CHAPTER TWO

HOW TO CONTACT THE HEALING ANGELS

The Seven Tools of Communion

There are seven tools of communion with which we can contact the angels. Other systems and cultures will no doubt be able to enlarge upon these, but I have always found the following spiritual implements more than adequate for contacting the angels:

• the breath

• meditation (including prayer and invocation)

• the silence

• imagination

• the heart

• the chakras

• ceremony

The Breath

The Angel of the Holy Breath is one of the great healing angels. When working with her, I have found that the sense of her presence grows almost tangible, and that awareness of her might and majesty is simultaneous with a beautiful reassurance that she tenderly sustains and enfolds us within her protective, life-giving aura. If you are feeling disconnected from your source, just sit quietly and ask the Angel of the Holy Breath to breathe with you. This can be a deeply calming and grounding experience, and can lift you high into the angelic realms.

Spiritual teachers assure us that our breath is magical. The angels infuse us with their essence, enter into us and commune with us, through the medium of air – our breath. The breath plays a crucial part in opening the door to the spiritual worlds. We cannot attune to our soul without the aid of the breath and we cannot release ourselves from the grip of the earthly planes without attuning to the soul. Our soul ascends on our breath, lit from within by the radiance of our spirit. The act of magical breathing and attunement to the soul must be carried out via the heart-centre. We have to breathe ‘through the heart’, inhaling and exhaling through this chakra, because the breath is our yoke to Goddess-God.

It will seem very natural to draw in the breath and release it in this way. When we breathe ‘through the heart’, we are breathing in the brilliant light of the Godhead which fills our being. We can then direct this ineffable light to the world, to humanity, to the troubled heart of another, to any negative condition which needs healing. As long as it is given as a free gift from the heart, the breath will sustain this pure light which shines from the spirit through the soul. Judgement and opinions must not be allowed to intrude, for they carry the contamination of the ego, which disconnects us from the ineffable source of Divine Spirit.

A beautiful way to attune to the magic of the breath is to use the Star Breathing technique described in the first exercise of Chapter One. Indeed, we cannot commence magical, focused breathing without lighting the mystical star in the heart. Our breath, our quiet inward focus, are the natural lighteners of this exquisite indwelling star.

There exists a method of breathing called ‘the Mother’s Breath’ which is based on the seven and one or the octave rhythm, the Law of Eight, which we explored in the previous chapter in relation to the seven traditional chakras and the eighth or earth chakra that operates through our hands and feet. This is an excellent meditational focus for the breath, and its mystical rhythm will assist and bless our attunement to the great healing angels. It signifies the seven rays or principles of creation held within the mystery of the All – the seven and the one. It will, in particular, help you to contact and breathe in harmony with the Angel of the Holy Breath, although your communion with this great angel should always be simple and natural, and without formal structure of any kind if that is how you prefer to work with her. Nevertheless, practising the method of ‘the Mother’s Breath’ until you feel comfortable with it will yield wonderful results. It is very easy to follow.

The Mother’s Breath

Breathe in to a count of seven.

Pause and hold the breath for one count.

Breathe out to the count of seven.

Pause again for one count.

Breathe in to the count of seven and resume the cycle.

Avoid forcing the rhythm or allowing yourself to become breathless or uncomfortable in any way. Be as brief or as long as you wish concerning the length of time you take to count out the seven beats for the in-breath, the seven for the out-breath and the length of time you take for the pauses in between. Let comfort and ease be your guiding factors, and take care not to jerk the breath as you count to seven. Let your breathing be smooth and relaxed in its rise and fall, and let the prompt of your counting come as if from a distance, hardly noticed except to subtly and unobtrusively measure out the rhythm.

We need to practise this art of magical breathing each day, whether we perform all the exercises given or just choose to sit quietly and simply focus on our breathing and find our own rhythm, because it is an essential component of healing with the angels. We give and receive perpetually through our breath.

There is a little meditational exercise we can do if we are feeling tired and depleted after giving healing, or if we are in need ourselves. It concerns the fairylike enchantment of the northern lights. The miracle of this natural phenomenon may seem unconnected with the act of breathing, but in fact it is the angels of the air, and so the angels of the breath, who long to bear us up into the mysteries of the Aurora Borealis. Philip Pullman, in his trilogy His Dark Materials, has written an inspired account of a city existing within the northern lights. This is indeed true, although it is not a city which exists on the material plane, thus reflecting earthly cities, but a citadel of wonder and spiritual delight pulsating far above the mundane sphere.

Two versions of the exercise are given. In Meditation 1, we can absorb the beautiful emerald light that the Aurora Borealis often displays as a vast green heavenly lake, a single hue which is a manifestation of the sacred green ray, the ray of the heart. In this meditation, we contain and conserve our energies, resting in deep peace within the great heart of creation. This soothes and revivifies our heart-centre.

The Northern Lights (Meditation 1)

Enter a light meditation, using one of the breathing techniques specified above.

Let the angels of the air surround you, and take you up into the starlit night towards the holy north.

There you see before you the enchantment of the dancing northern lights, huge sheets of lustrous fire appearing and reappearing in a dreamlike ecstasy of motion.

The angels bear you right into the centre of the aery magical dance.

Now you are a winged being, as they are, and you are swept into the heart of their balletic mystery.

Bathe in the colour of the dance, the colour of the Aurora Borealis, which is deep, emerald green, swathes of sacred green, the green of the spirit of the earth…

When you are ready, allow the angels of the air to gently bear you back down to earth.

Seal your chakras, and, because the northern lights are imbued with fairy magic, stamp your feet (very gently, or you will shock your centres) three times!

In Meditation 2, we visualize the Aurora Borealis as it manifests in many colours, allowing the soul to delight in their coruscating, effervescent vitality and to become a vehicle for the expression and play of their forces. This energizes and stimulates our crown centre.

The Northern Lights (Meditation 2)

Enter a light meditation, using one of the breathing techniques specified above.

Let the angels of the air surround you, and take you up into the starlit night towards the holy north.

There you see before you the enchantment of the dancing northern lights, huge sheets of lustrous fire appearing and reappearing in a dreamlike ecstasy of motion.

The angels bear you right into the centre of the aery magical dance.

Now you are a winged being, as they are, and you are swept into the heart of their balletic mystery.

Bathe in the colours of the dance, the fairy hues of the northern lights, teeming in every tint of the rainbow and more. Let this many-coloured garment swirl over you and carry you into the secret soul of the being who is the Aurora Borealis…

When you are ready, allow the angels of the air to gently bear you back down to earth.

Seal your chakras, and, because the northern lights are imbued with fairy magic, stamp your feet (very gently, or you will shock your centres) three times!

You will be surprised how energized and revitalized you feel after these breathing meditations. Angels informed Geoffrey Hodson, the angel seer, that there are vast magnetic energies locked up within the air, huge reservoirs and streams of magnetic force that embody an awe-inspiring life and consciousness we have yet to understand. ‘Great electric roads through space exist,’ the angels told him, ‘pathways through the atmosphere created by currents of electric force.’ These majestic highways do not exist randomly, and their appearance does not only denote climatic phenomena. One day, the angels promise us, we will walk these grand highways of the soul with fireshod feet. Until we can do this in full consciousness, we can enjoy their revivifying effects on both our nervous system and our subtle bodies in meditation.

When the northern lights are at play, fairy and angelic soul-presence and energy are abroad, and there is every reason to take imaginal advantage of their manifestation!

Meditation (Including Prayer and Invocation)

The Angel of Meditation is Iahhel (I-ah-hel). We can call on this great angelic luminary for help in undertaking our meditations. From her flow great streams of inner peace, illumination, and the angel magic that unlocks inner doors and guarded entryways.

We cannot properly advance into higher consciousness unless we meditate. In seeking the supernal worlds, we need to understand that their essence, their keynote, their vibration, is that of love. Therefore, we prepare ourselves for meditation by quietly opening our being to universal love.

There is a life deep within our being which is far more vital, significant and beautiful than the mundane level at which we normally operate. It is this point of peace we need to seek. It is enshrined in our heart-centre and will lead us through into the inner spheres.

We find the doorway into meditation by focusing gently on the breath. Sitting in a quiet place, spine erect and supported if necessary, place your right ankle lightly over your left (this seals your energy field) and cup your left hand in your right. Centre your awareness on your breathing, imagining that you are drawing in and giving out each cycle of breath through the heart.

Now think of the highest plane of which you can conceive, and give this sphere an image. It might be the Christ, the Goddess, Buddha, Krishna, Divine Mother, Brigid (goddess of the Celts), Mary (Magdalene or Mother Mary), or one of the archangels. It might be a bright candle flame, or a golden point in the centre of a circle of light, or a jewel pulsating softly with perfect light. Whatever brings you into the beauty and the peace of the Divine Presence will lead you to and through the doorway that opens onto the higher worlds.

Rest your awareness in your heart-centre, gazing upon the image in your mind’s eye, and open your heart to love. If you feel resistance or anger, or simply cannot feel anything very much, see a single pink rose in your heart opening to the golden sunlight and giving forth its heavenly fragrance. Inhale the perfume and, if you choose, softly begin to chant the word ‘Ham’ as you breathe in, and ‘Sah’ as you exhale. In ancient Sanskrit, Ham means ‘I Am’ and Sah means ‘Divine Spirit’ or ‘Divine Spark’. This will help you to contact the healing source of love in your being.

When intruding thoughts assault your meditation, just return all your attention as an act of conscious will, yet with great respect and gentleness, to focus once more on the sanctuary of your heart, the steady rhythm of your breathing and chanting, and your chosen image. If your intrusive thoughts become very disturbing and clamorous, offer them to the Being upon whom you are meditating, or, if your chosen image is other than a personification, give the distracting thoughts into the care of the Lord or Mistress of your Temple (your higher self). If your mind starts to drift into cogitation and you have difficulty controlling it, it can be helpful to say very firmly out loud, ‘I choose to meditate. I choose Silence.’ Then return to the elements of your meditation as described above. Gradually you will come to a place of utter peace and calm, beyond and beneath the busy traffic of your thought processes. When this occurs you have found the point of entry, and will pass through into the worlds within.

If even a split second of vision or breakthrough to a higher plane is beyond your reach at first, refuse the temptation to abandon meditation in disgust or despair! Your breakthrough will indeed come, the door will open before too long. This is incontrovertible cosmic law. It is just a matter of persistence in your practice of meditation.

When you are ready to finish your meditation, it is essential to protect your finer vehicles, your non-physical bodies, by sealing your chakras, to which they are connected. The seven main ‘star gates’ or chakras are located at the crown, mid-brow between the eyes, the hollow of the throat, the heart (the chakra point is located more to the centre of the chest than is the physical heart), the solar plexus, just below the navel, and the base of the spine, situated above the anus.

Imagine a ring of light surrounding an equal-sided cross of bright silver, and seal each of your centres with this powerful protective symbol (just place it in imagination over each chakra). If you still feel vulnerable or dreamy, imagine a spiral of light emerging from under your left foot and making seven golden clockwise spiralling rings around you from your feet to above your crown. Then see the head of the spiral run straight down the line of your chakras like a rod of light from your crown to the ground below your feet. Never forget to complete at least the sealing exercise, or you will lose the benefit of your meditation. If your meditation has been short and simple, it is only necessary to seal the first four chakras.

If you ever find it difficult to commence meditation (sometimes the pressures of the outer world are all too present), imagine a golden pyramid towering before you. Seven wide stairs lead to its pinnacle. Climb these stairs to the top of the golden pyramid, and begin your meditation from there.

The power and felicity of prayer and invocation cannot be underestimated and are indispensable, especially in the field of angel healing. Later, we will learn to invoke Raphael and the healing angels, and the angels of mercy. For the purposes of healing, it is also necessary to find our own angelic name (see page 80) – that part of us which resonates with the angelic kingdom and which might be thought of as ‘the angel within’. Prayers to offer to the healing angels are given throughout this book. For general prayers and invocations to the angels, see my books, Summoning Angels and Your Guardian Angel.

The Silence

The angels have told us that there is a mighty power in silence. Harpocratos is one of the names of the hushed, enfolding Angel of Silence. The silence, and the ensouling Angel of the Silence, bequeaths to us the power to still our mind and our emotions, without which we cannot contact the healing angels. Silence was a goddess of the ancient world, a spiritual being embodying the dimensions of a principle. We might say that silence is a quality endowed with goddess-force. It is a worthwhile endeavour to intone a prayer to Silence herself, asking her to enfold us in her presence.

Having prayed to absorb silence, and to be absorbed into the silence, see the orb of the full moon sailing in silver peace in a midnight-blue sky. It is Silence herself, hanging in hushed calm above you.

See a flight of seven crystal stairs spiralling upwards from the earth to the gates of the moon, which shine like pearl. Mount the steps and walk through the pearly arch of the open gates. Feel the silence take you into itself, utterly enclosing you in another world – the world of silence.

The silence is the higher aspect of your soul. Seek it every day, if only for a few moments. Your breath leads you into silence as you practise the imagery, and sustains you there. Listen, and you will hear the Breath of the silence.

Imagination

The Angel of the Imagination is the bright angel Samandiriel (Sam-an diri-el). We can call on the evocative consciousness of this shining one to unlock the spiritual power of our imagination.

Imagination has been spoken of by the ascended masters as the divine faculty connecting us to truth. When the Old Testament gave us the revelation that we are made in God’s image, it intimated that we were given the creative power of the Godhead as a special grace. That creative principle is the imagination. It dwells within us as a living potential of unconscionable magnitude. Everything that comes into being has to be imagined first, even the simplest, humblest things. Learn to trust and to revere your imagination. It is the golden key to the spiritual worlds.

Imagination is our divine gift – a window on truth – a tool for inner sight. When the imagination and the intuition work hand in hand, you will truly be able to walk with angels. They are almost the same faculty. Imagination is the clarity of seeing, intuition is the wisdom of knowing. Whilst Samandiriel is the angel who presides over and blesses the imagination, Brigid is the goddess who succours the imagination and the intuition, in her role as mistress of creative fire and the crystal clarity of the soul. Always there are the two aspects feeding us in life – the angelic life-stream on the one hand, and the human on the other.

If you have difficulty in using your imagination, or faculty of creative visualization, begin by endeavouring to see in your mind’s eye some simple objects, such as different fruits. Imagine a bright yellow banana, a shiny red apple, a golden pear, a round, smooth hazelnut. Picture them one by one as vividly as you can, and hold them in mental focus for as long as is comfortable. Then repeat the exercise; only this time, as you create them in your imagination, also create their taste on your tongue. Make them delicious – the very best banana, apple, pear and hazel nut, et cetera, that you have ever tasted. Soon, your imagination, with all its subtle inner senses, will begin to awaken within you, and you will be thrilled by the new worlds that will begin to open up to you.

Here are some images to help you imagine your imagination!

See your imagination as:

• A shining mirror

• A magic casement onto fairy worlds

• A crystal bowl filled with well-water of a miraculous purity and clarity

• A candle of vision, lit and softly shining

• A velvet curtain being drawn back upon a window onto a magnificent starry night

• A flight-craft

• An ancient entryway into a vast circular cavern filled with jewels and marvellous treasure

• A deep, pure well with a single star glimmering mystically in its waters

• A great, carved door, overhung with ivy tendrils and flowers, opening slowly onto luminous lands of the soul

• A bright white unicorn who steals softly to your side, and nudges you to mount and ride away under the moon to the high places which call to your soul

• The Grail castle, supernaturally present in a moonlit and starlit glade, upon which you have come after journeying through dark forests. Its door stands open, and festive lights and sounds of a noble company glance and float like enchantment from within

• A silver stairway to the moon

• A rainbow bridge, iridescent with soft spiritual fire, leading into the realms of the angels

• An enchanted fairy isle, to which you set sail in a boat with silver sails and a living swan at its prow

• A monumental clear quartz crystal in a circular white temple, into whose heart-depths you step as easily as if you passed into a ray of starlight

• Follow a peal of bells that sound upon a wild and lovely sea shore, until you walk into the sparkling blue sea and descend rapturously to the mythical Country-under-Wave, more full of marvels than your deepest dreams

• An open book in an ancient monastic scriptorium, over which you are poised with feathered pen and luminous inks filled with jewelled light, full of wonder and awe at the thought of what you will bring to life upon the waiting leaves of virgin vellum

• An exquisitely carved key, wrought by elven hands and angel magic, which unlocks the mystery of your heart

Conjuring several of these dreamlike inscapes should help you to begin to understand what your imagination truly is, and to tread its supernatural starlit highway with due reverence and wonder.

The healing angels tell us that the heart-centred imagination is the golden key to unlocking the door through which they flock to help us in our times of need and crisis. To make full use of their gifts, we must honour their wisdom, and embrace our imagination wholeheartedly. We have been programmed to disdain and generally ‘dis’ the faculty of our imagination. Let us triumphantly reclaim it, and take our power back!

The Heart

Wisdom teaching associates the heart with the sun, for the heart is indeed the sun, the centre of the cosmos of our being, around which our physical life and, in truth, our spiritual consciousness, revolves or circulates. Francis Thompson, an English poet writing in the early years of the 20th century, gives a teaching on the consciousness of the heart in one of his most famous poems:

Where is the land of Luthany,

Where is the tract of Elenore?

I am bound therefor.

‘Pierce thy heart to find the key;

With thee take

Only what none else would keep:

Learn to dream when thou dost wake,

Learn to wake when thou dost sleep…

When thy seeing blindeth thee

When their sight to thee is sightless;

Their living, death; their light, most lightless!

Search no more –

Pass the gates of Luthany, tread the region Elenore.’

Where is the land of Luthany,

And where the region Elenore?

I do faint therefor.

‘When to the new eyes of thee

All things by immortal power

Near or far,

Hiddenly

To each other link-ed are,

That thou canst not stir a flower

Without troubling of a star;

Seek no more,

O seek no more!

Pass the gates of Luthany, tread the region Elenore.’

From ‘The Mistress of Vision’

These are the words of an angel speaking to a pilgrim, a seeker on the path. The land of Luthany is that higher vision, that awakened state, which the pilgrim or the seeker (the striving soul) longs to attain, so that the gates might open into the spiritual worlds. The enlightenment the soul seeks is ‘the land of Luthany’, the world of the spirit ‘the region Elenore’. The angel gives to the pilgrim a beautiful mystery teaching so that s/he may at last ‘pass the gates of Luthany, tread the region Elenore’.

We see that the angel bids the pilgrim ‘pierce thy heart to find the key’. In the ancient mystery schools, the neophyte was taught that heart-consciousness, the mind in the heart, was the great key to the mystery of all creation and of approach to the Godhead itself. This heart-consciousness is not the seat of the emotions and of nervous or instinctual energy (which actually lies in the solar plexus) but is the source of the power of love, which is divine. It may be difficult to think of love as a power, rather than an emotion, in essence, because we experience love through our emotions. Nevertheless, experiencing love through the medium of our emotions does not mean that love itself is an emotion. Love is the sacred flame arising from the Source of All. It may help to think of the power of a storm in its crescendo – terrible, ineluctable – and yet at the heart of this mighty play of forces there is a profound and perfect stillness. Manifest creation and the moods and passions which inform it are the storm, love is the mystical peace at its heart.

The mystery schools taught that at the heart of all created things, all created beings, there is a spark of the holy light of the Godhead. In human beings, that spark is bestowed in a special way, bearing with it a stupendous gift; for through it, we as individuals are given the opportunity to grow into God-Goddess-consciousness.

The great symbol and sign of the Divine Being for humankind has always been the sun. We are told that there is a huge central sun, the heart of the cosmos, around which all the lesser suns in the universe move, and that every sun or star bears within its physical form the perfect shape of a six-pointed star which emanates the white and golden spiritual light shining behind the atoms of material sunlight. The golden-white light of the star is love-in-action and pours forth from the Godhead which is its ineffable origin. It is a spark of this sacred light which quickens every being, and which links the human heart directly to the sun and the Divine Being, of which our sun is but a flicker of manifestation. The sun of the human body is the heart, and the heart it is which enshrines that mysterious spark of Godhead which when nurtured by our own striving rises as a column of flame so that the head-centre gives off a halo of light like the physical sun. Nevertheless, the root and the source of this flame is in the heart, not the head or the mind.

The flame or spark in the heart is also a star, a tiny microcosm of the macrocosmic six-pointed star which exists at the centre of every heavenly body in the cosmos. This golden-white star exists within our own heart, in actuality, in reality. It is the source of all our power, all our creativity. By its grace, we give and receive healing and spiritual illumination. To this great in-breath and out-breath of spiritual life the angels tend and minister.

This profound teaching is given by the angel to the pilgrim in Francis Thompson’s poem. The angels of the sun, of love, says the angel, will come to us to ‘pierce our hearts’ when we aspire to rise into the reality of the spirit. When we can renounce earthly values and illusions (‘With thee take only what none else would keep’), when we can stimulate our inner vision (‘Learn to dream when thou dost wake, Learn to wake when thou dost sleep…’) and realize our unity with all creation, our brotherhood with all beings (‘That thou canst not stir a flower without troubling of a star’), the key will turn in the sacred lock, and the door will open onto the region Elenore – the worlds within: the realm of the heart, the innermost chamber of the spiritual sun, which is where the angels dwell.

Michael and Shekinah are the two great Shining Ones who rule the sun. Servants of these mighty angels who are also connected with the sun (amongst countless others) are Anael, the Angel of the Star of Love, Jophiel (‘Beauty of God’) and Raziel, Lord of the Supreme Mysteries. They will bless all our healing endeavours when we work from heart-centred awareness.

The Chakras

Our seven main chakras are the points of connection of our physical body to the structure and spiritual vivification of the inner worlds of Divine Spirit. They can become vulnerable, polluted, and under- or overcharged. We have to learn how to seal, balance and cleanse them.

The chakras will be dealt with more fully in a later chapter. For now, it will be helpful to your healing endeavours to visualize the chakras as a stairway to heaven, consisting of seven great golden steps, each one guarded by an angel. Climb these steps to the eighth level, which looks out onto a night of softly glimmering stars.

These are the stars of our universe, but they are also luminous points of spiritual potential to which we are subtly connected. The vision of Jacob’s ladder is connected to the design of our chakra system and its inherent magic.

Mary Magdalene is the great mistress of the chakra system, which is known as the ‘Seven Virgins of Light’. Call on her to cleanse, bless and inspire each of your chakras, and to teach you their profound mysteries.

Ceremony

Simple ceremony, conducted in a prepared purity of mind, atmosphere and environment, is the prescription of the angels for our healing endeavours. Elaborate ceremony throughout many cultures has been the keynote of the past, and whilst such complex ceremony is undoubtedly very powerful, it has often been corrupted, or distorted into shadowy channels. When ceremony is simple and conducted from the heart, it retains its great power, but does not steer a course that runs close to the encroachment of darkness, because the mind and the mental bodies of the healing practitioner are not tempted into the fascination of unbalanced complexity. (The ascended spiritual teacher White Eagle has advised us that our brain, as much as any other bodily organ, can become seized by a sense of its own power and domination, and begin to indulge in self-gratification.)

As we progress into the Aquarian age, we will find that we as individuals, and the civilizations we comprise, begin to respond more and more to the seventh ray of creation, the ceremonial ray. This ray is violet (the ceremony of the Violet Flame (see Chapter One) is intimately associated with it), and is also known as the Ray of Beauty.

The healing angels tell us that, as their human co-workers, our great triple task is to educate, to cleanse, and to attune. We perform all three under the influence of the seventh ray, although of course there is no limitation, and all the gifts of the seven great rays will be involved to some degree in our healing work. A simple herbal correspondence with the seventh ray consists of violet and lavender flowers, used for purification throughout the centuries (the name lavender is associated with the French laver, meaning to wash). We will see how such simple inclusions as these humble flowers in our healing rituals can tap a vast reservoir of therapeutic and restorative power, administered and dispensed by the healing angels.

All of the healing rituals in this book are simple, and, I hope, easily memorized. The balance of simplicity, and ease and clarity of thought, are essential in our angel healing ceremonies as we come under the influence of the seventh ray. The use of ceremonial power is in itself a characteristic of the seventh ray. Another is our urge to seek and employ unseen forces and intelligences in our projects, endeavours and spiritual missions on earth. As we see, healing with the angels fully expresses these two majestic, innovative and dynamic qualities of the seventh ray. A sense of power and adventure can arise from exploring these principles, which is good; but it must be balanced by a keen sense of humility, simplicity and an inner attunement, a ready obedience, to the dictates of our higher nature, or we may find ourselves thoroughly scuppered!

One of the ancient civilizations who profoundly understood the significance of simple but deeply beautiful, evocative, and powerful ceremony was that of the Native Americans. They were not nomadic during the greatest days of their empire, although they always lived close to nature. The angels told Geoffrey Hodson: ‘Those who would find us must learn to contact Nature far more intimately than is at present possible to the average man. In addition to a deeper appreciation of the beauty of Nature there must be that reverence for all her forms and moods, for all her manifold expression, which springs from a recognition of the presence of the Divine of which these forms, moods, and beauties are but the outward expression.’ The Native American tribes understood this angel wisdom, and their way of life resonated with it.

The following guided visualization takes us into the heart of the famous medicine wheel of the Native Americans, a gift of manifestation and of knowledge that was bestowed directly on the tribes by the ‘Shining Spirits’, or the angels. When giving these guided visualizations in my workshops, we start with the ‘contemplation’ in preparation for the material that is to follow, which is also offered here.

Contemplation

The wisdom and philosophy of the Native Americans is at last beginning to be perceived in all its mystery, beauty and majesty. It is believed that their civilization is much older than conventionally perceived, and through their legends runs a golden thread of revelation. The spiritual teacher White Eagle speaks of a heritage of folk-tales and myths among the tribes which tell of the coming of the ‘feathered Gods’, people who came from afar bringing a radiance and a salvation which the American Indians wove into the fabric of their philosophy and religion.

In her book, Sun Men of the Americas, Grace Cooke tells of L Taylor Hansen’s personal encounters with Native Americans who told him their stories of a saint or a prophet who sailed to their lands, often called ‘Heah-Wah-Sah’ (‘he from afar off’). Each legend portrays him very similarly. He is described as beautiful, radiant, with fair complexion, fair hair and blue eyes, and he wore a white robe with exquisite embroidery of the cross round its edges. He healed the sick, spoke wisdom and brought the dead to life. L Taylor Hansen quotes from one of the elders, an old and venerated Indian, who tells the ‘Legend of the Sacred City’:

…Tonight I am here to take you walking back through the dawn-star cycles to a time long distant when the land was not as you see it.

Past the memories of our grandfathers’ grandfathers I take you with me to the days of the Healer, and the times of our people’s geatness…Coming north from our Capital City, where the Mississippi meets the Missouri, in the long-boats of the traders, the Prophet made his journey towards the city we called Sacred…This city was called Sacred because it was in the centre of the Cross of Waters from whence ran the rivers to the Four Oceans. East to the sunrise ran the waters, and northwards to the Sea of Dancing Lights; to the west beyond the Great Divide the waters ran to the Sea of the Sunset, while the Missouri and the Mississippi ran to the Southern Sea, the Sea of the Karibs.

To this, the City of the Great Cross of Waters, up the river called the Father of Waters, one golden morning came the Healer. The dawn cascaded down upon him as he left the ships of the merchants, painting his hair and beard with beauty and lighting up his lofty features. The streets were petalled with flowers before him as he walked towards the Temple. Greatly beloved now was the Pale-God, known as the Lord of Wind and Water. His every move bespoke his kindness, his very touch revealed his divinity and before him bowed down all people.

Through rows of temple worshippers he moved in quiet solemnity, holding up his hand in blessing, that hand with the strange palm marking, for through it was engraved the cross which he had taken as his symbol. There at the temple he abode among us though he often rode away with the merchants or more often walked to distant villages, holding in his hand his great staff, and stopping to speak with all, from the aged to the children.

Further legends in L Taylor Hansen’s book, He Walked the Americas, tell how Heah-Wah-Sah came down from Venus, instructing his Indian brethren to look to the star as a holy symbol for their prayers and spiritual inspiration, and how he taught them to resolve their problems by counselling together in peace.

White Eagle says in Sun Men of the Americas:

The story is that Heah-Wah-Sah came mysteriously to the Indian peoples and taught them about the wonderful life beyond the sun; taught them the lessons of peace, brotherhood and goodwill, and all the beautiful truths which Jesus the Christ also taught all his disciples. At the appointed time the Indians saw him depart. He is supposed to have entered his canoe and sailed away down the river to the west, right into the sun. His symbol was that of the all-seeing eye.

Try to forget all you have read and heard about savage Indians living in wigwams. Not all Indians were nomadic. The Indians of whom we speak had beautiful buildings, beautiful homes. In spite of all the misrepresentations our ancient Indian brethren were simple at heart – so simple and loving and gentle. They were men and women of character and strength of purpose, possessing great courage and endurance. There were many tribes, they spoke many languages, and lived at many different levels of development, but one factor all had in common, and this was a deep sense of honour and morality, of goodness. The Indian culture goes back far beyond any known historical or archaeological records of the ancient Red Indian civilization.

It is very little understood by the present-day scholar, and it cannot easily be interpreted because man has not developed that spiritual quality which will enable him to read the truth found on the stone tablets and remnants of earlier civilizations buried in the distant forests, not only in South America and Mexico, but in North America too. The civilization of the Indian was one of the most beautiful and ancient civilizations there has ever been on earth.

The symbol of the Indian peace-pipe is an enduring one. May we ever inhale the spirit, give it out and share it in cycles of loving peace.

The Starlit Canyon

Begin to draw your breath gently ‘through the heart’, envisioning this centre in your creative imagination as a sacred crystal of many facets, bearing six points which cast rays of wondrous living brightness in every direction. Dwell quietly at the midpoint of this star-crystal, for it is your true self and its facets are aspects of your soul-temple through which the eternal flame of your spirit shines.

You are drifting in the night sky among the stars. You float very slowly, very gently, as if you were becalmed in an invisible boat. All around you is the quiet darkness and the soft glistening of the stars, twinkling like genii-treasure in a vast hidden cave.

One exquisite star shines purer and clearer than the rest. As you enjoy its bright crystalline radiance which falls over you with a faery grace, the knowledge comes to you that this celestial body is not a star, but the lovely planet Venus.

As this realization breaks like a baptismal wave on your consciousness, you gradually begin to spiral downwards with the gentle motion of a dream into a beautiful starlit canyon which seems to lie directly below the white beams of Venus.

The canyon is deep and silent and dark, although you can see with shadowed clarity by the light of the moon and the stars. Here a Native American warrior awaits you, in traditional dress, bearing four shields.

Over his heart he wears a silver six-pointed star with an arrow-and-heart motif inscribed upon it. You know him to be a Warrior of Peace, charged to challenge and overcome those elements that arise within the sphere of human consciousness which seek to destroy the harmony and peace of the heart-centred soul.

He leads you to the midpoint of the canyon, where a great medicine wheel has been set out under the stars.

You walk with him to its centre, and he stands with you, tall and majestic, as you both look to the divine south.

He gives you one of his shields. It is red, inscribed with a wave formation and decorated with a crescent moon and wild turkey feathers. Three bands of orange wampum cross its face.

‘The moon is the light which shines in the eternal summer of the south. Look through the dancing plant-forms and see Black Wolf Spirit. She will lead you to the source of wisdom.’

A garden, strange, wild and beautiful, seems to have grown up in the place of the south. You see a spectral black wolf, and allow your spirit to follow its lead deep into the garden-wilderness.

The garden is dancing, the plant forms lovely and ethereal around you. They sing with sweet chanting voices and emit strains of music. They clear suddenly under the crescent moon, and you come to a lagoon of pure water.

Under the moon, a mysterious figure repeatedly dives and re-emerges from the water, coming to rest on a crystal rock. You approach nearer and you see that she is a woman bearing the form of a mouse. Both shapes manifest in vivid coexistence. ‘Who comes here to seek Diving Mouse Woman?’ she asks.

Give her your name by saying it out loud.

You look into the eyes of Diving Mouse Woman, and see there the trust and innocence of a child; but you see also that these qualities cannot be exposed recklessly and thoughtlessly to the harshness of the outside world, but must be protected within the wisdom and the divine will of the spirit.

As you see this truth, you see also that you must be vigilant always to protect the child within you and all the children of the world, for from the eyes of Diving Mouse Woman there shines not only the sweetness of the infant but also the love and mighty care of Divine Mother. Diving Mouse Woman escorts you back to your past, and allows you to comfort and nurture the little child within your own nature.

Diving Mouse Woman begins to leap in and out of the water again; and this time you note her mouselike qualities, which surprise you with their scope and unexpectedness. You see that the mouse is endlessly resourceful, nimble and alert. Your human wits are not quick enough to follow its every movement. It is playful, curious, eager. It is meticulous and methodical. It is bold and daring, it pushes boundaries, it is cheeky. It has a celerity of movement and decision which is breathtaking, and a ferocity of will which can often outface human determination. It has an unquenchable zest for life; and yet its weakness is fear, which can make it panic blindly.

You see that Diving Mouse Woman is contained within the feeling body, the emotional body of your soul, and you see how this precious lagoon must be cherished and protected by the wise heart-light of your spirit, for it leaps with joyful life, and feeds your whole consciousness.

Black Wolf Spirit returns, and leads you back to the centre of the medicine wheel. Before you step over the threshold, your American Indian warrior guide says to you, ‘Open your being to the lessons of this sacred orientation, and to all the beauty and the power and the revelations that come to your heart from the south.’

You obey his exhortation, and you see an enchanted city in the south, which is called Finias. Its sign is a spear, a fiery point which is destined to penetrate the heart so that it may wake and live, and slay all the dross of the being. It says: ‘Remove the Veil of Fear!’

You step over the threshold and turn with your guide to the magical west.

He hands you the second shield, although you hold only one, as the first has blended with your soul and is no longer manifest. It is decorated with osprey feathers, and is inscribed with the symbol of a mountain with a single flowering tree growing from it. It is black with touches of gold, and crystals have been sewn into its deer-hide. It bears two black bands.

‘Earthshine and the ancient signs of the zodiac light the fruitful autumn of the west,’ says your guide. ‘Look upon the Place of Stones, and follow Darting Bird Spirit to your destination.’

Darting Bird Spirit comes swooping into your field of vision, and you climb after her into the Place of Stones. Great boulders surround you, although they glimmer with half-hidden precious gems.

All around you the countryside bears the soft dun shades and fiery colours of autumn, and in the early morning sky a perfect, conical ring of pearly radiance sits like a crown upon heaven’s dome. You know that it is the beautiful phenomenon of the Zodiacal Light.

Darting Bird Spirit leads you to a deep cave. You pass within. A great, shadowy bear is dancing in the mellow underworld dusk. You feel the dark, secret, potent and healing energies of the earth. You speak your name to the bear, saying it aloud.

The bear speaks: ‘Dance with me, human soul, for I am your sister. I am Dreaming Bear.’

You dance with your sister bear, and as you dance you hear the beat of drums and the keening, exhilarating throb of Native American victory songs. Your dancing figures throw impossibly huge shadows on the great walls of the cave. The shadow of Dreaming Bear is no greater than your own.

As you dance, you sense that Dreaming Bear is indeed a great dreamer, for she spends almost half the year in hibernation, dreaming the Great Dream and studying the magical inner wisdom. You become aware of her power, of her massive stored energies. She is in truth a spirit of the sacred earth.

You think of the splitting of the atom and the untold power reserves held in the physical atoms of Mother Earth, you think of her wild stone heart, not cold and hard but loving, emanating warm and nurturing energy, like the ineffable beauty of her crystal self of which half her body consists. And yet the conundrum is that the weakness of the earth-state as humans experience it is inertia, powerlessness.

You think of your own physical body, your revered temple, the holy receptacle for divine spirit and its manifestation. You think of the sanctity of ancient things, and of how the ancient cycles must return, for nothing dies, but is only transformed as it passes through the body of the great Earth Mother. You feel how important it is to express Mother Earth’s goodness, wholesomeness, her vitality and her beautiful energies by adhering to uncontaminated, natural foods, consumed without taint of cruelty, and of how these give good mental and emotional as well as physical health, keeping you firmly anchored in the rich and life-giving soil of the Eternal Now.

As Darting Bird Spirit returns and you take your leave of Dreaming Bear, you sense that the mysteries of the earth are far greater and deeper and more sublime than human imagination has ever conceived.

You find yourself back at the threshold again, ready to re-enter the heart of the medicine wheel.

Your guide says to you, ‘Open your being to this magical orientation, and to all the beauty and the power and the revelations that have come to your heart from the west.’

You see the enchanted city of Murias twinkling in the mystery of the declining west; its sign is a miraculous hollow filled with water and fading light, the essence of earthshine which so mysteriously and dimly lights the heavens, the emanation of the veiled, inscrutable Earth Mother. It says: ‘Remove the Veil of Shame!’

You step back into the middle of the medicine wheel, and your guide passes to you the third shield. Again, your hands are empty to receive it, because the south and the west shields have secreted themselves within your soul.

This shield is golden. It seems to flow with golden hair. It is decorated with golden eagle feathers. It is emblazoned with suns and with spirit forms in fountains of fire. It bears one yellow band upon which a single eye is engraved.

‘Grandfather Sun lights the vernal skies of the Bright Land,’ says your guide. ‘Let Golden Warrior Woman lead the way, for your path penetrates the mysteries of the human heart.’

Beautiful, radiant, gracious and kindly, Golden Warrior Woman lifts you into the Bright Land on the currents of her sweet breath. She carries you to a mountaintop. There, wheeling above you in the blue, is a great golden eagle. ‘Who is it that comes seeking Grandfather Eagle?’ he cries.

You speak your name aloud and he drops to a rock in line with your brow centre, the very topmost peak of the mountain. He holds you in his vision with his sharp unblinking eye. ‘You’ll do,’ he says, and launches suddenly into the air, giving three terrible shrieks.

They seem to resound in you and make you stagger back. When you regain your balance, the world has changed. You are in a sphere of inconceivably brilliant radiance. Your mind, your vision, your heart has never comprehended the possibility of such ecstasy, such glory, pulsing forth, giving forth, self-perpetuating, self-replenishing.

Beyond the disc, its source and its centre, is the perfect shape of a six-pointed star, calm as a vision of Paradise.

‘You are in the heart of the sun,’ says Grandfather Eagle. ‘Dear one, do you not know that this is your own essence? How can you doubt yourself, your power to overcome, when this is your true home?’

You listen to Grandfather Eagle’s words, and you feel a magnificent brotherhood, sisterhood, with every member of humanity and with all life. You see it go from you like a great ray of light, a beam of clarifying power. You see it cleansing away heavy sullied clouds into silver cascades of laughing endless light.

Grandfather Eagle bobs with joy. ‘Those are clouds of misery and weariness which creep into the vision of the people on earth,’ he says. ‘Such clouds cannot resist the sun. The weakness of the east in human understanding is their way of perceiving death and decay. Humans do not see that it is but a transformation and a letting-go. They think it is a destination! The great sun laughs and dances at such folly! Now I will take you to the Place of Vision, so that you may be sure never to share in such blindness.’

A wheel of light rotates, and you are standing before a great pine tree. Beyond is a garden where the sun-spirits dance, of such wondrous pulchritude that you cannot see beyond the pine tree; you can only dimly know what is there in your deepest being.

The pine tree deposits a small, bright golden cone into your palm. Grandfather Eagle instructs you to press it to your brow centre.

‘Now you are awakened,’ he says. ‘The gift from the sacred pine tree will enable you to see with the vision of your heart. Awaken the golden pine-cone by breathing quietly, by going to your heart-centre. Then your true eye will open, the all-seeing eye of your god-self, your gift from the Tree. Many call it the-mind-in-the-heart.’

Grandfather Eagle again rotates a wheel of light, you feel a rush of bright ether and you are back on the mountaintop.

There he teaches you how the eagle can look unflinchingly into the heart of the sun, how it soars above all lower things and overcomes their gravity-pull so that its nobility is never dishonoured, and how it takes the straight path into the grand heights, undistracted and undelayed, so that its vision is unconfined and all-embracing.

Grandfather Eagle teaches you that his kind are messengers from the Spirit, and that the Spirit is the heart of everlasting love.

Golden Warrior Woman comes to return you to your American Indian guide, gently wafting you on her fragrant currents of breath to the threshold of the eastern quarter of the Medicine Wheel.

Your guide addresses you: ‘Open your being to the lessons of this mystical orientation, and to all the beauty and the power and the revelations that come to your heart from the east.’

You see the magical city of Gorias glittering in the rising sun, and a pure sword of flashing light which is its sign. You know that it is the sword of the spirit which must be wielded by every member of humanity, and that it points the way to humanity’s future; and you hear it say, ‘Remove the Veil of Self-Doubt!’

You step over the threshold and with your guide beside you, you turn at last to the sacred north. He gives you the last shield.

It is white, like a white sun. It is hung with white feathers, and decorated in wampum with birds and animals and stars. Four golden bands cross its face.

‘The way of the north is lit by the mystery of the stars in its rapt Winter Dream. Star-Elk Spirit will show you the way,’ says your guide.

A male elk appears before you, bearing magnificent antlers. You touch his nose hesitantly and he nuzzles your hand. Then he turns his great shoulders and walks into a shining mist.

You follow him, penetrating the shimmering mist, which dances around you in spears of rose, white, blue and green that glow with a deep glassy luminescence, like mirrored pools of light.

As you move further into these dancing, billowing lights, you begin to perceive many animal shapes. Some are well known to you, others are the great animals of the grassy plains of the world, and still others are completely unfamiliar, except that you recognize a fabulous or a mythical beast now and again.

You come to a ring of glimmering white rocks which seem suspended in the night sky. Nevertheless, there is a world here, and the landscape is covered in pure white snow.

The mists part and you see clearly that the ring of stones is peopled by tall and beautiful men and women, mighty of stature and dressed in ethereal flowing clothes similar in some respects to the ceremonial dress of the American Indians. Star-Elk Spirit speaks. ‘These are the Star People. This sphere of the air is their Lodge. They will invoke White Buffalo Woman for you. You are honoured.’

The ceremony begins, flowing and pulsing in sweet and superb rhythm and song, moving in exhilarating cycles until a great white buffalo appears on the far horizon. It seems to descend from a group of stars softly glimmering with muted fire, a constellation you know to be the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters.

It half-rears on the skyline and then gallops towards you with a smooth, undulating motion.

As the buffalo draws closer you see that it is a woman who approaches you, a woman of miraculous beauty and grace, who bears within her form the presence of a great white buffalo. She is clothed in milk-white buffalo skins of fathomless purity and around her flows an aura of pearly essence and the white peace of newly fallen snow.

‘Who is it that summons White Buffalo Woman?’ she asks you, so that you speak aloud your name.

A deep stillness follows. In your spirit-body you kneel at the feet of White Buffalo Woman, for you see that here is Divine Mother, who, in her perfect love for her human child, gives of herself utterly and in entirety, for every part of the buffalo gave life to her children of the plains, gave them food, gave them clothes, gave them materials for constructing their tipis and bone-tools to facilitate their everyday lives.

Even the teeth of the buffalo gave them shamanic charms and protection. Behind the roving buffalo herds stood White Buffalo Woman, cherished spirit-mother to her people, endlessly bestowing her grace, her gifts, her essence.

Held within the tender white radiance of this great being, you realize deep within yourself that every human soul must learn to emulate her purity, her loving service, to give unstintingly of itself, holding nothing back, asking no return, lifting human giving above barter and control. And you see, also, that receiving White Buffalo Woman’s gifts without appreciation and humility gives rise to an arrogant certainty, which is the weakness of the north for the human soul. You see that certainty must only be experienced and expressed concerning principles, never details.

Deeply you contemplate these things, deeply do you withdraw into the peace of your heart-centre to fathom the meaning, the beauty of these profound truths, for you see that meaning is beauty, and beauty is meaning. The presence of White Buffalo Woman touches your heart and makes you long to honour your own Beauty Path, the flight path of your spirit.

Star-Elk Spirit tosses his head and paws the ground, ready to escort you safely back to the centre of the medicine wheel.

White Buffalo Woman has taken her path to the stars and has returned to the bright Pleiades.

You give thanks to the graceful Star-People, recognizing that they are angels. As you follow Star-Elk Spirit back through the dancing, leaping, coloured mists, you realize that they are the Northern Lights and that you have penetrated their secret citadel.

You reach the threshold of the northern quarter of the medicine wheel. Your guide awaits. He says to you, ‘Open your being to the lessons of this sacred orientation, and to all the beauty and the power and the revelations that come to your heart from the north.’

You see the fabled city of the spirit of the north played over by a deeply dreaming occult light, the visionary light of the Ancient of Days. It is Falias, and its sign is the stone of the transformation which is death, crowned by pale flickering fire. It says ‘Banish the Veil of Self-Will, for verily it is rooted in arrogance, narrowness and partial-sight! Flow with Divine Will, and you shall spread peace and beauty across the world.’

You cross the threshold to your guide. He says to you, ‘Now you must accept the Fifth Shield.’

Overhead, the peaceful stars and a new crescent moon shine down into the silent, still, shadowed canyon. You stand at the centre of the medicine wheel with your guide.

As if a mist has fallen away from your eyes, you see that you are standing in a glen of precious stones. Its beauty and its peace are measureless.

‘This is the Fifth City,’ says your guide. ‘It is the consecrated wedding-place of the soul and the spirit, where they conjoin and become as one.

‘Each gem is a solid structure of knowledge, of experience, that you have used to capture and contain the light of your soul, the wisdom of the stars. These too must pass away, so that only the living light remains – dynamic, free, transformational.’

Looking up, you gaze at Venus shining in the night sky. Your perception shifts and it is as if you are suddenly looking up at a city of angels within the heart of the bright planet.

As you watch, you perceive that the Glen of Precious Stones magically becomes one with this angelic city, as though there is an ascension and a descent and an interpenetration.

You see that your guide is kneeling, and you kneel beside him. Before you stands the figure of a man with shining eyes, white-robed, bearing the sign of the medicine wheel, the cross within the circle.

With great gentleness and love, he gives you your fifth shield. You see that it is made of light. It is decorated with the cross within the circle, the all-seeing eye, and a ring of hands. All its symbols are lit by stars, for this shield seems to contain the very galaxy itself.

‘Make of your soul a song to the Great Spirit,’ the white-robed man says. ‘Pray to the winds; the Great Spirit will hear you. Pray to the galaxy, set your light-body walking on the Milky Way; the Great Spirit will bless you. Let the sun and the moon guide you, and let your spirit dwell often upon the beauty and mystery of Venus, for she has much to teach the stumbling children of earth. But above all things, turn again and again to the star in your heart, for that is the Great Spirit’s source. Do these things, and you shall know peace.’

He blesses both you and your guide; as the fifth city recedes again into mystery you stand at the centre of the simple medicine wheel.

‘We have met with Heah-Wah-Sah, the Healer, Lord of Wind and Water, the holy Prophet-God of the American Indian tribes,’ says your guide. ‘We have met with He-Who-Will-Come-Again.’

As day breaks in the cool pure air of the canyon and Venus shines silver below the brilliant circle of the early morning sun, a deep knowledge is conveyed to you that humanity itself is standing on the brink of a new dawn which will bring deep and abiding peace to all the nations and to the round rim of the world, from north to south, from east to west.

Feel the vision comforting, healing and inspiring every level of your being, so that you take up your life anew as a warrior of peace, guided always by the wise and peace-making warrior eternally by your side.

Gently return to normal waking consciousness, seal your centres (crown, brow, throat, heart, solar plexus) with the bright silver cross in a circle of light, and earth yourself if necessary.

Affirm:

I walk my beauty path in peace.

Peace flows to me from the stars.

I am a warrior of peace.