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 Visualization is a very important tool used in magic and ritual. Scott Cunningham explained visualization as "The art of using our brains to "see" what is not physically present...". Right now most of you could see the face of a close relative, friend, maybe even your dream car or the pair of shoes you wear the most. That is visualization.

Through visualization, we create things to exist on the astral plane. Visualization is used in casting circles, ritual, spells, astral projection, meditation, etc. It's very important to achieve visualization before we try anything to deal with magic. It's not very hard but some things are more difficult. Just remember to keep practicing and work your way up.

 






         Visualization Techniques
     Whenever visualizing, be sure to sit or lie comfortably, with your eyes shut. Relax your body (Ground and Center if you wish) and breath deeply. Pictures will continue to pop in your head, even when you're first trying to visualize, but keep letting those ideas form as clouds and drift away, or blow them away with the exhalations of your breath.

Now, visualize anything you're familiar with. Start with something easy like a pyramid or sphere. Move on to something more complex if you wish like a ripe apple or a candle. Be sure all your visualizations are 3-dimensional. If it is easier, you may also take an object (such as the apple) and study it, then close your eyes and visualize it before you again. Hold this image in your mind for as long as you can.

Once you can hold this image in your mind for 5 minutes, move on to more difficult things, such as things you haven't even seen before.

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Guided Imagery Exercises

 



Tree Blending

For this meditation, you may want a soft blanket to sit on.  Find a tree that seems to reach out to you.

Look at the tree and note its general shape and foliage, the spreading of its limbs, and the atmosphere surrounding it.  Compare it against the background and look for the tree's aura, the glowing light that enveloped the tree.  What color is it?  Does the aura look like the tree is content or is there something bothering the tree?  A white to place blue aura indicates a loving, peaceful, and sympathetic tree.  Yellow shows energy, but if tinged with brown, this could indicate that it does not feel well.  Red shows an active tree that is interested in what happens in its surroundings, and possible alert to dangers.  A green tinge shows fertility and connection with the wilderness spirit.  A purple aura shows spiritual connection, but if the aura is violet the tree could feel hostility and need soothing before continuing with the meditation.  You can do this by placing a libation at the tree's roots.  Watering the tree, nurturing it, adding fertilizer when it seems to need it, or planting a companion for the tree are all ways of soothing and establishing your acquaintance with a tree.  Leaving a token of your esteem, such as decorations or delicate wind chimes, are ways of reaching out to the spirit of the tree to let it know that is is appreciated and loved by you.

As you sit before the tree, see the way it sets into the ground.  Are the roots spread out?  Does the trunk seem to simply dive into the earth?  Visually examine the texture of the grain of the bark.

Remain on the blanket, but now feel yourself move closer to the tree.  See the tree observing you as you have observed the tree.  Look for a crevice in the bark, and visualize yourself sliding into that crevice.  Feel the woody texture of the trunk, strong and able to support the weight of the branches and foliage heavy upon the core that is the tree's body - your body.

As the tree, fluids course up and down your interior.  You feel the gentle motion of tiny insects making their home about in the bark - your outer skin.  Move your attention upward and feel yourself extending into the branches.  You are moving in a multitude of directions, spreading upward to form a single entity with consciousness in your branchings, a myriad of thin twiggings and stemmings, attached to the stiffly subtle, opened leaves.  Buddings are encased, about to open with the sunlight, but others leaves are spread, and you are aware of the sunlight activating the cells of your greenness.

Now you begin to understand that the essence of the tree has a face to the front of the trunk, but a consciousness that reaches to all levels so that as you channel upward through the branches to the topmost leaves, you are still aware and connected to the earth.  The air is breezy at the top, and the sun is full upon you.  Perhaps you find the height dizzying at first, but the tree laughs and you relax.  You will not fall from this place, for you are part of it.  The leaves and thin branches sway in the slight wind, and you feel yourself looking down.

There, far below, is someone sitting on a blanket, trance-like, gazing at the tree.  Ah, that is you.  The tree senses the not-tree within and gently directs you back through the twigs and down to the wider branches.  You pause to feel the roughness of a bird's nest, and smile with admiration at the construction.  Now you turn around the main trunk and feel the narrow gap in the trunk, a rounded opening into the trunk with a woody interior.  You wrap yourself into that interior and feel the sensation of comfort, security, and home.  It is a nest for another bird family.  Now you are aware that your limbs are being groomed, tiny beaks poke into your bark and snatch away insects roaming along your skin.  You continue downward, through the heartwood of the tree.

You are back at the main trunk, standing upright there, seeing you seeing yourself back.  You smile and feel the tree relax in a sensation of camaraderie.  It wants to show you something.  Now you feel your toes - your roots - and the featherings of your roots deep in the earth.  You let yourself travel downward still, past the level of the ground, and into the soil.  Your texture changes here, and you realize with a warm glow that you are being entrusted with a journey into the most delicate part of the tree - its defenseless roots that surround the heart of the living tree.

"Harm the root, and you kill me," the tree tells you.  "Cut the bark all around and the food of the soil cannot reach the rest of me and this too will kill me."

You tremble with the knowledge that this tree has shared with you.

"I am mighty and strong, but there is always danger in life, even one that lasts as long as centuries."

"All life comes to an end," you send your thought to the tree.

The tree smiles and indicates again the roots.  You feel the smooth moist roots with their bristly fibers and hairlings drawing water and nourishment from the surrounding soil, and then you see them.  The children of the tree.  Little fingerlings and seedlings, pods waiting to open, and you know before the tree confides to you. 

"There is no ending to life, only transformation."

And you know this is true, for never did a tree not speak true.

Listen to what else the tree has to say to you.

You take one more look at the soil deep beneath the surface of the earth, feel how your tree-feet are spread, wrapped around rocks, with little creatures sliding around the featherings of your roots.  You move back up the woody trail back to the surface of the earth where grasses play in the breeze at your earth-level roots and a bee buzzes past you looking for a flower.

Seeing yourself again, you slide from out between the rough edges of the bark and back into your body.

You take a deep breath, hold it a moment, then exhale.  Another deep breath, exhale, and you return to full awareness.  Stand up and take the pail of water (perhaps mixed with plant food) and gently splash it around the roots of the tree.  Touch your heart with your hand, then the tree trunk, your third eye region, and again the tree trunk.  This is the blessing given and received - now you may sit again and eat your picnic meal and drink a cool beverage.

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The Oracle Cave

By entering into the Oracle Cave, you connect with the tradition of the priestesses of the Goddess from multiple millennia past into the present. 

In a cauldron, light either an incense charcoal disk or a black votive candle.  You may want to drum or use a gourd rattle as you let your thoughts move you back in time and memory.  Watch the smoke as it swirls, adding herbs as needed, and focus on the smoke.  See it as a gray mist that seems to part around you and envelope you, moving you through the swirls of time so that now and then are one.  You remember and you experience on both levels of time converged within you, and now you are in modern Greece, visiting historic ruins; the fumes of the old-fashioned bus come to you, and the dust stirred by the old tires on the dirt road as the bus rolls to a stop at the site of the ancient Oracle of Delphi.

You have hidden a small flashlight in your pocket for this occasion, and have arrived with a busload of tourists.  You moved around the dry, sun-baked temple sites and ruins of columns while listening in a distracted way to the prepared speech of the guide.  All the while, you have been waiting for your chance to explore the forbidden spot, and now the tour guide moves on with the other visitors.  You see the gap at the corner of the stone slab, and feel a rush of cool air, and you know that this is the way in.  The monotonous voice of the guide fades, you quickly push aside the loose broken stones near the gap of the slab, and you find the step beneath allows you room to squeeze inside.

At first there is only darkness and a distant sound hard to describe.  Your first thought is that there might be snakes inside, but then you relax as you realize that you are in a sacred place, not as an intruder, but as one who is part of this tradition.  No snake will attack you here - if any are in this place, they will feel your peace and ignore you.  The heat of the surface world vanishes and is replaced by the coolness of the subterranean Earth.  You move down the steps and the darkness becomes a gloom through which you can barely see, but it is not impenetrable.  Your light shows the winding stairway is uninhabited - perhaps there are volcanic gases that keep animals away.  You hear a distant sound and wonder if you could be in danger of succumbing to some poisonous gas, but there is a breeze drifting through the chamber and out the gap where you entered, so the air is breathable and not at all stifling.

The steps take you down further and the sound suddenly makes sense to you - it is the hissing of the vapors escaping the fissure.  You have reached the bottom of the stairway now, and the floor is uneven but smooth.  You realize that it is bedrock.  Carefully, you make your way across the chamber toward the hissing sound, and then you see a thin crack in the floor.  As you scan across the floor with your flashlight, you see that the crack widens slightly, and you move along the side of the crack to see where it all will lead you.  And then something glints in the light.  Your breath is caught in your throat and your eyes smart with tears - you are seeing the brass tripod, still standing where it was last used, waiting for a priestess to ascend and sit on it.

You set the flashlight on the floor and make the sign of the pentacle in the air before you, then you move toward the seat of wisdom, stepping across the fissure in the process.  You touch the tripod and feel a tremor of excitement as you realize that no one has touched this seat in over a thousand years.  You know where you belong, and you take your place on the tripod.

Now you hear a sound, then more sounds, a babble of sounds:

"Areth; amoad; aneadi; careth; imionee; trianeth..."

The words come faster and stronger and louder, and you begin to recognize their meanings and that there are visions attached to these words, and you suddenly realize that the sounds are pouring from your mouth!  Tears flow down your cheeks and you know that the Goddess is speaking and you are Her Priestess.  The cavern is filled with your speech and ecstasy.  You hear what She tells you and what She reveals to you, and you know that the Goddess lives - through all vain human denial, the Lady lives and is life, and gives life!

Slowly the sounds begin to fade, and you become aware of a chill.  You are soaked in perspiration, but the presence of the Goddess now feels warm around you, and you feel you are wrapped in Her cloak.  You are calmer now, and saddened as you realize that this sacred place is closed off to the people who want to come here.  She comforts you and you hear Her voice tell you:  "I am in all places of the Earth and in your heart.  Take this tripod into your heart and sit on it whenever you have need to speak with Me, for I am everywhere."

You understand now that the whole of the Earth is Her temple and that anywhere you are when you call upon Her is the same as sitting upon the tripod in this cavern to hear Her voice.  Your connection with Her is complete, and the Oracle now resides within.

You have the courage now to slip off the stool and cross the fissure back to your flashlight.  You scan the walls and see the beautiful carvings and the great python carved around the rock of the fissure.

You take a deep breath and release it, then turn away from the tripod and walk back to the steps as though you had done it a hundred times - perhaps you once had.  You ascend the stairway and return to the outer world.  You were not missed; you hear the voice of the guide coming back your way, and you quickly re-set the stone in this sacred site and in a moment of anxiety, you fear what might happen if others learn of your experience; who knows what damage they might do to prevent others from entering.  Then you smile and realize - of course, others have entered before you; others who are your kindred; and you feel warmed inside as you understand that you are not alone.  You breathe deeply and exhale.  The voices of the crowd dissipate.  Breathe again, and you are returned to your meditation circle.

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Ride with the Wild Hunt

     Sit in a darkened room.  Breathe deeply and exhale, repeat.  Now begin a simple breathing exercise of inhaling for two counts and holding for one, releasing for two counts and hold for one, etc.  This will help you to relax and clear your mind.  Once your mind is calm, the noise of stray thoughts is vanquished, and you are in your quiet inner space; listen and hear the distant thundering of horses' hooves.  A horn sounds far away, and the noise of riders seems to become more distinct.  Now you hear the pounding of horses' hooves coming closer; the rattle and squeak of harness and saddles; the heavy breathing of the beasts; and again the blast of the horn; and you know it is the Wild Hunt approaching.

    You call out: "May I ride with the Rade until break of day?" and the Hunter calls back to you: "Catch hold my hand and dare not let go!" and as He passes, you grasp the hand held down to you and are amazed at the fluid strength that quickly pulls you up to sit before the Hunter upon His mount.  You hold fast to that hand and watch the Rade from your privileged seat.

     Over mountaintops and through valleys; over seas and flood plains; past great cities and small villages you ride; and you become aware through the dark swirling clouds around you that shadows rise up from the lands you have passed and join the Wild Hunt in its headlong race through the dark.  The Rade races before the sunrise and now you see that the land is more familiar.  You recognize your own local countryside, towns and cities, and the Hunter says : "The dawning comes and you are back again from whence you sprang upon my steed.  My bargain is kept - you rode with the Rade until break of day."

     In an instant that strong arm and powerful hand has dropped you gently onto the ground.  You see before you a great earthen mound with a carved stone gateway, and you are reminded of a pregnant woman's full belly, and yet the entrance is ancient.  You see the Crone, gray and shriveled, dressed in tattered shrouds, standing in the dim entry and she says : "You must pass through me to be born of me!" Now you realize how much the Wild Hunt has grown in size; with laughing riders and plunging horses, you watch as the Hunter leads the Rade through the entry into the Shadowland.  The gateway vanishes; the dawn breaks; you breathe easier and are at peace.  You can feel the warmth of the morning sun.  The landscape fades and you return to normal consciousness.

     By facing the entrance to the Underworld and the power of the dark aspect of the Divine, a person comes to understand that the dark is part of the necessary balance of life and not something to fear.  The uniting of the dark and the light within the individual reflects the union of these two aspects in the flow of the universe, and that offers a person a sense of wholeness and peace.

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Unmasking the Crone

     You may want to carry the previous meditation a step further to confront the Crone in her domain.  This time as you are riding with the Hunter, approaching the place where you first called him, ask him to let you remain a little longer.

     Let me tarry awhile and see the great spiral.

     Let me ride with thee now into thy dark bower.

     Let me see the path followed and how the lives flow.

     Let me ride with the Rade as you travel below.

     The Hunter nods his antlered head and now you see the mound in the gray light of early dawn.  Again, the Crone in her tattered shrouds, stands before the entrance and you hear her cry out, "All must pass through me!" and you see her getting closer as the horses continue their wild plunge into the gateway.

     There is a sudden roaring wind in your ears; a sound like spinning millstones grinding corn fills your consciousness; the darkness closes around you and you smell a scent that reminds you of the damp, dark, rich earth.  The temptation is to close your eyes, but you force yourself to keep them open and realize that the shadow flying past your face has a substance like cobwebby shrouds and the cold dank air of deep caverns.  You are passing through the Crone, and feel nauseous with the sensation of death, the noxious odors of disease and decay, and the scrabbling thin fingers scratching at your flesh.

     Yet the horses ride on and the Hunter holds you firmly in his grasp, and you cling to him and call out to the fearful image of the Crone as you pass through her: "I know who you are!  You are the Mother of All, and I do not fear you!"

     She laughs and turns to you as you pass through her, and, incredibly, you see a lovely lady, smiling and more beautiful than words can describe, and you laugh with her.  You hear her gentle voice as she replies to you, "Only those who do not know me fear me."

     Suddenly, it is as though you had been a child all along, playing in a dark room, letting your imagination frighten yourself.  Now you know that the face of the Crone hides the lovely Mother who awaits you with open arms, and you feel secure, loved, and at peace.

     The Hunter races his mount through the dark realm, and you see spirits taking their rest by still, dark pools overhung with cypress branches and long gray moss.  Soft, silky grass and delicate pathways beckon to you to walk and relax.  You are tempted to stay here and enjoy the Shadowland with its night-blooming flowers and air scented with lilacs, but the Hunter does not let you down from his steed.

     Through a dark forest padded with the sodden leaves of autumns past you now race, and then you burst upon a sunlit meadow.  There are children playing and the shining bright Other People wave to you as you pass.  Spirits appearing to be of all ages and ageless move in this bright place, and you realize that there is light and warmth here, for you are in the Summerland, close to the Otherworld of the Fair Folk.  Still the Hunter holds you tight, and you sense rather than see that you are passing through another kind of veil.

     "Here goes one who has rested and now desires to resume the great dance of life," the Hunter whispers in your ear and mind.  You look and see a shadowy figure as it appears to be moving through a grayish swirling mist towards a distant light, and you realize that this is a spirit departing the Shadowland to be reborn.

     Now your own race is ending and you see the dark earth close in around you, pebbles and snails, and earthy creatures wriggle by on many tiny legs, or none at all.  The ground seems to open and a starry night appears before your eyes, and when you look back around past the Hunter, you see the ground mound behind you.  He clasps you with one strong hand and effortlessly swings you off his mount and onto the ground, then laughing, rides off into the night, the Wild Hunt behind him on their rounds anew.

     You see the dawn coming now, and as you return to normal awareness, you are at peace, and hold the memory of the beautiful lady who laughed with you when you penetrated her disguise.  You know that life is eternal.  There is no death, only passage.

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Shadows on the Stones:  An Imagery Exercise for Self-Empowerment

     Imagine yourself on a dark, starry night, dancing around a roaring fire amidst a circle of standing stones.  The air is cool against the stones, but warm near the flames.  You dance to the rhythms of a distant, inner drum.  You dance in circles out from the fire, and weave your steps in and out around the standing stones.

     You bask in the warm sensation of your own strength.  You celebrate the life forces that created you, the essential, independent dancer.  You dance your own dance, free and unbound by any restrictions.  You find your own rhythm.

     Dancing closer to the flames, you feel the power of its heat.  You feel the power of your inner courage.  The light from the flames casts your shadows onto the face of the great standing stones.  As you dance, you create shadows of your Self, empowered only by the energy and shape of your movements.  Imagine, now, a shadow that is frightening, a shape projected on the stones in your own image.  See it lurking there, unable to define itself alone.  It is at the mercy of your movement, controlled by the direction of your dance.

     Shift quickly to the stance of a great warrior.  Show your strengths.  Show yourself the shape, the feel, the sensation of your power.  This, too, can be a shadow.  Its form is determined at your own discretion.  Choose the shape of your Self.  Choose the projection of your power.

     Dance for a time in this place of inner vision.  Dance around these sacred flames.  Dance in the light of your inner fire.  Feel the rhythm, the heat of your power.  Shift the shapes of your shadows projected on the stone faces surrounding you.  Shift the shape of your shadows as easily as you shift the steps, the movements, and the rhythm of your dance.  Define the shape of your strength.  Find faith in your Self.  Dance and celebrate your unique Self.

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The Great Smoking Mirror: For Gaining Personal Perspective

     Imagine that you are in a dark, ancient temple.  You stand before an altar made of stone.  Its surfaces are covered with intricate carvings of serpents intertwining themselves in symbolic knots.  Upon the altar are nine candles and a statue if a hawk in flight.  Behind the altar is a mirror made of polished bronze, its surface reflecting through the smoke from the candle flames.

     As you gaze through the smoke, you find mysterious images emerging in the mirror.  Images of your tests and trials are depicted there.  You see obstacles you have overcome and battles you have won.  You find images of fears you have conquered and limitations you have already released.  You find them there as they truly are now, nothing more than shadowy reflections, ashes and smoke.

     As you see the reflections of your tests and your trials, you realize, with a sense of triumph, how very strong you truly are.  As you sense the victory you have achieved over your vulnerabilities, you find that the image has cleared.  The smoke fades away, and the bright candle flames reflect clearly in the polished surface - an image of your Self, strong and sure.  Tested, tried and true, you are triumphant.

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Shamanic Steed

     Imagine that you are in a primeval forest.  As you enter the forest, all of Nature greets your arrival.  Sunlight streams in through the trees illuminating this, the sacred wood.  You walk past the now familiar gnarled oak and the great stone boulders.  Woodland violets perfume the air with a sweet, mystical fragrance.  You catch sight of these tiny, brilliant-hued flowers almost hiding inside the roots of the great trees that you pass along your way.

     You move silently through the forest until you come to a lovely clearing and woodland glade.  It is a small, round meadow surrounded by a grove of ancient trees.

     Just at the edge of the grove on the far side of the meadow, you see a horse born of myth and legend.  You coax this horse to step out from the shadows of the forest and into the light at the center of the clearing.

     You call forth this fine steed from within your Self.

     Slowly your horse steps forward and moves near the center of the meadow.  Your steed is just as you have fashioned it to be.  Perhaps it has wings or the single horn on its forehead to mark its ancient origin.  Perhaps it is a war horse or a noble hunting mount.  Perhaps it is a young, gentle steed, a sweet pony suitable for being ridden by a child of light.

     Your steed steps forward and moves fully into the center of the clearing.  The Sun bathes this mythic animal in warm, golden light.  You see that your steed is just as you expected; it is just as you require to serve you on your present journey.

     You walk out to the center of the meadow to greet your new steed, your sacred ally for journeys into the shamanic, Otherworld realms of Nature.  Together, you and your steed shall brave the elements and become one with the elements of your Self.

     With a gentle touch, you assure your steed of your positive intention and the security in knowing it is your right to ride into the magickal, Otherworld realms.  You connect and communicate with your steed as you make preparations for the ride.  With a final stroke of assurance, you mount your shamanic horse.

     As you do so, all of Nature animates around you.  The grove of trees resonates with a rapidly increasing intensity.  The sound becomes light, encircling the meadow with multihued bands of color.  Their brilliance vibrates into the center of your being, lifting your spirit high.

     Your steed rears, then leaps up, taking flight.  You are carried up into the blue above you on a trail of rainbow lights.  Sky blue deepens to cobalt as you are carried outward toward new dimensions.  Below you, the world fades from view, shifting its shape to a blue-green egg floating in the sea of space.

     You climb higher now.  The world is invisible to your eye.  Now the massive Sun is only one of an immeasurable number of stars twinkling in the vast midnight-blue depths of infinite space.  You ride still higher, still faster, still farther into the unknown dimensions of the universe beyond description.  You can no longer make out individual stars.  Their lights have merged into a great mystical pattern. 

     From where you are now, you can see the sparkling bands of pure light forming an immense crystalline web.  So vast is this web that you can see where it is only from your point of view.  Where this web begins and where it ends is immaterial, for you are always as you are now, at the center of its power.  The web moves and vibrates to an eternal rhythm; you feel its music within your soul.

     You are mystified for a moment by this beautiful crystalline web.  With reverence, you see that it is shining in the light of a truly celestial source of power.  You notice also that the web is illuminated from within the interconnected threads that form its weave.  You can feel the resonance of the life force within the web, as all worlds and dimensions weave together.  You see light and life interwoven, determining the nature of the universal web - guided only by source itself, experienced only from the source of Self within.

     You guide your steed into the bands of light forming the crystal web.  For a time you ride in the purest flow of light and life force.  You empower your Self and your life purpose directly from the energies of this highest light.

     When you have accepted healing and power from the crystalline web, it begins to change once more.  Threaded bands of light become clusters of sparkling stars.  Star clusters divide into galaxies, centered around great suns.  All galaxies float away into the boundless blue-violet dimensions of space.  There is a vast silence.

     You are left with one now-quite-familiar galaxy as you ride your steed toward the blue-green hills of Earth.

     As you reach the dimension surrounding the planet, you see the many shapes of the land.  You see the many faces of the Earth - the faces of Nature herself.  You rein in your shamanic steed and pause to reflect on the many shifting shapes of the world to which you belong.  You pause to watch the changing faces of Nature as she dances in the light of the great Sun above.  As she swirls and dances to a universal melody, the Earth reflects the changing rhythms of Nature and all humankind.

     The Sun appears in the east.  A new light, arises, illuminating Nature with a gentle glow.  From out of the Sun's rays a youthful rider appears, beginning his journey across the surface of the land.  He is fair and golden, this springtime Child of Light.  As he rides, he reawakens the life force of the planet beneath him.  The planet responds and transforms herself into a springtime Maiden filled with life and promise.

     As he traverses the dimension of Nature, this Child of Light transforms to the full growth of his power.  He becomes the summer Lord of Light - guardian, activator, protector, and generative force for the life of the planet.

     Earth responds in kind to this transformation of the solar light.  Nature blossoms at high summer into the fullness of her power.  She becomes the Lady Mother, the creative nurturer.  She brings forth the fruits of light to sustain her children.

     As the Lord of Light journeys still farther across the realm of Nature, his light becomes dim, but not diminished.  As his light shifts, he throws his power fully into the bosom of Nature.  His dimming rays of light enter the Earth and join with the inner light and heat of the planet in autumn.  The solar rider has become Nature's Priest, sworn to maintain the sacred connection of the light of the land.  The land transforms quietly, her face reflecting the harvested wisdom of the Crone in the season of fall.

     With promises of return, the Solar Priest turns inward and journeys into the depths of space, seemingly gone from the embrace of the planet.  He journeys into hidden realms and becomes the ancient Lord of Wisdom.  He waits, this winter lord, for rebirth of his power, for resurrection of his flight.

     Nature turns inward also, her face cold and wintry, seemingly dead.  She becomes the Hag, nursing seeds of the future, plants in the cold, still ground.  She is Nature warming the forces of life deep within herself, defying death with faith in the power of transformation.  She swirls and dances once more to a universal melody.

     The solar lord arises again, seemingly born from the inner dimensions of Earth's far horizon.  He arises and reanimates the face of Nature with his warm, pure light.  Child of Light and Maiden of Spring once more, the Sun and the Earth begin their sacred dance again and again and again.

     Now, as the winter sleep has turned to springtime dance, you ride your shamanic steed back to your own world of Nature.  You reenter the sunlit clearing encircled by an ancient grove of trees, deep within your own primeval forest.  You rest for a time in that golden meadow, musing on all you have experienced.

     When you are ready, you release your steed to graze in the shadows of the grove surrounding this, your magickal meadow.  Your steed moves deeper into the forest with one long, last look to let you know where it may be found when you choose to ride again.  It will be ready when you are to journey into the realms of Otherworld, all worlds and dimensions beyond clear definition.

     You rest for one long moment, listening to the resonant melody of Nature.  You listen for the almost imperceptible vibration of the crystalline web.  You remember that you may always receive from the light and power of that web.  You know you can receive most clearly from that of which you are an integral part.  You know you can receive from the source of all light and power, so long as you reach out from within your Self, connecting the internal with the eternal.  You know that the external is but a manifestation of the melody and the dance.  You know that you may journey inward to Otherworld realms, so long as your mind is open, your spirit clear, and your heart pure.

    When you are ready, you may return to the present time and place.  You know that your shamanic steed and your primeval forest await and abide inside your conscious mind, eternally ready for your return.

     Rest now and reflect on what you have experienced.  Not the nature of your imagery.  Note also the way your inner visions made you feel.  You have already begun to connect with the mystical Celt within your Self.

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