Breathwork: As Natural As Breathing
From a Northern Tradition Shamanism point of view: breath is sacred. Odin breathed life into the world, and from there came our creation. Breath, also known as ond, is seen as a mystical force and sometimes the equivalent of soul. In the Eightfold Path to Altered States of Consciousness, the first path is known as the Path of Meditation/Path of Breath because breath can play such a vital role in your awareness and state. Due to this, breathwork is becoming more frequently practiced. Even outside of this specific tradition and practice, you will find that breath can be a useful tool in meditation, energy manipulation, calming and centering yourself, and otherwise aiding your practice. Those who find themselves with a curiosity towards air as an element may find this to be a good way of connecting themselves to it.
In general, breathwork is the act of intentionally manipulating your breathing to achieve an altered state (meditative states or trances), to manipulate or channel energy, and to use in spellwork. This can be done in various ways through the inhaling/exhaling motion, the charging of energy, emotional integration, etc. There are many different types of breathwork from many different practices and paths: you dont have to know all of them, but knowing a few varied ones might help you in your own practice.
Techniques for Altered States
A basic technique you can use is called the four-fold breath: breath in for a count of four, hold for a count of four, then exhale for a count of four and wait for four before starting over again. You create this repetitive breathing cycle and are aware of it. As you exhale on four counts, you focus on pushing further away from your physical self and closer towards the altered state you are attempting to achieve. Sometimes this can mean you lose feeling in your body, or gain a weightless sensation. This can be a good way to prepare yourself for pathwalking or journeying.
Leonard D. Orr is the founder of the concept of rebirthing breathwork. This type of breathwork focuses on attempting to cleanse and balance emotional, physical, mental and spiritual energies by breathing in energy. A person practicing this typically will lay down in a comfortable position. They meditate briefly, to relax, and then begin manipulation of breath. The idea is to connect the inhalation with the exhalation, no pause. Long, slow drawn out breaths that do not pause is the key to this. Practicitoners of this believe that our bodies can hold negative energies that skew perception and experiences in life and of the self. Through the act of conscious connected breathing, they release the associated negativity and bring clarity back to themselves. It has been used in some therapy work to relax a person into an altered state, then bring about a cleansing of bad thoughts and feelings that they have pent up.
Holotropic breathwork was a practiced first developed by Stanislav and Christina Grof. It is similar to rebirthing breathwork in some ways but came about independently. The idea here is to breathe deeper and faster than normal. The process of finding a specific rhythm can take awhile (up to 20 minutes) but becomes almost natural after its found. Each breath taken should be full and deep, reaching to the bottom of the lungs. It should be continuous, with no pauses between the exhalation and inhalation- just like the rebirthing breathwork. However, the speed at which you do this should be faster and more rhythmic.
Techniques for Energy Manipulation
One way of incorporating breathing into energy manipulation is to begin by grounding and centering yourself, and attempting to achieve a calm and meditative state. While breathing out, visualize energy from above you drawn down into your being. You can visualize it as a specific color, if that helps you with the process. Then, upon drawing in a new breath, visualize energy from below you being drawn into you as well. Again, you can visualize this as a specific color if so desired. Breathing in and out in this manner, while focusing on drawing energy into you in this cyclic manner, can be a good step towards learning how to use this energy to direct it for some other purpose, or to simply practice manipulation.
Another good practice is to work with drawing in positive energies and pushing out negative ones. As mentioned above in some techniques for altered states, you can use a repetitive breathing technique to do this. Like the energy manipulation method previously described, visualize energy being moved in and out of your being with the rhythm of your breaths. As you push out, focus on pushing out any negative thoughts, feelings, energies etc that are pent up within you. As you breathe in, focus on taking in only positive or helpful thoughts, feelings and energies. There are several other techniques that allow you to use breathwork to manipulate, move or alter energy. These are just some simple examples.
Breath as Magic
Breathwork can easily be incorporated into a magical practice, often in the form of singing, chanting, whispering, poetry, and otherwise imbuing breath with energy or intent. One example of this involves blowing something clean: for purification purposes, you can imbue your breath with protective properties and then exhale that onto an object in a manner similar to how a spell is cast. Using singing as a medium in crafting together spells, invoking/evoking spirits or deities, etc is not uncommon either. Within Northern Tradition, such verbal incantation is sung in the form of a practice known as Galdr. The voice, in combination with breathing outward, can become a powerful tool if utilized.
