Once a month, I exchange energy healing with a friend; a fellow healer. We intuitively choose background music, crystals (unless we're guided to proceed without them), and essential oils (always) for each other.

Over the past few months, those sessions have grown more intense. Yesterday's session, for me, took that intensity to another level.

Expect the Unexpected

Even better, don't expect anything. When it comes to healing sessions - energy healing, intuitive guidance, card readings, etc. - it's best to hold a space of curiosity, which creates openness. In that space, there's room for anything - anything - to happen.

Expectation creates limitations. Open curiosity creates infinite possibilities.

In both our cases yesterday, we were in that space of open curiosity on our own behalf as well as that of each other. It was an ideal atmosphere for what was to come. (While I can only recount my experience, suffice to say hers was equally interesting.)

Senses

All my senses were engaged from the get-go. Ambient music interfaced beautifully with the overall atmosphere. The cozy comfort of the healing table was doubled by the quilt laid over me. The crystals placed at the top of my head, on my breast bone, and at the bottom of my feet felt somewhat like grounding anchors. Release and Forgiveness - the two essential oils mixed in the palms of my healer-friend's hands - mingled in a stunningly inviting and heady scent with the Hong Kuai atomizing from the diffuser, and tickled my nose as well as my tastebuds.

My fifth and sixth senses - my first and second sight - were engaged as soon as my healer-friend's hands were placed above my face. First, there was velvety blackness, and then what I can best describe as a fully experiential movie began; experiential in the sense that I experienced it even as I observed it.

Visions

ϖ There was a long tunnel through which I skimmed on a golden cable. On the other side of the tunnel was the cosmos - the universe in its glorious entirety. I was wrapped in cosmic plasma that coated rather than cocooned, and then permeated my entire being.

ϖ I felt very much present in my body, and yet I observed that my body was a stone sarcophagus. Its lid was pulled away to reveal it was empty inside.

ϖ There was an eagle. I was the eagle, even as I flew with the eagle. We soared over desert and red rocks, dove off cliffs, and swooped low to the ground in peaceful exhilaration. I heard "Navajo."

ϖ I was once again fully present in my body, and I observed red mountains growing out of my torso as my entire body took on the appearance of a red-earth landscape, and then morphed into an earthenware container that cracked open wide to reveal a flowing river within.

ϖ There was the glimpse at a past life. I was dragged by my feet over rocky ground and used as a human sacrifice. I felt no pain or sorrow at the revelation of that lifetime's ending. Instead, I noted that I became one with Mother Earth.

ϖ In my body once more, I felt as though all of my insides - all the organs within my torso - were being turned over. It wasn't uncomfortable so much as unusual.

ϖ There were arrows - white shaft with black feathers. One arrow fell at my feet on red sand, and then was joined by 11 others in a nautilus formation.

ϖ I was back in my body again, and felt I was coated in, and consisted of, what I heard was "Bentonite clay." The feeling was silken and comforting, and that feeling somehow transformed into seeing the Virgin Mary. She held my right hand and wept with me for a moment.

ϖ Still in that fully-present state, I felt and watched stardust enter my body through my crown and integrate with my physical and light bodies. I noted that my right hand had levitated an inch or two off the table, and wondered at it.

And then the session ended.

Signs

The session, from start to finish, was filled with symbolism that was impossible to overlook. It was part of the master plan, I know. Spirit communicates with clarity.

ϖ The tunnel ~ This represented a journey and also a transition - which are, when it comes down to it, one and the same.

ϖ The Universe ~ This represented a clear reminder to me that I am (we are all) of the Universe. There is no separation. We're all for one, and one for all.

ϖ The sarcophagus ~ I was fascinated by the specificity of the stone sarcophagus, which brought Egypt and my longtime fascination with it to mind. The sarcophagus itself is representative of the human entombed within it. That the lid was moved aside, and the container itself revealed as empty, suggests to me that the human flesh is, in the end,  immaterial. The flesh disappears while the spirit prevails.

ϖ The eagle ~ At Shamanic Journey, Ina Woolcott writes, "Eagle’s medicine includes swiftness, strength, courage, wisdom, keen sight, illumination of Spirit, healing, creation, knowledge of magic, ability to see hidden spiritual truths, rising above the material to see the spiritual, ability to see the overall pattern/big picture, connection to spirit guides and teachers and higher truths, great power and balance, dignity with grace, intuitive and creative spirit, respect for the boundaries of the regions, grace achieved through knowledge and hard work." The italicized text is what resonates as especially meaningful in this instance.

ϖ The red mountains and landscape ~ These were so prevalent, and I understood them to be relevant somewhat to past, and mostly to future. These landscapes were specific to Arizona, I heard. This ties in with something a psychic told me last August: She said she saw me being a "snowbird of sorts" within no more than a few years. She felt I'd be dividing my time equally between New Hampshire and someplace in the Southwest. It also ties in with a revelation my healer-friend had: She saw me opening the door to a new home, and yet sensed it was another home; not my only home.

ϖ The cracked-open earthenware container with the river running through it ~ I'm associating this with the flow of energy that runs through our human frames from birth through death. It's a reminder of life's constant movement, and the change that comes with it.

ϖ The becoming one with Mother Earth ~ "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." The message here is pretty obvious: The physical body, in one way or another, is returned to Earth following our passing. This is also another indicator toward connection with all that is - Earth included.

ϖ My organs being turned over ~ As physical as that "turned over" sensation felt, I understood it to represent the spiritual growth I'm experiencing, and how it's affecting me at the physical level. This was also a nod to the nautilus.

ϖ The arrows as a nautilus ~ I didn't recognize this as a nautilus; my healer-friend did. I described it to her, and she said, "I have a picture of that!" The picture happened to be the cover of Caroline Myss' book, Defy Gravity. Here's a portion of what Beyond Religion has to say about The Metaphor of the Nautilus: "In order to begin a new stage in our growth, we have to think 'outside the box.' Yet, every time we abandon an old worldview for a new and wider vision, we merely find ourselves in a larger box. And while each box serves its particular function for a time, we are always in danger of claiming that the chamber we currently occupy is the ultimate one." That's my emphasis. It's an ideal metaphor for my spiritual growth.

(I couldn't help but use a nautilus for the image up toward the top of this post, after all this.)

ϖ The Bentonite clay ~ This product has been on my radar for some little while. I took this as a clear sign that I'm meant to incorporate it into my self-care routine, and that it will yield very positive results both internally and externally. (There's an article here that offers suggestions.)

ϖ The Virgin Mary ~ There's a deeply personal aspect to this that isn't shareable. The rest of it, though, lies in a wise response to a post on Unexplained Mysteries by someone who also saw Mary: "...she usually appears to one who has an important task to complete in life, one which serves the world. Should you choose to obsess about what this 'task' is then your energy will be poured into that and you will be unable to do what needs to be done." I needed to read that. (Of course.)

ϖ The stardust ~ When it comes right down to it, stardust is what we're made of. I see this as a nod both to life's impermanence and its magical qualities, as well as to our all being "cut from the same cloth."

Pretty wild, right?

A Healing Journey

In talking this out with my healer-friend, post-session, two really important things came up - that is, they felt to be of greater importance than all the other important things (so many!):

1) She described how she realized, not far into the session, that she needed to adopt a stand-aside manner of facilitating. While her presence was important, it was imperative that she not get in the way of what needed to happen. She needed to be more observer and less facilitator, which I think is another great metaphor for making space for positive change.

2) She mentioned the journey I went on during the session, and I had an epiphany: "It was a vision quest." I believe it can be said that a healing journey and a vision quest can be one and the same; perhaps they are one and the same. The difference in my case is that I didn't purposely set out on a vision quest when I laid down on that table yesterday. Clearly, it was meant to happen. I look forward to seeing how it plays out in my life.

Post Script

Today has been interesting. I realized I was exhausted within a couple hours of being up, and ended up canceling something that would have required a large quantity of energetic output, even though it was a good-for-me something.

That journey yesterday took a lot out of me and put a lot into me. In its way, it was a lot of work. I feel that today, and I also feel as though there's a lot of subtle changes and integrations taking place. I feel present here, and yet I sense I'm present elsewhere, as well. It's... interesting.

And wow, what a long post! My longest ever in the seven years I've been blogging, as I'm fast approaching the 2000-word mark. Perhaps that explains why this post is coming to you far later than usual.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate you.