Tag: metaphysical

Sunday Sundries


I don’t think I’ve ever featured this book on here before, though I see it’s in a shot of a group of journals and other books I took in June of 2021, so it’s been around a while. The Magic of Mindset is a journal, by Johanna Wright, to be written in, so if I had filled in any of the pages (I haven’t), it’s likely what I wrote would be too private to share.


That’s still true with the page I’m featuring, where under the title “Expect Resistance,” a girl meeting a dragon says, “Oh, hi.” The text on the accompanying page says, “RESISTANCE is A NORMAL PART OF THE PROCESS. LIST all of the REASONS WHY IT FEELS impossible TO LET GO OF YOUR OLD MINDSET AND MOVE OUT OF the stuck PLACE.

Those little items on the plate are like small talismans (crystal ball held in cupped palms; a wee dachshund carved of wood; a soapstone container, lid off, to show a variety of tiny stones; a small river rock in the shape of a heart; a sunflower incense burner holding a stick of sandalwood incense) that are either from or reference people, all a part of my history, who at one time or another were a force that could either subdue my voice or inspire and encourage it.

Relationships are complicated, and more than once, I’ve allowed them to block the flow of my creative energy. This time, I want to face that dragon and make a choice truer to myself.

This week’s theme may be arriving organically on each new day.

Hamsa hand symbolism


This incense burner, a “Hamsa” hand (smaller than most adult human hands), is rarely far from me. As you can see, each finger has a place for an incense stick, and on the surface, in the middle of the eye, is a place for cone incense. The incense I most often use is the traditional Nag Champa, but that company also produces other scents, including sandalwood and patchouli.

Info compiled from the Internet about the Hamsa hand:

The Hamsa hand is an open right hand with five digits. Especially popular in the Middle East and North Africa, its exact origin is unknown. Its use predates Islam and Judaism in the Middle East.

The earliest known appearance of the Hamsa was in ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq area). Here, it could be seen in amulets worn by some female goddesses. It’s theorized it spread to Egypt as a two-finger amulet representing Osiris and Isis. It then began spreading to various religions in several different forms, including Buddhism and Hinduism.

Depending on who you ask, the Hamsa may mean different things, but its symbology means specific things to Hindus and Buddhists. For them, it symbolizes the interplay of the chakras (from a Sanskrit term meaning wheels or focal points of the body that are used as part of meditation, yoga, and other practices); the energy flow in the body; the five senses; and the mudras (mudra is a Sanskrit term meaning “gesture”) that affect them.

All of these can be combined to change the flow of energy in the body and heal psychological and physical ailments. In Buddhism, the Hamsa symbolizes the chakras to a lesser extent, but the mudras are nonetheless important. Often times, the Hamsa is used to ward off what’s known as “the evil eye,” the sum of destructive energies that come from negative emotions in the world.

Sunday Sundries

Symbols: Portent or Promise?


Tools: Colette Baron Reed’s The Good Tarot deck; a crystal ball; wooden box of coins, including a “Walking Liberty” half-dollar; five randomly rolled dice show a one, two fours, a six, and a two; a three card spread: “Messenger of Earth”; 10: “Fortune’s Wheel”; 7: “Chariot.”

From Lisa Dyer’s 321 Creative Writing Prompts journal, below is a writing prompt for you. Feel free to use the items from the fortuneteller’s table. You can also ask me questions about the three specific cards in the spread.

Sunday Sundries

Things that inspire me.


Clockwise from bottom left: Crystal “create” stone from Timmy. Other stones: carnelian, the creative powerhouse; citrine, the light of inspiration; quartz crystal seer stone egg. Essential oils; pictured here: lavender. Stars and candlelight. Joseph Fasano’s The Magic Words: Simple Poetry Prompts That Unlock The Creativity in Everyone. Electric and acoustic guitars at 1:6 scale and an enamel pin showing a drum kit to represent music and musicians. Fine art, represented by postcard books with selected Mark Rothko paintings and selections from The Art of Florence.

I chose to take a poetry prompt from Fasano’s book about a new year.

Here’s how I wrote the poem.

New Year Poem: A Visitor
While everyone is counting in the year,
their hands full of confetti,
their eyes full of clocks,
I will do it differently:
I will walk out purposefully through the noise
and sit alone beneath the trees
and wait for you, muse.
Quietly, quietly, I will wait.
And if you come, if you speak,
if you reveal your wish,
I will hear.
I will be there.

©Becky Cochrane, January 2025


Happy New Year confetti from Geri (part of what inspired me).

Mindful Monday


I love the color of this box. I like the design carved into the top with its feather motif.

I even love the bottom of the box, which emphasizes its strong red pattern in the wood stain.

What lives inside the box: heart-shaped cutouts. Most of them have what I call “Angel Affirmations.” I think the feather design is the reason this is the box I chose to store them.

The instructions tucked inside describe how I used these Angel Affirmations, and the first line explains why I chose to share this on Mindful Monday.

Think of only today…
Light a cone of sandalwood incense…
Center yourself with deep breathing…
Surround yourself with white light…
Take any heart and apply it to today’s situation…
Trust yourself…

Here are the words from the one I pulled. Maybe it will mean something to you today.

To match the mood, here’s some of the metaphysical music I was listening to while I wrote at the end of last week:

Tommy Greer’s ‘Angel’s Kiss’ 1995; Steven Halpern’s ‘Gifts of the Angels’ 1994
Steven Halpern’s ‘Chakra Suite’ 2001; Dean Evenson’s ‘Forest Rain’ 1993; Nature Quest’s ‘Andrew Lloyd Webber: Naturally’ 1995; Erik Berglund’s ‘Harp Of The Healing Light’ 1999

Sunday Sundries

This week’s theme: Things that are black or black and white.

A pyramid with hieroglyphics; a raven on a skull, evoking Poe; a crow and a raven on either side of a cranberry/amaretto candle (gift of Debby–a nice scent to create to), atop two of my favorite books, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ and ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’; coffee mug with ‘LOVE’ that includes a paw print; quartz crystal ball with black tourmaline inclusions; and the ‘300 MORE Writing Prompts’ book.

Taking a prompt from the book, here’s what I wrote this morning.

Sunday Sundries

Things that are blue.

Clockwise from lower left: the man in the moon; stones of lapis and sodalite; incense burner; the Blue Dog Cow Parade Cow from Amy; a perfume bottle; my favorite hand sanitizer; a Beatles car perched on my “Write The Poem” book; and to the right, the ‘famous’ vase, gift of Jim.


From the book, I chose “Write a poem about A Voice.” The word associations the book provides are murmur, whisper, holler, soft, husky, sultry, conscience, instinct. Because I’d chosen blue, because of the musician I write and so many of my characters, because of how I think, I had only one direction to take. Here’s what I wrote:

a voice

it starts with a whisper
of chains and of whips
backbreaking labor
heartbreaking goodbye
it grows to a murmur
soft change, husky hope
sultry with promise
resolve to survive
makes it a holler
the:
buddys and muddys
bessies, ettas, and kokos
blind boys and sonny boys
mas and sisters
ones with initials
ones with three names
ones with last names
they never asked for or wanted
holler holler holler
to prod the conscience
of all who will listen
to all who will hear
a voice
the voices

December 29, 2024
©Becky Cochrane

Sunday Sundries and WYR? No. 5

Some random things that are purple:


A Christmas angel. A perfume bottle. An inner self manifestation bowl. An amethyst crystal point. Tiny medicine sachets with herbs and spices. And the 3000 Would You Rather Questions book, from which I chose…

No. 409. WYR take a photo with Santa or the Easter Bunny?
Santa!


Mother, Debby, and me with Santa in Salt Lake City, 1990.

Mindful Monday

Mindfulness means being present in the moment.

Stones/rocks and crystals are invariably part of any type of meditation, mindfulness, or centering I do. Those particular stones are citrine, clear quartz, amethyst, turquoise, carnelian, rose quartz, variscite, and black tourmaline.

I was flipping through one of my Word Search books yesterday and saw “List Of Rocks.”

These were not the rocks I expected to be looking for. =)

Paging through more of the book, I found another list that related to the coloring page I shared the other day, “Grandma’s Attic.” Tom’s father did say the page I colored reminded him of his mother/Tom’s grandma’s attic!