Tag: Religious text

The Daily OM for Feb. 17th – Connecting with the Divine

Connecting with the Divine
Puja

by Madisyn Taylor

Performing a Hindu puja ritual is a wonderful way to experience direct communication with the divine.

Forging a spiritual connection with the divine is the ultimate goal of many forms of worship. In our devotions, we transcend the limitations of our humanity using prayers, rituals, and invocations, or we seek the celestial in sacred items such as statuary, imagery, or natural objects. In the Hindu tradition, worshipers bond with the divine through the puja ritual. The purpose of the ritual is to create an atmosphere in which humans and spiritual beings can enjoy communion with one another. Though participants show reverence for their chosen deities, puja serves to bring the former and the latter together on an energetic level. Performing a puja ritual is thus a wonderful way to experience direct communication with the divine.

There are no limits as to whom may serve as the focal point of your puja. You need only choose a spirit guide to commune with and an object to represent them. Preparing for the puja ritual, however, can take some time, depending on the number of devotional acts you will perform. A classic puja includes 16 acts, including meditation, chanting, the reading of sacred texts, offerings of food and drink, and cleansing. You may also wish to present gifts of incense, flowers, and jewelry during the ritual. An altar or table covered by an altar cloth provides space for the representation of the divine and the seat of the puja. To begin, prepare your offerings and place them to the right of the altar. Then center yourself and release any stress you may feel—the puja is meant to be a joyful experience. Typically, the ritual begins with the ringing of a bell and an invitation, and progresses from chanting to the cleansing and dressing of the deity to the offerings to meditation. You can modify your puja in any way you wish.

Though the elaborate puja rituals performed in Hindu temples take place at sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight, puja performed in the home primarily takes place in the mornings and evenings. When your intention is to invite your spiritual guides into your home and heart, however, the time of day matters little. With practice, you will create a direct path to spiritual oneness that allows you to experience an amazing sense of closeness that reinforces your connection with the divine.

The Daily OM

Enhanced by Zemanta

Let’s Talk Witch – Using Sacred Texts

Let’s Talk Witch – Using Sacred Texts

The Koran, the Bible and other books are perceived as having inherent magickal power because they are sacred texts. Sacred texts are not restricted to monotheistic faiths.

The works of Homer and Virgil, the Indian Vedas, and the Chinese I-Chingor Book of Changes are allconsidered sacred texts. The crucial question, in terms of successful spellcasting is “are any of those texts sacred foryou?” Sacred texts by definition, are so inherently charged with baraka and heka that, like a saint from beyond the grave, anyone may access that power. However, magick is both in the transmitter and the receiver, it is a reciprocal process. The most powerful sacred texts for you are those that you perceive as sacred. If your sacred texts are Broadway show tunes or doo-wop songs, then incorporate them into your spells in the same manner that you would any other sacred text.

Methods for the magickal use of psalms and sacred texts include:

*Whispering texts over a cup of water, which is then given to someone to drink(although the spell-caster may also desire to drink it, depending on the purpose of the spell.)

*Writing texts down on paper, then dissolved in liquid and drunk(by the spell-caster or the person of the spell: this derives from ancient Egyptian methods.)

*Wearing them as amulets, for empowerment and to transmit constant, considered magick energy.

*Tracing them on an apple with a pin; depending on the nature of the spell the apple is then eaten by the spell-caster of feed to the person the spell is intended for.

What do the elements mean?

What do the elements mean?

 

The Guardians are the 4 corners Earth, Air, Fire, and Water

Air: Compass point: East. Number: 1.

Represents intellect, communication, knowledge, concentration; the ability

to “know” and to understand; to unlock secrets of the dead; to contact the

angels; telepathy, memory and wisdom; the hawk, the raven and the eagle;

prophecy; movement, Karma and speed

 

Fire: Compass point: South. Number 3 .

Stands for energy, purification, courage, the will to dare,creativity;

higher self; success and refinement; the arts and transformation; the lion,

the phoenix and the dragon; loyalty and force.

 

Water: Compass point: West. Number: 2 .

Associated with intuition, emotions, the inner self, flowing movement, the

power to dare and cleanse all things; sympathy and love; reflection;

currents and tides of life; the dolphin, the swan and the crab; dreams and

Dreamtime.

 

Earth: Compass point: North. Number: 4.

Mystery and growth, fertility, material abundance, the combined forces of

nature and its bounty; birth and healing; business, industry and

possessions; the bear, the stag and the wolf; conservation and nature.

If you call all four at once you always call East, South, West, North.

After you call them and do what you need with them, you must dismiss them

just the opposite as you call them.

Today’s Affirmation, Thought & Meditation for February 20th

Have a Good, Great Week Pictures, Images, Comments, Graphics
Today’s Affirmation

I am lighthouse rather than lifeboat. I do not rescue, but instead help others to find their own way to shore, guiding them by my example.

 

Today’s Thought

I have give you words of vision and wisdom more secret than hidden mysteries. Ponder them in the silence of your soul, and then in freedom do your will.

Bhagavad Gita (1st or 2nd Century)

 

Today’s Meditation

Dressage

This is a disciplined form of horse-riding in which the horse responds sensitively to the rider’s wishes. The object is to achieve harmony between horse and rider. Imagine yourself as a dressage rider:  focused and present, you engage n seamless communication with your horse. Translate this into your relations with yourself. Be at one with yourself, full aware and able to choose how you respond to the world in each moment.