The Basics

[TeaDidikai]

Hmmmm... Maze- when you aren't having an attack, are you able to be aware of your foot?  

[Maze]

TeaDidikai

Hmmmm... Maze- when you aren't having an attack, are you able to be aware of your foot?

Yep.

It takes effort, but I manage. o: I'm still not too good at the exact shape (I tend to go in too far or colour outside the lines XD) , but I do think I'm getting better. 3nodding

I had it in my hands, pfft, two days ago as well. Part of my ring-finger just wouldn't cooperate. I could get the awareness to fill my hand, and I could feel the energy around it poke the edge of the affected area, and it kind of tickled there but I felt nothing in the center of the affected area, and it refused to budge.

It's also naturally easier for me to get my awareness in my hands, I figure, since I have periods where I play with energy, but not so much with my feet, heh.  

[TeaDidikai]

Two notes-
1) Practice... until it's second nature. Awareness isn't tied to the body completely. With practice you should be able to get beyond any psychological hang ups you have.

2) If you "color outside the lines", and you are having trouble being aware of your foot when you are having an attack- see what happens if you "color outside the lines" on your foot- if you're up for it. It's purely for my own curiosity.  

[Maze]

TeaDidikai

Two notes-
1) Practice... until it's second nature. Awareness isn't tied to the body completely. With practice you should be able to get beyond any psychological hang ups you have.

Figured you were gonna say that one, hehe. I'm working on it. whee

But yeah, I knew it wasn't tied to the body completely. Or at least, that there's more than a little leeway there. 3nodding

Quote:

2) If you "color outside the lines", and you are having trouble being aware of your foot when you are having an attack- see what happens if you "color outside the lines" on your foot- if you're up for it. It's purely for my own curiosity.

You mean, when I'm not having an attack? *eyes her foot* I suppose that, when I'm lying on the couch, I can practice poking some of the lighter stuff on the Christmas tree from across the room..

It's been a while since I've been able to poke plants from across the room with my hands too, mind, but it'll be good practice if nothing else.

Unless you mean poke at it from outside the foot? To form around it and then nudge up against it when I am having an attack? But I can do that when I'm lying on the couch too, I guess, heh.

I'll see what I can do. :3  

[TeaDidikai]

Maze

Figured you were gonna say that one, hehe. I'm working on it. whee

Are you finding it useful?

Quote:

You mean, when I'm not having an attack?

No- I mean when you are having an attack.
If you're "coloring outside of the lines", ie- being aware of your aura outside of your body awareness, I'm curious if you can extend that awareness through your "aura" and I am also interested in the effects it might have on your foot.  

[Maze]

TeaDidikai

Maze

Figured you were gonna say that one, hehe. I'm working on it. whee

Are you finding it useful?

If I didn't, I wouldn't be working on it, hehe.

Quote:

Quote:

You mean, when I'm not having an attack?

No- I mean when you are having an attack.
If you're "coloring outside of the lines", ie- being aware of your aura outside of your body awareness, I'm curious if you can extend that awareness through your "aura" and I am also interested in the effects it might have on your foot.

Aah, okay. With you now, then. Alright, I'll see what it does and get back to you on that. 3nodding  

[TeaDidikai]

Just wondering if people had anything to add to this thread- or if there was something folks wanted for the next step or the like?  

[TheDisreputableDog]

Thank you for bumping this thread, I had forgotten about it and I need to practice more.

I notice that I commented last year that I was okay at centering and grounding but sucked at shielding. I haven't made any progress with shielding, mostly because I haven't been practicing, but I was looking at the original centering instructions and I'm not sure I can actually do that. I can...place my awareness at my pinky toe, I suppose, and "see" the world from that perspective, but I can't actually "see" my energy like described in the first post. If I visualize something I feel like I'm doing it arbitrarily and not actually perceiving something legitimate. I can't tell whether I'm bleeding energy all over the place or if I'm pulled tight into my shell. I went to a summer solstice ritual this past year and post-ritual we were playing "pass the energy ball" games and I couldn't read the damn things at all. I could barely tell whether my own ball "looked" like I wanted it to, let alone perceive someone else's. (But I discovered at a festival later that they are fun to dance with, whatever they look like. smile ) Tea or someone else, do you have any advice for that? Am I just trying too hard? Or not thinking about it the right way?

Someone asked about visualization techniques earlier and I wanted to mention Yasmine Galenorn again, since she has some visualization exercises in Embracing the Moon I found useful. The first one is to take a painting that is somewhat detailed and study it for several minutes, then put it away and try to call it up in your mind at longer and longer intervals, recreating all the details. Subsequent exercises do the same thing with a favorite song (hearing), a piece of fruit (sight, taste, smell, touch), and a past event (all senses), and then get into consciously altering your visualization of that event and creating entirely new events in your head. Practicing the painting technique has actually improved my memory; I don't have anything resembling photographic memory but now I can consciously take better pictures in my head and call them up, not perfectly but enough to write about them later. Thinking about songs is bizarrely synaesthetic for me now. I need more practice, but it's pretty interesting.  

[TeaDidikai]

Reread the thread completely.

It seems that I jumped in at 101, and forgot to do the level 98 stuff.

Okay DD- this stuff will eventually lead into the next section on "charging".

You've done some work with "energy balls".

I'm hijacking the technique I learned in A.R.E. and what I would recommend is that after you become adept at making them, you practice moving them to and fro, then "coloring" them with intent.

Think about where you are going to draw your energy from. This is path specific.

If you have a hard time drawing from your grounding or the like, you could start with your own energy. Select a focus point within yourself. Some people use specific energy centers such as the ones in your forehead or chest. My personal preference is my chest- but that's largely based on my paths cosmology.

I recommend being in a relaxed state already. If you need to take some deep breaths and turn off distractions do so. If you've had success grounding and shielding- that''s always a good place to start.

When you're ready, gently close your eyes.

Bring your hands up so your elbows are bent gently and your hands are comfortably in front of you without resting on you. This position should feel relaxed and natural- if you need to make adjustments, do so.

Allow your fingers to curve slightly- as though you were holding a rubber ball a bit larger than a soft ball. Draw the energy from the chosen center towards your shoulders, down your arms and out through your palms.

Slowly and gently move your hands in small motions around the ball, shaping it slightly while continuing you steadily pour a small amount of energy into the ball.

When you're ready, gently push your hands together a bit.

Go ahead an practice this a few times and share your sensations and experiences here.  

[Recursive Paradox]

Huh. Centering is really similar to the mental exercises I do to enable myself to channel and grounding is similar to the first few interconnections to the Ether to begin the process (but not the same).

I'll give strict grounding a try and see if it improves my channeling success.

Shielding I've done before, just a bit oddly. I do a lot of things oddly come to think of it.

That's what I get for doing all this on my own through trial and error huh?  

[PrayThatThisEnds]

The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram centers, grounds, and shields all in one.

One problem - it is judaic/christian in nature, and second, adapting it is near impossible due to gematria and other such things. However, it is a very nice ritual. It centers in the sense of the Qabbalistic cross, and it centers you by linking yourself with a presence above. As is above, so is below. It grounds you via the intoning with "malkuth", and shields you with "ve geburah" and "ve gedulah", the pillars of mercy and severity... all of that just in the opening cross.

How much more then could be said for the pentagrams, directions, and divine names?

93/93

Fr. L.e.L  

[TeaDidikai]

LBRP is all well and good- but the other thing it requires is space and noise.

Who here really wants to do the LBRP on the subway, in the store- and you can forget about doing it while driving- you have to be standing to do the rite properly.

And if you can't tell you're east from your west?

Further- the circle cast is stationary. Not as useful when you're on the go.

Time and place for everything. The LBRP isn't as useful on the fly, but has some very good applications in ceremonial rites.  

[PrayThatThisEnds]

TeaDidikai

LBRP is all well and good- but the other thing it requires is space and noise.

Who here really wants to do the LBRP on the subway, in the store- and you can forget about doing it while driving- you have to be standing to do the rite properly.

And if you can't tell you're east from your west?

Further- the circle cast is stationary. Not as useful when you're on the go.

Time and place for everything. The LBRP isn't as useful on the fly, but has some very good applications in ceremonial rites.

Good points, however -

You can do the LBRP mentally.

The East is symbolic.
Second, i have never seen the LBRP done with a cast circle unless it was to consecrate/banish a certain object or space in a very real, strong sense in that area.

Also keep in mind the very same ritual can also be used to invoke as well as banish depending on how you draw the pentagrams.  

[TeaDidikai]

PrayThatThisEnds

Good points, however -

You can do the LBRP mentally.

The East is symbolic.
Second, i have never seen the LBRP done with a cast circle unless it was to consecrate/banish a certain object or space in a very real, strong sense in that area.

Also keep in mind the very same ritual can also be used to invoke as well as banish depending on how you draw the pentagrams.

At which point you hit the Wizzard Paradox.

CM is a valid practice. But at what point have you cut down the ritual to the point where the symbols aren't important.

For The Rite of AshkEnte- do you really need eight wizards with formal robes, the proper staves, the rams horns, human skulls, the octagon inscribed candles, and the pints of goats blood? Or do you need some wood and 4ccs of Mouse Blood?  

[Deoridhe]

TeaDidikai

At which point you hit the Wizzard Paradox.

CM is a valid practice. But at what point have you cut down the ritual to the point where the symbols aren't important.

For The Rite of AshkEnte- do you really need eight wizards with formal robes, the proper staves, the rams horns, human skulls, the octagon inscribed candles, and the pints of goats blood? Or do you need some wood and 4ccs of Mouse Blood?

And to what extend is the psychodrama and magic a mental exercise, and to what extent is it physical.

And I'm not sure we can answer that question.