Here is a guided visulation. When I sat down to write it I intended it to be about the element of air but when I finished I realised it was really about something else.
If you want to try it, sit down somewhere you will be undisturbed, take a few deep breaths and read through it, pausing where necessary to visualise your own journey.
Ideas: a guided visualisation
It is morning. You are sitting in a pleasant and familiar spot out of doors enjoying a few moments alone with your own thoughts before starting your chores for the day. You look around, enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of this place, where you feel comfortable and at ease. Spend a few moments taking this in...
As you are sitting and thinking, a fantastic idea comes into your head. You rummage around and find a scrap of paper and a pencil to jot down the bare bones of your idea before you forget it. Then, just as you have finished writing that brief note, a sudden gust of wind pulls the piece of paper from your fingers and it tumbles across the ground away from you.
You get up and go after it but, just as it seems to be within reach, another gust of wind blows it further away.
You continue to follow the piece of paper, but never quite seem to catch up with it.
At first you are lead over familiar paths and alleys but after a while you find yourself in an area you do not know.
It is necessary to make a decision. You are certain that unless you recover your idea, you will not be able to remember it sufficiently to make use of it. However, if you continue to chase it you might get lost and waste valuable time in which you should be getting on with other things. It is necessary to decide quickly.
If you decide to give up, then retrace your footsteps back to your safe and familiar spot, and then end the meditation there.
If you decide to continue, then go onwards, following your idea down unfamiliar lanes even though at times it is almost out of sight.
Continuing to follow your idea, you travel for some time. Eventually you come to the foot of a steep hill and your piece of paper is being blown up it, even though this might seem strange.
You make your way up the hill - the hardest part of your journey so far. The hill is very steep and at times the wind seems to push you in one direction while your idea is blown in another.
At last, you make it to the top. You stop to catch your breath. The view is amazing. Below you, you can see the familiar places you have left behind, the streets and paths you took to get to the hilltop. You feel a sense of achievement in getting this far and realise that the journey was worth it, even if just for what you have experienced and seen. Yet, you still want to recover your piece of paper and, for the moment, you cannot see it.
You look around. It is not nearby; neither does it seem to have blown down the other side of the hill. You look upwards and, to your amazement, see the piece of paper spiralling upwards into the sky above your head.
At a loss for what to do, you look around for any means of assistance. Then you realise you are not alone on the hilltop. You are being watched in a way that seems to tell you that help might be at hand.
Approach the being, creature or creatures you have seen and ask them for help or advice. Then listen to what they have to say as they explain to you the means of travelling upwards into the sky after your idea.
You thank them for their advice, and then do what you have been told. Spend time making the necessary preparations to travel upwards...
When you are ready, you take off. Soaring upwards through the air, you see the ground below you growing smaller and smaller. You start to pass through a wispy layer of cloud and lose sight of the ground below.
For a while, all is grey and foggy. Then you see light above you and soon pass through the upper layers of the cloud. The sky above is brilliant clear blue and below you is a white carpet of cloud.
But it is what is on top of the cloud that holds your attention – a huge castle like no other you have ever seen before. It is made up of thousands of different parts, of different style – towers and turrets, walls straight or curved, crenulated or flat, flying buttresses, overhanging windows and every type of architectural style you can think of. It is made from all sorts of materials too – stone, wood, iron and steel, bricks and mortar, even strange materials that you do not recognise. All the parts seem to hold together but in such a jumble it is hard to see where one bit ends and another begin. Approaching the castle, you are just in time to see a piece of paper fly in through one of the tiny upper windows.
You land close to the entrance to the castle – a huge portcullis – and a guard stands in front of it.
“Halt!” says the guard. “Who are you and what is your purpose?” Think carefully how you will answer, then persuade the guard to let you enter.
Having gained permission, you enter the castle and find you are free to explore. You wander through its courtyards and corridors, up spiralling stairs and huge sets of steps, along narrow corridors and long galleries, through huge halls and bizarre chambers. Inside even more than out, the castle is a patchwork of different pieces cobbled together, none complete in their own right and none of it totally stable. Here and there you see craftspeople patching up holes with bits and pieces that don’t really seem to be of the same style, material or even function.
All the time, you are searching for your lost idea. After a while you climb a narrow staircase and open a small door onto a tiny chamber. Inside, someone is sticking a collage of paper to the walls. They have a tub of paste and a basket of scraps of all different thicknesses and colours. In their basket, you see your own piece of paper. The worker reaches to pick it out of the basket and daubs paste on their brush.
Quickly, you must decide what to do or say to retrieve your paper before it is stuck on the wall and becomes part of the castle forever – just one more lost idea.
As soon as you have your paper in your hand, the entire castle shifts and changes all around you. The walls and floor dissolve and then reshape themselves and instead of being in a small room, you find yourself just inside the entrance of a massive hall. It is full of light that streams through tall stained glass windows. The roof of the hall is open to the blue sky above and in the air above your head miniature shapes made out of the stuff of clouds hover. These shapes seem to be all sorts of dreams, ambitions and ideas that people have had over the ages, which are being demonstrated before you.
You also become aware that you are not alone. In the distance, on a dais at the far end of the hall you see a figure that you know to be the guardian of this castle. You approach the guardian; giving them the greeting that you feel is right.
“You have come a long way,” says the guardian, “But before I can give you my help, you must hand me your idea.”
Spend a few moments overcoming any reluctance you have in trusting the guardian and hand over the thing you have struggled so hard to retrieve.
The guardian takes the paper, tears it into tiny little pieces and then throws the pieces in the air. The confetti of paper swirls about, dissolving and reforming into a perfect image of your idea – complete and whole in appearance but as yet insubstantial. You spend a while staring at it, and realise that you know enough to make your idea whole in the real world. Spend a few moments talking with the guardian.
The conversation draws to a close and the guardian leans forward and hands you one small thing – something that you can take back with you that will help you.
You thank them, and you realise it is time to go. The guardian blows a breath of air towards you, and again the castle around you dissolves.
When the land reforms, you realise you are back in your familiar place, in the real world. You also realise that it is still early. The day is ahead if you and you have time to do your chores and also start to work towards realising your idea.
You can find more guided visualisations in my book Pagan Portals - Guided Visualisations.
Tomorrow, April 1, is April Fools' Day, when we are all alert for those spoof news stories and irritating practical jokes.
