COPING WITH ADVERSE RESPONSES TO RITUAL

              


Advanced Grounding Techniques:
Coping With Adverse Responses To Ritual
By Ivo Domínguez, Jr. - Panpipe
Appeared In Green Egg, May/June '97, No. 119


Overview
This essay offers a frame of reference for assessment and intervention in cases 
of unbalanced or abreactive responses to ritual and ceremony. It provides useful 
pointers and techniques, but does not pretend to be comprehensive. This essay is 
not a substitute for training. It is written with the assumption that the reader 
has at least an intermediate level of magickal experience.

When To Intervene — Assessments
After a powerful ritual it is not uncommon for a significant number of the 
participants to take some time to fully close down their psychic centers and 
return to normal. Depending upon the nature of the ritual and the 
emotional/psychological state of the individual there may be outbursts of energy 
and/or emotion associated with the ritual. It is important to help those that 
are having difficulties in returning fully to the here and now. It is equally 
important that you allow people to complete their own process— which you may 
interrupt if you drag them back to normal consciousness too quickly. It is
important to allow others to have their own experience. Magick, ritual, and 
ceremony can encourage healing and spiritual evolution. Often healing and growth 
are not without a certain amount of turmoil and discomfort. It would be more 
than a shame to help someone get stuck again after having a breakthrough in 
ritual.

So when do you intervene? First make sure that post-ritual, or during if needs 
be, all the participants are encouraged to ground and center. This gives people 
an opportunity to take care of themselves first which is preferable for a 
variety of reasons. Then observe people carefully. A little clumsiness or 
unsteadiness is normal for many people. Giddiness or tears are also within the 
range of safety. Pay close attention to anyone who is not taking an active part 
in normal post-ritual social interaction. Hugs, handshakes, well wishing, and 
exchanges of kisses of fellowship encourage grounding as well as the integration 
of the ritual experience into mundane life. If a person is not taking part in 
these activities it may indicate that they are caught up in their internal 
emotional process or are so ungrounded as to make these actions difficult.

In the case of people that you know, it should be easy to spot behavior that is 
out of their norm. In an open circle there will be strangers present and 
assessing them will be more difficult. If people are not participating in post 
ritual closing activities watch the expression on their face. If you can see 
that they are actively observing the other people and appear to be taking in the 
experience, then in all likelihood they are fine. You may wish to check in with
them just to make sure they feel included. If a person whom you do not know has 
a vacant or an odd expression on their face, check with your friends to see if 
anyone knows the person in question. They may have a sense of what is normal for 
that person. If there is a problem, a familiar face as part of the intervention 
is useful. If you can see auras or someone in your group can see auras, then 
check out the person's energy. There is no real substitute for second sight
in making assessments, but your physical senses can tell you quite a bit.

Regardless of all other indications, if a person goes from a standing to a 
sitting position or fails to get up after a ritual you should approach them 
immediately. Do not create an air of crisis or drama in making the approach, and 
don't forget to take that stern or serious expression off your face first. The 
difficulty may be something as commonplace as an aching back or bad knees that 
need to take their time. If a person tells you that they are fine take them at 
their word, but keep an eye on them. Sometimes bad responses to ritual take
time to fully develop, not unlike a sunburn or an allergic reaction. The person 
may need help anywhere from ten minutes later to an hour later. Whenever 
possible get the opinion of another knowledgeable person in your group. You will 
have just been in ritual yourself and your judgment should be counter-balanced 
by another's. Even in unmistakably prominent cases or when the person seeks you 
out it is still important to get a second opinion.

If indeed you determine that the person needs some type of magickal assistance, 
assess their training and background first. If the person is a novice there is a 
high probability that they merely need to be talked through grounding with 
perhaps some energy assistance. Often the reaction seems more pronounced because 
it is a new experience for the individual. If the person is experienced and they 
are having a difficult time, there is a strong possibility that the situation is
more serious.

If you determine that the person needs emotional support, ask them what they 
want. You may offer or be asked to hold them, let them cry, listen to them, 
etc... Simply be fully focused on them, giving unconditional positive regard, 
and let them give full expression to their emotions. After a bit it may be 
appropriate to suggest that you can go to a more comfortable place, and/or to 
get something to eat or drink.

It almost goes without saying that you should ascertain whether or not a medical 
condition is the primary cause of a person's difficulty. Blood sugar levels and 
blood pressure, in particular, tend to be strongly affected by some rituals. If 
in addition to a physical problem, the person is also ungrounded, they may not
remember to tell you that they have a medical condition. Ask them directly if 
they have any medical condition and if they are on any medication. If the person 
is not able to answer coherently, pull in another person (preferably one with a 
health care background) and determine whether or not emergency medical help is 
needed.

Remain Calm, Centered, & Clear
It is common sense that you need to remain calm, centered, and clear in order to 
help someone else. It isn't necessarily easy to do so. Severe reactions are 
rare, but they do happen. Don't become complacent or believe that you are an old 
hand at these things just because you've seen a few ungrounded people. Severe 
reactions will always be frightening no matter how often you have seen them. 
Like most emergency situations, you will not have weathered it before the actual 
incident. You can somewhat reduce your reaction by desensitizing yourself 
through visualizations of possible scenarios. Take some time to visualize what 
it would be like to see someone's eyes roll back into their head. Imagine a 
person not responding to their name or believing that they are in a different 
time or place.

It is also helpful to have a method to quickly achieve a clear and focused state 
of being for yourself. Find a relaxation or meditation technique that works for 
you and do it until it is automatic. Do it until a single word or image is 
enough to key you into that state of being— emulate Pavlov's dogs.

Determining What Is Needed
The process of checking in with the person, interpreting your psychic 
perceptions, and consulting with your colleagues will in most cases lead to a 
clear course of actions. If you have spiritual beings (patrons, guides, higher 
self, etc.) that you work with you will wish their input as well. If it is 
possible for you to connect with the higher self of the person in crisis, all 
the better. Before beginning make a prayer or an affirmation to the Lady and the 
Horned One or whatever form of the Divine you recognize. Later in this essay 
there is a tool chest of methods that are a sampling of possible interventions.

Please Don't!
The following is a list of common mistakes:

• Do not infuse the person with any additional energy. This includes systems 
such as Reiki that claim to be harmless in all settings. Healing methods, formal 
or informal, that most people use tend to aggravate severe ritual reactions. In 
some cases there will be temporary relief purchased with a future cost.

• More cooks do spoil the broth! Limit the number of people assisting to no more 
than three. If a more talented or more experienced person arrives on the scene, 
yield your space to them after passing on your impressions.

• Do not encourage a repeat performance on the part of the ungrounded 
individual. Do not dote on, hover over, or mother them after the crisis is over. 
Some people will find the attention they receive in this context to be a strong 
incentive to be ungrounded again. For some this will be deliberate and for 
others it will be an unconscious action. In either case if an individual has 
repeated severe reactions, a serious talk is in order about the risks these
circumstances pose to all who are involved.

• Don't pass the ungrounded person's energy through your aura. There are times 
and places when this is appropriate as in healing and in helping others to 
ground from mild reactions. In the case of severe reactions, the risk of being 
hurt by such a practice is real. Moreover the helper may become unable to 
provide further assistance even if they are not hurt. This is risky healing 
work, and you should take precautions.

Note:
• Homeopathic or Flower essences remedies are good for stabilizing a person in 
shock. Rescue Remedy in particular is a good choice. Even people who do not 
normally respond to homeopathic or flower essence remedies tend to be receptive 
to their benefits immediately after an energy trauma. However: If more than 3-4 
hours have passed since the onset of the reaction, administering these remedies 
may make matters worse as they will activate layers of the subtle bodies that 
should be resting.

Tool Chest For Bringing Them Back

Reviving Aroma- Mix 2 drops of Cedar oil and 2 drops of Ambergris oil in a small 
glass or ceramic bowl— not metal. Encourage the person to smell the mixture, and 
to imagine the fertile earth warming beneath the Sun's touch. Do not mix the 
oils before use as they react with each other during storage in a way that 
lessens their effect.

Summoning Breath- Ask the person to become aware of their breath. Ask them to 
slow down their breathing. When they have controlled their breathing ask them to 
exhale all the air from their bodies that they can and to hold on empty for a 
count of three. Continue slow breathing with holding on empty, increasing the 
hold on empty to a count of five. This pattern of breathing summons the subtle 
bodies, drawing them closer to the physical body. Holding on empty helps to
synchronize the rhythm of the blood, prana, and cerebrospinal fluid. If the 
person will not listen and is diving in and out of their body, you may need to 
hold their nose with your fingers.

Energy Shunt- To drain off excess energy without potentially overloading or 
contaminating your own aura create a thoughtform for just that purpose. 
Visualize a tube of blue-white energy connecting to the most inflamed part of 
the persons aura and see the other end of the tube plunging down deep into the 
earth. The excess energy should flow on its own, drawn by the differences in 
polarity. If the energy does not flow immediately the person is holding on to 
it. Ask the person to let the excess drain away. If needed, cause the tube to
pulse either by visualization or by manipulating it with your hands. If the 
energy flow is large you may need to guide the flow with your hands, but don't 
touch it directly.

It Shall Be Naught- In rituals that are more magickal than celebratory (more 
task oriented than devotional), loose energy and unstable intent can put the 
wheels of manifestation in motion in unwanted ways. If the person is agitated 
check in with them to see if they saw something disturbing or had disturbing 
thoughts. They may not feel comfortable expressing negative thoughts, imagery, 
or wishes. Gently, without encouraging flights of fear and fancy, suggest to 
them that they may wish to make an affirmation that their fear will not 
manifest. Modify your suggestions as needed, but the essence is to stop unwanted 
manifestations. In addition to blocking the unwanted, reinforce the stated 
intent of the ritual and ground any stray energy into that intent.

Hold Fast- If a person's primary complaint is a sensation of floating or leaping 
in and out of their body, ask them if they feel relatively well while they are 
grounding. If they do, then determine how long they can remain grounded and 
centered before they lose their control or focus. This will tell you how much 
time you have to work. Ask them to ground, center, and to let you know when they 
are ready. Place the Pranic Bindrune on the crown of their head using blue-green 
energy, then place a Quartered Circle on the soles of both feet using yellow
ochre colored energy (see fig. 1). The symbols will dissipate on their own but 
should act as splints until the person's energy balance returns.

Stabilizing Them
These are techniques that can be used to keep a person here and balanced if they 
begin to relapse into a reaction. This assistance need not be offered by the 
same individual(s) that provided the initial intervention. Indeed, in very large 
rituals it may be a good idea to divide the grounding police into contact and 
follow-up teams.

Pacemaker- If the person's aura and chakras look washed out and they report that 
they feel exhausted, use this technique. Have the person lay down on their back, 
or if that isn't possible ask them to sit with their spine straight. Draw energy 
in through all five fingers of your dominant hand and focus the energy into a 
sphere using your palm chakra. Hold the sphere of energy over the person's 
chakra that you would like to affect. Use your palm chakra to adjust the color,
frequency, etc. of the sphere. Continue to feed energy in through your fingers 
to the sphere. Do not feed energy from the sphere to the person's aura or 
chakras! You are manipulating the energy by resonance— not by direct contact 
(see fig. 2). The presence of a focused and color specific energy pattern near 
the weakened chakra will encourage it to resume normal functioning without 
invasive measures. Whether or not all or just a few of the major chakras will 
need attention will have to be assessed first. If several chakras are affected 
work on them in order from root towards crown. The alternative to this technique 
is Recharging The Etheric Body.

Recharging The Etheric Body- Most commonly, the subtle body that receives the 
greatest stress in adverse reactions to ritual is the Etheric. This is the 
energy body that lies just above the physical and closely mirrors the physical 
form. It is this body that is caught in energy clashes and dissonances of the 
lower and the higher forces during an imbalance. If the person reports that they 
feel cold, or are still trembling, or lack fine muscle coordination, use this
technique. Place a blue or purple fluorite crystal in their dominant hand and an 
amethyst in their non-dominant hand. Ask them to intone "Oooo, Ohhh, Oooo" in a 
low rumbling pitch. Check in with them and repeat until they feel better. If you 
don't have crystals available, have them make these tones while you make the 
tone "Awww" at as low a pitch as you can. The alternative to this technique is 
the Pacemaker.

Name Chant- This is a two part chant that helps to reaffirm the person's place 
in the here and now. The name Judy is used in this example.
You chant: "Judy, You Are Here. Judy, We Are With You." 
They chant: "I Am Here. I Am Here. I Am Here". You repeat "Judy, You Are Here. 
Judy, We Are With You."
Chant until the person brings it to a close.

Food & Drink- Often people in the throes of a reaction will not have any desire 
for food and drink. Coax the person into eating or drinking something that is 
sweet, unless diabetes or other conditions make this inadvisable. As soon as 
possible after the sweet treat, get the person to eat a small quantity of 
something rich in protein. High protein food is harder to digest which redirects 
the person's energy into their body. Moreover, high protein food will help 
adjust brain chemistry in the direction of normal beta wave consciousness. Less
commonly, some people will crave large quantities of sweets (including fruit and 
other natural sources of fast burning sugars. A small quantity of sugar may be 
useful, large doses will generate further problems. Chocolate is a good choice 
for many people— in a small dose.

Stronger Measures?- If these suggestions are not sufficient, then serious work 
is needed that falls outside the scope of a brief essay.

Knowing Your Limits
Take care of yourself in your role as a helper. When offering assistance make 
sure that you have made full use of the support and resources available in your 
fellow magickal workers. If the manner or mode of a person's adverse ritual 
reaction makes you afraid, disgusted, angry, or in some way presses in on your 
personal fears or weaknesses, see if someone else is available to handle the 
matter. There is no shame in knowing your limits, or in pushing beyond them
when the need arises. If you do indeed find that you have exceeded your limits 
because of an urgent need, make sure that you receive support and help once the 
crisis has passed.

Closing Thoughts
As the level of magickal expertise and experimentation rises, there will also be 
an increase in the energy level and unpredictability of rituals. In all 
likelihood this will result in an increase in the frequency and severity of 
powerful reactions to ritual. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because often 
these crises are gateways to development and to spiritual evolution, but only if 
they are provided a proper environment and context.

The information in this essay is based partly on personal experience, partly on 
anecdotal information, and partly on spiritual guidance. I ask that you record 
your experiences in using the material from this essay so that over time an 
element of science can refine our responses to these very special healing 
crises. A repertoire of specialized healing techniques and protocols will 
hopefully develop to provide the proper equilibrating force to the rising tide 
of change in the transitional period we live in.