To Find Your Spirit Guide(s)

    Enter your sanctuary. Allow the feelings of peace, tranquility, and safety to surround you.  Know that you are about to embark on an important experience.  Continue to feel completely relaxed and calm. 

    From you sanctuary a flight of shallow, wide, white steps leads up into a soft mist.  Mist surrounds the steps on either side.  You may not have noticed these steps before.  Whatever form your sanctuary takes, theses steps lead up from it.  Walk to the foot of the stairs.  Do you do you want to go up them? 

    If the answer is ‘yes�? then start to climb the steps, slowly upwards, higher and higher, feeling a sense of deep peace and expectation. 

    The mist above you is glowing softly.  You may see special objects or artifacts on the steps-take note of these. 

    You realize you are getting to the top.  Now the mist is becoming thinner.  You hear faint music, like distant bells or wind chimes. As you climb higher you can hear the music more clearly.  It seems to be all around you and inside you, soft, and gentle.  It is like a waterfall, a rushing stream, a cascade to temple bells, yet it is still gentle, soft, and silvery. 

    You find yourself at the top and all the mist disappears.  You are in a lush meadow.  The sun is shining, the grass is emerald green- all the colours you see  have extra depth and beauty.  Look around you and notice plants, trees, and animals.  The music still surrounds you and you look ahead, where a glistening waterfall cascades over rocks and runs into a clear river. 

    Someone is coming towards you from the direction of the waterfall.  You feel a sense of warmth and recognition.  This is your guide.  Greet him or her and listen attentively to anything she or he has to say.  This is your friend, guardian, and spiritual mentor.  Ask him or her any questions you wish. 

    Now pause for ten minutes.  Relax and make no attempt to control what unfolds.  Let everything develop in its own way. 

    It is time to leave.  Listen to your guide’s final words.  She or he may give you a gift or some special advice.  This is something to treasure. 

    You may wish also to give a gift-perhaps a pledge or merely a thank-you.  Turn back into the mist and slowly go down the steps, carrying your gift back into your sanctuary, where you can place your gift for safe-keeping. 

    Now open your eyes and come back to everyday awareness.  Be sure to right down what you have experienced.  The guide that you met is you inner guide, a teacher who can help you with any issue that troubles you, from the most mundane to the most esoteric.  Visit him or her frequently, so the relationship becomes deep and habitual-this is an important step on your spiritual path, and you will come to look forward to these encounters with deep joy.   

    The first time we did this exercise, I met 3 guides, Lady Epona (another aspect of one of the Goddesses of our personal Pantheon, a Wolf called Silver Wolf and a Falcon, called Moon Hunter. Moon Hunter invited me to go soaring with him, showing me a different perspective of the world. I found it an absolutely incredible experience! I did not return for a while though (circumstances beyond my control), and found when I returned that I was warmly greeted (though with a hint of sarcasm, 'So, you've finally decided to come and visit us then?' said with a grin by Silver Wolf)

 To Explore Dream Symbols 

    Relax and enter your sanctuary.  Within your sanctuary there is a soft robe of a colour you associate with safety.  Brown is a good earth colour.  Put on your robe.  This robe will protect you on any journeys you take.  When you are ready, step out your sanctuary into a green field. 

    Take time to examine the field.  It is smooth and lush.  Fragrant clover and daisies are scattered over the grass.  Bees buzz, birds sing this is a peaceful place.  Now notice there is a path leading towards one corner of the field.  Sit comfortably beside the path and ask your dream symbol to come to you along it.  When it is in front of you ask it what its message is for you �?you can ask, even if it is an inanimate object, for the answer will simply form in your mind. 

    (Note:- It is best not to invite dream imagery into your sanctuary.  It can have all sorts of meanings and your sanctuary is your own safe and special place.  If you do not obtain an answer you may get better results by approaching your inner guide, as the first visualization above.) 

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