Blessing: How to Get Started in 9 Simple Steps – Part 4

Welcome to the fourth (and final) part of this series!

If you haven’t seen the earlier installments yet, you can find them here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Today’s essay will cover Steps 8 and 9 of this “mini-course” in blessing – and there might just happen to be a Bonus-Step at the end, too… 😉

Since I don’t expect there to be many problems or issues, besides what we’ve already covered in the troubleshooting sections earlier, we’ll dive right in. And yep, this time it will be into the very deep end of the pool. (Finally!)

Step 8: Bless humans

This is the thing which might be the most challenging for lots of people. But not because blessing humans is, in itself, more challenging than blessing printers, cars, trees, cats, or potted plants. It’s because of what comes before the actual blessing – the part where you have to ask for consent, and maybe (gasp!) even explain what you’re doing and why and how.

If you’re a bit scared of this, and would very much prefer to stick with blessings cars and birds, I can’t blaim you. (In fact, I get it. Really!)

There are several potential options how you could tackle Step 8 and start blessing other human beings (and of course, if you don’t have an issue with asking others at all, then you can just go ahead and do it, skip the rest of this Step and hop straight to Step 9!):

But if you do feel a bit weird about offering a blessing to others, here are some ideas for you:

• You could grit your teeth and jump – just go ahead and offer somebody a blessing. Then do it again. And again.

  Not everybody will accept, but some will. And over time, it’ll become easier, as most socially awkward things do…

• You could pick one person, or a few people, whom you know well enough to be sure that they’ll be sympathetic, and won’t react weird, or won’t judge you. Then let things develop naturally and take your time expanding to others – or not.
   
• You could cheat (well, a bit), by blessing only people who are under your care (e.g. your kids, or demented relatives under your immediate care).
   
• You could work around some awkwardness by phrasing your offer creatively, e.g. by offering people to “pray” for them, or to send them “positive vibes”, or something like that.

  (Sidenote: I believe this is a grey area, and whether this approach would be acceptable to me depends on the circumstances, the person in question, and your relationship, among other things, and of course on the actual phrasing. However, you’ll need to make up your own mind about blessing ethics. Thus I’m not endorsing nor condemning this, just stating is as an option – please decide for yourself what constitues informed consent for you and what doesn’t!)

• You can combine these approaches. Or work your way “upwards” in whichever order is the easiest for you.
   
• And, of course, you can just skip this step and stick to blessing bees, places, bushes or household items, without anybody else ever noticing.

  (There is no shame in that, btw – it’s a perfectly viable option! And some people might have good reasons for that.

  If what is holding you back is “just” social awkwardness, though, or the fear of looking stupid, or being turned down, or having to explain yourself… then I’d encourage you to at least consider whether there isn’t even a single person to whom you could dare to offer a blessing. Just once.

  If nothing else, you might get over some of your fears that way…)

However you proceed, this was all there is to Step 8 – and as you might have noted, again, the biggest hurdle in this Step is yourself. There seems to be a pattern there… 😉

Step 9: Make it formal

So far, we’ve cultivated the art of informal blessings. These are great, especially as you can bless spontaneously, everywhere and anytime, whenever a blessing is called for.

However, there might be occasions when you want to go all out and do something special. This doesn’t have to be in front of an audience, btw – a formal blessing “ceremony” is also a nice thing to do just for yourself. And if you give it a try, you might discover that the formal setup can also offers additional benefits, like helping you to focus better.

Thus I suggest you try at least a few formal blessings. If you should then decide that they aren’t for you, that’s fine, too…

There are many ways to add formality and structure to a blessing. What I suggest in this step is just one option – please feel free to adapt and change this to your heart’s content!

For a formal blessing, I suggest you take a little time beforehand to think about what you want to say, and to potentially write the blessing down (or commit it to memory). This doesn’t have to be overly long, but being clear on your intention is helpful – and so is not fumbling around with words, or getting stuck somewhere in the middle of the blessing.

If you have the space, something which can function as “altar” would be nice. A desk, windowsill, shelf, table, etc, are all perfectly fine, as is a large stone or so outside. If you have an altar cloth, now is the time to dig it out. And if your situation allows it, a candle adds a nice touch.

You can also decide to wear some formal clothes yourself – either something that gets you in the right mood, or maybe even a robe or so which you only use for blessings, or for similar ceremonial stuff.

(Again, all of this is optional – don’t fret if you don’t have a robe, an altar cloth, your situation doesn’t allow candles, or you don’t even have anything which could function as altar! Just get creative and come up with a setting which works well for you instead. 🙂 )

Prepare yourself and the space in whatever way you see fit, e.g. by laying out the altar cloth, or by washing your hands, or … (Don’t forget to put your pre-written blessing in a convenient place if you have one!) Light the candle, if you have one, and take a step back if your space allows that.

Become quiet, and try to focus on the upcoming blessing, and on the object of your blessing, as well as you can (again, don’t sweat it if you aren’t perfect!).

When you feel you’re quiet and focused, and it’s the right time to start, take that step back to the altar. Take your time to breath again.

Then do what you always do during your blessings: raise your hands, focus, bless, stay focused, lower hands.

Take another breath or two, and step back from the altar. Stay quiet, and keep your focus a little while longer. When you lose focus too much, or when you feel you’re ready, come back into this world with your mind. Blow out the candle, and clear away your props.

As you can see, a formal blessing isn’t hard to do, and doesn’t require any specific skills. Still, I find that there is a different quality to them – but I’m not sure if this is just me, thus I’d appreciate your comments on this matter! 😉

So. Technically, we’re done – 9 simple steps to get you started with blessings. (Note that I said “simple”, not “easy”… 😉 )

But before we close things down, there is one thing which you might have wondered about (or not?). Since I only anounced 9 steps (hey, that sounds a lot easier to do than 10, right?!), we’ll simply make this a Bonus Step: 😉

Bonus-Step: Call on deities

You might have noticed that we’ve never really discussed where the blessing energies are coming from. Granted, I’ve called them “divine energies”, but with people worshipping so many different deities and other higher beings, “divine” is a rather vague term. And I’ve been even more vague by not discussing where the blessings come from at all.

Well, the answer is simple: I don’t really know. 🙂

I know that the blessing energies are real. I know they are beneficial, and they come “from above”. But other than that, your guess is as good as mine.

But if you’ve read my blessing list anouncements, you’ll have seen that I tell people they can add the name of their prefered deity, and I’ll respectfully ask said deity for their blessings on top of what I usually do.

Since people have been taking me up on that, I can report that a. this approach works, and b. the energies which are coming through from specific deities feel quite different to me from the “general” blessing energies.

Hence my current working assumption is that there are some kind of “neutral” divine blessing energies, but that deities and other higher beings are also free to bestow their own blessings if they so choose.

So what does this mean for you, and in particular for this Bonus Step?

The method I’ve outlined so far has only called on the general blessing energies, but not on any deities (even in Step 5, where higher beings got involved, they’ve only been the object of your blessing, not the source!).

However, some of you might have a standing relationship with a deity or other higher beings, and would like to bless in their name, i.e. with their blessing energies.

If that’s the case for you: Awesome! 🙂

Two things of note, though:

First, I do believe it’s rude to bless in the name of a deity without having their consent or their explicit mandate to do so. That’s why I don’t do this in my own blessings – instead, I politely bring the case before them, say that X would very much like to receive their blessings, and ask if they’d consider that. So far, the resulting flow of energy suggests that they very much don’t mind at all.

Thus even if you do have a good relationship with a deity, I believe it’s only polite to ask them if you can bless in their name, either in a specific case, or in general. If you haven’t had a chance to clarify this, I suggest you follow my approach and simply ask them to bestow their blessings upon X, as this leaves them a chance to refuse if they should be so inclined. (Note that you can combine this approach with the general blessing we’ve practiced so far.)

Of course, if you did get the ok of a deity, you can bless in their name, although the exact details are between you and them to work out…

And secondly, you don’t have to practice this Bonus Step. If you simply keep on blessing as we’ve practiced in Steps 1 to 9. that’s perfectly fine and workable, too. Blessing in the name of a deity, or asking a deity for their blessings, is an optional step for the people who want to do that. If that’s not for you, no worries at all!

Anyway, this is well and truly it. 🙂

There are probably a lot more bells and whistles which could be added around blessings, but you don’t really need them – even just the basic technique from Steps 1 and 2 will get you a long way. Anything else is optional.

And since blessing is so incredibly simple, and since you’ve (hopefully!) followed along so far and practiced anyway, I hope you’ll continue to do so, and to bring blessings into this world!

Of course, I also hope you have enjoyed this “mini-course” on blessing – and whether you have or haven’t, I’d very much appreciate your comments, suggestions, remarks, … – simply leave me a comment below. Thanks!

Oh, and please feel free to share the link to this course with others who are interested – having more blessings (or more people who bless others) in this world won’t hurt, quite the contrary! 🙂

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Image: Jason Leung on Unsplash