.
I could shape shift into anything or anybody.
I could become any story.
Limitless and endless.
Connecting and reconnecting I saw.
It is time for you to go back,
Said the raven.
Sight and breath returned and I became one with my body and still I saw the light of us all and of everything.
Now do you know your place in this moment,
Said the man.
Yes,
I replied.
You are all lifetimes in all time.
You are all things.
Your past does not own you.
Your thoughts,
Your mind and your heart cannot be owned as we are all one.
You can reach out and help others by walking true in the light that is everything.
He turned to the fire and closed his eyes.
I breathed in the fire,
The air and the night.
I thanked the raven and the elder and with deep gratitude and honour for their gifts.
The message became my words.
I send love and light to the universe and all energies across all times,
I said.
Words from my soul travelled into the open night to dance with the air's great melody.
I began walking,
Embraced gracefully with the light and became one with the true path.
Allow yourself to come back to your hands,
Come back to your body,
Come back to yourself.
Allow yourself to breathe deeply in and out and as you slowly start to become one with your day,
You feel calm,
Refreshed,
Rejuvenated and clear.
You are all,
You are light,
You are love.
