Meditation and Trance Work

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Meditation and Trance Work

I have heard many people say that no matter how much they try, they just cannot meditate. Meditation is such a valuable tool in any witch’s arsenal and, like most things worth having, it takes time, effort, and patience.

There is a common misconception that meditation aims to silence the mind, so it’s no wonder so many people “fail” at what they are told meditation should be. Meditation does not seek to silence the mind; instead, the aim is to focus the mind, to organise those chattering voices so they are occupied, thus allowing our subconscious mind time and space to do what it is we want to achieve with meditation.

Meditation is a vital skill for any magic worker. It aids in almost all aspects of the craft. It focuses your mind, your will, and condenses it into its purest essence. It gives you space to detach from the mundane world, the world where you are many things to many people, the world where you spend most of your time not really being you. You might be a parent, a lover, a worker; there are many masks we must wear in our everyday lives, and meditation allows you to find yourself again.

When I first started out on my own crooked path, my mediation skills were nonexistent. Try as I might, all the information I had dredged through—books and dusty corners of the internet— were of no use. Nothing worked. I thought I just couldn’t do it, that this was one thing this witch would just have to do without. But master the skill I did. So if you feel like you just cannot med-

itate, then here are some tips and techniques that have helped me to overcome my own troubles.

First things first, for the initial attempts, you don’t really want to be trying for longer than five minutes, ten at a push. I know it doesn’t sound like a great deal of time, but it can seem endless when the task at hand is difficult. I once read somewhere (thank goodness I can’t remember where!) that one should aim to practice for around half an hour at a time. Half an hour! How soul destroying when you can’t even meditate for a minute or two. So, I advise practicing for no longer than five or ten minutes at first. As you progress, you will naturally want to meditate for longer periods, but at first, five minutes is a good time to aim for.

So you’ve probably tried the different breathing techniques, the ones where you have to inhale for five seconds, hold for five seconds, then exhale for five. When I tried this, it just felt like I was going to suffocate! Instead, a good method for the beginner is to just let yourself breathe naturally. Listen to your breathing, feel your lungs as you breathe, just pay attention to the bodily sensations of breathing. What sensations can you feel as you inhale and exhale? Are your breaths short, long, or a mixture of both? Notice each breath and the feelings and sensations that come with it.

When you can do this short meditation, perhaps then you will be ready to meditate through breath work, that is, controlling your breathing to induce meditative states. You might breathe in normally, then hold the breath for however long is comfortable, say five or six seconds, then exhale. Keep doing this, again, for five minutes at first, gradually extending the time you meditate for. I like this method because it keeps the mind, the conscious mind, busy with the task of keeping track of the time between breaths.

Perhaps you find the silence of meditation unnerving. If so, then playing music softly in the background can help. I do know

of some who like to meditate to hard, loud music, but perhaps for the beginner, playing some music just loud enough to break the silence, or to mask the sounds of everyday life, is perfectly fine.

I particularly like to meditate to drumming. Drumming has been shown to actually alter brainwave patterns, and so it makes sense that it can be used to good effect in meditation. Spend some time beforehand finding the correct music. Do not be dismayed if it doesn’t work to meditate to a track you have listened to before; it’s just like that sometimes. It does take time, effort, and some trial and error before you start to get to know what works for you and what doesn’t.

Meditation doesn’t necessarily have to be done sitting still. If, having tried the tips I’ve outlined here, the meditative state is still elusive, then perhaps you may be more suited to dancing meditation. At first this can make you feel quite self-conscious, even when doing it alone, but that feeling will quickly dissipate. Let yourself feel the music, let your body move any way it wants to the music. Feel yourself moving to the rhythm, feel the rhythm as it moves through you. Lose yourself in it.

Exercise is also a good way at allowing your body to become ready for meditation. Physically tire your body, do whatever exercise you enjoy, and give it your all. The point of this is that the body will be physically exhausted and will be more than ready to relax. Exercise also makes you feel good—at least when it’s over anyway—flooding the body with endorphins, so it lends an extremely agreeable state for meditation to occur.

Meditation is also very useful because it naturally leads to trancework. A trance, in the occultish sense of the word, often has negative connotations, like loss of control, or possession. The truth is trance is neither of those things. Everyone experiences being in a trance. Whenever you “lose” yourself in something, whether that

be monotonous work, exercise, whatever—whenever you describe yourself as “being in the zone,” that is trance. Have you ever been so narrowly minded, so involved in something you were doing, that when someone speaks to you, you don’t even hear them? That is being in a trance.

Trance can have a profound effect upon a practitioner’s craft. It is when in trance that the spirits speak more clearly, when you can truly feel the life of the land. In trance, you focus entirely on the spell or working or ritual.

In trance, the seeker can travel at will between the worlds. The seeker, when in trance, can commune easily with their spirits, with their deity.

Those who are natural daydreamers will come easily to trance work, for a daydream and trance are very similar things. The only difference is that you often find yourself daydreaming without realising you were doing so. When you enter a trance state, you do so because you make the conscious decision to do so.

So, how can one enter a trance? When you can easily enter a meditative state, that is when I believe you will be ready to work seriously on trance.

Get yourself into a meditative state, however you so choose. A particular method that works well for me for inducing trance, is to utilise the death stare. I know it may sound a bit creepy, but it simply means fixing your sight on a particular spot but without “seeing” what’s there.

Visualisation is also a good method at entering trance. Get yourself into a meditative state and when you are ready, visualise yourself walking down a staircase. Let your imagination loose. When I do this, my stairs are at first wooden, with the feeling of descending a narrow tower. Eventually, the wood gives way to