Journey

My horror-scope keeps telling me I'm going on a journey. Well, last night I did but I hope that wasn't it. Not that it was a bad one, just anti-climatic. I don't know why I need it to be climatic other than all the heat but what ever. (sorry, I am just not funny when it's hot.)

So, J, my Reiki Master invited me to a Practitioner's meeting in Arnold. They were going to discuss crystals and drumming and since I like crystals and drumming, it seemed like a good idea. I had a friend who was going with me and since it was at night, I wasn't worried about driving but of course, she backed out at the last minute so I had a bit of a to do on how to get there but I made it all right. (3 guesses)

So I meet up with J, and we get there very early. Sit in the car chatting and catching up. It's 3 million degrees out so I am drenched by the time we get in--and she had the a/c on but it wasn't working well. I'm a bit shy so the combination of meeting 20 new people, feeling self conscious about sweating and the overwhelminess of walking into a group of 20 Reiki healers and being hit with all that energy kind of made me a bit dizzy. There was also a large table filled with crystals so that really added to the whoa-ness. Went and threw some cold water on my face and breathed deep.

Take my place in the circle and right away we get broken into smaller groups. (Have I ever mentioned how much I'm not fond of that?) Fortunately, the girl sitting next to me who had very kind eyes and a warm smile ended up in my group. The others? Let's just say they were a bit perplexing....although a couple of them had nice auras about them. I have grown up enough to understand that most people are a bit shy at first too, so they sometimes come across gruffer than they are. That was a huge revelation by the way, if you are a young person, re-read it.

Turns out that we are actually there to go on a Shamanic journey with our crystal while a Shaman drums. Now, this has crossed my path quite a few times and I've been reluctant to do so. It's not that I don't believe in it or feel that it's not useful, being part Native American I have spent a lot of time studying the culture and am drawn to quite a few of their practices. But journeying always seemed a bit much. And even a bit scary. And I sort of like to do one thing at a time so as to not complicate energy. You know? Like people who are trying to buy spirituality instead of live it? I like to live something for a good while before I try something else on.

But.. there it was. No way out. Well, no graceful physical way out. The idea of climbing out of the circle with my sweaty self....

So I just took it as a sign that this was something God wanted me to do. I've been kinda off, really down lately so I embraced the new-ness, opened my mind and said, "Lead on, MacDuff!" So the Shaman goes over what we're supposed to do and then starts drumming. Well, first she called up the spirits by shaking rattles over us. (This is where redneck Linda battles with spiritual Linda) I just close my eyes and consider it a science experiment. We were supposed to pick a spirit guide to go with us but since I don't have one (that I know of) I decide to take one of my chakra animals with me. I pick my polar bear but when she shakes her rattle at me I get a flash of a flying eagle so I decide the eagle wants to go, so I'm like, "ok, come along if you want, who am I to argue?"

You are supposed to go to a sacred place and although I usually have a forest circle in my head when I do guided visualizations, the image of the beach with Northern Lights pops in so I go there. And wait. And wait. She just keeps drumming. For some reason I thought she was gonna walk us through it... so I eventually ask the questions of my crystal that I was told to ask.

I think my crystal had a sense of humor. Or was just coy. It just kept burning in my hand. And I kept seeing stars and flashing and purple bubbles and then an image of swirling light and dancing. The other people had these elaborate journeys and answers and jewel encrusted leopards. Sigh. At least it was a nice crystal. That we found out later we had to buy if we wanted to keep. For $10. I have some very nice ones just like it at home that were just $2 but I decided that if that crystal took me to that lovely beach with the Northern Lights I guess it was worth $10. So, oh well, it was a pleasant enough adventure, maybe not a mountain top experience but who has the energy with all this heat?

Hot enough for ya? Ai yi yi....