A Dream of Winter

I am enjoying the dark nights coming early as they do at this time of year. Many people find it uncomfortable, they don't like the sun setting early, the darkness closing over us like a cloak. I do, oh how I do. It is a soothing comfort, the feeling of being truly home. Winter, the time of introspection, curling up and surrounding ourselves with the warmth and blessings of the season. If they would only allow themselves to feel that.

I light the candles on my Winter Solstice shrine and the fire in the fireplace most nights. From my aromatherapy pot, a blend of winter scents drifts through the air. I have been meditating, as usual, but allowing the journeying to go where it will. With the addition of some Solfeggio music, which includes different frequencies that are a sort of drone in the background of the music, I have had some interesting meditations, as well as significant changes in my self-healing work.

Last night, I drifted off into a journey or dream, not sure which. It was intensely real; I felt transported. I found myself walking through a forest in winter, the sky dark gray as if twilight were about to arrive. I was wrapped in a cloak and hood of animal skins. I felt warm and toasty despite the wind and gently falling snow. Nearby, keeping pace with me, an owl drifted from branch to branch as we traveled. Behind me, as if keeping guard, a large black dog. One of Hekate's hounds? I don't know, but I did know the hound was there to assist me, as was the owl.

The air, cold and crisp as winter air is, felt as if it were cleansing me with every breath, its icy winds reaching in and moving through me. Yet, still, I did not feel cold, just a bright cleansing. The branches of the trees overhead as I looked up, were like a tapestry woven together. Here and there, I bent to pick up a twig, a pine cone, a stone peeking from beneath the snow. All were placed in a fur pouch beneath my cloak. What use they would be, I didn't know, but they were important.

Now and then I stopped and placed my hands on the trees, feeling their spirits. The ground beneath my feet spoke to me, encouraging me to move on, all the while holding me in its embrace. And so I walked, my companions nearby. As I walked, the light became dimmer, twilight came and flowed into night. Moonlight was the only light that kept me on my path, but soon even that began to dim. Dimmer and dimmer, gray to black, slowly, slowly I drifted. No fear, no worry, I let myself go...

And then my eyes fluttered open, the scent of pine, the flickering of candle and fire light welcomed me. Home again.

Blessings dark and deep.