I couldn’t wait for the instructor to finish her directions for my latest journey to the lower world. As soon as I closed my eyes, I felt a presence come into my awareness. I could hear my Reiki teacher, Angie, talking in her special “guide”s” voice, and I knew that my good friend Melanie was as attentive as I was the first time this Shamanic guide talked me into seeing a new reality, a new world.

Melanie sat on the couch to my right. We had already shared our brief journeys into the Middle World, the one that exists now on this plane. We were joyous to discover we both pictured the bright, bold red Cardinal as our favorite animal. On top of that, however, red foxes had approached us as spirit guides. Melanie, who has had to struggle as caregiver for her father who passed away slightly more than a year ago, had only recently placed her grandmother into a nursing home when Melanie had struck bottom and sought help to save herself from drowning. Several of her father’s dearest friends interceded and rescued Melanie, ushering the grandmother into an emergency entrance of a nearby assisted living facility.

(As some of you might be aware, I placed my spouse in a nursing home after struggling with care-giver “burnout.” in January of 2013, following a lengthy trial that started Sept. 15, 2006.)

Melanie’s fox lead her to a wolf, and took off, leaving the poor child without saying goodbye. On awakening from this journey, she felt grief occupying her throat chakra and parts of her psyche.

My fox was a “wanderer,” helping a vixen here, and a horse there, while never staying in one place too long before seeking some new adventure, some new mystical experience where ever his heart would take him.

But, my visit to the Lower World was something I never expected, and it goes to show you that when you have “no expectations” some one’s will that you’re placing your own will in does not disappoint you.

(This is an excerpt from a forthcoming Contoveros book on Reiki to be published next year!)

I didn’t mean to begin my journey as soon as my eyes closed. But a creature from a previous dream entered my consciousness. I had dreamed of this wonderful being some three years ago when writing down all of my dreams religiously over a 6-week period. In the dream, a figure much like the mythical “Puff the Magic Dragon” had visited me. But he appeared as no fictional character, but one our earth had seen hundreds of thousands of years ago.

My totem for this latest journey was none other than “Little Foot,” the long-neck dinosaur, also known as a Brontosaurus as well as an Apatosaurus. He took me swimming and diving in the ocean as I held onto him and rode him bareback. In my dream, I clung to this,the largest of all the pre-historic animals, as he made his way into the water and then out of it, somehow climbing into the air as if he could fly. We became airborne for just a short time before submerging again and splashing in the refreshing water giggling and laughing as the best of friends, man and beast, kids at heart.

Behind the Eyes of Moriarty by VINTZENT

There was no time for surface contacts, however. As Angie continued to softly speak to me and Mel, I plunged into the water. It was a clear, fresh and bubbling area of water. My dinosaur friend was fully in charge. I knew not where we were headed, but felt I was on another adventure. Down and down we went, my eyes wide open and hair wildly drifting from one side to the other as we would twist and turn around the sea structures and sea animals, none of which lingered for long in our sights. We passed coral and rock formations and hundreds of different colored fish, all seemingly aware of our visit to their part of the world.

Too soon, we slowed as the dinosaur pulled up straight, ending what seemed like hours of descent. There just below me was a domed city. It was all in gold. It sparkled and shined in the air that was trapped inside this huge globe-like clear structure.Our view was unobstructed. I saw streets and pavements, as well as houses of various sizes, shapes and widths.

But, there was no people. The city seemed to have been there for he longest of times, existing long before civilization as we know it came into being. It had an air of wisdom and knowledge about it, as if the basic rocks, wood, stones and trees were alive and full of answers to anyone who could pose the right question to them.

I wanted to enter. So did my traveling companion. But no sooner had we come into the presence of this magnificent city, we knew it was time to go.

I don’t remember much after this. A walrus with long tucks came into our vision. “Goo-goo-achoo” I felt like singing to him in the language of the Beatles. He too was wise. Maybe he was the doorman or watchman at the entrance to the “globed city” beneath the sea.

He guided us away from the city and upwards toward the waterway above. Soon, he too left us on our own. But not for long, we were then joined by a group of professional sharks. I felt they were professional more than I thought it. They were of the lawyer class of sharks. Very efficient, very logical and very uncaring for anything but their targeted prey.

I enjoyed their company and just as we were about to swap war stories of courtroom intrigue and shenanigans, I heard drumming in the far distance. The thumping drew my attention, and it pulled me away from the sharks, the water and my good friend the dinosaur. I re-entered the land of “Now.”Upon describing my vision, Angie said I had journeyed to the “lost” City of Atlantis, the magical land spoken of by Plato, the Greek philosopher who always dealt with facts, never fiction.

Was he calling me to the city? Were my father’s ancestors somehow interceding with the powers of Poseidon to gain me entrance to this wonder or wonders? Who knows. Maybe more will follow in my next Shamanic Journey.