Deborah Lipp

Often these meditations are guided imagery. I take you on a visual journey. Sometimes, I give you affirmation-type meditation, where you reinforce a goal or concept in a meditative state. Sometimes, a meditation creates a feeling-state, a transformation of consciousness.

Another kind of meditation is meditating on a thought, with the goal of attaining insight or understanding. I cannot call this “insight meditation” because that is a very specific thing, but the idea is to create meditative insight rather than just “thinking it over.”

A homework assignment I often give my students involves meditating on an element. But to do this in meditation is not the same as “thinking it over.” You’re not wracking your brain on “What is Air?” and searching for the right answer. Instead, you allow the concept and question to move through your meditative state. Like this:

Ground and center.

Imagine Air. Air is around you. Notice what it is like. Just observe it, and notice qualities as they appear to you. Notice any thoughts you have about Air. Follow these thoughts down whatever windy path they take, bringing yourself back only when you’ve left the topic of Air behind.

That’s really it. Observation, reflection, following stray trains of thought while using a focused state to bring that train back when it takes a sider too far. Often, I start such a meditation by stating my question aloud (like “What is Air?”). There’s no “thinking about” in the sense of working your brain, it’s just bringing the possibility of insight into your consciousness.

I like to use this technique when doing ritual chores, like when cleaning up after ritual or polishing my pentagram. It keeps the mundane chores sacred and often opens my mind to new observations.

You can use this kind of reflection on any problem. Remember: Don’t worry over the problem, simply observe it and see what you learn.