I want to share a recent conversation I had with a friend. She went to a Native American retreat in North Dakota and during that week she had a visionary experience - no drugs. She had climbed up to a plateau where historically the Native Americans had held the Sun Dance ritual. All of a sudden a fountain of light appeared arising from the center of the plateau. She watched it for a few minutes. I asked her about the color and she said, "Red."
This happened about twelve years ago but her description felt like it was very recent. This is often true of such experiences - they stay alive within us. I asked her what the retreat leaders said when she described this and she said that the leaders just said, "Oh, wow." I was glad they at least acknowledged her experience. But there are ways we can work with such extraordinary experiences:
She could intend to dream about it - enter into the vision as she's falling asleep. Same for meditation.
She could draw it with oil pastels and meditate on her drawing and take that image back into her inner experience. This allows for movement between inner and outer worlds.
She could write a poem about it or journal about her vision.
She could engage in a dialogue with the fountain of light, giving the fountain a voice. See Jung on active imagination.
She could express gratitude for the experience and ask for guidance about the message.
She could bring the vision into her body so the fountain rises up through her inner space all the way through the top of her head. And then allow any spontaneous movement that wants to happen.
When we work with these kinds of experiences in expressive and therapeutic ways, we are integrating the energy into our systems. We may not always have an interpretation and we don't always need one. We can simply trust our process of being with such numinous experiences.