Category Archives: Twinkle’s Musings
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The meditations of life
June 10th, 2015
A couple days ago I read a great quote in the book by Jean Shinoda Bolen called “Crones Don’t Whine” ((I LOVE this title – and that is a WHOLE OTHER BLOG Post in itself)) The quote I want to talk about today is about meditation. She says:
“Long before the gurus came to America with mantras and meditations, women… found time and ways to meditate. It may have been called ‘washing the dishes and staring out the window,’ or ‘folding laundry and thinking,’ or ‘daydreaming,’ or ‘doing nothing.’ It may have begun as having a quiet cup of tea or coffee before the household awoke (or after family went to sleep), it may have been what you did while taking a walk….”
Since December I have been coaching a sweet friend of mine on how to meditate. We met in a Master Mind class. I was surprised to discover how many of the women did not have a meditation practice, some never having even attempted meditation. Equal to my surprise was my admiration of those who spoke with raw honesty. They could have easily not responded or pretended when asked, as I know many others do. Yet these women really wanted to enhance their lives. And they saw through others experiences that meditation works. But where to start? They questioned how do you get your mind to tune in to a different signal when it is so busy with thinking and processing a lifetime of data -All -The -Time?!
The simple answer is – Meditation is only as complicated as you allow it to be or want it to be.
We can train our minds and our bodies to do most anything.
Really.
I promise.
And I also promise that the most profound moments of meditation can occur in the most simple practices. Which is why the above quote by Jean Shindoa Bolen spoke to me.
Sure we can cultivate an in depth, truly ceremonial, practices. And I admit that an observer to some of my solitary and group rituals would see elaborate displays (chants, mantras, invocations, drumming, bells, even tools used from my altars) and feel the power emanating as a result and likely question my statement about great power in simple meditations.
So I will tell you the secret –
- – the secret is that meditation, at least as best as I can tell, is not as much about tuning to a different channel, as it is about hearing and feeling the constant hum that is already present.
It is our signal and direct link to the Universe, to the Divine.
When we begin to remove the layers of noises that drown out this signal, it becomes clearer. And the good news is that once you have uncovered the signal, once you recognize it and understand it is always present, that you are indeed always ‘tuned in’ – you can in any situation identify it, feel it and use it to recharge your power.
To help my friend begin to meditate, I shared with her some simple videos.
https://www.facebook.com/TwinkleMarie/videos/vb.636315900/10152725074675901/?type=3&theater
The ocean is something she resonates with. So I emailed links to short clips of the ocean in motion. And invited her to sit quietly and watch for 25 seconds, then 60, then two minutes, etc. Just watching. Breathing in as the wave approached, breathing out as the wave receded.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152725074675901&set=vb.636315900&type=3&theater
She began to understand that like us, the ocean, is always in motion. Even when it appears still, there is movement, connection, energy and power all expanding. Even in that moment when it looks like the ocean has paused – the moment just before the incoming wave touches the shore and begins to roll back toward the ocean – beneath the surface the wave is still in motion, rolling. Our breathing can be the same. We can hold our breath in that pause, or we can begin to train our breath to roll in time with the inhale and the exhale.
So continuing Jean Shinoda Bolen’s thoughts about “what is” meditation, I give to you:
- Watching the ocean waves for a few minutes is meditation.
- Staring at the vastness of a mountain is meditation.
- Running your hands over the bark of a tree or lifting your eyes to observe the wind through its branches is meditation.
- Following the flight of sparrows and seagulls is meditation.
- Seeing your children play as they go from flower to flower in your garden or up and down a slide in the park, is meditation.
- Counting the varied plants and animals you see on a hike through the woods is meditation.
- Shoveling the snow or mowing the lawn in gratitude for the home you own is meditation.
- Swinging on a swing is meditation.
- Sitting anywhere at anytime and mindfully breathing in and breathing out is meditation.
I encourage you to find something you already love doing and have it become your practice in meditation.
Relax into your body as you quiet your mind.
As you do, you will more and more readily be able to distinguish the hum of connection you have to the Divine within you.
The tone of the frequency, the weight of it, the location it vibrates most clearly in your body.
This resonance will be something you can amplify and oscillate at will.
I also encourage you to try new things, perhaps at first uncomfortable things and you may discover that:
- sitting at your altar chanting “Om” or “Ateh” or “Malkuth” is meditation.
- developing and reciting a daily mantra is meditation.
- participating in the routines and rhythms of a Yoga class is meditation.
- drumming in a circle with friends in sacred worship is meditation.
- dancing to ecstatic music is meditation.
Aho, Namaste and Blessed Be.
~ Twinkle
Autumn Equinox & The Story of Mabon
Below is a re-sharing of the story of Mabon I told last year at our Circle.
Autumn Equinox.
Our Harvest celebration.
Mirror to the Spring Equinox, it is a time of balance between light and dark.
On this night we move away from light into darkness, from warmth into cold, drawing less and less from the outer world and more and more from what we have stored within.
At our Equinox celebration this week, we will work with the power of the Spiral. Many of us are fond of the triple spiral. Maiden, Mother, Crone. The cycle of life.
Our Circle will include Sacred Dancing, Ritual and Storytelling. Our theme is “Liberation.” Apt for this is also the week of International Day of Peace. And to so many, peace equates as liberation.
We will consider Tara, Goddess of Liberation.
As well as The Green Man, for one of our clearest signs of the changing season here in New England is found in his realm.
As night and day are in equal magnitude, so are the forces of creation and destruction that we each possess.
At this time, we can draw on our Power
to create or destroy,
build or dismantle,
embrace or release that what we wish.
This Equinox I encourage you to think of what your wish is.
As the story I will tell unfolds, consider what it is you would like to bring into,
or cast out of,
your life at this auspicious time of balanced energies.
For Druids, Fall Equinox is called Mea’n Fo’mhair. It is a time to pause and recognize The Green Man, the God of the Forest.
For Wiccans, a time to celebrate the cycle of the Goddess as she passes from Mother to Crone. Harnessing the wisdom gained in Time’s passing. Honoring the gift of old age.
Our Harvest Moon holiday is often referred to as Mabon.
Unlike Lammas and Beltane, Mabon does not merely refer to a seasonal celebration.
Mabon is the name of a Welsh God.
An ancient one.
Born at the beginning of Time. Who, as the story goes, was taken mysteriously from his Mother (Modron) when he was only three nights old.
No hope of freedom.
Nary a sign of him throughout the years.
As a young oak in a budding wood grew to a hundred limbed tree. The tree in its old age, spawning a forest, which too has been laid to rest and reborn again.
Not a whisper on the wind in all those years indicating where Mabon was abducted to.
His name but a distant memory, in a story rarely told, the God Mabon was imprisoned until a man name Culhwch (KESH-lookh), accompanied by his cousin the great King Arthur set out to find him. Aided by King Arthur’s most trusted companions, Mabon was rescued from a fortress like none had ever seen.
Mabon was aided in his liberation, not only by the men who took to the task of saving him, but also the many animals who gave them direction as they wandered the Earth searching.
The Blackbird,
The Stag,
The Owl,
The Eagle,
The Salmon.
Each, while not directly aware of Mabon, were connected indeed, as their remembrances lead one to the other, and finally to the discovery of Mabon’s whereabouts.
The men became his saviors.
The animals, his Totems.
The story creating another message for us to heed as we are reminded at this time of Harvest: that Nothing exists separately from the whole.
That, like Nature, we are always and all ways giving and receiving.
Mabon is the God of Freedom.
His long imprisonment driving him to protect all things desiring liberation.
We honor Mabon when we protect the rights and freedoms of all Mother Earth’s offspring: the elements, plants, animals and people from all nations and walks of life.
We honor Mabon when we seek sovereignty over our life’s path.
We honor Mabon when we free ourselves from self-imposed bindings.
Wishing you every blessing of the Equinox,
~ Twinkle
The Story of Mabon abbreviate and revised from many sources, including: Circle Round, Raising Children in the Goddess Tradition; sacred Wicca websites, Celtic myth websites, wikapedia, It was originally posted on my blog here:
http://mariemanning.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/mabon/
Photo credit of Mabon: http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRzM9VdZy6b4rVuF-uraxWHMR3XAnBoGetbrBC8B3zFK8BPw9PeesG-x7L_
with words
“With words I can formulate queries to unquestioned answers.
With words I can create landscapes to house my innermost feelings and understandings.
With words I can articulate my mind’s yearning, my Muse’s urging, my heart’s calling.
Words.
I love them.”
This morning I found this passage in the content of another of my Musings. I mentioned a type of meditation (Ignatian contemplative prayer) to a friend earlier today and recalled I had worked thoughts on how I use it into a previous post. Glancing through the post and re-discovering this at the bottom gave me pause, and made me smile.
Thank you, Today, for a smile.
For the still Bay, the ocean breeze, the sound of the water splashing against the shore.
For my hot pink beach bike and strong legs to pedal it all around the boardwalk.
Thank you, Today, for the sunshine.
For the birds in flight and even for the mild humidity that gives hope of rain to come.
For the purple cafe I found and the library on the same block.
Thank you, Today, for your gentle reminders of what I am meant to be saying, doing, being.
Thank you, Today, for Today.
~ Twinkle
ps you may also like this musing
September 9, 2014
In a world where we love each other
Every day
We know
Someone’s heart is breaking
Someone’s soul is soaring
Someone’s mind is racing
Let us together remember
to create the space to hold all this
and create a world of hope and blessing
through prayer.
Amen.
Songwriting, Susurrus and Imaginative Meditation
I love words.
Last night I was at a songwriters workshop ….(pause for reaction)…
Yes, a songwriters workshop.
I was invited. So I went.
I was intrigued at the thought of discovering what the process is for legitimate songwriters. As a poet and a writer, sometimes my Muse pushes a song through me and out on to the paper. But outside of singing to my children, or to the various less than animate objects as I clean the house, that is usually where they – the words of the song – stay…. on paper.
Not often shared.
After all, I am a poet, an author, a writer – huge distinction from a songwriter.
Or so I thought.
So I went to a songwriters workshop and was surrounded by musicians and lyricists. Each attuned to their specific craft. Each armed with the ability to critique another’s work objectively, largely able to set their subjective natures aside for the betterment of the song itself.
The creative process was as delicious as I suspected it might be. The workshop leader, Jon Vezner, lived up to every award and accolade he has ever received. With his coaching, and the audience participation, songs came alive.
A slight change in tempo here,
a cord substitution there,
an alternate lilt in the voice
transformed pieces into Jazz, Reggae, Blues, Bluegrass, Country, Folk, Rock and more.
Sentiments and sounds bringing both the prickle of tears and exhilaration to my nearly virgin songwriter’s experience.
Words.
I love them.
With the slightest exchange of one word for another, a song’s terrain adopted a more encompassing depiction.
Place a softer noun here,
a fiercer verb there,
eliminate an unnecessary expression
or invent a bridge, and voila:
The story being told firmly grabs hold of the listener, taking each of us fully into the thoughts and intents of the songwriter.
Words.
I am a geek for words.
They tempt, tease and tickle me.
Some simply astonish me.
Many entice or trigger my Muse.
Others make me head straight to my thesaurus.
Last night one of the songwriters proudly used the word “susurrus” in his song. I had heard the word before, and while not knowing precisely the definition, I was able to make a fairly educated leap: because of the context, and because I live in the land of Thoreau and am familiar with other seemingly inane words such as “psithurism” – which, like susurrus, essentially means the sound the whispering wind makes as it blows through the trees.
Susurrus kind of fell flat on the songwriting crowds’ collective ears.
But the Poet in me loved it!
Still, I remained silent. I had already outed myself as a non-songwriter. I felt important to not completely expose myself and my myriad idiosyncrasies.
And what benefit would have been gained should I have chosen to add evidence to my word geekdom (geekhood?) by sharing that I also knew that in some Native American cultures (such as Micmac) trees were named by the specific sound the wind made as it blew through the branches? I suspect not much.
So I silently cheered this songwriter’s brave use of an all but completely unknown word.
Words.
I love them.
And as I took home this experience, and began to write, my Gemini mind shifted to other words I love. And I found myself contemplating Words as Prayer, or Words as Meditation.
Often times I discuss prayer and meditation with my spiritual friends, and of these I have a wide assortment: native and contemporary shamans, Zen priests, witches, wiccan priestesses, yogis, ministers, clergy and lay leaders from varying faiths.
A regular theme found in many forms of meditation is that of emptying the mind. Also of fixating on a single thought, chant or mantra. In these instances limiting the traveling of one’s mind. And great relief from the day’s stresses can be found in the regular practice of these.
Another form of meditation is that of Ignatian contemplative prayer. When we practice this type of prayer or meditation, we engage our imagination, allowing our thoughts to draw from our memories, to create pictures of desired futures, to open space to stimulate our minds and our hearts, resulting in the stirring of one’s thoughts and awakening of one’s heart.
I do pause to wonder how the Jesuits for whom this particular style of prayer originated would feel about my use of their theological exercise within the framework of my sacred feminine, earth nature spirituality.
While I enjoy stilling my ever-racing mind, most of my meditations involve words and the feelings they evoke to invoke. So I weave this ever unique form of reflection and creation into the palette of my artistic and spiritual practices.
With words I can formulate queries to unquestioned answers.
With words I can create landscapes to house my innermost feelings and understandings.
With words I can articulate my mind’s yearning, my Muse’s urging, my heart’s calling.
Words.
I love them.
In Joy,
~ Twinkle
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Originally published October 16, 2013
Om Tara Tu Tara – visualization meditation
Inspiration from Tara, the Goddess of Liberation.
Illumination-together
May we add our light to the growing spiral that illuminates in dark times;
May we gain strength by the love we observe as we help each other.
Ministers at Play
Such gratitude for Sarah attending my book launch party this week in New Smyrna Beach, Florida! She is an impeccable light to our world. Grateful our boys got to play together.