“Forms of Life”

by Guide Hypatia X

copyright 1998, all rights reserved.

first performed 8/5/98

[This group meditation was written to help individuals to identify with the many forms of life; to teach us the sacredness and interconnectedness of all things.]

Close your eyes and relax. Let your breath flow slowly out. Pause for a moment, then breathe in deeply through your nose. Pause, then breathe our through your mouth. As your breathing becomes slow and regular, feel your body begin to relax. The stresses of the day flow out with the stale air. Let them go. Let everything slip away but the warm sun on your shoulders and the cool breeze that plays in your hair. Feel your body sinking down into a bed of soft moss, spread out like a carpet, at the edge of a small lake. As you draw the breath back in, feel your lungs filling with the damp, sweet air of the lake. Breathe out again. Feel your slow and regular breathing become a part of the place where you rest, your body soaking up the rays of sun that filter through the willows above you.

Across the lake an ancient cypress tree pushes her way through the surface of the water, thrusting her feathery crown high into the heavens. Sunlight filters through her majestic branches, turning her rust green leaves to shades of copper and bronze. Beneath her branches, the lake's blue green water blankets the earth. You see yourself gazing at the scene. Aware of everything, the moss beneath you, the willows above, the sun on your shoulders, the cool breeze, the blue green waters before you, and the majestic tree rising to kiss the heavens. You smile as you watch the ducks and geese swim among her bare, water blackened, knees. Their small heads bob beneath the surface, rising again, greedily gulping the shining minnows, who have foolishly taken refuge in the shallow waters surrounding her roots. The violence of life feeding on life does not break the peace of this place. It affirms the cycle of the living Earth. You watch in silence the turtle that swims along the shore, his head poking above the surface, making tiny ripples in the dark water trailing behind. You watch the geese flying above, their great wings cutting the air.

A raccoon ventures near. He is aware of you. At first he sniffs the air cautiously, then decides you belong to this place. Having decided, the little bandit ignores you, waddles to the shore, and washes his breakfast. You smile at him and realize he is wiser than most; he knows his place in the flow of life. You laugh and the sound startles a group of young frogs from their resting place at the edge of the water. They jump from their warm rock and dive into the deep cool waters. You jump too, and in your dive realize that you are one of them, diving high into the sun then sinking through layers of cool water.

Looking around, your eyes adjust to the dimmer light filtering down from the surface. You look up, studying the surface from below. You gaze in wonder at the reflected patterns of light which dance like diamonds over the lake, and spray their misty light into the world below. You flex your powerful legs and feel the water press against the webbing between your toes. Your head dives deeper into sun and shadow of the water land.

You sink deeper still, and feel yourself becoming part of the water, drinking up the warmth of the earth below. You are deep below the surface now. In a place which is neither earth nor water. But before you can wonder what you are, you feel yourself rising ever so slowly through the veins of the ancient cypress tree.

Time, here, moves at a different pace. Through her eyes you see the world move in a different way. How long have you looked out this way? Old and new, watching the cycles change, the seasons come and go many times before you change again, stretching up from the leaves becoming part of the air itself. You are the rays of sun that dance on the dark water, the water that covers the land. You are the creatures that swim, and walk upon the land, and the deep rich earth itself. You are the trees, the sap, the source of life, the fisher and the fish. All of this is you. With this knowledge, you are at peace with all your many selves. You can reach down and touch any part of yourself, and know that it is good and right. All is as it should be, and you are free to be who and what you are.

A sense of well-being comes over you. The knowledge of belonging to this place and this time takes hold. You are yourself again, lying on the soft moss of the shore. The rightness of at once being yourself and moving within a greater self lingers in your mind. You feel the sun again on your face and your breath moving slowly in and out. As the dreaming fades and you begin to become more aware of your body, you hold onto the feeling of rightness belonging. As you slowly draw yourself back into this moment, seeping back into your body with each breath, you carry the peace of this place back with you. Waking, you open your eyes and begin to focus, returning to full awareness.

Created by Guides Chandonn, Hypatia X, and Sophia X Pharou

Last modified: 06/20/2009