Medicine Wheel by Carl Jung, from the Red Book

It’s essential to have a meditation Practice.

I can tell you a few that I’ve tried, and what I like and why.  It is individual, so you will have to find your own way.

My first exposure to meditation was Yoga, at age 13.  But I didn’t know I was doing meditation, I just thought I was learning greater physical control of my body.  This was a huge benefit to an adolescent girl!  In fact, I made speeches at my school about how it was physically beneficial, but did not have a religious element to it!  I now think there is enough in yoga for a lifetime of spiritual development.

Then I found the martial arts, but I didn’t think it was meditation, either.  I thought of it as a way for self defense, and physical prowess.  I liked being able to beat up testosterone fuelled guys, and it gave me a sense of empowerment.  Now that I’ve practiced various forms of marital arts for 30 years (on and off, due to injuries), I think there is enough there for a lifetime of mental discipline and depth of refinement to last a lifetime.

When I first started exploring esoteric subjects, I took up Mindfulness Meditation, as taught by Thich Nhat Hanh.  Ah, I thought!  Meditation!  And it was.  I learned to Witness my thoughts, and watched the thoughts become still and deep.  I also think it enhanced my magick – my ability to shape my own consciousness to effect change in my life.  But I didn’t understand how.  Mindfulness meditation was – a tool.  It refined my personality, but it was subtle.

Then came all the esoteric meditations:  visualization (holding an image in your mind), ceremonies, and rituals, setting of intent and sending of energy to gather what I believed I wanted.  Awesome.  But it’s easy to get deluded and charmed by these – and miss the point.  The point is – if I was so Great, if I am One with the Universe, then why was I casting spells?

Somewhere in there, I experienced Guided meditation.  I hated it.  The guidance was always to visualise things which were not in my nature.  I would see a mountain, the guided meditation would send me to a grassy valley.  I would see a stream, but the guided meditation wanted me to see a hall of doors.  Or a staircase.  Or whatever!

I do still use guided meditations, mostly to induce a relaxed state in preparation for dreaming or Journeying.

Then, I was initiated into Shamanism.  I thought it was meditation at the time, just a different format of the esoteric stuff.  It took about 10 years of practice before I started to feel my way and realized that – the theta state, while it can be achieved through meditation, is a creative state with direct access to the subconscious.  It would take decades of meditation practice to call it up at will – and yet the drum brings it so simply, so easily.

But after my initiation, I let it drop for awhile, thinking it was just another meditation.

I started sitting Zen.  This had value in the silent depths of it.  I did not feel it refining me personally, and there seemed to be a lot of “more Zen than thou” games at the Zen Center.  But I found it valuable to sit for 15-20 minutes at time when I still could.  I had back pain, and it became difficult to sit properly for Zen.

Then I learned kundalini meditations.  At the school I went to, it was guided meditations, but it was gentle, and opening.  They were guided meditations, coupled with yoga practices and writing and creative exercises.  It was like a personal development course, looking at the layers of kundalini and exploring my chakras on different levels.  The founder of the school, Genevieve Paulson, is gone, and my teacher no longer offers retreat teachings (but you can meditate with her “in the cloud”)

So – the next thing to try was TM, Transcendental Meditation.  I had heard about it at the kundalini retreats, and my boyfriend did it – 2 x 20 minutes a day.  There was a “half price special” so I got initiated.  It is a basic mantra meditation.  There is value to mantra meditation – it can take you deep, fast, and separates you from your thoughts more quickly than Zen or Mindfulness Witnessing.  But I started to dissociate, and worried that it was erasing Jan while it was “refining” her.  I didn’t feel any refinement, it was just like a deeper sleep.

If you want to try a mantra, don’t pay $$$$ like I did.  Try So-Ham.  So-ham is the joining of all binaries: In / Out breath, Male / Female, Holding / Giving, Day / Night, Rain / Earth, Wind / Fire.  As you inhale (So) see the Yang, as you exhale, see the Yin.  As breath comes in (Yang), feel it spread to your body as you exhale (Yin).  Ride the So-ham mantra for 20 minutes a day.  It will refine you, it will take you to deep states of consciousness, and it will prepare you for exploring in your Journeys.

There is a danger to mantra meditation though.  While you are repeating the syllables, you are simplifying your brain – and while it can serve you to be simplified, it effectively works as an entrainment procedure which also makes you vulnerable to outside influence – like mind control.  As I was in TM, I was susceptible to all the hogwash that goes with the practice.

After the brainwave flattening and mind control of TM and other rituals of guru practice, I return to shamanic practice.

In shamanism, I fly my own ship.  The information and experiences I find in the shamanic Other Consciousness is rewarding, enriching, comforting, and teaching.  It requires discipline and balance.  Holding on and letting go.  I don’t need to worship a specific deity or guru, I don’t need to adopt authoritarian practices or participate in fear based religion.

In shamanism, I am presented the lessons exactly as I am ready for them.

And in shamanism, I start to see the meditative value of my other practices.  Pipe ceremony and prayer, medicine wheel and protection.  Yoga, where my body becomes guru and guides me to the open spaces Inside.  Karate, which challenges my mind and body to synchronize and develop coherence.  Walking, which enhances mindfulness.  Mindfulness – which enhances my entire life.

Shamanism pointed me back to the practices which are valuable – and meditation is now more integrated into my life.  I still have practices – but they are foundations upon which my meditations are built.

In the beginning, chop wood and carry water.  In the end, chop wood and carry water.  The work is the meditation.