I'm not sure if this means anything...(Long)

[Rioto_Kish]

Two nights ago, I was lying in bed (it was about 11:30pm) and as usual, I couldn't sleep. I've been having problems with visualising, grounding AND shielding, so I decided to try practicing them again. (I thought I might as well do something productive than just staring at the ceiling for hours on end.)

I focussed on my breathing for a few minutes, and began to see myself filled with a yellow light. (Normally it's a bright yellow light, but for some reason it was paler that night) I saw it absorbed into the earth when I exhaled, and a dull brown light being drawn up from the ground to enter my body and mix with the yellow light. (So far I was happy-this is what I normally visualised when grounding. My only concern was that I couldn't see it as clearly as I normally did. I think my exhaustion had something to do with it) Once I'd let some of the yellow light be absorbed and replaced by the brown light, I continued my breathing to focus myseslf again.

I then tried shielding. I used an exercise (I really wish I could remember who told me this one! Sorry!) which involves imagining myself as a tree. I could feel actual physical changes, like my limbs locking up like branches, my skin hardening, my breath slowing and becoming very shallow. I then saw a small flicker of white light inside me. I focussed on it, and the light expanded. I kept concentrating on it, and saw the light extend beyond me, to make a faint sphere of light (about 3 feet in radius-only an estimate) around my body. It wasn't strong, only faint, like a bubble. When I opened my eyes, I think I could actually see the shield faintly, and my vision was altered. I was staring straight up at the ceiling, but the walls were curving slightly as if I were standing IN a bubble. (I'm not sure if the shield is supposed to affect your vision like that, but my shield did) I shut my eyes again, and saw the shield slowly fade away, as I couldn't keep it up any longer. (I think I managed to keep it up for about half a minute)

After that, I was fairly tired but I still couldn't sleep, so I decided to meditate for a while. My window was open, so I could clearly see and hear the huge water feature/waterfall my dad built outside my room. Using the water in the lower pool as a focus, I began to try and empty my mind of outside thoughts and slowed my breathing. I began to visualise a pale blue light in the water (I was thinking of drawing on the water's energy, and that's what appeared in my head) and for a few breaths, I drew the energy into me to help me focus. (My element is water, so I thought that this would be a good idea)

Once I was focussed and relaxed (well, not relaxed, more like calm and more aware of my environment) I opened my eyes again and focussed on the rock wall of the water feature. At first, the shadows playing on the rock wall gave me the impression of a man's face, though very out of proportion and craggy, as if someone had carved a man's face in the rock, with a butter knife for a chisel. I closed my eyes again and emptied my mind. I did this for a few minutes before opening them again to stare at the rock wall again. I was surprised, because as soon as I saw the rock wall, I saw the image of a bear. At first I was surprised, but then another feeling came over me. I'm not sure how to put this into words, but I felt a sense that seemed to be a mix of understanding, acceptance, and finally, trust.

I wrote everything that happened down in my Book of Shadows, so I wouldn't forget anything. I just started looking up the significance of the bear image in regards to spirit guides, and I found a site that lists the bear's wisdom to include:

Introspection
Healing
Solitude
Change
Transformation
Communication with Spirit

and several others. I looked up the bear as a totem, and it listed the same aspects, as well as protection and power.

I'm not sure if this is telling me something. The only thing I can really relate to is the change/transformation (I'm a beginner pagan, so essentially I'm making changes in my life) and the healing (I'd like to learn herbal healing) But when I saw the bear's image on the rock wall, I felt something (I'm not entirely sure what the feeling was) and after I finished meditating, I felt calm and peaceful. It may have been a trick of my mind, but I wasn't thinking about anything in relation to totems or spirit guides. I wasn't thinking about anything, which is making me think that the bear has something to teach me.

I'm really sorry that this is so long. I just felt that I should ask someone about the significance of the bear and my grounding and shielding. Maybe there's a connection between the three that I haven't seen. Any suggestions would be welcome. I'm still doing research on the bear as a totem/spirit guide, but if there is anything else someone could add, I'd really appreciate it.  

[Jezehbelle]

-amazed no one has responded yet-

When it comes to symbols and interpretation, I feel that general meaning things have is how you preceive them and in the context of the dream or vision or whathaveyou. Your dreams and visions will talk to you in ways you understand at a certain level, whether consciously or unconsciously. You might know these things already, the symbolisms and meanings and such, just forgetting them for a time.

-wonders if that all sounded like babble-

How was the bear behaving? Like, what sort of posture did it have? Body language means a lot. D:

Otherwise, bears have been associated with the Moon through Artemis, connecting them with the unconcious mind. The "Mother Bear", a maternal figure, protective of her young. Bears are associated with shamans, dreams and visions.
Etc

Really, I don't want to list too many because it might limit what you think of it, and i don't want you to limit it based on what I've already put. sweatdrop

I hope that sortof helped a little bit. sweatdrop  

[Rioto_Kish]

Thank you for your response Jezehbelle! (I'm actually surprised that anyone responded, considering my post was a massive text wall.)

I'm not sure if I can make sense of what happened really...like, I felt certain emotions when I saw the bear, but nothing like 'ah, I understand what this is telling me!' more like 'okay, I can see the image of a bear. This means something to me, but what? I know that I'm safe (strange thought, but it's kind of what I felt), and I realise that the bear possibly is there because it has something I need to learn from it, but I don't know what...'

The image that I saw wasn't a complete bear. It was a face and the shoulders. As soon as I opened my eyes, my gaze fixed on the bear's face. The muzzle of the bear was pointing down, and even though the brow ridges shadowed the 'eyes' I felt that it was looking back at me. (Sorry if I sound like an idiot... sweatdrop I'm really bad at explaining things) It was as if the bear was looking down at me, like it was higher up, but I was in fact practically eye-level with it. In regards to body language (now this is going to sound crazy) the bear was both threatening and defensive at the same time. The head appeared to be drawn back slightly into the shoulders, which were hunched up to make the bear seem bigger. However, despite this, I knew that the bear wasn't threatening me in any way (Okay, I sound insane, I know...thinking that a rock wall wasn't threatening me...I'm really sorry, I can't describe this any better. emo ) The bear seemed like it was more defending than threatening.

I read something about the protective 'Mother Bear' and the dreams and visions, when I was looking up the meaning of bears, but I don't understand how it relates to me. I didn't know about the link with Artemis and the Moon, so I'll have to look that up more.

You definitely helped, thank you!  

[Rioto_Kish]

Okay, I know that this hasn't been visited in quite awhile, but I just found something that might help me understand what I saw better.

I've been wondering about the bear ever since I saw it, and just then (I mean literally, just then-I found this about 30 seconds ago) I opened a Word document on my computer regarding animals and their meanings, with the intention of printing it out to glue into my book of shadows. I hadn't really read the meanings, just skimmed through them. As I went down the page quickly to find any spelling errors, I saw BEAR, and it's meanings, one of which are: '...hibernation symbolizes introspection and self-renewal.' (I got the list from somewhere in a Gaia pagan guild, but I can't for the life of me remember where exactly, sorry!)

Now, I may be going about this the wrong way, but I think that the bear's image may have been drawing my attention to the fact that I am new to paganism. As in, I am starting a new path in my life by looking at myself and what I believe in, as well as removing any thoughts that I don't agree with to become a new version of myself.

I looked up Artemis, and while she seemed to turn quite a few people into bears (and a stag, at one point) her connection with bears doesn't seem to fit me. (Though her other name Phoebe and her being a 'light bringer' to help light the way through uncharted areas does sound a little bit like the reason I am drawn to Wepwawet.)

I've looked at the rock face several times since I first saw the bear, and while I can still see it, a shadow is cast over it's face somehow, so I can only see it if I concentrate. Maybe it's a way for me to know that I'm further along down my new path than before...?

Any thoughts or comments regarding this would be much appreciated!  

[Faith-The1Slayer]

Rioto_Kish

Two nights ago, I was lying in bed (it was about 11:30pm) and as usual, I couldn't sleep. I've been having problems with visualising, grounding AND shielding, so I decided to try practicing them again. (I thought I might as well do something productive than just staring at the ceiling for hours on end.)

I focussed on my breathing for a few minutes, and began to see myself filled with a yellow light. (Normally it's a bright yellow light, but for some reason it was paler that night) I saw it absorbed into the earth when I exhaled, and a dull brown light being drawn up from the ground to enter my body and mix with the yellow light. (So far I was happy-this is what I normally visualised when grounding. My only concern was that I couldn't see it as clearly as I normally did. I think my exhaustion had something to do with it) Once I'd let some of the yellow light be absorbed and replaced by the brown light, I continued my breathing to focus myseslf again.

I then tried shielding. I used an exercise (I really wish I could remember who told me this one! Sorry!) which involves imagining myself as a tree. I could feel actual physical changes, like my limbs locking up like branches, my skin hardening, my breath slowing and becoming very shallow. I then saw a small flicker of white light inside me. I focussed on it, and the light expanded. I kept concentrating on it, and saw the light extend beyond me, to make a faint sphere of light (about 3 feet in radius-only an estimate) around my body. It wasn't strong, only faint, like a bubble. When I opened my eyes, I think I could actually see the shield faintly, and my vision was altered. I was staring straight up at the ceiling, but the walls were curving slightly as if I were standing IN a bubble. (I'm not sure if the shield is supposed to affect your vision like that, but my shield did) I shut my eyes again, and saw the shield slowly fade away, as I couldn't keep it up any longer. (I think I managed to keep it up for about half a minute)

After that, I was fairly tired but I still couldn't sleep, so I decided to meditate for a while. My window was open, so I could clearly see and hear the huge water feature/waterfall my dad built outside my room. Using the water in the lower pool as a focus, I began to try and empty my mind of outside thoughts and slowed my breathing. I began to visualise a pale blue light in the water (I was thinking of drawing on the water's energy, and that's what appeared in my head) and for a few breaths, I drew the energy into me to help me focus. (My element is water, so I thought that this would be a good idea)

Once I was focussed and relaxed (well, not relaxed, more like calm and more aware of my environment) I opened my eyes again and focussed on the rock wall of the water feature. At first, the shadows playing on the rock wall gave me the impression of a man's face, though very out of proportion and craggy, as if someone had carved a man's face in the rock, with a butter knife for a chisel. I closed my eyes again and emptied my mind. I did this for a few minutes before opening them again to stare at the rock wall again. I was surprised, because as soon as I saw the rock wall, I saw the image of a bear. At first I was surprised, but then another feeling came over me. I'm not sure how to put this into words, but I felt a sense that seemed to be a mix of understanding, acceptance, and finally, trust.

I wrote everything that happened down in my Book of Shadows, so I wouldn't forget anything. I just started looking up the significance of the bear image in regards to spirit guides, and I found a site that lists the bear's wisdom to include:

Introspection
Healing
Solitude
Change
Transformation
Communication with Spirit

and several others. I looked up the bear as a totem, and it listed the same aspects, as well as protection and power.

I'm not sure if this is telling me something. The only thing I can really relate to is the change/transformation (I'm a beginner pagan, so essentially I'm making changes in my life) and the healing (I'd like to learn herbal healing) But when I saw the bear's image on the rock wall, I felt something (I'm not entirely sure what the feeling was) and after I finished meditating, I felt calm and peaceful. It may have been a trick of my mind, but I wasn't thinking about anything in relation to totems or spirit guides. I wasn't thinking about anything, which is making me think that the bear has something to teach me.

I'm really sorry that this is so long. I just felt that I should ask someone about the significance of the bear and my grounding and shielding. Maybe there's a connection between the three that I haven't seen. Any suggestions would be welcome. I'm still doing research on the bear as a totem/spirit guide, but if there is anything else someone could add, I'd really appreciate it.

Okay i had the same thing happen to me only i saw the bear in a camp fire. my friend and i both saw the bear play across the shadows near the fire. what u saw might have been the same thing we saw i know that a bear is also a symbol for knowledge and truth so that may be where the feeling of trust and knowing cme from