Meditation Practice & The Calistrophe - Suggestions For Practice

The Divine is Calling You… Are You Listening?

“Open your heart like a flower opens to the light of the sun and drink in God’s love.  Know your true self and God will show you the way.”  - Hildegard

To grow spiritually means a regular religious practice that involves daily meditation.  There are many forms of meditation for you to choose from.  We will list a few links below for suggestions.  The goal for your practice is to “be still and know God”.  You must become adept at entering into this stillness and knowing it.   This is also referred to as the active/receptive state.

We suggest the following meditative process is using the Calistrophe meditations:

-       Practice meditation for at least 20 minutes daily (active-receptive state)

-       Follow daily meditation with a chakra balancing meditation (see below)

-       Set an intention to open your heart and spirit to the messages in a Calistrophe meditation, then read the passage

-       Sit again in meditation using the active/receptive process.  Don’t think, but allow thoughts and images to come to you.   If you begin to analyze a thought or image, push it aside and go back to resting in the stillness and allow what comes to flow.

-       Write down any thoughts, emotions, music, images, words, etc. that come to you and keep a journal.  Repeat - keep a journal.  Be present in your daily life and be aware of thoughts, dreams, encounters with others, books, articles, movies, music, etc. that jumps out at you and make an impression.  The Divine is speaking to you through all….  Your job is to listen, to learn and to be open to God’s call.

The Chakra Balancing Meditation:

What are chakras? If you are not familiar with the chakras, there is much written about them.  So much information is available online. We suggest visiting the SOUNDS TRUE website (see link below).  They offer a number of books on the subject, as well as a free download on meditation and free podcasts on many spiritual topics from internationally recognized experts and leaders.

The Chakras - We each have eight major chakras that make up our subtle bodies.  There are more than eight, but we will focus on these.  Chakras are multi-dimensional energy centers that connect our physical body to the spirit – and it is through our chakras centers that we connect with the Divine or Holy Spirit.  Each chakra is associated with a color or vibration, as well as a sound or vibrational tone.

A basic chakra meditation involves visualizing the color of the chakra and location of the energy center in the body.  Visualize breathing in this color slowly, drawing the color/energy up and all around you.  Visualize drawing the color in to your mouth, nose and eyes, filling with this color.

For each color you will draw the energy in, hold your breath, let it out.   As you let your breath out, visualize the energy swirling around your body, balancing the energy of your body and spirit.   On the first breath with each color, your intention is to balance that color within your body with your spirit.

Here is the twist with this meditation:  On your second breath visualizing each color, you will breath in the color, hold it, then let out the breath.  On the out breath, your intention is to send that color out and up to the Divine, connecting with the Divine.

The order and location for each color/chakra is as follows:

Red – base of spine – draw energy up from the Earth

Orange – Pelvic level

Yellow – Solar plexus

Green w. pink thread– Heart

Light Blue – Throat

Deep Blue – Center of forehead or third eye

Purple – Top of your head

Gold – above your head

The red, orange and yellow chakras are called “root” chakras.  They ground us to the Earth and energy is drawn upward to our bodies in this visualization.  The green, blues and gold energies connect us to the Divine and we draw these energies to our bodies from above.

Here is another description for this meditation that might help, along with a drawing of the chakras as you send the energy up and out on the second breath:

I’ve attempted  to draw the chakra meditation I had with Hildegard.   She told me that in my meditations the first “alignment” of the chakra was for me to tune myself.  The second time I envisioned that same chakra I was to do it with the intent to align it with the universe.  She explained that we are instruments being tuned by the universe for the universe.  On the alignment of self, we keep that chakra close and use our intent to settle ourselves and harmonize our mind, body and soul.  On the second round we project our selves to the universe.  Red and orange project upward with a wide opening to the universe.  Yellow and green are projected outward to harmonize with others in our world.  The other chakras project upward.                    

 ABOUT CHAKRA BALANCING MEDITATION FROM HILDEGARD APRIL 5, 2010

 Here are some good links for information on meditation, chakras and spiritual development:

www.soundstrue.com

www.noetic.org

www.cacradicalgrace.org

www.celestialdoor.com

SOUNDS TRUE offers free podcasts online, so look for these.  We are big fans! In addition, they offer books and tapes on so many spiritual topics, including meditation and chakras.

A Visual of The Calistrophe

The Calistrophe - A Definition

The Calistrophe

Hildegard tells us about her new “church” to be created.  This is a "church without walls" that is open to all faiths.  We surmise a virtual church is what she intends.  Hildegard lists a series of 10 meditations with intentions that teach people rituals and techniques to go within - a process of inner knowing, connecting to the true self and a technique to deepen a personal awareness of inner interpretation.   She describes the process as a way to be the “Mother of the Self”.

The program is to be called “THE CALISTROPHE”.  “Calistrophe” is a new  word offered by Hildegard that has multiple layers of meaning and experience, much like Hildegard's historic "hidden" language.  These layers can and will include visual impressions, sound, physical sensation, emotion and visual descriptions.  Each lesson is meant to be experienced through meditation and visualization.  Hildegard recommends that you meditate on each lesson over a period of time, "drinking in slowly" what you experience from each.

“The Calistrophe” – A re-harmonizing tone that runs through the hearts (heart chakras) of all human beings.  The purpose of the Calistrophe is the re-harmonizing of humanity.  This is about the harmonic note/frequency that we have to hit.    The frequency is like a thread that connects all human hearts.   As souls, we all know this tone.  Once it returns, something deep inside of us will respond.  The Earth has a hum, like the Cosmic “Aum”.  It is like this.

Hildegard has outlined 10 Intentions/exercises/celebrations that are to be suggested in reaching “The Calistrophe” experience.  We anticipate each celebration will involve a blessed or hidden word with multiple meanings/experience that encourage the inner experience.  It will be interesting to see what is revealed in meditation for each of us...

This is Hildegard’s list as she gave it on October 9, 2010:

(1)  Service of the Seed – Creation of us in the world

(2)  Service of the Coral

(3)  Service of the Sky

(4)  Service of the Sea

(5)  Praise Through Song

(6)  Praise Through Prayer

(7)  Identifying God Within

(8)  Severance From God (Reframing God to Build in a New Way)

(9)  Showing the Hereafter

(10) Service of Healing

Service of the Seed

From within we grow as the seeds of the earth.  Life is ignited and progress begins.  We are to treat ourselves and others as seeds, full of potential and waiting to burst forth with God’s own plan.  Cultivate, do not annihilate, your own seed or those God has placed in his Garden.  Give proper soil for the soul to flourish for when the ground is too tamped it will be a struggle to burst forth with your shining glory, which is a reflection of the face of God.

How little respect we have for the ground on which we sow our own lives.  Distractions abound. Noise of the common desires crushes the sound from within which calls you to be one of God’s own plantings.  His garden.  His flowers and tall trees.

For when you are in harmony with God’s desires, not those of changing fancy, then you may hear the call of those who need you - other souls - seeds who are on precarious perch or who want only to hear a song in their heart again.  For by being gardeners of your fellow man you serve as the hands of the Almighty.  You are one with the Song of the Earth – Calistrophe.

Prayer to Quiet the Soul

Please Divine Gardener of my Eternal Soul
    which wakes to the sunrise of your beautiful plan of creation
          and sleeps as the sun sets on the day I call a life
              set me on the course of caring and nurturing all those I know
                   and those I do not.

As the sun moves across us all

            In the course of our growth

                        Let me not forget how to turn towards your warmth

                                    So I may fully rise from the darkness of my own internal seed

                                           And burst forth as a beautiful flower of the world.

May I give beauty to those whose eyes are tired

            May I give my fruits to those who are hungry

                        And shade to those who can’t bear the burden of daylight.

                                   

Let me see us all as one Garden

            Pass over me with the water I need

                        And let me gain my strength from the soil

                                    Of your Eternal Plan

For the Divine resides within me and all around me and I am forever grateful.

A Prayer for those who are weak and need to call upon the strength of the Gardener

It is with an open heart I come

            To my fellow wanderers on this Earth

                        My seed is like a puff flying through the wind

                                    And is as unsettled as the butterfly

Help me rest upon soil which is not of sand or clay

            Lead me to those who know the right soil

                        Where my roots may grow deeply

                       

Blow, oh beautiful Breath of God,

            And send me to the right shores of the river bank

                        Where I may see the wonders of your creation

                                    And know that I am like all the seeds of the Earth.

You carefully designed the seed of my soul

            And gave it to me to nurture

                        May I not forget that I am part

                                    Of Your grand Design

For it is now that I am lost

            I seek Your Aid

                        Let me rest and

                                    Find the sunlight at the break of day

Send to me only those gardeners

            Who can tend to my growth

                        Who will assist me in finding rich soil

                                    Let the rain I so desperately need

Flow, but not overwhelm me

May I feel the eternal pull of the Moon

            To know my Existence resides outside

                        Of this shell of a seed

I ask that when my growth is complete,

            I remember how it felt to be without the proper soil and light

                        How desperate we can be for the water

                                    Another can so freely give

Let me become the caretaker of your Garden, O Mighty Creator     

Service of the Sky

As the rain feeds the Earth, so the soul finds its nourishment from the Song of Solomon.  All open to the beauty of the words which flow into your soul, you will no longer thirst.  For as the wanderer in the desert, you drink in the dust and find yourself only thirsting more.  There is no relief until, like the rain failing onto the Earth and seeping through every pore of its existence, you allow the words of the Rainmaker to course through your soul like the blood which flows through you.

Open and receive.  Deny not the gift of knowledge which has been with you from the moment you were born.  Like the dew which covers the Earth in the morning, the Giver’s mist of kindness will blanket you.  If you arise and feel thirst, only ask, and the comfort of the Creator will pour upon you the sustaining water.

Once you see your soul open to receive the water which makes you whole, then the Heavens will part and allow you entrance to the grandest of all mysteries.  Your eyes will be open to the world above as it is below.  No cycle here can be complete without knowing that the way there is the way here.  All was created for your eyes to see the wonder of the Wonders.

When you drink of this knowledge, you will never thirst again.  The dry dust of the desert will never cross your lips for you will shun all that is not in keeping with the Great Maker’s plan.

You will carry water for your brethren so that when they fall along the path, like the rain you will pour water from your unending well upon them so that they, too, may rise up and sing “Hosannah!  I have found the well which will never go dry!”

Service of the Coral

Within the sorrow of my soul sings a song as yet unvoiced.

When You come to me with angels I will find my expression and all will be set aright.  The ship on the sea finds its way carefully through the fragile dangers seen and unseen.

Never will You vary Your steady hand on the wheel for You know the course before I set my hand on the stern.

Over my shoulder You guide me.  Treacherous waters are parted as the kelp which bends with the flow of the tides.

All my sorrows will be set adrift.

All my pain will have an end for You guide me to joy.

The love of life is renewed in me when You set me on the shore of a new found land.

Discoveries of Your wonders abound.  I only need to step off this vessel to seek joy at every step.

The only way to this promised land is through the purification of trust.  When I cross these waters from my breathing shore to your breathlessly wondrous world I am only sure that love is the compass by which You steer.

As my days fold to an end and my boat rests safely in the harbor You have so lovingly prepared for me, it will be as if I never left.

You showed me the way through thickets unseen.

You took my hand and made steady my course.

Alone, yet not, I came to You and all the angels rejoiced that I had made my journey safely.

Once there I will join in the trumpets which celebrate the new comers to our peaceful land.

I will set those to sea who care to journey and sail the dangerous course.  When they remember who steers them I will join the chorus who cries, “Most Holy!  You have saved me from the coral which sought to entangle me!” 

You have set me free from the clutches of that which would stop my journey back to you.

All the days of my life I will seek your solace.  I will call to You when lost and like the stars and  the sun and the moon You will be my guiding light back to whence I came.

Complete, nourished and learned, I step again on these familiar shores.

I bring my treasures back to you, O Lord of Wonders.  O Magnificent Master, I show with pleasure, that I have learned to love and you exalt me.

Like a weary sailor I collapse at your feet and am given a home again in the warmth of Your eternal land. 

No more wanting or wandering.

.

Service of the Sea

Where sorrow goes, look to the Light for your comfort.

As I wash upon the shore

Exhausted from my trials

Your unseen hands life me aright. 

My feet may move on because you touched them.

You give life to my steps. 

You illuminate the way for me to follow.

If I choose to go astray

You will send the tide again and again

Until I no longer wish to follow the course

Which leads me to sea

But only the one leading back

To your safe and loving shore.

Nights of darkness and hunger I have known.

My thirst so overwhelmed my every thought

I could no longer remember

Your love or Your light

For I was parched beyond all reason.                               

I was adrift

Day upon day

Year upon year.

No one but You could aid me.

Only the darkness of night gave me reprieve.

For in that silence

I could hear You calling me home.

I could feel the tug of Your love

As sure and as mighty as the rolling sea.

Tides of Your faith in me

Washed over me

Until I was sure of the course I must take.

By the light of Your loving star-filled night

I steered my vessel home.