Grounding

Returning to reality

I promised this week that I would have a post containing information and a few exercises on contacting your spiritual guides.  I was not lying.  I realized however that at the end of my work on trance states I never explained exactly why I had the plate of cheese or nuts by your side at the end of the exercises.  To be honest this entry has come out of a need for my to do exactly what this essay is about.

Grounding is the last part of any trance, ritual, magic, or energy work that I do.  It is the also the first thing that I do.  In this way my concept of the circle being the symbol of perfection does into play.  Grounding is what allows us to switch gears and allows us to focus on one specific task or goal at a time.

In some ways I see the techniques of grounding as techniques of getting into a trance or at least of altering ones state.  This is why grounding is the first part of getting into a trance and it is the last part of getting into trance.  For people who suffer from anxiety disorders or even who wish to learn how overcome anxiety before tests, interviews, presentations, ect grounding is a good skill to learn.  It is something that really applies to every day life and all parts of life.

I have somewhat of an anxiety disorder.  When I have worked in fast food I have had the problem of beings one of the few employees who would try and do everything they could.  In many ways this made it harder for me to do my job which was always to take the orders at the front counter.  I ended up over coming my anxiety at being overwhelmed by imagining one leg being a root taking in new energy and the other leg being a root pushing out my anxiety.

What I have just illustrated is a practical use for grounding that allows me to work and earn my own income.  That is a technique that for me connects me to how I truly see the concept of being both grounded and centered,  That illustration for me is that of a tree.  For me the image of a tree becomes very important and you could say that the trees are the the central key to the mysteries as I understand them.

So why are trees sacred to me and why did I use that specific example for grounding?

The first thing that comes to mind for me is my location.  Location and land relationships are very important to me.  I live in Maine.  I constantly see the trees taking nutrients from the ground up to the crown to be filled with the light from the sun back down through the heart to the roots and back into the ground.  For me that is the perfect example of how life is constantly changing and being recycled.  The best form or grounding is one where you don’t remove the energy and emotions that bother you, but transmute it by changing it’s vibration and polarity.  It goes from one state into another at your will.

The manipulation and change of energy from one form to another is the definition of magic.  The only real difference here is that instead of directing the energy out into the world you are directing it through yourself, into the ground and back up into yourself in a different form.  They say that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it simply changes forms.  That is grounding.

So here is your  first exercise:

Grounding energy 1:

Get seated in a comfortable position.  Close your eyes and breath deeply and relax.  Take a few breaths with an inhale of five and an exhale of five.  This will get you ready to focus on the exercise at hand and clear your mind of everything that you have experienced that day.

Place both feet flat on the floor.  From each foot visualize a set of roots connecting and digging you into the earth.  Once you feel as if you are connected with the earth see any energy that feels “off” (anxiety, anger, exhaustion, ect) into the ground through your right leg.  Direct that energy back into the ground around and between your feet.  Once the energy has been reenergized so to speak pull it up with the left body and direct it up towards you crown and into your hands.  With your next exhale release the energy into your body and feel the changed energy.

And there you have it.  Your first exercise with magic.

The Reflection & modifications for other exercises

Now once you have done that exercise a few time write down in your journal how you feel.  The out come of this exercise should be that you are reinvigorated and ready to go.  This is an exercise to relax as well as a grounding exercise.  It’s a grounding exercise because you have come from one state to a more centered state by directing and manipulating various energies.  You have performed a small bit of magic.

 
The why this exercise works will be discussed in an upcoming post when I deal with the basic Hermetic Philosophy laws and how they apply to magic.  For now I will leave you this photo which describes magical practices perfectly: