ROWAN : STAR AND STONE (a visualisation meditation)
You are sitting on a large rock
overlooking a landscape of rolling hills
and deep, hidden valleys.
The sun has just gone down,
the sky is turning a fragile turquoise blue.
Soon the stars will become visible in the deep skies
above you.
The sun’s heat can still be felt through the rock
against which you comfortably sit.
Time passes and your body relaxes.
Your mind and emotions relax.
Your senses relax
and stretch out
to each horizon.
You become aware
of all the oncoming noises of night-time.
Behind where you sit,
amongst the crevices in the rock,
a rowan tree is growing.
It is not large,
because it has had to weather the seasons
in this exposed position.
But it is strong
and shaped by the elements
that it has learned to balance
perfectly.
Darkness has fallen.
The small sounds of the night
fill your senses.
Your body is comfortable and relaxed.
You feel its presence perfectly,
but you do not feel restricted by it in any way.
Your senses relax
and spread out into the landscape,
and up into the sky where the stars are appearing.
The rock, the tree, the night,
your still body,
all relax into one view.
Thoughts, feelings, sensations,
all come and go,
as do the sounds and breezes
of the night.
Sitting open, but unfocused,
alert, but relaxed.
A sense of presence
draws close to you.
Perhaps behind you,
or to the side,
to the front
or even inside you.
The spirit of rowan.
Within the globe of your awareness
is a place to meet and learn.
To perhaps receive initiation
into the heart of
rowan spirit energy.
The spirit focuses its awareness upon you.
“Ay noo ay.
“Establish Silence.
“Establish a point of attention in the Silence.
“Allow the flow of energy tides to move through you.
“Shape the tides and read them.
“Ay noo ay. Ay noo ay.”
Stay with the flow of life.
Pay attention
to what happens
and what fails to happen.
The tree, your spine,
your body, the rock.
Your senses, the night.
Your awareness,
spirit awareness,
the world watching.
Return
when you return.
Stay awhile
and remember.