Grounding help for a friend.
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TM,
Thanks for your response. I am looking for rituals/meditations that would be helpful. She says that others have suggested a grounding meditation with "roots going into the earth," but she says it didn't help much. I of course thought of the LBRP, but I don't know where she's at with Pentagrams and such, and I'm not sure whether to press hard for something that may be quite foreign and scary to her. She would probably be game for some yoga exercises.
Can anyone give me an "amen" on what ThelemicMage said or maybe recommend specific practices besides the LBRP?
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I think ritual and meditation solutions are exactly the wrong thing (as a generalization). Either of those, rightly done, take her more into inner spaces and farther from physical grounding.
I'll have a more complete answer after I look at what you posted this morning more carefully, but wanted to abort an Amen right away. I suspect I'll be recommending some similar diet directions.
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OK, first the horoscope...
As you pointed out, she has Neptune closely rising (less than a degree below Ascendant in mundo). This, and the rising Mercury, are the chief angular planets and, already, we see that she is highly sensitized, naturally ethereal. Mercury means that he nervous system is highly sensitized. I'm guessing that she moved to the diet you suggested partly for philosophical reasons and particularly because she's more sensitive to most people to feeling the effects of chemicals - and we all know how much crap most food is pumped full of. She reacts to most such things (at both the physical and psychological level) very powerfully.
She is a Sagittarius-Cancer. That takes her in similar directions intellectually or philosophically, and reinforces the sensitivity. Though I don't know her, I've known a lot of Sagittarians over the years who went in a vegetarian direction as part of their plan for "living a more spiritual life."
Beginning as soon as this year, and continuing for a couple of years, transiting Pluto will conjoin her sun. This is goi9ng to turn her life inside out, set it irrevocably in new directions, totally challenge and sharpen her experience of her deep identity and purpose. That isn't in full expression yet, but the early stages (the setup, so to speak) likely are visible.
Uranus is also about to square her Sun, and that comes within weeks (and has already been in orb once). This is similar to the Pluto transit, and probably setting her up for the Pluto impact - you can read about the distinctions of these in the Transits section of <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.solunars.net">www.solunars.net</a><!-- w -->.
Uranus is already sitting exactly on her IC. This is a further indication of inner uprooting, inner disclosure, substantial life changes: "Inner restlessness prompts lifestyle shifts. Changes in home and domestic matters (maybe a move). Important shifts occur inside you. Self-discovery. Possible disruption, separation. A need to refresh close, family relationships."
Neptune has passed her Venus and is approaching her Mars over the next year or two. This especially intensifies the vulnerability to poisoning - which can just be from the hidden chemicals in food (and certainly alerts to be careful of medicines and drugs). More immediately, though, Saturn has already been transiting square her Mars, and this likely has created a sense of hardship - struggle - probably feeling these things hard in her body - and, of course, the possibility of more concrete life experiences matching this. (Again, you can read up on that on Solunars.net.)
These are the main chart indications.
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So, first, I'd suggest just understanding these things about herself. She may very well understand them already.
Second, and most practically: The more a diet leans toward vegetarianism, the more "rarefied" a person's physical and astral bodies become. (It's a good tactic for people who feel too dense to experience inner reality and want to sensitize themselves more.) One thing she absolutely doesn't need is more sensitization, or more involuntary inward-awareness! (That can come later, after she feels more in control.)
It's not about protein - it's about flesh. Connection to the animal body is strongly correlative to consumption of animal bodies. Too many vegetables turn you into a vegetable! (I'm joking on that last sentence.) (Mostly.)
[Aside: It may also be about protein. As a generalization, people who minimize animal flesh in their diet also tend not to get adequate protein from other sources, and that can produce some of the same symptoms - but because the body is actually shutting down and redirecting resources.]
Presuming she has made her choices about diet somewhat mindfully, and not knowing how long she has eaten similarly, I want to take the transition slowly. The goal in the following recommendation is to apply what I believe is a "fix," and test to see how her perceptions change.
The recommendation is that she consume half a pound of meat a day for one month, with it being red meat at least four, and preferably five, days each week. Half a pound of ground beef (for example) one meal is sufficient but, if that is perhaps too much for her habits or sensibilities, then she can break it up into two meals. (I was just trying to give her a break of having at least one meal a day similar to what she's used to and, presumably, likes.)
Because of her natural sensitivity to chemicals, it's better if she spends a little more for really clean product. Grass-fed hormone-free bison (for example) would be great! And otherwise pay as much attention as she can to the source of it. McDonald's is probably not the place to start, though there's no reason to avoid it in a pinch.
She should keep a journal of how she feels - physically, emotionally, mentally - with a couple of entries a day. After two weeks, I suggest she pause and assess how she's feeling on each level and, unless there are some real problems, persist for the whole month.
There are other psychological things she can try that just involve externalizing through her senses more - looking out into the world as she moves through it and really perceiving physical impressions more than psychological perceptions, projections, etc.
Now... if I'm right... over the month she will feel more grounded, centered, alert, and capable. She can then decide what to do about it.
She can revert to her old diet, but should keep journaling to see the ongoing effect. She can find her own balance.
If she wants to move into ritual work at that time, after she is grounded, I encourage it. At that point, the pentagram ritual would be a solid recommendation - the usual protocol of sticking to the banishing only for about a month, and then adding the invoking. I'm pretty sure the invoking will accelerate her sensitivity, will make it harder for her to be out in the world, so she should follow the guidance that the invoking ritual is for moving inward, into private work, and the banishing ritual for moving outward into the world.
I think I had some other things to throw in, but I don't remember now what they are. If they occur to me and seem important, I'll come back and add them.
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@Hermitas said
"Yes... She responded that the suggestion to eat more meat made her stomach do an unpleasant flip. She said she forces herself to eat what little meat she does eat.
Many thanks. Sounds like a great place to start."
I'm sure this has her body and psyche out of balance. (Or is a consequence of her body and psyche being out of balance.) It might (or might not) be useful to inquire into the path that led her to her current diet habits. (Is it simple dislike? Something else? Has she had that reaction all her life? If not, what led to the change? That sort of stuff. It may give clues to something else.)Is she anorexic? You said she not only doesn't eat much meat, but also doesn't eat much in general. Does she work to otherwise balance her proteins, or is she really starving herself from anything but quick-burn energy bursts?
If it is purely a matter of taste (and not, say, some psychological aversion to meat), it may be helped with more creative selection and cooking, filtering what she likes better/worse, etc. But I suspect that's not the key.
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Actually, I have experienced all the phenomenon described by Hermitas on the subject.
Feeling out of body; spirit too big/outside of body; seeing the orbs of the deceased/elementals and attempting to compare that microcosm to that of living microcosms.
A vegetarian, non-gmo, preservative and gunk-free diet, combined with pranayama and simple yoga positions, along with simple banishing, (either physically or in the astral,) grounds me and sets my balances right.
If she's seeing orbs and having astral slippage, then grounding herself with banishing would cause her to have what magicians could term as "appropriate exerted energy", which would drive them away a bit. This has been my experience, at least. This would also give her an appropriate sense of body, if done on the physical plane. I mean, you're banishing everything, in all directions, and grounding yourself in malkuth, to a great degree, while you do so.
Maybe you could charge a talisman for protection for her, and see if it has any effect, before suggesting to her the practice.
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I do appreciate your suggestions and personal experience.
I passed on to her the dietary recommendations and an exercise to focus on sensation. She's a native of this area, so I'm trying to be careful how I present actual, real-live magick. Lots of fear programming around here:
"Pentagrams??? Aahhhhh!!"
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No offense to ThelemicMage, but him giving advice on being grounded is like me giving advice on how to be an olympic athlete.
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If the quantity of myoglobin is the distinguishing nutritional factor in calling a meat "red meat," then what about the hypothesis that this particular protein is the key?
And does anybody know off the top of their head if it can be purchased independently as a nutritional supplement?
Or should I be thinking about iron supplements?
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This does make sense, Hermitas.
And for the naysayers, I'm probably the most grounded person I know. All the "herbs" I do and procure pure medicines from are natural and from the Earth. Just because one uses herbs and has constant K&C with one's Angel, doesn't make them ungrounded.
Crowley, at one time, used Peyote, (mescaline), and cannabis regularly, and used them regularly in the desert when traversing the Aethyrs. He saw the problem of ungrounded people knowing about the psychedelics, and ended up hiding his manuscripts and diaries from peyote alone. I'm sure the man used these "strange drugs" of Nuit well into his late life.
Performing the LBPR daily is the most grounding thing I know, besides using herbs in combination with it and pure food. One binds one's star, from Kether to Malkuth, and banishes all elements with the Earth pentagram, and Malkuth being Earth manifest, well.. I suppose you can guess the rest.
A lot of people don't like supporting advanced ideas. Like in Crowley's time, there were only a "handful" of people on the Earth willing to follow his new ideas, grounded as they may be. If they knew AC's habits and daily doings, they might consider the man the most ungrounded person alive. But, one cannot really trust the opinions and views of those who haven't taken that extra step, yet naysay those who have.
But we're all illusion, right? If one wishes to take a little passionflower, myrrh and cannabis, and meditate after banishing, why not enjoy the illusion for a bit longer by grounding one's self in the aforementioned practices?
I deem the modern world unsavory and incompatible with true Hermeticism. I don't even own a tv, and for that reason alone I am the most grounded person I know. Following other fantasies one doesn't attempt to play out on one's own is outright unbalanced for one who considers themselves down-to-earth, (Kether to Malkuth), or into bettering one's self, and everyone does it but me, and my girlfriend whom I have taken hostage from the world of unenlightened cabbages. (I would suggest your friend read books and do puzzles instead of watch the poo-box, as well. There are more than just human voices in that poo-box.)
Edit: I might also suggest your friend get an animal, preferably a feline, to help with this. They are very good at keeping weird $hit away.
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"Quote Hermitas: She says she travels frequently at night, but not under her own volition. She complains that she never really feels like she is back in her body. She says she feels like she's just a little bit bigger than her body, and not quite there.
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Good supplements that are inexpensive for vegetarians are “Whey Gold Standard Protein Powder” and especially “Micronized Creatine Powder”. My first choice would be The Micronized Creatine Powder starting at about 5 grams a day for the first week then going down to 1 or 2 grams a day for maintenance. Also, a Gym membership would probably help her get back into the here and now. Best of luck. -
Moment to moment awareness conditions a lot of our relationship with the body, and speaking as someone who has experienced depersonalisation, a great deal of the time I think it's due to an inability to accept certain elements of the 'content' of those moments that creates the detachment that leads us to feel disconnected from the body.
Unwillingness to confront emotional aspects of one's everyday reality can manifest as fantasy, of which the complexes involved in anxiety are a subset. Rumination over the past, an impatience with the present, and projection into desired or feared future scenarios all can pull awareness from that less than ideal present, and once developed into a habit, depersonalisation can be an extreme result.
Personally I have found the Buddhist loving-kindness meditations to be extremely helpful. Superficially, it seems to be a wishy washy feel good bland sort of thing, but past the more shallow presentations of it, metta-bhavana has more profound aspects rarely articulated. The practice usually goes something like: think of someone you love, and feel a genuine sense of warmth, love and compassion for them, a friend, family member, etc. Once you have generated this feeling palpably, then move onto someone you like a little less, then someone you like even less, until you come to people you feel little of anything for. Past that is where it can get interesting. You then focus on people you find casually irritating, and then people you've had confrontations or more significant problems with, and try to generate the same level of compassion and love for them. Bland, simpering compassion works, but as a creative exercise, it's worth trying to find a perspective on the person in which you feel genuine, authentic kindness for that person. The practice is then extended to larger groups of people, the world, and eventually, all sentient beings.
Superficially, the practice is about being nicer to people. The effect it ends up having is rehabilitating one's relationships to mental objects (including one's perception and experience of the body) as all the people you think of during the practice are mental objects. This bleeds out into your moment to moment awareness more globally, as well as your perceptions of the world, so often conditioned by fear and other barely perceptible traumas that more methodical, rational analysis are far too slow to uncover. Further to that end, Jim has an essay in Pearls of Wisdom called Rehabilitating Subconsciousness that I found extremely helpful, and your friend may too. I hope she's doing better now.
For anyone interested, here's a paper in which researchers applied Buddhist loving-kindness meditation to treat schizophrenia, whose cluster of symptoms frequently include depersonalisation. Researchers found the practice to greatly reduce baseline symptoms in patients.