Lesson #3

Wiccan Pentacle & Grounding, part 3

Grounding

Do you ever have the feeling...

• That you're wobbly, spacey, or not firmly attached to your feet?
• That you're clumsy, like your body doesn't know quite where it is?
• That your emotions are all over the place, and you can't find a calm centre?
• That you're fatigued and drained, with no energy or power?
• Or conversely, that you're buzzing with energy and don't know how to shake it off and calm down?

This lesson will teach you a technique to remedy all that. And it marks the start of your training in Energy Work.¹

Why are Grounding and Centering so important to Wiccan practice?

Because in any ritual or magick work, you are using energy. You are channelling energy in from Divine sources, forming it to suit your needs, and releasing it to do your work on the spiritual/magickal levels of quantum reality.

It's important to Ground and Centre largely to be sure you're using Divine energy and not your own personal energy. This matters because...

1. Your personal energy may not be as pure (contaminated by unresolved emotions etc.)
2. Your personal energy is finite, and if you drain it regularly without fully refueling, it will have serious effects on your physical and psychological health.
3. The Divine is an infinite source of highly potent energy, far more effective than the little bit of personal energy we hold within us at any given time.

So in Grounding & Centering
you access this Divine energy source,
simultaneously creating a safe overflow-valve
for any excess energy.
And you develop your ability to sense
and direct this energy to the purposes of your choice.

What Is Grounding?

When Wiccans say "grounding," they can mean three similar and related actions:

1. Connecting with Earth energy ("plugging in") and taking energy in
2. Discharging excess energy into the Earth
3. Magickally forming an intention on the physical plane by creating a tangible symbol of it.²

Today's lesson concerns the first two meanings, which are fairly intertwined.

Grounding is, in essence, connecting with the Earth. And it's always a two-way connection:

	When you plug in to the Earth, you can call on and fill with energy
	When you have too much energy, you can discharge the excess into the Earth

Grounding is not merely connecting with the planet itself; we are grounding in the Heavens as well — like an Axis Mundi, with roots growing into the Earth and branches growing into the Heavens.

Why Do Wiccans Do This?

Grounding is a technique which gets us calm, stable, present, and empowered. That's why Wiccans do it before every ritual and magick spell. And many other times as well.

You know how electrical outlets in a house are grounded? There's an actual wire that comes from the electrical sockets and is connected to a piece of metal that's buried in the ground. Excess electricity is channeled out of the house along that wire, to dissipate in the Earth (which is so massive it easily can take in all the electricity humans could give it, without disturbing anything).

That's what Wiccans do, with the Grounding Technique below. We make an energy connection with the Earth. Through this connection, we can...

• Release thoughts that are pulling on our attention and dissipating energy
• Call our consciousness firmly into our body
• Find our Centre — the core of ourselves that is more calm, stable, and secure
• Tap into positive life-force energy, and increase our vitality
• Return to the present moment — being right here, right now (the only place where we can access Power)
• Access spiritual Power which we can use for magick and ritual
• Begin to shift consciousness for magickal work
• Put unwanted energy into the Earth... so you don't dump it on some unsuspecting person. (Otherwise whatever they're experiencing can be amplified — don't be an energy litterbug!)
• Dissipate excess energy or emotion

Learning to do this is the beginning of Energy Work — a key Wiccan ability and the starting point for magick. I believe this is part of what makes Wicca unique. I'm not aware of any other religion or spiritual path that employs and moulds energy as a conscious practice.

Energy work is what makes Wiccan Ritual a transformative experience rather than an empty recitation of words. It's what makes Wiccan magick actually work!

Grounding gives you experience with the sensation of energy moving through you. More important, it strengthens your body's ability to handle and control energy. This is vital, especially as you develop spiritually.

The more you do this practice, the faster you will learn to work with energies and do magick.

A Basic Grounding Technique

Grounding consists of several steps or ingredients (this is an overview: we'll get to the details shortly):

1. Connecting your feet to the Earth or ground
2. Aligning your posture
3. Sending your breath down as a root into the Earth, connecting you Below
4. Opening to allow Earth energy to rise within you
5. Filling yourself completely with Earth energy
6. Letting the excess energy flow into the Sky, connecting you Above
7. Allowing the Celestial light to flow in
8. Filling yourself completely with Celestial energy
9. Letting the excess light flow down into the Earth
10. Breathing as a conduit between these two energy sources

Ideally you can do this exercise,³ at least the first time, standing outside on the Earth. But you'll want someplace quiet, safe, and private, and that may not be easy to find in your area. It's nice to take off your shoes, if that's comfortable for you.

The second best version is to take off your shoes, and practice this in the comfort and security of your own home.

I'm going to assume that you're standing on a floor rather than the Earth, and if you are on the Earth, you can edit that part out.

Earth Grounding Technique (Part 1)

Begin by standing with your feet about hip-width apart. Stand with your spine lengthened. Soften your knees so that they aren't "locked." Relax your shoulders, your face, your hands.

Take a deep breath, hold it a moment, then let it go. Do this again, and let it go with a gusty sigh.

Feel your feet on the ground or floor. Notice how your weight is distributed on them: left and right, heel and ball, insides and outsides. What does it feel like, beneath your feet?

Notice your breath.

Imagine sending your breath down through your body, down your legs, and out through your feet, like roots growing toward the Earth. They go down through the floor, through the foundation of the building you're standing in. Down until they touch Mother Earth.

You feel Her there beneath you, strong and protective and nurturing. Let your roots grow down into your Earth Mother like a tall and strong tree.

They continue down through the moist warm topsoil with the worms and other critters, down through the bones of our ancestors, down through the bedrock, through watery underground rivers and lakes, down, down, down . . . .

Like the roots of a tree, these tendrils keep seeking down into the heart of the Earth. Feel and taste the Element of Earth, cool and moist and dark and rich, which is within you as you are within it.

Eventually your roots begin to feel the warmth at the heart of the Earth.

There's a sweet spot in the centre of the Earth, where Her energy is concentrated. It's an energy of loving, laughing happiness; it feels welcoming and cherishing and supportive. There at the centre is the fiery core of our Earth Mama. Feel and hear the sizzle and crackle of the Element of Fire, warming and energising and uplifting.

Let your roots take up residence in a wide circle, touching this heat, letting it warm the toes of your roots.

Send down, carried on your breath, anything you want to release, to let go of, to transform. Any distracting or negative thoughts or emotions or energies, send them down into the fiery Cauldron of the Earth Goddess. She will transform it for you, then use this purified energy to feed life. It's what She does. Give it to Her, and be free.

Now allow the tips of your roots open up, opening the channel between you and the Earth.

Notice the pressure at the core of the Earth. That pressure bounces the Earth energy up to you in a constant stream, whenever you allow your rootlets to open to it.

Let the Earth's energy flow in through your rootlets, effortlessly.

It moves up, up . . . up through the reaches of your root system. Moving up through the underground waters, up through the bedrock, up past the bones of our ancestors, up through the rich topsoil, and right up into the soles of your feet.

This fiery energy keeps rising. You need do nothing but stand there and keep your rootlets open. It's the nature of this energy to continuously rise up through the Earth and sustain all the creatures who live here.

It rises on its own, up through your legs, filling them with grounded, powerful Earth energy. Up through your hips, filling your Womb Centre. Flowing up, up, filling your entire torso, your shoulders . . . . It's as if you are a vase, being filled up with this energy pouring into you.

You might experience it as a golden or reddish light, as tingling or vibration or warmth, as a humming sound, or however your mind interprets this very real energy movement.

The warm energy relaxes and stimulates as it fills the muscles. It flows down the arms into the hands and right through to the fingertips. It flows up through the neck and fills your entire head with brilliant energy.

As you're grounding, remain calmly breathing. Feel the energy rising.

As it keeps rising into you, you become brighter and brighter, warmer and warmer with this light. It infuses each of your cells, permeating your genes, attuning you at a cellular level to this pure LOVE energy. Each and every atom is touched by this light, dancing in harmony with its vibration.

And it continues to flow into you, lighting up all the spaces between the atoms, so that down to the very energy field that creates you, you merge with this loving, laughing energy.

As it keeps rising and filling you up, more and more and more, the energy field around your body becomes suffused with this power. And still it keeps increasing until you feel full like a balloon, stretched and warmed and glowing with this expansion of Earth-charged energy.

So now let the excess soar out through the top of your head, high into the sky, where it touches the stars and mingles with their light, spreading out like leafy branches into the sky...

Sky Grounding Meditation (Part 2)

Feel the stellar wind brushing through your leaves, dancing with your branches; smell the delicate scent of the stars; watch the sparkling stars as they swing around you as a fulcrum on the Earth.

Feel yourself inhaling the whole experience of Air, moving around you and within you and through you.

Up in the sky, the Sun and Moon and Stars are all shining, at all times. Their light settles silvery white on your leaves, like dew, gathering into clear drops and pools of pure light. Feel and taste this sweet pure light, like the cleansing, nourishing essence of Water.

This light flows in through your leaves and into your branches, effortlessly, where it cascades down through the trunk of energy you sent up. Light streams in like an internal waterfall, through the top of your head, right down to your feet, filling them with brilliant white light.

Your feet fill with this celestial light, then your legs fill up with light, your hips, your Womb Centre, your torso is filled with this radiant light.

It flows down your arms, into your hands, your fingertips. It fills up through your throat, filling your head, all the nooks and crannies of your brain with brilliant white light.

As it keeps flowing in, you become brighter and brighter with this light. It infuses each of your cells, transforming them into tiny organic lanterns. It charges each and every atom with light, and lights up all the spaces between the atoms, so that down to the very field that creates you, you are pure brilliant light.

You are now shining with light, a radiant being of light, as if you are transparent to the light.

And this light continues to fill and fill, until you are shining bright as suns and moons, your body and your whole aura alight and radiant . . .

And then . . . open your roots again and let this light flow down through your roots, deep down to the heart of the Earth Mother, where She drinks this ethereal light in . . .

Completing The Conduit (Part 3)

Now with your in-breath, allow the Earth energy to rise again, up through you, filling any little gaps that might need a bit more energy, and fly up to mingle with the Star light.

With your out-breath, the silvery light pouring in through you, refilling you, and flowing down to feed the Earth Mama.

You are now an open conduit for the divine energies, to flow through you, from Earth to Sky, from Sky to Earth.

Take a few more breaths, following this flow of energies . . .

As long as you're grounding with the Earth and the Sky, you will be a pure channel of Divine Energy.

Releasing Excess Energy

Since you are not doing any energy work or magick right now, you may have channeled too much energy for comfort. Excessive energy, without a release, can make you jittery, anxious, shaky, spacey, dizzy, or manic — in summary, ungrounded.

Put your hands on the ground, or even put your forehead to the ground, and with thanks for such abundance, offer any extra energy that you don't need, back to the Earth. You can imagine the level of light within you lowering, like a bathtub emptying, to just the degree you need.

This is called Grounding Out, but often Wiccans simply call it Grounding the energy.

Keep only what you need to be fully charged and energized.

When you're ready, come back to standing.

To end, you can say:

"Blessed Be!"

Continue with Wiccan Pentacles
& Grounding, part 4:

Centering
Note on Grounding Posture

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