To be perfectly honest, up until recently I've been awful at meditating. I've tried staring at candleflames, stones, visualization, you name it! But when I went to an astrologist at the NC Ren Faire in Raleigh in March, 2001, he gave me a major clue how to meditate and why the previous attempts did not work for me.

But first, let's go back and review a few basics. People meditate for various reasons. Some use it to get in tune with the Earth, some use it as a de-stresser, some use it as a way to maintain their magickal skills (like anything, magick does take practice no matter how "natural" it comes to a person), and some just like to clear their minds. But meditation also takes practice, and no one should expect to go into a deep Zen-like trance for four hours the first time s/he tries.

All of the books and articles I have read agree that you should build up your meditation time slowly. In fact, the best was to do so is to use an egg timer or other device (watch alarm, clock radio, etc.) to build up your mental endurance while keeping you from having to look at a clock and therefore breaking your meditation. If you've never tried sitting still for 10 minutes with a perfectly empty mind, you may not believe me when I say it can be difficult! So find a timer with an audible beep, ding, or other sound that will let you know when the meditation session is over. On the first session, set it for five minutes. However you choose to meditate, try to hold it for that amount of time. If you break your meditation before time is up, don't worry. Put it away for the rest of the day, and when you try it the next day (prefereably at about the same time of day--morning, afternoon, or evening--though not necessarily at the exact same hour) lower your amount of time set to however long you were able to hold it on Day 1.

You should also limit yourself to one session per day as you begin. Believe it or not, even with such a calming activity you may go into "system overload" if you go nto it too enthusiastically. You will not master meditation in one day, and that's okay. Just be patient. Up your meditation sessions by one extra minute per day. However, if you can make it to 8 miutes before breaking, but the next day can't make it to 9 minutes, go back and practice for 8 minutes again until you can easily go for that length of time. You can practice an 8 minute time period for several days in a row if you feel it necessary. Just be honest with yourself, and if you don't make it to 9 mnutes, don't just call it a fluke and skip ahead to 10 minutes. You may be able to reach 10 minutes, but if you don't, it will only become frustrating and you may give up later.

Continue this method of building time up to 30 minutes. Practice a 30-minute meditation session once a day for at least a week before moving on. I say this just to make sure you can hold it, and it gives you a new base to fall back on. For there, begin adding another minute each day, pause for a week at 45 miuntes, then again up to 60. You can keep going for however long you want. If only 30 minutes is fine for you, do it. Do what works best for you. Just be sure that when you bring yourself out of meditation, you ground yourself thoroughly. There are studies that people who spend too much time altering their brain waves in activities such as meditation or astral travel tend to lose touch with the real world. Meditation should not be used as a simple escape, but to help you deal with the world.

I have talked about building meditation, but now we move on to different types of meditation. Again, I've read about beginning with the "train of thought" meditations where you just let your mind go its merry way and you "listen in" as if you are a third person overhearing a conversation. You may also find it helpful to keep a journal to write down your experiences with meditation. When you feel you have the "train of thought" method under your belt, try moving to a single thought. For example, assume you decide to meditate on the subject, "Apple." Don't just focus on the word, but also visualize an apple, how it feels, tastes, and smells. Practice this one item until you are comfortable. Then narrow your focus again to just visualizing an apple (or whatever subject you choose.) When you are comfortable (it does take practice!) finally narrow your mind down to nothing at all. Don't think, just feel. It's harder than it seems to the beginner, but with practice it can be done. Yes, even as lousy as I am with meditation, I've gotten to that stage before.

Another method to try is to hold a stone and use it as your focus. For lack of a better phrase, try to "become one with the stone." You can do the same with staring into a fire/candle flame, looking out your window at nature, into a body/pool of water, or at an animal. These techniques tend to bring people closer to the mental state needed for scrying. See what you have around you and what works best.

Now my mind is generally pretty active (typical Gemini!) which makes it difficult to meditate for me. My brain gets into a conversation of its own which often goes something like this:

"I feel myself slipping away--yay! I'm doing it!"
"Shut up you idiot! You'll snap yourself out of it!
"But I'm getting it! I'm so close!"
"Shut up! Don't think, just feel, remember?"

So as I mentioned before, I saw an astrologist for the heck of it, and he gave me a good clue: In my natal chart, Neptune (which rules the psychic or mystical areas of your personality) is in Sagittarius (a Fire sign), and he agreed that my mind tends to be too active for a sit-down meditation. He suggested active forms of meditation with lots of repetitive motions. Activities such as jogging, rowing, martial arts, and other exercise are ideal for me. What do you know, but I had just taken up jogging a month earlier! So for using that "building" method from earlier, I would go jogging with a Walkman and my watch which had a timer on it. After getting warmed up, I would set the timer, turn off the music, and jog in silence for my time period. It worked a lot better than starting out with sitting on my bed in the dark! But in the meantime, the other forms of meditation became easier, too, because I was training my mind in the same manner.

In the same manner as exercise, there are other activities that people find good for meditation. Journal writing, sewing, painting/drawing, gardening, and even day dreaming are a few ways to clear your mind and relax. Meditation does not necessarily have to take the form of chanting wordlessly in dark rooms.

Experiment with different techniques and keep your mind open to the idea that a favorite activity can be a form of meditation. You may want to consider taking a yoga or martial arts class, or even investing in a guided meditation tape. (You can even make tapes of your own by recording yourself as you invent or read off a guided meditation.) Don't give up, though--sooner or later you'll come across a method that works best for you.