I want to step this exercise up a bit, by tying a few things together, and introducing a few new ideas in this exercise to give a larger picture, emphasize the ways that several approaches and practices can augment and cooperate to strengthen each other. I will start with a grounding exercise that develops into cleansing of the self. Then cleansing the space, and moving forward into the protection of space as well as self. There will be use of visualization, by adding some simple body gestures as fortifying symbols, and representing the solar, (sun-sky realm), telluric (earth-land realm,) and lunar (moon-sea realm) currents. These will be put together in a way that shows how different ideas, practices, and skills can be layered.
Setting:
This can be done in a room, in a forest clearing, in a circle of stones; either way declare a mental set of boundaries for your work, this will be your space. The grounding will be a basic visualization, incorporating; by way of body gesture symbolism, putting yourself in the perspective of a pine tree and representing earth. In the cleansing portion we will transform into an oak reaching for the sky, taking in the warmth of the sun , and being cleansed by the wind, it is a variation of a Qi Gong practice called “shaking the tree.” For the space cleansing we will be drinking water as we visualize a cool rain washing the entire space. Finally, for the protection we will be doing the sphere of protection by starting with the elemental cross and incorporating three spheres of protective energy from the realms of Land, Sky, and Sea.
Grounding:
- Drink a simple glass of water to hydrate and reinforce the idea flowing.
- Visualize or Imagine a cord attached to the base of your spine (Root Chakra), and connecting to the core of the Earth.
- Get comfortable with good posture allowing your spine to be straight.
- Breathe; in a threefold manner; three seconds inhale, three hold, three exhale.
- Continuing with the power of Breath; Slowly pay attention to your thoughts and feelings, focus on what you notice with your five physical senses.
- Let stray thoughts and feelings flow down your spine, the cord, and deep into the core of the Earth.
- Continue this process for as long as you can, until you can hold the focus continuously.
Cleansing (Shaking the Tree):
- Continue with a threefold breath and the release of stray thoughts
- Picture yourself as a pine tree
- Place your feet shoulder length apart with your arms out to the sides, your body should be in the shape of a triangle.
- Begin shaking from the bottom of your feet in an up and down motion
- Picture a gentle breeze blowing your branches, freeing the excess energy that has not gone down your grounding cord.
- Continue to shake for 2 minutes or more as you picture the wind picking up in speed, slowly lifting your arms until you are reaching for the sky.
- As you raise your arms, picture yourself transforming into a great oak and slow your shaking until you feel still.
- Feel the flow of blood increase as your body opens up and notice the vibration of your chi (energy) throughout your body, your arms your body should now be still and your arms upward.
- Picture that clouds have moved in above you and it begins to rain, rinsing away the remnants of loose energy of of both you and your space and washing it all away.
Protection (The Elemental Cross and Sphere of Protection):
Normally the Elemental Cross, which is basically the same as the Qabalistic Cross and institutes a connection to deity; however, I will simply note where the Deity vibrations would go and add some background information in case you would like to add this later.
Elemental Cross:
- Starting with your hands at your sides and continuing your threefold breath.
- Raise your right hand as far above the center of your head as you comfortably can.
- Keep your wrist straight, fold your pinky and ring finger into your palm, while keeping your index, middle and thumb together and extended.
- Draw a line of white energy straight down into your head or crown Chakra
- Visualize this line of energy extending from the center of your head up into infinity.
- Let your fingers rest momentarily on the top of your head. This is where one would vibrate the name of the Creator Deity, or the Spirits of Above.
- Continue drawing your white line of energy throughs the center of your body down between your navel and your your reproductive organs or the root chakra.
- Let your fingers rest momentarily at your root chakra. This is where one would vibrate the name of the Deity of the Earth, or the Spirits of Below.
- Visualize your white line of energy extending from your root chakra, down infinitely through the core of the earth.
- Momentarily rest your fingers on your right shoulder and visualize a white line of energy extending from your heart chakra to infinity on your right. This is where you would vibrate the Masculine Deity.
- Momentarily rest your fingers on your left shoulder and visualize a white line of energy extending from your heart chakra to infinity on your left. This is where you would vibrate the Feminine Deity.
- Extend your arms out to your sides so that your body is in the shape of a cross.
- Visualize a white line of energy passing through your heart chakra (center of chest) infinitely forward and infinitely back. This is where one would vibrate the tone of your magical name.
- Lower your hands to your sides to complete the Elemental Cross.
Here is where a banishing and invoking of the classical elements would normally occur. If you have a method for this procedure go ahead and add it in, if not don’t worry we will cover this in another lesson, but it is currently outside the scope of this lesson.
The Sphere of Protection:
In this version of the Sphere we will be pulling in the energies of the Three Dragons or Land, Sky, and Sea to produce three spheres of spinning energy as a protective barrier.
- Visualize a current of energy coming from the Sky down through your crown chakra into the center of your spine and swirling in your solar-plexus.
- Direct this energy to the up/down white line, and cause the top of the line to rotate forward while the bottom of the line rotates backward. you will do this in alignment with your threefold breath, it will take three times to get the sphere spinning really good.
- Visualize a current of energy coming from the Land up through your root chakra and swirling with the Sky energy in your solar-plexus.
- Direct this energy to the left/right white line, and cause the right of the line to rotate forward while the left of the line rotates backward. you will do this in alignment with your threefold breath, it will take three times to get the sphere spinning really good.
- Visualize a current of energy coming from the Sea in through your sacral chakra (where your reproductive organs are) and flowing into your solar-plexus to swirl with the others.
- Direct this energy to the front/back white line, and cause the front of the line to rotate upward while the back of the line rotates downward. you will do this in alignment with your threefold breath, it will take three times to get the sphere spinning really good.
I know this can seem like a daunting task when looking at it for the first time, but with perseverance and practice this whole procedure can be done in a considerably small amount of time.
Copyright 2016 Jason J. Walton
Elemental Cross and Sphere of Protection are adaptations of the ones from the A.O.D.A. website as written by John Gilbert and John Michael Greer
http://aoda.org/Articles/The_Sphere_of_Protection.html
Any questions or comments, I would love to hear them.
Three Dragons Grove 