My first spirit journey

I decide to try a spirit journey, to hopefully meet my spirit guide(s) and/or guardian animal(s).  I am going to use a directed meditation based on one of my Reiki teacher's exercises and some online articles. I am going to float in my bath -- this is my favorite relaxation spot, very private and peaceful. I can float safely there without risk of going under, the tub is not big enough for me to go under without an effort :)  

I turn on some music, light a candle, turn out the lights, and get comfortable. I concentrate on breathing. The warm water and floating feeling is very helpful. I can feel my heartbeat very strongly, resonating through the water and bouncing back to me. The rhythm is steady and gentle; I accept this as my drum. I listen to the beat and let other thoughts drift away, sinking into it.

I am on a beach, a northern ocean beach with sawgrass and tough-looking weeds growing above the tide line. I follow a path up the bank into a forest. The trees are thin and clean limbed, black barked, tall, with leaves only high above. In spite of their somewhat forbidding aspect, I feel that they are friendly. The light filters down in shafts and flickering patches to the ground below. The undergrowth is open and the path is scattered with sand and many small stones of many sizes and colors. I know that these are the gifts of the earth, and show that he supports me in my journey.

I approach a clearing. It feels large, but I am unsure about how big it is. It is open, with thick green grass and a stream running though it. There is a tree in the the middle, next to the stream. The tree is tall, somewhat scraggledy, with a high crown and only a few leafy branches down low. I am pretty sure it is an oak, but sometimes I feel like it is an apple: I think because it reminds me of an apple tree I loved when I was growing up, where I had a tree house. Most people would not look twice at the tree, it is lopsided and not "pretty". But it is vigorous, exuberant, and obviously loves living. As I come up and stand beside it, a small branch comes down and strokes my hair a few times. I feel very welcome, and I sit down against the tree and look at the stream.

I relax, and send out an invitation to my guides to let me see them. I immediately see a figure to my left, standing. He seems to be wrapped in a concealing cloak of white with green & blue highlights. I cannot see his face, it is as if he is veiled with a thick mist that wraps around him. I feel that the veil is in fact my sceptical nature, that does not want to believe in all this; so I do some breathing exercises and try to relax into acceptance and push away my disbelief. After some effort, it works: I see his face. It it pale, and he seems to be crowned in leaves and to have leaves growing from is cheekbones and temples. The leaves are holly-shaped, white, with edges and highlights of green and blue. He laughes, and I feel that this is just an appearance he has chosen, because he know it will be evocative to me, and he enjoys it. ('He' is neither male nor female, or both; it makes as little sense or difference that it would for a tree) We 'speak' a little; he is pleased that I can see him. He says that nearly all people he and his collegues help never become aware of them, but that it is a great pleasure when they do.  The being does not give a name, but when I suggest that I call him Green Master he finds it amusing and accepts the title.

I then ask the Green Master if I could meet some of my guardian animals.  He indicates that I should look to my right.  Just behind me to my right is an animal that I have a lot of trouble perceiving.  It seems to be some kind of insect or spider, I think it is a spider.  Now, I have for many years had a strong fear of spiders!  I have been trying to work through this in the past year or two.  Learing to communicate with them has helped a lot, it is hard to be afraid of someone you know.  The spider spirit beside me seems quiet, helpful and friendly, but I am nervous and I think this is interfering with my ability to see her clearly: sometimes she seems tiny, sometimes as big as a horse, never the same for a moment.  I feel that it is not her, but my fear that is causing this.  We both agree that I need to work on this :D

I then become aware of something fluttering around above my head.  It is a bird, small, about the size of a barn swallow, in constant motion above my head.  I catch flashes of blue, gray, and some orange; kind of like bluebird colors but it is not a bluebird.  He moves like a barn swallow, always swooping and fluttering.  He will not sit still, he seems very excited and happy.  A very bubbly, happy spirit.

I thank them for being there with me, for showing themselves to me, and for helping me.  I ask if there is anything that they would like from me, they both say that they just want me to try and be aware and listen when they have a message for me.  I promise to try and do this.

Now it seems time to return.  I say goodbye to the spider and the bird, and the Green Master, and thank the tree for its support.  I walk back down the path to the sea, gradually waking up.  When I reach the beach, I put down a hand and scoop up some sea water; I feel this as a splash and rush of energy that moves through me and is gone.  Then I open my eyes and wake up.

I am amazed at all this.  Some questions have been answered, and many new possibilities have opened.  The Green Master is my spirit guide for this time, and watching over and protecting me in my life are the spider, the swallow, and the tree.  I could not ask for better.