Meditation Log - Week 16

Week 16

Nature: I’ve not had much chance, as Lady Beth’s funerals were this week, but I’ve tried to take notice of the trees, the leaves, the changes, the differences between here and South Carolina. The pine tree species and maples change the color pallette.  

Meditation:  I’ve been doing this mostly while on the long drives back and forth, letting my mind spin down, somewhat like highway hypnosis while Jennifer sleeps.

Two Powers: When I’ve needed to feel centered during the ceremonies, I’ve sunk my roots and stretched my branches, and it’s helped.

Meditation Log - Week 15

Week 15

Nature: I did this for a while before the Samhain ritual, while getting ready to smudge the site. I was very disturbed because of Lady Beth’s death, but I cherished spending time at the farm, especially watching the clouds rush past across the sky as the front moved in.

Meditation: Been continuing the walk-the-dogs devotions, looking to the sky, and it helps bring me back to center in those moments.  

Two Powers: I’ve been using this more and more as my go-to ground and center type practice. Before it was just roots, but now it’s roots and branches in the wind.

Meditation Log - Week 14

Week 14

Nature:  It really felt like fall, with that leafy skittery sound across parking lots, the rains and leaves falling, smell of woodsmoke in the air. The bunnies are hiding, but the deer are realllly out and about!

Meditation: It’s been early mornings and late evenings, but in between the classes I’m teaching, I’ve been catching spare moments of silence. I need to have more dedicated longer periods of time, though.

Two Powers: I’ve been scared to do this while working at a hospital, but I’ve tried once outside, and it’s been fine. Maybe I’m just scared, given the old baggage.

Meditation Log - Week 13

Week 13

Nature: I’ve just stared in absolute awe as the leaves have been changing, the cold weater finally arrived.  There’s a scent to the air, the faintest hint of fireplaces and woodsmoke, and of the papery scent of leaves as they skitter by.  This morning, I saw a deer bound across the higway on my way into work, even this far into the city, and it brought home for me that there is no place that is not wild.

Meditation: I’ve been keeping up with the daily devotions in the morning and evening, and they’ve helped re-center me a lot.  I’m going to work more on the longer meditations as a friend is having good results with it.

Two Powers: first time I go out in the daylight, I’ve been pulling from my roots and from the sky, and concentrating - a shorthand of it, but useful

Meditation Log - Week 12

Week 12

Nature: The days are finally a bit cooler, but the trees haven’t changed yet. It’s incredibly hard to sit still and not do stuff, but the cooler air has been wonderful. I spotted a bunny in the shadows, and am hopeful it is an omen for fertility and new growth in my job hunt. It looks like summer, until the wind cuts in, and you realize it’s fall, and fall is a season you must prepare for.

Meditation: I’ve been having a hard time slowing down due to the crazy schedule, but I’ve been making a point to do a daily devotion like practice when I take the dogs out in the morning and evening, feeling my Lady in the sky and earth.

Two Powers: This time, combining the earthy waters with the hot sun brought to mind images of swamp and wetland, of the bounty of life in such profusion it becomes wildness and almost foreign

Meditation Log - Week 11

Week 11

Nature: And now that I’m back home, I went outside into the field.  Today was the first really Fall day.  The rest have been wishful thinking, but this was clear, windy, and decidedly chilly.  Beautiful.  I waited until the kids were clear of the field, and went out near sunset. I walked my chiweenie around the perimeter of the apartment complex, and let my mind spin down and do nothing more than contemplate the beauty of the sunset and the trees changing.

Meditation: I did a did a guided meditation about gaining help and a little temple in the woods.  I then wrote one and recorded it and I’m hoping Steph and Mara like it.  It was really… zone-y? … to write and record and feel it at once.

Two Powers:  I did this from memory in the first part of the personal ADF COR ritual I did asking for help finding a job.  It’s started to feel more comfortable and natural.  I have an image of light reflecting on water that’s helping with the visualization.

Week 11 - Two Powers Meditation

Work through the Two Powers meditation. Work on getting the visualization down well, but don't be discouraged if you have a hard time with the visuals.

Did at Mara’s meditation talk, and will continue to do more.  

I’ve been trying it off and on, and am caught in the light rippling on water image and a thrummy deep chord where the two energies mix.  Will keep working on it.

Meditation Log - Week 10

Week 10

Nature:  At a different place again, this time at the Family’s farm in Rocky Mount.  They just moved in a few months ago, and have 37 acres. After ritual, we had dinner by the fire and roasted marshmallows.  I spent a couple of hours occasionally answering a question, but mostly feeling the night air, looking up at the clouds and stars, feeling the cool grass underfoot, considering the feral cats, and staring into the flames.  It was immensely relaxing and centering after ritual and possibly one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time.

Meditation: I did a guided meditation on asking for guidance, and I got back a weaving jumble of images, but I’m very tired.  Baby dragons with skinned knuckles healing.  Healing just started, so be gentle.  Pushing the poison out of a little dragon’s leg, draining it away.  squeezing squeezing the drops, but still not well yet.  Being invited to sit up on the concrete bench under her arm as a little daughter, not kneeling as a servant.  soft warm greens of under the trees with sunlight shining through them, waving and shifting. That if I do weddings, I should do funerals too, because it’s life and death and rebirth.  To do it all, not just one thing.  It doesn’t have to be big, just from the heart.

Two Powers:  Mara did a 101 class on chakras and meditation, and incidental to that, she read over the Two Powers meditation so we could all give it a try.  I enjoyed it, the illumination of cauldrons of water really caught my attention.  I had a great discussion with my wife on the way home about how she views the elements differently.

Benefits

I have noticed a real benefit to meditating, getting more sleep, having friends send energy when I'm feeling rough, etc.

This morning, when the money didn't go in my account, the hotel stay wasn't done right so I had nowhere to sleep, I had no money for food and my account was overdrawn, I was working crazy hours and being shafted, and my cycle is about to start?

I didn't kill anyone.

I actually tossed my stuff in a bag just in case, called the front desk and got them to extend my stay (not my credit card being charged, and they extended it anyway - I must have sounded authoritative), and then wrote a good business-speak letter to the staffing agency providing my services to the end-user-employer.

I sent it to my account rep at the agency and her boss.

The money's getting fixed, the hotel is already fixed, she's groveling appropriately, and she's even going to pay for any bank fees from the overdrawing.

I didn't kill her....or quit what should be a lucrative gig.

Benefits.  I stopped and thought more than I usually have in the past.

Meditation Log - Week 9

Partial entry, will add to this.

Nature: I’m still on the contract job in Richmond, but tonight and tomorrow afternoon I have to myself.  Tonight (9/14/14) I’m sitting in the hotel room with the windows open as the sun sets, listening to the crickets and the wind in the treetops at my level on the 3rd floor.  As the night’s deepened, I notice the bugs find my window screen, the sky changes to an indigo that isn‘t really seen, but felt on the retinas. Tomorrow, I plan to go to a nearby nature preserve in the afternoon, walk for a while, and then come back and sleep as much as I can before the stresses of the last three days on the job. The cool air is a blessing, and the connection to nature is water to my parched soul.

Meditation:  experiences, breath pattern, difficulties? I’ve been doing a few different things towards this: my schedule has lent itself to being up with the dawn, so I’ve resumed an old practice of looking at the dawn sky and thanking her for her light and renewal of hope.

Meditation Log - Week 8

Nature: animals that appear often or plants that strike you as intriguing or odd? I went walking in a local park while in Richmond on a contract job.  Other than agreeing with one older gentleman about how lovely the park is, I walked in silence, picking up pebbles from the shoreline, and taking pictures of feathers, crabs, etc.  Very contemplative.  It was lovely, and helped me find center again after an annoying afternoon on the job.

Meditation:  experiences, breath pattern, difficulties? I put on some Tibetan bell music in the background to help with background noises, and I settled right in.  Ended up having a bit of a problem not nodding off due to short nights, but managed ten minutes this time! Keeping at it.

Meditation Log - Week 7

Nature: 8/31/2014: Sat in the park, not long enough, battery low on my phone, made me twitchy.  Enjoyed the light and the grass and the trees and the breeze.  Wish I could have stayed in it longer.

Meditation: tried to meditate, but too twitchy. Will keep at it.

Week 8 - Meditation and Mental Training

Meditation and Mental Training

 Passive Meditation: Sitting, standing, or lying down, clearing the mind,

and allowing thoughts to slide through.

 Active Meditation: Exercising, running, juggling, doing yoga, working a

cash register, etc., in order to induce a meditative state.

 Daily Devotions: Do a simple ritual each morning or night.

 Daily Prayers: Say a prayer on waking or on falling asleep, or over your

lunch meal.

 Trance Work: Induce a trance, through any variety of methods.

 Mantra Meditation: In which you chant a simple mantra over and over

until you manage to feel that connection.

 Oracle meditation: Pulling a rune, tarot card, or watching the flights of

birds in order to gain some insight into your meditation.

 Two Powers meditation: Explained in week 11, it involves using the basic

Two Powers meditation to connect with the currents of the world.

Write about how your first week of meditation went. A couple of sentences

will work. You might mention the breathing pattern you used, how long you did it,

if anything happened, and any experiences you may have had.

I did a guided meditation to ask my Lady for guidance.  It's a standard one where you are in a glade and the Goddess shows up to talk to you. Slowing my breathing for calm and receptivity, but that was about it.  I got the impression of  “If I don't go with you, how would I go at all”? "Who would carry me forth?"  Very pregnant young goddess, giving birth to me as hers. Autumn deep auburn hair, pale skin, thin hands, very large belly, white plain dress, short sleeved, no nail polish, pure, ivy at neck and in hair, green v's like on the motorcycle's paint job. Overdue pregnant, where the body thins out and the woman is entirely tummy. "Will I go ahead and get born already?"  Motorbike escaping from the flames tearing down the factory, me and her on the back. She provided way out, but my skill to steer. Looks like the question about dedicating to her is pretty clearly answered, and the fears about job stuff is too. She'll go with me, and we'll travel light, but the old is burning and it's time for new starts.  The V is the same as the old car V, seen it below the Cadillac logo, on Chevys and Dodges. Fast, classic, stylish, powerful.