Spiritual terms are evolving fast, because our consciousness is expanding. Every day our information doubles. As we progress, we’re reminded of how intricately connected everything is and how full of mystery. Realms of study that we thought opposed each other are beginning to look more and more alike.
What’s also happening is a return to ritual arts. We’re remembering what it’s like to connect with our psychic instincts, the power behind intention, and the significance of symbolism. We’re sharing cultural remedies, exchanging ancient healing practices, and uncovering new ways of being. People’s interest in how to find a shaman or find a spiritual coach is creating an entire economy based on the exchange of ideas and values.
The universe is recognizing itself in a whole new way, and to articulate this development, we’re creating a new language. If you’re dabbling at all in spiritual arts, transformation, consciousness, or cosmology, you may come across the following spiritual terms.
Let’s Get Woo-y: 5 Spiritual Terms to Know
1. Holding Space
I remember the first time I needed to explain this. Years ago I was doing some private healing work with a client. His wife was present, and as we moved into the work, I asked if she could hold space during the process. I wanted her presence there rather than absent-mindedly waiting, but I was also aware it would be natural for her to want to control what was happening. When we want to see someone get better or heal something, we often want to do the work for them. This might look like trying to take over a process for them, or we may even “become the other” and will an emotion for them.
Another way we do this is through prayer. When someone goes through a hardship, we offer, in the sincerest of efforts, to pray for them. But even in this, praying for someone (especially without their permission) is asking for something to be done on their behalf. While we can invite grace, wholeness, and love into our lives and ask that others receive it too, prayer is meant to be for the self, a direct line to the Divine, rather than an attempt to use the Divine to exert our influence on someone else’s life.
Holding space is different. Holding space is the act of reserving a spot in the energetic field to hold neutrality for someone else. We aren’t trying to will anything for them or influence the outcome in any way, and neither are we ignoring the situation or turning away. We are simply creating a container in the collective field so the other person has room to process and heal without outside influence. There is a place in our mind where we see them as whole, and we hold that instead of holding them. In this way, the person gets our love and support, but also clarity and freedom from influence. Holding space is one of the most powerful things you can do for someone else, because you aren’t doing anything to them or for them except trusting that they are whole and complete.
2. Power
The word power has many uses and connotations. In the spiritual community, we generally regard it as a person’s own presence within themselves. Power is being connected to your wholeness within.
In shamanism, when we say someone is full of power, we mean they are resourced in themselves. When we say “call in your power animal,” we mean call in the animal spirit that helps you feel resourced in yourself, the ones that help you remember your wholeness. If we say “call in the power of God,” we mean call in the consciousness of wholeness.
It’s important to remember that objects or people don’t actually have any more power than you do. So when we say you are giving over your power, we mean you are handing your resourcing over to someone else. You are handing over the assets necessary for effective operation.
Everyone and everything is a miracle. There is no hierarchy of miracles. No one’s power is better or more important than yours.
3. Grounding
“Ground in.” You hear this a lot, and you’ve probably heard it said about someone else. A person who is balanced and comfortable on earth and in society’s systems is someone we describe as very grounded.
Grounding is an act that counterbalances the work you do in higher or spiritual realms, like psychic work, connecting to the divine, even dreaming and imagining. We ground in after this work not because it’s opposing but because it’s balancing. Think of an electrical system with a ground plane: its purpose is to give the current a return path.
If you aren’t grounded, it can show up in a variety of ways. Physical symptoms can include dizziness, tiredness, or clumsiness, and psychological signs can include flightiness, constant daydreaming, or forgetfulness. A few simple ways to stay grounded are walking outside barefoot or doing a grounding meditation.
4. Divining
Divining is when you discover (or uncover) something through intuition. There’s a misconception about divining and divining tools. Tarot cards, runes, pendulums, tea ceremonies, and reading the stars are all examples of divining tools, and divination has long had a supernatural or magical connotation. It is indeed miraculous, but the process is rooted in the individual and not the tool.
In reality, there is Divine in everything, so we can divine from anything. As we understand it now, everything is holographic and a reflection of everything else in the universe, which means we can pull information from anything to gain the insights we’re seeking. This brings us back to the concept of power: divining tools don’t actually have any power. It is the reader’s own ability to follow their intuition and use the tool as a framework to deliver the message. It helps them decode what they see in the mirror.
5. Energy
Used in almost every religious and spiritual modality, and in medicine like acupuncture, energy healing is about restoring the flow of an individual’s vital life force. Descriptions of energy don’t do it justice, because describing it alludes to a definition. It’s like the psyche: we know on some level it exists because we have an experience of it, but it doesn’t fit within the parameters of physical science or 3D observation. It works as an element of nature, influencing what’s around it. It is detectable, but often only by tracking its path.
Mystics describe subtle differences in energy, such as prana, chi, and kundalini, but they are pointing to the same base idea. In humans, our energy field is the system of life force flow, typically running through a chakra system and through the toroidal field that surrounds us. In shamanism, everything has an energy or “spirit,” and reading that energy allows us to gain insights and see how the field is interacting with ourselves and the world at large. It’s also the method used to communicate with objects and beings that can’t communicate in human spoken language.
In many traditions, energy flow is also understood to influence physical health, and blockages in our energy field are said to show up in the habitual ways we act, in our psyche, and in health issues. If you’re dealing with a health concern, please see a doctor as well.
Energy is best understood through direct experience, and more than likely you’ve had one. Have you ever been to a concert and described the energy of the crowd? How about the vibe of a room? Maybe you’ve said something like, “I don’t have the energy for that right now,” and it isn’t your physical energy you’re talking about. Or perhaps you met someone who rubbed you the wrong way and you couldn’t explain why. It’s not that they’re a bad person; it’s that when your energy and theirs meet, it’s charged, usually based on prior experiences with and beliefs about that type of energy pattern.
You’ve probably heard people say, “It’s all just energy,” which is true and not the whole truth at the same time. All things have an underlying life force and energetic pattern, and that pattern gets coded through the experience of observation and manifested in 3D reality too.
Energy holds a unique place as one of the greatest woo words of them all, and it’s so immersed in our experience that we often don’t realize we know exactly what it is, that it doesn’t need a definition, that it doesn’t need empirical data, that it is everything.
What’s Your Woo IQ?
How many of these spiritual terms did you already know, and which one surprised you? Wherever you landed, you now have a stronger spiritual vocabulary to take into your own practice.
When These Words Become Your Work
If you’re a practitioner, you already hold space, read energy, and use tools to guide your clients. But the deeper medicine isn’t in the tools; it’s in you. The Way of the Hollow Bone Master Healer Certification is a nine-month path for healers ready to stand fully in their own power, hold space with true neutrality, and trust that their intuition, not their tools, is what moves the work. Apply now if you’re ready to practice from that place.