THE SECOND WELL TRUST presents

The Great She Bear Stories of Nature

The Messenger

SOUL'S JOURNEY ELEVEN

Songee says, So we will go once more on the journey of the Great She Bear. Closing your eyes now and taking the deep Breath of Life inside your middle self. Preparing yourself once more to step out upon the spiral, going bravely forward now towards the center wherein lies the silence. Leaving behind you all the things of your day, the cares and worries of your day – some things you may wish to collect on your way back, other things you will be able to leave them and the spiral will be able to take them away for you. So travel now to the center of the spiral of the Great She Bear.

When you get to the center, to the place of silence hover for a moment before you step off across into the otherworld.

And as you step into the other world you find yourself standing once more beside the great river - the place where the Little Bear cub encountered the turtle. And as you stand on the side of the river listening to it, thundering its way along through the land and you look around at the rocks about and find the funny rock with the four feets and a nose and a tail. And you see this funny creature, the turtle and he’s walking his way up the river beside the bank. And as he goes you can hear him muttering away to himself under his breath. And he is saying such things as "Silly Little Bear cub, I am not a rock. Fancy imagining that I am a rock. Tut, what is the world coming to. Doesn’t anyone educate these childrens anymore." And he’s muttering away to himself as he goes slowly plodding up the bank along the side of the river.

And as you stand there listening to him and listening to the great river murmuring along its way to the land, out of the sky flying down swiftly comes Raven. He lands on the rock at your feet. He ruffles his feather about him and then he stands and faces you and putting his head on one side he fixes you with his great black eye and Raven looks hard at you. And as he looks at you, you feel inside yourself his presence, his power as he speaks with you.

"Visitor to the Otherworld I come to greet you now on behalf of all the beings of the Otherworld. I am the messenger, I am the speaker of truth and I visit you now to bring you the truths of the Otherworld. Come and I will show you some more truths of the Otherworld." And with this he gives a great cry and flaps his great wings and flies up into the air, circling high above the tree tops. And as you look up you see him circling around and then he comes down and around behind you and flies off down the river following the path of the Great She Bear and her bear cubs and Windrunner who have now disappeared into the great distance.

It is time to follow Raven. So you begin your journey now following Raven along the banks of the great river. Raven leads you down until you come to where the great river drops off the side of the mountain, again down further in great wide waters, surging, pushing and making great rushing growling sounds. No longer the smooth gentle murmurings of the land, now great rushings and great soundings.

"Come," says Raven, "we have not yet finished come, further down, further down." And you follow the Raven down the sound of water of the river is now so loud that you can hardly hear anything at all except the waters rushing, rushing. At the end of these great white waters, the humankinds call rapids, because the water flows so rapidly over the earth, Raven flies and lands once more onto the boulders at the edge of the great river.

"Now," he says, "It is time for you to follow I away from the great river. Come we go now into the forest." And he begins to hop and to fly in front of you towards the great forest on the side of the river. As you turn to look, the forest is there, very large, with many trees and it is very dark because the trees are so close together. And the Raven is also very dark with the most beautiful blue black feathers and he almost disappears into the forest, only his great yellow beck and his great black shining eyes show where is he going. And so have you gathered together your courage now to step into the forest after Raven?

There is no obvious path in this forest, you have to follow Raven and trust that Raven will guide you safely through this part of the forest. All around you, the further away from the great river that you go, silence begins to gather around you. There is a stillness in the air and a silence. It is so still and so silent that even the insects do not breathe. There are no sounds of birds or rustlings of small creatures, only silence. And as your footsteps go through this forest Raven fluttering and flying and walking in front of you, showing you the way, you may find yourself going inside of your own being. Inside of your being you may discover little worries, little uncertainties and just when you begin to feel they are too much Raven will call to you, "Quoraa, quoraa, quoraa," he will say to you, "Follow I." The Raven will keep you to the path that is not obvious to your eye. And as you go further into the forest it becomes more silent even than you imagine possible, more still. And all the time Raven leads you ever onwards.

It is coming now to the time of day in the place of the Otherworld when Sun is going down. It is going back into its sleep and Sister Moon is beginning to come up into the skies. And all the people of the Heavens are coming out to shine their light. Down in the center of the great forest where you are now with Raven all is silence, all is darkness.

So very slowly and very carefully you make your way behind Raven through the darkness of the great forest. All around you all the bushes and the small trees and plants are growing thickly around you. You can make out the shapes a little in the light, not much to see, just enough to see shapes.

"Quoraa, Quoraa, Quoraa," says Raven. "I am here. I have not left you. Come we have a little further to go yet. Quoraa, Quoraa, Quoraa." And so he leads you and then he brings you to a great rock. A great rock that seems to grow out of the ground, seemingly out of nowhere. Around the base of the great rock is a little clearing with some green grass. It does not look very green this dark night. It looks more like silver with the moon shining down upon it.

"Quoraa, Quoraa, Quoraa," says Raven. "I have brought you to your destination. This is where I leave you."

And as you look at the great rock you may wonder to yourself what on earth have I come to this place, what is here for I? And as you stand wondering mayhap these things, out of the skies comes brother Owl flying swiftly and silently through the night, swiftly.

"Ooo," he says, "Ooo, I am here, I have come to take you now the rest of your way along the journey."

"Thank you Raven," he says greeting the great bird, "Thank you for bring all these peoples on this journey to this place, however I am here now to continue on."

And Raven bows to Owl and bows to you and says once more to you, "Fair thee well now, traveller of the Otherworld, learn well the lessons that are brought to you. We shall encounter each other again." And with this he raises up his head to the Heavens and lifts up his wings and flies up into the air, soaring high above the tree tops and disappears into the night.

Owl sits on the rock above your head and looks down at you with wisdom in his eyes. "Come," he says, "I will take you now further on your journey." And with this he begins to fly around the great rock and as you watch him he flies around and around and around in circles, ever widening circles until he is flying around you and around the great rock also and as he flies he sings his song of the nights.

"Tooo whooo, too whoo, to whom do you come,
Tooo whooo, too whoo, to whom do you go,
Tooo whooo, too whoo, to whom would you ask,
Tooo whooo, too whoo, to whom would you know?"

And with this the rock begins to disappear, to fade into nothingness and you seem to become encompassed in a great White Light. And as the Light becomes brighter and brighter all you can hear is the sound of the song of the Owl. "Tooo whooo, too whoo, to whom do you come?"

And then there you are in the center of the Earth and all around you are the brothers and sisters the aunts, the uncles and cousins of Windrunner. All sound asleep, dreaming their wolf dreams. And in the center of them all, curled up, sound asleep is the Great She Bear and her little bear cubs. Windrunner however is not asleep, he is awake. He is on sentry duty.

He sees you arrive with Owl and greets you, "Welcome visitor to the Otherworld. Up to this point you have been an observer in the journeys of the Great She Bear. Welcome, welcome, trice welcome in consciousness now to the place of the Otherworld so that you may enjoy the journeys as our companion, in full knowledge of the journey and for our knowledge of your presence." And now with this he lets out a great cry, "Arooooooooooowl," he says, "Arooooooooooowl." And with this all the wolves all raise up their sleepy heads and look around them.

The Great She Bear opens her eyes. The little bear cubs open their eyes and rub their little hand paws on their eyes, like this, they are so sleepy. And everybody sits up and gathers around you. And little noses wiffle and sniffle at your feets and little tongues come out and taste you to see what you taste like. Not to see whether you will make a good meal or not, only to see how much of a friend you are. And there they are all around you, all the creatures of the forest waiting to greet you now to the Otherworld so that you can be part of it, to be at one with it. No longer just an observer you now become a journeyman in the Otherworld.

So it is now time to greet the Great She Bear. Step forward now towards her, for she sees you clearly, she knows you are there. She is much larger than you and much more powerful and yet she is very gentle. She is kind and knows that you are there as a visitor to the Otherworld. Looking at you now she raises herself up to her great height. She opens up her arms wide and she lets out a great cry,

"Raaaaaawl," she says. "Welcome to the Otherworld traveller, welcome, welcome, trice welcome." And with this she takes two steps forward and very gently wraps her great arms around you and holds you to herself. And as you find yourself snuggled into the front of the Great She Bear you will know what it is like for the little bear cubs to feel the warmth and the love and the comfort of being held by such power and such strength and such gentleness. The Great She Bear has welcomed you now into her heart and into the Otherworld. And always she will be your protector in the Otherworld. She releases you now so that you can go and greet the little bear cubs, the Little She Bear and the Little Boy Bear cub. And down at his feet, what is down at his feet? The beautiful crystal that the Mother-of-All-Things have given to him, there shining brightly in the Light that is all around you.

Windrunner now steps forward and sits down in front of you and placing his hand paw onto you, says to you, "What have you learned from your journey this night? What have you discovered within yourself? What did you learn from following Raven through the darkness of the great forest? And when you came to the place of the great rock what were all those things that went through your heart and your mind? And when you found yourself in this place surrounded by all the peoples of the forest and all my family what did you feel inside of your being? Look at all the lessons that you have learn-ed from the beginning of this journey to this part of this journey and know that inside the lessons there are many more for you to know, many journeys for you to make. The journey of the Great She Bear will continue and the journey of the Little Bear cub and the Little She Bear will continue, only now instead of being an observer you are going to be a part of the journey. So take inside of you now the great Breath of Life that the Mother-of-All-Things brings to us. Breathe deeply of the Breath of Life and we will show you more of the Otherworld. For now be content to rest yourself in this place of safety, having faced many of the things, the fears inside yourself on your journey through the great forest and know that in this place of safety you are well protected and well guarded. And the journeys will continue after this, after you are rested."

And as you find yourself curling up now against the great form of the Great She Bear, feeling the warmth of her body, hearing the great heart thumping underneath your ears, feeling the weight of the arm across you holding you safe and warm - you begin to go now into your sleep.

And as you go into your sleep it is time now for you to drift away and to come back now onto the dream spiral of the Great She Bear. To step from the Otherworld back onto the spiral and to follow its journey along, picking up those things that you need for your life – leaving behind those things that you don’t need any longer. Following the spiral once more to its beginning, to the here and now of this life. Bringing with you the protection, the strength and the warmth and the love of that place that you have just visited, and knowing great things about yourself.

Taking now inside of you the great Breath of Life, bringing yourself back into this place of your present life. And so the journey for this time is complete.

SO BE IT