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open_space) wrote2022-02-22 04:41 pm
open_space) wrote2022-02-22 04:41 pm
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Grounding: An exercise in visualization
It is common among people of our industrial societies these days to feel uprooted given the unhealthy habits they promote due to excessive visual stimuli and information overload. In particular, but not exclusively, the mindless scrolling of the web. It is part of some teachings that a tree cannot grow any taller than its roots for it is the foundation the allows you to reach new heights safely. Balance is essential for human beings as it is for trees and it is also for the same reason that an arrow that is too head heavy won't hit the target if it manages to fly at all or the shaft doesn't break given the inertia of a heavy head meeting the sudden acceleration before that, crushing it in between them.
In today's world we have a tendency to empower people more than what they can handle to meet the fast paced demands of our frenetic culture, or to make you gullible enough to make use of you, and one consequence of that is that our minds tip over as easy as a broom does when it's upside down. We are lacking a proper foundation and strong roots that can give us the stability needed to endure speeding winds. I've felt this many times in my life, in fact it is probably the thing that I need the most. Earth. Earth as in a strong contact with the planet and the elemental energy it represents.
There are some symptoms that I consider to be telling of someone needing some grounding of which some of them are:
- Lack of attention to your surroundings and the present moment
- Clumsiness caused by lack of attention (not motor skill!)
- Irritability and swaying emotions
- Fast switching between tasks
- Head in the clouds
- Headaches due to overthinking or other mishandlings of the mind
- Feeling of being uprooted, disconnected or floating
- Disorganized thoughts
- Vertigo and anxiety
You can do this inside or outside. It is best if you do this barefooted but it can also be done with shoes. If you are Christian you can start with a prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe or to the Blessed Virgin Mary to help you and bless you in this work of grounding. If you are a Druid you can pray to the Welsh Cêd the Earth Mother or the Irish Danu; if a Heathen you can try Frigga or Erce or if you prefer the Theoi you can pray to Demeter. Any other Earth and soil god or goddess will do.
Stretch a little bit or massage yourself if you need to as to release muscular tension.
Sit about halfway from the edge of a chair so that your back doesn't touch the backrest and you can place your feet solidly on the ground and the weight of your legs doesn't hang from the chair. Afterwards, put your feet together, hands facing downwards on the middle of your lap, arms should be allowed to hang like a rope, and your back is comfortably erect. Head tilted slightly downwards, eyes closed. Take a few moments to bring your mind, body and energies into stability. When you are ready take a few deep breaths and feel your mental preoccupations and bodily tensions draining down deep into the earth away from you where they will decompose and reintegrate into the energetic cycles of the soil. Pause for a moment.
Now, dedicate a few minutes to the sensations on your feet. Then extend that awareness to the floor or the soil beneath them and bit by bit all the way to recognizing the whole planet that holds you in place, from its surface to its core and the gravity thereof. When you feel you are ready or the focus starts to weaken release the imagery.
Next, imagine that from your lower legs and feet two strong and big roots start growing downwards, sinking and branching deeper and deeper into the earth. Imagine the roots sinking first into the soft soil and reaching downwards until they eventually hold firmly into solid bedrock. As you do this feel all the sensations and try to engage all your senses --from the sound of growing, sinking roots, to the warmth of the soil and the unmovable solidity of bedrock. Holding this image feel yourself as stable, unshakable and grounded and concentrate on what that represents.
Depending on how you feel either take the roots back into yourself or leave them there firmly in the ground. The latter will leave you solidly grounded and rooted, if you feel chronically uprooted you might want to try this a few times while the former will leave you balanced and rested having touched ground to recharge if this is a sporadic issue. Depending on your spiritual path, needs and intuitions is what you should do. The same goes for when to practice this exercise. I didn't design this as a daily practice but rather as a method for grounding as needed. Your mileage may very.
When you are done thank the earth and the powers that have helped you.
no subject
1) Yup. No energy involved in here by itself. No light visualized or such. To my understanding it's like a stretch and reaffirmation of our already existent connection to the earth, which helps it reestablish given the uprooting behaviors of the mishandling of the mind, which tends to move you upwards and hence the vertigo, floating sensation and becoming unaware of what is happening here on Earth. The energies go upwards in the body in such cases. That is why the meditation posture, or at least some of the reasons for it is the way it is for western meditation since thinking tends to pull you up while having your feet on the ground helps you stabilize that. Massage, exercise and such helps the energies root themselves in the body, but visualization can do so as well, since the body is a piece of the planet after all! And that's what you are holding into and reminding yourself and you body of it once in a while really makes a difference for people like me.
2) I've made the corrections here and to whom I've shared it with. Thanks for pointing it out!
3) Hmm that's interesting. I don't know how I feel about roots coming out from my bum! But if it works, it works... It seems a little mixed to me. In my understanding astral energy comes down from the Sun (think middle Pillar exercise bringing the energy from top to bottom) and etheric energy (chakras) go up from the earth back into the Sun. But my understanding is fairly limited on the ascending and descending currents. Perhaps both have astral and etheric components? Now that's my question for next Monday.
no subject
2) Glad to help!
3) To be clear, I was not sharing those exercises as something to strive for, necessarily. I've found some of Krasskova and Kaldera's books helpful (especially Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner), but I know very little about the value or lack thereof of their recommended practical magic. Now that I have a gone from zero to novice, reading those descriptions strikes me as somewaht reductionist compared to either of JMG's main strands (GD-derived and John Gilbert-derived). "Centering" seems like a one-step banishing ritual, and "grounding" as a one-step middle pillar or grail working exercise. The lack of nuance doesn't impress me as it once would have, but to be fair, I haven't tried either!