Coyote's Den

Centering, Grounding, and Shielding

September 2, 2005

I am continually surprised to hear that many practitioners of magick or of metaphysically-oriented paths and religions do not know what centering, grounding, and shielding are, or ways that these things can be accomplished.

These practices are not only helpful as an adjunct to mystical workings, but also have secular uses.

I'll begin by explaining what each of these things are. Normally, they are done in conjunction, as these practices complement one another.

Centering is, simply, finding your center, the axis of your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual balance. Our center has both a physical aspect, a place in the body that is our crux, and a mental aspect, a sense of center. It is the point which we can focus on to retain stability as the world moves and acts around us. It is the point from which we orient ourselves and our attention.

Grounding is attaching ourselves to an external frame of reference. If centering allows us to orient our inner self, grounding lets us orient ourselves to the world around us. Usually, this reference to which we attach ourselves is the Earth. Grounding also serves to combine us with something greater than ourselves alone, so that when we act, we do not act in an undirected manner, or rely only on our personal energy.

Shielding is just that. It is a way of armoring ourselves against unwanted influences.

Now, on to the how-to part. Keep in mind, this is the way that I do these things. There are other methods out there. If you are interested in this subject, I do recommend Robin Wood's treatise on the matter:

http://www.robinwood.com/LivingtreeGrove/Magic/MagicPages/GroundCenter.h...

But for now, here's what I do.

Centering

Centering has two parts, finding your center, and possibly balancing your center. Once you are practiced at centering, you may find that you can achieve the state at will, without any extra steps, visualizations or additional effort. The purpose of exercises such as these is to teach you how to achieve the state of being entered, not to make you jump through any particular hoop. If you find that one method does not work for you, try another.

First, relax your body. You will probably want to close your eyes. Sit or stand with your back straight, and your face forwards. Quiet your mind, and attempt to feel the point in your physical body which feels like the place where everything else is "hanging off" of - the point that feels like the center from which everything else proceeds. For many people, this point will seem to be somewhere above your physical center of gravity. For some, it will feel like it is at the center of the abdomen, at the solar plexus, or around their heart. Don't be concerned if this is not the case for you. The object is to find your center, not worry about whether it is in the same place as that of other people.

Your center may feel like it is a very small point, or it may feel larger and more diffuse. Some people say that they feel a pressure, warmth, or some other sensation when perceiving their center. Others don't - they may feel only a sense of where it is.

Now, if your center feels to you, as if it is not somewhere along the vertical axis of your body, if it is to the left or the right, so that you feel "out of balance", or off-kilter, what you want to do is try to see if you can cause the feeling of your center to move back into alignment with your physical center. We're not talking about up and down here, only left or right. At this point, you may wish to adjust your physical posture, until your physical body feels balanced. When you are comfortable, try to move your impression of your inner center to the middle of your body, along the vertical axis. Maintain your attention on this feeling until it stays by itself.

Now, for the tricky part, the back and forth. Some people's center may feel like it is located centered somewhere in their spinal column, while others may feel it deeper inside their bodies (in front of their spine). At this point, what you want to do is decide whether or not it feels "off" where it is. If you feel comfortable and balanced, then everything's fine. But if you have a funny feeling that you are hanging forward or backward off your center, then you need to readjust it back or forth, the same manner as you would have for left or right.

Now, having found your center, just try to feel it for a while. Pay attention to what it feels like, so that you can recall the feeling again later. For some people, the knack may come easily, perhaps on the first try. For others, it may take practice.

It may help to visualize the world moving around you, but your center as being a fixed reference point around which all other things move.

Now, at this point, take the sense of stability that you feel from your center, and attempt to extend that feeling of stability to the rest of your body. Try to make your whole body feel as stable as your center, as if it is fixed to it.

The object is not to feel unmoving or immobile. It is to feel stable and secure, to find a fixed point of reference originating within you.

If you practice, you will probably find that achieving this state becomes easier and easier, and that it does not require any particular bodily position, or closing of your eyes, or a great deal of conscious attention. Even if you do get to that point, it is still nice, sometimes, to go through the whole process. It can be relaxing, and can prevent your mental "muscles" from getting lax at the procedure. As with anything else, what you don't use, you may lose.

Grounding

Note: While it is technically possible to ground without centering first, I never do one without the other. Some people attempt to ground first, but I've always found centering to be the best first step. It makes everything else easier.

While centered, imagine your attention on your body. Now feel the presence of the ground below you. It does not matter if you are directly on the Earth, or on the top floor of a building. Focus your attention on either whatever you are sitting or standing on, or on the ground beneath you.

Imagine now, that your sense of yourself has become connected to the Earth. Feel yourself as being a part of it, attached to it, so that as it moves you are moving with it. Imagine yourself connected to the spot on the Earth that is beneath you.

Once you have done this, imagine your body as being composed of not only your physical flesh, but as being composed of energy, of spirit. Many people believe there is a "second body" or "spirit body," sometimes called the etheric body, which overlaps our physical one. It does not matter whether this is true or not. What we are going for here is for you to obtain the feeling of being connected to the Earth.

Now, imagine part yourself flowing down out of your body, becoming one with the Earth, diffusing into it. When you have done this, feel the energy of the Earth flowing up into you. Feel it flowing up from where your body contacts the ground, and rising until it reaches the base of your spine.

Feel it flowing up through the center of your body, and moving outward as it goes, until it fills your whole being. Let it continue up, until it flows up through the top of your head. At that point, imagine the energy falling back down around you, like a fountain, to be reabsorbed back into the Earth, as more energy flows up through you, in a continuous cycle.

Imagine feeling not just connected to the earth, but a part of it. And imagine the earth not as simply a large, static body, but something solid and external to which you can anchor, but also as being filled with an energy that moves through you and makes you a part of it.

Grounding, even as a psychological, rather than a magickal exercise, can be very therapeutic. It can be a useful way to destress, and reorient yourself, especially if you are having a difficult time, or are feeling thrown hither and yon by circumstances.

Shielding

This method is simply the method of shielding that I use in conjunction with centering and grounding. There are, as with everything else, other methods or visualizations that different people use.

Take that energy that is flowing up through your body and out of the top of your head, and feel it coming down more thickly, until it is like a moving bubble surrounding you. Imagine this bubble as an impenetrable shield, which deflects and carries away energies coming from outside it. And remember, that this indestructible, protective energy is also flowing through you and filling you, and carrying away any unwanted influences, while empowering the influnce within yourself that you desire.

Some people prefer to think of the energy as flowing closely around their body like a second skin. Others like to visualize it as forming something like a suit of armor, or a symbol that is meaningful to them. Some people like to imagine the bubble as having a mirror-like surface that reflects things away. Others might see or feel it as transparent, or hard like steel or stone. Others might feel it as being like a raging torrent that washes unwanted incursions away like a waterful, or burns away what it touches.

The point, again, is not to make what you do match what everyone else does, unless that's the way that works best for you. The important thing is to become used to calling up and directing the feeling of being shielded and protected. Any of these visualizations are simply your way of symbolizing to yourself the nature of your shield, and the act of forming one, to give yourself the necessary kind of connection to make it real for you.

Once the shield is in place, some people like to imagine the energy that is flowing out the top of their heads returning to flow back up through their feet, and "pinching off" from the earth, so that it is like a closed system.

Again, with all of this, once you have practiced, you are likely to find that you can draw up the feeling of being shielded at will.

As with any working, it is important, when you are finished with it, to let it go. Leaving yourself with the idea of a constant energy flow moving through you can set your mind and will of to feel like they are being abraded or washed out, or burnt up. Leaving up a shield, constantly, can leave you mentally closed off from the world around you. I don't believe there's any major harm in remaining centered, but sometimes it is the things which throw us off balance which propel us forward in life.

In closing...

And that's Centering, Grounding, and Shielding, in a nutshell, as I do them. In these techniques, I have borrowed from others, and have modified them slightly as I saw fit. But I believe they are well within the realm of what could be considered "standard" for this sort of thing.

I believe it is worth mentioning that these techniques can be of merit even if you do not believe in magick, and even if there is no such thing. They are mental exercises that can trigger you to feel calmer in a crisis, or more balanced when dealing with difficulties, or to put you into a better frame of mind.

But if you do believe in magick, these exercises can be an invaluable part of your workings. They are a staple and preliminary to many sorts of workings, even if you leave the shielding part out to do that sort of thing another way.

Part of why I have shared my own method here is simply this: I get asked about it a lot, and I am often surprised at the number of my fellow neopagans or magickal practitioners who do not know how to do these things. In addition, while there are many wonderful exercises for doing these things in various books about paganism and magick, most of them are visualization-oriented. They are based on how most people learn or perceive, which is through vision. Vision is the primary sense for most people. But not everyone is visually-oriented. For instance, I am more feeling or kinesthetic in nature. But it is rather difficult to describe or relate a feeling or sensation than it is to describe an appearance or an image.

In addition, I believe that there is an emphasis on the imagination, that does not often make clear that the imaginative or visualizational faculties are only used as a tool, a means to achieve the grounded, centered, or shielded state. We imagine things all the time, without making them real, but the purpose of a working is to make something real, to bring it into our lives, to make things happen.

If anyone has a link to a resource, or wishes to recommend a book on the subject, or to add their owm words on the subject, I invite them to comment on this article.