Meditation and Visualisation

Nothing else in the Craft is possible without two plain skills: being still, and seeing what is not there. Neither is glamorous, both take years, and there is no way round either of them.

Every method of magic that witches use depends on a mind that can be held to one thing. A circle cast by someone thinking about tomorrow's shopping is a line on the floor. The guardians called by someone who cannot picture them are names said into an empty room. This is why our outer court spends the first season of its year on the breath and the attention, and why a seeker who has already learned to sit still for ten minutes is so welcome.

What meditation is

There are as many definitions as there are teachers, but they come to much the same thing. Meditation is the practice of keeping the attention in one place, in the present, for a length of time, and gently bringing it back each time it wanders. It will wander. That is not failure. The bringing back is the exercise, in the way that lifting the weight is the exercise and not holding it in the air.

The one point of attention can be almost anything: the breath, a flame, a word, an image, the feeling of the ground under the feet. Buddhist teachers use one set of objects and Christian contemplatives another. A witch may use any of them, or may hold the Goddess and the God in mind as the still point. The form matters much less than the doing.

What it is not is the emptying of the mind into a pleasant blank. Nor is it the same thing as relaxation, although relaxation usually comes with it, and many people come to the Craft having already found meditation useful for the plain stresses of ordinary life. That is a fine reason to begin. It is not the reason a witch continues.

Beginning

• A time. The same time every day, if possible. Early morning and late evening are the usual choices, because the house is quiet. People with children learn to use whatever quarter of an hour the children leave them, and the bath is a respectable temple.
• A length. Ten minutes to begin with, and fifteen when ten is comfortable. A kitchen timer saves looking at the clock. Daily practice of ten minutes is worth far more than an hour on Sundays.
• A place. Somewhere you will not be interrupted by people, telephones or animals. Turn the telephone off, not over.
• A posture. Sitting upright on a firm chair, feet flat on the floor and hands resting on the thighs, is the best for most people. Lying down is comfortable, which is the trouble with it.
• The breath. Breathe slowly and naturally, through the nose if you can. Do not force it or hold it. Simply notice it.

When the time is up, do not leap to your feet. Take a moment, notice the room, wriggle the fingers and toes, and get up slowly. The page on grounding and centring explains why this matters more as the practice deepens.

Some methods

Try each of these for a week or two before you decide between them. Most people find that one suits them better than the others, and some people find that the one that suits them best is the one they liked least at first.

Counting the breath

Count each out-breath from one to ten, then begin again at one. When you lose count, which you will, begin again at one without comment. It sounds childish. It is the hardest of them all.

The flame

Set a candle at eye level, an arm's length away, in a dim room. Look at the flame, steadily but without staring, for a few minutes. Then close your eyes and attend to the after-image until it fades. This belongs to the season of fire, and it is a good method for people whose minds will not settle on something they cannot see.

A word or a chant

Repeat a single word, or a short line, silently or under the breath, letting it carry the attention. Witches often use the name by which they address the Goddess, or a line of a chant that they know well.

Walking

Walk slowly, out of doors if possible, attending to each step and each breath. This is the old way of the pilgrim and the shepherd, and it suits restless bodies.

The place out of doors

Sit in the same place in the open, a tree, a bank, a stretch of river, and attend to what is there: the sounds, the air on the skin, the light. Done every week for a year, this teaches more about the Wheel than any book.

Scent and sound

Many people find that incense or a few drops of essential oil in a burner help to mark the time as set apart, and over months the scent itself becomes a signal to the mind to settle. Choose it with your nose and not with the label. A scent sold as invigorating may be the one that calms you, and the one sold for relaxation may set your teeth on edge. Essential oils should not be put undiluted on the skin, and some are unsafe for pets, in pregnancy and for small children.

Quiet music without words suits some people. A steady drum, played or recorded, has been used to shift the mind for as long as there have been drums. Silence is best of all once you can bear it.

Visualisation

Visualisation is the deliberate building of an image in the mind and the holding of it there. It is the working half of the stillness that meditation trains, and almost every rite of the Craft relies on it. The circle is seen as it is cast. The cone of power is seen as it is raised. The person who is to be healed is seen well and smiling, and the purpose of a spell is seen as already done.

The word suggests sight alone, and that is misleading. A good image is built with every sense: the colour of the apple, but also its weight in the hand, its smell, the sound when you bite it, and the taste. Some teachers prefer to call this imagery, to make the point. The more senses an image has, the more real it becomes to the part of the mind that magic speaks to.

Exercises for the inner eye

1. The object. Look closely at a simple object, an apple or a cup, for a minute. Close your eyes and build it again in the mind, as exactly as you can. Open your eyes and see what you missed. Repeat every day for a week with the same object before moving on.
2. The tray. Have a friend set a dozen small objects on a tray and let you look at them for a minute before covering them. Name as many as you can, then describe them. This is an old game, and an excellent exercise.
3. The walk through the house. With your eyes closed, walk through your own home in imagination, room by room, noticing what is on every shelf. Then go and check.
4. The sphere. Picture yourself surrounded by a sphere of clear light, above and below as well as all round, and hold it for as long as you can. Notice what colour it wishes to be. This is the beginning of the shielding described on the page about protection.
5. The working. Choose some small, real purpose of your own, and see it as already accomplished, with all five senses, for a minute each evening. Write down what happens. This is the bridge between the exercise and the Craft.

When it does not come

If you fall asleep, you are tired, and you should sit more upright, meditate earlier, or go to bed. The body is telling you something useful.

If you cannot see pictures at all, you are not alone. A good many people have little or no visual imagination, and some have none whatever, and never knew that other people did. They can still do this work. Build the image from what you can do: the feel of the thing, its sound, its weight, simply knowing that it is there. Some of the best ritualists we have known worked entirely in this way.

If the mind will not stop chattering, it is behaving exactly as minds do. Every teacher in every tradition has said the same. Bring it back. Bring it back again.

If you feel nothing happening after a month, keep going. The changes are usually noticed by other people first, and in retrospect.