Embark on a magical journey to the three realms of land, sea and sky.

Here is a trance journey you can take on your own to visit the three worlds.

Preparation

1. Basic breathing and relaxation
2. Mist induction
   1. Deepening as mist rises
   2. Drifting downward
   3. Come to rest, mist clears...

1: The Land

You have come to rest on strange ground. The mist clears, shredding in a gentle breeze. As your vision resolves, you are in a clearing in a wood. You remember your quest - to seek contact with the essence of the three worlds.

All 'round you is the forest, dappled in gray light through the leaves of trees. The floor of soft leaves and plants is beneath you, the smell of loam and earth around you. You rise to your feet in vision. Above you, the sky is silver-bright, but sunless, the light broken here on the forest floor.

As you stand in this clearing, turn now to the four directions. Gaze in each direction, and let the vision become full and clear. As you turn, an animal or bird will appear in some place before you. You begin to walk, going toward that messenger, seeking the land-folk.

As you walk through the forest, you observe its nature. Open your heart and seek loving contact with the land spirits. Observe any response, but keep walking, walking on through the woodland.

At last, you emerge into a wide glade in the wood. In the center of the glade is a mound, of the ancient kind, a small barrow, ringed in stones. Before you is the door into the mound, a narrow arch of giant stones, with the lintel-stone carved in spirals and rings. Inside the doorway all is dark but from the door a thin stream of smoke creeps.

You know that this is your destination, so you stride fearlessly to the portal and Step into the dark, into a downward tunnel, with walls of cold Stone. The tunnel turns to the left, turning downward in darkness, turning rightward back on itself, until before you a dim red light becomes visible. You walk down into a chamber with high roof and walls of giant slabs. The light comes from a fire, burning in a round raised altar in the center of the chamber. Flickering firelight reveals carvings of animals and plants.

You go to the fire and gaze into its changing light. You turn your mind toward the land. As you watch the fire, the spirits of the land may come to you, may reveal themselves. Let your mind range to the deserts and jungles, the tundras and woodlands, the plains and mountains. Call out to the living minds that lie within the stone and soil.

You find yourself in the mound, the ground beneath your feet, the fire before your eyes. You feel a presence at your back and you turn. You see a spirit standing before you.

The form of the spirit becomes clear - its face, its body, Its garb or raiment. The spirit holds out a hand, offering you a gift. You accept the gift with thanks to this guide of the land.

The spirit gestures, and behind the burning altar a panel of carved stone opens. Through the door, you can see the ocean. You step around the fire and out onto the sea strand.

2: The Sea

You stand on the sea shore, and remember the land, and its gift. You look out over the sea, hearing the sound of the waves on the sand, feeling the wind off of the water, smelling - the salt air.

A beautiful silver gull flies from right to left across the sky. Your eye follows the bird. By the shore you see a ship, a ship of white wood, with blue sails and silver fittings. A gangplank runs from the ship down to the shore.

You walk down the shore and up the plank onto the deck of the ship. No crew is visible, but the plank draws up, the sails fill with a freshening wind, and the bow turns away from the land as the boat sails away.

The ship sails with magical speed, scudding over the waves as gulls call overhead. Fish come to follow, and leap around the vessel. Three dolphins come to leap and play, running before the fleet ship.

Far from the sight of land, the ship slows to a halt. In the calm and gentle roaring of the waves, the gangplank lowers again, down into the water. At the bottom the dolphins wait.

You walk down the plank and into the waters of the sea. The cool water is refreshing and supporting. The dolphins come and bear you up, then laughing, they carry you with them as they dive down, into the sea.

You feel no need to breathe as you pass beneath the waters as you travel down among the life of the sea. Open your heart to the life of the sea as you travel in their country.

You are carried on through the sea by the strong, friendly beasts until you come to a great undersea mountain, its peak deep beneath the surface. The water has grown warm, and you see that the top of that mountain is flat. Upon it, is a ring of stones, and at its center a pool of lava steams and bubbles. It glows hot red, and flows of lava run into the sea, cooling.

The dolphins carry you down to the lava and you gaze into its glow.
You turn your mind to the sea. Let your mind range to the trenches and reefs, to the strange upwelling sources, to the warm shallows and the whale roads, to raging storm and calm depths teeming with life. As you watch the lava, the spirits of the sea may come to you, may reveal themselves. Call out to the living minds, within the ancient depths.

Floating there at the mountain, the dolphins waiting beside you, you feel a presence at your back. You turn and there stands a spirit of the sea. The form of the spirit may come dear to you, its countenance, its garb. It offers you a gift, and you may choose to accept it.

The spirit gestures, and the dolphins carry you up again. They begin to carry you upward, speeding up through dark water into lighter seas, up toward the bright surface. They break the surface and leap high, bearing you over the waves. You suddenly feel yourself caught on a powerful body, that carries you toward the sky.

3: The Sky

As you rise into the air you look down to see a huge white swan, carrying you gently into the sky. Its mighty wings beat and its noble neck stretches out before you. You remember the sea, and its gift to you.

You are lifted higher and higher, turning wide, back over the land. You rise through banks of cloud, past flocks of singing birds. You feel the crisp, cold air of the sky, see the passing of the clouds and currents of air, the sky that circles the whole globe of the world. Open your heart to the sky, seeking awareness of its spirits, storm and dear night, wind and gentle rain, as the swan bears you onward through the silver sky.

The swan leve1s off, flying at remarkable speed. You approach a huge cloudbank, towering up white and fleecy, high above your head, you see canyons and hills of cloud. Near its base it is black, and you hear the rumble of thunder.

The swan carries you to a shelf in the cloud and, as you descend, you discover that you can slide from the swan and stand upon the grey-white surface. Before you the convolutions of the cloud open like a maze, and you walk in.

The way is clear, through a valley of cloud, until you come to a great arch of purest white, with a tower of cloud rising behind. In the center of the arch flashes a free-floating ball of fire, crackling and hissing in the moist air.

Gaze into the £ire, and turn your mind toward the sky. As you watch the fire, the spirits of the sky may reveal themselves to you. Let your mind range into the air, to the cycles of rain and wind, to the kingdom of birds just above the treetops, to the high, racing winds of the upper airs. Call out to the living minds that lie behind wind and rain.

You find yourself standing at the temple of cloud, the towering white, the rumble of thunder and the fire's blaze. You feel a presence behind you and you turn to see the messenger of the sky.

The form of the spirit becomes clear, its gaze, its appearance. It offers you a gift, which you may accept if you choose.

The spirit gestures, and the swan catches you up onto its back, speeding upward again, upward above the clouds, upward until the silver sky is left behind, until the sun and moon are both visible in their glory.

You remember the three worlds, your experience of each, the three gifts you've been of. Offered, and remember, that when you wish to return to the inner worlds, to contact the spirits, this work has made that easier. It has opened the way.

4: The Return

You ride on the back of the swan, and it begins a gentle descent, back toward the swirling mist below. Together you sail downward toward the common world, remembering all as you descend toward your body.

The swan departs and you are again drifting downward to the upholding mist. You remember your body, seated here. You drift back down into your body, settling gently.

Breath deeply. Stretch and feel your flesh move. As you open your eyes, you are returned to your common life. Your mind clear and rested, filled with the memory of wonder, but ready to return to common life, with the blessings of the three worlds!