Quote:

Lesson One - THE TREE GATE

By Robert Moss

We are going to open a space for conscious dreaming - a space to which you may return any time you choose, and which you can use as the springboard for journeys of imagination to many interesting locales.

The exercise that follows is also great for raising your energy and helping you to become grounded and centered on any day of your life. After you have read the directions, you may want to stand up, as suggested in the text, to embody this meditation. You may want to do it outside. If you are fortunate enough to live next to the tree you choose to be your dream gate, you can go and do this exercise while sitting or standing with that tree.

Here we go:

Picture a tree that you know, a tree that knows you. It may be a tree in your yard or in the park, or a tree you remember from childhood, or a tree on the other side of the world. It can be any kind of tree. The important thing is that it should be a tree you can picture vividly.

Call the image of the tree, and the place where the tree stands, up from your memory. Use all of your senses to bring the scene alive. Is it warm here, or cool? Moist or dry? What sounds so you hear, in this place where the tree stands? Is there a taste that comes to you?

Feel yourself sitting or standing very close to your tree. Look at how its roots go down into the ground. Look at what is around the roots.

Now stand up for a moment, take off your shoes if you can, and imagine that you are standing like your tree, in the place where the tree stands.

Feel yourself reaching down into the earth, like the roots of the tree, going deep and spreading out. Feel the warmth and moisture of Earth. As you breathe in, feel the energy of Earth rising up through the soles of your feet, stirring and working in you. Let the Earth energy rise up through all of your body until it reaches the crown of your head.

Now feel that energy rising above you and branching out, like the limbs and canopy of your tree.

You are standing like a tree, rooted and centered in the Earth, rising between Earth and sky.

Now reach up with your awareness, towards the light. Feel the light streaming down towards you, down through your canopy. Your tree lives on sunlight. Feel yourself feeding on light, drinking light. Let the light stream down through your trunk. Let the light wash down through all of your body.

Now relax and feel yourself fully with your tree. Relax into the deep dream of the heartwood.

Picture how you can go down through the roots of your tree - or perhaps through a doorway that opens among its roots - and travel deep down into the Earth, into a world beneath the surface world. You may have the experience of going down a tunnel and coming out in a different landscape. An animal friend may be waiting for you hear, an ally that will support you in your current journey and other life journeys. You may be able to enter a space of healing, deep in the generous body of Earth. You may find a portal to the ancestors, and ancestral wisdom.

Now let your awareness gently rise up through the trunk of your tree, until you are hovering among the upper branches. You can find a place of vision up here, from which you can see into the far distance. It may just be a cleft in the branches, or something like a bird's nest, or an observation deck, or a tree house. You are high up, but you are quite secure here. You can look out across time as well as space, and see things that may happen in the future as well as things that are going on at a distance now. You have found the place of the tree-seer.

Look higher, for a moment. Feel yourself rising up through the canopy of your tree, lifting up like a bird. By traveling upward from your tree, you may be able to enter higher realms and encounter a higher guide for your life.

Let your whole body form the shapes of your tree. Let your arms and fingers spread to make the shapes of the limbs and twigs. Feel your body sway a little in a strong wind. Feel how you shift with the seasons.

Hold the image of your tree in your mind and your body. If you have truly found your tree, and its image lives with you, then you are already at home, deep inside the world of the ancient dreamers. You can use this tree to travel, in conscious journeys, through the three tiers of the shaman's universe - to the Lower World, the Middle World, and the Upper World.

And you can use the Tree Gate meditation any day you like to raise your energy and stay centered and grounded in the midst of whatever life throws at you.

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c0sm0nautt said:

Quote:

Lesson One - THE TREE GATE

By Robert Moss

We are going to open a space for conscious dreaming - a space to which you may return any time you choose, and which you can use as the springboard for journeys of imagination to many interesting locales.

The exercise that follows is also great for raising your energy and helping you to become grounded and centered on any day of your life. After you have read the directions, you may want to stand up, as suggested in the text, to embody this meditation. You may want to do it outside. If you are fortunate enough to live next to the tree you choose to be your dream gate, you can go and do this exercise while sitting or standing with that tree.

Here we go:

Picture a tree that you know, a tree that knows you. It may be a tree in your yard or in the park, or a tree you remember from childhood, or a tree on the other side of the world. It can be any kind of tree. The important thing is that it should be a tree you can picture vividly.

Call the image of the tree, and the place where the tree stands, up from your memory. Use all of your senses to bring the scene alive. Is it warm here, or cool? Moist or dry? What sounds so you hear, in this place where the tree stands? Is there a taste that comes to you?

Feel yourself sitting or standing very close to your tree. Look at how its roots go down into the ground. Look at what is around the roots.

Now stand up for a moment, take off your shoes if you can, and imagine that you are standing like your tree, in the place where the tree stands.

Feel yourself reaching down into the earth, like the roots of the tree, going deep and spreading out. Feel the warmth and moisture of Earth. As you breathe in, feel the energy of Earth rising up through the soles of your feet, stirring and working in you. Let the Earth energy rise up through all of your body until it reaches the crown of your head.

Now feel that energy rising above you and branching out, like the limbs and canopy of your tree.

You are standing like a tree, rooted and centered in the Earth, rising between Earth and sky.

Now reach up with your awareness, towards the light. Feel the light streaming down towards you, down through your canopy. Your tree lives on sunlight. Feel yourself feeding on light, drinking light. Let the light stream down through your trunk. Let the light wash down through all of your body.

Now relax and feel yourself fully with your tree. Relax into the deep dream of the heartwood.

Picture how you can go down through the roots of your tree - or perhaps through a doorway that opens among its roots - and travel deep down into the Earth, into a world beneath the surface world. You may have the experience of going down a tunnel and coming out in a different landscape. An animal friend may be waiting for you hear, an ally that will support you in your current journey and other life journeys. You may be able to enter a space of healing, deep in the generous body of Earth. You may find a portal to the ancestors, and ancestral wisdom.

Now let your awareness gently rise up through the trunk of your tree, until you are hovering among the upper branches. You can find a place of vision up here, from which you can see into the far distance. It may just be a cleft in the branches, or something like a bird's nest, or an observation deck, or a tree house. You are high up, but you are quite secure here. You can look out across time as well as space, and see things that may happen in the future as well as things that are going on at a distance now. You have found the place of the tree-seer.

Look higher, for a moment. Feel yourself rising up through the canopy of your tree, lifting up like a bird. By traveling upward from your tree, you may be able to enter higher realms and encounter a higher guide for your life.

Let your whole body form the shapes of your tree. Let your arms and fingers spread to make the shapes of the limbs and twigs. Feel your body sway a little in a strong wind. Feel how you shift with the seasons.

Hold the image of your tree in your mind and your body. If you have truly found your tree, and its image lives with you, then you are already at home, deep inside the world of the ancient dreamers. You can use this tree to travel, in conscious journeys, through the three tiers of the shaman's universe - to the Lower World, the Middle World, and the Upper World.

And you can use the Tree Gate meditation any day you like to raise your energy and stay centered and grounded in the midst of whatever life throws at you.

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c0sm0nautt said:

The Celtic druids has a tradition of entering the underworld at places of great trees.

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