I have started a spiritual journey and I feel the need to document it. To give its power over to the power of words.
I have met what I’ll call my spirit guide and have had, and am having, a conversation. Some may feel more comfortable calling him an angel, a guardian angel, or my higher self. I’ll stick with spirit guide, as these are the words he chose when he introduced himself to me.
The journey began during a session with my reflexologist and career coach, S. I had been getting some coaching from S for a couple of months and decided it was time to try her reflexology practice. My hope was to use the massage therapy to gain some relief from stress. I leaned back into the reclining chair and S began the reflexology massage work on my feet. As the one-hour session unfolded and relaxation gave over to an openness and sense of communion with the world around me like I have seldom experienced, a new door opened before me.
S is a gentle and comforting spirit, and in her hands I felt completely at ease. She guided me through the session explaining what she was doing and how the therapy might affect me. As she worked, she explained how it would help align my energies and that I could expect certain physical sensations or vibrations through my core. It all went as she said and I became very relaxed, though at the same time felt energized within.
S suggested a guided visualization to help ground and center my being while she continued the massage. I said okay, settled further into the chair, and off we went.
She started by saying, “I want you to see yourself in a beautiful place, a beautiful environment, maybe one of your favorite places, maybe outside in an open, peaceful, beautiful place…”
I was in a beautiful grassy meadow near the place where the West Fork joins Oak Creek. I have always found this spot to be somehow magical.
As she began, I saw myself in a field near Sedona, Arizona, probably my favorite place on earth. I was near the mouth of the West Fork of Oak Creek Canyon, a place I have been drawn to many times. I was in a beautiful grassy meadow near the place where the West Fork joins Oak Creek. I have always found this spot to be somehow magical.
About ten miles up Oak Creek, north of Sedona, the West Fork of Oak Creek comes out of a dramatic side canyon to join the main creek. At this point, both streams are small. Oak Creek, maybe thirty feet wide, weaves its way around scattered boulders. The West Fork is much smaller, a few yards wide in places and shallow enough to walk through easily. The main canyon there is about a thousand feet deep and less than a half mile across. The West Fork canyon is less than nine hundred feet across at the mouth. And it is still a thousand feet up to the top canyon rim.
Though small, both streams have carved steep canyons through the red rock. The near vertical walls are topped by a lighter-colored limestone and Ponderosa pines, their towering windswept points skirted by the occasional eagle.
In the valley is another world. Near the confluence of the two streams is a flat, grassy glade area. From within, you’d think you are in a pristine green forest zone. The trees are oak and ash and juniper shrub. There are thick tall grasses with gossamer tops waving shiny in the sun. In early summer there are wild irises three feet tall with blooms as big as your hand.
I have a photo I took a few years before of a particular grassy glen, hanging in my home. This is where I went now.
As I saw myself standing there in the glen, I was aware that there were others nearby. Off in the distance, maybe a hundred or so feet away were a few figures. And there was someone else, standing very near to me, just to my right. I had no clear sense of the physical form of this nearby presence, just the sense of another human form about my height not three feet away.
I didn’t say anything out loud about this place I was envisioning myself in, but to my amusement S said “Maybe you’re in a clearing… and there is a stream nearby… You can hear the water in the stream…”
But I was already seeing the things she described. I was hearing the stream before she mentioned it. And I was already moving in the direction of the sounds. I remember finding it amusing that her words weren’t guiding me on, but were describing things I was already seeing.
She then said “Move toward the sound of the water.”
And I was aware that the figure at my side was coming too.
She moved us on to where I would find a stone bridge and she said there would be someone waiting on the other side. In her visualization, as I learned later, this person I would meet across the stream was to be me, ten years on. And I would be able to hear what I needed to know and do to achieve the person I want to be in the future.
But before I could cross the bridge, I became aware that what was happening in my visualization was a departure from where S was leading it.
The figure at my side spoke to me. He introduced himself as my spirit guide. He said he had been trying to reach me for sometime and that now we could meet.
I spoke out loud and told S what I was experiencing. As she paused, breaking the smooth rhythm of her speech, I could detect some surprise. She asked me to ask him his name. He said what I thought sounded like ski-doo and I chuckled, saying, “Ski-doo? What?” He corrected me and said it was See Do. And that he was my spirit guide and that he was here to help me.
— continued