Thank you Elle and Bill for my Christmas present (meditation book) which I am working through. The Busy Restaurant Ambient Sounds background is from City Ambiance on YouTube. And, the chips and salsa shot was from my visit in McCalla, AL.
I wish everyone nourishment and blessings – of body, soul and spirit!
I wish you a few quiet moments…
We could see it as more time spent with home or family. It’s good food cooked at home, time for board and card games, or catching up on some family movies.
We could notice. How often do we really stop and listen and see.
We’re noticing the tension in our world and especially, we see those of us who are out in the thick of it, day in and day out. There are gloves and masks and hand sanitizer along with, “keep your distance.” They screen me entering the hospitals and rest homes. And, I’m glad for the precautions taken. It’s a different world though isn’t it?
What do we do, finding that we have extra time on our hands, while also finding that today is a very different day than even a few days ago… I wish that the reasons the world has slowed down were different ones. And, I wish that the world slowed down more often for better ones. Why does it take critical times for us to slow our pace?
With that in mind, here is a meditation to sooth the body, mind, and spirit. As we send our healing light out into the world, may our souls also find peace and rest.
Background soundtrack is from Insight Timer by Owen Jenkins, Nature Sounds: Flowing Stream
Cover and Video Photo Credit: 12019@Pixabay
At times, as I’ve aimed the camera, I think I know what I’ve captured… then looking later, I know I didn’t truly see at all. Not then.
Tidal force is what causes high and low tides. It is the side closest to the moon that pushes the inflows and draws the outflows with the moon’s gravitational pull. Just as, with each planet, there is an energetic effect. I have always been interested in how this affects us as people. More, I wondered if there were mantras for the planets 🪐 which help us navigate the energetic currents that tug at our own lives.
Mercury has been the talk of late, being in retrograde (appearing to move backwards). I find that working in Mercury’s energy (which has been associated with communications of all kinds) with my voice and words, has been interesting to me. It is intentional thought, throat chakra in action, words and sound – all combined – focused towards those very things: Mercury and communications. The idea is, that these types of mantras help to sooth or smooth-out the natural energies that are at play in our lives. It is helpful to know your birth chart if you’d like to pin-point a specific issue along with its planetary associations.
You can chant with mala beads 108 times. Or perhaps, set aside a certain amount of time and make it a part of your meditation practice.
Om Budhaya Namaha
Om Bood-hah-yah Nahm-ah-ha
In his book, “Mantra, Sacred Words of Power”, Thomas Ashley-Farrand says, “Attention is energy. Intention qualifies attention.”
Whether you pray, dance, sing, drum, or chant mantras… what kind of attention is your intention qualifying?
The words “meditation” and “medication” sound almost identical. If you switch out the c for a t they’re the same word. Meditation comes from the Latin root, meditatus, which means to think, pay attention to, or contemplate. It is similar to the Latin root (medicina) for Medicine meaning “art of healing.”
“Not only does it change the way our brain works, it actually is almost like going to the gym – you’re actually building new connections and we can see on a brain scan structural changes after just eight weeks of meditation, and so you see an increase in density in a part of the brain that actually is associated with happiness, that’s associated with being able to make better decisions in our lives... and it also shrinks the part of our brain responsible for the stress response.”
-Jamie Zimmerman
Starting your Meditation Practice
Some things to keep in mind as you begin your own meditation practice are:
Determine your why
Start with baby steps (5-10 minutes a day is better than an hour, once a week)
Choose what kind of meditation style resonates with you (Guided, silent, focusing on your breath, taking a journey with images and music)
Make the Commitment
Join a group or start your own
“I think when we really quiet our minds we start to hear our hearts.”
-Jamie Zimmerman
“The longest journey you will ever take is the 18 inches from your head to your heart.”
—Andrew Bennett
Photo by Simon Rae
Working in meditation today, I was reminded that sometimes healing is uncomfortable. When we are in the midst of the process of healing, we may feel disempowered. Rather than feeling powerful, we only feel and see the wounds. However, this is the process – and to step into healing, we must first spend time tending the wounds.
I don’t normally refer to religious texts. However, two passages (3 actually) came up during this session.
The Fisher King is also associated with The Wounded King, The Hanged Man and The King of Cups.
That the Fisher King (from The Grail Legend) has taken to fishing while he is waiting for help and healing seems symbolic. Fishing is an activity that requires not only patience, but is dependent upon the right fish, at the right time, taking the bait… or in other words, the right element, person, or tool for the healing he seeks.
I suppose that the Fisher King is associated with the “Fisher of Men” because both of these stories were about seeking what was lost. One King was seeking healing for his body, soul, and kingdom. The other King, “The Fisher of Men,” was seeking those that were lost, to save, and bring into his kingdom.
A Dark Night of the Soul?
Before healing – is the process.
Before power, is weakness.
Healing can come in unexpected ways.
I love working with Bibliomancy. I take a book (any book I feel drawn to), pose a question, and then read the first thing I see.
Today’s meditation session felt like a “Lord of the Rings” moment where the dialog goes, “…but something happened then the Ring did not intend.”
Now, I am not a religious person (spiritual, yes), so what happened next, I did not expect. The first thing I saw as I opened the book after working with the messages of The Fisher King, was:
3. Seek and you will find.
What are you seeking today?
Kingfisher Photo by Boris Smokrovic
I’m thankful that this is all we saw of Dorian here. For those who saw so much more of her: we pray the aid and help needed be close at hand.
I hear the echoes of our voices along the swampy path as I retrace old footprints. The happy dogs are roaming again. The heron stands still for long, long moments; patience turns slowly on its own axis of time. Nothing seems to move fast here. Dragonflies, the size of birds, drift, rather than dart.
Treasures gathered, I step back through the moss-covered portal once again and return to this present time. Yet, I carry these echoes within me always.
*****
Light a candle and sit quietly before it. Focusing on the blue part of the flame, meditate on something that you’ve lost but still carry within your soul. Perhaps it is a person who has passed on, a dream that didn’t bloom, or a hope that was crushed.
Feel your heart beating with a hundred feelings; with all the feelings that surround this memory.
Choose one detail that you would like to save. It might be represented by a song or picture, a mannerism, or a favorite book or food. Hold this detail in your heart and looking at the bluish flame, meditate on this gift you carry within you toward a new day dawning.
I was looking today for a mudra that could capture, in some way, what the new moon represents:
I came across so many different ones that have been used for new moon meditations. So, as I tried out different mudras, I just picked the one that really stood out and resonated with me energetically.
It is called Adhara Mudra.
Define your intention, as a simple statement.
You can cleanse your hands and activate energy by rubbing them together, and then by shaking them out.
Find a comfortable sitting position, and hold the Adhara mudra in front of your navel, shoulders relaxed.
Focus on your inhale and exhale, feeling your breath rise and fall in your body.
Feel the energy of this mudra through your hands. What sensations do you notice?
Consider the space you’ve created through the palms of your hands. Begin to focus on your intention and how you have created this sacred space within your hands as a gesture of your openness to receive.
Hold this mudra, and your intention in your mind, for 10 minutes. Before releasing your hands, repeat your intention, like a mantra, three times.
Pilgrimage Studio 