These emerged from meditations with shamanic drumming. I have a spiritual director who encouraged me to try such “journeying.” In each one, I received an animal guide, most often in the form of a shaggy black mother bear. Each often ended with my peering inside a shell to witness her pearl, often symbolic of wisdom or one’s inner truth. The pearl is also a result of an initial wound or irritant that calcifies into a thing of luminous beauty. Of course, these meditations happened in my imagination (talking animals!?!) but they are no less true…