Do you believe in Spirits? I’ve had many an experience with energies and entities that are not in a physical body, enough that I absolutely know they exist and walk amongst us (albeit on an invisible plane).
One of the strangest experiences I’ve had was at my own home. I’d recently moved in, and was enjoying an evening of Earth meditation. For these, I wander down the grassy slope outside my home, and sit in front of the beautiful rainforest trees that are at the lower end of my property.
There, I set up a blanket and cushions, and wrap myself in a cotton sarong to deter any mosquitoes from distracting me. And this is where I most love to meditate. My spine is anchored to the earth, and I sink into the most incredible, deep meditation. From here I can bounce from deep into the earth into the highest planes.
On this particular evening, I sat down in a slightly different position to normal. I was less than a metre (3 feet) from where I normally sit.
As soon as I settled into my cross-legged meditation posture, a feeling of terror came over me. I could sense an Aboriginal spirit behind me with a spear. The energy was so powerful...
I knew he wanted to kill me and that I was in real danger.
When images and senses come through this clearly, I’ve learnt to pay attention. This wasn’t some random thought or imagination. This was really happening.
I spent a moment in confusion. Even in those early months of living here, my home has always been a safe space. Why was I feeling so life-threatened in my sacred space?
At first, I wondered if this was a test. As I child I used to be terrified of the dark. I was certain that a whole village of spiders was crawling under my bed or in my sheets, and that gremlins and ghosts were lurking in my cupboards just waiting for the light to be turned out.
I used a torch each night to check very carefully for creepy crawlies and gremlins and ghosts before I’d climb into bed. And if I woke at night and needed to use the toilet, I’d call out to my parents to wake them before I’d venture down the hallway, so that they could protect me if some Spirit jumped out of a dark corner and tried to “get” me.
Now, I suspect I was always sensitive to the “unseen” forces around us.
And because of my fear of “things in the dark”, it had indeed been a stretch to do meditations on my own under the stars. What if the boogie man was to come out? But I was so proud of how I’d faced these fears and turned my evening meditations into a spiritual practice, and I was really loving them.
So the instant after I realised my life felt like it was in danger, I also wondered if this was my mind and my fears getting the better of me. Was I meant to just sit in meditation and overcome them? I didn’t know. This felt just so REAL! So I reached out to Spirit for help, and sought guidance. “What am I meant to do in this situation?”
The answer was just about screamed in my ear. “Move!!!!”
In less than a second I jumped up and moved position, and settled myself back down again in my normal meditation location, a metre (3 feet) to the left of where I had been sitting.
As I sat down, I quickly felt around, and noticed two things.
Firstly – there was no fear in the new position, and no sense of danger. I felt safe and held and protected in the same way I normally feel when I meditate here.
Secondly – I could hear (with my inner ear, ie. my clairaudience) a crowd of Aboriginal women cheering. I knew exactly where they were standing – under the beautiful grand Poinciana tree on the property. And I could feel their delight extending across the lawn to where I was now sitting.
Somehow this action of mine, moving 1 metre, was exactly what I was meant to do.
But why?
It took me a few weeks of delving and enquiring to find the answers, but those answers have opened a whole new realm of awareness for me, which I’ll share about in next week’s blog.
Suffice to say that I had sat on sacred Aboriginal ground, in the spot that is reserved for a shaman (Kurdaitcha). Certainly, this was a test. But not a test of my fear of the dark. It was a test to see if I was sensitive enough to the spirits of the land to recognise that I’d sat on forbidden ground, and to respectfully move myself off that ground rather than stubbornly continuing to sit there.
And I’d passed!
A few weeks later when I was sitting at my computer, I received a telepathic message. I was invited to join in an Aboriginal ceremony at 7.30pm that evening, which was taking place under the Poinciana tree. I was told that one of the Elders of the community had passed out of her physical body, and a celebration was taking place.
As I sat in meditation at 7.30pm that day, I could again hear the cheering of many Aboriginal voices.
“Snake woman” they called me, with grins on their faces, referring to my role as protector and guardian of snakes. When I’m not writing blogs and teaching about essential oils, I am a volunteer wildlife rescuer, and snakes are my specialty. Many a snake has found shelter for a time in my garage, while I lovingly bring it back to health.
This particular evening, I headed into a deep meditation and could feel my Soul lift out of my body. There was celebration and loving brotherhood in the air. This was a special occasion.
But then, after 15 or 20 minutes of meditation, I reached a point where they told me that I needed to “stay here”. They’d graced me with the invitation to the initial celebration, but now they needed to travel with this woman’s Soul into her sacred dreaming, and this part of the ceremony was for them and their tribe, and not a path for me to travel.
