*~* Witchcraft and Wicca Forum *~* EUTM

[SilentPartner]

Greetings. My apologies if posting a new topic for this is inappropriate, I looked and couldn't quite seem to find anything recent in this section for this sort of thing so I just thought I'd start a new one. Anyways~

After reading SpiritTalker's "Getting Started" and the Energy Working tutorial CleverlyDisguised posted, I was finally able to successfully meditate for about 18 minutes, which I am very happy about, but I did have a few questions and concerns I wanted to check about before trying again. Firstly, I tried to just let images and thoughts flow through my head without focusing or applying further thinking to them, which seemed to help a lot, but it also meant that after grounding myself a lot of what was going through my head at the time was left in kind of a haze. Does anyone have any suggestions for techniques that can help me better remember this stuff after the fact?

Secondly, while for the most part I think it went very well, I noticed that I had a somewhat rough time grounding myself at the end, which almost disrupted things altogether right as I was bringing myself back, so to speak. Is there a good way to practice grounding myself to lessen the chances of that happening again?

Finally, and this somewhat ties into the first question, I was curious if there was a reliable way to tell what images were actually meaningful and which were just stray thoughts to be brushed aside. I do somewhat remember a few images and sensations, like a warm, gentle light and the faint outline of what seemed to be an altar, but I just don't really know how I should think about those things, or if I should at all.

Sorry again if posting this here was incorrect, or if I worded things wrongly. Figuring out the right words to assign to these things is proving surprisingly difficult.

[corvidus]

Difficult to word indeed! But not only for you. There’s a concept call Unverified Personal Gnosis (UPG), which basically means it is subjective understanding of the things happening inside your head (either during meditation, ritual or etc). Especially when it happens for the first time, it may take awhile to sort out the information and put it into words.

As to your first question, I keep a general rule that if I don’t have an intent while meditating, any images or otherwise which pop up are just products of the creative intellect. As a beginner, this helped me keep my sanity haha (thankfully, I had a good mentor point that out to me).

It’s only when you meditate with intention should you try to determine meaning. For example, scrying to see a past life, or scrying to see messages from spirits. Because you set the intention, and hold on to the intention during the operation, information will be more organized and more likely to reveal meaning.

To help with memory recall, try being a silent observer to what goes on, but make a list (in your head) of what you think about. You might find that remembering the generality of the thoughts is easier at first, but with practice you’ll get much better recall.

[barker]

Meditating on, surrounding yourself with white light, will get rid of the haze, ground you, and illuminate the objective meanings.

[SpiritTalker]

What's been written by Corvidus & Barker already is everything I'd want to say. Anything I might add is just my spin or phrasing.

Sometimes I don't have a specific intent or focus when I begin a meditation. I just breathe & center into the quiet & say to myself "show me what I need to know" & don't even state about this or that. I let my subconscious tell me.

I know that often the thoughts that come as part of this kind of vague meditation will seem intense & enlightening while within the meditative state; and then in the light of the mundane "normal" state are much less of a flash. Like - uh, OK. It seems insignificant. It's only over time that these tidbits prove out in daily life to have a chain reaction impact in my thought process. The flash of illumination had simply called my attention to a root thought in a chain of mental/emotional associations. Each time this has been a mini lesson in understanding myself, or illuminating false conceptions I've clung to that need to go, need to be cut out because, like a stone in a stream, they've accumulated a bunch of deadwood & rotted leaves. By itself the stone is insignificant but once it's removed then the current flows freely. Metaphorically opening the flow let's the thought process connect to its source channel. This is the individual consciousness flowing in union with the Higher Self.

Centering prayer is another means to the source. It's an intense concentration on one indefinable concept that let's you explore all that the one concept will reveal of itself in the moment. This will evolve over years and never repeats itself. It's one method of getting to know the Divine which resides in everything there is. Desire-to-know is the key. This method is hard work but sometimes you just fall in, go Wow!, & wonder what the heck that was when you return to the mundane. Still, something has been shifted in the mind for the better. The Divine desires to be known & to express thru it's creations.

One way I've found to smooth the re-entry experience is to purposefully recall the place I'm sitting in. Think of the furniture arrangement, the colors. Interrupt the breathing rythym with a gusty inhale & exhale. Mentally tell yourself "I will recall what I can use & i am ending this session. Thank you." Then you can open your eyes.

Something you can do with the retained imagery of soft light & a vague altar is to word associate them in your journal, maybe doodle their picture. What do you associate with such an image? What can the vagueness mean if it was intentional? What does the image of a light on/around an altar make you think of if it were a commercial silently promoting a product? This puts the results of meditation to direct use & doing so favorably reinforces the process. It starts building an interior road to make future access easier. Then make them the focus of the next meditation.

[SilentPartner]

Thanks very much for the advice, you three. Taking into account what you all said, I actually chose to give meditation another go tonight after giving myself the day to recover and get fully grounded once more. While it lasted for less time, only around 10 minutes, I was able to remember more details and images and have a smoother grounding. Its probable the imagery has little actual meaning, esecially given how short things were, but they were still fascinating. The ones that stick out now in particular were the occasional sounds of a woman laughing, the name "Tatiana", and the altar table again, this time somewhat more in focus, enough to notice that a silver cup was resting on it. I took note of all of these details in my book as well, mostly for the sake of future reference if needed.

My apologies for rambling. I'm not sure if I made a mistake or messed something up by attempting it again so soon, but I just couldn't resist the chance to apply your advice for improvement. I just wanted to thank you, and say that I think it helped, unless I messed something up without realizing it. Sorry ^^;

[corvidus]

Don’t worry about messing things up with meditation. The whole point is to explore the inner worlds

[SpiritTalker]

10 min daily is a pretty good amount of time - not too long, not too short.

[SilentPartner]

Apologies for continuing to add to this, I believe this will be my final update in this thread before I simply continue on my own. This particular session was also close to 10 minutes, but was a lot more intense, which I suppose is logical since I made an aspect of the previous session (the name “Tatiana”) the focus of it, instead of letting my mind aimlessly wander. I also used a somewhat different visualization for deep breathing as I prepared mysel both at the beginning and the end, being bathed in pale moonlight instead of just general white light.

Sorry, rambling, anyways~

The main thing I noticed was that, while most of it is a haze, two details in particular are much more vivid. The first is that the feminine laughter and giggling from previously was present once more, and seems to be indelibly associated with that name in my head, like there’s a riddle with it I’m not getting and someone is having a laugh at me about it. The other is that, as I was grounding myself, shortly before I fully brought myself back to earth and awakened, there was a brief, vivid image of a female-seeming person looming over me, giving me a gentle look. It was short, like a camera flash, but incredibly vivid, to the point that it was almost surprising when my eyes opened and she wasn’t there in the room with me. Are those kinds of things normal when you start with a specific “focus” when meditating?

[SpiritTalker]

Everyone has a different "normal" because we each perceive & process inner info at a different pace. You seem to be doing fine. Keep notes (I know you do) because much can become more clear over time ... Weeks, months, years even. Layers of meaning can be revealed as we adapt to each learning experience. Meditation is a process; a journey & not a destination, as the saying goes.

Don't worry about asking Qs. They keep the EUTM board alive & share info to those with similar interests which is a service our Qs provide.

Images, clarity, etc. Just before returning ... Yea, that's fairly common. It's like the 1/2 awake 1/2 asleep consciousness level.