Magical First Steps - Part Five

Grounding and Centering

You may have noticed that you're feeling a bit tired/headache-y/irritable after practicing raising energy. This isn't uncommon, and it happens to all of us. (Even if we've been practicing for years.)

The best way to counteract this is to "ground" any excess energy. To ground energy means to send any extra energy into the ground, or to pull energy from the earth to replenish your own "stores".

There are many ways to do this, but sitting down on the ground, in a chair with both feet on the ground or standing straight up seem to be the most common methods.

Focus on the energy that you have in your body - but make sure not to accumulate anymore or to concentrate it any more than it already is. If you're feeling jittery or overwhelmed with energy, channel the energy down into the ground. If you're feeling drained, draw some out of the earth and into yourself. The purpose of grounding is to balance out the energy in you to where it should be.

Visualization can help with this; many people visualize roots from their feet into the ground or some other similar imagery. (Personally, I use an anchor, which has significant meaning to me.) Try a few different ways to see what works for you.

Another reason to ground is to bring your mind and body to the present. It helps you focus on what you're doing at the moment, rather than be scatterbrained and all over the place.

Centering is just pulling all of your energy to one place in yourself. It helps you focus. It is usually done when grounding.

When you feel your connection to the Earth, and your energy is all balanced out - focus on whatever the task at hand is. (If you're just grounding to get rid of excess energy and not to focus, you don't really need to do this step.) Set your attention to whatever it is you need to do or want. And that's essentially the gist of it.

Physical methods of grounding are eating something, jumping hard onto the ground, laying down for a couple minutes. Sometimes food and physical rest can be better than going through all the energy work involved in grounding.

Magical First Steps - Part Four

The fourth step in learning to work magic is raising energy.

Raising energy isn't like drinking an energy drink. It's not the same as feeling energized, but rather a feeling of power - of something that can be put to use in a better way than just physical. It's a deep sensation in the stomach. (For me at least, though I'm sure it can radiate from other places.)

To start with this exercise, figure out which hand it your strongest. It's usually your writing hand, but whichever hand you feel has more ability to send out can work. You can also try this exercise with both hands, or alternate until you learn which one works better, or you prefer. Personally, I use both hands, as they are fairly well balanced for me.

Start out by getting into a fairly meditative state. Make sure that you won't be getting interrupted, keep outside sounds to a minimum. Ask any roommates or family members not to bother you for a while. Take your time.

Once you're nice and relaxed, put your hands out in front of you and shape them like you're cupping a ball. Your hands can be a bit straighter, or nicely curved - whichever is more comfortable for you to keep up for several minutes.

Focus on sensing the energy around you, then narrow down on your own. Pull the energy into your stomach/chest. Then funnel the energy into your hands, then finally the space between your hands. It will pool up and eventually feel like a squishy nerf ball.

You should be able to feel the density of the area.

After trying this, if you're capable of seeing the energy, you can try to change the colors - or you can try to change the temperature or other aspects of the energy.

Looking for Energy

All life, thoughts, emotions and matter are energy. If you work at it you can train your eye to see this energy. Different people can see it to different degrees, and I myself am still working at it even though it's a talent that came to me quite naturally.

Lighting is crucial when you're first starting out, and even when you become used to looking for this kind of energy it's still difficult on say a bright sunny day. Start off slowly, because it can be easy to strain your eyes trying to see something.

Low light conditions seem to be best when looking for energy, and somewhere with a plain background can be helpful as busy backgrounds tend to distract the eye. As a first experimentation hold your hand out in front of you. So what are you looking for, huh? Well, to start with you're just looking for a fuzzy sort of outline going around the outside of your hand. It will probably only be a few millimetres or so wide.

And how do you go about looking for it? The best way I can explain it is that it's like trying to look at one of those 3D hidden image pictures. You need your eyes to unfocus to a certain degree because you are trying to look inbetween the physical spaces that your eye can see quite naturally. To begin with this energy will look similar to watching heat rise off the road on a hot day. Like I said, don't push it because it's so easy to strain your eyes. If it's not coming, just try again later.

When you first manage to see this energy the chances are that you'll be so chuffed that your eyes will snap back into their normal way of 'seeing' but the more you practice the easier it gets.

After you've managed to master finding energy this way you can start to look for colour in this energy. What sort of colour does the energy around your hand appear to you? Don't push your eyes, they do need time to pick this up and it isn't easy to hold onto the colours your eye is picking up in the beginning.

When you've started picking up impressions of colour you will probably start to notice that you are starting to see another band of energy surrounding the first band. When you get this far you might want to do some research on the auric field and its assosiated colours.

For extra practice here are some other things you can try. When you're talking to someone see if you can notice a field of energy around the persons head. For some reason it seems to be easier to see energy around the head. The band of energy will appear much larger than it does around your hand. You probably won't see colours unless you've gotten rather good at this because it's hard to look around somebody's head during a conversation for too long without making them wonder what you're looking at!

At dusk or dawn time see if you can notice a field of energy around trees. Needless to say the energy field will be much larger. Try to do this on a still day as branches waving around in the wind can be very distracting!

And, maybe surprisingly, try looking for bands of energy down the sides of cuboards, chairs etc. In low light conditions it can be quite easy to pick out bands of energy running down the straight lines of furniture!

Now what's the point in all this you wonder, right?

Once you can 'see' energy in this way you can start looking for energy patterns of non-physical things. I personally find this more easy inside a building than I do outside. Beware though, and make sure that you do really want to see as this can be... disconcerting shall we say?

In some ways it can be easier to do this but of course you have nothing physical to concentrate on. I personally found this easier to master than finding the energy of physical things. To look for energy in this way you have to focus inbetween places. The easiest way to do this is to pick two physical objects and focus on the empty space between these two things. Your eyes should focus on the inbetween spaces by doing this. Don't try to move your eyes around or they will quickly try to focus on something tangible. Instead keep your eyes still and use your peripheral vision to scan your surroundings. Are there any blocks of energy that stand out to you? Take this slowly and give yourself time to find your feet and understand what you're seeing.

Good luck!
Nellie

Magical First Steps - Part Two

Learning about energy.

After you are familiar with meditation (you don't need to be a pro, but being comfortable with it helps) it's time to move onto energy work.

The first thing to do is to learn what it feels like, and the best way I've found to get acquainted with energy is this exercise:

Start off by gathering several different objects. Make some of these natural, some man made. A good list includes: a (live/potted) plant, a stick/leaf, pencil, mirror, jewelry, candle. Anything you have laying around, really. Make it versicle. Start with 3 or 4 and move up as you feel comfortable.

Meditate to clear you mind. Get in a good state of mind, make sure that you're relaxed. Don't do this when you are very wound up or tired.

Pick up one of your object and hold it in both hands. (You can also hold it in your dominant or writing hand. Close your eyes and get a good feel of the object. Run your fingers over it. Pay attention to the way it feels aside from just the texture or temperature.

This is the hard part to explain. Do the same as you did in the last part of the exercise only without touching the object. Leave two inches or so of space between you and whatever it is you are using. Feel for any energy that it is giving off.

After a while of practicing this, try guessing what object it is that you're feeling. Having somebody arrange them in a random order or putting them in paper bags and mixing them up can help with this step. Don't be upset if you don't get them right at first. It takes practice.

If any of you try this or have any questions let me know. This is the hardest part to explain in my opinion.

Blessings,
Skye