The thirtieth bead of the blessing cord is the blessing of blood. It is the blessing of water in Malkuth. Blood is the river that passes through the generations. Our blood has passed through our ancestors, through us, and on to the descendants who come after us. It is this river of blood that moves through us and gives us the ancestral patterns and memories of our people. Our blood holds within it the memories of all the ancestors who have gone before and all the memories of our descendants in the future as well.

When we talk about our family we say “they’re my blood” or use the adage “blood is thicker than water.” We acknowledge that our blood ties us to our people. Many have postulated that our past life memories could also be memories from our blood ancestors, passed to us like the instincts of birds to return to the same places as their ancestors. Whether this is a genetic transmission of information or a morphogenic field impression or something else doesn’t matter. It is true that we have information, patterns, and “blueprints” that are passed to us through the “river” of blood that flows through time.

The things that are passed through the river of blood are both good and bad. Our strong determination, optimism, decisiveness, as well as a weakness for sweets, want for a steady job instead of self-employment, or alcoholism, for example, are all passed through this connection of blood. We are deeply connected to our family and the information passed through the blood. Both good and bad are passed to us and can be awakened within us. They give us those peculiar talents that are passed to us and the addictions that plague us.

The best thing about this river of blood is that you can commune with it in your meditations to be able to go back and see why a pattern is within your psyche and change it, if you so desire. You can also go back and activate talents from your ancestors to deal with your life in the present. You are the product of a thousand loving choices and these ancestors have a vested interest in what you get from them and in transforming the harmful things that may have been passed to you.

In this meditation we visit the river of blood and use it to commune with the ancestors and the patterns passed on to us. You have the opportunity to call forth gifts and talents of your ancestors and transform the patterns harmful to you.

Meditation of Blood

Hold the thirtieth bead on the blessing cord. The blessing of blood, the bead of water in Malkuth.

Count yourself down in to a meditative state.

Allow the screen of your mind to expand out around you, forming a sphere. Feel the slight shift as a garden begins to grow up around you in the sphere of your mind. Resonate the god name of Malkuth: Ah-do-nai Ha-ah-retz

Explore your garden. You find a cave within the garden that leads deeper into the earth of your consciousness. As you walk into the cave, it spirals deeper and deeper. Finally the cave opens up into a cavern with a river flowing through it. This river is a bright red and blue. As you come closer, you can hear a heartbeat. Listen for your own heartbeat and allow it to attune to the rhythm of the river. Step up to the edge and dip your fingers into the flow. Tell it your intention to connect through it to your ancestors. Share if you have a particular intention to awaken or transform talents and patterns that are passed to you from the ancestors.

Feel if the river is ready to connect to you. If it is, step into the flow of the river of blood. As you get to waist depth, turn into the flow toward you. Ask to know where the pattern you want to release began. You may have an ancestor rise up from the river or you may see it played out on the surface or in the depths for you to view. See why this pattern started and why it has continued. You can trace this pattern down the flow from your ancestors to see why it continued in your family. Follow what you see until it comes to your generation.

Acknowledge why this pattern continues in your life now. Explain why you want to change this pattern that no longer serves you and your descendants. Thank the pattern for the aid it has given those who went before and then ask that it be transformed and released, putting your intention behind it. What is the effect within the river of this intent? Does the pattern boil out? Does it just fade? Thank the river for this healing and awareness.

Ask the river to show you the pattern you want to foster in your life. It may be a talent of an ancestor or their knowledge. Call this up from the blood. An ancestor may rise to talk to you from the blood or the pattern may appear on the surface of the river or in its depths. Ask to see how this pattern originated. See how it has served your ancestors in the past. Thank it for helping your ancestors and ask that it be re-awakened in you. Dip your hands into the waters of the river of blood and scoop up the pattern and pour it over your body to absorb it. Feel as the pattern mixes and mingles with your own blood and spirit. If an ancestor rose up from the river, you may embrace and merge to gain the pattern and awaken it within you. Thank the pattern for being with you and fill it with light so you can pass it on to your descendants in the river.

When you are finished, leave the river. Give thanks one more time to the river and your ancestors and descendants for their aid and love. Turn back and walk out of the cave into the garden of Malkuth. Return to where you entered and the garden fades around you. Allow it to fade as you feel a slight shift. The screen of your mind returns to its normal size.

Count yourself up into waking consciousness.

Give yourself clearance and balance and ground, as needed.

Contemplation

What are the gifts you have received through your blood? What are the weaknesses passed to you through your blood? In what ways could these strengths be weaknesses and what ways can these weaknesses be strengths? What will you leave to those who receive the river of blood after you?

The twenty-ninth bead of the blessing cord is the blessing of Dream. It is the blessing of water in  Yesod. Dreams both waking and sleeping can help us in so many ways. Psychological thought says dreams are our subconscious trying to sort out all the things we observed and thought during the day and any underlying conflicts within ourselves. Every dream holds symbolism that helps us work out our unresolved feelings. It is well-documented that people also use their dreams to figure out things the waking mind just can’t grasp. The subconscious is also the part of us that holds our psychic mind. Dreams can be predictive and perceptive of things we consciously hide from ourselves.

Many inventors and scientists have used their dreams to figure out problems in their work and dream up new solutions. I am sure you have too, whether you know it or not. The issue with a dream is that we can’t fully understand its meaning sometimes because we are the dreamer. This is where a good friend comes in handy. It was surprising to me that sometimes in dreams we are like the metaphor “unable to see the forest for the trees.” A good friend or loved one can sometimes intuit what your dream symbols mean because they know you well enough.

You may not have a close friend who gets you in this way, and that is okay because there are many other ways to interpret dream symbolism. There are many books on the subject, and I find they have helpful suggestions, but our psyches are not all the same, and this cookie cutter approach doesn’t work for everyone. To determine your symbols consciously you could try listing out everything you remember from your dreams. All the nouns, adjectives, and actions should go into your list. Take this list and begin to free associate. Call out the first word or two that comes to your mind as you hear or see that word. You will get a feel of what the dream symbol means to you by seeing what you associate with it. To help organize your own symbols and what they mean, you can make an alphabetical card file of each dream symbol, or get an address book and write your symbols into the alphabetical sections.

Another way to interpret a dream is to go back into it in meditation. While you are in the dream, everything is alive and responsive. You can have a discussion with your grandmother’s table—or anything else—in the dream world and ask it what it means within the dream. In this way we get to interact with our dream symbols and get understanding of the dream at a rapid pace. In this meditation we go back to a dream and speak with its parts to get a greater understanding of the meaning of our symbols. If you don’t have a specific dream to analyze, you can ask to be taken to the realm of dreaming so you can experience a new dream and receive a message.

Meditation of Dream

Hold the twenty-ninth  bead of the blessing cord. The bead of dream, the blessing of water in Yesod.

Count yourself down into a meditative state.

Allow the screen of your mind to expand until it is a sphere around you. Feel a sensation of rising as your sphere begins to fill with a misty purple light. Resonate the God name of Yesod: Sha-dai El-chai.

As the purple light begins to clear, you find yourself inside the dream you want to interpret or, if it is your intention, a new dream. Everything in this dream can speak and communicate with you. Colors, inanimate objects, animals, people, and whatever symbols you see or experience you can talk to and have them respond.

Begin with the nearest symbol. Say hello to it and ask what it is doing inside your dream. What is its meaning within the dream? Ask if it has a particular message for you in this dream. Take what it tells you at face value and ask it any questions you need clarity about. When you feel like you and the symbol have had a complete conversation, thank it for its help. Then move on to the next symbol and repeat the process. The more you interact with the dream, the more you will understand what the dream as a whole means. Don’t limit yourself to just going symbol-by-symbol; you can also ask the whole dream to explain what it means for you.

If any dream symbol seems reluctant or doesn’t talk at all, ask another symbol and ask it to explain the other. Ask another symbol why that one wasn’t willing or able to converse with you.

When you feel as though you have gotten the message from this dream, conjure forth the misty purple light to surround you again until the dream is obscured. You feel a slight gentle descent as the light fades from view. The screen of your mind becomes its normal color and shrinks back to its normal size.

Count yourself up into waking consciousness.

Ground and center, as needed

Contemplation

Consider the symbols your dreams present you: Are there ones that appear in your dream multiple times? What do they signify to you? When you think about your dream, how could it be interpreted in response to what you are experiencing right now in your life? Do you have specific symbols that happen when you are getting a dream that is beyond the normal? What would your  symbol be for a dream that was a message from spirit?

The twenty sixth bead in the blessing cord is the blessing of Forgiveness. It is the water of Tiphereth. I admit, as a pagan, forgiveness felt alien to me. It always felt like a Christian concept that had nothing to do with being spiritual and more to do with being a martyr. It wasn’t until I  heard that forgiveness isn’t for the other person, that it was really for you, that it made sense to me.

We unconsciously hold the energy of the disagreements and betrayals between people. Our soul’s path becomes strongly linked to the anger, hate, and resentment we feel for a person.  This energy is another thing that can block our flow to manifesting what it is we are truly here to do. We don’t have to forget what someone has done. We don’t even have to let that person back into our lives. By forgiving them, we let go of how they affect us.

If you had the flu last year and got it treated and now you are fine, do you still feel the sickness? No, you may remember the sickness, but you don’t feel it any more. This is how you want to be with forgiveness. You can remember what was done but it no longer holds any emotional charge for you. It is a good test to use for if you have really forgiven someone to imagine someone telling you how great they are doing now and how they have everything they want. If you feel any pain or anger, you haven’t fully forgiven them.

When you forgive and let go of this energy your holding both your lives will improve. When I have done the meditation that follows I have felt lighter every time. When we forgive, we make room for newer and happier circumstances, just as in the work of releasing with the previous bead.

Before this meditation, you may want to list all the people you think have done you wrong in some way and memorize the release statement.

Meditation of Forgiveness

Hold the twenty-sixth bead, the bead of the blessing of Forgiveness, the blessing of water in Tiphereth.

Count yourself down into a meditative state.

Allow the screen of your mind to expand into a sphere around you. Feel a rising sensation as your sphere begins to fill with radiant golden yellow light. Vibrate the God name of Tipereth: Yod-heh-vauv-heh el-oh-ah Vah-dah-ath

The golden light fades and you are in a golden field. Above you is a golden white sphere that represents the highest and best of the universe. Within it you might see Goddess, God, Great spirit, your guides, or your higher self. It is the highest guidance and power. Thank it for its presence in this work and ask for its aid.

Conjure the people you have to forgive. You can do this by calling up a person who is on your list or just calling out to someone you need to forgive. They appear in the field. Tell them what they did that you are trying to forgive.

Then say the following statement of release and forgiveness with all of your being:

“(Their name), I forgive you for your imperfections as I forgive myself for mine. I release (what you are feeling) I have against you. I forgive and release you to be who you are and to be happy. I release you to be free. With that I am free.”

After you feel it has done its work, the person begins to rise in the air to the ball of golden white light above you. As they float away, you are releasing them to the universe. You can then repeat the process with others on your list.

When you are done, say to yourself in this place of power. “I forgive and release you all, as I forgive my self for all. Blessed be!”

Golden light again begins to fill the area around you, making the world go opaque with the intensity of its glow. As the light fades, you feel a gentle descent. The screen of your mind begins to return to its normal size.

Count yourself up into waking consciousness.

Ground and center yourself.

Contemplation

Think about the people you have had to forgive: Is there a pattern to the story that manifests this pain? What are your contributions to this pattern? Can you forgive yourself? Can you forgive what was done to you? Can you release this pattern?

The twenty-fifth bead in the blessing cord is the blessing of Release. It is the water of Geburah. Geburah has great power but also brings hard lessons. The lesson and blessing it brings is release. Release needs to happen for us to have clear, flowing connection to spirit and our own life path. Sometimes it is a pattern we have been consciously engaging in that needs to be let go of so we can move forward. It might be something left over from our parents or a past life that needs to be released. It can even be something we manifested that is no longer good for us, like the junk in our house or a job that is no longer working for us.

In the craft we use the waxing moon to grow things and the waning moon to dissolve and banish. We get all excited during the waxing moon to start new things and make new manifestations. One of the best pieces of advice I have gotten was to make room for these new things in my mind, in my heart, and in my home during the waning moon. The older I get the more I see this as true. I now know that I need to prioritize what I keep and hold on to. I have created a lot and I have to be able to let some of the things I have collected go, whether they are destroyed or move on to a place where they can be loved.

This process can be hard. Ask yourself: Does this still serve me? Does it bring me joy? Does this help me along my path? Evaluate if this is something you still need. If not it is time for release. Make some room for new manifestations.

In our minds we may have patterns we need to release to be able to move forward in to the world we want. These old patterns can still be creating the things we don’t want in life and draining some of our energy or blocking our flow. Sometimes just making a list of what our limiting beliefs or patterns are can help us in this process. Get a piece of paper and write on it. “The reason I can’t have (your goal) is because…” Set a timer for two minutes and write down every reason that comes to mind about why you can’t have your goal. When the bell goes off stop and look at your list. These are the patterns you are going to have to clear away to help your manifestation come into being. Do the meditation of release and then rip up this list.

Meditation of Release

Hold the twenty-fifth bead, the bead of the blessing of Release, the blessing of water in Geburah.

Count yourself down into a meditative state.

Allow the screen of your mind to expand to create a sphere around you. Feel a rising sensation as the sphere fills with a red light. Vibrate the god name of Geburah: El-oh-heem Gi-boor

The red light fills you with the power to release. As the light clears, you are in a place that represents your mind. This could be a large garden, a house, a castle or any place that resonates with you. This is your special place. You have full control of your environment. Focus your thoughts on the first belief on you list to be lead to the place where this belief lives. Follow you intuition to the place where this belief lives. It will have a symbolic representation in your inner space. Once you have found it. Observe how it is reacting to the things around it. How does it affect your place. Touch it and ask to see when this thing was created. Why did it serve you then? Does it serve you now?

Begin to change the belief. In a garden of the mind this may mean weeding it out of the garden. In the attic of the mind it may mean cleaning it out to be dumped or burning it in the mental yard outside. In the castle you might want to put it in a catapult and shoot it outside. The solutions to changing this symbol of your old belief are infinite. Choose one that works for you.

You can now repeat the process with all the beliefs on your list. When you are done, feel how clear you feel. In a later meditation, plant or create some new beliefs that move you toward your goals.

The red light begins to fill your sphere again, blotting out the grove. You feel a gentle decent as the red light fades. Your sphere returns to the shape and size of the screen of the mind.

Count your self up into waking consciousness and ground and center yourself.

Contemplation

Look around your home and begin to release the things that are cluttering your energy. Ask yourself: does this bring me joy? Does this serve a purpose? Is this in alignment with my great work? If it is not why keep it at all? Observe your mind. Are there patterns you could release to have a better flow and clearer mind?

The twenty-first bead in the blessing cord starts a new elemental cycle of water. The blessing of this bead is Intuition. This blessing is the water of Kether. Our intuition is always with us. We all have it to a variety of degrees and there are a multitude of ways it can come to us. We may feel, see, remember, dream, hear, feel, know, smell or taste our intuition speaking to us. Many of us can get hung up on what way our intuition speaks to us but it can be different every time. It is always trying to speak to us. Our own filters of reality, beliefs, fears, and reactions can block out this ever-present gentle prodding from spiritual guidance.

Our upbringing can block our intuition by giving us patterns that don’t let us connect to a greater source. You may have gotten a wild idea as a kid and your parents shut down this intuitive burst with their own fears. Don’t blame them though, they are just the current line in a chain of family and culture that taught children not to listen to intuition. Thankfully we are our own people and can choose to change these beliefs and fears.

What I think is the hardest part of intuition is to “hear” it and to trust it. To hear it we must quiet the louder parts of ourselves: the fears, beliefs and our doubting self all have loud voices in our minds. Stilling these can be done with passive meditation and focus on your breathing until your mind becomes still. This is when our intuition can speak clearly, but we don’t always need to be in this state to hear it. Just by thinking about a situation and focusing our attention lightly on it and clearing our mind momentarily so we can receive intuitive signal is enough. The first thought, image, feeling or memory, or other sensory input is our answer.

The second part is to trust it. Some wild and strange things can come through the intuition. Sometimes it skips forward to the end steps and you find it hard to see how it got there. The important thing is that you trust it. You can start small by listening to your intuition and following its guidance on small issues. This builds your confidence in your intuitive connection. The more we trust our intuition and psychic guidance the more of it we seem to have. Our lives begin to feel more alive when we follow our intuition. Things seem brighter and people start to wonder where you got the ideas from.

In the following meditation we use an interface called the tube of intuitive flow so we can clear our intuitive flow of any blockages like beliefs, fears, or reactions. This meditation shows us we can connect and ask anything about itself and receive intuitive answers. We can follow these answers to clear our energetic connection with our guides and spirits. The clearer we are, the stronger the “voice” of our intuition is.

Meditation of Intuition

Hold the twenty-first  bead of the blessing cord. The bead of Intuition, the water of Kether.

Count your self down into a meditative state.

Visualize the screen of your mind expanding into a sphere around you. You feel a sense of rising as your sphere begins to fill with radiant prismatic light. Resonate the God name of Kether: “eh-heh-e-yeh”

When the light clears, you see above you a spherical shape made of whirling light. This sphere is the divine source of intuition. You may see within it guides, radiant energies, and sometimes passing images. Ask to conjure your channel of intuition from the radiant source. See it as a tube that comes down from the source and passes through your crown and all the way down the trunk of your body, down into the center of the earth. This tube is an interface with your stream of intuition. Send your thoughts inside the tube to observe its interior.

Inside the tube you may see clumps or clots. Places where your stream of intuition is blocked in some way. Each of these blocks slow your intuition or even dam up its flow. You have the power of intuition and can reach out to connect to these blocks and speak with them. Choose a blockage and mentally connect with it. Ask it what fear or belief created it. The blockage will give you a memory, an image, words, a feeling, or just a sense of knowing about how it started in the first place. Know that this is your energy speaking to you. You have the power to use your awareness to change it. Let the blockage tell you how it started. Then ask what intuitive action you need to take to change it. The blockage may give you instructions. You may need to forgive someone, change a thought process you have, do something daring, trust your intuition to help you. Once you know what it is the blockage needs to change, ask it if you can help it clear energetically right now. If yes, place it between your two mental hands. Imagine white light flowing from your hands and dissolving the blockage.  Any stagnant energy will naturally flow down the tube to your place of grounding at its end. You may feel lighter. You may have more intuitive flashes without this blockage. Seek to trust your impressions.

You can continue this exercise with each blockage you find or end it now and return to this conjured tube that contains your flow later to clear it more. When you are done, move your consciousness out of the tube. Imagine your awareness of it fading, knowing it is just a symbolic interface of your intuitive flow. See the source of your intuition above you and give it thanks for its guidance as it fades from view.

The sphere begins to obscure as prismatic white light fills the sphere again. You feel a gentle feeling of decent as the sphere again returns to normal color. It shrinks back to its normal size as the screen of your mind again.

Count yourself up into waking consciousness. Ground and center if necessary.

Contemplation

Throughout the day connect with your intuition by asking yourself what you sense about your daily situations. Do you recognize your intuition when it “speaks” to you? What holds you back from sensing your intuition? Do you trust your intuition?

The seventeenth bead of the blessing cord is the blessing of creativity. This blessing is the fire of Netzach. This Venusian sphere is the place where our emotions and feelings are expressed in art, beauty, or creativity. With creativity we give new forms to old energies, we give new life to our creations, and are able to reflect on our experiences through the medium of our choosing.

With each creation there is a destruction, as what was unfolds into a new creation all its own. Sometimes we fear destruction of the old and we hamper our creativity. We can fear what it will be like when we create some thing new from the old. Fears may arise as to what this creation’s impact on the status quo will be. Don’t let fear stop you from creating something you are passionate about.

A fact of life is that everything comes to an end. Each act of art or creation is impermanent. It will eventually change or be destroyed. Entropy eventually returns a creation back into the soup of energy so it can be used again to create something new. It is also a fact that every ending is a new beginning. Our newest creation is built out of all of the experiences and energies we have put into making it. When we create anything, we destroy something else. When we destroy, we liberate new energy to create again.

This is not just a spiritual principle, but an energetic one as well. We are constantly creating thought-forms in our energy body. These thought-forms dissolve back into our energy over time if they are not maintained by the energy of our attention. A thought-form is the blueprint for manifestation of that thought into reality. Author and teacher Orion Foxwood has a saying: “What is on the altar of your mind?”Every one of these created thought-forms is a prayer on the altar of your mind. Sometimes these thought-forms even go viral and begin to effect the reality  many people experience. We pick up these transmissions all the time.

Thankfully with the power to create also comes the power to destroy. We can dissolve any thought-form we think doesn’t serve us. We can empower the thought-forms that support our highest good. We can use a thought-form we created to also read the energy of a situation or person. For this meditation, have something you want to create in your life and something you want more information about in mind.

Meditation of Creativity

Hold the seventeenth bead of your blessing cord. The bead of creativity, the bead of fire in Netzach.

Count yourself down in to a meditative state.

Allow the screen of your mind to expand until it is sphere around you. Feel the sensation of rising as a green light begins to fill the sphere around you. Resonate the god name of Netzach: Yod-heh-vau-Heh Tza-ba-oth

The green light surrounds you and becomes a mist. As the green mist begins to fade, you find yourself in a garden. This garden is an interface for you to see your thought-forms and interact with them. Look around your garden. Observe what it looks like. Everything here is a symbol for the thought-forms you have been putting into your energy field. Everything here is your creation, the garden you have planted and tended.

Does anything in the garden displease you or feel wrong to you? It could be represented by weeds, boulders, ugly clown statues, or anything that seems like it is out of place. Move toward this symbol and, if you can, touch it. Be open to what it has to tell you about itself. You may perceive this information in different ways. Sometimes the symbol will talk all by itself. What does it represent? Do you want to continue being affected by this thought form? If not, begin to destroy it or transform it. For weeds that would mean pulling them up and putting them on the compost pile, Moving, hammering, or chiseling the boulders down and using them to line the garden, or breaking up clown statues into a new mosaic. Any way you want to transform this energy into something new.

If you don’t think changing its shape is enough, remember in this place you are in complete control of your reality. By your will alone you can make unwanted things explode or dissolve, returning them into the energies from which they were formed. Try it on one of the symbols in your garden. When you destroy or change something in this garden, you are freeing up energies that can be used to create new things or feed what you truly want.

Now think of a situation or person you want to know more about or at least get a read on. Create a clear crystal symbol to use as a reading interface. It can be a crystal rose or a crystal garden ball. Let this thought-form be free and pure of any energies that might bias the reading. Then call some of the energy of the situation or person into the crystal. You will see an immediate change in the symbol. Note what color it becomes, How it feels to you now, and notice any images that come to mind when you gaze at your symbol. Sometimes the crystal or rose will change in appearance. Roses may grow roots, make more blooms, or even start to burn. Any reaction can be interpreted as information about that person or situation. You can even talk to the symbol to get information. When you feel you have gotten all the information you are going to get, destroy the symbol, freeing up the energy to return to whence it came.

Now find a free space in your garden to create something new in you life. It can be anything you desire, even a quality. With your will create a seed or seedling that represents your new creation in your life. Plant this into the soil of your mind. Give it the water and attention that it needs to thrive. Access the energy around you and give some energy and power to your new creation. Then walk away from it to the place where you became aware of the garden around you.

Green light begins to fill the garden again, obscuring it from view. The green begins to fade as you feel a gentle descent. The screen of your mind begins to return to its normal size.

Count yourself up into waking consciousness.

Ground and center yourself.

Contemplation

What are you creating right now? What is on the “altar of your mind”? What projects is it time to let go of so you can have more energy to create what you truly desire? What clutters up your physical and psychic space that could be removed? Think about how every creation is an act of destruction and every act of destruction is an act of creation.