The Heart SOP (Rev. Shaw's Sphere of Protection)

[tunesmyth]

I have a friend with severe movement handicaps, for whom various forms of rituals of spiritual cleansing, banishing, and protection that are relatively simple for most people to execute are simply just not an option. I did recently run across a ritual that requires no movement at all, though. It seems it is an early form of The Sphere Of Protection that was taught by Rev. Matthew William Shaw. Shaw started The Modern Order of Essenes, the spiritual healing tradition that John Michael Greer ecosophia has recently been sharing on his blog. The instructions for this simpler Sphere Of Protection is, however, buried in the middle of a longer entry which focuses on other things.

For my own use, and ability to forward easily to my friend, I here present just the instructions for this version of The Sphere Of Protection (SOP).

While you are meditating, contemplating, praying or healing yourself within this Sphere of Protection, no harm of any kind will come to you.

Most of the time nothing bad will happen anyway. As a precaution, we do suggest placing yourself within a Sphere of Protection any time you want to pray, meditate, contemplate or practice spiritual healing.

There are many ways of doing this. Here's the Essene way of forming a Sphere of Protection, as taught by Rev. Matthew Shaw:

1. Sit or stand comfortably and close your eyes. Relax and breathe deeply.

2. Bring your consciousness to your heart.

3. See a dot of white light shining in the center of your heart. This white light is the Light of the Divine. It is the Unconditional Love of the Universe. It is the protection against all things. See this dot of white light.

4. Each time you breathe out, see this dot of white light slowly expanding. Over the course of seven breaths, see it expand so that it forms a sphere completely surrounding you.

5. Each time you breathe in, feel the unconditional love of the universe filling you more and more. Then watch this sphere of white light expand as you breathe out.

6. Stand within this sphere of white light, this sphere of the unconditional love of the universe for three breaths and enjoy the peace, energy and love.

7. Give thanks to the Divine for protecting you and proceed with your purpose for forming this Sphere of Protection around you.

This is one way to create a Sphere of Protection to keep negative energy, power and entities away from you. There are several others. Choose one that suits you.

Update 1/31/2023:
THE HEART SOP

Having practiced this version for a little bit now (which I have started taking to calling the "Heart SOP" to myself), I believe it is really quite a worthy exercise. I am not positive yet how effective it is as a protective ritual, when compared to the more modern versions of the SOP or other protective rituals. JMG said he practiced it enough to experience that effect, but then again, he has decades of daily practice at a wide variety of protective rituals and could probably turn eating a ham sandwich into an effective protection ritual if he tried.

But here are several data points that suggest its possible benefits.

♡ Performing it, I don't always notice the effects (then again, my subtle senses are rather insensitive), but sometimes it leaves me with a marked feeling of relaxation and ease.

♡ sdi reports in his case a different result, of it making him intensely focused.

♡ He also notes that it's a gentle-but-effective method of exercising one's spiritual heart, causing it to "light up" and strengthen.

♡ I can't say for sure whether it's connected to the exercise or simply personal growth that happens to have coincided with my adoption of it, but I am finding recently that I am becoming a bit more impervious to criticism. I am a lifelong vegetarian, and unfortunately some of JMG's warnings about vegetarians (how as they are less grounded, are often overly sensitive to what other people think and often overthink small things and blow them into big things) hit the target pretty squarely with me. But these feelings have lessened noticeably over the last few weeks as I've practiced the exercise, even though I haven't performed it every day. SDI points out that the heart is associated with the Sun and that the Sun is associated with imperviousness to criticism ("Sol Invictus").

♡ The other big change I've noticed since then-- again, not sure if there is a direct connection-- is that I've really been able to enter into the music while I sing in front of an audience lately, and bring it up to the surface as a kind of bubbling musical joy. It's quite pleasant. SDI again notes the Sun connection, of Apollo and his lyre, and being the leader of the muses; and to joy (radiating light).

♡ I have some concerns over the safety of the regular SOP done around young children. This is a somewhat different issue and I may write about it separately at a different time. However I'll just say that the Heart SOP is so far the only ritual form of protection which my divination has suggested is okay to do around kids (as in, not with them right there with me, though). This makes sense to me, as it is (a) only minimally grounded in the material plane, due to a distinct lack of physical movements, and (b) it doesn't call on a gallimaufry of deities and/or angels and/or spirits and/or elemental powers, etc etc, but very simply connects directly to the highest level of the Unconditional Love aspect of the universe that one is currently capable of accessing. Of course, if you have kids around, you should probably check this yourself rather than taking my word for it.

♡ Finally, and this is proof of nothing of course, but I'll share that I've been having some interesting heart coincidences of late.

This heart-connection process may have started with me before I even started the Shaw SOP-- though the effects I speak of, I've only become aware of recently. But even before I began, since October I have been doing weekly prayers on the hour of the Sun for the benefit of others' health. Even more interestingly, it was specifically for heart ailments.

First for a friend of mine who was having heart surgery, and I committed to doing six sessions on his behalf (6 being a traditional number associated with the Sun). His surgery was successful, and I dutifully continued through all six weeks.

On the very Saturday following the final Sunday of the six week sequence, my father informed me he'd been diagnosed with arrhythmia and was having trouble even moving across a room without getting tired. So immediately the next week I began the same sort of sequence for my father's heart problems. Although he sort of got better, in that he found medicine which seems to let him function more or less normally without overwhelming side effects, he is be no means completely healed or back to normal. And so when I contacted the Covid Ecosophia group about Covid vaccine remediation therapies, the idea of the Ecosophia prayer list, which had existed as a seed possibility in my mind for at least a couple of years, finally took root.

So I'd been connecting with the Sun, specifically about heart issues no less, for a couple of months before even trying the Shaw SOP. It now seems rather meaningful to me that this "Heart SOP" would appear right at this time, when I had otherwise given up on having a safe protection ritual while raising young kids, and right when I was discussing the matter with my physically-impaired friend, to boot.

UPDATE TO MY UPDATE

Tonight at my restaurant gig there was a table of five-- three ladies, two men-- who kept making heart shapes to me, and I joined back several times-- which now that I mention it, means there were 6 of us doing so all told. I swear it was them who started it, not me! :-) The coincidences continue!

Comments

[sdi]

Thanks for flagging this. For some reason, my angel's warned me away from magic but suggests I try this; I'm not sure why.

Can you clarify what it means to "bring your consciousness to your heart?"

[tunesmyth]

I've only tried this ritual once so far, though I'm about to try it again in a few moments, so I'm far from N expert here. I'll just say that when I read it, I took it simply to mean to focus on and visualize my heart. That said, you're right-- the way it's phrased is suggestive of something slightly more immersive. On reconsideration it does seem to suggest to me to try to really bring that feeling of consciousness away from in our head and down to the actual physical location of our heart in our chest. I am being presumptive that you share my experience of consciousness this way, of course, and I have heard that not every culture throughout time has experiences their consciousness as normally existing in this same spot. I am not greatly experienced in moving my consciousness around this way but I have had one out-of-body experience, so I can at least envision the possibility.

If this ritual actually is an effective form of peotection, it has some great strengths. One is that anyone can do it to the very end of their life, regardless of how far their health should ever degrade before the end. Another is that it is possible to do it at any time, in any place, in full view of anyone, and nobody except the person performing it will know.

One more facet that might be an asset in your particular case is that it is *not* the magical Swiss Army Knife that is the regular SOP, involving up to seven deities and at least four types of friendly elemental spirits and able to be easily adapted into a focused magical working for nearly any purpose simply by changing the wording. Rather the only connection made is purely to the Divine, the unifying force of the entire universe, in as pure and high a manifestation as we are capable of connecting. In other words, it seems to me far more "mystical" than "magical", and this may be why your angel is being uncharacteristically amenable toward it.

[sdi]

I took it simply to mean to focus on and visualize my heart.

OK! Sounds like perhaps I was overthinking it, but the wording definitely seems strange to me.


On reconsideration it does seem to suggest to me to try to really bring that feeling of consciousness away from in our head and down to the actual physical location of our heart in our chest. I am being presumptive that you share my experience of consciousness this way, of course, and I have heard that not every culture throughout time has experiences their consciousness as normally existing in this same spot.

Oh, interesting. Consciousness itself isn't really something I think of as "spatial" at all, but rather something of a different nature than physical phenomena altogether. So it's natural to me to think of "focusing" my conscious on something, but it feels really weird to think of "moving" it, since it isn't really anywhere at all.

(Neoplatonism highlights this in a very big way, and maybe that's why I've been taking to it so naturally. Porphyry nicely summarizes the point in his Sentences, saying, "Spatial position and extent are properties of bodies; incorporeal things therefore do not possess these properties and are omnipresent. Rather than being physically located within a body, they instead 'illuminate' a body in their own peculiar way." By "incorporeal things," he's talking about spirits and souls collectively.)


[...] In other words, it seems to me far more "mystical" than "magical", and this may be why your angel is being uncharacteristically amenable toward it.

This seems plausible to me!


Thank you again.

[tunesmyth]

If you end up practicing it, I'll be interested to know your experience of it!

[tunesmyth]

Consciousness itself isn't really something I think of as "spatial" at all, but rather something of a different nature than physical phenomena altogether. So it's natural to me to think of "focusing" my conscious on something, but it feels really weird to think of "moving" it, since it isn't really anywhere at all.

So are you saying you don't experience consciousness primarily from your body at all? Or it's just not how you normally think of it? I would never argue that consciousness is confined to the body, or even that it resides there. But at least in normal waking life, my general experience of consciousness is definitely something that is tied firmly to my body. It's true, sometimes I get lost in thought and lose a strong sensual awareness of my surroundings, until I get brought "back to earth" by something in my environment. So I guess my consciousness isn't strictly in my body at all times, even when waking. But I tend to experience it there.

[sdi]

I suppose it's not how my mental model works: the idea of something so abstract and formless as a thought or an idea being located somewhere strikes me as very strange. (I remember reading an article about the astral plane which related states of mind to different locations in the astral landscape and being very surprised at the idea.)

Maybe I'm just persnickety about it—I'm a very abstract kind of person, and I spend a lot more time thinking than I do living—but there seems to me to be a pretty sharp distinction between sensation, thought, and awareness. Sensation—seeing with my eyes, feeling with my skin, or even that "sixth sense" of "oh dear my wife is in distress right now"—all seem to be tied to my body somehow. Thought itself doesn't seem to relate to place at all, though it does seem to tie to my physiological state in some way—like, my thinking may get muddled if I'm tired or whatever, but the thoughts themselves are placeless and disembodied. Then there's the awareness of that thought, which is another thing again, since it doesn't really seem to get muddled in the same way that my thinking does. (For example, you aren't thinking when you're sleeping, but you are aware that you're sleeping, right?)

Now, I'm not a visual thinker and don't "see" things with a "mind's eye." I wonder if visual thinking "grounds" one's thoughts in space somehow?

And I suppose I should also note that I have a very poor memory and that I've been meditating longer than I can remember at this point (my notebook says 13 years, and I certainly can't remember 13 years ago). Perhaps that colors things, too?

[tunesmyth]

Fascinating. Certainly I think visual thinking grounds one in space to some extent, yes. Probably though predominantly thinking in *any* kind of style which is rooted in sensory perception would do the same. E.g. a natural gourmand who since childhood has filtered their world through their taste buds and digestive system, or a hobbit with a foot fetish who primarily experiences the world through the soles of their feet, would both also have a tougher time separating their consciousness from their body.

I do wonder if meditation is a large factor, as it provides excellent practice for sorting out the differences between sensation, thought, and awareness. Would you say that your intrinsic experience of the world was pretty similar before you began regular meditation? (Or is that also too far back to remember at this point? ^_^)

[sdi]

Probably though predominantly thinking in *any* kind of style which is rooted in sensory perception would [...] have a tougher time separating their consciousness from their body.

I buy that.


Would you say that your intrinsic experience of the world was pretty similar before you began regular meditation? (Or is that also too far back to remember at this point? ^_^)

Yeah, that's what I mean—it's so far back that I can't remember what my "original" worldview or experiential model would have been (if it was even different)—alas, that'd be useful information to have now!

[tunesmyth]

It occurs to me, given your chronic health conditions, that you may have had an incentive to disassociate consciousness from sensory perception even before you began regular meditation practice.

[sdi]

You know, I hadn't considered that, and it's very plausible. By a similar token, I cut ties with my family years ago, and I wonder if childhood trauma is why my memory is so poor. It's conceivable that all these things are wrapped up together!

[tunesmyth]

I'd prescribe journaling, but that's something I haven't managed to be any good at myself! So I'll just say... I wish you luck in sorting it out. It sounds like the kind of thing that, if you ever felt the strength of heart to tackle it, could unearth real gold. (And a whole lot of muck.)

[tunesmyth]

I've only tried this ritual once so far, though I'm about to try it again in a few moments

By the way, it was a much stronger experience the second time through. Let's see how this builds...

[temporaryreality]

I just understood it as "become conscious of" - suggesting I'm not a very careful reader (or prone to flying off on my own tangents)... but it makes some degree of sense to me in this context. I assumed it kind of meant something along the lines of "bring attention to your heart" with the locus of attention and conscious awareness centered there.

[tunesmyth]

Yes, it's probably best to keep things simple!

[sdi]

Thanks for weighing in—really just sounds like I was overthinking the unfamiliar phrasing!

Shavian Heart Sphere

[yuccaglauca]

I've been using the term "Shavian Heart Sphere" for this, in part because the adjective "Shavian" amuses me and in part because I work with the Dolmen Arch Sphere of Protection and it's more convenient to have a different term. I suppose there's a risk of the "Shaw" in question being mistaken for the author, but that's part of the fun.

I found this ritual to have very good effects and have found regular occasion to use it, while I'm also practicing a daily SoP. (I asked JMG about this on an MM and he basically said it shouldn't conflict, but no one's really done that before, so I'm doing my own experimentation.)

Actually, my preference has been heart center rather than heart (I originally read "heart center" rather than heart and didn't realize until later.) and expanding it more quickly, with a single breath, and then stabilizing it for just two or three more breaths, but that's largely my shifting it to be a heart center version of the solar plexus sphere we use in the Dolmen Arch and meshing it with some patterns of practice I've already built up (in other words, it's experimental and I'm not recommending it, but it's worked well for me so far).

Re: Shavian Heart Sphere

[tunesmyth]

Thanks for sharing. I'm glad it's been working for you. Is the Heart Center not in the same location as the heart?

Re: Shavian Heart Sphere

[yuccaglauca]

The heart center--or at least what I refer to by that name--would be a sphere at the same level as the heart but centered exactly on the midline of the body. The physical heart is a little to one side, though it's quite close and the two locations overlap.

I don't know how significant the slight location difference is, but also if I visualize the "heart" I think of a pink muscle thing with tubes and lobes, while if I think of the "heart center" I think of a golden sphere--actually the "Cauldron of the Sun" we work with at that location in the Dolmen Arch.