centering

Could there be something like Satanic Meditation? In Satanist literature meditation is often frowned at. The subject seems to attract a lot of spiritual nonsense. Also people unconsiously use it to satisfy emotional needs; after all, who's able to meditate long hours will gain much respect... Two questions need to be answered. Is it useful to apply such a controversial concept? And secondly, in what sense would it fill a void - is the satanic practice of magic not comprehensive enough?

The answer to the first question comes in two parts. Firstly, I think it's largely a matter of definition. I regard meditation as a way to center; to be in the present moment. Instead of being controlled by stressful fantasies, which are mostly thoughts about problems that need to get solved. Merely worrying about problems doesn't make them go away. To actually solve problems one needs to be centered mentally. To be able to act. NOW. Secondly, the way of meditation I'll describe in a following essay, is based on a form of Zen-meditation. To be precise: shikantaza. Zen is a form of Buddhism, yet it is extremely down to earth. Even the Buddhist concept of (spiritual) awakening is interpreted as being one with the path to awakening; the meditative practice. Of course this still is vague and prone to all sorts of assumptions I'm not willing to make. So I've decided to skip the whole awakening thing, and concentrate on the how-to-center.

To answer the second question, the fundamental difference between the practice of magic and the practice of meditation, is the way emotions are dealt with. Magic uses specific emotions, while meditation regulates the whole spectrum of emotion. Emotions are often out of conscious control. They just happen. Anger for example, can reside endlessly within the mind. Sometimes it's useful to express anger, but it can also waste a lot of energy. The optimal way of dealing with anger is as follows: expressing and letting go. In reality this is often the case: expressing and internalising. Which will cause a stressful mental reliving of the situation. In the most worse case, this happens: somebody doesn't dare to express and (further) internalises all anger. Mentally this means there's still an unsolved problem which needs a lot of attention. In other words: there is a void, and meditation would fill it.