MerryWeather and RainSky

  Photo by Andreas Rasmussen on Unsplash  *** Well.  This week was one of the techniques you hear about first when you decide to try meditation.  The sensation of the breath.  Not following the passage of the breath in and out (which I see is a later weeks task), or counting the breaths (another beginner technique).  This one is simply to feel the breath as it comes in and out of your nose - the way the air feels on your nose.  Or the way your stomach rises and falls, internally and externally - the feeling of that. I've always thought (and still do) that methods of meditation relying on breathing awareness can be very difficult for anyone with any respiratory issues, asthma, or any panic attack issues.  Concentrating on something that is being a bit difficult or strained may make you feel worse.  So  I'm not a massive fan of these kinds of methods.  I often find that focussing on my breath for any reason - to breathe more deeply o...

  Photo by Kateryna Hliznitsova on Unsplash Like I said in the last post, I really appreciate the thoroughness of Krystle's approach - right from the start of the book, the reader is joining in, not just reading or recapping knowledge, but engaging with it - if the journalling and/or spell exercises are also done.  I'm as guilty as the next person of being an armchair reading witch.  But I'm going to do this book properly - interactively, even if it slows me right down.  Better to be slow and thorough and actually see what works, than cramming in information and then it having nothing to really hook into in my mind because I didn't back it up with actions and considered thought.  So, here are the next set of answers about the introductory section, where the reader is planning their magical wellness journey: mixing magical spirituality with nutrition, movement based practices, meditation and journalling. Ok, here we go - my answers... *** What do you consider to...

   I really really like the work of Krystle L Jordan.  It seems like the most obvious idea to mix the goals of being more spiritual and magical with being more healthy - body, mind and soul - but I haven't found another witch author doing it in the way she does.  Its all very simple, very intuitive and very deliberate.  On her website, she also offers 2 courses, one about beginning to have a vegan kitchen witch practice , which is reassuringly thorough as Krystle is a qualified  nutritionist as well as a magical practitioner; and one about magical wellness in more depth .  I'm enrolled in both of these - they are very reasonably priced - but for the purposes of this blog, I'm only going to be referring to her book, The Witch's Guide to Wellness (Adams Media, 2022) , and working through the exercises, spells/rituals and suggestions there. (The links for the 2 courses may change as its Black Friday week as I write, so she has sales on; but if you click a...

Photo by Conscious Design on Unsplash  ***   I had far more enjoyment with this meditation style.  It was hugely relaxing! I found a meditation on YouTube that would work for this week's theme, free - I used this one:  https://youtu.be/wGFog-OuFDM?feature=shared The idea of this one was to listen to the chime of a bell, just one chime, and listen as the sound continued, fading, to be replaced by the next one.  The idea of Western concentration pulled into a wider field of mental capacity by the silence after each chime, when you would concentrate on everything else you heard: the sounds of the house (or wherever you are, so few places are silent), would take over.  You would be giving them your attention too.  But the concentration in the silnce becomes different, wider and more all encompassing. Its like two different discplines in one meditation.  The initial laser-like concentration on the sound, followed by the wider more open concentrat...

  So - here's one of the books I'll be working through.  This is quite a new one, but the approach called to my faddy self.  His idea is that there are many ways to meditate, but a lot of us seem to have an idea we have to be peaceful to begin, sit on the floor with incense, and compose ourselves to think of nothing for maybe ...an hour!  In other words, our idea of perfect meditation right from the start.  It's so perfect, it's not doable. He suggests we junk this idea, and instead spend 3 minutes every day doing a meditation technique.  Each technique is practiced for 7 days, so you get a feel for it.  Then you move on to the next one.  And go on like that for 14 weeks.  So that because its such a small amount of time, you'll feel its doable to try. One of my biggest problems with anything spirituality related is my inability to be consistent with a practice.  I'm either working 14 hours a day (summer) or I'm frantically trying to catc...