?

[Chris01]

wow... another question. I guess im just full of 'em.
Should you ground and center before *and* after meditation, or just before, or vise versa?
:whatgives

[bshore]

The way I understand it is: you should ground and center before any magickal work and meditation. You should ground after raising any energy so that said energy has somewhere to go, but I don't think you need to do it after meditation since a meditative state maintains your ground throughout

[Seren_]

I would consider grounding and centring more important after the meditation has finished, but I would say it's good to do it both before and after. A meditative or trance state can be a lot like astral travel (in fact, with some guided visualisations you could argue it is astral travel), so grounding after a meditation, even a simple one, is important to help you get out of the meditative state and get back to normality. Otherwise you can feel pretty spacey - well, I do, anyway.

[Xentor]

Both would be best. If besides meditation, you also perform magic, a cleansing might be wise as well.

[vampy_gurrl]

I would say both but definately before

[Mab]

hmmm.....I really only worry about grounding when I have or am going to raise energy. For just a regular meditation, I just try to center myself & quiet my mind at the beginning of the meditation, and to gently pull myself back to "reality" when I'm done & ready to go back to regular life.

[Jenett]

My instinctual answer is "Both"

Bear in mind that for a lot of people, once you're comfortable with the grounding and centering process, it's not like it takes very long. (Or rather, that it doesn't need to take very long.)

Most people I know who feel comfortable with it can generally (outside of major emotional or physical upheaval or something unusual going on) ground and center themselves fairly effectively in under 30 seconds.

When that's the case, doing it before helps you be centered and focused and balanced before you start work - and helps act as a stabilising and refocusing force that helps you step into the next thing you're doing more easily when you're done. I also find it a really good "Have I tidied up after myself" reminder.

I do use longer methods occaisionally - sometimes just for fun, sometimes to keep my hand in with longer methods (or to help me explain it to someone), sometimes because it's been a really rough day or week, and I want the extra 'oomph' of walking through the steps slowly. But most of the time? Under 30 seconds, and I do it half-subconsciously, the way I double check that my shoes are fastened tight, or that I've got my keys handy. Adding that on either side of the ritual stuff is therefore no big deal, and often really helpful.

(The other obvious question, given this, is how do you get to that point: the answer is mostly practice and some experimentation. There are methods that are much faster and more effective for me than others, and a few methods I use that work really well - but I need to slow down and walk through each step in sequence. Knowing myself is really important.)

[Rowan MoonDragon]

I ground and center before I meditate. I feel like I'm still grounded afterwards so I dont feel its necessary for me. If I begin to astral travel during a meditation, than I would ground afterwards but for a plain meditation I dont think its necessary. I think it would depend on how you feel after the meditation and it might be different with each medtation too.