Free Wicca for Beginners by Thea Sabin Page A

journey while in a trance state.
    Meditation
    A meditation is somewhat like a prolonged visualization done under special circumstances. It’s useful in magic and self-improvement because, as I explained earlier, when you concentrate on an image while in trance, it’s easier to impress the image on your mind. Wiccans meditate on images for many reasons, including but not limited to the following:
    to exercise the mind. Because it requires holding an image in the mind for a period of time, meditation can strengthen the ability to focus and sharpen awareness.
    to do magic or heal. Both of these require concentration and visualization, which are both in turn aided by meditation and trance. Often, a Wiccan will meditate on the visualization of a goal—such as getting a new job—as part of a magical ritual to achieve that end. In addition to treating a sprained ankle medically, Wiccans may meditate on a mental image of the swelling going down. It’s common for Wiccans to light a candle and meditate to help heal a loved one who is in the hospital.
    to “set” a dream. This is sort of like a “call and response.” You use a meditation to ask your subconscious a question right before bed. Then, when you go to sleep, the subconscious answers you in a dream.
    to get psychic information. This is similar to setting a dream, except the answer comes from other sources, such as a flash of inspiration or the psychic senses.
    An Example of Using Meditation to Achieve a Goal
    The following is an example of one process a Wiccan might use to achieve a goal with meditation. This is a framework that you can alter to use in a variety of circumstances.
    Let’s say you wanted to use meditation to improve your scores on the SAT or some other big test. You might follow these steps:
    1. First, study for the test! Meditation is a powerful tool, but you must also work toward your goal on the mundane plane.
    2. Choose a safe, quiet place to meditate. Turn off the phone. Put a “Do not disturb” sign on the door. Relax.
    3. Create an image in your mind of you getting a great score on the test. This might be a mental picture of someone shaking your hand and saying congratulations or a visual of the test-score number itself. The image that has the most meaning for you will be the one that works best.
    4. Use one of the techniques from chapter 3 to ground. The taproot visualization is a great pre-meditation grounding technique.
    5. Use one of the trance techniques from this chapter to enter a slightly altered state. The candle flame or bowl of water techniques might be particularly useful for this example.
    6. Shift your consciousness from whatever technique you were using to enter the trance to the test-score image you chose. For example, if you’re staring at a candle flame, “see” your image in the flame, visualize the flame becoming your image, or slowly allow your eyes to close and visualize your image in your mind’s eye. Focus on the image. See the image become clearer. Make it real in your mind.
    7. After a time, release the image and ground.
    8. Repeat this once a day for several days to strengthen the image in your mind.
    9. You can modify this process to work on any of the goals listed previously, and more.
    Pathworking
    Now that you have a bit of experience with concentrating on a single image, you can expand that experience into a pathworking. Just as in meditation, a pathworking begins by grounding, relaxing, and entering a trance state. However, once you’ve achieved trance, instead of focusing on a single image, you allow your mind to take you on a guided journey along a path or to a destination that you chose before you began. In chapter 1, I mentioned Mircea Eliade’s work on shamanism and how the shaman uses altered states to travel on the world tree to the underworld or otherworld to get psychic or divine information. This is a form of pathworking. Wiccans use pathworking in the following ways, among others:
    to talk to the