This Vision Quest is not for most and will be extremely challenging for all who seek to embark on its pathway. It is also not the by any means the absolute true path. There are so many paths that will lead you towards your own personal Holy Mountain. This is just one path among many. Most of you will tire before you even finish reading this. That just means you are not ready for this quest and that is cool. For some it will be the keys to unlocking hidden depths and esoteric wisdom.

This is the second download of eleven (or I currently think there will be eleven). And this one is eleven stages to raising your frequency which you keep repeating as you grow and expand. The reading is all animal spirit cards from the Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Oracle by Kim Krans. I love these cards as they are all energy signatures that we inhabit at different points through the various stages in our life as we undertake our Earth Walk. Using these cards along with crystals helps to get under the energies of each stage of the trial, as we reach out of our comfortable daily routines and into the realms of soul expansion.
You don’t need to use crystals or cards to go on this journey though you may wish to use either or both if they resonate with you. The actual length your personal path will be determined by your focus on living life with your truth as part of you. This can be slow in the early stages but as you progress through many cycles of this vision quest you will see that some journeys are long and arduous. Especially when you first get started, the spirit guides will want to witness dedication and determination.
You will assume that you have strived long and hard to achieve your goal but spirit has a timeless patience that is designed to really test your spirit. Amazing but not at all fun when you get weary of the stagnations that seem to grow. Imagine your soul pot as a beaker of energy. When you fill it up spirit will make the cup bigger and you have to fill this larger vessel until that also grows bigger and seems a little emptier. Tricky and frustrating.
1 Clear Quartz

It starts with clear quartz. Clarity and vision. It is essential that you have a sense of purpose when you embark on any vision quest. Purpose but not the route. Just sense where you would like to finish and let the animal spirits guide you following their plan for your growth. If you envisage too many details these will present themselves as hurdles so huge they appear like mountains criss-crossed with divine detours. Just seek purpose, the purpose to expand though understanding.
The first card is Crow. Of course it’s crow, the trickster of the gods and the declarer of ugly truths. Which other animal spirit would be the most suited to embark on a new path with? Crow asks you to hold up a truth of yourself that is uncomfortable. Hold it high and speak its ugliness. Own the awkward truth and accept that the wound, in truth, made you stronger. Understand how it benefitted you even if it felt shameful and dumb until now. Then call to crow and tell crow that you are ready to fly.
The next two steps are a pair that you will vibrate between as you seek to pass to the third step. Both are Earth animal spirits and they are an enormous contrast with each other.

2 Black Kyanite
Kyanite is a most underrated stone that is so amazing that it cannot hold any negativity. Kyanite can also cleanse other crystals that are near it. It comes in blue, black, green and orange (this is the only shade I do not currently have) and each has a different frequency and strength in particular properties. The black variety is the most powerful at releasing blockages and physical tension. It is a tool of psychic surgery and will slide its energy into the flesh to excite blockages and melt them away.
Here we have the Earth Spirit of Horse. Horse wants you to be free and to gallop into the joy of each moment in your life as it unfolds before you. Horse is about the passion of being. Strong and alive. Horse is a noble creature that lives freely and untamed. It is people and society that seeks to tame the spirit of horse. To break your unique being so that life can climb onto your back once it has strapped a saddled to you and fastened reins to control you. And society carries a crop to strike you if you deviate from the rules.
3 Smokey Quartz
This dark and often opaque crystal is a tool for not just grounding yourself but to also dispell fears. Its gift is to assist you in keeping your body attached to the Earth as your spirit attempts to soar higher on your vision quest. It will help you to see the crop that society uses as it tries to beat you back so that you conform. Smokey Quartz gently neutralises negative vibrations and is extremely detoxifying. Essential for the first two steps of this journey.
Rabbit spirit is alert, fast and full of fears. This is the natural reaction to the freedom of horse as it breaks free of confines of its paddock. These are the thoughts that rise up during mindfulness. The fears or worries that we are told to acknowledge and let go of. But if you do not seek to integrate them they are not released at all. Facing fears is how we tame our inner rabbit. Yes we need to tame the rabbit not the horse. The Horse is freedom and the Rabbit is clinging to our spirit and sinking its teeth into us at various points when we stop galloping and stand still. Sit with rabbit and calm Rabbit of all the stresses it carries. Rabbit is meant to be the fearless spirit that volunteered to be cast into the face of the second sun by Eagle to create the moon in the Toltec stories. Rabbit is revered by the Toltec culture. Make your Rabbit fearless and bold.
These first two steps can feel very bruising and isolating as we strive to achieve success but the animal spirits have a reward for those warriors brave enough to keep climbing the path to their Holy Mountain.
4 Merlinite
Merlinite is a powerful shamanic stone that attracts magic and good luck into your life. It excites the psyche to open and allow deeply intuitive messages of knowing to settle inside the mind and soul. It is about passing through portals to cleanse. It it especially good for the skeletal system which will be undergoing enormous shifts as energies and frequencies transform deep within your body. Our skeleton was long believed to be just bones on which our muscles, flesh and skin hung from but recent research reveals that deep within our bones magical transformations take place that are the key to slowing the ageing process. All molecules in the body are renewed so our bodies are much younger than the number of our Earth years. Merlinite will help you to start the process of renewing your body according to your divine blueprint.

Starfish is a water animal spirit and is on hand now to cleanse and still the churned-up emotions of the first two steps. Starfish has a unique ability to regenerate. If it loses am arm it switches on the healing process and plugs into its divine blueprint and creates a perfect and new limb. This is the magical energy of Starfish spirit. The difficulty of this step is to actually believe in the Truth of Starfish. We cannot regrow something that is lost as we are humans though, that’s not how it works. Or so we tell ourselves. That is the point of the animal spirits. We are not separate from the natural world, we are part of it and we are connected to all things. So if you can think outside the closed box of science, then anything is possible. It won’t happen overnight as the 3D world is dense and sticky like molasses but over time we can change our vision of reality and adapt and transform anything. It’s maintaining the trust that is the trick here.
5 Dumortierite
Long cherished as a teaching stone Dumortierite is all about intelligence. This deep blue stone will unlock esoteric emotional wisdom which is the perfect stone for this fifth step. Now that you have been cleansed of so many layers of fears it is time to swim forward into a new flow. This crystal also teaches patience which is a really hard lesson in any spiritual journey. There are all the divine detours that you will be facing and to succeed you need to be able to see the funny side of your Earth Walk and learn to enjoy all the side roads of wisdom. You will need to be emotionally create to solve the riddles that arise and Dumortierite is the perfect companion as it enhances intelligence.

Otter spirit is water but first and foremost otter is playful. Yay it’s time for us to be playful again. Otters live in holts usually dug out between the roots of trees. Their main focus in life is eating and playing. That sounds a lot like childhood. This is the point of Otter spirit. we must all try to seek memory of the carefree emotions that were all we knew as a child. The spirit of being in the moment and enjoying every second of life. Boredom is not allowed. Boredom is however a key stage in childhood to firing up the imagination. As children we just want to get up, eat breakfast and then run outside to play. Rainy days forced us into the house where we would complain of boredom. Otter is adapted to be able to stay warm and dry even when swimming and frolicking in water. We need to find ways to be more playful. We need to have more fun.
The next two steps are another pair of energies that begin with the lighting bolt of fire energy thats chases a new grounding earth energy.

6 Pietersite
The Tempest Stone. This amazingly beautiful stone is warm and rich and flashes with fire. It holds the keys to the transformation you seek. It reminds you that you are in truth, a spiritual being on a human journey. Its gift is to whip up the winds of change within you. Its frequencies will stir up all the energies of Otter and excite them with the inspiration passions of the creativity of fire. A new energy that applies direction forwards and upwards. Pietersite will connect you to spirit guides so that you can begin to channel new pathways and better horizons to seek out as you expand your consciousness.
Cheetah spirit is speed and determination. Cheetah is the spirit of focus and willpower that understands when it is time to strike forwards and race towards the next level. Cheetah sits almost idly basking on a low branch of a tree. Cheetah is not as able to climb as Leopard does and so Cheetah sits and tries to remember what its greatest gift is. Thinking is fire energy and creativity and then Cheetah remembers that it is fast. Inspiration hits Cheetah. As the winds of change stir across the savannah caused by the Tempest Stone Cheetah waits until the storm passes and then in a flash it chases the storm so it can run with it eventually racing inside the storm. There inside this tempest is the eye of the storm and the magic portal in which to transform and be reborn, as Mouse spirit.
7 Tangerine Quartz
This juicy orange quartz is perfect for the seat of the emotions in the Sacral chakra. Here the energies are about playful curiosity and a connection to our inner child. This inner child is not the innocence of childhood but the energy of childhood with wisdom. This is a much deeper and mature frequency that arouses all kinds of passions within, both creative and sexual. This beautifully healing crystal offers self-acceptance and understanding needed to continue the journey forward.
Mouse spirit is earth energy and scampers forwards fearlessly even though it feels so tiny in the energy of the new cosmic understanding it has achieved. Above Mouse coloured stars twinkle and glow in a darkened sky and yet Mouse is fuelled-up to rush onwards joyfully. I must admit that this is the first time that mouse has felt so perfectly beautiful in its skin. This is often a card of meekness and timidity but here it is all about realises how small we are in the scheme and scale of the Cosmos. Mouse however is happy and ready to brave the journey forwards as it rushes ever closer to its goal and rebirth back into the world.
The next three steps are one and you need to think of them as water and air. Spiritual emotions that are the key to returning to life.

8 Blue Kyanite
This crystal has always been my go-to companion stone for over three decades. There are folk all over the world who will remember how I never own a piece though for very long as I give all my pieces away to friends and pupils. I remember many truly beautiful pieces that have been so powerful and precious to me but also how I have let all of them go to assist others. My current piece was gifted to my through a long chain of owners in Romania and I have tried to promise that I will not let go of this piece ever.
This is the so-called Stone of Kings as it imparts the gift of speech to the possessor. Not that I need much assistance on that front. It is throat chakra and truth awakening. Voicing our inner truths and clarity it also calms the throat where any discomfort arises through blockages. I often wear a pendant piece around my neck that I took with me to Stonehenge last winter solstice.
Frog spirit is water energy and is about deep deep cleansing of the soul. You were born of the language of emotions and just like a tadpole you have been transformed into a frog. But the frog as folk tales tell us has another trick yet, up its sleeve. To become a handsome Prince (or Princess). You have been existing too long on the land and it’s time to dive back into the waters of life and begin the final transformation. In the fairy stories it is a kiss that seals the deal but on the spirit path it is emotions. Yes the tales were about true love of another but this is all about true love of the self. It’s time to fix up your heart chakras so that they both beat as one. They need to kiss each other to make yours fully whole.
9 Pacific Opal
This aquamarine opal is like ocean frozen in time. It is here to help you to solidify your emotions and draw them into the two heart chakras to stabilise yourself. This is a deep healing that will fuse together everything you have just learnt of your current Earth Walk cycle. Pacific Opal strengthens desires and sexuality making us emotional and in love with life as it enhances optimism and zest. With its high water content, opal assists shifting emotions through self-awareness.
Hummingbird spirit is all about the heart chakra as for its size it has the largest heart of any creature. It needs such a huge heart to hover and fly backwards seemingly defying physics. This card faces frog as it awaits the magical baton of a single new heart energy to complete its transformation. This new heart chakra frequency is the aquamarine of the Paradise Ray that was used by Gaia to create all life. This is bliss. This is the energy that drinks in only nectar. Can you pull your green nature loving lower heart of Mother Earth together with the pink higher heart of loving others unconditionally? This is a great ask and a tough task.
10 Green Kyanite
Green Kyanite resonates and amplifies high-frequency energies, making it perfect for tuning the soul, mind and body into higher frequencies. It is an incredibly powerful stone and even the tiniest fragment will create profound changes. The small tile I have is known as the Aqua Eye as when it is placed over the 3rd eye it feels as though it sinks into the head, forever. It possesses a calming, tranquil energy that opens your entirety to deep meditative practises.
Butterfly spirit is the energy of total transformation. This is the final step before you return to the outer world renewed. This is the promise of a new and truly wonderful frequency of rebirth. Where will your butterfly lead you? What will you become as you near the end of this spiritual pathway?For me I have been guided to move from Crow to Wolf.
Wolf

Wolf is a pack leader and guardian. This She-Wolf protects her tribe with savage grace and determination. Her heart is true and whole and she sits like a divine matriarch asking you if you dare to approach? I adore this card but if I’m honest I’m not sure I’m up to this job just yet. I have enough trouble watching over myself. But this is my current goal and I shall try to meld my heart into a single force of love.

What do you seek? Why are you here? What are you willing to sacrifice to walk alongside me?
I am still asking myself these questions and wondering if I can find the answers. Thanks for reading. Keep learning and keep growing.
Wassail Russell