Darkness

When I was a child I learned how to meditate. This was mostly because of my mother who was kind of a hippy, her wonderful books leftover from the 60/70s, and my kindergarten teacher’s aide who spent every afternoon “nap” time leading us to that still, quiet space within—though she may also have been trying to hypnotize us into actually taking naps. I don’t meditate enough now. In fact, I do so rarely, but when I do now it’s usually some form of guided journey and usually one led by either Lora O’Brien of The Irish Pagan School or Gordon White of Rune Soup. Both of whom are brilliant and they each have their own styles of journeying. Of the two, I prefer Lora’s style. It’s most similar to my own which was just a lovely bit of synchronicity when I first was introduced to her method.

On my own I don’t generally do a lot of journeying. Or maybe I should say I only really journey to one place and don’t usually bother to go anywhere else from there even though that is an option. The place I go is the place where Lora’s journeys begin, or at least it’s the place where she brings me at the start of it. And that place is… darkness. As she puts it, and to not give away too much of what is something she teaches, it is “the darkness behind your eyes.” For me, that darkness always becomes this vast, black ocean with small points of light, like stars, at various distances and depths. I would call it the night sky or space or the void except there’s the feel of water, things flow. For instance, to get to where Lora leads me I swim before I walk and to get back I dive in.

I dig the fact both Lora’s and my journeys start in the same place. I feel comfortable there. I feel free there. I’ve been doing her journeys long enough that I know right where her point of light is—though I guess technically it’s mine, even if she is the one who leads me there—as I know that the other points of light (stars) are other places I can travel. Some I have, though not in years, and some are “new” and still waiting for me. Still, my favorite place has been that darkness. It’s both calming and full of possibilities.

Now, I’ve come to believe that a daily meditation practice is important for all witches, spiritual practitioners, and whatnot, but I don’t know that you want to journey daily. At least not without a purpose and enough experience of your own mind that you know that any messages you get on that journey are legit and not just something your brain made up. To that end—and here I’m going to name-drop another teacher/practitioner/whatever—I’m going to spend the next nine weeks or so going through Jason Miller’s Take Back Your Mind course. Full disclosure, back in May(?) of 2020 Jason offered the course for free and that’s when I signed up and got it. This was a relaunch, rewrite of an older version of the course and it looks like I have all the pieces of the current course except for the very last lesson which he must have added after this launch. I’m okay with that though. I think this is needed. I think I need to clear away everything and his course will help me do it.

What I don’t like is that this is going to take nine weeks. I want everything to be better now! This is one of the reasons I don’t like exercising: I want instant results. But maybe I’ll learn patience. I distinctly remember having patience in the past so I should be able to handle this.

Anyway, I’ll report on how it goes and when I pick up journeying again. Right now, it’s time for me to shove antibiotics down a tiny cat’s throat and go to bed.