Grounding and Centering – Part Two

 

After a few days of working with the centering techniques discussed on the previous post, we’re ready to add grounding to our daily practice.

To ground means to make yourself stable. This can be done in a variety of ways. Envisioning your legs as tree trunks rooted to the Earth Mother is one way. Putting your hands on the ground, walking barefoot on bare earth or grass, or holding grounding stones such as hematite, black tourmaline, obsidian, Boji stones, among others, are also very effective grounding techniques.

Here is a solid way of extending your energy body down into the Earth to keep yourself solidly rooted there. A physicist thinks of a grounding cord as a way of grounding out excessive energy surges, and certainly your energetic grounding cord provides a way of letting go of any energy you don’t need anymore. Your grounding cord allows you to bleed off extra energy, and also allows you to dispose of any energy you have picked up from an external source.

Many people like to think of their grounding cords as their “roots”. Like a root system, your grounding cord stabilizes you, so that whatever happens in the world around you, you aren’t carried away. You remains stable in the calm, cool energy of the Earth. Plants also use roots to gather the moisture and nutrients they need from the soil; I will teach you how to pull in the nurturing energy of Mother Earth through your grounding cord.

Being grounded helps you stay solidly in your body. When you are strongly connected with the body of Mother Earth, you are more aware of sensations and energy flows in your own body and all the details of the world around you. This helps you respond to the world in a more immediate and appropriate way. You stay in the present , letting the past be and trusting that the future will be even better. This skill is vital for healing or magic, and advisable to do before meditation or other journeys and assists in the body remaining health.

Once you learn how ground, you will want to use this skill consistently in you everyday life. When you start to feel stress, worry, anger, hopelessness, or any emotion that erodes your peace, get your body grounded and breathe in the healing Earth energy, Breathe out whatever may be excessive in your emotional response to the situation. You will start to feel calm and in control. Then you will most likely be gifted with a greater degree of clarity about the situation.

This meditation may help you understand how a grounded state feels.

Sit in a chair with your feet flat against the floor. Let your spine be straight and comfortable. If you want to lean against the back of the chair, do so. Take a moment to complete any small readjustments to make yourself perfectly comfortable, and close your eyes.

Gently let your attention come to your breathing. No need to change your breathing in any way, for now,  just become aware of it entering your nose and traveling down into your chest, filling your lungs. Be aware of the slight pause before you breathe out. Be aware of the muscle that work as your draw in the air, ad how they relax after you breathe out. Breathe in relaxation, and let out any concerns that you don’t need at the moment. Breathe in, relax, breathe out, let go. Enjoy this rhythm for a few moments.

Now let your awareness feel where your body touches the chair. Feel where the weight is lighter and where is heavier. And bring your awareness to the point where your buttocks are firmest on the chair. Feel the connection to the chair, and let your breathing focus on that spot, drawing your breath deep to that point of connection, and feeling as if the out breath seeps out through that spot.

As you breathe deeper and deeper, let your connection to the floor deepen, so that some intangible part of you is sinking deeper and deeper through the floor and the foundations to connect with the earth below your house. Even if it doesn’t sound rational, why not pretend for a minute that it can happen, and just allow it to happen. Easily and effortlessly, breathing deep, through this connection right down into the earth. Feel the nourishing coolness of the soil. Sense the roots of the trees around your root, and greet them if you wish.

Further and deeper, down through the soil, down through the rocks underneath, down through the bedrock. As far down as you feel comfortable going. And feel that part of your being that you have extended deep into the earth go straight through to the core of planet, to the heart of Mother Earth. Feel your connection with Her heart and enjoy it. This is sometimes called a “grounding cord”.

Be aware that energy can travel through this connection. Ask the Mother to send you her love, and let it flow up through your grounding through the Earth, and the floor, and into your body. Let if flood your whole being. Know that this love is always there for you whenever you care to ask for it. As abundant and free flowing as the air we breathe, so too is the love of the Mother. You can’t take more than your share because the supply is infinite. Let it fill your whole being. Let your being shine!

Once you have felt this feeling, you can make the connection more quickly bu focusing on your breathing to bring yourself into your body, and then extending your grounding cord through the floor and deep into the Earth.

Some quick ways to ground include:

– Sing the deepest “OOOOOOOOOH” note you can. Feel it vibrate deep in your belly and pelvis. Imagine the sound extending deep into the earth, and see if you can sing a little deeper.

– Have a real good belly laugh.

– Walk barefoot on bare earth or grass. Feel the earth under your feet and feel your energy body sinking into the earth. Breathe right down into the earth so that it begins to feel like an extension of your body.

-Work with crystals and/or stones, such as Obsidian, Black Tourmaline, Tiger’s Eye, Boji stones, Hematite, Onyx, to name a few. But really, any rock can help you reconnect with the earth.

Once y0u know how to ground, you can often do so in 2-3 deep breaths. Just feel the downward flow of energy as you breathe out, like a special type of gravity is pulling your energy body into deep connection with Mother Earth. On the in breath, feel Her energy coming to you, on the out breath, feel the energy returning to Her.

A quick way to confirm that you are grounded is to balance on one leg. If you are properly grounded, this should be easy.

Whenever you consciously ground and clear your own energy field, you will come back to the present moment, conscious of your own truth rather than another’s, and able to face the world around you with greater clarity.

I can’t stress enough the importance of Grounding and Centering before meditation, healing, or any type of magic work. Or simply by itself. When I don’t have enough time in the morning to meditate, even for a little, I always take a few minutes to at least center and ground myself. Trust me, once you become used to this practice, it need not take more than 5 minutes to feel completely centered and grounded.

I hope that from now on, you’ll do your best to stay Grounded and Centered. Until the next post, love and bright Goddess Blessings!

Isis Selanaia

Chrysalis Goddess

 

Living the Magical Life – Creating an Altar

Your altar is part of the space between the worlds, the place to focus energy which will enable Goddess to manifest in your home, a place where you strengthen you relationship to Her, and where you do magical works. It is apart from the mundane, every day life of your household. Even if you must use your dining room table or an old coffee table, or a bookcase, the top of a an old trunk, visualize it as sacred space. In a perfect world we would all have a permanent altar that could be set up as magical space all the time, but that may not be possible for you. Don’t let that deter you, or think you can’t do magic because of that. If you live alone or with people that are respectful of your beliefs and can do as you like in your home, wonderful, if not then do the best you can. There was a time when I was living with my mother, and sharing a room with my brother, neither very accepting of my faith. I still managed to have a small sacred space next to the TV, in the room we shared, all disguised as mere “decorations”. However, it is not even necessary to have an altar to do magic, it is entirely possible with some practice to do all your rituals entirely through visualization with no tools, no circle, and no altar at all.

There are certain considerations that you must take into account when deciding where to place your altar. If possible it should be in a space where it can remain undisturbed. If you leave your altar set up all the time, and you do not live alone, you must let everyone know that the items on your altar are sacred objects and should not be touched. Ideally, no one should handle your ritual tools except you. It is also possible to have an altar “box”. A place where you store all your altar items, and can upon opening can be your “shrine”. You can buy a simple wooden box and decorate it to infuse with the energy of your own creative fire.

Your altar can be as simple or as elaborate as you want.  For the sake of simplicity and ease of creation, let’s work with objects you probably have around the house already. There are many ways to compose your sacred space, this one in particular is an Elemental altar. For that, you will need something to represent the 5 Elements of Creation – Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. A small cup or bowl of water, or a seashell can represent the element of Water. For Air, you can have incense or a feather. Fire is best represented by a candle, and for Earth, you can select your favorite gemstone, or simply a small dish with salt. And finally, for Spirit, if you happen to have a Pentacle or an Ankh, beautiful, if not, a small vial with olive oil is perfect, and can be used to anoint yourself and for self blessing.

In some traditions, the altar is placed facing North, in others, facing East. If that is possible, great, if not, do what you can. My main altar is in my bedroom, right next to my bed, and the only place I could have it set up permanently is facing Northwest. Is it any less effective? Absolutely not! My motto is “do the best you can with what you have, and remember, YOU are the magic, YOU are the tool”.

How you place the items on your altar is entirely up to you. Traditionally, the placement is according to the directions corresponding to each element, but again, if you would like to set up your altar in a way that is more aesthetic, that’s perfectly fine. Below is a diagram of how to place the elements on your altar.

East – Air – Censer or feather

South – Fire – Candle

West – Water – Bowl of water or seashell

North – Earth – Gemstone or bowl of salt

Center – Spirit – Pentacle, Ankh, or Oil

This is as basic as it gets. If this is all you can manage to gather to create your first altar, is perfectly fine, and it’s a great start to your development of a daily devotional practice to establish a deeper relationship with Goddess. As your practice grows, you might want to start adding other elements to your altar. You could find a suitable representation of the Goddess, such as a statue or a framed painting, or even a nature symbol that you resonate with. On either side, you could have pillar or taper candles, if possible, a black one to the left, and a white one to the right. Those Altar candles are meant to direct energy. Energy enters on the left and exits on the right. Black draws energy and is receptive like the the left hand and White reflects energy and is projective like the right hand, functioning like a transmitter sending out energy from the altar. Black altar candles represent the Deep Essence of the Sacred Feminine, and White, of the Sacred Masculine. Together they promote the harmony of the sacred inner marriage.

I also keep fresh flowers on my altar, as a an offering to Isis, and as a symbol of my love and devotion to Her. At any given time, there are several gemstones on my altar as well, the ones I am currently working with, on a grid or not, depending on their specific purposes. My pendulum and Tarot cards are always on my altar, constantly recharging from the energy contained in it. Another thing I love to do is to re-arrange my altar once a month, and use colors, flowers, and other items that correspond to that particular month, to enhance the magical vibration and energy of my sacred space. Below it’s an example of what my altar looks like at the moment.  It’ll be reconsecrated and rededicated in the next New Moon to reflect the energies of the work that I have recently begun, as well as the vibration of November.  You will notice that I do not follow the cardinal placement, but instead, I arrange my altar in a way that is visually appealing and pleasant. I am after all a Libra with a whole lot of Libra in my chart, so aesthetics is very important to me!

As you see, your altar is not an ecstatic space, it is ever changing, not only with the items that you add, and how you re-arrange it, but also with the energy you gather in it, through daily devotion, meditation, magical work, and simply the quiet moments you spend communing with Goddess. In time, your sacred space will become the focal point of your home, the place where your divine essence radiates to and from, and the more you tend to it, the stronger it becomes. Most importantly, as you tend to your physical altar, so should you tend to your astral one, and with that, you will carry your temple everywhere, all the time. But that’s the subject of our next post 🙂

In sum, you should not let lack of “fancy” ritual items deter you from creating your own altar right now. Even the most basic, simple household items can be the beginning of a beautiful sacred space.

Love and Bright Goddess Blessings

Queen Mother Isis Selene

Chrysalis Goddess