Zero Hour: Part 21
Eventually (after crossing over into an open-air hallway on the far side of the building) they came to their stopping point: A much smaller and darker room, where two statues dominated the space. They were both well-worn wooden pieces, with the look and feel of proper antiques. He had to imagine they were extremely old because, well... One of them was of Princess Luna.
Its pale birch surface was very unlike the mare herself, but it paired well with the rich and dark mahogany of Princess Celestia's statue. Combined, the sun and moon both looked down on the room, seated on their plinths as if they were thrones. This room took in far less daylight than the previous few, so the only illumination came from candles on the pillars and a gently-glowing incense burner beneath the hooves of the two statues.
Lyra turned and smiled at him, flourishing her hooves around like a game-show host.
"Neat, huh? I figured it would be good to start things out with a little clarity before we moved on to any of the tougher topics, and the meditation chamber is pretty much always empty this time of day."
Spike walked past her and raised a claw to the cheek of Luna's statue. She was depicted with a smile of serenity and grace, while the portrayal of Celestia had a grim and firmly-set expression of... anger? Disappointment? Judgement, maybe. He regarded them both with an unusual amount of solemnity: Maybe it was because of the darkness, the quiet after Lyra stopped speaking, or the faint scent of jasmine and amber.
"Do you know how old these are?"
The mare shrugged.
"Eh, couple of months?"
"No, not how long they've been here-"
"No no, I got it. But I was serious: I watched them getting carved! One of the stallions involved with the dojo does this kind of thing. I guess the aging look is a side-effect of how he works? Definitely makes them feel more authentic."
He blinked a few times and then laughed: Growing up with Twilight should have made it easier for 'don't judge a book by its cover' to be his default, but sometimes the outer shell was just that convincing.
"Alright, so... meditation, I presume?"
"Not a lot of other reasons to be in a meditation chamber, yeah?"
She hunkered down onto the floor and took the same posture from when he walked in earlier: Hind legs crossed, back straight, instrument in her lap... He hadn't seen her carrying it this whole time, but maybe she'd pulled a Pinkie and just kept them stashed around the place? Or magic, which was way more likely.
He followed suit, realizing it wasn't too different from his default posture when meditating: It just made a lot more sense with his body plan... of course for her it was probably emulating the bipedal gait of humans.
"So, you mentioned you learned your style from Twilight Sparkle, right?"
"Yeah: You?"
"Self-taught for a bit, and then found a more formal method once I joined up here. Wanna try it?"
Spike had to bite back his enthusiasm and respond calmly, even though he wanted to cheer: The odds of this being a new skill were pretty dang high, and this was one of the areas where he was most lacking in options.
"Please."
A flicker of magic closed off some of the vents on the incense burner, and after a minute or so the scents in the air had leavened out to only be the bright summery mix of agar and amber. Lyra seemed a little awkward at first, but slowly warmed up as she talked through it.
"Alright, so I'm not really used to this whole teaching thing. This style comes in three parts, which all kinda have their own uses but they use the same base: I call it the 'moving center', but when Head Space taught me she called the whole set of three 'Sun-Moon Meditation'. Appropriate, right?"
"Totally. Go on: I'm all ears."
He closed one set of eyelids to dim out the lights and block the wisps of smoke, waiting to close his outer lids until he was sure Lyra wasn't going to pull out any visual aids. Again, that was probably more of a Pinkie thing...
"OK, so first you focus down on your... feet, right? Hind claws, whatever works."
She led him through the process slowly, periodically pausing to make sure he was following along. Despite her protests, Spike felt like she actually had the potential to be a pretty solid teacher.
"This is the base for everything that follows. Keep your focus and attention in that area, all your concentration, use it to really get a feel for yourself. Let it linger for a bit, grasp the lay of the land. Take your focus from just one limb and start to draw that back. Pull it away and bring the whole with you, carrying it along. Your focus, your thoughts, the power you carry inside you; take it when you go. Leave behind an empty frame as if you were drinking the water out of a glass with a straw, or emptying out some other container. Take it slow at first, just pause if your attention starts to slip."
Lyra chuckled a bit before adding an extra tip.
"I'm a really physical thinker, so it took me a bit to get it at first. It might help to tense all the muscles in that spot when you focus, and then relax them as you pull away. Rolling in a kind of wave from the outer edges of your body into your core, that kind of thing. No matter how you do it, bring the whole thing together in your chest as one single point."
Spike picked up the gist of it comfortably given his own experiences with meditation: Instead of Omphaloskepsis' method of sensing his entire body at once, this method focused and collapsed the senses down to one point. He slid backwards and lost progress from time to time, but never let that be a discouragement: Instead he just paid attention to the regular cycle of his breathing and let it carry his focus back together and on its path again.
Over the course of a few minutes they continued the process moving inwards from each limb and the head as well, eventually bringing everything together into one spherical mass in the center of the body. His body felt both distant and very relaxed, having deliberately stripped all his attention and tension away from each part one at a time.
"That's the base, and this point of focus is what I call the moving center. In the three meditations that build from this base, it will sort of act as the sun and the moon. We'll start with the sun. The base is kinda freeform, but this part really requires you to use a breathing pattern. The numbers aren't important, just the consistency: I go for four, but Horse Stance has real deep lungs so he likes to use a seven count."
Lyra seemed to favor a pattern of breathing that moved in beats of four-by-four: Breathing in to a four count, holding for a four count, breathing out for four, holding four. Spike already used a similar box-like pattern himself, so that was a nice commonality.
"Let the center of your attention gently move, dropping down to the base of your hips. Give it a few cycles of breathing to settle... Good. Now on the next inhale, let it rise up the back of you until it comes just below your neck, between your shoulders. Hold it on the hold... and let it drop down the front on the exhale. From hips to shoulders and back, a big smooth... Uh, curve?"
Twilight's drills brought the specific geometry to mind instantly.
"Ellipse."
"Right! Keep it up like that for a few minutes: Up on the inhale, hold at the peak, down on the exhale, hold at the base. Rise and fall, zenith and nadir, motion and stillness. Don't sweat it if your focused center starts to fray or come apart, just let it slowly draw back together over time: Rather than force it, just let it take the shape it wants."
The cycle was smooth and almost self-sustaining: Spike was surprised at how quickly the focus of his attention fell in and followed the path of an endless track. Over time the movement started to behave like Twilight in his earlier anecdote, cutting a rut into the path. Each sweeping pass of his 'center' left a lingering trail, and it was strongest at the two points where it stopped in each cycle. It felt similar to how he would describe his magic in Omphaloskepsis, but not quite the same...
"You might be feeling it already: Everypony I know describes it a little differently but there are, like, common points and references. There's a lingering warmth, a persistent heat, something that seems like it would be sharp and pointed if you touched it. Radiating and reaching."
Spike didn't nod physically, or even say anything, but then realized this wasn't like his dream meetings with Princess Luna. Some actual communication would be useful.
"Yeah, definitely."
"That's the 'sun' in the Sun-Moon meditation: A pure solar aspect."
This time he did nod, even if she couldn't see him: Her description sounded right on multiple levels.
"So the next form would be about the lunar aspect?"
"Bingo! Take a minute to breathe, stand, stretch, let that lingering stuff all settle back out: It's easier to transition between them once you're used to it, but better to clear the slate. Just remember what that side of it felt like."
He unfolded himself off the floor and paced around the room for a minute. During their break Lyra switched the incense burners into the opposite configuration, dimming out the brighter smokes and leaving the smell of jasmine in the air.
As Spike stretched he got a feel for the state of his body after the first meditation: She was right in that the lingering sensations faded and drifted away quickly once he was moving... But he felt like it could still be very useful once he could bring it to bear. The system backed him up on that idea:
By practicing a facet of [Internal Alchemy] without the skill, your Mastery increases by 3%
Not long after, they settled in for the second style. It started exactly the same as the first, drawing all of himself together into one 'moving center', one focused sphere of attention and concentration. Idle thoughts might drift in the background, but he let his actual mind return to that point naturally.
"Now that you're centered again, take that core of your attention and raise it up, slowly. Treat it as if it is extremely heavy and difficult to move: Give it a sense of weight and density."
Whether it was his actual magic or just a visualized construct, that wasn't too hard for him: The center began to take a kind of metallic luster in his mind, growing dense and earthy as he dragged it up in his chest.
"Once it is sitting at the zenith from the previous exercise, just let it linger there. It's suspended, held up and waiting. Give it a few cycles to linger and sit... and then let it just drop."
The plummeting sensation built in Spike's gut quickly, as if he were actually falling. The sphere of his attention sank fast, eventually recoiling and starting to rise once it reached his hips, near the bottom of the last method's solar cycle. In the wake of the drop, things were... cold. Not a negative or sad kind of cold, but pure and crisp like a fall morning. If the last meditation left a sensation of lingering warmth and motion, this was dark and chilly stability.
"You might already have a feeling for it, but give it another shot: It's an easy reflex to let it spring back quickly, but you'd be surprised how far you can let yourself plunge down. I've been told this side of it makes for a great hypnotic induction, but I uh... Yeah. Not my kinda thing obviously."
This time Spike made sure to really concentrate on the sense of depth within him and beneath him, the sheer gravity the world exerted just to keep its own surface from shearing off. His focus was reflective and smooth like a ball of silver steel...and this time when it dropped, it truly dropped. He felt the sinking and falling, but this time he ignored the vertigo and focused on the wake it left.
It felt the way Luna's mane looked, dark and vast. There was a sense of incomprehensible space even in the small area of his body, a perfect opposition to the focused heat of the first style. That had been living and crackling and trying to crunch down into a tighter huddle. This feeling spread and wallowed, billowing and flowing like deep dark water. He luxuriated in the sensation for a bit before opening his eyes.
By practicing a facet of [Internal Alchemy] without the skill, your Mastery increases by 3%
Lyra just nodded to him and they let the specifics go unsaid: If that wasn't the lunar aspect to match the previous solar one then nothing was. Both of them stood and shook themselves off for a few minutes, stretching and returning their heads back to the world around them. While he had already picked up a lot, he was most interested in this part: Since the previous two stages formed an obvious pair, what did that mean for the part that stood alone?
Lyra stood one more time to flip the burners a third time, mixing the two smokes in equal measure.
"Alright, number three: Take everything inside again and draw it together. Gather the core and give it a place in your chest. Make room and space, let it sit and settle."
It came easier now, but he still took his time: Rushing was antithetical to the nature of (most) meditation, and Spike had no need to force it right now. This was a kind of training, after all.
Lyra's voice was steady, the volume never fluxing too far up or down: She probably sang, right?
"Let it fall apart and split along those lines you learned just now: Solar and lunar aspects. They want to come away from each other and spread. Separating them should come naturally without too much effort. Don't focus on it or try to sort them deliberately, just give them the chance."
She was right about that: Once he let his thoughts settle on the idea of his magic splitting into the two distinct types, it began to do so automatically. In his visualized mind's eye, the almost unreal shimmering purple-silver-green of his magic began to burnish out and flicker into new shades. Blue and orange, silver and gold, white and black, all resolving and fading together. Even that seemed to be a trick of the lack-of-light, his brain assigning associations where none had formed on their own.
Eventually two distinct and very different-feeling spheres had formed, and he could feel the tension.
"Draw each orb up and out from your chest, following the natural flow of your body. Each goes to one forelimb, then down and into the hands: Solar to the right, lunar to the left. Once they pass, think of your joints as a filter or a lock: Let the matching type in, keep the other out, and don't let anything go back up the arm again."
Spike visualized a porous rock (something in the pumice range but with a bit more density) slowly coalescing into his wrists, forming two discs that served the purpose Lyra described. The right-hand gate allowed only solar aspects in, but didn't let them fall back out. The left-hand gate behaved the same but inverted, accepting and sealing in the lunar power. His hands started to feel... not warmer or denser but somehow more charged.
"Bring up your arms: You want them to come out a bit away from your chest. The goal is to press your claws together until they almost touch, without the rest of your limbs jostling against your torso."
He cocked his shoulders out a bit to get his elbows clear of his belly, and then did as she said: Palms facing together, he brought his two claws through the air until they almost made contact.
Lyra's voice smoothed out and became a bit more wakeful, and under that his improved senses could make out the sound of her hooves moving in the air.
"Now pull back, push in, and repeat: Keep it going in a steady cycle. You'll start to notice the change soon enough."
It took a bit over a dozen passes back and forth before he started to feel it. It wasn't a sensation in his claws or his arms, but in the air between where his hands were pushing. Where the lunar and solar aspects came close together, something was being born in the wake of the friction. By reflex he tried to stretch his Omphaloskepsis-style senses to get a better 'feel', but the entire framework fell apart when he did. Rather than get frustrated, he took that as a positive and started again.
Any mistake you can walk away from is a learning experience, and with that new information Spike took another try. It only took him a minute to gather the opposed forces, get both halves corralled down into his hands, and start the push-pull motions again.
This time he let his passive senses wash out instead of trying to split his mind between two totally distinct styles of meditation. Between his claws in the air, something was changing and growing. It had the feel of his magic in its normal state, but magnified and clarified... And most importantly, he wasn't actually putting effort into making it. His MP was steady as a rock and he wasn't using any kind of active skill to make this happen... Well, not exactly.
The sensation started as being similar to his magic and equally elusive, but the longer he kept up the pattern the more physical the sensations became. Dragging his hands apart became difficult as if they were magnetized. The air between them started to grow heated, crawling with a static tingle. The entire thing was made turbulent and swirling by each pass of his hands.
"Focus on that new sensation in the air: I won't try to explain it or give it a name, but I think you've got a pretty good idea what's going on."
She said that with a finality that implied her lesson was over, and Spike's system agreed.
A skill has been created through a special action! By taking an expert's lessons to heart and studying the nature of magic, the skill [Syzygy] has been created!
Additionally, by practicing a facet of [Internal Alchemy] without the skill, your Mastery increases by 7%
[Syzygy] (Active) Lv 1 EXP: 0.00%
In the astronomical world, a syzygy is the alignment of three bodies in space. Metaphorically, it can mean to bring two poles into alignment around a central force... Or to bring a new force into being between those poles. This is at the heart of a style of meditation that draws on the sun, the moon, and the things that lie sleeping between them.
This skill encompasses four distinct styles of meditation, built around two polar aspects of magic.
Transitioning into this meditative state takes more time than with other styles.
The time taken can be reduced through practice and improved levels in this skill.
These styles of meditation are not initially compatible with the skill 'Exposure'.
Suncycle
Improves HP recovery based on both WIS and LUK while meditating.
Improves MP recovery based on only WIS while meditating.
Improves Stamina recovery based on only LUK while meditating.
Grants insight into solar concepts and certain aspects of magic.
Moonsetter
Improves HP recovery based on only LUK while meditating.
Improves MP recovery based on both WIS and LUK while meditating.
Improves Stamina recovery based on only WIS while meditating.
Grants insight into lunar concepts and certain aspects of magic.
Sun and Moon in Harmony
Nearly halts HP recovery while meditating.
Nearly halts MP recovery while meditating.
Nearly halts Stamina recovery while meditating.
Generates an externalized clump of purified magical energy.
????????
You have not learned this subskill.
Chapter 102
Zero Hour: Part 21
- OR -
Statues and Stillness
A BONUS NOTE:
Today's chapter is a little unique. While the results shown are supernaturally potent due to Equestria's magic and Spike's own nature, the actual visualization and practice Lyra describes is a real style of functional meditation. I wrote this sequence to be (what I feel is) a solid instruction on the practice, which is the same one I've used for most of my life. I hope folks can get some benefit out of it, and even if you don't? Enjoy the chapter on its own. 
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Update! The best time of the day!
Very usefull lessons. If one has problems with visualizing it a finger or pointer can help. A wandering point on you skin as guide.
And now I imagine spike shooting mana blasts at enemies now
ooo... makes me think of 'cultivation' technique.
Hmm...
Sun and moon in harmony meditation is the third level, so that mysterious fourth meditation seems like it could be either something like Eclipse or maybe it would be called Sun and Moon in Disharmony. No clue what effects it would end up having, but it seems like it might be interesting to find out...
This is going to be intresting. new meditation, energy flow technique.
Sun cycle,
Moon cycle,
Harmony cycle,
??Discord cycle??
Ha,
Me,
Ka,
MeHA?
NASA approved color scheme as well?
Beautiful. Is the meditation actully called the Syzygy? Very interesting, I think I'm going to try it out.
10876190
No, that name was just specific to this presentation: It's a word that refers to the alignments of celestial bodies. As far as I know this method doesn't have a formal name, I learned it from a local library book when I was in grade school.
10875614
Yeah, that can be very helpful! I sometimes lose track of the method for a while and need to put some effort into getting that mentality back, using that kind of external guide is often a part of the process.
Lyra taught meditation? Is she a Jedi master in disguise? Have to say I never expect the eccentric Lyra to practice meditation.
Is that a Homestuck reference I see?
10876266
I hope Spike will try [Suncycle] at high noon and [Moonsetter] during a Full Moon to see if the position of celestial bodies helps him better explore solar/lunar concepts.
QUESTION:
Can Sun-Moon Meditation aid Spike in level-grinding his [Solar Affinity] and [Lunar Affinity]?
10876722
In this house we ham our steaks. :V
(Translation: You're damn straight it is)
10876857
I can neither confirm nor deny the potential theoretical existence of such affinities, nor how this meditation would impact them if they did exist.
That's not me being evasive either, that's just true: Spike's potential Affinity list is not a concrete thing, and might develop as he does. Currently I have no plans for those Affinities as concepts for Spike to use, but there's plenty of potential for that to change in the future.
10876936
Lawyer talk!
Twilight: "How was your mission?"
"I can neither confirm nor deny that I had a mission."
Spike: (sneaky)
Twilight: "Awww, your legally permissible evasiveness is improving. I'm so proud!"
Spike:
Oh, cool. I like the description of meditation directions.
Ok, I have a single Question about that meditation style. What happens once the Hands are charged and brought together? Because that there seems like a setup for the "Two Powers into One"-Skill from GaoGaiGar.
I guess we have quite some options in recovery now. But with his sleeping full recovery he already can do a bloody lot...
I think I came up with something kinda similar to the first style of meditation on my own.
Anyway, I briefly tried both methods you describe, and they do work, at least to some extent. Haven't really practiced seriously, but I bookmarked this chapter, and might go back to it later.
I honestly don’t get it but sounds cool
10876266
Any ideas or suggestions on how I could find out more about this meditation method? Maybe what the name of the book was?
11690839
I don't remember the name at this point: It was a very thin mass-market paperback on modern parapsychology and New Age contents, probably a Llewellyn published piece? This would have been in the late 90s or early 2000s. At the end of the day I've long since modified the practice to suit my own needs based on a lot of different self-hypnosis and meditation styles, including from online resources like Phil Hines' site, Chaos Matrix, and other stalwarts of Web 1.0. I don't think there's a single great resource to go to for things like this, instead I'd recommend reading a broad diversity of sources and experimenting with what works for you.