Visualisation Exercises

The Meadow Visualisation  (adapted from Principles of Wicca by Vivianne Crowley) This visualisation is one of my personal favourites.  I use it when I want to escape from life, even just for a little while. Make yourself comfortable and let your breathing become deeper and more relaxed. Concentrate on your breathing until you feel relaxed and focused.  Now, imagine yourself in a safe lush green meadow.   Imagine the sun shining down on you, warming your skin while a light breeze blows through your hair.  Hear the sounds of birds singing and the flowing of a stream nearby.  Now become aware that each of the four elements surrounds you i.e. Earth, Air (Wind), Fire (Sun) and Water.  Imagine the energies from these elements, flowing into you as you breath in.  Feel the energy in and around you, feel it as it moves and flows and become one with it.  Continue this for a few minutes then let the energies that have built up in you subside.  You can now slowly bring yourself back into normal awareness, moving only when you feel ready. The Apple Visualisation Make yourself comfortable, close your eyes and focus on your breathing.  Once you feel relaxed enough begin to imagine an apple in your minds eye.  Make it as real and as three dimensional as possible.  Once you can "see" the apple clearly imagine your arm reaching out to pick it up.  See your hand pick it up and hold it in front of you.  Now imagine taking a bite out of the apple and try to feel the taste and texture of the apple in your mouth.  Once you are finding this exercise easy, you can start to experiment a little.  You can try making the apple different colours (purple with green spots?) or give it hair or spikes! Element Visualisation Gather together four items, each representative of one of the four elements.  For example, a bowl of earth for earth, a candle for fire, a feather for air and a cup of water for water.  Concentrate on each in turn, focusing on the elements energy and it's relationship to you and the universe as a whole. This can be taken a bit further by attempting to imagine each element as a living creature.  This is good for attuning to the elements and preparing to work with elementals. The Pentacle Visualisation (from "The Spiral Dance" by Starhawk) Visualise a line of flickering blue flame, like a gas flame from a bunsen burner.  Now, mentally draw a pentacle, the five pointed star,  with one point up, in the invoking direction - starting at the top and moving down to the left.  Watch it form out of blue flame.  Hold the image in your mind for a few minutes. Now retrace it in the banishing direction - starting in the lower left hand corner and moving up.  As you do so, watch it disappear.