In 2015 I met a woman on a beach pier in Santa Barbara, California who shared a creative visualization meditation that surprisingly proved worthwhile. Sharing because I think others would also benefit from trying it.

Get into a comfortable seated position or lay down on your back. Close your eyes and imagine 50 steps in front of you. It can be a ladder, staircase, gradual steps going up to a temple, or anything else that comes to mind. It can be in any environment or landscape you choose to picture, whether it be from the past, present, future or another dimension. Allow your imagination to naturally fill in the details of the setting.

Now that you have established the environment, set your intention on the steps before you and begin to walk up them. As you walk up, you might find yourself hitting resistance. The steps represent you energetically ascending to a higher level. Acknowledge any resistance, muster your will power and keep going.

Once at the top of the 50 steps, imagine a long cooridor or setting where you observe several rooms before you. A hotel hallway with rooms on both sides is a good example. There could be a main door you have to go through first, a lobby, or a large garden surrounded by doors, for example. You just need steps to walk up and the various doors to be available once at the higher level. My setting for this meditation changed in each session.

Now that you have established where you are, walk up to the first door and open it. Walk into the room and note what scene unfolds before you. Stay as long as you like, then leave and close the door. Begin opening each door and see what presents itself. If it is a disturbing or unpleasant door, then close it. There are exercises for facing those things, but not in this meditation. Once you feel as you’ve gone through all the rooms you want to, end your journey through intent, declaration or gesture and return to your body. Now write down your experiences during the meditation, including details from each room.

I’ll share some of the rooms I came upon during my initial workings of this exercise.

The door was an old gargoyle type door and went to an alchemical lab. There were alchemical instruments and manuscripts. A spirit was moving around, working very diligently, with an almost urgency. He told me he needed a drop of my sweat (efforts). Upon sweating and providing sweat I turned to leave. He handed me an emerald gem which as I placed in my right palm, put it in my pocket & walked out it expanded its essence to transmute my entire body.

I walk through the next door and see a rushing river that is singing. It starts to bring a treasure down the river. It’s a delicate and feminine gold platted amor. To my left is a treasure chest. I get leg guards, an arm guard for the left side but none for the right. I think maybe this is for archery? I then receive a sword from the river that I holster on the side of my waist. Then a delicate gold platted helmet. Something else coming down the river. A quiver of arrows. I miss the bow as it flows by. I reach out to it with my mind and retrieve it, mentally drawing it towards me.

The next door I can sense is magical. I walk up to it. It is pulsating with a purple magic. I go to open it, but I simply pass through the door. My weapons stay behind but I still have my armor on. The space is black and a purple sylph-like entity swirls around me, enchanting and returning to me my magic. I am given a nectar which will retrieve the parts of my soul that have been displaced. Then a peacock rises high and turns into a blazing phoenix. The phoenix then descends to the ground as an Oriental master. I give a bow. Rather than turn to walk out, I get the impression I need to walk backwards and keep facing the master. I do so, pass through the magic door and reunite with my weapons.