Using the Pentragram for Meditation

Not only can you psychically protect yourself with a pentagram (see blog post, 3rd June), but I also think it can be used as a teaching aid to explain the meditation process, maybe even as a visualisation tool.

Take a look at the pentagram below and you’ll see what I mean:

Starting at the bottom at the ‘earth’ point and going clockwise around the pentagram in a circle we find the meditation progression:

1. Firstly I settle down and relax my body, which is made of matter
   (i.e., Earth)
2. Next I concentrate on my breath (which is the Wind point)
   
3. By concentrating on my breath and where it comes from, I activate the heart chakra (which corresponds to love/compassion/emotions/blood/thymus = the Water point)
4. I then step into the gap/silence/space, or whatever you want to call it, and connect with Spirit/universe/God (the Void or Spirit point)
5. In turn I receive pure energy as knowledge, inspiration and healing from Spirit - often in the form of heat either in my body, up my spine or in my head as in "fire in head"- and I am transformed (Fire)…

… Which in turn is reflected in me/my body (Earth). And so the cycle is complete.

The use of imagery to impart an idea or concept has been employed by various spiritual groups for hundreds of years. Visual cues, such as symbols, mandalas, and other objects such as crosses, have the power of shifting us into a certain mind space in an instant. They are very powerful. If you doubt that just think for a moment about the power of logo's to express an idea or concept. Try it now. Think of a logo. I'm betting your already hearing the advertising jingle, watching the TV ad in your minds eye or running through their product list. Whoops, the one I'm thinking about has just morphed into sick looking, oil covered, seagulls! OK, so perhaps not the most positive one to choose, but you see how it works. Pick a powerful image, attach a concept to it, and bingo, your mind fills in all the gaps. It sets up a method, idea or belief system that can be accessed in an instant.

So, if you’re struggling in your meditation practice, try the pentagram symbol as an aid to the process. If you find that your mind starts to wander, or it starts chattering away as soon as you shut your eyes, visualize the pentagram in your mind’s eye and start to work around the symbol, starting with yourself – Earth.

“Abandon the search for God…
instead, take yourself as the starting place” Monoimos

If you find it hard to visualise, print out a copy of the diagram above and pop it on your lap when you sit down to meditate. You can either look at the image until you feel you want to shut your eyes, or use it as an icon and keep your eyes focused on it as you settle into the meditative state. Eventually, with time you’ll find that your mind will remember what to do – Earth (start with your body), Wind (focus on your breath), Water (engage with your heart chakra), Void/Spirit (move into the silence/gap/communue with Spirit), Fire (be transformed from within).

As I was thinking about this post earlier, I found myself singing the Native American chant (thanks J for reminding me!)...

Earth my body, Water my blood, Air my breath & Fire my Spirit.

…Chants work, too, as a trance, or meditation induction process, but that’s a different blog for another day!

Psychic Protection – The Pentagram

I've been away this last week staying with my mum. She makes me laugh. She asked me if there was anything she could do to help protect herself at night so she could get a good nights sleep. (In her last house, mum suffered several nights of psychic attack and has been sleeping badly ever since. She now sleeps with a crucifix under her pillow).

Anyway, I suggested drawing a pentagram around herself and proceeded to draw one on her bedroom wall to demonstrate how to do it. To which her first comment was “Isn’t that the sign of the devil?” I ask you… she’s either watched too much Charmed or else it’s her Christian upbringing!

I explained that yes, in the past an upside down pentagram has had some dark connotations, but that when it’s the right way up (point at the top) it is not a sign for evil. In fact, it is very far from it. For many it represents the connected-ness of Life. It has symbolic correspondences (earth/wood, water/metal, fire, wind/air, void/spirit) that are not only used by various religious groups, such as Wiccans*, but often by tai chi and other martial artists, in Chinese medicine and acupuncture, and also by space clearers and Feng Shui practitioners. It is also a mathematical geometric shape that is all around us. So hardly bad!

How to draw a pentagram round yourself:

Either standing upright or laying flat on your bed, imagine drawing a pentacle in front of you. Starting at your right hand, ‘draw’ a line in your mind across to your left hand. Then take the line down to your right foot, then back up to your head, down to your left foot and finally back up to your right hand to complete the star.

To draw one behind you simply start with your left hand, draw a line across your back to your right hand, then down to your left foot, up to the back of your head, back down to your right foot and then back up to your left hand.

Having completed both pentagrams, fill them with gold light. If you have trouble visualising, try actually tracing the shape using your index and second finger across the front your body. You’ll find it really helps to set your intention.

(Thanks to my recently qualified Crystal Healing friend, Richard for teaching me this technique. Don’t know why I hadn’t tried it before!)

How does the Pentagram protect?

I have no idea. Perhaps it has to do with energy - bringing in the forces of nature (earth, water, etc.,) - tapping the fundamental power of the universe as it were. Maybe it’s more to do with intention – not just mine, but eons worth of use. I suspect it has a lot to do with the pentagram and all it’s correspondences focusing the mind and reaching the subconscious in an instant. All I know for sure is that it works. I recently tried it out on my husband. When he was having one of his rants I planted a pentagram between us. This resulted in him getting angrier as his 'bad' energy was bounced back to him. Then suddenly he became totally exasperated and eventually walked off saying he couldn’t get through to me! Pretty good protection I’d say! ;)

* Upright the pentagram is often used for banishing. Inverted it can represent the second level of initiation depending on which tradition is followed.