I began my journey in my sacred cave. I sought a quiet place to meditate and contemplate the progress of my journey. I followed the twisted path at the back of the cave to the inner sanctuary where Tortoise dwells.
I sat in silence, and began connecting to my breath, filling my body with the faint light streaming down on me from the slight opening in the rock above my head. The light became textured with spirals of glittery light. It swirled down and filled my body with a sparkling light that tingled as it flooded me. The boundaries of my flesh disappeared and I became just a thought-shape of myself, sparkling with light.
I drifted up the spirals of light, through the gap in the ceiling, and found a path that led to the top of the mesa above my familiar cave. It was just past sunset, and the last hint of fiery orange was fading behind me. As I watched, the purple sky deepened into indigo, and the sky began to blaze with millions of sparkling stars.
As I lay on my back staring up into the limitless stretches of space, I felt the shell of my outer self split and open along my midline. My spirit unfolded from within this shell and stretched out to embrace the sky above me. The sparkling light that had filled my spirit within the cave merged with the sky beyond it.
Buffalo Cloud Dancer sat beside the shell of me, and addressed my spirit. He gestured out in front of us, where the mesa dropped away into a big bowl of a valley. “Look”, he said. We both rose into the air, easily, without effort at all, and moved up into the night. Without any sensation of motion, we rose high into the sky.
He guided me to an invisible perch in the heavens, where we paused to look down behind us. We were able to see the valley in front of my cave as though it were a bowl in my hands. But instead of seeing distant trees and valley, I saw a large swirling vortex of energy. “Look”, he said again. As I watched, the image of the vortex resolved itself into a top view of the milky way galaxy. Swirling clouds of stardust held countless solar systems, all stretched out before me. I sensed that I could use this as a gateway to the Akashic record, if I ever had the need. I felt deeply honored to be shown this.
As we returned to the mesa top, I thanked the Old Grandfather, Buffalo Cloud Dancer, my teacher. He gave me a blanket, and as I wrapped it around my shoulders, the shell of my outer self became whole and self-contained once again.
The journey ended, my body still tingling from the sparkling light that filled it.
~Flame RavenHawk
August 16, 2003