How to Become a Witch, Amber K. [new books to read .txt] 📗

out, and try to expel the very last dregs of old air from the bottom of your lungs. Do ten complete breaths, and focus only on your breathing. With each exhalation, allow your whole body to relax more. You will feel calm and relaxed.

Earth and Sky Breath: Breathe slowly and regularly, with your inhalation the same length as your exhalation. Now visualize a beautiful place on the earth: mountains, sea, or forest, whatever you choose. Breathe in the beauty and strength, and at the same time allow love for the earth to fill you. Do this several times. Then, as you breathe out, send your love for Mother Earth into her heart. Then feel her love returning to you, enfolding you, and inhale it. Breathe more love back to her. Do this several times.

Next, visualize the starry heavens or the brilliant sun in a blue sky if you prefer. Breathe in the beauty and power, and allow love for the heavens to fill you. Do this several times. Then, as you breathe out, send your love for the sky into Father Sun. Then feel his love returning to you, filling you, and inhale it. Breathe more love back to him. Do this several times. You may feel connected, loved, and even exalted.

You can read books about breathing techniques and experiment with different types until you have a collection of favorites that are especially powerful and effective. Continue using them in your spiritual practice and whenever you need them during the day.

Meditation

Still Moments

When most people think of meditation, they imagine sitting quietly and releasing all thoughts, letting the mind be still and empty. That’s a fine practice, but there are many other styles of meditation to choose from.

Meditation is a mental discipline used to get beyond the “thinking” mind into a deeper state of relaxation or awareness. Different meditative disciplines emphasize different goals—from achieving a higher state of consciousness to greater focus, creativity, or self-awareness to simple relaxation and serenity.

Meditation is also a good way to connect and harmonize with Deity. Many Witches have a statue or picture of their favorite god or goddess on their altar, and spend a few quiet moments daily just contemplating it. By the way, this is not “worshiping idols” any more than when a Christian looks at a picture of Jesus. No one believes that a statue of Athena is alive, but it can be a powerful visual focal point for meditation.

Practice your meditation in a quiet room or peaceful outdoor setting with few distractions. It can be done seated, lying down (stay awake), or during any repetitive activity such as walking or swimming. Saying the rosary or using mala beads involves rhythmic touching and movement as well, and these are also forms of meditation.

During meditation, you can focus on a statue or artwork, or on your breathing, or on a flower, candle flame, affirmation, mantra, passage from a holy book, or the names or attributes of Deity. In a walking meditation, you might focus on the play of your muscles, the rhythmic movements, and simply being in your body. In Chinese qigong, the practitioner concentrates on the flow of energy within the body; in hatha yoga, on the kundalini energy rising through the chakras; and in bhakti yoga, a goddess or god is the object of devotion.

One popular form of meditation is to concentrate on a question. Zen Buddhism provides mind-bending koans, such as “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” You could choose a passage from one of your favorite authors. Programs such as Access (AccessConsciousness.com) ask things like “How does it get any better than this?” Then there are the Big Questions, such as “Why am I here?”

In another type of meditation, you do not focus on one thing, but open your awareness to the environment around you. A walking meditation in nature is natural for Witches; just let the breeze, the light, the bird songs, and the colors flow around and through you; this is relaxing, cleansing, and energizing at the same time.

Communing with the Gods

Direct communication with Deity or an aspect of Deity is the core of many Witches’ daily practice. (Of course, you can also talk to spirit guides, animal allies, plant devas, ancestors, faery folk, trees, stones, and other people.)

We are all familiar with prayers, which are one way to communicate with Deity. At any time you may talk to Deity either as the Goddess or the God, Mother Goddess or Father God, Lady and Lord, or as a very specific aspect such as Oshun, Hermes, or Freya.

Witch customs differ from Christian prayer. Witches do not generally kneel to pray—we respect our gods without subservience. Nor do we rely only on prayer—simply asking God to put some favor in our laps feels much too passive to us. We are more likely to do a spell for something and invoke the powers of a deity or other ally as we do the work, then follow up with practical action.

Witches are always aware that we are communicating partly with Deity-within, not with a separate being who is Out There Somewhere. Thus, when you pray “to” the Chinese goddess Quan Yin, you are invoking all the compassion you have in your own heart and mind, as well as the divine compassion that permeates the universe.

It is simple courtesy to give thanks frequently, rather than just whining to heaven whenever we want something. This can be a specific expression of gratitude—thanking a particular tree for shade on a hot day—or a more general one, as in giving thanks to the Goddess for life. You might give an offering: a drop of wine as a libation, a stick of incense, a silver coin for a tree that gives wand wood, or perhaps a dance, song, poem, or ritual.

Talking to the gods, with or without words, is fine, but it’s also a great idea to be silent and listen. The divine powers don’t always speak to us as clearly and