Hey hi

heres my two bits...right off the website as usual...


Meditation
Or things any good Witch should know..

I am sure your asking yourself why on Earth
a Witch would need to know meditation?
Well to answer that first lets talk about
what meditation really is..


Read any book on the subject
and you will get a lot of different answers to that question.
However for our purposes lets put it simply.

Meditation is the art of directing your mind and body
to interact with each other in a calm, controlled manner.

Most important, the mastery of the mind ,
if you master that ,the body will follow suit to a point..
( more on that later )

In this day and age of early death by stress related illnesses,
this art is seeing the largest resurgence in known history.

But other than for her own peace of mind ,
why does a Witch need to know it ?

Well if you read the page , this page is linked to ,
this could be self apparent.

A good practicing Witch requires
a great deal of mind control
and knowledge of the self to be good at the Craft.

For the simple reason one cannot
handle the amount of sheer raw force
that a Witch is able to summon with a mind in turmoil.

To Ground and Center as its commonly said means ,
among other things, to center the mind and body as one.

The thoughts are focused, the Chakras of the body
are aligned and in harmony.

One is then ready to handle the power vortex summoned
and send it out with a clear Will.

My page on Chakra meditation
for those interested


Ok that's all well and good...... but how to go about this?
Find a Guru and study at his/her feet
for the next twenty years?
Well ya could , but I don't think most of us
have the time for that.

So how to handle the matter in a more modern day fashion?
By very simple means really, using something we all do anyway, worry.

What is worry?

The act of intently concentrating on something,
something upsetting...
but in a very, very focused manner..
Often to the exclusion of all else.

Well this is just what you do when you meditate,
but your thoughts are not thoughts but the lack of them..

To clear the mind with the same intensity that you use
when you are worrying yourself to a frazzle over something.

You clear the mind of the clutter and true, clear thoughts will emerge that
have always been there, but the mind is too busy to hear them..

But how does one empty of common thought
something as busy as the human mind?


Every novice mediator runs into this wall
of the stubborn minds refusal to stop thinking.
And this is the point, when they cant make it stop,
that most people give up.

And the fact they are trying to "make" it stop is the very reason it does not.
Let me say that again, by trying to stop random thoughts from entering
your head .. trying to "make" them go away is the very reason they hang
around and you cant seem to concentrate.

The very attention you pay to these random thoughts
that pop up makes certain that they will be first and foremost in the mind.
Nature hates a vacuum and will find ways to fill it.

So to meditate one must give
the ever present mind something else to do
as it CANNOT do nothing.
Let me say it again,
it CANNOT do nothing
It's an impossibility.

Why clear the mind of everyday thoughts and ideas?
Because one thought leads to another
and yet another etc. etc. This is analyzing...

This is how the mind works, period.
However this negates the benefit you might get. Which is clear thoughts, of
things of true meaning. Or just the healing bliss of the silence within

There is no time in your life
that it is not engaged in such analytic action
( short of being shut down due to drugs, damage or death )

For a very good book on how the mind works
( not to mention the best self help book ever written,
I have lived my life by its concepts...its that good )
see this site.
Psycho Cybernetics
There is no other I could recommend
for hacking into your own head and getting rid
of a lot of self limiting notions. And its cheap,
only 10 bucks at last look and worth every dime.

So what to give the ever hungry for input item
residing in your skull?

Something simple, something that evokes nothing
but your practice of meditation.

For me its a repetitive sound,
for some its focusing on the act of breathing...
for others its a color, but always something that does not
create the cascade of one thought
leads to another and another.

You will notice I didn't mention anything you have to see..
.there is good reason for this, the eyes are just as hungry for input as the
mind. If open they will dart about looking for something else to focus on
rather than a rock, a spot of color or whatever thing to hand..

This can be done and it works well
but for a novice its not recommended
..its very hard to command the eyes
not to look at anything else,
which I am sure you know if you have ever tried
to focus on a non moving object..
your eyes wander off after a few moments.

Often something very complex ,
but without meaning , is used like this.

Which gives the busy eye something to focus on
that has no meaning other than to give it something
to wander its gaze around on.

This is very individual but it must be something
upon which you can focus all your mind.

Now what to do with the random everyday thoughts
that pop up anyway?

Answer, nothing. Yes, you heard right, nothing at all.
.pay them no heed..... . don't try to do anything with them.



Like a puppy at your feet begging for attention, if you give it none it will
get up and walk away. The random thoughts will do the same if you pay
them no mind as they come up and they will get lost just as easy
if you don't focus the mind on them.


Now does this come easy?

In a word, NO. Meditation takes practice and time to learn,
how much depends on you. And as you might have guessed
the thing to learn is how to ignore
the puppy at your mental feet
demanding that you pay attention to it.

Right along with the stimulus of the body..

That's the second hurdle...
getting the body to stop demanding your attention too..
once you have some mind control
the next thing that interrupts you is the body.

You will find yourself with the sudden need to scratch something, or a leg
or hand goes to sleep, or the feel of the breeze on the hairs of your arm
suddenly becomes a real bother. The body, like the mind is surrounded at all
times by input and is always reacting to its environment,
inside and out.

The human animal is geared to reacting to stimuli..period.



Ever hear of an sensory deprivation tank? All feeling is shut off, the body
has no point of reference, the eyes nothing to see, the ears nothing to hear.

And to a person, anyone who does this trip
reports delusions of the mind.

Sounds where there are none, ditto sight etc. etc.
Again the vacuum effect where nature
will fill the void with something.

And the answer is the same as for the very hungry mind.

Pay it no mind.. seat yourself in a comfortable, easy to maintain position,
but not lying down, you will go to sleep and you don't want that. And other
than pain, ignore the body's demand that you change something.

Sounds simple right? Not really.
Even in sleep we move all the time.

This takes practice and finding a position
that works for you.
For me its in my easy chair
in a semi reclined position with my feet up..
Not laid back as that would invoke sleep..
but for each person this is different.

You have to work with it till
you find that posture that best suits you.

An excellent place to get more no nonsense information on this subject was
handed me by the ULC ( Universal Life Church of which I am an ordained
minister see home page for more info on the ULC )

www.osho.com/

So you see its not just a matter of plop yourself down into a lotus position
and chant mantras, although this tried and true method works very
well...there are as many ways to meditate as there are people,
as everybody approaches the matter in a different way.

For some very nice guided meditations see:
www.spiritonline.com/file...16/16.html


So a mind diverted to something simple
and a relaxed body creates a meditative state,
which is the most calming thing one can do.

One is in control and this control can be summoned up
on demand to use in any situation where such is called for.
.be it rite and ritual..

Or getting your composure back at the check out stand.

The important thing is not to give up on it..
it will happen...with time and practice you can do this..
.and you will live longer and better for it.

And will be able to do rite and ritual
in the most focused fashion imaginable


Thank you for you time..
I hope this missive makes itself useful to you


Starwind

Blessings on your coming
Blessings on your going
Blessings on all your house