8/12/2019 Grounding as a Daily Practice
1/2
Grounding as a Daily Practice
In magical and spiritualwork, we often use the term "personal
practice" to describe our dailydiscipline of meditationor
exercises. "Practice" means just that--repeating something over
and
over again until it becomes easy and automatic, just as we might
practice a piece on the piano.o become adept at magic, at what
occultist !ion ortune termed "the art of changing
consciousness at will," practice is re#uired.
$s the basis of a magical practice, grounding is the single most
important thing you can do. In
reclaiming tradition, we begin every ritual or
magicalactivitywith a grounding. %ut in traveling
and teaching, I often find that even experienced &itches
sometimes don't really understand whatgrounding means.
If I ask for a volunteer to lead a grounding, I might get a song
or a ()-minute meditation--which
may be beautiful, but may or may not accomplish the purpose.
*rounding means making an
energeticconnection to the earth. It's more than a
metaphor--it's as real as that third prong onyour electrical plug.
It means being present in a given situation, with all your senses
awakened,
aware of what is going on around you, relaxed and calm but able
to access power.
I teach grounding both to Pagans preparing for rituals and to
activists preparing to face potential
police violence, and the skill is the same--even though the
language I use might be somewhatdifferent. It's a tool that can
help you keep calm, whether you're speaking to the great powers
of
the universe or to your +ity +ouncil, whether your coven-mate's
sanity is teetering on the brink
or your -year-old is precariouslybalancedon top of the slide.
&hatever you're doing orconfronting, you'll come through it
best if you don't panic and remain clear, centered, and able to
make a conscious choice about your actions.
*rounding begins in the body. ry this Tighten up your chest,
clench your muscles, and think
about a situation that scares you. Notice what fear and panic
feel like. Then relax. Loosen yourmuscles, take some deep breaths
that flow down into your belly. Pay special attention to your
jaw and the base of your spine. Notice what feels different.
Already you are starting to ground.
eep your eyes open. &e often lead closed-eye meditations for
grounding, but when the altar
catches on fire at the %rigid ritual, you don't want to close
your eyes--you want to be able to#uickly center and react calmly
and intelligently.
Notice the soles of your feet, how they make contact with the
ground. !n a tense situation, just
focusing on that contact may be enough to bring you back to a
more grounded state.
"eel roots of energypush down from your feet through the earth
below you. ike a tree, you can
send things down through those roots and draw things up. #ith a
breath, release any energiesyou don't want to carry--like panic/
#ith another breath, feel how you can draw on the
immensely powerful nurturing energies of the earth.
http://www.beliefnet.com/section/quiz/index.asp?surveyid=27http://www.beliefnet.com/holistic-living/meditation/index.aspxhttp://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=1http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=1http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=1http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=1http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=1http://www.beliefnet.com/holistic-living/meditation/index.aspxhttp://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=1http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=1http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=1http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=1http://www.beliefnet.com/section/quiz/index.asp?surveyid=27
8/12/2019 Grounding as a Daily Practice
2/2
Imagine the energyrising just as water rises up through a tree's
root system.$ring it up through
your feet and legs and into the base of your spine, consciously
relaxing any tense muscles.
$gain, this is more than a metaphor--it's reinforcing the
natural energy flow of the body.
$ring the energy up your spine, paying special attention to your
belly, solar plexus, and heart.Let it branch out through your arms
and hands, and rise up through your throat and out the top
of your head,just like a tree%s branches reach up to the sky.
Then feel those branches cur&e backdown to reach the earth so
that they surround you, creating a filter of protection.0ust as a
tree
draws in energy through its leaves, you can pull in the sun's
energy, or the moon, stars, or night
sky, through that filter.
This isthe basic groundingwe use for ritual, and it can grow
more elaborate. 1ou can visuali2e
all the different layers beneath the earth, of soil, rock,
water, and fire. 1ou can link the images to
the seasons, to layers of history and ancestry. 1ou can even do
a geologically correct grounding,
uni#ue to your area. 'ou can choose some metaphor other than a
tree.(anypsychics use a
simple &isuali)ation of a grounding cord.*omepeopleprefer a
tail. %ut whatever you do, thepoint isto create your energetic
connection to the earthand then to run that energy through
your body, following the natural lines of energy flow. Then draw
in the solar and sky energiesand link them to the energies of the
earth.
#ith practice, you can do this +uickly, with a simple breath.
%ut don't stop here. 3emember,
your eyes are open.Notice what%s going on around you. $e aware
of all your senses what you
hear, what you feel on your skin, what you smell and taste.
Practice mo&ing while grounded.Pick up one foot, then another.
eel those roots stretch4 imagine they grip the ground and melt
into it with each step. 5ove around the room, head up, eyes open
and looking around you 6not at
your feet/7. eel how yourbodymoves when you are grounded and
breathing deep. hen come
back to stillness and notice what changes.
8et a time each day to practice grounding--perhaps when you
first wake up and step out of bed.
%ut also practice grounding throughout the day, when you
walkthrough the park on your lunch
hour, while you wait for the bus, when you walk your dog. 9otice
how it feels to ground indifferent situations--in the midst of the
city, in nature, at home.Learn to ground anywhere--
because you may need your grounding even more in the noisy
subway than in the #uiet woods.
3emember, magic is not just for moonlit nights and secluded,
sacred temples. :ur magical
practice gives us the tools we need to live more effectively in
every moment and to ground ourspirituality in everyday life.
3ead more
http;;www.beliefnet.com;aiths;Pagan-and->?;>@;*rounding-$s-$-
!aily-Practice.aspxApB=Cix22?b0DEcc3
http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=2http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=2http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=2http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=2http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=2http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=2#ixzz1LbJQXccRhttp://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=2#ixzz1LbJQXccRhttp://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=2http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=2http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=2http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=2http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=2#ixzz1LbJQXccRhttp://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Pagan-and-Earth-Based/2001/08/Grounding-As-A-Daily-Practice.aspx?p=2#ixzz1LbJQXccR
