Well, I thought I was hosting a meditation circle with my horses and my friend Katie Hess and her crew from Lotus Wei (flower essence energetic medicine) who were visiting Vancouver on their Flower Lounge tour. But the horses (surprise, surprise) had other ideas and instead used the opportunity to teach the group a powerful healing and boundary-setting technique.

When Katie first asked if they could come experience the horses, I admit I was nervous about having a whole group of horse newbies out with my young, lively herd, but I also felt compelled to create and offer this space for connection. Things were going along okay, but then my horse Montaro started nipping at Lisa’s sweater! When I asked him what the heck he was doing, he told me to teach the group the meditation technique he had taught me, called As Above, So Below.

Interestingly, Lisa Reinhardt – whose sweater Montaro nipped, spent 11 years meditating with the monks in the Himalayas. She is no newbie to meditating! And I’m sure she will continue to experiment and play with this technique as I have; discovering its breadth of power and applications in various circumstances.

Build your healing energy…

One of the most exciting applications of this As Above So Below technique is using it for self-healing. It has many applications for healing, or releasing blockages in the etheric and physical body. Instead of just swirling the 2 streams in the torso, you can swirl them wherever the spiral is needed (the shoulder, the hip, the ankle, the stomach, the large intestine, etc).

A friend of mine has been playing with swirling it into her fingertip and then releasing it – like a laser – wherever she points or presses her fingertip. She used this (applying to the head) to relieve a migraine in a family member, and he drifted off to sleep. When he awoke, the migraine was gone.

I once used it in a bodywork session. The therapist (massage, craniosacral, myofascial release) was working on my scapula and she said, “There’s something in here that just won’t let go.” So I started doing As Above So Below and moved the swirl to my shoulder. Within seconds she jumped back and flicked her fingertips towards the floor, “Well that sure worked!” she laughed. I didn’t tell her I was doing anything. But the power surged through so strongly that she had to step back and fling the excess from her hands.

It is truly a gift of mammoth proportions and once you start using it, you will realize how many applications it has. Don’t get discouraged if it takes you a while to get fluent. Even though you are just ‘imagining’ the energy flows, it is a multi-step procedure and it takes some time to be able to hold the imagining – with all the components going – simultaneously.

So here are the step-by-step instructions for how to do As Above So Below to heal yourself:

1. In through the top of the head – Imagine the top of your head opening up and divine light/energy flowing into your head. Watch this light energy as it streams down behind your eyes, down your neck, spreading to your shoulders and down each arm to stream out each fingertip. This light energy flows through your whole torso, encircling, flooding your organs; your heart, liver, spleen, intestines and down through your pelvis, your hips and streams down both legs and out the soles of your feet into Mother Earth. What color(s) is this light energy? Watch this light as it streams into the earth and then down, down through the earth to the tree roots that run under the earth. When you reach this network of tree roots, plug in. Take the light that is streaming into the top of your head and down, down your whole body into the earth and plug it into the tree root network. You are the channel, the connection between the divine above and the divine earth. You are firmly rooted and grounded. The trees are there to anchor and support you. You are one with all of life. Now, keep this stream of energy running and add another…

2. Up through the soles of your feet & fountain out your head – While the energy runs in through your head and out your feet, keep that stream going and now add another one. Pull another stream of energy UP from Mother Earth. Pull from the pool of molten magma that sits at the center of the earth. Watch this stream rise up from the molten lava and enter in through the soles of both your feet. Imagine this energy flowing up your legs, up your torso, up your neck and out the top of your head, where it fountains in a shower of beautiful light energy all around you. Keep both these streams running. See them, imagine them, see what colors they are.

3. Swirl the two streams of energy together – Now take these two light energy streams; one from above, the other from below, and swirl them together in your center. See the colors swirl and mix. Like a whirlpool, or a spiral, like stirring coffee. Seeing the stream coming in the top of your head, and the stream coming up from Mother Earth, see them join and swirl together in your center. If it helps you, follow the swirl around and around on your chest/torso with your fingertip.

You may find when you swirl them together that the energy stream from the earth no longer fountains out the top of your head, and the stream from above no longer goes into the earth. That’s fine. I’ve experimented with it both ways and it doesn’t seem to make a difference – but it’s certainly easier to visualize 3 things, rather than five!

4. Send out OM or LOVE – As you hold the merging of these energy streams, swirling them together in your center, now open your heart chakra – front and back – and send OM, or love out from your heart. You can chant OM out loud, or you can just visualize love flowing out from both the front and back of your heart.

Here’s what As Above So Below looks like for me, your colors may be different. When my kids do this, their colors coming up from the earth tend to be blue/green. Whatever you imagine is what’s right for you at that time.

Once you become fluent with this basic technique, you can start playing with it; changing the location of the swirl to where your body needs it the most. Experiment with the direction of the swirl – what do you feel when you swirl it clockwise? What happens when you change that and swirl it counter-clockwise?

When I teach people this technique – including the people at this meditation circle – I notice that they all swirl the energies in a clockwise direction. This is exactly what I did too, when Montaro was teaching it to me. In my understanding, swirling clockwise builds your energy/chi/ki. It strengthens you, it brings all that healing prana into your body, stronger and stronger, flooding, saturating, permeating every cell, tissue, organ, bone. It builds your personal power.

Note: If you’re confused about which way to swirl: You are behind the clock, with the clock-face pointing away (outward) from your body.

Once you’ve built it, you can then flow it out to others, to flow healing to them. But remember! You are not swirling or sending your own energy! You are pulling both streams of energy from the divine above and below, mixing them in your center and sending that divine love energy out to others.

Setting loving boundaries

What you see me teaching in this video is like a Part 2 of this technique. Once you have swirled the energy clockwise to build your chi/prana/lifeforce energy, you then reverse the direction. You swirl it counter-clockwise, which sends or pushes the energy out around you – like a forcefield composed of love or OM. Remember to send it out both front and back.

As Lisa Reinhardt describes in the video, this is a beautiful way to set a boundary; because you are strengthened and protected, yet the boundary itself is indistinguishable from love. And not being so permeable, actually allows you to love better!

Speaking of strength and love combined in harmony – my mare Audelina is a living example of this. I learn so much about what a balanced masculine/feminine looks and feels like, just from observing her. It was so wondrous and special for all of us when Audelina purposely came into the middle of the circle, and nursed her colt Juno there in the midst of us all (at 2:07 minutes in the video).

Another thing you can use the counter-clockwise direction for is to cleanse your body of all the shite energy you might be carrying and drain it down into Mother Earth. I tell my kids: Just like trees take toxic carbon dioxide and convert it to life-giving oxygen, so can the earth take your crappy, toxic energy and transform it to goodness. So you don’t need to worry that you’re polluting the earth with manky energy! Just let it all go – all the sickness, unworthiness, frustration, ingratitude, self-criticism, harshness and grey/black clouds – use the counter-clockwise swirl to gather it all and drain it down both your legs, out the soles of your feet, into Mother Earth.

Thank you to this herd of magical souls: Montaro, Audelina, Jax, Zorra and Juno. My heart is full 🙂