A few minutes after the guided meditation I shared below (we three who were participating that evening took a few minutes to share what we had seen and learned), we undertook a shamanic journey together. My teacher was drumming for all of us and journeying herself, at the same time.

For this journey, I placed myself in a womb-like cave that was familiar to me, and I realized I didn't need my body for this journey. A portal opened up for me on the other side of the cave and I went through it, leaving my body in a place in the vestibule of this passageway. As I started walking down through the passageway, I realized I couldn't see anything... it was dark... then suddenly remembered I had my talisman with me. I took it out of my pocket and placed it on my palm. It lit up immediately with a clear, bright light. I knew no one would try to take it from me, so
I held my hand in front of me and continued walking down the passageway. At one point I said to myself kind of jokingly, "good lord, how long IS this thing?", and then two beings appeared in the passageway with me. First was a dragonfly, who paused to look at me, then immediately flew up the passageway, to "check on my body," I sensed. The other was a blond guy in a toga. As I looked at him, I realized I didn't like him at all and I wasn't going to be happy if he told me he was one of my spirit guides. Then the journey was over. My teacher advised me to write down everything I could think of about this guy in the toga and then forget about him for now--he is something for later. Ack. My lip curls up just thinking about him. I call the toga guy "Herbert" in my mind.

A few minutes later, we took one more short journey. No cave this time--it felt right for me to immediately go to the place where I'd met Dragonfly before: a wooded dell with a clear stream running through it. This place comes from my memory--I was there one summer about 30 years ago, and never again since. Herbert appeared and tried to sit down across from me--I firmly told him to go away (he did). Then Dragonfly appeared. Dragonfly and I just spent a few moments enjoying each others' presence... he, flitting and flying around, bursting into color whenever the sunlight hit his body, and me watching admiringly. At one point I held up my index finger and invited him to alight, which he did, balancing on my fingertip with all six legs and fluttering his wings a bit to stay balanced. He was smiling at me the whole time he sat on my finger, a really big, friendly smile that seemed to say he likes me as much as I like him. This smile was something I "felt," not something I "saw." He then flew away and I just sat for a few more moments, enjoying the peace and beauty of the wooded dell, and then the journey was over.

It's funny, but words seem such a flat way of describing something that was actually quite rich and nuanced... odd because I am usually pretty good with words. One thing I did notice is that time did take on a strange quality during both these journeys. I felt I was spending much longer in journey than I actually did (when compared with "ordinary reality," that is).

I wanted to know exactly what sort of dragonfly this was--after doing some research, I discovered that what I actually saw in my journey was an Ebony Jewelwing Damselfly. They are Odonates, first cousins to the "true" dragonflies, and considered the same thing for metaphysical purposes (by all references I have been able to find thus far). The scientific name for the Ebony Jewelwing is "Calopteryx Maculata," which means "Beautiful Wing." Indeed!! This one in the picture above is a male, and the one in my journey was most definitely a male--I knew that about him the moment I saw him, so finding this out about the coloring later was just confirmation. (The female Ebony Jewelwing is more of a bronze color, and has a white spot on each black wing.)

You can't tell from this picture but the damselfly's wings are actually quite lacy, delicate and translucent, even though they are black. My impression is, perhaps, that the Jewelwings are ones who are going to dance and flutter their way into the Otherworld, perhaps slipping in under the radar, rather than powering their way in as a "true" dragonfly would. Perhaps. This is something I'm sure I'll learn more about as I proceed on the path.

One of the Ebony Jewelwing's particular special qualities is its ability to "hide in plain sight." You just don't see them unless a shaft of sunlight hits them. LOL, which sounds kind of like what I'm doing right now, working in the corporate world with my "weird" (to some others) interests. I'm an admin. assistant with about 20 years experience... I've been working with engineers, architects and construction folks for a long time now. Anyway, the males of this species are the ones who have this amazing blue-green iridescent coloring... it's similar to the blues and greens in a peacock feather (there's a story there, too! that one will be next, I guess).

When the Jewelwings mate, their bodies form the shape of a heart. :-)