Introduction to the Grounding Exercises
What purpose do the Grounding Exercises serve?
Mystery School Wisdom: Seven Notes in Our Song
A call to grow your strength through the day-of-the-week exercises.
Our being is woven of four levels¹.
This physical body holds us to the earth’s love.
Our Ethereal body maintains in us the health of the watery world. It holds patterns that sustain our unconscious action, including growth, pulse and habits.
Our Astral body dances with the air and light, particularly leading us through the 12 months of the year and all the sliding perspectives of the Zodiacal gods. This dance constantly demands our attention and keeps us entertained.
Our Centre, in this sense of Self, is supported by these three. Playing and working in freedom to discover and create its own meaning and direction in relation to the beings around us, both human, animal, plant and rock. This fragile self depends upon such support, like a child depends on parents.
That we have seven days of the week is not arbitrary. That our biblical creation myth recounts seven days of creation is not arbitrary. The fact of seven moving lights circling the earth and dancing among the 12 constellations is causal of both of these. Even the Moon’s 28 day cycle is not enough to give us seven day weeks if we did not also experience on the deepest level how each weekday has subtly different soul-music playing. It is not for nothing that one traces the names in most western languages of Moon-day, Mars (Tyr’s)-day, Mercury (Wodin’s)-day, Jupiter (Thor’s)-day, Venus (Freya’s)-day, Saturn’s-day and Sun-day. The true power of these planets lies not in astrology as such – though that can lead us toward an understanding, but in the fact that they constantly circle us like play-school teacher/helpers, watching over our development.
Today, we think of the planets going around the sun. This mathematically accurate model does not reflect our body’s experience. Our body is not really interested in mathematically accurate models. It is genuinely and deeply interested in its own experience. In the deep, meditative awareness, that underlies all of our everyday stages and types of conscious activity. The planets are rising and setting over us every day and night. Visible or not, in our inner being we hear each of them crooning their supportive lullabies, hoping we will take up their 7 different models of how to become happy, integrated human beings – In freedom. Three of them are close to the earth, closer than the sun. Called the inner planets these support our inward personal development. Three of them are further from the earth, beyond the sun. These “Outer planets” support our outgoing, socially-connected development. Our social self is the periphery or greater circle of who we are, and just as much me as my inner life. Only by weaving between both can we become our true and complete greater-than-self.
Becoming conscious of this deep-level, background, spirit-mood-music within the days of the week takes deep listening. In doing this, we might notice that the simple fact that billions of other human souls are regulating their lives by the same seven-day week creates a music of its own that also flows through us. Together the deep, subtle music of the seven spheres and song of “first day back at work, lots to do, midpoint awareness, still full-on, last-day-today, hey-weekend! A-little-sacred-silence” flows through us whether we pay it any attention or not.
Of all the many things that flow through us, bringing any one to consciousness underpins our inner strength and freedom. The strength of knowingly doing what is there to be done, gives us the freedom to say both yes and no, according the value of the moment. To obey reactively leaves us childlike. Conscious agreement with the music of the spheres and of society makes us contributors to the symphony, leaders in the music. Slowly, we become creative within these rhythms because we say yes to the good bits and hold back from the excesses.
The seven Grounding Exercises² are attuned to these seven planetary songs weaving through our week. When on Monday we embrace self-care, we might slowly notice how our secret body/will-voice is saying “Yes” to the Moon’s birthing love and its support for awakening our sense of self. By adding the interest in caring for our spirit and not just our body, we raise up Moon’s love into conscious self-support. Tuesday’s suggestion that the person in front of you might be deeply interesting in their own right and rewarding to relate to, harmonizes and uplifts Mar’s outgoing courage to a social art-form. Wednesday’s attention to the genuineness of our own experience gather’s Hermes/Mercury’s communication skills into a focal point, for our own growing self-awareness. Thursday’s commitment to responsibility for our inner life strengthens the song of Jovial Jupiter towards inner warmth and good grounding. Freya’s Venusian call to love every arrow you shoot, is echoed in our interest in fulfilling by deed the decisions we weave. Saturday’s commitment picks up the Great Circle embrace given us by Saturn, to suffuse with gratitude every aspect of our daily lives. The Sun’s call for silence, inner stillness, meditation, worship, is echoed when we seek to bring balance to the other six endeavours.
If we take up each one of these on the relevant day of the week we are ‘walking the talk’ of the Gods. We are launching our boat with the tide; we are singing our song supported by the choir. In taking up this work we move on from playschool and take these seven teachers as university lecturers, entering into conversation with each one about how we may best pursue our own path into the world. You may wonder if you can actually converse with the gods, but I say that conscious words are not always needed, the action of agreeing to take up their day of the week, meeting it with this Steiner-gifted exercise is a conscious statement. One they hear and delight in. Their answer will be found in how much easier that aspect of your life becomes. How much your self-care advances, your interest in the other pays off, your standing in your own experience makes you stronger, your responsibility for your hidden-self makes you a rock for others, your fulfilment of decision leads your life into goodness of achievement, your gratitude brings blessings showering upon you and your steadiness of balance gives you deep-hearted, loving-wisdom.
This is true Grounding in your Life ³, to facilitate all these skills and capacities under the loving guidance of these seven great beings. In our godless, intellectual, and chaotic/conflicted age, few of us truly find our feet. We seek steadiness in accolades, competence, family, career, possessions, status. All of these satisfy for a short while. None of these develop our spirit-self unless we address the issues that life brings up. All of these seven grounding exercises give us the skills and assist us in the willingness to address the issues life throws at us, making our spirit strong and our relationships fruitful.
* Go to the day-by-day walk-through. *
Go to Steiner’s original text on these exercises.
Go to a resume of spiritual development practices in this tradition.
Freedom and the Pendulum of Awareness provides a deeper perspective on these exercises and the human experience.
Leap to the Foundation Stone Rhythms for a higher level of day-of-the-week exercises.
Notes
1. These four levels are those that we have presently manifested. There are another three levels that are still in preparation within us and within the arms of the Gods that hold us. When those levels are also manifest, seven levels will make up our being. At this time, it is our etheric body that most holds the seven for us, like the flower is present in the bud, even though its petals develop only as they unfold.
2. Exercises taken from chapter 4 of Knowledge of the Higher Worlds: The Conditions of Esoteric Training. Slightly updated to suit C21st soul-conditions as developed through running workshops and groups over 10 years. See original at: https://rsarchive.org/Books/GA010/English/RSPC1947/GA010_c04.html
3. The term “Grounding Exercises” refers to these being the first condition of esoteric training. The effect of practice is to dig firm foundations for the temple of the soul. Building on this, the “Six Accessory Exercises” (here and here) will raise the walls of your temple and meditations such as the “Foundation Stone” will create the roof of conscious stars that illuminate it.
