Me with just a few more meditation/trance questions...

[Tranquility]

Lately since i have been meditating a lot and doing the exercises recommended i obviously have been seeing different effects.. some of these are about meditation some not from reading..
1) When you call upon the 4 directions or use candles for the appropriate color, some traditions have different colors, i always read that for air, yellow, in spiral dance it says in the faery tradition they practice white... which should i use?
2) they say that the altars face north... do the altars face north, but YOU face east when performing rituals?
3) When you can visualize constantly and efficiently when you do a meditation for no purpose just for practice, should you just create a scene as elaborate as you can?
4) SHould you always ground and center before a meditation? Im assuming yes
5) When you see yourself in a meditation visualizing white light, or certain exercises, should you be in first or third person.. For one exercise tying a knot with visualization is says to be 1st person... for the dumping problems in a well i watch myself walk away, for grounding and centering becoming a tree i see myself transform into the tree
6) Also.. When i did a candle exercise, where it increased focus and conentration and with sensing energy, when i looked at the candle after about 4 minutes i got deeply into a trance... For the next 3 minutes my brother said i did not blink once because he was watching me, and when i got really into the trance most of the things around me except the candle turned darker, and i could sense the energy of everything around me.. it was really interesting and wierd... If it was a notebook or book, i could sense the color, the energy given off by each color or element it was made of was different... is this suppost to happen.. or what im asking is what IS happening?? lol

[Jenett]

1) [colors for elements] The trad I'm learning uses the fairly standard colors - yellow for east/air, red for south/fire, blue for west/water, and green for north/earth.

I'd suggest doing some research, and figuring out how the color choices you're looking at fit into other areas of your ritual work/correspondances, if you're not working in a specific tradition.

Looking at what other traditions do might help - but especially things like the Faerie tradition may have very different takes on it that might not fit well with the rest of your ritual style. (even though they do make sense within that specific tradition.)

2) [which way to face]

The group I work with, our main altar is in the north, with quarter altars at each compass direction. When doing something, you face the direction that's appropriate. Therefore, if you're doing something at the main altar, you face north. If you're calling east, you face east, south for south, and west for west.

3) [practice visualisation]

That depends on what you want to work on. There are other things you might want to focus on in practice than elaborate - for example, you might focus on making tiny details be clear, or on a specific sense.

4) [grounding and centering before meditation]

I'm a big fan of regular grounding and centering. I don't think it's completley necessary before meditation (I do think it's vital before ritual or any energy work) but .. it's not going to take you long. Why not do it?

5) [first or third person]

I do first person. If I'm moving or holding something, I see it as if I am holding or putting the object somewhere. .

I'm a little wary of trying third person - like many women, I have body image issues in my past, and I know that my internal image of my own body doesn't quite match up to the physical. I'd rather not risk triggering some of the more self-destructive body-image feelings by trying to visualise myself in third person.

[Tranquility]

Thanks a lot Jenett, i too usually am in first person when doing all of my work, sometimes when i dump my problems though i tend to switch from 1st to 3rd person...

[Artemis84]

I don't think I've ever worried about that. I kind of go with the flow. Paganism is about embracing differences. And if there's any religion to be loose and different in, it's Paganism. :)

[Tranquility]

Yeah, thats one of the reasons why i love this religion, im just used to such a constrained and monotype society and school and etc... bleh
Thanks for bringing me to that greater realization artemis, my guidance teacher ( manditory class for everyone) told us about that too, our monotype societies, same thing over and over each dya