The Cauldron - meditation
I stand beside the river; I hear its gurgle and rush, follow its flow. A stream breaks away and flows apart, I step along beside it. The ground is damp, water plants grow thickly. I follow to the mouth of a cave large enough to walk into, damp and cool. I go inside, always following the water.
As it gets darker I see light ahead, orange/yellow firelight. The water plunges away underground, but I see a side cave, warm, glowing, and I see the cauldron over a fire. As I step in there’s a tingling sensation like I’ve stepped into some other place.
The air here is dry and warm, scented with wood smoke and something else, that tingles in the nose. The women there smile in greeting.
“Welcome Seeker, Pathwalker, Quester. Come in further, and meet your life-line guide” one says, and taking my briefly by the wrist she leads me away to a smaller side cave, lit by a fire, a woman sits there.
(note to self – not heard the expression ‘life-line guide’ before)
She has a shawl wrapped around her, and over her head, she is old, but her eyes are bright, brown-black and so familiar. She smiles and lifts her chin in greeting – I sit opposite her.
“You have walked a long way, but you’re not far along the journey yet.” She says. “Do you want to keep walking?”
I tell her I do. “Let me see your feet then” she says, and taking off my shoes I give her first my right foot. She takes out some ointment, pungent and bitter-smelling, and starts to rub the bottom of my foot.
“Why do you walk alone?” she asks me. I think, and then reply “They don’t want to walk my path.”
“Ah yes, each has their own path to walk.” She tells me.
“Are you alone?”
“No.” I say. And I realise it’s true – there are some who love and care for me. “You must care for them” she counsels.
Now the other foot.
She asks me if I want to see who walks with me and I say that I do. She stirs the fire and in the smoke I see a green leafy man, a giant, laughing and striding along. “The Spirit of the Woods walks with you, no wonder your feet are sore, a tree walking! You should plant them in he earth more often, to ease them.” She tells me.
She gives me the ointment bottle to take with me, and kisses me in farewell, and I return to the cauldron cavern.
Here the maidens ask me if I would like to stir the cauldron (!) – all the travellers on the Quest path have their part to play, they tell me. So I stir the cauldron once.
Then they ask me if I would have the transformation of the Cauldron for something in my life. I tell them my request. They ell me I must drop a hair into the cauldron, and breathe in the vapour when they direct me. So I drop in a single hair. A hiss, a sizzle, a flash of green and gold across the surface of the liquid, and steam rises. They nod and smile, and so I lean forward and breathe in the rising steam, fresh scented. Once, twice, three times I breathe in, all the time aware of the tingling of the place around me, the strong beat of my heart.
When it’s done they come to bid me farewell. They each my cheeks and smile, and I step out into the main cavern – my eyes towards the daylight. It is damp here, and cold, slippery underfoot as I walk carefully out into the daylight, back to the river-side, and over the rainbow bridge to return here.
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Lots of smiling and kissing in this meditation, I suppose because I felt very welcomed and cared for there?
Pathwalker