Saturday, May 8
Well, it may be a while before I’m back in Bristol to visit my friend apple tree.  I just hired a new person to handle business for me out there so I’m likely to be firmly planted in Nottingham for a while.

I’ve decided to begin meditating twice per day, now.  Also, I am going to start trying a mantra. 

My first experience was quite good.  I used the mantra, repeating it with each breath.  It is a bit like starting over, but I still reach my meditative state.  Images do come, also.  But I think I prefer my apple tree!

Friday, May 14
Mantra meditation again in the morning.  Same results as before.  Achieved a deep meditative state and was slow to come out of it.  Although I was wide awake and refreshed when I did.

I need to start meditating after running, again.  Perhaps the release of tension prior to meditating assisted in reaching the states I was achieving in Bristol?  Something to experiment with.  If I’m honest this is a tough time in the meditation department!

Monday, May 24
I went for a run in the Attenborough nature reserve, which is just around the corner from where I live.  Afterwards I came home and decided to meditate as a way of winding down. 

As has become my ritual for meditating indoors at home, I prepared my home shrine and made it a mini – rite.  I began by sitting lighting three white candles for Brighit, filling the Well with clean water and also placing fresh flowers in a small vase on the altar.  I added two additional scented candles as a substitute for incense.

After preparing the altar I sat in front of it and closed my eyes.  I am using a form of mantra meditation these days, but my mantra is usually the name of a god or goddess with home I am attempting to relate with.  Today I used Brighit, repeating her name on each slow exhalation.

I repeated this mantra for 20 minutes.

During the meditation I experienced a range of sensations:

In the beginning there was the usual “noise” and clutter, which was plentiful today as I’ve been studying intensely for final examinations, so there is a lot of information bouncing around in there.  A few minutes into the meditation I began to feel detached.  There is no better word for it.  I almost felt as if my head was floating and somehow not attached to my body.  It was a weird feeling.

I did get the familiar image of the black bird again, only this time it was flying as if in a nose dive.  A very aggressive posture.  Now why do I keep getting this image, especially when I’m meditating on Brighit?