Meditational Imagery

Going back through my old posts, I noticed some on mediational experiences and realized I hadn't really mentioned anything like that in a while. Partially this is because I fell out of practice for a while, and I mostly haven't been going very deep lately. Today, however, I let myself explore again. It was while I was practicing my mantra chanting.

I couldn't tell you whether the chanting has anything other than a psychological benefit, possibly respiratory as well due to the breathing and maintaining of sounds. But the imagery changed with the chanting. The chant I've been using most consistently is "Om Vinayakaya Namaha" which is supposed to be for "new beginnings." During this chant, I saw, first, a rather fat, ominous black butterfly. Almost like a huge cicada, but with butterfly wings. There was a monarch butterfly nearby, keeping its distance. It felt like something was missing, and a blindingly bright white butterfly flew into the area (sort of grassy and green with white flowers). The black butterfly launched itself at the white like it was attacking. Maybe it was. But then the black and white butterflies wound up latched together, almost as one butterfly. Together they flew to a branch and hung down to become a light green chrysalis. Then a bunch of other butterflies came by to offer their respects/gifts/blessings, going through the colors of the rainbow (ROYGBIV) to gold to silver. Then a little yin yang symbol formed on the outside of the chrysalis.

The next chant I've been doing when I have time for two. "Om Sri Ganeshaya Namaha" It's supposed to...motivate you to get things done (and was not remotely effective when I had my consistent fever last week). But it's a Ganesha mantra. Ganesha is an elephant-headed Hindu...deity, probably. So I had elephant imagery running through my head while chanting it. First it was just dancing images of Ganesha dancing around. Then there was a large female elephant, the matriarch of her herd. I was nervous about approaching her, but she stayed calm. There was a baby elephant playing nearby that I somehow associated with my grandma. It was...sad and comforting all at once. And I could see her wanting to come back as something as strong and solid as an elephant after the weakness of her last months. *shrugs*

I still don't know how much of the imagery is essentially random dream images and how much is real.