Answers without, answers within

Do you do your meditation, or do you strive to be in a state of meditation?

When you first try this thing called meditation, it definitely is something you “do”:

find yourself a quiet, peaceful spot image source

• you are advised to do it everyday, better still, twice a day, first thing in the morning and last thing at night
• you struggle to quiet your mind, to calm your thoughts, to figure out what thoughtless awareness is all about
• you get distracted by pins and needles as your legs fall asleep from sitting cross-legged on the floor
• you might even chant some mantras because they say it helps, but how can you release and relax when you’re concentrating on those foreign sounds?

.
Little by little, though, you begin to reach that quiet state, sometimes just for an instant or two, the peace shattered by you exclaiming to yourself “OMG did I just get there?”; sometimes for a period of time so expanded you have no idea how long it was, you just know that                   it.

was.

get your own halo - keep your attention at the top of your head! image source

good.

As you continue, you would then start to be much more aware of the power of your attention.

Keeping your attention at the top of your head, or just an inch or so above your head, helps immensely in establishing and maintaining the connection between the energy within you and the energy without.

Sitting down and “doing” meditation is then something that helps you strengthen this connection, and is best to continue to do this daily.

At the same time, however, by exercising your attention as you go through your day, by keeping your attention on the top of your head as you go about your business… this puts you in a state of meditation throughout the day.

So to answer the question posed by this post’s title: “YES”.  I think we should do meditation regularly, in order to get to be in a constant state of meditation.

What do you think?

In order to get to know the The Goddess Oracle Deck by Amy Sophia Marashinsky and Hrana Janto, this evening I took the time to once again look at every card in the deck; then took a quick look at the introduction section of the accompanying book.  I then decided to go ahead and see who would pop up as I kept something like the following question in my mind as I shuffled the deck:

“Which aspect of the Goddess should I meditate on today?”

The card I drew was Blodeuwedd - betrayal.

It was a little disconcerting, to say the least.  I’m supposed to meditate on betrayal?!  I should think about the source of betrayal, because all betrayal comes from self-betrayal?  Ooof!  I could feel my entire being shy away from all this.  What do you expect, there have been a few nasty betrayal-related incidents in my past, whether in my own personal relationships, or that of my family. (*here*)

image source

Unsure what to think, I continued reading the suggested Ritual for connecting with Blodeuwedd.  The Ritual deals with invoking Blodeuwedd and asking her help to identify the childhood betrayal from which stems the other betrayals one would experience.

Childhood betrayal?

Click!

I should have had that click (*here*) but once again, my mind really shied away and shut down so fast…!  Once again, you ask?  You see, back when I visited a palmist earlier this year, she noted that there was a betrayal I had experienced, probably around the age of 8 or so, definitely before I was 10 years old, that impacted me greatly, so much so that it’s still impacting me presently.  I immediately said I had no idea what that would be, even as I observed my mind go into shutdown mode.  It was only a few days later, coming at the topic obliquely, I realised that something I had blogged about as a pivotal moment in my family’s path had indeed happened before I was 10 years old.  I knew I had blogged about it, but during the session with the palmist, my mind stubbornly told me I was older than 10 so that couldn’t be the incident.

Maybe it wasn’t.  But chances are, it was.  I didn’t call it pivotal for nothing.  Nuff said, tho - if you want to know more, you’ll have to find my other anonymous blog!  :p

Anyways.

So yes, perhaps drawing this card was an indication and reminder that despite what I think, that episode in my past continues to … haunt? … me and needs to be resolved.

I will definitely have to meditate on that!

There’s a Part Two to this… stay tuned!

And for those curious about my choice of image:  according to Welsh traditions, Blodeuwedd was the first owl, cursed to this form by her betrayed husband.