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!

Procrastination & Inspiration

Having written the last blog post on inspiration, today I’m plagued with procrastination. I have nearly everything in place ready to send off my book proposal to prospective agents. All I have to do is polish up my first sample chapter. Sounds like a simple task, but I wrote it such a long time ago and over that period my book has morphed into something slightly different that I’m not sure what to keep, what to change and what to bin.

Some of it doesn’t even sound like my writing. Have you ever had that? Where you get so far into the zone and the words are streaming in, and then suddenly you look up and it’s as if someone else has been sitting at your keyboard because you can’t possibly have written the words you see before you. They’re so wise, well informed and coherent! Well, I could do with some of that today, but I’m not sure I’m going to find the space for that to happen.

Distraction seems to be the theme of the day – though I suspect its subconsciously driven procrastination. So far, this morning, I got up late (losing myself an hour of quiet child-free time), then I made the excuse of needing to walk the dogs (we’re dog-sitting for friends this week) and killed another hour. Then the kids needed sorting with their learning (they’re home-educated) and the dogs needed feeding. And then, when I finally sat down at my laptop I had to get up again to get the dogs in because the sheep were being moved in the field next door and the phone rang. By this time the kids had finished their quiet learning time and all hell broke loose… and so it goes on. No space for inspiration today.

Part of me is glad for the distractions, as I don’t have time to tackle that first chapter. The other half of me is chastising myself at not getting up earlier and getting it sorted.

Still, in reality the day is young. Maybe this afternoon will bring peace, solitude and a little inspiration…

Inspiration – where do you find your muse?

I went for a walk yesterday afternoon, chatting to myself as usual, pondering what I could write about for my first blog post. For the first half of my trek I battled with my logical mind trying to find an idea that would be ‘interesting and worthwhile’.

I often walk when I’m stuck for inspiration. And I usually get some at about the same tree along my path. What is it about this tree that starts off the magical process? Is the tree particularly special in that it inspires me? Well, yes I guess it could be. Several trees have been attributed special status in the past for bringing enlightening ideas. Probably the most famous is the Bodhi tree that Buddha was said to have been sitting contemplating under when he was enlightened.

Maybe there are special energies along the track where the tree grows? Equally possible. Again we know from historic records that certain places were considered by our ancestors to have been imbued with a special power. The Pythia in Greece is possibly the best known where, sitting on her three legged stool over a crevice in the ground, the priestess would bring forth inspiration by way of a fume induced trance.

The Native American people know the power of being in nature. They literary go out and sit in the landscape to seek inspiration and guidance when they embark on a Vision Quest. And the Australian aborigines of course have their own walk-about.

But for the cynical of you out there, maybe you could say I had just walked long enough and far enough to empty my chattering monkey mind and in the quiet state that followed I heard my true inner voice. Stories abound of people pushing hard for answer to a problem only to find it comes when they reach a point of exhaustion and decide to walk away. Having stepped away they suddenly find the ideas and answers coming in as if on a ‘stream of consciousness’ and often 'all at once', or 'as a whole'. It's as if they had reached a place in time and space where they became at One and everything flowed. To me that place of inspiration, that point of oneness is always found within us. But sometimes we need an ‘outside’ catalyst to realise that. Something that will help us find that special inner place of oneness where the magic happens. Where we find our muse. Yesterday for me that catalyst was a walk with nature. Where will you find your muse today?