In order to complete the ADF Dedicant's Programme, one must keep a five-month meditation journal with at least weekly entries that detail one's experiences with meditation. Before joining ADF, I'd never really learned how to meditate correctly and with no one to really show me how to meditate correctly, it was kinda hard. Finally, our Grove's liturgist, Kirk Thomas, told me about "finding the silence" and how it's ok to think, but one shouldn't hold onto those thoughts. He told me to envision my consciousness as a river and thoughts were like leaves floating by in front of me. He also said that counting breaths was helpful for focusing and to never close one's eyes as doing this made it too easy to get distracted. This advice was really helpful, although I still have a hard time "turning off my head" sometimes. Here are some of the more successful techniques from entries my journal. I think I wrote bi-weekly entries and kept it for a little longer than five months.

I experimented with different methods and places. The first experimental form was a visualisation technique courtesy of my friend Katie. She told me to visualise that I was walking through a misty forest, on a mossy path that gradually went uphills. At the top of the hill, I broke out of the mist and found myself on top of Ben Nevis - the tallest mountain in the British Isle and my favourite place to go hiking. I was met with brilliant sunshine and a man. Needless to say, I was a little freaked out by this. But by studying him, I figured out that I was being visited by Lugh. He was very tall, and had long blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, light skin, and a golden nimbus around his head. He was wearing cloak of purple, red, indigo and gold and had a spear. He gave me some advice for an article I was writing about him - "Don't be afraid to reach your potential. If you want to master a skill, don't doubt your abilities. Just do it." Lugh has stock in Nike? Tee hee.

At one point, I discovered that doing the Two Powers meditation outside while sitting at the base of a very tall tree was the easiest way for me to meditate. I experiemented with times of the day - during the summer, I went outside after dark and during the fall and winter, I went in the morning. Of the two times, the morning was the best. The energy that I felt was much more fresh and new than the energy at night. This is actually the way that I still meditate today.

I also tried something a friend of mine calls "candle meditation". One stares at a candle flame while counting breaths. This was an okay way, but I was distracted by dry eyes. I felt like every time I blinked, I was pulled out of the "Silence".

Finally, on my 29th birthday, I was outside with my tree meditating when I was visited by Brigit. She was a short and stocky red-head, dressed in a long flowing gown of red, green and yellow. She had a single flame burning between her cupped palms and she reached out her hands to me. I took the flame from her and a flood of ideas for stories came rushing into my head. I think she was giving me a birthday gift.

Click here for the actual text from my meditation journal.