Saturday, February 20, 2010

Infinity

I have to admit that while the topic for this post has been clear for a while, I am at a loss on how to approach it. How do you try to faciliate the mystical experience of oneness with the universe? It is a rare experience for me, but one that has been very precious.
I know no clever pathworking or exercise, or anything, to promote oneness with everything. You see, we all are already one with the universe, a part of infinity. We just have to become aware of it.

So this week's practise: Make sure you are not goint to be disturbed for about half an hour. Choose a position that is comfortable for you, either sitting or lying on your back. Relax, and let go of everything. Let go of stress, anxiety, work, people, everything. Let go of your thoughts. Just relax. Be open. Be receptive. Just be.

If you are truly able to let go of your self-consciousness, it can be difficult to judge time. Therefore, make sure beforehand that something will tell you that it is time to get back, either y having someone there who can call you, or by setting a clock.

So that's it – probably the most simple exercise in description, but a lot more difficult to do.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Getting in Touch with the Gods

All to often, we have an inspiring meeting with the Divine, with the Gods, in ritual, on a special day, and get smashed out of it during the grey, dull days of everyday work that follow. One antidote to that is to spend a short, special moment every day where we can meet with our Gods. That can be quite informal and spontaneous, but what I propose today is to create a five-minute ritual that is easy to perform every day. It should be a ritual that is easy to perform and that is fitting for you and your Gods. In the following paragraphs, I will give you an idea for potential elements for such a ritual.

- Preparation: Do something to prepare yourself for the fact that you are entering into a sacred moment. One possibility would be to wash your hands and face, symbolically washing away your daily stress. Another possibility would be to change into special clothes, remove your shoes or wear a special item like a scarf or a piece of jewellery. Just do not make it too complex.
In addition to all the above: take some deep, calm breaths and let your mind come to rest.
- Offering: Give an offering to your Gods. The nature of that offering can very greatly, from libations to incense to food to dancing for them, or singing, or a lot of other things. It will also depend, of course, on the nature of the Gods the offering is meant for, so it would be a good idea to do some research.
- Sing a chant, or a song that helps you to feel a connection to the deities. There are a number of well-known chants, and you can find a lot of them on the net, for example here or here. Of course, you can also write your own. Whatever you choose, sing it yourself, do not just play it back.
- Think up a ritual gesture of blessing. An elaborate example of what I mean is the fivefold kiss. Create something simple that can be used as a self-blessing.
- Talk to your Gods. Speak of the things you want to speak about, but listen for their comments and answers.
- Meditate on a symbol of your Gods. That can be either a stature or picture of the God, or a symbol, such as a cat for Bastet, or lightning for Zeus.
- Calm yourself and listen. After some deep breaths, just calm your mind and let your thoughts go. Pay them no attention. Just... listen.
- Completion: A final part is necessary to close the ritual. One possibility is to stand up an thank the Gods for their presence. What works best for me is if there is a connection to the opening part of the ritual, so that the two parts frame the whole ritual. So if you started by putting on special clothing, end by removing it. If you started with lighting a candle, snuff it now.

Do not make your ritual overly complex, or include too many elements. Instead, keep it short and simple. You want to be able to do it every day.

Now, here is an example of what I often do:
For preparation, I sit down cross-legged in front of my altar and calm my mind by taking some deep breaths. Then, I light a short stick of incense. I give the incense to the Gods as an offering, drawing a spiral with it and speaking: “Lord and Lady, thanks for your presence. I offer this incense for your pleasure.” before placing it in a bowl of sand.
The next part varies. Most of the time, I do a short meditation, either on a symbol, or just trying to be calm and listen, or a chant. For closure, I stand up and use a gesture Dianne Sylvan described in (I think) “The Circle Within”: tracing a pentagram over yourself, linking the edges to the elements and the Gods.

The possibilities for such a ritual are huge. Experiment with it, and try different ideas, until you find something that works for you.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Meeting your Selves

This is the last exercise about getting into contact with the divine self, and it is about meeting our different selves.
We all have different aspects in our personality. Perhaps I should say that I know I have them, and so I presume you also have them. Some of them are very dominant, and can be seen in everyday life. Others may be hidden and known only to ourself, or even suppressed and unknown to us. They are not different persons, just different parts of us. There can be an inner child, a mother, a business person, an artist, a scientist, a party person, a thousand different possibilities, and they might be completely different for everyone.
The idea of this exercise is to have a look at what aspects make up our personality, and what those aspects have to say to us. Take enough time for this exercise, as it can be pretty intense. It is a good idea to provide a signal for you to come back, so use an alarm clock or some music that starts after about 15 minutes or something similar. When you hear the signal, you know that it is time to return.


Create a comfortable atmosphere and take some moments to relax. Take some deep breaths and let go of your everyday stress, anxiety and anger. Go to your safe place. Take a few moments to relax, here, where you are completely safe.
Then, have a look around: There is a door somewhere that you may not have seen before. A picture of you is pinned to it. You walk over, and as you do so, you can see that the picture changes, showing you with different faces, in different moods and situations. This is a door leading deep into yourself.
Open the door. There is a corridor beyond. How it looks like is probably different for everyone. Mine is twisted, a maze of smaller corridors and doors intersecting with the main corridor. Just stay on the main corridor and walk along. Before long, it will lead into a room, or a flight of rooms. Here, you meet the different aspects of yourself, your selves. Look around. There is probably a child somewhere, perhaps playing happily, perhaps sitting in a corner, alone and frightened. There is probably a self that represents your work persona or an aspect of that. There might be a lover, a religious aspect, a writer, a dreamer, … The possibilities are endless. Try to avoid preconceived notions. Be open towards the parts of you that want to meet you. Walk around the room, greet your selves, and talk to them. What message do they have? How do they feel? Do they ask you for something?
Take you time, and interact with some of your selves – you do not have to talk to all of them. Listen to what they have to say to you.
Then, thank them for their message and say goodbye. Leave through the corridor that has brought you here, and go back through the door into your safe place. From there, return to your body. Count from ten to one. You are back.

Write down the messages you got, everything you remember. Then, after you have written everything down, take your time to think about everything. The Gods have seen fit to equip us with a mind of our own, so use yours and think about the messages and requests. Do not follow such a message blindly. However, be careful that you are not just rationalizing away uncomfortable truths.