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Until recently, I thought of grounding as simple: You release your energy into the ground. A does-what-it-sounds-like sort of technique.
It turns out, there are at least four effective ways to ground: Release your energy into the area around you; Release it into a more distant location; Use ethereal software; Or rebalance your energy without releasing it. If you’re grounding yourself, it pays to pick the right technique for the right situation. And if you’re working with someone else, it pays to be aware that they might ground differently than you.
This series will cover all four techniques, how I encountered or developed each, and the tradeoffs involved. But first, let’s discuss what grounding is (Hint: The standard definition isn’t particularly useful), and why we’re getting rid of energy in the first place (Hint: It’s not because you have too much energy.)
What is “Grounding?”
You probably know the standard definition: Releasing energy into the earth. You visualize your energy going out your feet, into the earth, and you return to normal.
There’s a problem with that definition, though: Energy going into the earth is the visualization — the way we communicate our intent to our unconscious mind. What if the unconscious mind does something else to make that intent happen? Wouldn’t you want to know?
More often than not, the visualization doesn’t quite line up with what actually happens. But the intent is a good starting point. So, let’s define grounding by the intent:
Grounding is any technique for returning your energy to its normal state.
(“Any technique” is probably overly-broad. I’m sure there’s some odd technique that wouldn’t count. Mea culpa.)
Good. Now we can talk about all the different ways your unconscious mind can do that — including some techniques that your unconscious probably won’t figure out without conscious guidance. But first, let’s discuss what “normal state” means.
“Normal State” is about Signature, Not Quantity
It’s natural to think of grounding as solving the problem of too much energy. That’s why you release it: You have too much, so you have to get rid of some. Makes sense.
The problem is, this doesn’t square with observations:
- If I build a large quantity of energy matching my body’s normal signature, I hardly feel anything — just slightly more alert. But if I build even a small amount of energy in an unusual signature, the feeling is pronounced and obvious.
- Other mages notice connections and energy easily when the signature of that connection / energy is different than their body’s signature, but do not notice the connection / energy when it’s in their body’s normal signature.
- If I create energy in an unusual signature, I’ll feel weird. If I then create more energy in a particular signature, such that when energy #1 and energy #2 mix together, they produce my body’s normal signature, I feel normal again. So, adding more energy (in the right signature) returns me to normal, even though I had a lot more energy. (We’ll cover that technique later in this series, so you can try it too.)
- Lastly, other techniques: In energy healing, the quantity of energy doesn’t matter much, but the signature of that energy is vital. Same with erotic energy — the key is the signature. And if you read the first item and thought, “Feeling more alert sounds useful,” well, I already have a technique that works better than building more energy in my normal signature, and it involves building a small amount of energy, but not in my normal signature. The key is signature, not quantity.
Now, if you’re absorbing energy from someone else, then the quantity you absorb matters, because it will mix with the energy already in your body. Think about it this way: If your energy is blue paint, and their energy is yellow paint, you can see how absorbing a little will leave your paint-energy mostly blue, but absorbing a lot will shift you through green and eventually to yellow.
It’s the same with releasing energy: If you want to return to your normal blue color, and the energy in your body right now is green, you’ll have to mix in a lot of blue to dilute the green. But if you first release the green energy, you can start from a mostly-clean slate, and just build your own normal blue energy. That’s the point of grounding: To release the energy that’s got the wrong signature, so you can start fresh.
What’s the significance of blue, yellow, and green? Nothing. I just picked some colors.
And now, we’re ready to discuss grounding techniques. (Starting next post in this series.)
Other posts in this series:- Grounding Method #3: Ethereal Software (April 12, 2013)
- Advanced Grounding (Technique #4) (May 10, 2013)
- 4 Techniques for Grounding: Conclusion (May 15, 2013)
- 4 Methods of Grounding -- Intro (January 30, 2013)
- Grounding Method 1: Expel the Energy (February 6, 2013)
- Grounding #2, and Why I Don't Trust Visualizations (February 13, 2013)
Tags: Energy Signatures, Grounding