Here is a brief article on centering and grounding.

http://www.witchscauldron.net/cauldron/center.htm

If I don't ground after ritual I get very "antsy" and have too much energy flowing around in me for several hours. It's kind of a yucky feeling.

Another way to ground is to eat something. After ritual (not necessarily spellwork, but a full ritual) I am always starving.

That's a nice article Ruth.

I'm started through Penczak's "Inner Temple" for the second time. The first time through I merely read it and although I've done many of the meditations I haven't done them methodically as lessons, but rather just randomly to see what they are like.

One of his meditations is called Sun and Moon. It's exercise 18 in Lesson 4 of The Inner Temple Book.

It's actually a whole meditation dedicated to grounding. I've done this one and found it to be a quite lucid meditation for me.

He has this meditation on a single track with some other meditations on the CD. I think I'm going to break these meditations up into their own tracks. I can do that on the computer and write a new CD with my favorite meditations on them.

I like the 'guided' meditations. But I will sometimes do them on my own with just nature sounds in the background. I have a lot of Nature Sound CDs for this purpose.

I particularly like his "Tree Meditation" also. That just happens to follow the grounding meditation on the CD. This is exercise 19 also in lesson 4 of the same book.

I find the tree mediation to be quite lucid for me also. I think I've mentioned before that I'm planning on creating my own "Tree Meditation" that is also combined with the "Sun and Moon" meditation. I see no reason why I can't do the "Sun and Moon" meditation as a Tree.

I'm also hoping to add some birds in there.

Here's what I'm thinking about:

The meditation begins by becoming the tree (as in exercise 19), then the sun rises (as in exercise 18). So at first I'm a tree experiencing the morning sunrise.

However, as I get into that meditation I'm going to have a morning dove land on my branchs. At first I will feel the bird walking around on my branch. Then I will enter the bird via it's feet and become the bird.

Then I will take a morning flight as the morning dove. Flying over the meadow. Just for a morning flight.

One of the reasons I want to do this is because the Morning Dove is one of my spirit guides from the East.

After having taken that 'morning flight' I will return to the tree, feel myself land on its branches and my feet gripping its limb and then return back into the tree via the feet-branch connection.

Once again as the tree I will feel the sun continue to rise until noon. Soaking up the heavenly heat and sky energy.

They I will have an eagle land on the tree. In a similar way I will become the eagle and once again take flight. This time with a heavier more massive body and I'll do more soaring and gliding on the heat waves that rise from the meadow below. I can see that flight giving me a real bird's eye view of the world and the meadow below.

Shortly I will land back on the tree again, and return to become the tree once again.

Then the sun will set and the moon will rise (as in exercise 18). I will feel the night embrace the meadow.

As the moon rises in the sky I will have an owl land on my branches. Then I will become the owl and take to flight once again. This time in an even heavier body than before. I will fly around the meadow in the moonlight and feel the experience of the owl which is my third spirit guide from the east.

Finally I will land back on the tree, and return once again to become the tree. By this time the moon will be direcly overhead and I will have it descend to engulf me in moonshine.

Then I will finally leave the tree and return to my human nature and end the lucid meditation.

I expect it to be about a half-an-hour long journey. Or possibly a bit longer.

I'll be doing this freelance at first with nature music as a backdrop.

But as I progress with it I may actually create a guided meditation using my own voice on a CD similar to the once that Penczak does.

Maybe someday owl publish my own meditations book with CDs.

That sounds wonderful, James. I wish I was as creative. Oh well. We all have our own talents.

When I speak of grounding after ritual or spell work I am speaking of a very quick process that takes only about a minute. I only say this because I don't want people to think they have to spend 15-30 minutes doing this. The purpose of grounding after ritual is to release the energy that you built up during the ritual and bring you back to an "earthly" state so that you can go on with your day. It may sound like a good idea to keep the extra energy, but it's not. It really can be too much.

PRAYER TO THE ELEMENTS

Come to me Air, so fresh and so clean!
Grant mental power - keep my thoughts sharp and keen!
Bring creativity - bring clarity, too!
Lend your positive aspects to all that I do!
Come to me Water, so flowing and free!
Lend compassion and love and gentility!
Grant understanding - and tempers, please soothe -
And life's little problems, please help me to smooth!
Come to me Fire - so warm and so bright!
As I walk through this life, my pathway, please light!
Please help me to live and to love with pure zest -
Standing up for the Truth, when I'm put to the test!
Come to me Earth, so rich and so moist!
Restore please, Your gifts of serene peace and joy!
Grant Your stability and ethical ways,
So I may help others, the rest of my days!
Akasha, please come, and work with these four -
And balance Their aspects within me once more!
Transform my life, for You hold the key
To changing me into that which I should be!
Elements of all that live and shall be,
Please spin your spell in pure harmony -
Weaving the threads of my life with ease,
And stitching its fabric with Blessed Be's!

.....author unknown

Yes, I understand.

I haven't done an energy-raising ritual yet, but when I do will be sure to include a grounding at the end of it.

The centering technique is a good idea too. I'm glad you mentioned that becuase that's a good visulization process to begin any meditation and or ritual with and like you say, it only takes a moment to center.

I've been centering when I meditate, but using a slightly different visual.

However, after reading the one you've linked to it gave me an idea to do it slightly differently from the way I was doing it.

The description you linked to suggests to visualize the energy as a ball at your center.

Well, that's one person's vision.

After having read that, I actually prefer to think of the energy as 'centered' on my spine, and maybe even spread out as being centered in seven balls, each one centered on a chakra.

Or, I think I would actually prefer to imagine my entire spine as being alow and all of my energy (centered) on my spine.

So rather than being a perfect sphere of energy it would be more like an elongated strip of energy centered on my spine and chakras.

I can further imagine this being the focal point (or core) of my aura which would also be egg-shaped rather than a perfect sphere.

I imagine a Magic Circle or Sphere (which I have yet to cast) as being an extension of my own aura. So it two will be a bit of an egg shape.

When I cast a circle I'm not going to view it as something seperate from me, but rather something that I am generating from my own aura. It's an extension of my aura. Or an expansion of my aura.

But it is also using energy from my surroundings. The circle is a melding together of my aura with the spirit in everything around me. (a merging with the energy of the Gods if you will).

This is how I veiw a Magic Circle.

It's a completely interactive dynamic thing that is intimately a part of myself, as well as a part of the Great Spirit.

A foot in both worlds so to speak.

I become one with the circle (sphere of energy) and the circle is part me (my aura) and part nature (the spirit in everything around me).

It's truly a melding together of the spirit.

This is how I view a Magic Circle based on everything that I've read thus far.

I confess that I glean information that I find intuitively appealing and shun ideas that don't resonate with me.

This is what witches are supposed to do, so I'm told.

So the idea of a perfectly spherical ball of energy centered on my physical body doesn't resonate with me.

The idea of an egg-shaped aura of energy centered on my spine and chakras does reasonate with me.

But centering is centering however it is done. Whatever a person is intuitively drawn to is what they should do.

Yep.

hi everyone

Hey look a new dance

Hi Jill, hi Smiless!

I thought I bring in the gang to watch. Don't mind them they have alot of characteristics

I needed a laugh today... thanks smiless

wow, that's a big crowd.

Did you read this small story? I thought it was a great read. It is about two witches.

http://mingle2.com/topic/show/187147

I'm coming in late on this but...
I did a similar thing in grammar school, but we used parafin because it's a lot chaeper than crayons. We just used the crayons for coloring.

And if you make free-standing candles, you can get really fancy: you can "whip" some melted, colored parafin until it is semi-soft like cake icing, daub it on the outside of the candle and smear it into patterns or sculpt it into shapes.

You can even sprinkle that "icing" with glitter if you want to get foofy.

Interesting. Im thinking of trying it again and expanding it a bit. Im sure there are sites online for candle making and you can get quite elaborate. The only thing is cost effectiveness because once you purchase all the materials, it probably would have been much easier to just go buy a Yankee Candle from the store.

Here's a question. What do you do with spell supplies once they have been used? What do you do with the water, herbs and candle wax?

Throw them away? Bury them? Save them?

Hmm. In the past I have discarded melted wax and water (as I normally would with things of that nature) but herbs are different. I dapple in herbal medicines and healing so I keep all of that in sealed jars with the names and dates of what is being stored there. When it gets too old to be effective, I throw it away or just keep it as a reference.

Thats my thought on it too... Tho I believe as far as rituals and spells go, making your own does work nicely. But hey, a store bought candle does work well too

I'm talking about those herbs, water and candle wax that you used specifically in a spell. some people believe that if you just throw those things away you are throwing away the spell.

I dump the water in the grass. put it into the earth. if I don't burn the herbs as incense I usually scatter them across my doorway outside to continue to attract what it is I want and they eventually blow away in the wind sending my request out. It's the candle wax I'm stuck on. Right now I keep it in a jar. I have a full jar of the leftover candle wax from past spells. I'm thinking of burying it.