Journey with the Merlin Essence
by Marsha Durok
I closed my eyes and became aware of a black gull flying beside and around me. I watched it for a little while as it swayed back and forwards, gliding effortlessly on air currents swirling around us. I shifted in consciousness and saw myself flying up from my central space on the back of a dragon. We flew above my body and the dragon blew fire into my aura, burning away darker areas. Once finished we flew back down and suddenly I found myself walking a forest path. It was black dark and I had to feel my way forward, trees and bushes making dark smudges within the darkness. Was wearing a long black cloak and my hood was up. I was aware that it was cold and that I was huddled within my cloak. I saw firelight flickering through the darkness ahead and I hurried onwards.
I entered an open clearing and walked quickly over to the fire, keen to feel its warmth. A goblin was tending the fire and he grinned widely at me. I smiled at him as he continued to build the fire and my face reddened as it became hot from the flames. A dryad appeared next, coming from a dark tree shaped mass on the other side of the fire. She swayed while smiling at me as Pan appeared along with numerous others. He glared at me and I waited for him to speak. �You have been away too long.� He said eventually �Far too long when you know you need to be among us regularly so we can help you to cleanse. You are not in a good state!� I agreed that I had not made enough time to be among nature in the past few weeks.
The dryad was now standing behind me working on the crown of my head. Her fingers worked rhythmically and I felt myself sway in time with them. He nodded and told me that my cleanse was going to be incredibly strong. He then jabbed towards the fire and demanded that I step into it. I complied quietly. As I stood in the fire my clothing burned away. Next all of my body hair burned and I could smell the hair as it burned. Then, piece by piece, as the flames burned higher and higher, my flesh burned away in chunks, sizzling as it fell into the white heat of the central space. My skeleton remained within the fire as my consciousness flew far away.
I was shown three people and could see who they truly are and then I lost time. I became aware that my physical body was icy cold and then I returned to my vision and I saw that my body had been reclothed in new flesh and hair. I stepped out of the fire and smiled at all who watched and then I slowly came back to normal consciousness.
Summation
I understand this experience to be a complete cleanse of the self and wonder what this might bring for me on all levels. What amazed me was the amount of time I used! When I regained my usual consciousness I had been �gone� for an hour and a half! On top of that it was a real effort to actually open my eyes again. I was left feeling totally spaced out no matter what I did to try to counteract this however I now realise that this is so because I have been terribly tense for quite some time now due to a whole host of stressful incidents in my life over the past few months and I was so totally relaxed while using the essence that when I came back all tension had left my body leaving me feeling really tired out.
Another fantastic thing to have gained from this journey is that my power animal at the moment is a black herring gull! Gulls can help open lines of communication with water spirits and Faerie realms. They also have an intricate system of communication with each other and so can help you to learn how to read others more easily, something that ties in very well with my experience as I journeyed. There are more things that Gull will help teach me and I�m really excited about this. And so on it goes.
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