chakras

Chakra Assessment #Domagick Day 28

It’s the last day of the current Domagick challenge. In the end, I would have to say that my chakras are in better condition now than they were a month ago. I discovered a major blockage in my heart chakra earlier in February, and I managed to clear that away.

However, I have noticed a tendency for my chakras to slow down over the course of each week. This is natural, I suppose. We all get tired and need to refresh and balance ourselves. I’ve found that brief, daily attunements keep things in alignment until my weekly rebalancing. Without them I am sluggish and have a hard time collecting my thoughts at work. If nothing else, this challenge has reinforced how important frequent psychic hygiene is—and given me a couple of technique to use to maintain mine.

For the last day of the challenge, I decided to move through the salutations of Ptah meditative/breathing positions. Afterward, I felt clear-headed and ready to tackle the rest of the afternoon. My Lenormand pair for the day was SHIP + FISH, which I read as “discovering wealth” or “discovering value.” And, yes, I certainly have discovered physical valuein my chakra work this month. It has helped body’s energy as well as my mood, both of which make dreary winter afternoons easier to take.

Roundup #Domagick Day 26

Three days left of this Domagick challenge. This one has been a mixed bag for me. For one, I didn’t blog on the weekends. I needed the time off, which means I broke the official rules. Besides that, I didn’t complete the divination prompts that I originally to use throughout the month. They simply stopped inspiring me about half way through. Divination remains a cornerstone of my practice, of course, though I continue to rove from deck to deck like a wandering oracle.

Secondly, I stopped focusing on specific chakras part way through this Domagick challenge, and choose to instead focus on my overall energy “flow” each day. Did I have blockages? This is a highly subjective, of course. Regardless, attempting to cleanse my chakras through both visualization, sound, and movement made me feel better. When I wanted to take a mid-afternoon nap, I often turned to that practice instead, and it perked me back up.

I have found chanting the warrior syllables and putting my body through the positions I call the Salutations to Ptah the most helpful in this regard. I’ll keep using those as part of my regular psychic hygiene. Alternating those with my other cleansing techniques with stop me from getting bored. I like to keep things interesting

Today I fell back on my experience as shamanic practitioner and burnt white sage to cleanse myself and my office. In my mind, the smoke only does part of the work, and I called on both prayer and visualization to cleanse me today as well. I will return to the routine of the Domagick challenge tomorrow.

Everybody’s Working For the Weekend #Domagick Day 23

Everybody’s working for the weekend… or at least my office hours have rolled over into Saturday and Sunday a lot lately. That why I’m not blogging again this weekend. In fact, I decided to take it easy in terms of my actual Domagick work too and I carried out my full chakra cleansing this morning instead. I chanted the five warrior syllables for about twenty minutes while visualizing and physically moving Reiki energy through the trunk of my body. The morning had simply dragged up until that point, but afterwards I felt positively spritely. I’ll keep tuning my energy centers over the weekend using the meditation / breathing positions I call the Salutations of the Ptah. My daily Lenormand cards seem to indicate this is the way to go. When asked how I should care for my chakras this weekend, I pulled BOUQUET + CROSS, or a dutiful reward. After a long week of work, that is certainly what a couple days off from blogging will feel like.

Divination to #Domagick Day 20

I laughed out loud when I pulled my Lenormand pair for today. I drew HOUSE + FOX, which I read as suspicion of caution over traditions. If I’d been drinking coffee, it would have shot out of my nose. Let’s just say that tradition has been the buzz word in my part of the Pagan community this week. (Of course, it means nothing else to anyone else.)

When I asked my deck how I could focus on my own self-care and chakra-work, I came up with ANCHOR + BOUQUET. The first thing that came to mind was ‘rewarding routine,’ but these cards can also imply stability in your social circle, or routine time with friends and family. My normal family schedule will be out of whack tonight, so I am going to yesterday’s meditation and breathing positions again.

I prefer doing divination at the beginning of my Domagick work. That way I can adapt my daily practice for whatever the cards say, using them as a prompt. It’s not that I think my fate is set in stone, but I hate doing the exact same thing every day. I need a little variation.

Domagick Day 19

I took time off from the Domagick challenge over the weekend and concentrated on family and work, in that order. I won’t complete the criteria in the traditional sense, but I will have my sanity, so that’s okay. Today I got straight back into it with a Lenormand reading. It said the week ahead will be especially trying, so I should focus on self-care. Instinctively I went into a set of meditation / breathing positions I call the Salutations to Ptah. I picked them up as part of my seminary work last year, and use them to clear and balance myself before spell-work. I wanted something physical I could lean into today and just do, that I could focus on without any accompanying visualization. I needed practice rooted in my bones. I felt much better after: clear-headed and more optimistic.

If it works, do it again! #domagick 16

I’ll keep this short. It’s Friday and, truth be told, I want to get to my weekend! Since yesterday’s practice worked so well, I decided I best duplicate it this afternoon. If it works, do it again. I read my cards first and pulled Lenormand’s THE BOUQUET, indicating I was on the right path; I’d nourish my heart chakra through the gift of an easier practice today. After a short body scan, I went straight to chanting the five warrior syllables. I didn’t concentrate on moving energy through my body at first, just air. After about ten minutes, I started working Reiki energy along my core and down through my legs along with the syllables as well. My head felt much more clear afterward, and my body felt better from having been at work all morning. Success! It does my heart and its chakra good!

Back to Five Warrior Syllables #domagick 15

I fell into bad habits again today and sat down at my desk before I sat down on my meditation cushion. I broke off after only a couple of hours work, however, and that made the difference. More imporantly, I switched up the order of my practice today and started with my card reading. I pulled two Lenormand pairs for the recent prompts on how to open my heart chakra. They inspired me to return to a technique I haven’t used for months: chanting the five warrior syllables.

Day 14: Show Kindness by (KEY + BOUQUET) opening up to compliments and rewards. This Lenormand pair gave me quite a bit to think about today during the Loving Kindness meditation that followed. If I shrug off someone’s compliment, am I denying both of us a kindness?

Day 15: Connect to (SNAKE + SUN) my desire to be happy. This Lenormand pair says it’s okay to look on the bright side and to even treat yourself once in a while. Today I decided to treat myself by depending purely on physical practice and skipping the “energetic” side of chakra balancing. While I did check in with what my body felt like on the physical level, I did not move through my body energetically afterward to see how each chakra was doing. I simply chanted the five warrior syllables of Bon Buddhism over and over and over until my mind and body felt free and clear, trusting that the technique itself worked as well as it always has for me. Frankly, this is the best day I have had yet in this challenge.

lenormand heart chakra meditation divination domagick — The second of my valentine gifts. Not as cute as the last, but just as adorable to someone who writes horror!

Hearts and ZZZZZZZZ #Domagick Day 14

I need to go back to doing my Loving Kindness meditation etc. before I start my work day. By the time I finished everything else that I needed to do, my get up and go had got up and went. I didn’t feel like being very loving towards anyone, but after a few breaths I gave into the exercise. My chakras were as sluggish as I expected they would be—so I am about to go remedy that with a Valentine’s gift to myself, a nap! Have a good one, everybody!

Heart Chakra: Love, Compassion, Connect #Domagick 13

Since I’m moving on to the heart chakra today, I gave myself a complete tune-up by chanting the seed syllable for each chakra numerous times. I’ve had problems with the heart chakra earlier in this challenge, so it seemed like a good idea. The heart chakra is also known as the Anahata chakra. It helps us generate compassion and love for ourselves and others. It deals with connection and bringing wholeness to our beings. As such, it is often considered our emotional healing centre. Its sound is YAM in the seven chakra system.

I felt like something shifted mentally during today’s Loving Kindness meditation that may help my heart chakra. My free-form mediation always has four parts: extending kindness to myself, to those aI love, to someone I feel ambivalent about, and to someone I find difficult. Whenever I have followed a guided version, the leaders have gone out of their way to never say anyone you hate. They encourage us to share kindness with this difficult person only to the degree we are able. Perhaps that is due to fear of triggering someone, or maybe the leaders worry that confronting hatred head on will completely destroy the feeling of Loving Kindness we have already generated. Either way, I can see their point. Hating someone requires energy. Depending on how big the hate is, it can eat up a lot of our thoughts, our lives—even make us too tired to handle our daily routine. I realized today that’s why forgiveness is for us, not for the person we hate. It frees us of those commitments so we can use our energy for other things.

On the other hand, today’s divination prompt aimed at strengthening my heart chakra leaves me a tad perplexed. Yesterday, I asked a career-related question of my cards and turned up the Knight of Wands. It came up again this morning when I asked the cards how I could be more loving to myself and others. (Right in Asafoetida’s domain!) The Knight of Wands indicates that it is time to put a project into action and explore it with enthusiasm. Am I so bored right now creatively that I am being cranky to those I love? Something to consider. That or I just have to keep my head down and keep doing the work.

Energy Through Relaxation #Domagick 12

I won’t be a “winner” of this Domagick challenge. Even though I completed the actual work, I skipped the blogging. I needed some time away from the computer after a week of editing and email. Honestly, I still need more weekend relaxation. I knew my chakras were spinning too slowly today before I even checked. I’ve been dragging my ass since I woke up. Every single part of me wants to go back to bed, and no energy attunement will fix that. The day is just too gray. Though I chanted the appropriate seed syllable and put in my “time on the cushion,” I still feel like I need to hibernate with a good book.

And what book? The a big fat grimoire. I started reading one last night, and it has been on my mind ever since. My thoughts even strayed to it when I was shuffling the cards for today’s daily prompt, and I think that may have influenced my draw. I asked what can I do to nourish / strength my solar chakra and pulled the Page of Swords. (I went back to using Tarot for a bit. I’m a wandering oracle.) To me, this means I should be open to and let myself be excited by new ideas and messages. That’s interesting synchronicity, but I hesitate to start anything new. I fell like I already have too many commitments as it is.

Maybe that’s it. Every time I start something new, I see it a commitment, a project, something I must do. I’m always focused on production and putting my energy out into the world rather than bringing bring energy back to myself. I rarely focus on hobbies as opposed to work. My meditation with Asafoetida reminds me that I have to balance in my life. It’s okay to seek relaxation.