Breath & Energy · “Breath Is the Bridge”
Circulation of the Body of Light
Even out and ‘balance’ the charge raised by the Middle Pillar by visually circulating the light around the whole body in coordinated patterns, ending grounded and settled.
Circulation / fountain (after the Middle Pillar): (1) Side-to-side — exhale light down the left to the feet, inhale up the right to the crown.
(2) Front-to-back — down the front, up the back.
(3) Fountain — inhale up the central shaft to the crown, exhale it cascading out and down all around the body to the feet, repeat.
(4) Settle and ground — let it sink into the feet/earth. Breath-led and gentle throughout.
What it is
Once the Middle Pillar has “charged” the central column of light, Regardie has you circulate that light around the whole body rather than leave it concentrated in the central shaft. This is the Circulation of the Body of Light — a set of breath-paced moving visualisations (the best known being the fountain) whose stated purpose is to spread and balance the energy through the entire “aura,” and whose practical effect is to round off the practice feeling whole, settled, and grounded.
It is the natural coda to the Middle Pillar: the pillar raises and centres, the circulation distributes and balances. Distinct from chakra-charging schemes that pump single centres, this is about whole-field evenness, not lighting up one point.
The Method
Do this immediately after completing the five centres of the Middle Pillar, coordinating each movement with the breath:
- Side-to-side (left down, right up). On the exhale, see the light pour from the crown (Kether) down the left side of the body to the feet; on the inhale, draw it up the right side back to the crown. Repeat for several slow breaths until the loop feels smooth and bright.
- Front-to-back. Then circulate it from the crown down the front of the body to the feet on the exhale, and up the back to the crown on the inhale (or the reverse, kept consistent). Several breaths.
- The Fountain (the signature finish). Gather the light at the feet (Malkuth). On the inhale, draw it up the central shaft to the crown; on the exhale, let it fountain out of the crown and cascade down all around the outside of the body “like a luminous waterfall,” returning to the feet — then up the centre again. Keep the fountain flowing for several breaths until you feel evenly surrounded by light.
- Settle and ground. Let the circulation slow and the light come to rest, sinking the excess down through the feet into the earth. Sit quietly a moment before opening your eyes. Throughout, keep the visualisation gentle and breath-led — the breath carries the light; don’t force the image. Regardie stresses that pairing rhythmic breathing with the willed movement of light gives the best results. (Sourcing note: a faithful description of the Circulation of the Body of Light / fountain as given in Regardie’s The Middle Pillar (1938) and standard Golden Dawn practice; cross-checked across multiple public sources.)
Source & Lineage
Set out by Israel Regardie in The Middle Pillar (1938) as the completing half of the Middle Pillar work, drawn from Golden Dawn energy-circulation teaching.
Regardie consistently framed the whole sequence psychologically — a way to relax, integrate, and balance the self — rather than purely as occult energetics. The fountain image in particular passed into broad modern use in Pagan, Reiki-adjacent, and energy-work circles. → (Regardie node); paired technique.
Common refinements
Skipping it. The circulation is what grounds and balances; omitting it is the usual reason people feel “buzzy” or spaced-out after the Middle Pillar.
- Image racing ahead of the breath. Let each pass of light take a full, slow breath. Speed kills the calming effect.
- Forcing or straining the visualisation. Keep it easy; coax a wandering mind back rather than clamping down.
- Ending on the out-fountain without grounding. Always let the light finally settle down into the feet and earth.
- Refinement: if the central fountain is hard to hold, start with just the side-to-side loop until that is smooth, then add the fountain.