New Age Meditation

To help quell a few myths, here is a look at what new age meditation is, how it works, and its prime benefits.

Before one can answer what exactly this meditation is, we should first define the concept of new age. New age is frequently related to as a spiritual movement that is based on integrating a mix of self-help, behavioral psychology, holistic health methods, and classic process of Eastern and Western spiritual training.

This is a movement that started in the 20th century but you could say the central governing concepts of the new age movement have been around for centuries. Of course, one of the main components found in the new age theory of improving one's overall health, wellness, and spirituality is the process of meditating daily.

New age meditation is not far removed from traditional forms of meditation, but it does possess its own unique components as well. 

It is considered a modern, updated form of traditional meditation practices, including a sense of universalism, which is strongly influenced by various different religious and spiritual movements. For example, the fusion of yoga and Zen Buddhist practices influences its flavor in many ways.

While defining and understanding the concepts is all well and good, most people will seriously wonder what the actual benefits are. Honestly, to list all the benefits of new age meditation would literally take a book to compile. There are quite a few excellent books published that do present such information. For those looking for a brief overview of the highlights of such benefits, they include:

Peace of mind and a sense of relaxation - As previously mentioned, meditation works tremendously well as a process to calm the mind. When the mind is calm, it becomes more at peace and is free of the common stress and anxiety known to drag the mind and body down.

Improved wellness - Where the mind goes, the body will follow. If you can calm the mind and reduce psychological ailments there will be a corresponding holistic benefit that will impact the body as well. Then, there are direct physical benefits such as improved breathing and posture that can be acquired from regularly performing new age meditation. The impact of this on the physical body is quite strong.

A sense of accomplishment - Becoming talented with new age meditation brings with it a sense of accomplishment in terms of your ability to learn and perform meditation. All learning processes have this potential and the holistic component of it makes this process even more appealing.

Greater focus in life - When you are able to effectively meditate on life, you can properly focus on the things in life that are important. By reducing unhelpful distractions, improvements in your life expand.

There are many benefits to this modern meditation technique, which is among the reasons it remains such a popular practice for so many Westerners these days who have started meditating by means of this modern practice. If you find this newer version of traditional spiritual training interesting, you may wish to give it a try. It can be fun, enlightening and helping you get your feet wet with meditation in general.

One of the easiest ways to get into new age meditation is by listening to New Age CDs, such as background meditation music or Reiki music. This helps with putting the mind into a state of relaxation much faster than it happens without aid, especially for new meditators.

A tarot meditation can be done in several ways. I'll list some of the popular ones and then I'll give you my way, along with a very recent meditation I did on a card. Meditate each week on one card. You shuffle your deck, pick a card and start meditating on it every single day. Don't spent an hour or half an hour on the card.

Meditate a few minutes each time. You can do it a few times every day this way. I know somebody who keeps the card with them all the time and looks at it now and then to reinforce that connection between the tarot card and the unconscious mind. 

This is a great way to meditate on tarot.

Meditate each day on one card. This has the benefit of moving through the deck much faster. Afterall there are 78 cards in each deck, so you'd need 78 weeks if you go by the previous option.
I am currently using this second way of meditating on tarot.

Tarot Meditation - How To Do It

When you meditate on tarot, this is how is usually done.

1. You shuffle the cards
    
2. Cut the cards in two piles and move the second tarot card pile on top of the first one
    
3. Pick the top card and turning it over place it on the table (or the surface you are using for your cards - some people are meditating on the bed, or even on the floor)
    
4. Now look at the card and see your first impression. If you know that actual tarot meanings, ignore them. Be like a child with a new toy that is freshly unwrapped.
    
5. Keep looking at the card and noticing every detail. Every small detail is  important. You might see a small fish jumping out of the water in the background. Or maybe the black cat in front of the high priestess. Or maybe the infinity symbol that is so perfectly shown in the 2 of pentacles. Is the water calm or wavy? Is there anything on the water, any ships? Is the land barren or full of green and blooming flowers? Any church in sight?
    
6. Now close your eyes and relax your mind. Enter a meditative state based on one of the easy meditation techniques on this site Once your mind is relaxed, imagine again the card as you've seen it.
    
7. Now enter the card
    
8. Look around you, turn around 360 degrees. What do you see? If you're indoors, what is on the walls and what furniture you see there? Talk to the people and even animals. Ask them questions. Ask them what they do and what message they have for you. Listen to everything they tell you, don't discard anything.
    
9. When you've finished your meditation, open your eyes and write in your journal everything you have experienced, everything that you remember, all your tarot meditation from start to finish, including your first impression of the card down to what the characters in the card told you.
    
10. This last step is not necessary but you can do it if you want. Now open one or more tarot books and read the given meaning for that card. See the difference between the meaning and your own feeling and experience with it. This is one of the best ways to learn each tarot card. It is much better than simply learning the meanings because those key words can be easily forgotten.
    
    Also don't forget, the meanings can vary from book to book, but your imagination, your inner story, your impressions will always be with you and if you're reading later on for other people, it will come much easier to adapt them to the querent's question and situation.

Here is a small tarot meditation I posted at the Aeclectic tarot forum a while back. Hope you enjoy it. I used the Universay Waite tarot deck: 2 of pentacles.

A young man is balancing two pentacles inside an endless elastic in the shape of an infinity sign. His whole body is in light dancing motion, as are the pentacles that he's juggling with
precision.

Behind him there are two ships sailing on the moving waves. Even the sea is
in motion. The young guy's face is pleasant and has a dreamy quality to it, as if he's
someplace else. He can afford to be, as he's doing his juggling act quite well, as if he's always done it, so he doesn't need to pay attention to the motions.

When I really look at this card, everything is in light motion, and has a dreamy, lulling and pleasant quality to it.

I entered the picture. Right away I heard a music that matched perfectly the rhythm of the young man's dance and that of the waves on the sea.

One of those medieval times court type of music, which was happy but not overly fast.

He was performing for the people, but not because he needed it, but because he enjoys doing it. If he needed money, his hat would be on the floor asking for coins, and not on his head.

I asked him what is he doing and in his dreamy, far away voice he said he's performing. I asked why, and he said because this is what I do. I enjoy it. I can't imagine doing anything else. I balance the world...

But while my body is engaged in the act of juggling, my mind can wander to far away lands that are full of beauty. I can do both you see, this is what I do: I keep things in balance.

I guess for me it means that it's a day where I'll balance different things together and I'll do it quite well. Maybe balance work with pleasure, or two different types of work without getting overly tired or stressed out. Or maybe that's what's expected of me. To do my work well and enjoy it. We'll see.