This is one section of Giltwist's Energetic Almanac. You can reach the other
parts of the Almanac by clicking the following links or you can just continue
reading for the rest of this section.
So, you want to know about channeling energy. The first thing that we want
to talk about is energy itself. There are many ways to talk about energy and
many types of energy. From a physics standpoint, the whole universe is energy.
Even matter is just high density energy. There is mechanical energy, light
energy, heat energy, chemical energy, sound energy, and on and on. However,
when you are talking about channeling energy, or, heck, energy in any sort
of magical, mystical, or psionic standpoint is special. There are many names
for that sort of energy, and while I would not go so far as to say they are
all the same thing, they all behave in similar ways, at the least. Names like
prana, chi, kundalini, psi, and so forth. These energies are all around us,
and are maybe a byproduct of life or the causation of life, who knows. The
important thing is that it is there; and, if it helps, you can consider the
different types of energies as different wavelengths of the same thing.
I prefer to call such things Talents, because that makes it more natural
that not everybody is the same when it comes to this sort of thing. Anyone
who can feel or otherwise sense these energies is sometimes referred to as
a Sensitive, for obvious reasons. I would say most people are at least a little
Sensitive, but most people choose to ignore it. Now, other than actually sensing
such energies, the most widespread Talent is Grounding and with good reason.
There is a whole universe of energy out there, and, sooner or later, you are
going to be exposed to more than you can handle at any one time. So, telepaths,
empaths, mediums, and most any sort of Sensitive that I can think of needs
to be able to exert a modicum of control, a safety net of sorts. While some
will take it a step further and do something called Shielding, let us start
with Grounding for now.
The basic idea is that, in comparison to a human being, there are lots of
things with a ton more energy, like an ocean, or the earth itself. Amounts
of energy far too big for a human to handle is a drop in the bucket for things
like those. And just like you would ground an electrical device, so to can
you pass on the overflow energy. Grounding requires a couple steps. First
you must connect with that to which you plan to pass on the energy, then you
must let that thing take the energy away from you and, if necessary, replenish
what has been lost. When you first start Grounding, you will want to just
pretty much overkill the steps, because you will lack the finesse to just
do it while standing around. I like connecting to the earth. It's huge. If
you were element neutral or earth-favoring, I would teach you this method
and you may need to fall back on it if my experimental methods don't work.
Typically, when teaching Grounding , I have people start paying attention
to their feet when they walk, but without looking at them. Most people are
totally locked in their head and forget their feet exist most of the time.
So, by starting to pay attention to how their feet are feeling, they are taking
a step out of their head and into their body, because you really do just forget
to keep focusing on your feet if you keep thinking about other things. A good
method for this is trying to walk as quietly as possible without slowing your
pace. That takes some serious concentration at first, but works well. When
successful, I call this shifting your consciousness, because that is what
it feels like to me. With practice, they begin to be able to shift their consciousness
to anywhere in there body and its a pretty natural thing to do. We have all
done it, usually without thinking. Like, when you have a sore back, all you
think about all day is your back. Then it is just a matter of applying the
same principle to shifting your consciousness out of your body, even a foot
or two is plenty.
Additionally, you should make meditation a part of your regular routine.
It does not have to be an every day thing, but it shouldn't be a once a month
thing either. Meditation, in and of itself, is not really a step in the energy
channeling process; but, in my personal experience, it does make a world of
difference. Meditation does two things to make your energy channeling experience
more successful.
For one, in general, a person's energy is just sort of chaotic and hectic,
just like the daily grind. Meditation helps unify this energy - just like
magnetizing a piece of metal helps align the molecules. Think of it this way,
when pool balls are scattered across the table, you can move only one or two
at a time. On the other hand, rack all the balls up, and you can easily move
them all at once. In the same way, meditation sort of gathers all the energy
up so its a bit easier to grab.
The second useful aspect of meditation is the state of mind it generates.
Even as an experienced energy worker, I'll be honest, very little of my time
is actually spent paying attention to my energy body. Worse than that though,
most of the time my, and I would wager your, train of thought flickers back
and forth from topic to topic. Not a good thing for energy channeling, I assure
you. However, when you meditate, you are actively focusing your train of thought
to one thing, or even nothing at all. In either case, you gain the sort of
uniformness of mind and attention needed to work with energy. Now, some people
might say you need to have a quiet mind to do energy channeling, and they
might be right in the case of psi. Although, here we are talking about prana,
which is quite strongly linked to emotion. So, as I know from my own experience,
you can often put out quite a bit more energy when you are, say, angry. I
do maintain that it wouldn't work if you were flitting back and forth from
one emotion to another. In that case, your emotional energy would be pushing
you around and not vice-versa.
Now, I find that just about everyone has a element to which they feel a particular
attraction. Also, I find that when doing any sort of visualization, it helps
to have some degree of connection with what you are visualizing. These being
the case, I have listed four different approaches for Grounding, one for each
element. These are not the only approaches for each element, nor are elemental
approaches the only way to go with Grounding. However, I feel these provide
a pretty thorough set of examples from which you can create your own system.
Earth:
Basically, your first and most powerful form of Grounding to the earth consists
of laying in the grass, face up and spread eagle, as if you were going to
make a snow angel in the grass. Just a totally relaxed and open posture.
You close your eyes and basically start to meditate. Clear your mind, etc.
Now here is the tricky bit. You need to shift your consciousness down into
the earth itself. Remember it doesn't need to be much, just a little and
it is as if you become an extension of the earth. A lot of people visualize
that they are growing roots to do this. If you ever hear me talking about
feeling the earth moving, this is what I am talking about, because you really
can feel it. Then, you need to visualize the earth drawing all the extra
energy and all the negative energy out of you, like it draws electricity
out of a lightening rod. But you don't want to get sucked dry, so you also
need to imagine the healthy energy of the earth rising up into you, as the
nutrients and water rise into the roots of plants. And that is all there
is to that.
Air:
If this is your element of choice, I would suggest waiting for a windy day,
just to make Air's presence more noticeable. Though, with practice, the
method should theoretically work just as well with only slight modification.
So, go outside on a windy day. You can either stand or sit or whatever seems
best, so long as you can feel the wind blowing all around you. Start as
you would for the earth method. This time, instead of down, you will shift
your consciousness into the air above your head, exposing it to the wind.
What you will visualize here is the wind blowing away all the energy you
don't want, like it would blow away dust settled on you. You will also want
to make sure you visualize the energy of the wind flowing into you. Wind
is powerful, think of windmills. If it helps, especially on a less windy
day, you can utilize your breath. After all, breathing involves air. In
with the good air, out with the bad, as they say. I sometimes visualize
the unwanted energy as smoke so I can really "see" it leaving
me. I have a confidence in this method. How many times have you been told
to take a deep breath when you are getting a bit emotional, eh? This is
just a more formalized version.
Water:
I have two basic ideas for this. The first is essentially the same as the
earth method except you move your consciousness into a nearby body of water.
This would be especially good one something with gentle waves that you can
visualize as washing away the unwanted energy. The other is a little different.
If you don't mind getting a little wet, go outside on a rainy day, please
not with lightning around. Assume a similar state as described in the air
method. Shift your consciousness above your head. This time, instead of
having the energy blown off you, let the rain wash it away and fill you
with fresher energy. Think about how clean the air smells after a good rain.
That is exactly what you are trying to reproduce in your energy.
Fire:
This one is, in my mind, the only possibly risky method described here.
Fire is a fickle creature. It does a lot of good for us, but one wrong move
and you are burned. Start small with this one folks. Think candle. If that
doesn't cut it, move up to a fireplace. I've been around a couple really
immense bonfires, a large quantity of fire would probably swallow you whole.
Basically, the idea is that the fire can burn away the impurities from you,
as you would burn dross from ore. And there is a copious amount of energy
available, so I doubt you will get burned dry unless you are careless.
Good luck with your first attempts with Grounding. As you progress, you will
find that you need less visualization and less actual connection with the
element in question. I find I can get an okay amount of Grounding in my attic
if I really try. Distance is meaningless, remember that. The representative
of each element is just to act as a focal point and to make it more tangible
for the first few tries.
