(Note: This is excerpted from the Dedicant Path booklet that ADF members get when joining; members can also listen to an MP3 audio file or another version)
This is a basic meditation intended to link the Druid’s spirit and flesh to the currents of Earth and Sky. It is based on methods that have become known in Pagan work as “grounding and centering”. All these methods are meant to connect the student to spiritual powers in the cosmos, and to provide balanced channels of flow for those powers in the personal soul. Some form of this technique should precede almost any work of worship or magic. The Two Powers model is based on core concepts in Indo-European lore, but is not, by any means, the only vision or mythic model useful in our Druidry.
The work begins by seating yourself, or standing, in a comfortable position at your meditation seat. Here follows a script for a version of the Two Powers work. You should read through the script until you are familiar with its pattern, or perhaps even read it onto a tape for the first several exercises. Soon, with practice, you will know the basic order, and be able to proceed from memory. The best practice is to memorize the sequence of images, but this is made much easier by a few repetitions with spoken guidance.
The Script
Begin, O seeker of wisdom, with your breath… breathe deeply, from your belly… in… and out… make your body comfortable… stretch if you need to, settle in place… and focus on your breath… observe your breath as it flows in and out of your body… and with each breath, allow your body to relax… let your breath carry away tension from your flesh.. relaxing your feet and legs… letting your belly soften and relax… breathing away tension from your shoulders and arms… from your neck… relaxing your face and mouth, your eyes… with each breath your body becoming warmer, comfortable and relaxed… your mind alert and prepared for magic…
Now, with your body still and calm, imagine that from your feet, or the base of your spine, roots begin to grow downward… roots reaching and growing into the earth, down through soil and stone… deepening and spreading… reaching to touch the waters under the Earth… the Earth current… the dark, cool, magnetic power that nourishes and sustains life… as your roots touch this current it is drawn in and up toward your body… your breath draws the Earth power upward… into your body… the invisible, magnetic power fills your legs, energizing and strengthening… waters rise from the earth, into your legs… rising… into your loins… and pooling in your loins, a cauldron of Earth power… You breathe the power upward… rising from the earth, through your loins, rising up your spine… into your heart… pooling and filling a cauldron in your heart with healing, restoring energy… power rising from the deep, through your loins, through your heart… rising up your spine and into your head… filling a cauldron of wisdom and vision behind your eyes… and rising still, filling all your body and flowing out again through the crown of your head… through your hands… flowing out around your body and back into the earth… the power under the Earth flows in you… grounding you in the source of life…
Now imagine the sky overhead… The sun and moon and, far beyond them, the stars… imagine a single star at the center of the sky, shining directly over your head… the center of your inner sky, your own pole-star…see a flash of light shining down from that star… streaming down between moon and sun… gold, silver and blue-white light… the bright, warm, electric power of the sky… the light touches your head, filling and illuminating the cauldron like sun on still water… shining from above… filling your head with warm, awakening power… flowing down into your heart… warming the cauldron… shining down through head and heart, illumining the waters… downward to reach your loins… The cauldron shines with sky power in your loins… Tingling, electrical light in head, heart and loins… the light flows downward into Earth, and you are shining and flowing with the mingled powers of Earth and sky… the raw material of magic… the chaos of potential and the world order…
These powers are balanced in you… yours to shape and use… always with you in some degree… But for now, allow the powers to recede… waters to the Earth, light to the sky… knowing that each time you attune to them you become more attuned, more at one with the powers… breath deep… and allow your awareness to return to your common senses… as you open your eyes…
Page Information:
“The Two Powers Meditation.” submitted by Rev. Ian Corrigan on 15 May, 2019. Last modified on 12 January, 2021.
