Jeffrey's Blog: Exchanging Gifts
February 10, 2010
by Jeffrey Pierce
When I first began working with the White Room meditation that I taught in the shamanic journeying class (video online) we offered in November 2009, the journey would often vary for me - except at one point. Whenever we reached the point where we were presented a gift by an entity, the gift giver was always an ancient old woman and her gift was consistently a ball of dried leaves.
if you removed the ties, this is what the old woman's gift looked like
The woman who offers me the leaves is very, very old, her face so deeply creased with wrinkles that I can't tell her nationality.
When we work with symbolism, we use many of the same techniques we talked about in the dream interpretation class. If the situation arises, I always assure the person that if they wait, keep it in the back of their mind but wait, the answer will eventually be revealed to them.
On Sunday morning, I woke up early and was doing some meditative work in bed when I found myself standing before the old woman once more. I've been here at least a half dozen times and each time it's the same routine. She extends her hands with the leaf ball in them. After a long moment, I reach out to accept her gift and either find myself holding the leaves or watching her and the gift fade away before I can receive them.
But this morning it was different. The ball of leaves unfolded itself into the shape of a dried lotus and from the center of the flower rose a small ball of blue light, so bright that it was hard to tell its color except around the edges of the ball. As it hovered above the ancient lotus flower, I took the ball of light in my hands, knowing that I was supposed to somehow take it inside of me.
My first thought was to swallow it, but as my intuition kicked into gear, I pushed the ball of light into the center of my forehead, feeling no resistance as it slipped through my flesh and became a part of me, slowly descending down my core until it reachedmy heart and there it rested.
As I took the light within me, the old woman began to change. I watched as the years melted from her and she became younger and filled with a quiet strength. Even the colors of her clothing changed, becoming brighter, more vibrant, even as the Crone aged in reverse into the strength of Mother.
No words were spoken. For me, having studied numerous cultures and paths, there's a lot of symbolism for me personally that I'm working on sorting through. The answers are all there. As I tell my students, even if we have to wait a bit, the answer will eventually be revealed to us.