Here's a bit about what guided visualisations are. They are journeys we make in our minds using a script created to help us experience a story we are part of. They’re intended to help us know ourselves better and gain insights. The ones in my book were also written to help us attune ourselves to the cycles of nature. This one is called Midwinter Meeting and it involves interaction with the ancestors at around the time of the Winter Solstice. Before starting any guided visualisation, make sure you are comfortably seated in a safe place where you won’t be disturbed.
Midwinter Meeting
Close your eyes. Relax your body. Take a deep breath in, hold it for a moment, let the breath go fully out. Pause for a moment, then take another deep breath in. Hold it for a moment, let it go out. Do that one more time, breathe in and out.
With your eyes closed, in your mind’s eye, imagine you are alone in the front room of a house where you feel safe, comfortable, and happy. It might be somewhere that really exists, it might be your own front room, or it might be somewhere you remember from the past, somewhere you have seen in a picture, or somewhere completely imaginary.
It is midwinter, but the room is warm and cosy. As well as the normal furnishings of this room, there are things here you would expect for celebrating the season. Perhaps the room has been decked with evergreens, or maybe there are flowers that bloom at this time of year. Perhaps there are lit candles. Perhaps there are other decorations or perhaps the room has just been made tidy and beautiful. Whatever is here seems right to you for this place, and this time.
Spend some time visualising the room. Perhaps you can see it clearly as a picture in your mind’s eye. Perhaps only the important aspects of the space are clear– that’s fine. Perhaps you find it easier to describe it to yourself with words. That’s also fine. Perhaps you can imagine what it is like to touch the objects around you, or feel the floor beneath your feet and what that floor is covered with. Perhaps the scent of this place or a sound associated with it come to you most clearly. Perhaps you get a mixture of all of those things. However you experience being in this safe and comfortable room, spend a little time enjoying it.
As you are in the room, you hear a tinkling sound coming from outside the front window, a sound like gentle, tinkling bells. Then you see a glow of light coming from outside your window. Go to the window and look outside.
Whatever scene you expected to see outside has been transformed by a covering of snow and, in the middle of a public space outside that you can see from your window, is a tall fir tree, sparkling with frost. It is decked with jewel-like crystals, shining baubles, and tiny, tiny bells. On the top is a star that glows brightly, illuminating the snow all around the base of the tree.
As you watch you see other people have come to their windows to look too. Some are watching from their windows, others are leaving their homes, wrapped up against the cold, and gathering around the tree.
You can continue watching from where you are at your window, or you can go and join the people around the tree. The choice is yours, but make that choice now. Either throw open the window and watch, or go outside to join the throng.
For a while, people are simply gathering around the tree, looking at it with awe and wonder. Enjoying the sight.
Then, someone starts to sing a beautiful song, and others join in. More and more people join in and you realise it is a song you know. You may join in too if you wish, in your mind’s eye, or you can just listen to the sound of beautiful singing, with so many people raising their voices in joy.
Then you see there are also other figures present – translucent figures – standing behind the circle of people around the tree, and some standing with them. They are the spirits of their ancestors and loved ones who have passed. They are with them again for this magical moment. Look around, perhaps there is someone with you – an ancestor or someone who has passed through the veil who you would wish to be with again. It is a moment of love and joy, of song and company, a meeting in peace between those who are and those who were, at this special time of the year.
The song comes to an end. People turn to those around them, smiling and happy, and speak with them. If you wish, if there is someone with you, you may turn to them and talk with them. Say what you want to say, and listen to what they say in return.
After a while, you realise it is time for the spirits of the ancestors to leave. Say your goodbyes, but know that there will be times when you can speak with them again.
The spirits leave, and slowly the people gathered around the tree return to their homes. People close their windows and shut their doors against the cold. It is time for you to do the same.
Look around again at your comfortable room. It is now time to return to your normal consciousness, and your normal place and time.
Take three deep breaths in and out. Wiggle your fingers and toes and open your eyes.
Afterwards
I hope that got you into a suitably seasonal mood. It’s important to ground after you’ve done a guided visualisation, to fully come back to reality. The best way to do that is to have some thing to eat and drink. Maybe you have something seasonal like hot chocolate and a mince pie. If that’s not something you can have, at least have a little treat.
there are two other Yuletide guided visualisations in my new book. Please don’t feel obliged to buy a copy, but it you want to know where you can get Pagan Portals: Guided Visualisations then Treadwell's bookshop in London has some. You can also order copies from uk.bookshop.org, from Amazon, from Waterstones, via publisher Moon Books’ website and from other pagan bookshops.
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