Metaphysical Monday: Grounding–Bringing Internal Balance Into the External World

We generate, move through and exchange massive amounts of metaphysical energy every day.

Most of the time, our natural processes take care of things just fine by themselves. But if you’re doing in-depth work on spiritual development or spending time in a hostile environment (a place where there’s a lot of destructive energy being thrown around), you may need to be a little more pro-active to keep things flowing smoothly.

The ideas of grounding, renewing and releasing are common in many magickal systems. The names may not be quite the same, but the ideas are. In a nutshell, these practices help you center yourself, quickly refill spent energy reserves and get rid of pent up energy (be it positive or negative). The techniques I use have been modified a bit from any number of standard descriptions I’ve come across over the years. They all involve a good deal of visualization and concentration (just like most magickal work does). But I’ve found them all to be quite effective at keeping me on a more or less even keel, energy-wise.

Grounding

Grounding is, perhaps, the second most important technique someone walking a spiritual path will ever learn. (The first being Centering, discussed last week.) When done correctly, it can help you orient yourself, give you a firm place to start from and allow you to “dig in” to weather many storms–be they magickal or mundane.

Where Centering puts you solidly in your internal safe, secure and happy place, Grounding brings that place into the “real world” where it can do the most active good. Grounding lets you feel your place in the Universe. It gives you some external orientation–a more physical place to set your internal bearings.

When done properly, Grounding will automatically connect you with the greater energy flow of (at least) the Earth. Much like the grounding used in electrical work, it can serve to dissipate random charges smoothly. It also gives you a solid place to begin other operations such as Renewing and Releasing (which will be discussed over the next couple of weeks).

The common visualization used for grounding is that of a tree. Your feet sprout roots that dig deep into the Earth, connecting you with the vital life force that courses through the planet as a whole. Your arms stretch upward, reaching for the energy that comes coursing in from the sun. The energy flows from above and below, through you, becoming one with your own energy, blending you into the world that is, drawing your own internal feelings of safety, balance and stability into the space around you.

Again, this is a technique that will have a distinct feel when it is done correctly. If you don’t succeed at first, keep trying. Tweak the visualizations if you need to. Perhaps for you, the energy flows clockwise around the planet and not along the ground-sky pillar. The important part is that you make yourself–your energy–part of that grand cycle.

Once grounded, you will be able to use that bank of planetary energy as both a capacitor (for Renewing) and as a power sink (for Releasing). It gives you a place to put and take from without fear of disrupting the system as a whole. Unless you are in near unheard of extraordinary circumstances, there is little you could do to impact the planetary flow of energy. You are like a water bug merely gliding across the surface of the lake. No matter how deeply you think your roots go.

Good Grounding is essential to making good use of your Centering. It is the second step in deep energy work and, if practiced to the point of being nearly automatic, may prevent much of the pain and suffering self improvement and metaphysical exploration can cause.

What starts within can only exact change when it is sent into the world. The Center must be brought to Ground, you must be connected with the world.