Rose Ariadne's Chitchcraft Blog

Dear Friends,

Nothing clears up a bad day for me faster than a good grounding and centering exercise. If you’ve ever felt out of sorts or disconnected to the world around you, you might want to try making grounding and centering a part of your daily life. A lot of folks think that the technique is simply for starting a ritual, but it can be used at anytime that you need to “clear” yourself from the stresses of your day.

I’ve found that a lot of people underestimate the power of grounding and centering. It is one of the first things that I teach newcomers to the path, and some dismiss it as a baby step into practicing magick. I’ve made the same mistake myself in the past, however, I quickly learned different. To me, grounding and centering (along with a few other energy techniques) are the cornerstone to working with energy effectively. A lot of people think of it as boring and simplistic and they just want to get on to the “fun stuff.” However, what they fail to see is that until grounding and centering is mastered, none of the “fun stuff” will be any “fun.”

So let’s take another look at grounding and centering through this perspective. Let’s look at the techniques as essentials rather than simplicities. The most basic energy work technique is centering. To relate to what centering means in energy work, thing about the expression “center of balance.” It describes a point at which the weight of something is equally distributed. There is a definite center of balance in your body, and its in a different location for everyone. It depends on how you are made. There is also an energetic, yet invisible, center of balance to your body. It may be located near your physical center.

It’s a bit difficult to describe exactly what your energetic center should feel like. When you are off our physical bodies center of balance, you know immediately. But the energetic center of balance works differently. When you are “off balance” energetically, you feel frazzled and stressed. To re-center yourself, you need to sink down into your energy center and become aware of how the energy in your body flows. When I practice centering, I always feel a weight lifted from my shoulders. I feel like I am settling down into myself and becoming comfortable.

Centering is the first technique that you must master because it helps you learn to focus your own personal energy and still yourself. If you aren’t focused later in your spell work, you spells won’t have the power they need. Centering is, fortunately, very easy to practice and should become part of your everyday life. It only takes a few minutes and can be done anywhere…I practice centering in the shower. Once you’ve mastered this technique you can reach this state whenever you need to.

After developing the ability to center quickly and effortlessly, you should begin to perfect the technique of grounding. The process starts by sitting down on the ground and letting the energy drain out of the bottom of your spine. To help you ground yourself, visualize roots sprouting from you deep into the ground to carry away the excess energy. Just like electrical systems use ground wire to dump excess energy, you need a technique to get rid of the excess energy that has built up inside your system.

Grounding has two major purposes. It allows you to rid yourself of any excess energy (stresses!) before you take part in a ritual, or even go on with the rest of your day. It also allows any excess energy that was raised during spell work to re-enter the earth. Grounding on a daily basis can help you clear yourself of anything that you are energetically carrying with you. This can include stress, frustration, depression and angry feelings.

As you practice, grounding and centering will become a part of your life. They are tools that you can use anytime to manage your personal energy. As you begin to develop mastery over these tools, your magickal energy will become stronger and more precise. And the techniques can really save on stress-related eating!!

Until next time, try to center instead of reaching for the chocolate,

Rose Ariadne

Your Warm And Caring "Resident Witch In Charge"