Archive for March, 2010

49 Days to Mend the Soul

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

This 49 days is a Jewish practise that begins at the start of Passover. It’s connected with the Tree of Life, which is why I’m doing it, and for each of the 49 days one takes an aspect of the lower 7 sephiroth (the first being the Chesed of Chesed, then the Geveruh of Chesed and so on) and meditates on it, as a reflection on one’s own being.

David Cooper has something about it on his website, but Simon Jacobson has outlined the whole 49 days and their meditations: www.meaningfullife.com

The idea is to spend 10 or 15 minutes meditating/thinking on the aspect, then come back to it briefly (but many times) throughout the day and then write two to three lines about it in a Journal. One of the tricks is to remember that these days begin at sunset - so each day is counted from sunset through to sunset - not unlike the Celtic idea of a ‘day’ being born out of a ‘night’ (the Celts also began their festival days at what we might think of as sunset of the previous day).

My own relationship with Chesed is a little vexed - I’ve just spent 4 weeks in it, waiting for connection to happen - I have achieved some understanding, though possibly not the conventional one - but no real emotional alignment with it… I understand (more) its role in regards to the lower seven sephiroth on the Tree. So its interesting that on my last 24 hours in this position I get to meditate on the Chesed of Chesed - the intricacies of the complexities… (the 49 days is not actually meant to be so academic, I am supposed to be meditating on the generosity of my soul).

Aphrodite in High Heels

Sunday, March 28th, 2010

The online magazine of the High Heeled Guide to Enlightenment just published an author interview with me, amongst their other interesting articles!

http://web.mac.com/alicegrist/Alice_Grist/Magazine/Entries/2010/3/26_Jane_Meredith_-_Author_Interview.html

Also up there are articles on the Fear of Feeling and Relationship Coaching! The magazine and site spring off from Alice Grist’s book, High Heeled Guide to Enlightenment, described as:  the must have book for females who are looking to connect to something other than their internet provider! Alice Grist jumps stilettos first into all things spiritual and conjures up an entertaining, witty and honest account of her search for Enlightenment.

Elemental Balancing

Friday, March 26th, 2010

At the Autumn Equinox Ritual we did an elemental balancing… because Equinoxes are ideal times for creating inner and external balance, whichever hemisphere you are in! Just think, the whole planet could experience balance, just for one day/night…

I found myself needing balance from Water - although I love being IN water (ie the river) and I’m fine with other people’s emotions, I think the depth and unpredictablility of this element have meant that I’ve left it til last, on my own Elemental journey… time to swing the focus in that direction.

I’ve written up the instructions for how to do this ritual yourself (or with a group of friends, or family) as part of my Equinox e-zine. You can find it at: http://www.janemeredith.com/espell.htm

(well, it will be there until the end of April, anyway - after that, the link above will lead to a new spell or ritual!)

Cassandra by Christa Wolf

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

I’m reading a Virago Modern Classic - Cassandra by Christa Wolf, first published in 1984. The first half of it is a stream-of-consciousness following Cassandra’s life up to the current hour - the last hour of her life. It takes a while to get into this story, because the events are all in the narator’s past, but the sense of Troy as a doomed city, Cassandra as a sensitive truth-teller and warning bell amongst those who don’t want to or aren’t able to listen becomes compelling.

For those familiar with the myth, it has some interesting twists - for example that Helen is not at Troy (so they can’t give her back, even if they wanted to) - that Paris won her only to lose her almost immediately to the Egyptian court. And everyone knows this - the Greeks know it as well. So they are pursuing the war for their trade purposes of shipping lanes on this impossible premise - that unless Helen is returned to them, they will destroy Troy.

The second half of the book is composed of essays (sometimes more like diary entries) from Christa Wolf’s early grappling with the myth and her journey in Greece. There is a potent thread of her East German background in the late 70s/early 80s and the parallel with Cassandra’s prophesies - that as a writer, no-one really wants to hear. I recommend the book for those interested in the telling of mythology, and the journey of story.

Aphrodite Moments

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

A few days ago I was getting ready to swim in the river - it is cold now, which means no-one is about so I was going in naked. Just standing at the edge of the water, in amongst trees and birds, sky and flowing water I felt suddenly beautiful - as if my body was inestimably beautiful, I was suddenly it - even though the last three or four times I had done this exact same thing in the exact same place I had been feeling clumsy, self-conscious and too big, white, fleshy…

Last night lying in bed on the edge of distress I imagined Aphrodite - her being, as if she could dance through my emotions and transform them - and I felt her - I realised she had no heart, no skin, no flesh but I was her - my heart was the heart of Aphrodite, my skin was Aphrodite’s skin, I wore her body… I literally was a living aspect of Aphrodite, in that moment of invoking her and awareness of her.

Aphrodite’s Magic Book Launch - DATE CHANGE

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

Aphrodite’s Magic: Celebrate and Heal Your Sexuality by Jane Meredith will be launched at Mary Ryan’s Books in Byron Bay on Friday MAY 21 at 5:30pm. - PLEASE NOTE, change of date!!

Launching the book will be Patricia Corner, Convener of the Australian Goddess Conference. All welcome!

Links:  To look at Aphrodite’s Magic: http://www.o-books.com/obookssite/book/detail/565

To pre-order Aphrodite’s Magic on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Aphrodites-Magic-Celebrate-Heal-Sexuality/dp/1846942861/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268353020&sr=8-1

To join the Facebook Fan Page of Aphrodite’s Magic: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aphrodites-Magic-Celebrate-and-Heal-Your-Sexuality/106540680755

Love Song by Alex Miller

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

This is a beautiful, beautiful book by an author I believe has become a major Australian writer. For me, it didn’t go wrong anywhere - the tone, structure and characters carrying the story so softly and fatally it felt entirely complete. The delicacy and complexity with which he’s written this family’s story almost enhance its underlying ordinariness - the kind of subtle shifts in relationship and character that occur over many years so they are almost invisible until a major fall-out - yet here documented with vivid grace.

Two of Miller’s previous books I especially liked - Journey to the Stone Country for its rich landscapes (inner and outer) and Landscape of Farewell - both ‘big’ books compared with Love Song, tackling issues of race and belonging and betrayal in Australian history and character. Stone Country was a little sprawling, though personally I preferred it to the neater, more stylised Landscape but in Love Song he has captured a microcosm of relationship, like a perfect poem. There was one stage when I was reading it when I literally forgot it was written by a man, his writing of the woman character was so within her and identifiable to me, and that has literally almost never happened to me.

Energy Raising

Monday, March 8th, 2010

In our third Essence of Magic Class we focused on Energy Raising, trying out different methods and finding what suited us… We experimented with rattling, chanting, dancing and raising a cone of power.

Different things suit different people but I think it’s an essential part of magic and ritual. It’s kind of putting yourself on the line - more than just bringing focus or intent, it is throwing one’s whole being into it. And hopefully, at some moment, one slips over the line of self-consciousness into oneness with the chant, the dance… the intent, the magic itself and it starts to happen.

It’s as if each step - Casting a Circle, calling an intent, invocations, raising energy allows us to take one further step into the magical realms - and hopefully we are ambushed by it, a state of immenence, of co-creation, of magical flow… and for a few seconds we hold the threads of the webs of our own lives in our hands and can turn them, one way or another… or just observe them.

In the Garden

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Gardening is often the most vexing, exhausting and sometimes demoralising hour of my whole day. Today I sweated for an hour - inbetween showers of torrential rain - in a section of garden I had already planted out a couple of months ago. This section is on a steep slope and with some wind, plus all this rain, a lot of the cardboard mulching I had carefully laid around the small plants in a jigsaw fashion - locking each piece into the next so they wouldn’t shift around too much - had been washed away entirely, down to the bottom of the hill, suffocating some plants and leaving others exposed for the bush turkeys and bandicoots to try to dig up. (Not sure why they want to dig them up, but they do.)

About two or three thousand weeds had taken advantage of this temporary absence of mulch to get started up and grow ferociously fast. Digging down and uncovering the burried plants, then remulching almost the entire slope, dealing with weeds as I went has been slippery, exhausting and not that rewarding (so far). Someone once said to me that gardening is my form of therepy - that is, I experience all my emotions about my life in the garden.

It’s true that sometimes (not today) being in the garden can be very beautiful - hearing and seeing the birds all around and being part of the fertile-growing-shaping experience of the garden. Watching the things I’ve planted thrive, grow, flower and take over their own patches of ground is wonderful and I’m very grateful to those that are big enough not to need more than an occasional quick weed around the edges. But sometimes it’s just all too much.

Casting Circles

Monday, March 1st, 2010

In the second class of Essence of Magic we practised Casting Circles… and Casting them and Casting them and Casting them… (by the end we were standing in about 14 Circles). We used energy and touch, sounding and movement, rattling and traditional calling-to-the-quarters.

It was noted how the shift from ceremonial magic to pagan/earth-centred magic has changed the emphasis in casting a Circle - we are no longer so concerned with keeping various energies IN and OUT of our circles, but more focused on creating a sacred space and recognising elementals and aspects of Goddess that we consider present anyway, whether we acknowledge them or not… but in chosing to acknowledge them, we hope to bring them more stongly into our consciousness and align with them more closely.

Casting a whole variety of different Circles, in different ways, is a good method of finding out what works for you or your group. Some people or groups like to follow a standard format each time, others like to experiment or develop something unique for that moment and purpose. I don’t believe there are any correct, or better ways - just what words for you, in allowing you to step through the mundane world into the sacred and magical (or inner) worlds… practising feeling that energy shift is the main thing, however you get there!