Meditation

I find self-induced meditation difficult; my mind does not quiet easily and the experience can be very discouraging and frustrating. Because of this, I have used many of the guided meditation videos on YouTube to help me get into a receptive state.

The meditative state is receptive to affirmations, unintelligible wisdom, and altering perceptions I find it is the best place to work through unconscious issues that are difficult to access any other way. (Shadow work is another post)

After several years of training myself, I am able to practice meditation without the aid of guided meditations.

My practice continues to deepen with yoga practice and I have started to incorporate crystals and essential oils, as well as crafted candles, incense, bath salts, and flying ointments from  SevenSistersRitual to enhance the experience.

I definitely recommend folhlowing whatever path presents itself to you.  Seven Sisters wrote an article for The School of Witchery called Finding the Void–The Art of Meditation and I would recommend reading her article for a “how- to” on meditation for those who are capable of finding the trance-like state of calm on their own.

If you aren’t ready to self-guide Guided meditation is a really useful tool for cultivating a regular meditation ritual and will help you get used to the meditative state so you can do it on your own later.

Because your mind is receptive, the Guided meditation is able to lead you through the process of sorting through your unconscious issues and you select your intention by selecting the video.

The Art Of Reconciliation and Forgiveness

Ho’oponopono with Lilian Eden

The video below is a powerful meditation by Lilian Eden and it relates nicely to my theme for the week: forgiveness.

Ho’oponopono

Ho’oponopono is an ancient Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness. It comes from the belief that illness is caused by a person’s mistakes or errors. Those errors create guilt and anger and if kept a secret the illness continues to grow.

Ho’oponopono is a ritual used to correct, restore and maintain a good relationship with family members, themselves, and with their gods by reconciling the source of the trouble through compassion and forgiveness. Often ceremony would be conducted by a healer or a family elder.

Reconciliation

The restoration of friendly relations; the action of making one view or belief compatible with another.  Reconciliation relates to reuniting, and bringing together, but it is also the harmonizing and of seemingly incompatible beliefs.

The scientific process is very much interested in this harmonizing process: one concept does not make sense in relation to another, how can we reconcile the two?

Unfortunately, Science is not s successful as spirituality at making contradictory ideas compatible because science requires empirical evidence. Belief does not require an intellectual explanation.

Between all things, there is a void, a paradox, an unknown. Reconciliation of self with the other is always an act of belief because there is no tangible proof. That is why meditation can help to reconcile ourselves with invisible emotional and spiritual forces. We enter an intangible plain of existence in our minds, a Void where we can observe ourselves and harmonize our emotions with our intellect (or our conscious and unconscious selves, if you prefer).