This card resonates with me, due to my sensitivity.
The Devotee of Wands represents privacy and intamacy with self. Protect aspects of yourself that you cherish, because everyone doesn’t deserve to celebrate your royalties.
We all have some things that we rather to keep to ourselves, and that is okay. We don’t have to overshare, because everyone isn’t there for you completely and never give anyone the upper hand in any situation.
You deserve to keep yourself, versus losing yourself to satisfy others. Your self worth is deeper than any ocean, and wider than any sea.
Relish in who you are, and your shadow that has helped you grow and learn into who you’re becoming. You are more divine than what you may know.
I figured this out after I realized that there are 7 notes in a major scale and 12 notes altogether. C is the first note on any piano, and has no flat (technically B is a flat but it’s also part of the major scale – this lines up with the fact that the first classical planet is the Moon, which correlates to only one zodiac sign. The fourth note in the C Major scale is F, and also has no flat, just as the fourth classical planet, the Sun, has only one zodiac. The rest of the notes have flats, which are given the nocturnal sign of the planet (black key=night), and the white keys have the day signs. Works out perfectly, oddly enough.
I am going to describe my experience with a practice called Kasina. I am not going to break down every aspect of this practice, you can google that. This practice is amazing for skrying, visionary work and developing psychic power. If you decide to practice this work I definitely recommend reading Mastering the Core Teachings of The Buddha by Daniel Ingram. Not to become a Buddhist, but to learn the amazing collection of techs available in Buddhism. They spent a couple thousand years learning how to hack the brain so you may find something useful. Yes the language is different and can be confusing and that is why I recommend Ingram’s book. It is done by a western mind and written in that perspective. If at any point during this little guide you don’t understand what I am talking about it can be found in Ingram’s book. It’s free. Read it.
I will describe two ways to do this. The terrible way and the real way.
First the terrible.
Set up a candle in a dark room like this:
This was done in my living room with my dog crawling around and whining because he wanted attention. I was distracted and often did this practice while talking or petting him. I figured because of this I should focus more on insight practice. I would observe the movement of the flame for varying amounts of time and once I noticed that the image was burnt into my eye I would shut my eyes and observe the visual details of the afterimage in as much fine detail as possible. I tried different ways of focusing on the flame and the afterimage. The worst possible way to do it is a laser like focus on the flame and afterimage. So you would begin to get a strained tunnel vision like focus on the flame, you begin squinting. Then the afterimage may start out brilliantly but dance around and get lost quickly. I found the longest I could hold the afterimage this way was between 4-6 minutes. The afterimage was still bright and vivid and maybe could begin morphing into various shapes that would look like a blue space like the sky with a brilliant point, ruby red third eyes surrounded by a blue-green aura, a red-white sphere, a comet, a brilliant glowing orb with white runic letters written on it, a planet with a ring, a reddish ball that shifts into a blue ball, then into purple black ball and then it would blink in and out. I found for best results in this terrible practice one should view the flame for about a minute. Now, you may be saying “J! You saw some cool visuals, how is this a terrible?” Because what is possible with this tech! If you do the above or get the results described above you are barely scratching the thinnest surface.
I actually still recommend doing it this way to see how much detail and resolution you can gain get on the afterimage. You may surprise yourself at how pixelated your vision will be of the colors. It will be like watching an 8 bit psychedelic video game figure morphing into different things, but on the back of your eye lids.
The (OH SHIT WAS THAT GOD) real way
I set up my altar in the way I have it for meditation practice
You don’t have to set it up this way, just get some things that are meaningful to you. You are not doing a ritual or anything you are just getting your right brain in the mood. If doing a ritual gets you in the mood, then do one. Not required.
If you want the practice to be the most successful keep the following things in mind:
Keep a relaxed wide view. You are not focused like a laser visually on the flame, Your mental focus is the flame, not the visual focus. If you find yourself zooming in and the surroundings fade out, zoom back out to wide view. This may sound weird but imagine ALL sensations even body sensations are playing on a screen in front of your awareness. You are behind it all observing the total. That may help, it may not but try to get into that mode of thinking. The important part is the wide view. Wide view activates the right brain. Once you have this relaxed wide view then begin.
Keeping the relaxed wide view, on the in breath *mentally” not visually zoom in on the flame. On the out breath relax that mental zoom to wide view. You are “holding” the flame mentally, not visually. Try out a few different ways and you will get it. keep flowing between an expansion and contraction. O/o. This may be the hardest part. Relaxed visual focus, flowing mental focus between flame and wider experience. Like waves of attention but always keeping the flame in the center. It is a gentle balance. Too much laser like focus will not bring the best results (you will still get pretty cool results) You will want to keep your eyes open for at least a minute. Don’t worry about blinking, just be natural. This isn’t a staring contest, in fact if you notice *any* strain, relax it.
Now for the afterimage! This is where a key concept of insight meditation will bring you results. The basic concept of insight meditation is that you can only know something/anything through the experience of the sensations of that thing. Once you get that into your mental programming and add the the idea that to have a successful magickal result one must imagine the desired result “As If” it were occurring right now you will be well on your way. That is why we are so focused on activating the right brain, we want to go with the flow, experience everything in that dream like “as if” and save the rational, analyzing left brain for after the experience and our journals. If you have experience with the hypnagogic state its the same thing but on steroids.
You will keep that same relaxed flowing expansive and contractive experience with the eyes closed. So on the relaxed slow inhale you will gently zoom in on where ever that afterimage is and all the sensations you can experience in relation to that experience and on the slow relaxed out-breath you will gently expand out to your full experience of all sensations related to NOW and being. Focus is on bright afterimage while keeping relaxed awareness on all possible sensations.
Get ready for some amazing experiences once you get this right. If you accept that whatever sensations you experience are reality then you are about to blast off into realms of bliss. In fact, this is probably the easiest way to achieve Jhana.
Now for the tricky part which is just going to take time and experimentation. You are going to get some insane visuals and blissful feelings, and I want you to just ride it out at first. Just experience and try not to exert control over it. You are not skrying aethyrs or going speak with ancestors or having a ram session with Apollo, you can do those things with this, but I want you to just try to experience the waves of bliss and the visuals for what they are. ALLOW. Let the waves and colors and sensations do as they please without your effort or interpretations. If you see gods and angels appear and bless you don’t interact, if the universe burns away and you are left sitting in a paradise don’t jump up and taste the fruit just yet. Let the experiences just roll through you, taste the bliss but do not grasp, command, demand, influence or direct in anyway. In time you definitely can if you want! I just want you to see what CAN be if you allow it to happen. If that takes weeks, months or years that’s up to you and your goals. I highly recommend researching the different jhanas though as this will be quite insightful.
To bring this into the practical realm, you would first do a magickal ritual to direct your intent and then use this method to skry or as a means of gnosis to produce a magickal change. So, for an evocation you would set up everything, banish, purify, make your calls inside a circle and keep the flame in the triangle and then perform the kasina. You would then allow the afterimage to morph and grow into the angel. For sigil magick one could have the basic intent of power, success, bliss for any operation, perform the kasina, let the afterimage do its thing and once you enter this glowing relaxed equanimity state where it feels like everything is as it is, all is fine THEN create the sigil in that space and release it. Trust me on that one!
If you actually have practiced the tech you will get this post. If you have not you will be in the dark (get it, because the candle…never-mind).
So when you practice you will notice a space, or at least the sensation of space between you and the afterimage even though this is all mind made you still experience a “gap” between yourself and the image. There is also the experience of “holding it” like an invisible part of your mind/intention is keeping the whole thing going. You may notice if you become distracted it breaks down and everything collapses for a bit until you can re-establish the afterimage (the sensation of holding the afterimage)
I want you to pay attention to that gap and the holding of the afterimage. Why? because that is the force of concentration. That is your power of creating and sustaining a mind made object. There is just one force of concentration, you don’t have to build a separate force for every type of practice. There is just the one and Kasina helps build a very good experience of it. Once you find that concentration power you can just hold it in front of you, or above you, or within you, say on a chakra or off into the distance at a magickal target and then watch what happens! If you have read my jhana stuff or anything about jhana online then you will realize that you can take this concentration power and hold it at the nose or at the lungs while breathing and get jhana from that. Once you discover your concentration force you will see why Kasina was such a useful tech!
So, just keep a lookout for that experience (haha more Kasina puns!)
“Aristotle taught that there was an immovable ‘entelechy’ in the universe that moves everything and the thought was its main attribute. I am also convinced that the whole universe is unified in both material and spiritual sense. Out there in the universe there is a nucleus that gives us all the power, all the inspiration; it draws us to itself eternally, I feel its mightiness and values it transmits throughout the universe; thus keeping it in harmony. I have not breached the secret of that core, still I am aware of its existence, and when wanting to give it any material attribute I imagine LIGHT, and when trying to conceive it spiritually I imagine BEAUTY and COMPASSION. The one who carries that belief inside feels strong, finds joy in his work, for he experiences himself as a single tone in the universal harmony.”
–Nikola Tesla
(From the text “Nikola Tesla, Our First Great Ambassador in the USA” of Vladislav Savic, published in ‘Tesla Magazine’ 1951.)
“Admit it. You aren’t like them. You’re not even close. You may occasionally dress yourself up as one of them, watch the same mindless television shows as they do, maybe even eat the same fast food sometimes. But it seems that the more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider, watching the normal people as they go about their automatic existences. For every time you say club passwords like “Have a nice day” and “Weather’s awful today, eh?”, you yearn inside to say forbidden things like “Tell me something that makes you cry” or “What do you think deja vu is for?”. Face it, you even want to talk to that girl in the elevator. But what if that girl in the elevator (and the balding man who walks past your cubicle at work) are thinking the same thing? Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on conversation with a stranger. Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others.”
To Work with Magic you need to have a good understanding of meditation, unless you’re looking to do card tricks and slight of hand, completely different topic.
To Understand Magic start with Chakras, pop culture may make it seem like magic wands and cryptic words are the key to magical ability, but in reality a magic user must understand how magic flows inside and around their body. Which of course requires well maintained clean chakras.
Finding the time for Your Chakras for frequently charging and cleansing them. Finding extra time in the day for this is very easy, because it is a very simple routine to learn. It can be done while sitting on the bus, waiting in line, or even while taking a jog.
Wait… What are Chakras? If you’re already confused don’t worry it’s quite simple. The Magical energy of your body must be stored somewhere right? So these storage pools are called Chakras. Just like pools of water they can get blocked and contaminated with bad things. So it’s important to maintain them.
There are seven major chakras: They have many functions and important aspects however the most important thing while visualising is color and location so here are the colors and locations where to visualize in an ascending order.
Red – Base of spine
Orange – Below belly button
Yellow – Above belly button
Green – Middle of chest
SkyBlue – Throat near Adams Apple
Indigo – Third Eye
Violet – Crown Top of Head
Cleansing Chakras in this meditation we will be visualizing multiple things but the core concept of cleansing will remain the same. So in each location visualize the correct color.
-> First maintain steady relaxed/rhythmic breathing.
-> Second Follow this Procedure while breathing:
Inhale and visualize the chakra’s color growing
Exhale and visualize the chakra growing larger and brighter.
Repeat this simple concept with every chakra. When switching between chakras imagine the energy flowing and spilling into the next chakra from the previous. I also suggest focusing on one chakra for three or four breaths, however the longer you can focus the better.
You can think of this as being very similar to my previous cleansing meditation, however it is a little more advanced and focused.
Charging Chakras in this meditation we will be visualizing multiple things just like the last one and again the core concept for visualization is the same through out. Just remember to use the correct color in the correct location for best results.
Just like the previous meditation maintain rhythmic breathing
However on inhale visualize the chakras color and feel energy flowing inward, then on exhale focus on bad energy leaving your chakra.
Extra Tip:Closing Chakras Sometimes you’ll be headed somewhere that you know bothers you and messes up your chakras, one thing you can do to protect yourself is closing them but you need to remember to open them afterwards.
To Close your chakras visualize a door or gate being closed for each chakra, this door will block out all the light.
To Open your chakras visualize those same doors opening for each chakra.
There are three kinds of basic meditations that you need to do everyday for working with magic.
Cleaning
Charging
Chakra Work
Cleaning Meditation is all about cleaning the light body and aura of daily build up, you can think of it as taking a shower at the end of the day, in fact this meditation is so quick and simple you could do it in the shower!
Here are the steps to achieving a cleansing.
Focus on rhythmic breathing
Inhale for four seconds
Hold for four seconds
Exhale for 4 seconds
Repeat
Visualize a white light emanating from your body outwards when exhaling
Visualize a white light surrounding your body moving inwards when inhaling
White light will deflect dark energies and strengthen your reflective aura!
Charging Meditation is simply about building up the energy to boost your overall health and attitude without charging you are like your cellphone and you can become fairly dysfunctional. With this meditation there is no real steps but rather advice. Everyone visualizes meditation differently sometimes advice can actually harm your own understanding of the charge so I will only say this:
Focus on the same rhythmic breathing as above and on each inhale feel ‘goodness’ flowing inward.
Chakra Work can be a little complicated so I’ll add it to a separate post.
Excerpt from Shaping Formless Fire by Stephen Mace
The major point of yoga for magick is to train your body, your breathing and your thoughts so they don’t bother you while you’re trying to do magick. This is especially important for astral projection, which is a sort of conscious journey into the unconscious, but it’s also helpful for the various types of conjuring—just to train you to keep your mind on what you’re doing. Here are some ways you can get started: 1) Posture. You need to train your body so it doesn’t bother your mind. To do this, simply sit in a chair with your back straight and your head erect. You can put a cushion on the seat, you can find the most comfortable place to put your hands, and so on. Then decide how long you’re going to sit (fifteen minutes is good to start) and do so, without moving, until the time is up. Don’t lift your hand to scratch your face. Don’t shift your thighs to readjust your weight. Just sit until the time is up. Of course you won’t be perfect at the start. Your face will itch so much that you will scratch it. Your head will sag and you will straighten it again. This is understandable at the beginning, so it’s nothing to worry about. The important thing is not to quit before the time is up. If you’ve decided on twenty minutes twice a day, sit for twenty minutes twice a day, and only sickness or the death of a near relation should be sufficient excuse to break your schedule. The results here are remarkable. When you start the practice, it will seem easy. Then you will realize that it’s only easy because you aren’t doing it properly—which is to say, you’ll be moving without realizing it. If you persist and correct yourself, you will succeed, but you will find that it hurts, and you will be so stiff when you finish that you’ll have to take some minutes to stand up. But then if you still persist, you will reach a point where you can sit without moving and stand without pain. And so you will have succeeded, and the posture will be your tool for the rest of your life. 2) Breathing. You can do this while you work on the posture. Simply breathe in to a count of four, hold to a count of four, breathe out to a count of four, and hold your lungs empty to a count of four. Don’t breathe so deeply that you hyperventilate and fall over. Just make the patern a habit so the need to breathe doesn’t bother you anymore. 3) Concentration. For this, simply visualize a simple object—say a red square. Do not let it change in shape or color. Do not let it sprout leaves or develop a background. Do not let it spawn thoughts of the Kremlin or Lenin’s Tomb. At first you should be able to do this for about three-tenths of a second. Keep at it, and at the end of the two years maybe you’ll be up to five or ten seconds. But don’t try too hard. It is possible to strain the mind.
Stephen Mace, Shaping Formless Fire (Temple: New Falcon Publications, 2005), 34-35.
Occult Aspects 