The stag seems to be following me of late. I see him as a friendly entity. You might know him as Cernunnos, Herne or a form of the Wild Man of the Wood. In natural history, the Red Stag (or Bull Elk to North Americans) is a powerful figure, bent on procreation above all else. Metaphysically, or metaphorically, I see him as representing fatherhood and therefore a deep creative impulse. A primal urge to make something, to bring forth a representation of ones deepest being as a gift to the future.

The Red Stag came up in a reading I did recently. Here is part of what I wrote about him in that reading -

Celtic languages speak of imbas or of awen. Words that might be explained, if not exactly translated, by other words such as breath, inspiration, muse, impulse, enlightenment and so on. Where does this come from? Although I have no firm answers, I think it's an important question. The answers may lie in each person's belief system. God ... some particular god or goddess ... the soul ... the psyche ... ancestral memory. This inspiration, literally a breath blowing into us, and giving us life, is asking us to operate on a higher plane - to bring that which is beautiful to light, to be shared.

I've noticed that many people are worried about opening the door to awen in the form of meditation, or something like a card reading. Yet it is only a chance for a deeper version of a familiar experience. The experience of being moved by nature or art, the experience of creating something meaningful or of knowing something greater than ourselves. While you have probably experienced all these things in a very pleasurable way, you may have also experienced them as challenging at times. They may allow us to feel or release deep emotions, make us aware of our mortality, cause us to question our beliefs or simply to expend effort. However, we call the shots. We can walk out of the theatre if the movie is too graphic, or stay in our own garden rather than have an extreme wilderness experience, we can enjoy the creativity of raising kids, rather than painting the ceiling of the Sistine chapel.

When we meditate, we try in some way to de-clutter our thoughts. Whether we strive for an "empty" mind or a focused one, we are surely opening ourselves to imbas, as well as simply de-stressing. Fifteen minutes on the meditation cushion is unlikely to bring either nirvana nor terror, however, it could be the start of something good. It could be the start of enlightenment. It could become a chance for a regular visit to an island of peace, and a chance to begin to carry a little more peace within.

When I do a reading for someone, we are both opening ourselves to a high level of inspiration. How deep this experience goes depends partly on my skill and intention in delivering a reading. Once it is placed in your hands, though, it becomes your responsibility. You get to call the shots. You can take it lightly, with a grain of salt, if it doesn't suit you, or you can over think it to such a degree that it drives you a little nuts. (I hope you don't do that, of course!) I hope that it becomes a little piece of awen that moves through me to you. I hope that it inspires your life in some great ways, but you have to take it, and make it yours and work with it for this to happen. I do believe that this is another reason that you have nothing to fear from a reading. You deal with the material in your own time, on your own terms.

For my personal daily card draw I have my meditation and prayer cards shuffled in with my oracle deck. Today, this card came up. I thought it was interesting and appropriate, with all the thinking and writing I have been doing about the Cailleach and Bride. At the winter solstice, this card felt particularly appropriate, with the short days, and so on. However, it feels equally appropriate now, at Imbolc, with its theme of the natural cycles of death and rebirth in nature and in our lives. Looking at the cycles of nature and of the seasons we can all have certainty of rebirth to come.

Meditation and Prayer cards are available in the webshop at this link

Introduction
This is the third of three visions I had in meditation recently. These may have partly been the result of saying a prayer which is addressed to the three deities Brigid, Manannán and Epona - I don't know. However since the first two visions concerned Brigid and Manannán I couldn't help but half expect to have a vision concerning Epona in the third meditation. I tried to keep my mind out of the way, so to speak, but I admit that it was more difficult this time, as I had an expectation which was difficult to suppress. If you are coming in in the middle of this series, and I'm not making things clear, then you might like to read the introduction to part one here.

I went to the beach once again in meditation. It got very dark. Storm? Nightfall? Of course, I thought, based on the prayer, that I "should" have a vision of Epona. Hmmmm...

At some point I remember thinking/saying that I would really like to see those forests and pastures I saw from afar in the first vision, with Bride. We went somewhere like that, briefly. It was full of colour and also full of predators and she struck at them with her forelegs in anger.

Everything went black. We were going down into a deep tube or tunnel. I couldn't see/feel anything, it was hard to stay "present". I think it was the terror/bliss of loss of control. This went on for a long time. I sensed that I wasn't alone. She was still there, but I must face it alone. Dark. Black. Emptiness. A feeling that it would split me in two. Power - energy - terror - bliss - death - birth all in one.

Finally it became lighter. I saw a red orange swirling stuff. Are we deep in the earth? I long for the surface, for plants, soil, water - but she is only concerned with energy!

~ ~ ~

I came out at this point. I think I was trying to make a landscape in which to exist, and when I saw it, it was devoid of biological life. However, I believe that this was the work of my mind and I stopped there.

Thinking on this, Epona doesn't bring us baskets of fruit or grain. She isn't a horse, or a woman -- She is an aspect of the earth itself. Perhaps She is the earth. The animating force, the energy without which life is not possible.

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Introduction
This is the second of three visions I had in meditation. To read more about how this came to be, you can read the introduction to part 1. While I don't really see this as poetry, it just flowed in this format.

"This," He tells me
"Is part of you
For your land
Was once under the sea
Now you mourn
Salt without water
The bleached bones"

And I see
When He rises from the water
He becomes that robed
And bearded Father
On His sacred island
He is thus

And now He shows me
How His waters will rise
And the earth will be whole
And the land will recede
And the people of the land
Will turn on one another
And thus reduce their numbers
And the earth will be whole
But never the same
For the sea is ever-changing

artist: Osnat Tzadok

Out of this vision , in my "rational" mind I think more and more how foolish we are, how inflated in our sense of our abilities to think that we can "protect" Gaia from our kind. And if we're honest, we don't do it for Her, we are just trying to preserve our real estate, our playground, things we feel sentimental about, our way of life.

There is not one thing we have made which did not come from the earth - the concrete and glass, the rusting metal. We ripped it all from her breast, and when we push too far, a great change will come. Our plastic and trash and destruction will somehow be re-shaped as nothing more than strange deposits of minerals and organic material, and what is left of our race, if anything - will we be as the Fomorians or as the Tuatha Dé Danann? Or maybe Manannán's children this time?

As I typed this from my handwritten notes just now, I also remembered that Manannán is the trickster, killing and re-animating the men of the fortress to make a point, as if it's nothing.

Continue to part 3...

Here are some tales of Manannán in His role as trickster-teacher.

Introduction
In meditation, like many other people, I have constructed through imagination a place. In my case, I take a ritual walk to a beach where often I enter at a door, to be greeted by a mysterious and kindly nun-like figure. She guides me through a beautiful spiral building to where I have something like an apartment of rooms, where I may meditate or meet guides and Gods. I may also go outdoors into a magical world. At other times, having reached the beach, I may choose to remain out of doors where I have also had many literally wonder-full experiences.

Most of the experiences, or visions, have felt quite personal. I may have shared them with a few friends. However, very recently I had three visions which I feel compelled to share. I don't claim that they necessarily contain any great message for humanity. I don't claim anything. They are what I saw when I meditated. Are they just the product of my imagination, or something more? I leave that to the reader to decide. Maybe it's not important to answer this. However, I feel that they did not come simply from my imagination. I feel that there is more to this - but I make no claim beyond "I feel". When the great Christian mystics had their visions, they were often in the awkward position of being accused of heresy or insanity. As a Pagan, I have no pope or bishop to approach for permission to publish, no panel of inquisitors. In this day, I am more likely to be accused of the heresy of belief. Ah, well!

I was on land again with the Lady, and she showed me the beautiful woods and pastures not far inland, where black horses ran and frolicked - and she said that this was for me.

Next she showed me that my body/spirit is a shrine, and this was represented by a kind of gothic chapel. She gave me a bright candle and showed me how this one bright light is all I need to illuminate this space.

I puzzled a little about Bride, Manannán, Epona - which goddess is earth, which is sky? I don't really think that the question can be answered but I understand that Bride is pure light.

Continue to part 2...

Update: You might enjoy this video I made about Bride, and Imbolc.

I love the way the world of meditation has opened up over the past few decades. I am old enough to remember the excitement, back in the 1960s, when "Transcendental Meditation" (or TM) became popular after the Beatles discovered the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. There was a lot of secrecy and controversy it at the time. One thing is for sure, though, it brought the idea that meditation might be a good thing to the average westerner.

I never learned TM, but by the early 1980s I did take my first meditation class. It was an evening class at a local community college, taught by a lovely young woman, who assured us that there were many paths to the meditative state. We explored a number of different approaches, so that each person could find out what worked best for them. I love variety, and I'm so glad that this was my first experience with meditation. Over the years, I have not been a particularly consistent meditator, but I have never abandoned meditation altogether for very long, either.

Of course, meditation is such a broad concept, that several people can use the word and mean quite different things. Meditation might mean trying to empty your mind or to focus on one thing - such as an idea or something like a candle flame. It might mean deeply contemplating something, being mindful and aware from moment to moment, or repeating a mantra. It might even involve an activity like walking or singing. Then there is guided meditation.

Guided meditation can also mean a few different things, but basically means that someone takes you through a particular meditative practice using words. This might be simple guidance on how to quiet your mind and relax your body, or it might be an elaborately scripted inner journey involving a detailed visualisation.

Books may also contain instructions for self-guided meditation. Sometimes, people like to record these for their own use by reading them aloud, but many of them are simple enough to read through and remember how to do, especially if you do them a few times in a row. I have learned some of my favourite meditations from books. Like many things, this may depend on your learning style, but I would say that it's good to have a few meditation techniques that you can draw on, so that you don't always need to rely on an audio device.

You may wonder how listening to someone talk can be a form of meditation at all. It sounds a bit too easy, like a gimmick. There isn't an easy answer to this. Many traditional meditation practices involve time spent sitting in silence, or perhaps chanting. These are very valid approaches, and useful to many people. They can create a great deal of inner peace, mental discipline and order. Of course, many of these ways of meditation are taught to newcomers through verbal guidance, until the student is ready to "fly solo." The more modern concept of incorporating guided imagery or visualisation can be a little "fluffy" or insubstantial at times, but it still offers many of the benefits of relaxation and mental focus that other forms of meditation do, and has an advantage of being themed to suit the needs of the moment.

There is plenty of evidence that meditation is a beneficial practice, both to the mind and the physical body. This study by MIT is on how meditation helps people ignore chronic pain, but I think it also give a clear idea of how it helps us ignore all kinds of distracting things in our lives - from mental "pain" to manipulative advertising and annoying people! Here are two more articles - one from the Mayo clinic, and another from Psychology Today.

But do all types of meditation benefit us equally? No, probably not. Or at least, the benefits will be of different kinds. However, quieting your mind and relaxing for a few minutes will have more benefits than you think, right off the bat. If you meditate frequently (not necessarily even for very long in a session) those benefits will really accrue, partly because you will get better at it, and partly because you will gain a little more control over your mind. Control which you can begin to apply when you need it - whether in stressful situations or to aid concentration and focus.  Each meditation session will probably slow your heart rate and breathing, lower your blood pressure a little and have other good physical effects.

If all your meditation practice is based on the more traditional "quiet (or empty) mind" stuff, while the benefits may be immense, you may also miss out on some of the good things that guided imagery has to offer. In balance, if all you do is listen to a guided imagery MP3 every evening, you will also benefit - probably more or less depending on the quality of what you listen to. Hopefully you will also be learning to relax and stay focused, plus whatever other content your choices of listening are offering you, but if there is no period of quiet built in to the meditation, you may not be gaining much skill to meditate by yourself. If you have tried one kind of meditation and it hasn't worked, rather than give up, try something different.

If a quiet, more traditional, style of meditation hasn't worked for you in the past, try something that is a little more active - mindfullness, walking meditation or yoga might work better for you. If learning from a book didn't work, maybe going to a class will. If you don't want to spend money or leave the house - there's loads of stuff on YouTube.  If you don't like the first guided meditation you listen to, shop around! There are voices you will like the sound of, and some that may grate on you, just as there will be content that appeals to you and some that doesn't. Just begin somewhere!

Many people avoid meditation because they are afraid it won't work for them! They are afraid that they, of all people, just won't be able to do it. Well you can, and if you feel like you can't then I would say that guided meditation of some type, or taking a class, is the easy way in! Keep it simple at first. Choose a class that is definitely for beginners or recordings that are not overly long and involved. Definitely don't get hung up on whether you're "doing it right". You might want to look at it more as a form of recreation (which it should be) rather than putting labels on it like "spiritual practice". Also, if you have concerns about silencing your thoughts, because they might be blocking out things you are not ready to deal with, a guided meditation that simply takes you somewhere nice and relaxing and "recreational" will be perfect for you.

As I said earlier in this piece, some of the techniques that I fall back on the most are ones that I learned quite quickly from a book or that someone just told me about. They are uncomplicated and appeal to me because they are portable and they work. This is why I created the little guided meditation cards that I sell in the shop. I originally began making them for myself, knowing that I could salt them around the house or carry them around with me. The instructions for each meditation are right on the back of the card, but after doing these meditations a couple of times they are easy to remember, anyway. The great thing about them is that they remind me to actually take action! They are pretty and I enjoy picking them up and looking at them, and that also makes it easy to stop for five or ten minutes and actually use them.

I don't claim to be an expert on meditation, but I am always happy to help people if I can, so if you have a question about this topic, don't be shy about leaving a comment or contacting me.

Can I just admit, upfront, that I find it hard to explain the things I have to offer? I don't like to be pushy, but on the other hand, I need people to buy things - and these cards are only $3 each. So here is my very own "info-mercial", because if you don't know what I'm offering, and you don't know whether it's something you might like, we both lose.

Meditation and other spiritual practice should be a joy, not a duty. These cards can really help you get into the habit of doing a little meditation on a regular basis. They were a joy to create, and I really want to share them with people. That's why it was important to me to make them affordable.

Click here to buy cards.

One of these could look great on your desk, your fridge door or your bedside table. So is it just like a postcard? Oh, no no no! The front of the card is just the beginning...The back of each meditation card has a simple, short and clear meditation that you can easily do. There are two with nature themes (one is designed to do while going for a walk), another is great for worry and anxiety, there's one with repetitive phrases that's helpful if your mind tends to wander when you meditate, and one to do at the end of the day - to help you create a better tomorrow.

There are also prayer cards. One is a bedtime blessing of the household, taken directly from the Carmina Gadelica (a collection of traditions from the Scottish highlands) and the other is a charm for the protection of horses, which I adapted from the same source. The backs of these cards feature a little cultural background material, and some thoughts for bringing them into the modern lifestyle. The bedtime prayer is addressed to "The Sacred Three" which could mean the Triple Goddess or the Holy Trinity. It could easily be changed to suit your beliefs. The protection charm is addressed to Epona, the Celtic goddess of horses. If you love horses, you will love the beauty of the poetry in this one.

Click any picture to enlarge.

Did I mention that these cards are only $3 each?
Flat rate shipping ($3 US/$5 elsewhere) - no surprises at the checkout!
The cards are even less expensive if you buy them in sets.

Even if you only find time to meditate occasionally, these cards should help and encourage you. However, regular practice has its benefits. Several of these cards are well suited to the end of the day, and if that's the only time you can find, it's definitely worth it. You will sleep better, if nothing else! These are short enough to complete when you are tired, without it feeling like a chore.

I just finished creating a meditation card based on a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

    "We ask for long life, but 'tis deep life, or noble moments that signify. Let the measure of time be spiritual,  not mechanical."

In the meditation we are invited to review our day and think about the moments which felt most noble and deep to us.  There is no right or wrong in deciding which are the noble moments in life, and which are mechanical. Many activities could fall into either category, depending on the spirit we bring to them in the moment. I know that for me, most of my deep and noble moments involve either nature, spiritual practice or relationships.





                                                              "The Sun Had Closed the Winter's Day" by Joseph Farquharson
                                                                              A noble moment, surely, for both shepherd and sheep - and the dog!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Among the relationships I really value in life are my relationships with animals. I have horses, cats and a dog - and while I'm not the kind of person who says "I prefer animals to people", I suppose I put humans and animals I'm close to on a pretty equal footing. Of course, relationships of any kind can be hard work. They require a good deal of partnership, mutual respect and compromise if they are to be a true joy to both parties. From the human viewpoint, we need to understand that just as with human relationships, love alone isn't always enough (or love and food!).

In human relationships, we understand that each individual is unique, with their own dreams and their own particular needs. That's true with animals, too, but what humans often miss is the importance of the needs of different species. We can understand pretty easily that Prince is frightened of strangers, that Fluffy is argumentative or that Blackie is kind of lazy. What we as humans fail to make sense of is that cats, ponies and parrots are each hard wired by thousands of years of genetics to respond to their fear of strangers in a way unique to their species, or to have an argument for entirely different reasons!

I love reading books on how wild animals live, and books by those animal training gurus who understand that the key to unlocking the minds of our domestic pets often lies in knowing what motivates their wild counterparts.  I would encourage everyone who is around animals to delve into this stuff. There is a lot to learn. However, it isn't always easy. The experts rarely agree on the best way to house train cats or teach mice to do tricks, or what motivates wild wolves to accept a new pack leader.  Even if they did, as humans we find it difficult to step outside our human perception of our animals as human children. We are seriously challenged when we try to think and behave more like a wise mustang or an Alpha wolf. 

We can gain so much wisdom from nature that it's always worth trying to understand how our animal friends need to be treated through that filter, but sometimes the things animals do - or won't do - can be very perplexing, frustrating and even downright dangerous. If you've bothered to read this far, I'm pretty sure that sometime in your life you've lost sleep over animal behaviour, or struggled to progress in your relationships with certain animals. So maybe this is where I can help you.

My oracle readings are all about going to a deeper level of things. Going beneath the mechanical layers to insight, to feelings or spiritual promptings, to intuition. It works for understanding situations where words fail. It's helpful when we need to see things from a different angle in order to see them at all. Perfect for human-animal relationships. So this summer I decided to experiment, and did a number of free readings for people and their animal friends. Based on the feedback, I'd say it was a success - but verbal feedback is of little use when working with animals.

However, I can tell you that -
- one German Shepherd is now enjoying dog agility with a lady who hadn't seen that coming!
- another lady discovered that her beloved cat wasn't aloof, just meditating on the wonder of their lives together.
- and a young mare is finally being happily ridden out by her owner into the beautiful wide world.

To arrange a reading, or ask a question, you can send me a message here.
~ Kris

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