Everything you do begins with your mind power. Finding a balance between body, mind, and Spirit is up to you—it is a choice. Confucius was a Chinese philosopher who believed that goodness and benevolence were fundamental for living a harmonious life. He said that if the individual was balanced, then that balance would expand. He also felt that the health of the world depended on the balance of each and every person living in that world. Wiccans believe this too. One of the old rules for training insisted that you must have “your own house in order” (meaning yourself) before you could attempt to help other people through magickal means or hope to reach the heights in spirituality and the magickal arts. If you were unbalanced, then that disharmony would be transferred to your students, and consequently to the world around you. Wiccans also believe that, as you spiritually progress, your home and work life will improve. You become the center of a chain reaction for good, and therefore negativity will be forced either to transform into something harmonious or leave. The Hindu culture also mixes spiritual ideas of balance and wisdom with the everyday concerns of health and prosperity. The cultures of China and India employ meditation to further one’s spiritual self in a practical world.
We can probably thank Madame Blavatsky for driving Europe and the Americas headlong into Eastern practices. While others of her time were mulling over the Egyptian mysteries tinged with Aramaic studies, Blavatsky and her entourage were pulling practices from Ceylon, India, and Tibet into the parlors of the European and American elite, as well as stoking the creativity of some of the most famous writers and artists of the times. Rich society men and women with nothing better to do than campaign for whatever cause pleased their fancy also looked for the exotic in spirituality—meditation, breathing exercises, and other Eastern practices were just unusual enough to spark their interests. As these society-elite railed against the confines of Christianity, they found new outlets as they pursued the meaning of life. Their behavior affected the creative class—those men and women dedicated to dance, music, painting, theater, and storytelling, who reinforced their desires for material with that striking twist. The New Age information we see today is not so new after all—it’s just (once again) been wrapped up in a different package.
Regardless of how meditation practices landed in Europe and the New World, it hasn’t passed out of favor in over a hundred years (not to mention the thousands of years in India, Tibet, and China) because it works. Ivan Pavlov, a Russian scientist, proved the power of the mind in his studies on conditioning, and gave us the understanding that what we think, we create.65 One way to create positive change in our lives is through the practice of meditation. Meditation and affirmations are a healthy way to condition our minds and create balance and a better way of living. Magickal people have also discovered that using daily meditations can enhance their personal power in all areas of magick and ritual. Scientists have also discovered that the happier we are, the greater access we have to the sixth sense, the intuitive part of our mind that shapes our lives.66 Meditation is an excellent vehicle that can help us to remove stress, focus on our mental and physical behavior to make positive change, and assist us in planning for a brighter future, so the happiness that these practices bring can strength-en our psychic abilities as well.
Basic Meditation Guidelines
When we meditate, we make a conscious decision to sit quietly and relax body and mind. You can meditate for five minutes a day, or half an hour or more. How long you meditate is up to you and should fit your current lifestyle. Meditation is often linked to deep breathing exercises, which help to relieve daily stress. If you learn to meditate on a consistent basis, you can expect your grades, sports activities, and daily life to improve, but like all things hard-won, it takes time for you to visibly see the positive results of meditation. Your motto when learning to meditate should be “Don’t give up.” Here are a few tips to help you during meditation.
• Always try to meditate in a quiet, peaceful place. You can’t focus your mind inward if there is commotion around you. Try to choose a time and place where you will not be interrupted, as breaks in meditation can cause emotional stress because you become irritated at the intrusion.
• Soft, peaceful music and low lighting can help.
• Practice deep breathing exercises with your meditation. Breathe in to the count of ten, and breathe out to the count of ten at least three or more times before beginning a meditation sequence. Follow the grounding and centering instructions on page 238.
• Slowly count down from fifteen to one in your mind after the breathing exercises. This helps to keep the conscious mind busy and signals your body, mind, and spirit that you are preparing to meditate.
This meditation works well for:
• General grounding and centering.
• Removing daily stress.
• Removing sickness from the body.
• Finding answers to important questions.
Find a place where you won’t be disturbed. Sit in a comfortable chair. Close your eyes. Take three deep breaths and relax. Count down slowly from ten to one. Imagine that there is a pinprick of light inside your body, hovering around your naval. Slowly encourage this light to grow, moving into the trunk of your body, into your legs, then into your shoulders, arms, and neck, moving into your feet, and spreading out to the top of your head and the tips of your toes.
Take a deep breath and relax.
Now envision this light sparkling right underneath every inch of your skin. Allow the light to move through the skin and form a dancing white aura around your body, and remember that this light is still coming from the inside of your body. Allow yourself to feel that you are one with the universe. There is no care or worry, no pain or unhappiness. Ask yourself, “What do I need?” and allow a picture to come forward in your mind. It doesn’t matter how stupid or silly the image. Just let one come.
Take another deep breath and relax. Let the light continue to swirl around you. Let go of the image, if you haven’t already. Allow the light to retract inside your body. Count from one to five and open your eyes, telling yourself that you feel refreshed and filled with harmony.
Write down the image you saw. Think about what it may mean to you. If you don’t understand the image, that’s okay. You made a record of it, and perhaps later it may make sense. The mind is funny that way sometimes, and needs a day or two to consciously mull over those gifts from the subconscious.
Meditation and Prayer
Prayer allows us to attune our mind, body, and spirit to that-which-controls-the-universe. Call it God, Goddess, the collective unconscious, Allah, or whatever—it doesn’t matter. What matters is what you believe exists. In reality, all spellcasting, conjuring, and the use of charms and incantations are acts of focused prayer. If we combine meditation techniques with focused prayer, we get quite a wallop for our efforts because we are combining the work within with the work without. The following prayer can be used during any meditation, before spellwork or ritual, or before using your divination tool. If the Wiccan prayer of alchemy doesn’t suit you, you might try writing your own prayer to fulfill your needs. Prayers you write yourself are exceptionally powerful.
Wiccan Prayer of Alchemy
The stillness touches deep inside
in silent darkness Mother sighs.
I reach within with breath and light
and conjure Spirit, warm and bright.
The primal matter, the fire of mind
vibrational waves to particles kind
I am the flask, the Witch who brings
the change desired, that curious ring
of power and magick that others don’t see
and yet I know it lies in me.
From black to red, then white to gold
as above and so below
one to two, and two to three,
the fourth is One.
So shall it be!