Staying Grounded in the Work

Breath, Will and Imagination:
To work in Non-Ordinary Reality, we engage in Breath, Will and Imagination. We can call upon the same to invite ourselves to be more grounded in Ordinary Reality.
With breath, we engage the body, sooth the nervous system, come back to a state of stasis and balance. A regular breathing practice can be a great way to ground. Four fold breath, breath of fire, or simply lengthening the out breath are three such breathing practices that can be grounding.
Will is what we engage to bring us across thresholds into Non-Ordinary Reality and also what brings us back. With will we open the way and also close the way, we decide when and how to engage and when not to. For those who readily perceive what’s beyond the veil, it’s an act of Will that allows for energetic boundary setting — we can will our way to just sensing what is in the here and now, in linear reality, nothing more.
Imagination is a partner of Will — imagine yourself tethered by a golden thread to the Earth and the Heavens, and so you will be. Or, as an act of Will, shut down your seeing and connections to the Otherworld to just be in the here and now with no extra sensory perception by imagining your circle of allies leaving the container you’ve invited in, imagine the container dissolving and all beings being released, all threads beings released, all seeing shutting down perhaps by imagining a dial or a switch. The Imagination brings the desired scenario into your vision where the Will makes it so.

Have a map, don’t get lost:

Having a clear view of the architecture of the Unseen world and adopting the The World Tree model as a map can be very helpful. Seeing the roots as the Lower World, the trunk as the Middle World, and the canopy or branches as the Upper World gives clear context of the places you’re journeying with the work. Of course there are nuances and seeing can open in many directions at once, but it’s a start and good bones for where we might go and what we might engage with as we journey. In the upper and lower worlds, only beings that are at peace reside. The Middle World also contains suffering beings (both in and out of physical bodies) that one can run into from time to time either because we are intending to work with them, or sometimes because, despite our boundaries and intentions, they show up to be witnessed. Being clear about your intentions and the container you set up for the work is the best protection you can find from wandering Spirits or from getting lost in the work. Knowing when you want to engage and with what Spirits is an act of Will, being surefooted on your path allows for easeful navigation of whatever it is that shows as you work, no surprises, just adaptability to what wants to come through the set container and understanding what and who it is you’re working with in the context of your journey. Also, it’s important to note the map of time here and keeping journeys delineated by time and even setting up “working hours” so we decide when we open to see and work with Spirits. We don’t just leave a drafty door open to seeing into the beyond. We are clear of where we are and where and when we’re going.

Merging and Working with Allies:

The more we engage with our Allies and Merge whilst we’re working, the easier it is to delineate time in NOR and OR. We unmerge and come back to self, we end our ceremony or session and remember we are just our human selves doing human things. Letting Allies take the wheel is much easier on the body, mind and Spirit than trying to invite your own self or knowing into the picture. All sorts of ego attachments can happen when we do and it can be much harder to set the work down once a session is complete. Working in this way also helps to conserve your personal energy and show up for the work more easily rather than feeling taxed by it. Inviting an Ally into the body can even offer the opposite experience - one might find themselves invigorated by the experience with a residue of power and healing that lingers even once the merge is complete. It is important to note the tremendous gift of these close ally ships and the importance of honoring these relationships with regular offerings and thanks in both Spirit time and bridging into linear reality.

Alignment, self integrity and focus on intention are key:
As is getting out of the way, being the hollow bone so that you are utterly in service to what wants to come through. Your biggest job is to trust and listen, secondary to that is to translate and emanate as a healing story. You can negotiate with the Spirits what wants to come through and how it’s expressed as in alignment with who you are and the circumstances you find yourself in. This way you never abandon yourself into the work. You hold the architecture and have a place for it to move through rather than dissolve into it. We hold the warp and weft. The threads of the As Above and So Below and where they meet timelines (fore, aft) and our circle of connection (right, left). Our work is to bring healing and beauty, we don’t get distracted by the story or beings that might show up, we stay with the intention. We also watch out for getting power drunk. We set up systems of accountability and keep a strong focus on kindness as much as we seek power. Boundaries are clarity and clarity is kindness, both to self and with clients and even with the Spirits with whom we work.

Affirming the physical:

Before ceremony we clean ourselves and physical spaces to prepare. Doing the same after ceremony can be very grounding and is good spiritual hygiene. To affirm the physical reality of Ordinary Reality helps to draw the attention away from the liminal and into the linear. Dismantle and clean your altar and your space in entirety, return things to the Earth (if any altar items came from Nature) as a way to close your session, smudge your space and yourself, cleanse your body with a shower, oil your skin — all of these things bring delineation and help to ground you back in Ordinary Reality.

Minding what you’re taking in and how you’re treating your body:
Affirming the physical body can also be through honoring and tending to it in ways that are kind to the nervous system, digestive system, the mind and the emotions. Setting boundaries is part of this process. Listening to your body about what it does and doesn’t want to eat is a big one. If you are digesting a lot on a Spirit level, easy to digest foods can help calm and ground the system. If you are feeling floaty and too ethereal, something grounding like comfort food can also be helpful. Don’t jump right back into a hard conversation or watch an intense show. Be mindful of what you’re exposing yourself to as you land. Treat yourself gently and kindly. Carve out time and space as you’re able to have some time to buffer and bridge your experience.
The body is our first ally, the place where all knowing filters through, the one who is here with us from birth to death. Honoring the body and reaffirming the physical presence of flesh and bone is extremely grounding. Dancing, walking, making love, massage, activating pleasure through food, surroundings, anything physical can is key to keeping this relationship to the body alive and well and therefore inviting Spirit to reside fully within and in a grounded, embodied way.

Engage with like minded friends:

Being with people with a similar worldview can be so grounding when it comes to finding ways to integrate your seership or healing work. If you’re hanging out with people who don’t understand the work you do beyond the veil, it can end up in self doubt or even thoughts that you’ve gone off the deep end! The “witch wound” can also be part of this feeling. While seership and healing practices are still alive and well in many indigenous cultures throughout the world, those of European heritage have been cut off from this inheritance for hundreds of years. We live in an exciting time when what once was commonplace connection to the land and Spirit, and then was considered “witch craft” is reemerging — this extends beyond seership and healing and into the world of midwifery, herbalism, and more, all of which practitioners spent hundreds of years being persecuted for. It can sometimes feel unsafe in terms of belonging and being questioned in your validity when coming up against worldviews that are still bound to the same Patriarchal viewpoints that supported this persecution. Again, give yourself pockets of sanctuary with those who are connected to these ways and give yourself opportunity to feel held and seen, and also be mindful to not detach yourself from being part of the world at large who might not share the same ability or worldview of engaging with non ordinary realities.

Give the work somewhere to go:
Being of service is of utmost importance with this work. To see just to see can lead to an endless rabbit hole of exploration into the beyond which can quickly lead to being untethered. When gathering information and seeing into the beyond, intention is everything. Intention requires focus, engages will and asks us to hold a clear line with the work. It’s’ never about your own agenda or desires or even a client’s desires, it’s about setting up parameters for healing and for seeking that which is in the highest good, what is in alignment with Life itself. Then, bridging this knowing into Ordinary reality through healing story, ritual, or completing prescriptions as given from Spirit. Integration begins as soon as we tell the healing story or make the non-ordinary reality knowing come alive in ordinary reality.

Be a human:

As much as you set boundaries and find way to honor your body and spirit, staying engaged with the world as it is can also be very grounding. Boundaries yes, but don’t cut yourself off from your peers or family or an ordinary lifestyle as a result of wanting to maintain a safe space. Keep paying your bills, keep up with your day to day responsibilities, keep in balance with the demands of ordinary reality and your living relationships. With Spiritual work, people can sometimes fall into the trap of living in fantasy and dissociating from the what is, only wanting to engage with the what could be.
Same goes with the Spiritual ego, it can be a slippery slope to engage with transformative and healing practices — it’s easy to feel good in the work and maybe even begin to think one is “doing their work” and therefore better than the next person just because we meditate, eat a clean diet or work with powerful allies. At the end of the day, it’s never useful to compare or to overly identify with being spiritual or a healer or seer or any of it. Be a human. That is enough.
My Aikido Sensei once told us a story of a Zen monk who came to the states and found that the sangha he was working with were all vegans. He took them to McDonald’s to get cheeseburgers as a lesson in non-attachment. That day he observed a range of human emotion and projection that was a far cry from the zen mind these disciples were trying to obtain. I love this story because it teaches us to not over identify with any one way of being in the world. Just because we spend time healing, know that we’ll never fully arrive anywhere, we’re just a human on our path, doing our thing. Keep being human, stay part of society and try to bridge this work in the liminal among very ordinary experiences.
Find the sacred in the profane. There’s no better way to stay grounded.