THE SECOND WELL TRUST presents

The Great She Bear Stories of Nature

Finding the Light When walking Dark Paths

SOUL'S JOURNEY FIVE

Songee says, Are you ready? Are you sitting comfortably? . . . Then we shall begin. Take inside of you the deep Breath of Life in through your nose and down into your middle self. Breathing deeply . . . Keep taking the deep breaths in and let go of all the cares of your day and prepare yourself to journey once more on the spiral of the Great She-Bear.

Because we are going to go on a little journey.

When you are ready, with your eyes closed, breathing deeply. When you are ready step onto the spiral and begin the journey towards the center. And as you journey along remember a little of the story from before of the Great She-Bear of how you met her first of all in the cave in the Womb of the Mother with her little ones by her side and they came out of the cave and went looking for foodings and had many adventures on the way. And the Little-Bear cub met with Brother Eagle, remember as you journey ever towards the center of the spiral. And remember how they meet with Brother Wolf, Wind Runner and learned a very special lesson.

Remember. And as you come to the center of the spiral pause for a moment before stepping off and as you step off you find yourself in that other world, watching from the edge of the clearing as the Great She-Bear walks towards her two little ones and Wind Runner, waiting in the center of the clearing and as you watch her you see her come to them and the little bears dance around her feets, jumping up to kiss her face, patting her on the nose with their little hand paws and laughing and telling her about all their adventures with Wind Runner.

She sits down now on her behind self and lifts her great paw up into the air and brings it down gently around the shoulders of the Little She-Bear and gathers her to her front, and smiles fondly at her little boy, the Little-Bear cub. And then she looks to the wolf and she says to him, "Thank you Brother Wolf for teaching my children that beautiful lesson and thank you for giving me a little bit of time for myself. We are going to journey a little further on now, would you like to continue with us?"

"I most certainly would like to," says Wind Runner. "There are many stories that I would like to tell the little ones as we journey along."

"Oh good," said the Little-Bear cub. "I like stories."

"So do I," said the Little She-Bear. And so the Great She-Bear gets up off her behind self and begins to journey down the mountain side a little more, across the clearing and through the trees. And as they go you follow them and watch and listen as they go.

In this part of the forest the trees are quite close together making the ground seem very dark in places. Very secretive, like there are great mysteries hidden behind every rock and bush. This is very exciting for the Little-Bear cub and for his sister. They run ahead and they hide behind the rocks and the bushes and as the Great She-Bear and Wind Runner come up to them they jump out and make great soundings and shoutings to frighten them. Wind Runner pretends to be afeared and jumps up in the air with all four feet in the air and his tail sticking straight up and all the fur standing up on his body and as he lands he makes to be very ferocious and makes his big teeth show.

And the Little-Bear cub looks at him in great frightened astonishment and says, "Oh you will not eat I with your big teeth will you?"

And Wind Runner smiles and says, licking his lips, "Not today little one."

And the Little She-Bear peeps out from behind her brother and says, "You won't eat I, will you?"

"Oh most certainly not," said Wind Runner. "You are far too sweet for I to eat. I might lose all my teeth. They might fall out, you are so sweet. Come now little ones, let us journey on."

So they journey on through the forest. Moving downwards they come to where the stream is running down the side of the mountain and they have a big drink because it is thirsty walking through the trees.

They don't see any of the silver fish in the stream. Muma, the Great She-Bear says that they are further down the mountain side, that this part is too dark for them and that they like to be where the sun shines. So they cross the stream, getting their feets wet, feeling the stones beneath their hand paws and their feet paws. Feeling the cold water trickling through their toes.

The Great She-Bear lumbers on and so does Wind Runner trotting by her side and the little bear cubs stay playing in the water of the stream as it runs down the mountain side. Splashing each other, getting their nose wet and snorting the water out of their noses and shaking their heads all the way to the tips of their tails.

"Come along," says the Great She-Bear, "or you will get left too far behind." So they leave the stream and bound after their mother and their friend and now they come out of the forest and they find themself standing on the edge of a great cliff.

"Don't go to close to the edge," says the Great She-Bear. "The rocks will break away from underneath your feets and you could fall down the side of the mountain." The Little-Bear cub and his sister creep ever so carefully and peer over the edge.

"It's a long way down," they say.

"It's a very long way down," says Wind Runner. And as they look they see Brother Eagle flying far below them, flying on the currents of air.

"Look," said the Little-Bear cub, "There is my friend, perhaps he can give us a lift down. We could ride on his back all the way to the bottom."

Wind Runner looks at him and says, "Don't you even dream about it, little one. You will come to great despair if you do. You cannot ride on the back of Brother Eagle, you are far too large, not in your physical body. There has to go another way, down the side of the mountain.

"How are we going to do that?" says the Little-Bear cub.

"Come," says the Great She-Bear, "I will show you the way." And with this she turns away once more back into the forest, back towards where the stream is running, down the mountain side.

"Come," she says. "We will go to the end where the stream is." And they do. They travel along by the side of the stream until they come to where the stream disappears. It drops off the edge of the cliff, down and down and down all the way to the bottom.

"I don't see how we are going to get down there," said the Little-Bear.

"How can we get down there Muma?" said the Little She-Bear.

"Come," says Muma. "And I will show you." And with this she crosses the stream and she take the bears and Wind Runner into a cave.

"Come," she says. "This is another place that belongs to the Mother. She will take care of us and we will journey through Her secret ways and find our passage into the Light."

"Ohhhhh," said the Little-Bear cub. "How will we find our way?"

"I will show you," said the Great She-Bear.

"Come," said Wind Runner. "Come Little She-Bear hold onto I tail and I will lead you with your mother and your brother."

And so they begin their journey back into the secret ways of the Mother of All Things. And as they move through the cave they come to an opening at the back of the cave and they move through and it is very dark inside. There doesn't seem to be any way to see where they are going.

"I'm frightened," said the Little-Bear cub. "I'm frightened, I can't see where I putting I feets."

"Oh don't be afeared," says Wind Runner. "Remember how you learnt to walk on air and how you learned to fly with Brother Eagle, this is no different. You have to look inside yourself and find where you are going to place each of your foots and you will find that there will be light in that place. So go inside and seek the light that will show you where to place your feets as you walk through the darkness. You too Little She-Bear. You do the same thing and learn how to walk with surety no matter how dark it gets. Come, nothing will hurt you in the mysterious ways of the Mother. Just follow."

And so they journeyed through, looking deep inside, finding their light. And as they find their light they look beyond their physical beings of themself and they can see where to put their feets.

"Oh I can see," said the Little She-Bear.

"So can I," said the Little-Bear cub. "Isn't this exciting! Look you can see all the shapes of the rocks around and I can see Muma bear and I can see Windrunner and I can see you. Look we are all walking through the darkness of the Mothers mysterious ways."

And in his excitement the Little-Bear cub forgot to look for his light and he went crash back inside himself and fell over his feets.

"Och," he said. "I felled over my feets and banged my toes."

"Oh never mind," said the Great She-Bear as she put her nose down to him and snuffled around his sore toes. She gave them a lick and said, "There it will be better now. The pain will go away. Now go back inside and find your light."

And they proceed further on down, walking downwards always downwards, and then they can hear the sound, the sound as thunder in the skies.

"Are we going to have rainings?" said the Little-Bear cub.

"Oh no," said the Great She-Bear. "That is just the sound of the water falling off the mountain side. Don't be afraid, it always makes that sound." And as they come down further, all the way down they come slowly into another cave as it opens up and they can see the light of day around the entrance of the cave.

"Come," said the Great She-Bear. "We are nearly at the end of our journey." And she walks forward towards the light. And as they emerge the Great She-Bear, the Little-Bear cub, the Little She-Bear and Wind Runner, they emerge into a passageway that goes behind the waters as they fall down the side of the mountain. And as they walk through this passage the water splashes and bounces off the rocks and tickles their noses and makes puddles beneath their feets. And in this place there are no trees gathered around and the great sun shines down from the heavens and shines through the curtain of water that is before them. And as they look the Little-Bear cub and the Little She-Bear look with wide open eyes of wonderment.

"Oh look, look at the beautiful colours. It is magic. Look it is so magic, the colours are dancing, Muma," said the Little She-Bear.

"Oh how beautiful," said the Little-Bear cub. "Can I reach out and touch it." And as he reaches out his little hand paw and touches the colours they bounce and sparkle all around him and dance across his fur all through him, covering him in light, bright and shining. And the Little She-Bear reaches out and does the same thing and the light and the colour bounces and dances all around her also, until both of them are swathed in the light of the beautiful colours, dancing all about them. And the Great She-Bear stands up on her great hind legs and lifts up both of her hand paws, to the skies, to the great sun shining through the Waters of Life. And Wind Runner stands on all four feet and raises his nose to the heavens. He sings his song of praise for the Mother of All Things, and for the Father of All Things. And the Great She-Bear lifts her paws up and touches the curtain of the Waters of Life and asks the Mother of All Things for Blessings of Light to be for her and her little ones and for Wind Runner, for the continuation of their journey. And the light touches each of them, shining through, breaking up into a myriad of colours touching, dancing, caressing them all, bathing them in the light.

And then they all take a great deep breath and say, "Thank you for the gift of light, the gift of learning to look within in the times of darkness. Of learning to tread the paths of mystery within themselves as well as within the Mother." And knowing now that as they continue their journey they take the light of the sun shining through the Waters of Life with them.

And as they continue on now through the passage they come out the other side and lo they are at the bottom of the great cliff and the waters that are falling from above are gathered into a great pool beneath and then flowing on down, further down the mountain side bringing life to all that need it.

And so we leave them there as they emerge from their journey, their journey through the darkness as they emerge into the light once more having travelled safely and learning much on their way. And as you take your deep breath and thank the Oneness for the rainbow lights of colour that dance around your Souls remember them, the Great She-Bear, the Little-Bear cub and his sister the Little She-Bear and Wind Runner. Watch them as they journey on now down the mountain side and through the forest once more and know that you will meet them again at another point of their journey.

It is time now for you to breathe the Breath of Life, to dance the rainbow light, to soar up into the skies, travelling with the light back to the spiral for your journey home. Journeying back along the spiral, remembering everything, all that you felt and learnt, all that you have seen. Bringing yourself and your memories and your achievements, all back into your present life, so that you come back and step off the spiral of the Great She-Bear onto your own one and come back slowly and gently, the living Power of Light and Love with you, back into your own earth life and your own present.

I go now, and I leave you with the Power and the strength of knowing how to walk your paths of darkness, knowing that the Light is always with you.

SO BE IT