Cup your hands around the smoke issuing from incense, and try to influence it as with the flame. You may wish to try some yellow Air energy for this as well.
Cup your hands around a ping pong ball on a smooth flat surface, and try to get it to roll.
Try moving the needle on a compass with the magnetism in your hands
Hang your pendulum from a hook in front of you, setting it into motion with just your magnetism.
As with the last experiment you can also try using just one cupped hand, or pointing at it with a finger, your outstretched hand, or directing your magnetic energy through your magick wand.
Exercise 85 - Practical Applications
Time Required: varying
It actually seems far easier to affect things that are already in motion with a simple current of influence such as the kind you developed in a previous chapter. By collecting your magnetic energy as above, and sending it out on a wave of pure will, you can cause changes in the movements of physical objects. This is also slightly more practical than the previous exercises. Try sending a current of your magnetic power out of you to affect the following while they are in progress. These are basically in descending order of difficulty:
The flip of a coin
The roll of a die
A roulette wheel
Speed up, slow down or stop an analog clock
Change the direction of migrating birds (be sure to set them back on the right track!)
Lottery numbers, as you are watching the drawing
Traffic lights
Try to affect the outcome of a Sports Event
Exercise 86 - Weather-Making
Time Required: 15 to 40 minutes
This is another more practical application of a specific kind of telekinetic effect. Magicians have used magical force for millennia to influence the patterns of weather to assist farmers and to cause troubles for their enemies. Weather magick can be somewhat tricky. In my experience, it is very easy to cause changes in the weather, but it is far less easy to change the weather in the way you would like it to be. Instead, you frequently cause greater problems than good. I used to have a knack for making things worse when I conducted weather magick workings. More recent experiments have been far more successful.
Many modern magicians consider this to be a disruptive and negative sort of magick that upsets the balance of nature and should be avoided. They feel that Mother Nature is perfectly capable of doing her work on her own, and often see it as a sort of transgression or betrayal of the Goddess. I don’t entirely agree, but I am giving you this technique upon the promise that you will use it responsibly.
Also, don’t overextend yourself. While it is possible and relatively easy to gather the necessary force to cause a rainstorm on muggy New England summer day, or in the Florida everglades, this is far less likely to work well in the Sahara. Likewise, if huge storm clouds loom upon the horizon, there is likely little you can do but perhaps make the shower somewhat briefer. On the other hand, you may be able to help the sun pop through on a cloudy day, or cause a few clouds to form on an extremely bright day. You may also find that you are a true weather magus, capable of far more than I am.
The basic technique for weather magick is quite simple. You merely need to accumulate the forces of the elements in whatever combination you would like to see manifest. In other words:
Fire to warm
Water to cool
Fire and Air to get rid of rain
Air and Water to create storms
Fire and Water to create humidity
Water and Earth to create hail
And so on and so on. These are just a few suggestions, and you can use your own creativity to come up with more. You can also use lunar forces to a certain extent in this work. This energy gathering can also be combined with a verbal (rhyming or not) spell if you wish. However, to gather enough energy to really have such a dramatic macrocosmic effect is no small feat. Do not attempt this lightly, as it may either not work at all, or drain you dramatically.
1. Consult with your subconscious using the pendulum.
2. Get into the Alpha state using your anchor.
3. Do opening preparations, including any combination of purification, consecration, chakra opening, Kundalini arousing breaths, circle casting and the pentagram ritual.
4. Make a statement of your intent, how specifically you intend to change the weather, either out loud verbally, or thinking it through clearly in your mind.
5. Potently draw the light of your superconscious into you, until you feel deeply connected with the true source of your power, a deep sense of cosmic strength.
6. Begin to invoke the appropriate magical energies, using the Creating Magical Atmospheres technique, or using the pentagram or hexagram technique. If you are using multiple forces, see and feel them combining dynamically as you invoke them. Invoke the dominant energy first.
7. Direct the magical energy you’ve accumulated in a spiraling clockwise whirl, building and directing its force tightly around you like a tornado. Powerfully visualize this energy being charged and directed by your will. As you are doing this, visualize your specific intention, and place this visualization into the whirling energy. If you have a spell, you will recite it three times while you are developing the energy. Visualize this energy as a column or cone of force that you are filling with more and more dynamic will. You should endeavor to feel the effect you are attempting to create (If you are creating sunshine, feel the heat, and the nice warm breeze, if a snowstorm, feel the bitter winds and cold wet snow).
8. Send every bit of the energy you’ve accumulated directly up into the sky above you, knowing that your force is transforming things immediately. You can travel up with the energy experiencing an ecstatic “gnosis” experience at this point if you wish. Imagine that this weather magick is like a powerful fire hose of energy bursting up continuously. Imagine that this energy is starting to whirl slowly in a clockwise spiral outward, continuously expanding and blasting up and out until it is whirling through the whole area you wish to affect.
9. Close your ritual space, preferably by performing appropriate banishing ritual for the energy of the spell, and the lesser pentagram ritual a second time, and withdrawing all of the energy of your protective circle back into yourself. All of your spell energy should already have been discharged toward you task, so this should place the balance of energy back to equilibrium.
10. Record your experience in your journal.
Exercise 87 - Levitation
Time Required: varying
I've never personally levitated, but many sources report that the following technique is the most reliable method. It is not actually a levitation technique per se, but rather a pranayama breathing technique that has levitation as one of its results. Aleister Crowley says of this technique, “As a development of this stage, the body rises into the air, and remains there for an appreciably long period, from a second to an hour or more.”[1] Further, the Siva Samhita says, “…and when the practice becomes greater, the adept walks in the air.”[2]
According to these and other sources, there are four distinct phases in the practice of this pranayamic breathing.
First, you will become covered in sweat. This sweat is supposed to be healing, so you should rub it in, rather than wiping it off. You may also experience a sort of automatic rigidity at this phase.
In the second stage, you will begin to shake and tremble violently, although you may not be aware of it, because you will be in an altered state.
Then, you will find yourself briefly hopping up and down in place, or finding yourself hopping forward or backward, moving around in your room. Again you may or may not notice this until you are finished with your practice.
Finally, you will find yourself floating in the air.
I have practiced this technique extensively, though I must admit perhaps not as extensively as I should h
ave, and I have personally only experienced the first two stages. I have only been able to retain my breath for about 45 seconds, and this is apparently not long enough to experience the truly paranormal aspects of the technique. There will be more on this subject later.
This exercise is based upon the alternate nostril breathing that I briefly described much earlier in the Kundalini section. Again, it is similar to a technique from The New Hermetics, but you must take it quite a bit further if you wish to levitate with it.
The best position for this exercise is “padmasana,” better known as the lotus position, where we place our feet on both thighs, twisting into the famous yogic “human pretzel.” This position naturally spreads our sit bones and supports our backs for this exercise. However, this position is quite uncomfortable for a lot of people, so a simple half lotus will do if you find the lotus position unbearable. Just sit cross-legged, and raise your top leg up onto your thigh. If even this is too uncomfortable, you can just sit cross-legged propped on the edge of a pillow, so that the pillow can give your back the necessary support.
You will not want to do this practice on a full stomach, as it will make you quite ill. You can eat a little bit, but not more than a few bites of food, and perhaps a little water or milk. Generally, you are supposed to eat a moderate vegetarian diet while conducting these practices.
It is traditional to perform this exercise 4 times a day. The first time you would perform this exercise is in the morning upon awakening, a second time at lunch time or noon, a third time before dinner or sunset, and a fourth time before going to bed at night. However, this is a lot, and you could start out a bit slower if you wish.
Take a seat in padmasana or some variation thereof. Sit up straight so that your spine is erect, your chest open, shoulders back, as if an invisible string attached to the crown of your head is pulling you toward the ceiling.
1. Go into the Alpha state using your anchor.
2. Close your right nostril with your right thumb, and exhale your breath completely through the left nostril. Then inhale through the same left nostril, filling your lungs very completely from the deepest recesses of your belly all the way to your collarbones. Do this calmly and consciously, do not force an uncomfortable amount of air into your lungs. All that you need do is fill your lungs to a comfortable fullness.
3. Now, hold your breath in your lungs, applying the three major “locks” of yoga, Mula Bandha, Uddiyana Bandha and Jalandhara Bandha. I’ve already described these. Contract your perineum, contract and lift your abdomen, and place your chin toward your chest. These three bonds will seal in the prana, but do not contract them aggressively, firm but easy. Hold your breath for as long as you possibly can, remembering that you are going to be exhaling slowly, so don’t retain it so long that you have to gasp for air.
4. Seal the left nostril with your middle finger, and exhale very slowly through the right nostril. Exhale completely, using all the muscles of your torso, including a secondary and more complete application of the Uddiyana Bandha, contracting and drawing in and up the abdomen, as if to touch the spine with the navel. This must be done with an easy strength, again firm but not aggressive. Do not hold the breath out.
5. Instead, keeping your left nostril sealed, inhale slowly through the right nostril.
6. Again, hold the breath in your lungs for as long as you possibly can.
7. Then seal the right nostril, and exhale your breath completely through the left nostril once again.
8. This is one cycle, and you should repeat it 9 more times for a total of ten cycles. This is to be repeated four times a day.
9. Record your experience in your journal.
The ideal ratio for this practice is 1:4:2. For every one second that you inhale, you should endeavor to retain the breath four seconds, and then exhale for two seconds. So, if it takes you four seconds to inhale, you will want to retain the breath for sixteen seconds, and exhale for eight. This must be extended longer and longer over time. 8:32:16, 16:64:32, 32:128:64. However, in practice it can be rather distracting to count your breath or look at a clock. Instead, you should eventually try to be concentrating on one or more of your chakras, or just being silently aware of your experience. So, you can just count your breath every once in a while to track your progress, instead, just attempting to get a sense of keeping the breath held in absolutely long as possible, then exhaling as absolutely slowly as you can possibly manage.
The key to this practice is the retention. You will want to retain your breath as long as you can, because it is in this stage that you will awaken your levitation abilities, or Vayu Siddhi. In order for this to happen, you will want to be holding your breath for over a minute, perhaps even longer. When you are holding your breath, your mind will slow down, and the subtle channels of energy known as Nadis will be cleansed and purified. Once you are able to easily hold your breath for over a minute, letting it out slowly over more than thirty seconds you will discover the paranormal effects of this practice.
Exercise 88 - Teleportation
Time Required: unknown
Teleportation or bilocation is simply astral projection which involves the crystallization of a new “physical” body from the energies that surround you in your astral body. I have heard many tales of this, but I have never seen it or experienced it in actuality. Once you have mastered astral projection, you can try to do this, though I have little acquaintance with it personally.
In your astral body, simply imagine the denser elements that surround you to be drawing to you, into your body of light, solidifying it. You can use the four elements for this, or simply use the dust or light particles in the air around you. Continue doing so until your body has a solid appearance. I wish I could give you more exact instructions for this, but I really don’t know anything further about the subject.
CHAPTER TEN
Communicating With
Non-Human Intelligence
“The Greeks call this 'the vision of Pan," the Chinese 'the great Tao,' Hindus 'Atman consciousness." The numinous, awful, sublime 'God' 'Goddess' and 'Demon' figures who appear in the initial stages of this Awakening are Jung's 'archetypes of the collective unconscious' and are recognized as ‘visitors from dream-time’ by primitives, as 'them from Sid-de' by witches, as Weird People in a thousand folk-traditions.”
-Robert Anton Wilson[1]
In this chapter, you will learn a series of simple and effective techniques for communicating with spiritual entities, for bringing down some aspect of divinity or psychic authority into your body and life for the purposes of enlightenment and power. You will also learn some techniques for causing spirits to appear visibly to the psychic eye and in some cases even the naked eye. Instructions on some easy ways to test the accuracy of communications and the identity of the communicator are provided as well.
There is a popular subculture around today involving “angels,” “extraterrestrial masters,” and “space gurus” that communicate to mere mortals through special people called “channelers” or some such moniker. This movement has actually been around a lot longer than it might appear. In the past, the communications used be from “Apache Red Men,” “Himalayan Mahatmas,” or “Rosicrucian Adepts.” The change in the region of the communicators over time merely reflects the fickleness of shifting cultural interests. The sort of communication is very much the same. A hundred years ago this movement was called spiritualism or spiritism, and its practitioners were called mediums. A few years ago they were generally called channelers in common parlance, and the term medium is now making a big comeback.
As with the majority of professional psychics, a lot of these people were and are frauds. They charge exorbitant fees to give out questionable advice and to offer spurious communications with dead loved ones or invisible masters. But we need not dwell on this too heavily, because in the world of magick, truth and falsehood are extremely subjective terms. Some parts of a communication from any entity may be totally made up and used to serve the p
urposes of the seer, either consciously or subconsciously, while others may genuinely be from an inspired source. And it's not for me to decide which is which. I'd just advise caution when consulting any professional channeler or medium. The best thing to do is simply to learn these skills for yourself, so that you can be your own source of cosmic inspiration and information.
Often the beings that modern professional channelers seem to commune with are seemingly Hebraic Archangels or Prophets with a letter or two in their names adjusted, as if to make them seem a little more “jazzy.” I am somehow reminded of the marketing for sports cars or sneakers by a lot of these “celestial beings.” These entities usually seem to deliver the same general sort of message, a kind of pleasant and fluffy message of hope to the world. “We all must be good to each other, the world is evolving, becoming more enlightened and a golden age is soon to come, etc.” There is nothing harmful in these messages, but also little that's particularly insightful.
The Book of Magick Power Page 24
