My Sankalpa – Sowelu

Starting in 2010, I began a daily Runes practice and made that the first element in my daily journaling. And one of the meditations I learned through my Runes study has the same effect on me as the fifth mantra of Deepak Chopra’s Daily Intentions: the mantra Sankalpa.

For me, Sankalpa as a mantra pretty well describes my existence as a human being. Not as Consciousness, but as Cynthia. The element of Consciousness called “Cynthia” exists in this reality in order to create and experience the effect of positive intention: intending to create positive sensations for others in every personal encounter. That’s what I try to be, not that I always manage to actually do so.

Back in 2010, I attended a webinar that was essentially about Consciousness. I don’t remember now what the actual seminar was called, but it was run by Steve Pavlina, in Las Vegas (which happens to be his hometown, not just a city of easy-to-travel-to-and-inexpensive-meeting-space). I originally sought out Steve Pavlina’s writings when I started trying to understand “What is Reality?” As for why I started asking that question, well, that began with an insane experience I had years after Artie died. It was a day-ling experience that left me with an intense understanding that Artie and I weren’t simply soulmates, rather, we were two parts of the same soul. That led me to study all kinds of fascinating and mind-blowing things which quickly progressed to questions of objective and subjective reality and the basic question of “What is Reality?”

At the workshop, I connected with someone who introduced me to Nordic Runes and took me to a store where I could purchase The Book of Runes (mine was written by Ralph Blum) and a set of plain Runestones that I soon replaced with a set made from amethyst that I bought in Nevada City near where I live. Each day, I draw a Rune from the little green silk bag I got in Seoul, write the Rune at the top of my journal entry, read the description of the Rune in The Book of Runes, and ponder how that Rune may guide or be reflected in my experiences that day (or the day before, or whatever the Rune made me think about).

There are 25 Runes that progress from Mannaz (The Self), to Odin (The Unknowable). One of the best-feeling Runes to draw, for me, is Sowelu (Wholeness). In addition to everything that makes Sowelu wonderful, there is a fantastic meditation for it in The Book of Runes that Raph Blum wrote.

To me, Sowelu and Sankalpa are pretty much the same meditation. Here is my practice, as explained in The Book of Runes:

There is a prayer, known as the Gayatri, that embodies the spirit of the Rune of Wholeness. Address the sun in this fashion:

You who are the source of all power,
Whose rays illuminate the world,
Illuminate also my heart
So that it too can do Your work.

While reciting the Gayatri, visualize the sun’s rays streaming forth into the world, entering your heart, then streaming out from your heart’s center and back into the world. This is a powerful and life-enhancing prayer.

Over time, as I evolved, I began to realize that just sending the light of my positive energy/intention out into the world was actually rather draining, and I got the feeling that, yes, it was definitely commuting positive energy into others, but somehow that was the only direction it flowed in, and imagining myself re-energized by the sun’s rays entering my heart didn’t actually regenerate as much energy as what I gave away (or that other people absorbed from me, if you want to think of it that way).

So now I visualize myself as receiving the energy of the sun and that energy streaming out of me in every direction as the brightest and most brilliant white light there is. Then I take a moment to imaging that light energizing others but also cycling back to me, being washed in the brightness of the sunlight also entering my heart, and therefore being cleansed and revitalized so that the cycle could continue endlessly without draining me of all energy. I still feel like I’m losing energy to spiritual vampires sometimes, but doing my Sowelu meditation helps me realize that my source of energy (which is actually my Self, or Consciousness) is boundless, and I become the source of bright white light again.

The fun thing is that sensitive people and people who see auras _and people who don’t know what they’re talking about but sense it anyway) often tell me that they sense a very positive and pure white light emanating from me. I’ll admit, it feels good to get feedback that suggests my positive intentions do indeed go out into the world and make people feel some kind of positive energy.