S: You're listening to episode six where we are going to be talking about grounding, centering and energy manipulation. So for this podcast you are mostly going to be listening to me talk about that and there are two reasons for that: first of all this is that something that Tara is not particularly good at, which she's talked about before with her ADHD, short attention span, the sort of focus that's required for these things i not something that she's necessarily good at.
T: I am not naturally gifted at these things.
S: but it is something that I am naturally gifted at and the second reason I think I am able to talk about this a little more than Tara is because it's something that you really only think about in the forefront of your mind when you're a beginner. If you've been practicing for as long as Tara has, this is something that actually comes more naturally to her. So these are things that you don't... you do them automatically. It comes naturally to you later after you've been practicing, so this is really an episode for the true beginners who have never heard about this stuff before. So this is kind of the 'woo woo' side of witchcraft. A lot of people think about witchcraft like reading words off the page and think that's a spell, that's like not really it, a lot of it is about energy manipulation and people think that's kind of 'woo woo' so just stick with me.
So these three ideas, we're going to get into what they are, really work together, which is why we grouped them into one podcast. Because you won't have that much energy to manipulate if you don't center and ground and you can't do centering and grounding without understanding how to manipulate your own energy. So let's start with energy manipulation, and it is just that -the ability to gather contain and move energy around. That includes our own energy as well as the energy of the earth or various items that you might be using like crystals or herbs. It's used in almost every form of magical workings because to get some sort of magical response from a spell or ritual or charm, anything else, it requires the release of energy. We charge the intention with our energy and then release that energy into the world to gain the magical response that we're looking for, that's witchcraft, so the ability to manipulate energy in this way is vital that's why I said before that you can't just read words on the page and expect that to be a spell that works for you, you need that energy behind your intention to get a response.
Centering is the term that's used to refer to collecting our energy into a central point which can then be directed out into the world, into objects like candles or crystals during spell work and rituals. This practice is something that becomes completely second nature very quickly, but it can be tricky at the beginning if you've never done it before and never heard of any of these things before.
T: also for me personally that's how I got into Wicca more than witchcraft at the beginning, because they have built in ceremonies that help you with this so if you don't or if you're not interested in Wicca but you're not good at centering, I would just look at some of the rituals because that is how I was able to even start on the process because as you said this is not something that I'm good at focusing on.
S: I will definitely talk a little bit about like how you can do it and how I do it and if you think it's not something that will come naturally to you, you might want to look into Wicca for those reasons that Tara said.
So grounding then is one of the most important skills for beginners because mastering it can solve a lot of problems that beginners face. Grounding is simply the term for connecting our personal energy to the energy of the earth. The earth's energy is neutral, it has no intention which makes a great resource to draw from and then put into your own workings. this is different than using the energy of a crystal or an herb like those that we talked about when we talked about the ones associated with Imbolc, those have specific energies that will affect your work and work towards a specific intention, where is the earth's energy can be manipulated into any type of intention. Because one of the most common questions that beginners have to ask is whether or not it's normal to feel very drained or alternatively very high energy, like sort of vibrating after doing a working and the answer is yes, but if you can master grounding and centering then you should be able to avoid these issues.
So think about it the same way as working a regular job - if you work eight hours a day without eating or drinking anything or sleeping to give you energy, you're going to feel completely drained. Magic is very similar - if you use all of your personal energy in a particular spell or ritual you're going to feel similarly drained. the way to combat this is to ground before, during, and after a working because you are pulling energy up from the earth to replace your own and in the end you end up balanced. if you wind up with too much energy and have that fuzzy vibrating feeling you can release some of that back down into the earth.
I have a general overview of these things, I can talk you through kind of how you would do each of these. so let's talk about the energy manipulation first. you really want to start in a calm, quiet space, close your eyes and visualize yourself, your body and tap in to what your energy feels like. it's naturally distributed all over your body in. the more you practice the more you gonna be able to feel it. this energy is going to look different for everybody because everyone sees their own energy differently. a lot of people feel it as warm and sparkling like a firecracker but it could also come in waves like water or blobs of light or a myriad of other types. mine personally which if you know me makes sense it's cold, it feels like snow flurries kind of all over my body and when I move it, it turns into more like a blizzard, like a snowball when gathering it.
T: Which ironically mine is warm.
S: So find out, take some time, meditate, find out what yours is and visualize it all over your body. it's going to feel strange the first time that you try to do this ,might not get it right away but the more that you do it and calm quiet space the more in tune they're going to be with it and figure out what it is. so once you have it and feel it it's easy to do over and over. so once you have it begin to pull that from different areas throughout your body and try to condense it into one mass. move it towards your hands or your feet, feel it slowly leaving your fingertips and then try to draw it back in. this is energy manipulation.
So I want to talk about centering. visualize that energy coming together and start to draw towards your core. again close your eyes if you need to. once in a column in the center of your body, driaw into one specific spot. For some people this is the third eye area, like the forehead, for some it's the heart or stomach. I find people that are very food motivated to gather their energy and their stomach just naturally happens that way. The more you practice the easier it will become together this into one little ball of energy and then hold it there. the idea of holding it there in that one spot from what you can then distribute it is called centering.
So grounding is the last one. sit comfortably place your hands or feet on the floor which ever one you want to direct your energy. A lot of people use feet but if it's easier for you to use your hands, you can do it that way. Center and focus that energy. move it towards your feet if that's what you choose and draw it down. visualize roots growing out of your feet into the surface and then down into the earth. from there we can feel the Earth energy. it will likely feel very different from your own, usually people see it as a light, usually a white light. use the roots and draw the earths energy back up through your feet and into your body, mixing with your own. You can then use this combined energy for you magical working. once you're done, balance the energy and slowly pull the roots back up and out of the earth. that's called grouting.
Those are all three of mine and I know that for the first time if you've never done this before it sounds very 'woo woo' and I get that but I promise you the more that you practice this, visualize it and try to make it work the more you're going to be able to feel it to be much more in tune with your body, and it's going to help you so much in your magical workings. and if you're like Tara where this does not come naturally to you at all, you really struggle with it then I would look into the Wiccan practices that she talks about.
T: yes the first time I manage to actually do this it was glorious and it cured my headache so it does take time it probably took me at least six months to be able to get this without it being just a huge strain and being actually feel that it was making a different. But yes once you get it, it is really nice to be able to do and its just cleansing.
S: Yes and it takes some time in the beginning when you're trying to figure out something you've never done before but after you've really gotten it once it's it's second nature.
T: so it's way easier to do.
S: To veteran practitioners that have been doing magical workings for 20 years, they might not even know that they do this, they you know they don't think about it it's just something that happens naturally when they sit down to do some sort of spell or ritual, they don't have to think about it do they just do, it just happens. so the more that you practice more will become second nature so at the moment the first couple of times you're trying to do it it sounds like a lot of work, but eventually you won't even know that you're doing it it'll just be something that happens as soon as you dive into any sort of magical practice you will end up doing it.
T: Yes also if you've ever done yoga or tai chi they both have energy as a focal point during your practice and sometimes that helps in just visualizing things differently.
S; And I hope that made sense to you and if you were visualizing it while you were listening to this podcast I hope that you could hear Tara is outside and there's little birds in the background really nice for like meditation so hopefully you heard those too.
T: well it's beautiful outside when we're recording this which is highly unusual weather so I am outside with my dog and we're not going inside until I'm done.
S: winter in the Midwest is not usually this nice, it is a particularly glorious day so I think that's like the perfect background noise to listen to this podcast. this is all something that just comes with practice but if you have any questions, either about Wicca or about you know learning how to ground and center outside of any sort of religious practice please let us know. You can leave us a voicemail. You can also find us on Instagram at witchWednesdayspodcast and we can answer any questions that you have there to the best of our ability.
T: yes and please keep in mind that while centering and focusing energy is not necessarily tied to any religious thing as Steph said s ometimes just based on your background it's easier to visualize that and the key at least for me is being able to visualize what I want to happen before I can make it happen so yeah.
S: but you definitely give it a try, it will help a lot of beginners. let us know if it's something that you practice and leave us a comment on Instagram and letting us know what your energy looks like. are you warm and sparkly like Tara or are you cold snow flurries like me, let us know, that is all we have for you this week and we will see you next week!
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