Follow Up to 9/24/09 Meeting

Hi Again!

Since we talked a bit about Angels this past meeting, it seems appropriate to post a follow up today, the feast day for Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Rafael. On that topic, we talked about the importance of free will and of being sure to ask for help if we need it, rather than assuming it will be automatic. Anyhow - cheers!

We also talked about the peculiarly human obsession with perfectly straight lines and angles - the sort of which are not often, if ever, found in nature. And from there we moved into the topic of man-made borders and the proclivity to break everything into sets and categories and, thereby, to miss out all too often on wholeness. There was particular mention of the borderlessness of the earth as seen from an airplane and that moved me to run to my car and bring in The Flower Kings CD Paradox Hotel in order to play for you the song "Blue Planet," which is about just that sensation only from out in space. It concludes with a recording of an orbiting astronaut reporting how the earth looks to him as he zooms around it high, high overhead.

We also talked about the essential prayer, "Thy Will be done", in recognition of the higher power who knows the score far better than we, and so is uniquely able to know what is best for all concerned. As part of that we talked about the incredibly important virtue of forgiveness. I didn't say it this night, but I consider forgiveness to be as essential a tenet of Christ's teaching as anything save Love itself. I think that it gets far too short a shrift in common religion compared with what it deserves.

On a requested discussion of how best to deal with exceptional, and sometimes painful, empathy, we discussed a visual exercise of seeing a cleansing and shielding, pure white light enveloping us safely in a column from above. Paula also mentioned a quick image of zipping up our previously exposed selves quickly and easily with a large zipper. I then quickly described the "golden egg meditation" that I use to great effect. I haven't been able to find it again on the web, so I'll recap it here myself...

Sit or stand comfortably in a pose suitable to you for comfortable meditation.
Envision a golden (or white?) light streaming down into you from above and flowing through your body.
The light washes through your entire self, healing any ills and washing away any grunge or grime, blockages, blemishes, etcetera - both "real" and otherwise perceived.
All that is washed away passes out through the soles of your feet where it can be absorbed safely by the earth (like electricity to ground, or like fertilizer).
Once the charred and blackened crust around your heart breaks free and washes away, let the light from your heart itself expand outward to surround your entire body, to several inches above your head and even several inches below your feet, even right into the ground itself.
This golden egg of light now delimits a shell around your entire person.
Set this shell so that if any negative energies or thoughtforms are directed at you from outside it, they will bounce off and return to the sender as a blessing. Any positive and/or loving energies, however, will pass easily through to you. Meanwhile, any negative thoughts or energies that you direct outward toward another will bounce off the inside of your golden egg shell and return to you as a blessing, but any positive/loving thoughts and energies will pass on through to those to whom you direct them.

Lastly, we were shown a way to consult with a tree for assistance in developing psychic ability. I am happy to report that I tried it and it worked exceedingly well for me! I drew up a hexagram while out in some woods on a walk but I did not have a copy of the I Ching to consult to see its meaning. So, thinking of the process we'd talked about the night before, I decided to try it. I quieted my mind as best I could quickly and on short notice, placed my hands on a tree's trunk and asked for advice on the implications for my life of the hexagram I'd just drawn. I was encouraged to continue to develop my patience and flow with the river of life, enjoying both the dalliances is swirling side eddies and the rush and exhilaration of riding the crest of a wave. Then I saw the firmness and strength of a mountain reflected in a still, deep lake below. I wondered if the trigrams making the hexagram might actually be "mountain" and "lake" but I wasn't even sure if those were trigrams (I am new to that process and wisdom tradition). Upon later consulting the I Ching, I found that indeed I had drawn a mountain over a lake! I was impressed. I shall have to try this again and see how it goes. I would love to know your experiences and thoughts on the process as well. One of my main goals in our gatherings is to compare and contrast our experiences with various ideas and practices. Alone, with only ourselves as a frame of reference, we can too easily be deluded into thinking that we really know what is going on. With a wider and wider sampling of comparable data from as broad a cross section of people as possible, though, we can more accurately discern patterns, at least, of viable concepts.

Be well! I look forward to seeing you all again next week, 10/8, at Spirit Rising Art in Chelmsford - newcomers always welcome (it's free and easy, just drop in between 6:30 and 8).

Peace,
Joe