During a healing class many years ago, I took a shamanic journey for one of my students. I’ll call her Gayle. The intention of the journey was: What does Gayle need to know so she can heal her relationship with her parents?

My Teacher and power animal brought me to a realm in the upper world. At first, I didn’t understand why I was there. It appeared to be a blank area; I saw and felt nothing. I looked at my Teacher for guidance, and he pointed to a far-away, distant space within the surrounding emptiness. I still did not experience anything. My Teacher never steers me wrong, so I waited patiently.  And sure enough, an object was moving in my direction.

Ganesh, the Hindu elephant god who is known as the remover of obstacles and is highly renowned for his wisdom, floated towards me on an other-worldly, multi-colored, mystical carpet.

The closer Ganesh came, the more clearly I was able to see his elephant head, chubby human body, and four arms. His two legs were semi-crossed. When he was directly in front of me, he extended one of his arms and opened his hand. A small, tan-colored seed rested in his palm. He offered it and said:

Here is a seed of forgiveness. Tell her to plant it. In time, a huge tree will grow.

A tree of compassion.

Within the seed of forgiveness lives the tree of compassion.

I received the seed, thanked Ganesh, and watched him float away.

My Teacher and power animal brought me back to my body where I blew the energetic seed of forgiveness into Gayle’s heart and soul. She took a deep breath. Then she sat up, and with tears flowing down her cheeks, turned around and lifted the back of her shirt. A large, exquisitely drawn and vividly painted tattoo of Ganesh encompassed the entire area.

The seed had taken root.

I leave you with this quote from Rumi: 

“In this earth, in this immaculate field, we shall not plant any seeds

Except for compassion, except for love.”