Group Energy Projection Exercise

From: Caledhaearn
To: zee-list
Date: Monday, August 07, 2000 10:49 PM

At 10:15 PM -0700 8/4/00, Kirstan Beeson wrote: Thanks for the post, I was just about to go web-hunting for something just like this...

I needed a simple excercise just like this to "break-in" a group who's never practiced together; kind of a warm-up before our first big ritual...

Anyway, thanks again for the ritual, as well as the synchronicity weirdness.
Yer quite welcome, that's what the list is for...Your note about synchronicity reminds me of one of the first things I distinctly remember writing in my magickal journal..."Coincidence can be summoned." ;>

And you're right that those exercises should work well for a group-- I've used them in the context of various classes and working groups from time to time, and they seem to work for a lot of folks. Another simple, classic good one (which works best, however, with a group used to working together, but can still be an interesting exercise with any group of magickal folk), is the following:

For warm-up, start by having the group hold hands in a circle, facing inwards. Do some form of individual or facilitated grounding exercise (can be as simple as taking time to listen to the hissing in your ears, your own heartbeat, your breathing pattern, etc., or get as elaborate as you wish), concentrating specifically on the feel of your own personal energy, while peripherally remaining aware of the hands you hold on either side. Alternately, especially if the group is composed of inexperienced folk, do the grounding exercise in the circle but without holding hands, then join hands after you're done and everyone is well "into themselves." Next, slowly, expand your awareness to the people on either side, taking plenty of time, and making sure to remain aware of your own self. Listen to their breathing, take time and sense what they feel like, smell like, energetically feel (what one friend, Sienna, calls, "pheel") like, etc. When that's done, expand your awareness again to the people next to those two people...and so on, until you've gotten all the way around the circle. If you want to take the time, when you've gone all the way around, you can pass an energy ball around the circle, again slowly, at least at first, speeding it up if folks feel like playing. If folks don't know how to make/pass an energy ball, try squeezing the hand of the person next to you, passing a long, slow squeeze, all the way around the circle, and it'll probably start to happen on its own.

Now, for the exercise. Have one person in the group stand in the center of the rest, who all face inward towards the person in the middle, hands down. The middle person is blindfolded, or just closes their eyes. Then, one person on the outside is selected to be the "sender." Their job is to, without touching the person in the middle, project energy towards them, using whatever visualization or other method is most natural for them-- extending, projecting, whatever, so long as it's not audible or otherwise physically sensed by the middle person. The middle person's job is to sense what direction the energy is coming from, and turn towards it. If time allows, everyone should have a chance to be the sender, and everyone should take a turn in the middle. If folks are having too easy a time of it, have the "sender" switch one or more times during the course of each person's time in the middle-- after a bit of practice (or sooner if anyone is a "natural"), you'll have people spinning around and zeroing in like the needle in a compass. More common is a lot of slow rotating, "sniffing," while people try to get used to sensing who's actively projecting, versus who's just unintentionally splooshing all over the place, etc. Afterwards (this is important), have everyone share their experiences, what they felt, sensed, what visualizations they used as sender and receiver, etc., whether or not they got it "right." One person's visualization technique while sending or receiving may well help others. Share the wealth ;>

This is the simple version-- you can take this basic exercise in a lot of different directions. If you use it, let me know how it goes, okay?

`Io,

--Caledhaearn

------- z(x-yoTe) Just as the Winged Energy of Delight Just as the winged energy of delight carried you over many chasms early on, now raise the daringly imagined arch holding up the astounding bridges. Miracle doesn't lie only in the amazing living through and defeat of danger; miracles become miracles in the clear achievement that is earned. To work with things is not hubris when building the associations beyond words; denser and denser the pattern becomes-- being carried along is not enough. Take your well-disciplined strengths and stretch them between two opposing poles. Because inside human beings is where God learns. --Rilke (Muzot, February 1924)