Three of the most important basic practices of Witchcraft include Grounding, Centering and Meditation. I’m going to address each one separately but the combined practice of these is going to be invaluable to you as a practising Witch.
Part One:
First, we want to look at Meditation. There are many different ways in which one can meditate. There is trance, relaxation, controlled movement (such as Yoga), artistic, etc. But the important thing to achieve is to focus as focus is critical to the success of any magick you hope to be performing.
Below I’m going to give you a very basic meditation sequence to practice. Even if you’re experienced in meditation, sometimes getting back to the basics and practising the simplest steps can help revive and strengthen you.
Start out by finding a time when you will not be interrupted by anything, be it tv, children, spouses, pets, the phone, etc. Next, find a comfortable place to either sit or lie down, even the bathtub if that’s the only place you can find peace and quiet. Many people want to incorporate music or incense. If that helps you relax and get into the right frame of mind, by all means, do what works for you. Make sure your clothing is comfortable and not too constricting.
Take several deep calming breaths, paying special attention to your diaphragm and where the breath goes. You want to be sure that you’re filling your lungs and not just pushing your abdomen out. (If you’re not sure, the best way to verify this is to lie flat on your back. Place one hand on your belly and the other on your breastbone. Breathe deeply. If only the hand on your belly moves, you’re not filling your lungs properly. Both hands should move, starting with the one on your breastbone.)
Once you’re comfortable and are breathing properly, close your eyes and breathe in deeply counting to three, then exhale slowly counting to six. Do this ten times. The idea is to be completely aware of your body. This may sometimes stimulate a series of yawns. This is completely normal, so don’t worry about it.
Once you’re relaxed and in tune with your body, try to picture something simple. Sometimes when our eyes are closed, we’ll still see flashes of light or colour. If this is the case for you, try to focus on one specific colour so that only that one is what you see with your eyes closed.
What is it doing? Is it stationary or in motion? Is it linear or amorphous? Does it maintain its saturation or does it fade in and out? How does this colour make you feel? If you’re listening to music, is the colour’s shape and consistency responsive to the music you’re listening to? How so?
Visualizing is an important skill that is going to help boost the efficacy of your magick which is what this exercise is designed to help you with.
Don’t worry if random thoughts pop into your mind to interrupt you. Even those who’ve been meditating for years will experience this from time to time. It happens to the best of us. Acknowledge the thought, move on, and then re-focus.
Do this meditation for between 20-30 minutes each day for a week and don’t forget to record your results in your BOS or meditation journal. Be sure to include what time of day you meditated, where you were, what kind of mood you were in before you started, and how you felt after you were finished.
Record any feelings, sensations, insights or visions you may experience. Some people have a very easy time meditating. Others struggle with it. No matter where you fall on this spectrum, know that it does get easier with time and practice.
Part Two
The next important step is to learn to Ground and Center. What does that mean exactly? Well during the course of our day to day, our energy scatters to the four winds as we try to grapple the hectic business of our lives. We multi-task more than ever these days and as a result, our energies get fractured. Grounding and centering help to pull your energies back to yourself and connect with the healing and transforming the energy of the earth.
So how do you start? First, you must learn to visualize that your feet are literally fused to the earth. Close your eyes and picture yourself standing barefoot in a place that gives you peace. A quiet green meadow, a lush cedar forest, a tropical oasis, even the vast and shifting sands of a golden desert. Now imagine that your feet are the base of a tree trunk and visualize roots forming from your feet down deep into the earth anchoring you.
Now that you’re anchored, you are directly connected with the earth’s energy. You can now use that energy to boost your own and not deplete your energies in whatever workings you are doing.
This is the act of Grounding. **Note: You do NOT have to actually be outside for this, all that is required is the visualization.
Now once you are grounded, you’ll want to get Centered. Picture your aura in your mind. You’ll notice that there are little tendrils of energy, like little fingertips or the arms of an anemone. These tendrils are the different directions that our energy gets scattered to as we go about trying to manage our hectic lives: TV, work, the kids, financial concerns, medical troubles, social media, every little thing that scatters our focus and attention even when we’re not consciously thinking about it, but still have lurking in the backs of our minds drawing on our energy, pulling it away from us.
Each person’s energy center is unique and special to them. For some, it’s in their solar plexus, for others, the heart chakra, and still for others it’s at the tips of their fingers. And for some, it’s none of these. Pay attention to whatever sensations your body experiences as you do this to find where your energy centers and collects.
Is it warm, cold? Do you feel a tingling or vibration? Is it a prickly sensation, almost like pain but not quite? Do you get a sensation of vertigo but not feel sick from it? Or is it a sensation that is unique to you that you can’t quite describe? Where is this sensation the strongest? Once you answer these questions you’ll better be able to recognize when your energy is active. Now that you’ve identified WHERE your energy is and what it feels like, pull that energy back into yourself.
Quiet your mind and imagine your aura pulling tightly against your body and all those little tendrils melding back into it to form a solid and undisturbed form once again. The bulk of your aura will be concentrated into a tiny ball in your energy center as you visualize it being cleansed and strengthened.
Take several deep breaths. Imagine pure white light entering your body with each breath and a muddy cloud leaving your body as you exhale. Take as many breaths as you feel you need to, but a good recommendation as you’re starting out new is to do this for anywhere between 15-20 minutes. With practice, you will eventually be able to accomplish this within seconds, but in the beginning, it’s best to do this where you will not be disturbed.
Part Three
Visualisation is critical to any magickal practice. It is the art of seeing with your mind’s eye, the results you wish to manifest when your working is completed. So how do we achieve that? With practice and focus. The previous exercises were meant to teach you how to quiet your mind and pull your energy back unto yourself while drawing from the balancing and stabilizing energies of the earth itself.
What we’re going to try here is to maximize your visualization capabilities to manifest the best possible outcome to whatever situation you’re expending your energies for.
We’ll start out with grounding and centering using the exercises you learned earlier. Next, spend about five minutes with quiet meditation, just finding your inner peace. Concentrate on your breathing and how your body feels. Once your mind is quiet and focused and your body is relaxed, close your eyes, if they aren’t already.
We’ll start with something simple. Picture in your mind a rose. Choose whatever color appeals to you. This rose is young, just a tight bud. With your mind, picture this bud opening up slowly. Notice how it moves, the shape of the petals, of the leaves. Look closer. Notice the texture of each petal, the vibrancy of the hues. Is this rose dry or are there little droplets of dew on the petals?
Take it further. Sniff the rose. Is it strong or lightly fragranced? Feel the rose with your mind. The firm stem. Does it have any thorns still attached to it? What is the texture of the leaves, the petals? Feel the coarseness of the leaves, the soft butteriness of the petals. If your rose had dew, feel the moisture on your fingertips.
Spend as much time exploring your rose as you wish. Once you’re finished, allow the rose to close back up into its bud. In your mind, plant it into the rich and fertile ground, with its roots digging right into the fabric of the universe, where it will draw wisdom and grace up unto itself.
Spend another five minutes in quiet contemplation of your experience before slowly bringing your awareness back to the now. Take several deep breaths and open your eyes. Record your experience in your BOS or meditation journal.
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