Pagan

[foxyshaman]

Hail and Good Morning Fellow Planeteers!!!

JustLovelyJenn I like your question. I like and drumming and singing and journeying and meditating... preferably not all at the same time tho'.

Okay no semi seriously... I use the drum and other instruments to alter my conscious state for trance work or altered states work. I specifically like the drum for trance work as I find it quite easy to enter the state and stay in it. I also like the didjeridoo for trance work as well. The sound of it allows me the opportunity, much like the drum does, to drop into the Theta state and into the liminal state. The rattle is also, for me a very effective tool for trance work, especially if I am doing trance postures. I also use the rattle and drum in healing work. The vibrations help the body to release whatever is stuck on or in the body.

I also enjoy guided meditations, I find that they allow me to access both the language and imagination parts of my brain. I also lead guided meditations which I love to do cause it is just as much a mystery to me where I am taking the room as it is to the room where they are going... <hmmm does that even make sense??>

I have tried various times quiet meditation, but I have to admit that I can be lazy and let me mind wander. So, I use tools to get me to the places I want to go.

You mention in your post that are always in the same place but that things change. In journey work I use the same starting place, I refer to it as my anchor. From there I travel to what is commonly referred to as the three worlds, upper lower and middle. The three worlds is a common motif in shamanic practice. From my anchor then either spirit takes me to a particular place, or I have a specific task which requires me to go to a specific land to travel through.

Anyway... I am about to get wwwaaayyy technical, far more than your question asked for and I am afraid I will show my colors. I would be most interested in hearing others experiences too.

((((Bit))))) just sending you

[Bit]

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

I'm a little distracted right now *sheepish look* and I owe y'all a post for sure! But I also have to go to the post office... maybe I can put that off a couple days.... I need to mail cards overseas and my local store doesn't have that kind of postage stamps; I actually have to brave the post office during December... yikes! Well, lol, actually, it's yikes and stand still, waiting in line for half an hour!

And that reminds me, postage to Canada.... ah google how I love thee! I'll have to post that in the card exchange thread if someone hasn't gotten there first.

So if y'all here in this thread would like to get on our Solstice Card list, PM me your addy! I have cards and I can afford stamps!

[Bit]

Am I bad? Oh yes, I am bad... didn't go to the post office, and didn't make it back in here either. Thanks for leaving the light on for me. :sheepish look:

Meditation techniques... I've tried so many---and failed so many. Sheesh. I am a DISMAL DISMAL failure at "emptying" my mind. I can hold a visualization for a while if it's complicated enough to be interesting, but contemplating nothing? SHEESH before you know it there'll be a laundry list of stuff to do scrolling through my head... or I'll be off on some fantasy or other.

Many years ago I learned what used to be called Silva Mind Control. It is a wholly benign magical system (shhhh! don't tell THEM, they think it's not magic!) that teaches guided meditations and strong visualizations, and everything is based on achieving specific brain wave patterns. Now two caveats--if you click the link, Jack Canfield will shout at you --you might wanna scroll down and turn his volume off--and the Method is Christian-based. I had forgotten about that because it didn't used to emphasize it, and also because I was a Christian when I was first introduced to it, so I wouldn't have noticed.

Anyhow, obligatory disclaimers aside, Silva Mind Control taught me relaxation techniques and creative visualization; I still use the countdown to get down to the Alpha Level and I still walk out of the base level onto a wooded path that leads to one of my sacred spaces. So when I absolutely cannot get calm and centered, I close my eyes, take three deep slow breaths, and start counting from ten to one very slowly with my breathing.

I've just re-read your post again Jenn, and it occurs to me that maybe I'm not answering your real question... is your question how do I meditate? Or is it how do I work? Because they aren't the same for me unless I'm desperate to get grounded. Normally, I get grounded either by pushing my energy down into the earth--and I may do that frequently during the course of any day--or by touching Gryph, because he and I ground each other naturally.

How I work is different. I send energy--in the same sort of way that I push my own energy around, lol--anyhow, I send energy into the Universe or to another person. If someone needs healing, comfort, love, I send it to them using the same "push" feeling or sometimes (if they're farther away) a "throw" feeling. If I'm praying, I send the energy to Goddess or God or to the Universe.

There are lots of other ways to work, but this is the way I work right now.

[JustLovelyJenn]

Originally Posted by foxyshaman

Hail and Good Morning Fellow Planeteers!!!

JustLovelyJenn I like your question. I like and drumming and singing and journeying and meditating... preferably not all at the same time tho'.

Okay no semi seriously... I use the drum and other instruments to alter my conscious state for trance work or altered states work. I specifically like the drum for trance work as I find it quite easy to enter the state and stay in it. I also like the didjeridoo for trance work as well. The sound of it allows me the opportunity, much like the drum does, to drop into the Theta state and into the liminal state. The rattle is also, for me a very effective tool for trance work, especially if I am doing trance postures. I also use the rattle and drum in healing work. The vibrations help the body to release whatever is stuck on or in the body.

I have found drums in particular very useful for certain things as well. In particular in my grounding and centering. Several times a year, as a general practice, and more frequently as needed I try to spend some isolated time getting myself back to center. My favorite way to do this is by what I call trance dancing. With the use of either recorded drum music, or I have also done this IN a river... my feet planted I do a very fluid type of dancing. Moving from high to low, side to side, as if pulling from sky to ground, I am told by those who have seen me do it that it is very beautiful... This practice has become almost second nature to me over the years and is the most effective method I have found to help me keep my focus in life.

I also enjoy guided meditations, I find that they allow me to access both the language and imagination parts of my brain. I also lead guided meditations which I love to do cause it is just as much a mystery to me where I am taking the room as it is to the room where they are going... <hmmm does that even make sense??>

Yes, this makes perfect sense.

I have tried various times quiet meditation, but I have to admit that I can be lazy and let me mind wander. So, I use tools to get me to the places I want to go.

You mention in your post that are always in the same place but that things change. In journey work I use the same starting place, I refer to it as my anchor. From there I travel to what is commonly referred to as the three worlds, upper lower and middle. The three worlds is a common motif in shamanic practice. From my anchor then either spirit takes me to a particular place, or I have a specific task which requires me to go to a specific land to travel through.

That description really clicks with me and the process sounds similar. I have moved on from the beginning point in my dream in many way. Remaining myself and walking, transforming into a hawk and seeing things from a different view, and also from a third person perspective, as if I were watching myself and everything that happened to me without the ability to influence it.

Anyway... I am about to get wwwaaayyy technical, far more than your question asked for and I am afraid I will show my colors. I would be most interested in hearing others experiences too.

((((Bit))))) just sending you

Please never stop just because its going to get technical. While I have been told that what I do is correct, often advanced, and reliably accurate... I lack much of the language and terms for how to talk about it. When I first started my exploration and journey to this path, a mentor gave me the book Teen Witch, by Silver Ravenwolf (I was 18 at the time). She has remained a dear friend, and one of my "mom"s to this day. She often set and discussed things with me as I learned and very early on she made a comment that I knew things I should not. It has always been that way. I often know how to do something, or what to do... but I do not know what it is called, or in some cases, how I am doing it. The second I have learned to figure out... the first, takes guidance or tremendous amounts of research to accomplish.