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To: alt.magick,alt.religion.wicca From: duo@teleport.com (Tom Schuler) Subject: Re: [Magick] Beginner Exercises/Spells Date: Sun, 14 Sep 97 17:00:34 GMT In article <341b7fd8.38807706@netnews.worldnet.att.net>, aoki@worldnet.att.net wrote: >Hello, I am new to magick and wicca and I have done some diligent >reading. Now I feel it is time to learn some beginner exercises and >spells, nothing to advanced, and nothing that could harm myself or >others. I have been instructed to go with increasing and decreasing >the intensity of a flame, any suggestions for this? Also, what other >spells are good to learn. Does pyrokenesis exist in magic? What are >some things that you people have been and are doing? There are a number of basic skills you should develop if you are going to get desirable effects from magical ritual. Breath control. Much of the power to control your consciousness resides in the ability to control the oxygenationand pH of your blood and to modify the rhythms of your body. Learning to breathe in different fashions is the greatest help in achieving this. Later, other physical practices will be used to modify consciousness, but the most basic of these is breath. Visualization. Actually, this is more than visualization, but there isn't a good term for it in English. What you must do is learn to vividly imagine sensations of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell such that you can create an impression so strong that it is virtually indistinguishable from an actual physical sensation. There will always be a slight difference, if only in the realization of the effort it takes to produce the effect. However, the more vivid, the better. Association. Magical symbols derive their power from the meaningful association of thoughts and feelings with them. Some of those associations already exist in your mind and some of them have to be assembled. It is important to remember that symbols do not have inherent meanings. All meanings are assigned. It is also important to remember that, while magicians treat symbols as if they were that which is meant, there is a difference as well. There are any number of exercises which will help you develop these skills. Yoga classes will help with breathing. I recommend you find someone who teaches hatha and/or kundalini yoga for this. You can practice on your own, but a teacher can help you attain proper posture and correct small mistakes in technique. Visualization can be improved under the guidance of a teacher as well. Take some classes in drawing, music, dance, and wine or food appreciation to develop your sensory skills. Apply what you learn to make your rituals as vivid as you can. Association can be learned mainly through studying the written material on magick and through contemplation of symbols. Here's an exercise from Bill Whitcomb's fine book "The Magician's Companion" which combines all three skills. Find a comfortable position in which your spine can be kept straight. Breathe slowly and regularly through your nostrils, drawing your breath in deeply by using your lower abdomen first and then your chest rising to fill your lungs completely. Try to feel a cool, tingly sensation in your nostrils and sinuses. Stay relaxed throughout both the inhale and the exhale. During your inhale, visualize a yellow square, about the color of golden wheat, at the base of your spine. As you do so, feel your body. Be aware of its weight, solidity, and substance. The square represents earth, matter, substance. Breathe out continuing the visualization. On you next breath, visualize an electric blue triangle, point down. Feel a powerful energy contained in this triangle. It symbolizes the divine spark of the kundalini serpent, which you will become more and more familiar with as time goes on. Visualize the thrice-coiled serpent asleep at the heart of the triangle. Direct your attention to a spot just below your navel. Upon your inhale, visualize here a silver crescent, horns up. As you continue to inhale, visualize the crescent moon as a cup which fills with liquid light. When you breathe out, visualize this liquid light permeating your body, which seems to cleanse you of all tensions and worries and which glows with a white light. This is the feeling of prana, one of the primary "energies" of magick. It can be very pleasurable to breathe prana. Focus on your solar plexus. As you inhale, visualize a bright red circle surrounding a red triangle, point down. As you breathe in, the red color intensifies like you were fanning a coal. Feel the heat growing and spreading throughout your body. As you exhale, the symbols grows a bit darker and the fires bank a bit. As you breathe in, feel the heat removing impurities from your body and mind, burning them away. Move your focus a little higher, to your heart. Visualize two interlocked golden triangles, points up and down. As you breathe in, visualize the sun shining through these triangles and radiating through your body, bringing balance and harmony to body and mind. When you breathe out, the light stays. On the next inhale, the light grows stronger and you feel lighter. The light is airy. It is the "breath of God" blowing through you. As it blows, your heart opens like a flower and feelings of love and compassion fill you. Now focus on the hollow of your throat. Visualize your breath coming in through the front of your throat instead of through your nostrils. Imagine a red triangle, point down, with an indigo circle inside it. It is through that indigo circle that you are feeling your breath come. As you inhale, the indigo circle fills with smoke-like swirlings. As you exhale, let these swirlings permeate all the spots you are visualizing. These are, of course, your "chakras", the centers of "energy" in your body. The swirlings contain a very subtle feeling which you might call "creativity" or "inspiration" or "spirituality". Move your focus up to your brow, just above and behind your eyes. Visualize a golden circle with two petals or wings, one to either side. Inside the circle is a red triangle. The right petal is the Sun, the left petal is the Moon. Visualize the Sun petal growing brighter gold as you inhale and the Moon petal growing brighter as you exhale. Feel your breath flowing in through the right nostril on the inhale and the left nostril on the exhale. With each breath they grow brighter. After a few breaths, visualize an eye in the center of the red triangle which appears just at the point when inhale pauses and exhale is about to begin. When it appears, it opens and you can feel something like an electric current or a vibration coming from it. Imagine that you can see through this eye. This is the "third eye" and it sees things very differently. Note carefully what you see when this eye opens. Focus on a spot just above your head. Visualize a brilliant white vortex of light whirling in a spiral pattern. As you inhale feel a flow of electric-like energy which begins way back at the base of your spine, moving up your spine to the vortex spinning above your head. As you exhale, this energy flows back down from the vortex to the base of the spine. The feelings you get when this flow passes through you is not readily describable. It can, with practice, do some very amazing things to your consciousness. Now, reverse the order and visualize your way back down the chakras. When you reach the base of the spine again, feel the weight and substance of your body. Visualize nothing at all for a while and continue to breath regularly. Let your attention return to the world around you, grounding you and returning to to your everyday life. I think you'll find this infinitely more interesting and useful than pretending to make candle flames jump.
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