pagan path

Dedication Rituals

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

This week’s question from the Pagan Perspective YouTube channel is about dedication rituals, and honestly?  I had to look that shit up. Seriously.

Topic for the Week of 2/3:  Did any of you do dedication rituals, and what are your experiences and thoughts on them?

fern

Okay, so what I understand is that this is a type of ritual where you dedicate yourself to a specific deity/deities or a specific religious path.   Sort of like a baptism, but in relation to pagan beliefs, deity, or paths.

The closest that I have come to something like this was early on after I’d left my parent’s home and was living on my own, and had decided to discard the use of deity in my practice.   That summer I hiked up into the Olympic National Park via the Hoh Rainforest access point.

Deep within the forests here, I had stripped free of my clothing at a spot deep within the threads of the liminal spaces there and laid myself down upon the forest floor among the cedars, ferns, and moss.  In the deep, damp embrace of the forest, draped in the shadows of dense vegetation, I closed my eyes and sought the earth.

Like a grounding exercise, I threaded my energy into the soil beneath me like roots digging into the earth.  I let my energy expand and flow, opening myself up to the energies around me and connecting myself fully to the environment I was in.

I sought what was real and true for me.  I sought direction and connection, and I found both.   I didn’t sleep, but I was there for a few hours, and once done I picked myself up and dressed, then set up camp for the night.

Is this a dedication ritual?  I’m not sure.  But it’s the closest I can think of to something that might qualify.

 

My Meditation Practice, and Some Advice for Beginners

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

This week’s question from the Pagan Perspective YouTube channel is about a whole bunch of things concerning the new year, including goals and what I’m currently into.  I pretty much answered all this last week, so today’s question is coming from one of the Discord servers I am a member of instead.

Topic for the Week of 1/27:  What are some ways in which you meditate? What are some techniques and tips you could give to beginners? What helps you stay focused?

dog

I personally do not use music during meditation most of the time because I am an aural synesthete, so music can become extremely distracting and I don’t consider the “riding of sound” to be a meditation in and of itself (although, of course it is… it’s just not for me personally).

I do a variety of meditation techniques including incorporating it into my yoga/physiotherapy, body scans, five senses scans, guided meditation (primarily using the Calm app), visualization techniques, etc. (Not all at once, obviously.) It really depends on how I feel each day as to which one I use.

For beginners to meditation…

1) Start small. Five minutes a day. Ten minutes a day. It doesn’t have to be some marathon session. Just set aside those five or ten minutes and do it.

2) EVERYONE struggles with focus. Don’t try so hard to block everything out. Instead, consider yourself like a window screen. The outside distractions flow through you like a breeze but do not move you.

3) Again, EVERYONE struggles with focus. Our minds wander. It’s natural. One of the main purposes of meditation is to exercise your mind’s ability to find calm. You do this not by staying in that focused and clam state 100% of the time, but by bringing yourself back to it each time you notice that your mind has strayed. By setting aside what your mind has wandered to and coming back to center, you are essentially doing a mental push-up.

4) Try different types of meditation. Everyone is different. Maybe chanting helps you focus… maybe not. Maybe visualization is your thing… or maybe not. Maybe you need a guided meditation to assist in your focus, or maybe the guided ones irk you. It’s completely individual, so don’t be afraid to experiment to find what feels best to you.

5) Not everyone focuses on their breath. It’s true that it’s very common as a focus, but it’s not for everyone. I personally find that I have better results focusing on my solar plexus and how I am feeling there (which is what I consider the seat of the soul and definitely have fluctuations concerning).

For my own focusing challenges… I personally struggle with “I should be doing this right now” and the constant fidget to get moving again.  I deal with this by reminding myself that this is TEN minutes.  That’s all it is.  Ten minutes out of the thousands and thousands of minutes in a day.   Ten minutes to set everything aside and take a break.  It might be the ONLY break I get all day, so enjoy it while it’s there in my grasp.

 

Art Upon the Path

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

This week’s question from the Pagan Perspective YouTube channel is about finding your path.

Topic for the Week of 12/2: “Do you do any art related to your path that you would like to share? Or is there art by others that is meaningful to you?”

Jewelry

Jewelry design and creation is one of my favorite hobbies, and one that I ended up turning into a business.

I use this creative outlet to express my love for nature and color and… symmetry.  I love creating beautiful things, and while doing so, filling them with positive intention.

Those pieces I create and the intentions set within them are then sent out into the world to bring a bit of joy, pleasure, and/or happiness to those that see, wear, and own these pieces.

With this hobby, I seek to spread out small touches of positivity out around the globe, one piece at a time.  I find a sense of peace and joy in doing so, and feel that in some small way I am contributing to a better world.  My creations are now spread across more than sixty countries, and I hope that with piece that I ship out, I send out just a little more positive energy into the world to be enjoyed and shared.

As for art from others that is meaningful to me… there is a reason that I own so many cartomancy decks.  I connect to the imagery in the cards, which means that there are many, many artists out there that create art that is meaningful to me.

I have also mentioned before the poem “The Dash” written by Linda Ellis.  This too is a type of art that I admire, and this one piece in particular really touched my soul.