Grounding in the World Tree
This beautiful piece by Emily Gabbert was originally published at The Center Spiral in 2018.
Grounding and centering are foundational practices of witchcraft. It is how we release excess energy, and how we refuel when our own reserves are low. It is one of the deepest ways to connect with the world around us and to feel present in the natural world. However, we also use this as a first step in connecting with other worlds. This practice can make you feel calm, empowered, and in control of the power you have.
I learned early on to ground and center before a ritual or working magic. Not only does this practice help to balance your own energy and tap into the energies of the earth and the universe, it helps you get into the ritual mindset. Of course, this is not the only practice used for getting into a ritual mindset, but it is one of the most powerful ones. It can also be useful to bring everyone to the same place before beginning ritual if you are working with a group.
There are actually endless ways to ground and center yourself. You can do some very physical things like digging your toes into earth or actually hugging a tree, but these only work if you are in a place you can access those things. It is useful to be able to do this through visualization without needing the physical presence of something to ground through. This can actually expand the ways you can ground. You can work through your chakras, you can visualize yourself in your own happy place, somewhere you feel calm and centered. Some people will even ground through elements besides earth. In fact, you could even combine more than one of these methods to find what works for you.
That is the trick with grounding and centering. Find what works best for you. This could take some time and experimentation, but it is worth it to find the most effective method you can. But don’t stop there!! Find your best method, or combination of methods, and have that great, long version written out or set in your head. Use it for a deep meditation, or a ritual mindset, but work on the quick and dirty version too. Have something you can do to ground and center yourself when you are in line behind the creepy weirdo at the store, or you have to sit next to that annoying co-worker at a meeting. If you can do the quick and dirty ground and center in those instances, it can calm your own energy, and you can tap into a bit of extra energy to help beef up your own shields when you are in such situations.
While you need to find what works best for you, it helps to have a starting point, so I am going to give you my own favorite meditation. The long version. I first learned a version of this in my earliest days of learning witchcraft. At the time, it was only the first part, the roots reaching into the earth. It was not written out quite so in depth, either. After a while, doing it on my own, I started reaching up to the universe as well. I cannot remember what prompted that initially, but it very quickly became an essential part of both the long version and the quick and dirty version. Eventually, I got around to writing it all down. I believe I have rewritten it a time or two, becoming a bit more poetic each time. However, I do not often read this directly, even when doing the long version for myself, or talking others through it. It is so deeply ingrained in my head that I tend to speak it from knowing, so if you ever hear me recite this, it will likely not sound the same!
Use this as a jumping off point for your own grounding and centering practice, or an addition to what you already do. Change the words, visualize different colors, different images, shift it to fit the land where you are. Take my world tree meditation, and make it your own.
Tree Meditation
Feel a root reaching down from the base of your spine. As it moves down, it will start to spread, as roots do.
Reach down through the flooring below you.
Down into the rich black soil.
Past the roots of nearby plants and tendrils of mycelium.
Through the tunnels of critters living in the land and the layers of native clay.
Past veins of minerals and underground reservoirs of water.
Through bones and stones and remnants of the millenia of life.
Reaching down into the golden glowing heart of the Earth.
Linger there a moment, basking in the warm, comforting glow, then begin to draw that golden, glowing energy up through your roots, collecting from the layers you pass as you move up.
The memories of eons past hidden in stone and bone.
The nourishment of the minerals and water buried below us.
The malleability of the clay, and the instincts of the critters living in the land.
The tenacity of the nearby plants and the richness of the black soil.
Bring all of it up through your roots, into yourself. Let it fill every inch of you. From the tips of your toes, to your hips, up your back and to the tips of your fingers, up your neck and to the top of your head. Feel all the energy from the earth below you pulsating throughout your body and falling back down to make a circuit back into the earth that you are now a part of.
Now, feel branches begin to grow from the top of your head. Reaching up into the sky above. Spreading out as you go.
Through the roof of the building you are sitting in.
Past the trees and leaves around you.
The birds flying by.
Through the clouds overhead.
The stratosphere, the troposphere, past the blue sky.
Go beyond the moon and the sun, and the planets in our solar system.
Into the stars, the nebulae, by countless galaxies.
All the way to the center of the universe.
Linger there in the iridescent silver glow of the infinite. Basking in the endless, then begin to draw that energy down your branches, collecting from everything you pass as you move down.
The unending vastness of space.
The unknown possibilities of countless galaxies.
The massive energy given off by the stars.
The potential of new worlds in the nebulae.
The energies of the planets we know.
The mystery and rhythms of the moon.
The life giving warmth of the sun.
The multiple layers of our atmosphere.
The electricity contained in the clouds.
The freedom of the birds and the stable flexibility of the trees.
Bring it all down through your branches, into yourself. Let the silver iridescence fill you from the top of your head, to the tips of your fingers, down your back, to the tips of your toes.
Let the energy of the heavens mix and swirl with the energy of the earth within you. Looping through your roots, your branches, and you as the heart of your great world tree.
Now, find the spot within yourself where all the chaos is balanced. Your center. The place where you, the earth, and the infinite are equal and harmonious. The place you can focus the energy to your will. When you have found that, open your eyes.
Emily Gabbert
Emily Gabbert has been a practicing witch and a follower of a Pagan path for nearly 20 years. She led a group for alternative religions at MU, and was tapped into a society recognizing women leaders for her efforts. She joined the Kansas City Pagan Community in 2013, and has been an organizer for the Kansas City Witches Meetup since 2016, receiving the KCPPD Community Service Award in 2017. She is a baker by trade with an interest in all kinds of arts and crafts, and sometimes she writes.