Personal Practice with Rachel Howe
Photograph by Zohn Mandel
Personal Practice is a series of reflections from trusted spiritual practitioners who are near and dear to Spirit House Collective. Here, Rachel Howe (of Small Spells) dives into how and why meditation is her favorite tool for connecting to spirit and self.
The Practice
My most helpful, easiest, and most profound tool for connecting to spirit is meditation. It's the time and space that I give to myself to access my inner world, which is the thing that connects me best to spirit.
We are our own tools for access. I find that a lot of outside perception of magical work is that it is about opening a portal to some different plane of existence, where everything is then laid out for us as if we are watching a movie. This takes us out of the experience and makes us viewers to our own magical connection, rather than participants. Meditation is all about me—getting myself to a state where I can pass through the portal, but also keep engaging once I'm through.
We are the language that magic uses, so we can't separate out ourselves from any magical experience. My body and senses and emotional aura are all necessary translators of what I find in spirit, so they need to come with me into different spiritual planes; they are the things that pass the messages, that interpret, that understand.
“We are the language that magic uses, so we can’t separate out ourselves from any magical experience.”
Being in meditation shows me where I need healing, since any part of myself that can't fully enter into a shifted spiritual plane is a piece of me that is calling for attention. When I sit down to meditate, I don't have an agenda. I allow it to be whatever I need in the moment. Sometimes I just need to calm my mind. Sometimes I need a specific message or direction. Sometimes I need to realize a deep trauma, and sometimes I need to fall asleep. Sometimes I feel presences strongly and channel very clear messages from them. Sometimes I just listen to my breath. We are complex creatures, and meditation can address any of our complex needs at any time.
What meditation does is quiet the external noise, so that I can access everything that is held or processed inside of me. This includes personal memories and my own journey. It also includes universal connection and entrance into an altered consciousness. There are times when I slip right in and feel my consciousness shoot up into an expanded space where my spirit can fly free, and merge with other consciousnesses. There are other times when I stay very aware of my body and perhaps learn what it might need to function better, learn where there is pain or heartache. The main thing is that I am focusing all my energy on my entire holistic self by taking my conscious attention off of it.
“I always think of connecting to spirit as a mutual handshake. We both need to extend ourselves to each other.”
It's about allowance and taking my mind off its spinning wheel. By doing this, I am communicating that I understand that my personal wheel of life is not the most important thing, and that I want to connect to the greater wheel of collective existence. I always think of connecting to spirit as a mutual handshake. We both need to extend ourselves to each other. Spirit is always around and available to us, but we need to shake ourselves off in order to become available to it.
So, it's not about showing up and watching a movie that spirit has made for you, with all the answers laid out and clearly understandable. It's about inserting ourselves into the plane of spirit and interpreting what's going on there, as an integral part of the story, of the conversation. Our bodies and minds are both the channels AND the blocks to our spiritual connection, so, for me, meditation is the most powerful tool for learning how to best utilize the body and mind as supports for the spirit.
—Rachel Howe
Small Spells / @smallspells
For more insights from Rachel and other gifted mystics, check out the “Ascend” tier of The River Patreon program. There, you’ll gain access to exclusive episodes of Stories from Spirit, a podcast from our founder AJA Daashuur. June’s episode features a conversation between AJA and Rachel that explores several facets of their respective spiritual journeys and practices.