joy, a chorus of angels!

Root is the densest energy of the chakras, holding us to the earth that provides energy, foundation, abundance, protection, and stability. It is the golden bowl or platform that supports and contains our energy so that we can tranform the area within and near us from dis-ease to ease. it affects motor development, health, self preservation, and physical sensation. Too little grounding can be lack of routine, lack of awareness, low survival instincts, rejection of the body and it's needs and strengths. without maintenance on the body, we can lose our space in the material plane. Excessive grounding creates rigidity in the body, as the sacral cannot provide enough fluidity to move through difficult emotions and moments. fear of falling apart, cannot deny our past and maintain our roots, accept limitation to transcend it.

Sacral is the filling and pouring of flow of energy. viscocity changes based on the emotional temperature and charge. heavy emotions can be thick and prevent other emotions from flowing such as being in a depressive or numb rut. anger may be very heated and is one way to get the energy flowing again. anger can be steered to passion, which soothes and becomes a sweet light fluid. The earth and our roots hold the water like hydraulics that enable us to react based on our feelings. When we allow flow and identification of emotional feelings, we can move toward sweet pleasure and away from betraying guilt. Too little water restricts movement and capacity for passion and positivity, as on the earth too little water creates dry tension between physical forms that can ignite at the slightest reaction. Too much water spills out of the body creating waves that push and pull others and dampens or drain the energy that could be used for action, just as flooding on earth can drown roots, disrupt construction, and delay and prevent action.

Solar is the action of energizing into purposeful transformation. The sun heats the earth and affects the water cycle, just as we energize and steer our many wills and egos toward passion and relationships. humans and life also affect the climate by consuming and emitting energy and heat into and from the climate cycle. Inserting energy inefficiently or to the point of degradation of the earth and water will eventually cause burnout just as performing too much action and expending too much energy will force us to rest and take in sustenance to clear waste buildup with hydration. Putting too little energy into action can lead to disappointing outcomes, sour emotions, regret, and loss of relationships, similar to lack of our combusted heat from exertion or feeding new fires can freeze us in our habits and deprive us of positive emotions and connection. one should make the attempt to light new flames within to spark life and passion in themselves and others, leading to community.

Heart is the balance between vitality and loss. without enough air the fire cant be sustained and without enough water the fire dries the body. too much air requires more fuel to be expended and water flowing to keep the action going. finding the balance brings tranqility. grief along with lower chakra imbalance can disturb the anima/breath leading to collapse of the system. too much action(solar) or expression(throat) uses up, pushes away, and depletes available breath. too little action or expression reduces passively available breath by atrophy and leaves the heart wanting but unpracticed. stale air in the earth (lack of connection to other spirits) creates pockets of density (painful feeling/grief) that can poison us when we are low, and also creates pockets of thin or rarified air which leaves us gasping for more and sucking the life out of what we love, abusing the health, passion, and action of our relationships.

Throat is the articulation, resonance, and exchange of communication. without communication, life can be confusing and aggravating from misunderstandings, leaving the act of communication to the lower forms such as aggression, reaction, manipulation. too much communication can be just as confusing through muddled, distorted sound and too little listening. too much air without articulation vs too much visualization without articulation. true communication is a back and forth, expend air sharing ideas (using heart and mind) and intake other's ideas. sound alerts all nearby life as it expands, but communication can be specific and directed and tone distinguishes intent and signals meaning to those who recognize it.

Third eye is the intuitive visualization, reflective clarity, and perceptive imagination between thought and articulation. after communicating ideas, the imagination can take over to turn the understanding into potential ideas. light reflects off of water droplets (sacral emotional passion) into the sky (heart's breath of life) to create beautiful rainbows that inspire wonder and curiosity. in low light, shapes, sound, and movement can be miscontrued and frightening, just as too little intuition and imagination can lead to wandering. too much light is blinding and leaves afterimage flashes just as too many paths can make choosing one difficult. excessive communication without forethought can lead one to a dead end of conversation and distortion of what the mind really thinks. excessive thought without new ideas leads to rumination, spiraling, irrational thoughts, hallucination of potential futures, and perfectionism which cannot truly be attained and sustained. Without forethought and insight, life would have no goal to aspire to, not curiosity to search for meaning.

You can suggest your exercises and share your experience. We also have a corner for otherkins!

This time it’s for the Malevolent podcast tho, so it’s different! I promise ITS DIFFERENT THIS TIME

Anyway, here’s Arthur and John cuz I had art block and the only way to unlock it for some reason is using @foxtrottovictory’s fandoms without informing them ahead of time ‘XD

The Crawling Chaos

Do this again, paying attention to how it feels. Try to feel it a bit deeper, making the relaxation go inside your muscles and even bones instead of the surface of the area you're focusing on. Remember how this feels.

Then attempt to recreate this feeling inside your head... To relax your brain. No need to empty your mind or try to control your thoughts otherwise, just physically keep relaxing your brain. Feels nice, doesn't it? Just remember the feeling of relaxation on your face and do your best to feel the same deeper inside.

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If you want to get funny with it, next try imagining the feeling of pressure in there while keeping the relaxation going - slowly building up and then slowly draining down through your neck, letting it flow and disperse into your body. You could even play with moving the pressure around your head.

I find this all to go smoother if I lightly press the tip of my tongue to the roof of my mouth (for one reason or another, I won't go into detail/speculation here).

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Hello! I’m having a grand old time and hope you are too :)

So, I’m not sure if I understand perfectly what you mean, but I suspect the reason for the difference you’re feeling is because of the techniques you’re comparing.

The way I understand energy refinement is in the sense of purifying and empowering the subtle/energy body for the purposes of developing your capacity for spiritual gifts. I like your analogy of the wool and thread, though if I may use a river analogy (and not just because of my namesake lol - the channels and meridians of the body are classically compared to water flowing through irrigation ditches) the difference you’re describing is between increasing the volume of water in the river vs purifying the water so that it can nourish a healthy ecosystem. Ultimately you need both of these, but that pure, divine feeling is essentially your subtle body being cleared of blockages and stagnation.

Buddhist mantras are essentially the deity in sonic form, so whenever you recite them you are invoking a higher power to help you in your spiritual practice (theurgy). There are also protector spirits in Buddhism, such as dharmpalas, who safeguard the integrity of the teachings and those who practice them. When reciting mantras and sacred scriptures, you are attracting the attention of these spirits who are charged with helping you on the path. This goes double when you take refuge and have been formally initiated into the sangha, so you’re essentially never alone when you practice.

The same thing happens in Daoist incantations such as 八大神咒 (Eight Great Incantations) which invoke certain spiritual powers to purify and fortify the practitioner’s energy body.

So energy refinement is built into these practices from the ground up. Each mantra and incantation, while having slightly different benefits, will all help to purify you and connect you to the Dharma/Dao. Which makes sense since Buddhism and Daoism are very much concerned with speed-running to enlightenment/immortality as fast as humanly possible.

I’m not sure what western methods you’ve tried specifically, but things like meditation and energy work as they are practised in the West are not standardised and don’t necessarily involve purification or refinement techniques. It very much depends on what approach the practitioner themself is taking. ‘Meditation’ and ‘energy work’ are umbrella terms that get thrown around while everyone is doing their own thing.

Meditation and energy work can lead to energy refinement and purification, in the sense that you need more wool before you can make more thread. It is entirely possible to attain spiritual gifts by meditating alone, though it is not the quickest way. It depends on a person’s karma (how spiritually developed a person already is from inheritance and personal effort).

There are many secular practitioners who eventually amass enough energy reserves to start developing the spiritual sensitivity and awareness for how to refine their energy body. Practitioners may also have a relationship with their own gods and spirit guides who they involve in their meditations and energy practices, so again it really depends.

You don’t need to invoke higher powers for this process, it just helps. The divine/source/universe or whatever you’d like to call it, is something we are all connected to and spiritual practice of any kind will help refine this connection to varying degrees.

Qigong, Neidan and traditional yogas don’t invoke higher powers either but they help cultivate one’s energy and usually include an education on the subtle body. They can help to both increase energy reserves and refine the subtle body so that it becomes a better conduit for energy, including that of the divine.

Going back to the river analogy, when you increase the volume of the river it may naturally flow with more force and clear out stagnation and blockages. Likewise if you purify/remove those blockages to free up more space, the volume of water flowing can also increase, so they go hand in hand.

If you want Western techniques you’ll need to look beyond meditation and energy work, and dive into specific traditions. There are definitely Western spiritual practices that aid in energy refinement, in the form of ceremonial magic which you can find in Hermeticism, Wicca, Cultus Sabbati, just to name a few. My knowledge of these is very superficial so I can’t go into detail, but they all contain practices for spiritual advancement. The planetary initiations as detailed in Seven Spheres by Rufus Opus is an easy way to get started - I have not done them, but I’ve read the book and heard good results from other practitioners.

As for how I refine energy, I will briefly say that I have a few techniques under my belt but I rarely use them, as it is not a priority for me at the moment. The refinement and purification tends to happen as a side effect of my work with Hekate, Helios and Selene.

by Alex Andreev

by Roman Novikov