In work with advanced students in my recent shamanic dreaming retreats, we have continued our exploration of the “12 lights in the body” and their possible role in imaginal and energetic healing. My friend Carol, who has taken part in several related group journeys, reports that she experienced remarkable relief from tendinitis with her very first private attempt to call in the 12 lights.

The morning after our first evening experiment with the 12 lights, she got out of bed and immediately said to herself, “I want to check my lights.”

Carol has suffered acute tendinitis in her Achilles tendon for almost a year.  At times the pain was severe and swelling in her heels prevented her from wearing most shoes.  She had taken a lot of ibuprofen and used anti-inflammatory gel prescribed by a doctor.  Nothing had brought consistent relief. Before her experiment with the lights, she had been experiencing stabbing pain in the back of the left heel especially at the end of the day.  The first few steps of the day were often quite painful, and she would find herself reduced to hobbling around for a while.

To prepare for her experiment with the 12 lights, Carol went back to bed and willed herself to drift gently back towards sleep. As she drifted, she began to scan her body for the lights. She saw them moving throughout her body. Ancient Mother, one of her spiritual guides, appeared to help her in what was unfolding. Carol tried to count the lights but could not come up with a fixed number; sometimes it seemed there were more than twelve. She decided to let the counting go, and go deeper.

I asked Ancient Mother if I could look more closely at the lights.  They seem to swirl.  I sucked in air at the surprise view on a close up….They look like galaxies!  Each light is composed of many lights!!   

The lights, the galaxies, move throughout the body.  Several of them can pool in a place that needs healing.  Ancient Mother told me to join my consciousness with the lights as they pooled in the areas of my heels.  My feet felt like they were buzzing, vibrating, humming.  I was thrilled that I could join consciously in the healing.  I wasn’t exactly directing it, but my desire for healing seemed to be acting in consort with the lights. 

But the work with the lights was not all smooth and soft.

In a moment of shock my body sounded an alarm as I felt piercing pain in my left heel.  I started to tense my body and to rouse from this dream.  Truth be told, I wanted to bolt from this experience!  I thought something had gone terribly wrong. 

Ancient Mother gently communicated with me. “Don’t tense up.  Don’t get up. The lights are activating healing cells.” 

 I understood that some cells need to work better.  Ancient Mother explained that this was not a “cure-all” process.  I still had responsibility to do my part in taking care of my physical needs.  However, the healing should move forward now.  The pain subsided and the sensation in my feet continued with a pleasant buzzing, humming feeling.

When she got out of bed, Carol found she could walk without pain, and the swelling was down.

At the end of the day there was no sign of those stabbing pains in the left heel.  The tendinitis was not gone but she felt her condition had radically improved. From time to time she again experienced the buzzing, humming sensation in the back of her heel, ankles and in the back half of the soles of her feet. She drew great comfort and confidence from Ancient Mother’s assurance that healing cells had been activated,

Approaching sleep that night, and on subsequent nights, Carol said to herself:

These are precious lights.  These galaxies within are not bound by the physical, rather they are part of the eternal that works with the physical.

Whatever the skeptics in our heads or in our worlds might say, what have we got to lose by trying something like this, and applying it to any symptom we wish to heal?

Related posts:
How many of your 12 lights are on?
Loving the 12 lights

Related workshops
The Temple of Shamanic Dream Healing – Mosswood Hollow, Duvall WA July 16-20
Healing through the Imagination – Equilibrium, Chicago IL, September 8-9