Discursive Meditation: Phase 4

[ecosophia]

Another week has gone by, and it's time for another installment of instruction for those of my readers who are following this sequence of posts. Here's an ordinary ancient Egyptian woman, perhaps a minor priestess, reminding you of the correct posture; if you need more detailed reminders, you can find the first three phases of the practice here, here, and here. So far we've dealt with posture, relaxation, and breathing: the preliminaries to discursive meditation. Now it's time to go all the way and meditate. 

To make sense of what follows, it's important to remember that the word "meditation" literally means "thinking." As we discussed in the first post on this topic, when you say that a crime was premeditated, you don't mean that the perp did it in a blissed-out state with a mind empty of thought. You mean he thought deliberately, seriously, and intentionally about the crime before he did it. So that's what you're going to do -- no, not commit a crime, but think deliberately, seriously, and intentionally about something. (I suppose in some circles that counds as thoughtcrime, but we'll let that pass for now.) 

To do that, you need something to think about. The subject for a discursive meditation is known as the theme. You can use anything as a theme that you want to understand. It's standard practice to choose themes from whatever spiritual path you follow, and some paths have specific bodies of lore that are typically used for discursive meditation. 

If you're a Christian, for example, go open a copy of the Bible -- yes, right now. Turn to the beginning of the Gospel according to John. That's traditionally where you start Christian discursive meditation: start with the first verse and work your way through one verse at a time. (If you can't find something to ponder in the first verse of John, you may want to shine a flashlight in one ear and see if the beam comes out the other.) If you belong to a different faith that has a holy scripture, a sacred book, or a traditional volume of sacred lore, why, go ye and do likewise; I learned an enormous amount by meditating my way through the Mabinogion and the knowledge lectures of the Golden Dawn, and I'd guess that my Hellenic and Heathen readers could get at least as much out of Hesiod's Theogony and the Elder Edda respectively. 

Other options? Well, the classic alternative to written texts is sacred or magical imagery. Do you have a Tarot deck, and do you want to get much deeper into it than you've gotten so far? Deal out the Fool. That's going to be your first theme, and you're going to work on it for at least seven daily meditations. You know those weird and complicated diagrams that fill books on alchemy, and make next to no sense if you just look at them? Congratulations; you now know how to unlock them. They were designed and made to be explored and unpacked using discursive meditations. Brother Masons, you know the trestle boards of the three degrees? Guess what...

The key to choosing a theme for meditation is to take it in little bites. The bigger the theme, the less you'll get out of it. If you're doing the Christian meditation referenced above, don't take the entire first chapter of John as a theme. Take the first line of the first verse: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Better still, take the first clause: "In the beginning was the Word." What does that mean? If you're meditating on Tarot trump 0, The Fool, here again, don't do the whole thing at once. Start with the concept. What is a fool? Why is that concept suited to the beginning of the Major Arcana? 

Whatever your theme is, when you're ready to begin meditation, sit down in the position we've discussed and settle into it, neither tense nor relaxed but poised. Let go of excess tension, beginning from the top of your head and letting it drain down from there; spend about a minute at that. Then do five minutes of the Fourfold Breath, letting your mind focus solely on your breathing. Then you're ready to begin. 

Call the theme to mind. If it's verbal, repeat it silently to yourself several times. If it's an image, see it as clearly as possible in your mind's eye. In either case, hold it in your mind for a little while, and then begin thinking about it. 

Your thoughts will wander off the theme. Bring them back. They'll wander off again. Bring them back again. You'll have as much trouble keeping your mind on the theme as the practitioner of mind-emptying Asian styles of meditation has keeping thoughts at bay, and you'll develop the same skills of catching your mind wandering and bringing it back. In the intervals between these vagaries, on the other hand, you'll be learning something about the theme, and you'll also be working on the capacity for focused reflective thought, an essential human skill and one very poorly developed by most of us. 

Think about the theme for ten minutes. Then do a couple of final cycles of the Fourfold Breath, and finish. The next day, pick up another part of the theme -- "and the Word was with God" if you're doing the Christian meditation suggested above, some detail of the card if you're doing the Tarot meditation. Repeat the process. The next day, do it again, and again, and again. 

Next week we'll discuss some of the common problems and add in a few helpful tricks, but that's enough for now. Give it a try and see where it takes you.  

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

John,
Excellent advice as usual. When I engage in discursive meditation I usually discuss or debate a subject matter with ‘someone’ else. The ‘someone’ else will vary depending on the choice of subject. It didn’t start out like this, it seems to evolved into this approach over the last year and a half. I find it seems to work well for me. I don’t know if this is common or something that simply works best for me, I am quite a verbal person in the apparent world. Is this a good technique?
Regards
Averagejoe

[ecosophia]

That's one of the standard approaches -- most people find that either internal dialogue or internal monologue works best.

Thinking of themes...

[(Anonymous)]

And there I was thinking you were going to give us a theme. You mean I have to do that thinking for myself too! Shucks...
It fascinates me how much we’ve(I’ve) outsourced things - including thinking! It seems that phenomenon is what people resist most - “you mean, I need to think for my self? Forget it... Donuts”
Thanks JMG for all you’ve given here
Edward

Re: Thinking of themes...

[ecosophia]

You're welcome. Most of the job of teaching occultism consists of letting people know, usually more than once, that yes, they really do have to do the work themselves if they want to reap the benefits!

Language

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings ADJMG! Hope you and your wife are well.

Since John was written in Greek, does meditating in English change the results? Or are we returning to a pre language or meta language?

Thanks

Dashui

Re: Language

[ecosophia]

I encourage you to try it both ways and see. For what it's worth, though, people have been doing discursive meditation using texts from the King James Bible for the last four hundred years or so with good results.

Re: Language

[(Anonymous)]

I recently rid myself of the only Bible I've had since it was given to me on my 13th birthday, 33 plus years ago. Now I need a new one. I was planning on getting something other than the KJV, but it sounds like that might be the preferred version for meditation, which is what I'd mostly be doing with it. Is that what you'd recommend?

Tripp

Re: Language

[ecosophia]

The specific Bible that was recommended to me by the woman who taught me about Bible study is the Thompson "chain-reference" Bible, which has a great many useful study helps in it; it uses the King James text as its basis. That said, your mileage may vary.

[(Anonymous)]

Is this the point where the instructions diverge from what one would do for a pathworkings session?

[ecosophia]

That's correct.

[(Anonymous)]

Then tonight I shall cross the path of Shin. Wish me luck!

[ecosophia]

May the Path of the Flames be propitious to you!

[(Anonymous)]

Any advice to approaching the Mabinogion specifically through meditation? I have a copy of the Mabinogion from Penguin Classics, translated by Jeffrey Gantz, but there are many passages that are quite descriptive (so and so went to this place, etc) which I'm perhaps not reading as carefully as I should, and which don't seem as relevant for meditation. Maybe I need to re-read it...

[ecosophia]

One of the problems is that most translations don't translate the Welsh proper names, and all of those are relevant; another is that there's a lot of symbolism in the stories that isn't obvious at all. Let's take the very first bit. "Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, was lord of the seven cantrefs of Dyfed." To begin with, the name "Pwyll" means "sense" or "perception," and if you know that his son's name is Pryderi, "care" or "worry," you might just guess that this tale is about the awakening of an inner life in a person solely oriented toward the world of sense perceptions -- as indeed it is.

Dyfed is of course one of the old provinces of Wales. In these legends, the southern provinces of Wales represent the world of matter, and the northern provinces represent the realm of spirit. So Pwyll is in control in his own material sphere -- Dyfed has seven cantrefs and he's lord of all of them; according to some Druid traditions, this sevenfold symbolism also relates to a deeper magical symbolism of seven cantrefs or basic symbolic patterns, which are among other things the stations of the Sphere of Protection. So meditating on this, you can begin by considering what sense perception is, what it rules over, and how much of your life is ruled over by your own sense perceptions -- and then go from there.

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, that adds a whole layer of meaning I would have never known about, thank you. I either need to hunt one of those translations where the Welsh proper names are translated or get a Welsh dictionary!

[ecosophia]

See below!

[(Anonymous)]

It sounds like it'd be worth having to hand an exegesis of the place names and symbolism. Is there a source you'd recommend?

— different Anonymous, also working out of the Gantz translation

[(Anonymous)]

Do you know of a good translation for meditative purposes?

[(Anonymous)]

Do you recommend a way to learn those translations, apart from sitting down with Google Translate?

According to Google, "Pwyll" translates as "prudence" or "caution". But I'm relatively certain that Welsh does not fit neatly into Silicon Valley algorithms.

-Cliff

[ecosophia]

The Dolmen Arch, a forthcoming book of mine, includes the four branches with extensive footnotes. I don't have a release date for that yet, though. In the meantime, I'd suggest getting a Welsh dictionary, preferably a somewhat old one, rather than Google Translate; like all languages, Welsh changes over time, and the current language doesn't always use words the same way.

[amritarosa]

Hello JMG,

I'm glad to hear the Dolmen Arch is still in the works!

Many thanks,
Bonnie

[ecosophia]

"In the works" is the right term. It's rather past the point at which it was originally going to be published, but that's one of those things you have to get used to with small publishers.

[(Anonymous)]

I've tried to make use of bits from the Mabinogion for meditation, but I had no idea that the Welsh names were meaningful... And I also wouldn't have known about the North Wales/South Wales distinction...

I don't suppose you could be convinced to do a write up here on the Mabinogion as a spiritual text, for those of us who have either been baffled by it or else just didn't have the keys to unlocking its hidden meanings?

[ecosophia]

I'll put some thought into it. It would be a chunk of work, but might well become part of a book down the road a bit.

[amritarosa]

I would subscribe to that.

Thanks!

[(Anonymous)]

I've been getting my themes from daily life, its frustrations, and building my character bit by bit, ans it's been slow going. I will start with the Prose Edda as soon as I find it among the books-shelved-at-random on moving day. Between bad lighting in the morning and bad knees, the search has not been productive so far, but if I kept the Mabinogian and the Kalavala, can the Eddas possibly possibly be missing?

Hesiod is in there somewhere, too, and a lot harder to find. Friends, do NOT move and let other people unpack your library!

Oops!

[(Anonymous)]

I meant, "The Poetic Edda."

Off subject,

[degringolade]

But if you don't appreciate this, I don't know who would?

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-phone-conversation-between-dread-lord-nyarlathotep-and-a-minor-shoggoth-regarding-investigating-rival-great-old-one-hastur

Re: Off subject,

[ecosophia]

[LAUGHTER OF JACKALS IN AN ABYSS FILLED WITH SKULLS]

Re: Off subject,

[degringolade]

Hey: Whenever I do a post on my area that uses your thought in the body, I feel the need to tell you so that you can disavow any misunderstanding.

https://degringolade.dreamwidth.org/86732.html

I don't think that you unscreen this reply, but if there is an e-mail address where I can send stuff like this for warning and interest, then I won't have to go off topic, and I give my word I won't abuse the privilege

[(Anonymous)]

Blessings going your way. Thank you!

Meditating on four elements

[(Anonymous)]

JMG - I described some of this on the Ecosophia blog as "treatment for insomnia", but it's been both comfort and fun to conduct discursive meditation with just Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. Or, should I say (as I sometimes do): Solids, Liquids, Gases, and Plasmas. When I was a child, I was taught that simple-minded ancient people believed everything to be made up of just these four elements; "now", we know of over one hundred "elements". But we believe in solid, liquid, gas, and (recently) plasma as sufficient to describe all matter. Hmmm.

From Earth we extract solid materials for all sorts of building, from cut stone blocks to photolithography on monocrystalline silicon. Earth buries our garbage.

I drink water; my plants drink water. Water oozes out from the earth in springs and wells, flows across it in rivers, beats against it at the shore, and falls upon it from the sky (sometimes as snow). Water cleans me, and carries the waste away from my bathroom.

I breathe air from my plants; my plants breathe air from me. The air brings the clouds which bring the rain; the air carries away the smoke of my fires. The air carries the birds, the bees, and the mosquitoes.

The "fire" of the sun energizes the world. Fire heats my bathwater. Fire makes the steam that turns the turbine that makes "fire" flow through wires of copper and aluminum to cook my food. Fire burns away impurities, converting ores from the Earth into useful metals.

It just goes on and on... Many thanks.

(By the way, I say "meditating on four elements" rather than "on the four elements", because I have a sneaking suspicion that there's at least one more...)

Lathechuck