Embodiment Practices

Wisdom isn’t knowing more,

but knowing with more of you …

Sacred movement, as expressed in both gesture and dance, is a powerful way of getting out of your head and inviting the body to participate fully in your Wisdom transformation. It’s at the heart of the Wisdom Way of Knowing, uniting mind, heart and body to create a much more balanced and grounded “you.” Here you’ll find a rich collection of embodiment practices, ranging from simple personal exercises to full liturgical prayer. 

Using Embodiment Resources

Heather Ruce explains how to find and use embodiment resources on the website to support your practice or group work.

Below are a variety of body prayers and embodiment, three-centered practices offered by our Wisdom Community members:

Be Still and Know Body Prayer

This is a simple body prayer using the Psalm: “Be still and know that I am God.”  It uses the movements known as “The Six Gestures of Prayer.”  It is repeated three times in group prayer, but an unlimited number of times when used individually. The six gestures are: Gathering and Beginning: Prayer Position of Hands…

Elm Dance

Instructions For the Elm Dance Circle up with plenty of room to move, holding hands. If the numbers are too great to form a single circle, make concentric circles with about one large step of distance between them. It does not matter when in the music you begin the dance, except to start on a…

Gurdjieff Movement #39

This practice, called Movement #39 is the last exercise created by G.I. Gurdjieff, a Greek-Armenian mystic and master spiritual teacher of sacred dances and the Fourth Way path.  As this practice is very simple in its form it is one of the most accessible of Gurdjieff’s movements, and at the same time it keeps the…

I Am Here Body Prayer

This body prayer begins by grounding the being in wholeness and incorporates the three universal gestures of creation: bowing, opening, and filling. Instructions for the prayer sequence are outlined here.

Morning Exercise

This inner exercise was taught by Deborah Longo at one of the Wisdom Schools held at Claymont Seminars. It involves in depth directing of ones attention to facilitate 3-centered awareness and relaxation in each center. When the centers are relaxed and fully present in ones awareness, along with conscious relaxed breathing, we make space inside…

Prayer of the Heart

One of the richest veins of Christian spiritual wisdom flows through what’s known in the Eastern Orthodox tradition as “Prayer of the Heart.” In its simplest form it consists of the repeated invocation of the name of Jesus, tied to a physical concentration of your attention in the region of the heart. Practicing Prayer of…

Resonance Practice

“Where am I right now?” A practice for deepening awareness of sensation.

Six Gestures of Prayer

These words are offered only as a beginning invitation.  Your body will divine its own meaning. Invocation:   (Done only once as a prelude.) Offering: Intention/prayer/self-oblationSign of Cross: intersection of horizontal and vertical (at the heart space) We move from the horizontal to vertical not by achievement or climbing, but by release, surrender, divestment, etc. The…

Trinity Prayer: Hagios O Theos

The Trisagion (Thrice Holy) Prayer is an ancient prayer in Christianity going back to the fourth century, and is a standard hymn of the liturgy in the Greek Orthodox Churches. It was chanted in Greek: Ἅγιος ὁ Θεός, Ἅγιος ἰσχυρός, Ἅγιος ἀθάνατος, ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς.” In the book of Common Worship, it is translated as “Holy…

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