Meditation is another means by which most Pagans attain or regain balance in their lives. This is by no means strictly a Pagan practice, which can only attest to the effectiveness of meditating when it comes to restoring vitality and refreshing the mind, body and soul. Although re-aligning the chakras can certainly bring one balance, that is usually not required unless the chakras have been neglected for too long. Often simply leading oneself into an altered state of consciousness through meditation is all that is required.
The reasons for meditating are varied. Not only is it a means of achieving personal balance, but it can also be used as a jumping off point for astral projection and shamanic journeys. It can also lull us into a receptive state of mind where we are able to converse with the divine and be still enough within to hear the divine’s answers.
Most people complain that they can’t keep their mind quiet enough long enough to properly meditate. When I hear this my mind instantly goes to the question, “Is this person over-complicating this?” Often when people set out to meditate they expect not only perfection, but they expect their mind to be perfectly quiet while meditating. Although this is the goal of certain types of meditation it is not necessary to meditate successfully. Realistically, it would be only the highly trained mind which would be able to be silent for any period of time as it is completely natural for our minds to be active. Even when we sleep, we dream. (Yes, even those who claim not to are simply not remembering the dreams they actually did have.) What I would recommend to someone who feels this is a stumbling block for themselves would be to record (in their own voice or that of a friend/family member) a cassette of an induction into a meditative state. This way the mind can actively focus upon going into a deeper state of consciousness without worrying that it is not being silent. You might also wish to record the meditation itself if you prefer a scripted meditation session.
A simple induction would be to scan the body bit by bit, focusing upon each body part, with the intention of relaxing each body part as you come to it. Once you have completed this part, double check your body and spend some time relaxing any body parts that are not yet satisfactorily relaxed. At this point it would be wise to count down or up from one to whatever number you feel at ease with. The higher the number, the more time you will have to devote to going into a deeper trance, so base that upon your experience level with meditating. In the case of counting down from 20 to 1, you would begin with the number 20 while visualizing yourself walking down a stairwell, a hill, into a cave, etc. Should you choose to start at one and count up, you would visualize yourself going up a staircase, hill, etc. You might even begin to “feel” your feet lift from the ground as you begin to float in the air while continuing to rise. If you are trying to learn to astral project I would suggest counting up for the induction as it is much more conducive to having an out of body experience.
