SpiritualHealingGuidedMeditationGreekThemed CreatedbyDraco04/02/2012

Take a few moments to sit comfortably and begin the guided meditation. Place your feet onto the ground or recline on a bed. Let your muscles soften. Take several deep breaths and feel the tension release. Allow the muscles around your eyes to relax. Feel your breath exhale. Allow your chest to soften as the tension floats away. Feel the air around the room against your skin. Release the tension from your head and neck. Next feel your shoulders relax. Then your hips, your legs, your feet and your toes. Stay in this relaxed for a few moments feeling the tension flowing from your body like water down a drain.

Out of the darkness, you see a figure slowly take shape. As it becomes clearer, you see that it is a soldier, dressed like a warrior from ancient Greece. You study the soldier, seeing his helm, shield, sword and spear. As you look closer, you see that the solider has been a terrible battle. His helm is dented, his shield is almost cut in half, his sword is dull and notched. His tunic is bloody. You feel a connection to this soldier, this warrior. You sense pain in your body, in your chest; your pain is echoing his pain. The soldier drops his shield and sword, for he is sore and weary. He removes his tunic and stands there in just his loincloth. You see bruises and cuts on his body and terrible wound in his chest. You wonder how this warrior can still be on his feet. Then you realize, it is through his will, his desire to continue on, that is keeping him on his feet. Slowly, his battered hands move towards his helm. You feel frightened, you do not want this man to remove that helm, you do not want to see what is concealed beneath. You try to reach out to stop him but you are frozen in place. All you can do is stare and shake your head no. His hands reach his helm and he stares at you, he locks your gaze with his own. He removes his helm and you almost faint the man, the warrior, is yourself. You are looking in a mirror. With this realization, you come crashing into yourself. It is no longer an echo of pain, but the real thing. You feel all the cuts and scrapes, the bruises and the awful pain in your chest, in your heart. You stagger, and almost drop to your knees but you catch yourself and stand back upright. As you stand up, you find yourself in a black cave. Before you is a monstrous gate guarded by the largest beast you have ever seen. It is a huge, three headed hound. You realize it is Cerberus, the guardian to the gates of Hades. You understand that you are in the Underworld, the glooms of Hades. Cerberus sniffs you and backs to one side. The gate before you slowly opens and you hears moans and screams coming from the other side. Slowly, reluctantly, you start forward. You know that if you are in the Underworld and Cerberus is letting you pass, you must be half dead already. As you cross the threshold, the gate swings shut behind you with loud crash. There is only one way to go forward.

As you walk down the faint path, you sense that you are not alone. Out of the corner of your eyes, you catch glimpse of pale shapes, floating besides you. They approach then dart away before you can get a good look at them. As you progress, they become bolder; more daring, showing themselves to you at last. You see that they are the spirits of the lost, those who failed and gave up their holy charge to grow. You start to hear whispers, the damned are speaking to you. The urge to give in, to give up, to surrender, to quit rises like a banshee inside you! You their call to just give in, surrender, and run away. You are very tempted to do so; to run away would mean a stopping of the pain. You are about to give in, to surrender when you realize that if you do, you will become just like them. Trapped here is this un-life with no hope; with one set of pain traded for another. You feel a spark of energy in your wounded chest. You tell yourself Not yet! This is not how I will end!! With your declaration, the shades withdraw and you continue down the path. Shortly, you come to another gate. There is no guardian here, just a closed door. As you reach out to open it, you know that there is no turning back at this point. If you go through this gate, you will see this journey through. With just a brief pause, you open the door and step through. You find yourself in a courtyard of pale marble. There is a fountain in the middle, covered by dried vines. No water run in this fountain but yu imagine that when it did, it must have been beautiful. You look around the courtyard, there are arches leading to other rooms, benches made of marble here and there under withered arbors. Nothing is growing here in what once must have been a fantastic garden. It dawns on you that you are not alone here. Like a magnet, your attention is drawn to the far end of the garden. Seated there, on a throne made of bleached skulls, is figure terrible to behold in its dark glory. It is powerfully built being, pale of flesh with dark hair of long, dark beard. On his brow sits a pale crown and in his left hand is a pitchfork. You can barely look at him and you know that this is Hades, ruler of the Underworld. Standing in front of him are two other figures you now realize. On his right is a tall warrior, clad in flashing mail with a bright helm, keen sword at his hip. He is silently staring at you and you feel his gave pierce your wounded soul. On the left is a battle maiden, bearing a shield with Zeus eagle symbol on her back, an owl perches on her shoulder and a long spear in her hand. Her gave, if at all possible, is even more piercing than the male figure. Like a thunderbolt, you know who these two great beings are; they are your patrons, your Lord and Lady: Ares and Athena. You feel them weighing your soul, judging you. Lord Ares produces a scale, and on either end is a ball of purest white and the other is a ball of darkest black. As they stare at you, you see the each ball in turn grow in size; first one, then the other till eventually the scales come to rest evenly balanced between the dark and the light. Ares puts away the scales and speaks. You have done wrong, great wrong. You have messed up quite a few things in your life, havent you!?! You have wasted my precious gifts to you!! Now, you want to throw it all away and go hide somewhere!! Are you a coward?? Are you a sniveling bitch who is not fit to do to anything!!!?! Are you??? You feel yourself dying inside at your Lords harsh, but true words. The Athena speaks to you. What Ares says is true. However, there is good in you as well. There is strength, a desire to make yourself a better man. True, you have stumbled on occasion, but the scales do not lie. Right now, you are in the balance. It is up to you to decide what to do and how to face these challenges.

Ares turns and says to Athena Do you think so sister? Do you think he has what it takes? Athena answers him Yes, I do! A challenge then says Ares. A test. Let us see if he has the fire in him. At this point, you see between the two Gods a black figure, twisted and deformed, hunched over and growling like a dog. They are each holding a chain, bound to one of its wrists; restraining this monster. Without notice, they let go of the chains. As they do so, this demented figure gives a loud scream, like every damned soul in Hades rolled into one. With that shattering yell, it launches itself at you, hands outstretched. It tackles and throws you to the ground and you realize this is no joke. You are in the fight of your life, maybe your last fight. It clasps its hands around your neck and applies pressure as it stares in to your eyes. You see that this figure is a twisted version of yourself all of the negative things that make you up, made into a being of darkness. As it chokes you, you feel your vision start to go gray, you hear your heart pounding in your ears. Before your minds eye flashes all of the bad things you have done; the hurts you have caused, the tears you have made others cry, the disappoints in yourself. You think Why not let it end? Look at that, all that hurt, it is all my fault! You feel your will start to cave, to let it happen; you feel the strength and life start to leave you. Suddenly, a new picture flashes before you, then another, and another. You see the smiles you have brought numerous people; you see the loyalty you have given others, the friend you have been; you see the urge and desire within yourself to change, to grow, to become better than you are. It dawns on you that yes, you may have done some horrible things but you have also done fantastic things as well. And looming over it all is your desire to do better, be better! You feel vitality pouring back in to your battered body, you break the choke hold around your neck. With a sure of might, you take the attack to him. You start to pummel that dark figure, punching and kicking. You will not let the darkness within you triumph!! As you start to win out over your opponent, you feel the hurts that you had, the cuts and bruises begin to fade and appear on your foes body. With a mighty uppercut, you knock your adversary down and you stand panting over his prone body. Ares says Well done. Use this to finish the job. With that, he tosses you his very own sword. You catch the magnificent weapon and marvel at its beauty. Use it my son, strike true With that, you plunge Ares sword into the heart of your enemy, feeling all of the self-hate, selfloathing, self pity flow from you, through the blade and into its body. It screams and so do you. It is screaming in agony and you are screaming at the release of pain. You look down at your dark self and you see that it now bears the horrible wound in its chest. Wonderingly, you look at your own and you see that your wound has closed. There is a red scar, but the wound itself is closed and you feel your soul, your spirit, mending itself. The other hurts you had suffered have almost faded, they are still tender, to be sure, but they are fading, they are healing. You look down at your whimpering, dark self. Where you expected to feel anger and rage at him, you feel only pity and sadness. You feel a tears well up in your eyes and fall upon your fallen enemy. And you realize, he is your enemy no longer. With a breaking voice, you say to yourself I forgive you. I forgive you.

You feel a lightness in your spirit that you have not felt in years. You feel yourself rising off the ground. With a flash of light, you find yourself in a new courtyard. Where the first was lifeless and dead, this one is full of life. The vines are alive and healthy, bursting with grapes. There is a fountain, with pure sparkling water running through it, making a soothing, tinkling sound. Yo sense that this is a the same courtyard. It has not changed you have. Its life is reflective of your new sense of peace and self-forgiveness. Standing next to the fountain are Ares and Athena. They call you over to them. Ares tells you I will not apologize for the harsh words I said to you they needed to be said. You needed to realize those things about yourself. But, that has passed. You have shown yourself to be my warrior that I knew you could be. With that, Ares takes up a silver chalice and dips it into the waters of the fountain. With this water of life, I wash away the hurts and fears you felt. Ares slowly pours the water over your head and it runs down your body. You are baptized as my son, I forgive you as you have forgiven yourself. He sets down the chalice and grabs you in a tight bear hug. You feel his love and light entering you. You feel safe and secure, knowing that this powerful being loves you fully. After a while, you hear slight cough. A strong, feminine voice says My turn. Ares lets you go and steps back as Athena steps in front of you. She too takes up the chalice and fills it with water. She says Child, you are ever in my thoughts. Long have I been concerned for you and hoping you would find your way and not get lost. My hopes for you have been fulfilled. Welcome back, my warrior. She slowly purs the chalice over your head, saying This water washes away your pain. None have strayed so far that they cannot come back. I forgive you as you have forgiven yourself. I baptize you as my son. Athena then hugs you and it is as if all the good things in world were rolled in to one. You feel such a sense of love and understanding. How could this being love someone like you? Because she can and she does. Athena steps back and says Child, we know you are not perfect, you are only human. We expect you to stumble occasionally and that is alright. The wounds you have suffered were bad, because they were self-inflicted. Know this, though, we have not healed you. You have healed yourself through your strength. We were there for encouragement as we knew you had it in you. Ares says Whenever you feel overburdened and feel the world is crushing you, take a moment to recall this place we will be waiting for you. Do not fear to share your feelings. With that, Ares smiles at you. You have had a rough night. Return to your realm now but know we are always here. You feel yourself starting to withdraw from this lovely place but you know you can always reach it. Slowly, you feel yourself come back. You become aware of your body. You become aware of your surroundings. Take a deep breath and exhale. Deep breath and exhale. Once again, deep breath and exhale and open your eyes.