One of the things I’m known for in ADF, and the piece of liturgy that I’ve written that’s gotten the most legs and the most practice through the lines of Druidry and even beyond that, is the Two Powers in Nine Breaths.

I wrote it as an antidote to grounding and centering meditations that drag on, or take so long to work that even my practiced mind loses the focus of the exercise, and thus the energy of a ritual space is dispersed instead of focused, centered, and brought into shared connection as a singular group working together.

This is not to say that more elaborate meditations don’t work – only that you need a solid guide for that kind of guided work to be successful, and also that sometimes you just wanna take nine breaths and get to work. It’s a liturgical tool, and one that I am happy to have contributed.

However, in talking with one of my very dear friends and co-religionists, Amy, we got to thinking about movement based and embodied meditation practices, something close to my heart as a longtime practitioner of martial arts. (Currently only Tai Chi/Qi Gong) Motion is a way to encourage and engage with focus when your mind and body then come together. And I started wondering about doing a Two Powers through a movement meditation instead of just a verbal/inner one. This would be especially useful for folks with aphantasia, as often so much of our meditation and guided journey practices rely on visualization and the mind’s eye – and leaves those folks out.

Instead, I am imagining a practice where you reach down physically into the earth and feel the cool waters running through your fingers. Where you reach up physically into the sky and feel the sparking fires of the stars on your fingertips.

Pulling that water up with your fingers by pulling up threads of water, and that spark down with your hand by pulling down threads of sparking fire, so that they meet in the middle, and you are left with your hands cupped, overflowing with the Two Powers together, and then weaving them together into a spun cord that connects everyone in the ritual together.

Like wool waulking – you spin up how much energy the ritual will need.

Easily practiced while standing or sitting, so that it is accessible. But where the connection is made in mind AND body, and uses other senses than “imagine in your mind’s eye”.

I could write a liturgy part for it, but since it’s super sensory-driven, part of me thinks just having this as an idea is … enough for now. Especially because I rarely read out meditations anyway, preferring to let inspiration guide me at least 60% of what I’m saying.

Can you imagine doing that? Would that style of a group-mind/Two Powers meditation be something you could see yourself doing?