Among other things magic is a skill to be learned, advanced, maintained. polished, and refined over the course of a lifetime. As deep and broad as a conversation about the arcane arts is likely to get at the end of all the talk what we still have is an ability based upon sets of prerequisite abilities, all of which can deteriorate with neglect or improve with practice.
That’s worth repeating in big, colorful font:
Magic is an ability that is based upon and built around sets of prerequisite abilities. These precursor skills can either deteriorate with neglect or improve with practice, hence the capability of performing magical operations can also decrease through inactivity or be enhanced by regular repetition and refinement.
My motto is simply “cast often”, thus I am continually piddling with some incantation, conjuration, charm, etc. It keeps me in practice and sharp.
I recognize that not everyone is going to be obsessed with their magical work. In fact, I don’t recommend putting the kind of time and effort into practice that I personally do.
All you need to stay sharp and keep improving is a simple, daily routine that develops traits and refines skillsets which improve your magical fitness and ability to perform. You will develop such a daily system over time, and of course the content on this site is designed to aid you in this pursuit.
Here are the most basic recommendations for magicians of any skill level. Fit these into every day and your abilities will soon begin to soar and expand.
- Grounding
- Connect w. and settle into the Earth
- Centering
- Keep the center. Be the center.
- White Light Aura Saturation
- Stretch your aura and fill with White Light.
- Subtle Body Alignment
- Align physical and etheric, astral and etheric, mind-body-spirit actualized..
Here’s a quick rundown of these concepts/exercises.
Grounding
This is the practice of settling your weight properly, allowing gravity to do its work and anchoring your being into this manifest realm. Benefits include being solid in all you do, immovable if needed, and improved ability to manifest what you intend.
Relax fully, noting tension in your shoulders and then completely releasing it. Notice tension in the lower back and release it. Be aware of tension in your hips, feel it, then let it fall way. Spend the time needed to relax your whole body and let your weight fall naturally down, down, into your thighs and to the bottom of your feet.
Optionally, do a little hop – both feet off the ground at the same time – and pay special attention to your landing. Feel how completely your feet want to connect back with the ground, and how your weight keeps moving even after your body lands, as if part of you wants to drop into the earth beneath.
Let that part of you keep dropping. Imagine your being sinking into the ground for a second, then become aware of your body where it is; move your fingers and toes and notice the movement to fully inhabit the body. Return attention to your energy in the earth, as if energetic roots are shooting out of your feet and dep down beneath the surface.
Feel these “roots” stretch, and stretch out below going 25, then 50 feet. With a surge put them further, hundreds of feet down into the earth now. Keep pushing them down, faster now, covering miles at a blink, until you arrive 1,000 miles down, where your energy branches out like great claws and grabs ahold of the deep earth like a magic anchor.
Keep your anchor in place and draw up from the Earth her loving, stable energy. Pull it up and into your feet, letting it fill your body from bottom to top. Know this connection will be solid the rest of the day, and feel free to revisit it often.
Chants for grounding include OM GAN (om like home and gan as in Gandi) and Grun (Gah Roon).
Good stones/crystals to help ground include black or smoky quartz. hematite, obsidian, and nuumite.
Advanced Option:
Do the White Light Aura exercise first and then flow immediately into the grounding exercise.
Centering
For if you are not the center of your own life, do you in fact truly have a life at all?
Compassion and service are important. I advocate kindness to strangers and service to family.
But you must never lose yourself to obligations, lest your very soul be lost to you. Beyond this philosophical notion, the act of centering is as important as grounding, and if we placed these on a graph, centering would likely be a perpendicular line to grounding just as Y is to X on a typical axis drawing.
To center is to “hold onto” space and time, albeit loosely and not in a heavy, clutching manner.
First, find your own center. Focus on the solar plexus area in the middle of your torso/abdomen. This image will help if you’re not sure:
Rest your attention on your solar plexus and take a few, deep breaths. Notice your abdomen expand with the inhale and decrease with the exhale, and think about your center. Does your attention want to drift up to the sternum or heart region, or drop down below the belly button? Maybe your mind remains fixed on the solar plexus. Put your focus where it instinctively wants to go, be it the energetic center (solar plexus), physical center ( below the belly button), or emotional center (heart, behind the sternum).
Remain fixed on this central point for a moment, telling yourself this is the center of me, and cannot be lost.
When you are ready, gently let go of this focal point and see/feel your whole being: body, mind, and energy field. Observe yourself as such for a few seconds, and then expand your awareness out into the room or space you are in.
Next, expand your awareness even further, out across the property where you are located, then to the boundary of the city or town beyond. Let your mind travel outward in all directions; north, south, east, west, up, and down, until you conceive of the whole planet, then the solar system and beyond.
Tell yourself I am the center of my reality, perhaps even the center of an infinite multiverse of time and space” (for infinity could plausibly have multiple centers, or no true center, allowing one to “honestly” exploit the metaphor of being central). Practice truly feeling the truth ion your statement of centrality. This will serve you well in terms of harnessing and deploying power within your magical operations.
A good chant for centering is simply “Sirro”, (Si (like sip) Ro (like row) ) repeated as many times as you feel appropriate.
Carnelian, Tiger’s Eye, and most Agate are good stones to help with centering.
White Light Aura Saturation
White Light Aura Saturation, in some form, is a staple for every rock-toting neophyte in the modern world, because it’s a powerful technique that’s easy to use and adapt. You don’t need to see the aura to know it’s there and work with it.
Essentially your aura is a field of mostly subtle energies, such as ether, astral substance, and vital force. These forms of energy are not themselves detectable by modern instruments, though they can be sensed in various ways with psychic faculties.
Gross energy like heat, electricity, and magnetism are also part of the aura, and these of course can be measured. A great example of the latter are the electromagnetic fields produced by the human brain and heart, which are likely part of or at least interacting with the aura.
A person’s aura is a carrier of metaphysical energies the person can draw on, consciously or otherwise. The aura also contains information in various forms which may be accessed by the person to whom the aura belongs and by others who are sensitive to such energies. The aura also offers some protection against astral influences, psychic attack, possession, etc, and provides the means for astral projection, soul travel, remote viewing, etc.
It is believed by many that the aura emanates from and/or flows through the seven main chakras, or wheels of spinning energy, that form a vertical line within the center of your torso. In some views the aura is many-layered, with each layer originating in or corresponding to one of the main chakra centers.
With your awareness and sense of touch, imagine reaching out 3 feet in every direction. Pay attention to this space on a regular basis so you can get use to your close-auric signature and begin to notice other energies interacting with your person.
Stretch your awareness out to six feet. Explore, then move out to nine feet; this is typically considered the outer range of the personal aura. If you know the basic chakra system, the heart chakra is a good center for keeping while doing this work, though you can work on the aura from any chakra.
Settle your awareness between the 3 to 6 ft area, with your body as the center of a sphere or egg of this size. Imagine brilliant, white light, either emanating from your heart, or entering the top of your head from above, and filling your entire body.
Expand light out from the heart or draw it downward through your body very deliberately, watching the light fill each new area as it moves. For instance, if coming from above, the light would fill your head and face, then your neck before flowing out along your shoulders and out each arm, down your back, and so on until finally filling your feet.
The light expels and burns away such frequencies as weakness and detrimental negativity as it progresses. It is entirely possible to remove a negative spirit from your aura, for example, in this manner. The illumination also provides a magical “seal” and shielding against further incidents of detriment or toxicity. You can pause the light’s movement as you inhale and continue its expansion upon each exhale.
Once you are “full” of brilliant, white light, be with this situation for a moment and notice what you notice. Does the light pulse? Is there any sound? Feel free to add to or alter the experience until it is the ideal for you, and then push the light outward into your aura, where it forms a sphere or egg (whichever intuitively feels correct) about 3 feet in diameter.
Gradually extend this illuminated space to six feet, and then to nine. Be with the light-filled space for a moment or two, feeling safe and protected, and then release the vision but know the energy remains.
In this way, you are protecting yourself from psychic attack, negative entities, even thought forms of self-doubt, etc. and roaming energetic currents or intelligences of a harmful nature. The “shielding” will fade with time, perhaps at the end of the day/night and maybe sooner depending upon many factors.
Learn to pay attention to and assess your aura so you can decide if the exercise needs repeating during the day or if perhaps the seal should be dropped, in the event it is “protecting” you from things that are actually desirable, like communication from spirit guides or the notice of a potential romantic interest.
Take note of the last part of the last sentence. There’s a whole article to be written on that point alone, but for now just be aware that you can shield yourself from good things as well as bad.
Despite some slight risk (just mentioned) this exercise is one of the most important things a newcomer to magic can do to avoid serious problems that can arise from meddling with causal forces and brushing up against astral entities. Get good at this and develop your own methods for improving upon and expanding the practice.
Subtle Body Alignment
Standard magical theory deals with what are known as subtle energies and subtle forces. Among these phenomena are the etheric and astral or causal substances.
The ether, or etheric principle is a state of existence between our material world and the astral, or causal realm where all things have been, are, and will be. The ether of occult philosophy may or may not be akin to or the same as the ether of the 19th century physicist. In addition to being the mover and shaker of all thigs physical, or the medium that, through its vibrations and motions acts as prime mover or source of movement upon physical material*. the ether is the channel through which communication between the physical and the astral realms takes place.
* This claim seems dubious, and I can neither confirm nor deny its factual integrity. No matter, however, for the important point is that physical reality behaves as if the aforesaid statement is indeed true, when magic is approached accordingly. You’ll see this position stated again elsewhere so take note.
Each individual human exists with an etheric double, or a mirror image of the physical form consisting of finer, etheric material.
The prime impetus of this etheric double is the human being’s Will, and so the substance is like a first mover, or provides the driving force that initiates movement of the nervous system or other ignition process. Spiritual information passes through the ether to reach the physical and commands from the physical mind/brain use the ether as their conduit to the higher self, etc.
The importance herein to magical operation or to psychic function pertinent to said magical operation a) must be obvious and b) cannot be overstated.
The astral plane is the great ocean of both emptiness and spiritual substrate wherein dwells and moves the source template for all that is, has been, could be or will be. This concept is distinct from the scientific “many worlds theory”, with the astral, or causal plane, being the source pool for the events and phenomena of all worlds.
We (magicians) generally believe the astral/causal to be the “place” or, more aptly, the state of existence wherein or whereupon magic is placed and made to do what we create it to do.
Once formed as perfectly as possible, meaning once we lay the spell or process down and envision the ideal results as coming to pass in the now, we endeavor to bring this completeness, this success, our result down from the astral by way of the ether and ultimately onto this manifest, physical realm.
We are each equipped, at birth or soon thereafter, with an astral body for moving and meddling appropriately upon the causal plane. The astral realm and our astral body are the seat of the soul, hence why astral travel is also called soul travel. We visit the astral whenever we dream, have out-of-body experience, and engage with vivid imagination.
Repetition and practice will strengthen your astral body and make it fit for the demands your magic studies are likely to place upon it. Practices such as remote viewing, astral projection, scrying, and pore breathing are beneficial to the astral and etheric bodies.
For aligning the subtle bodies, try the following:
Chant Etho – Etha (aye-thow aye-thah) to align the physical and etheric. Include this simple exercise of touching the ends of your fingers to the end of your thumb while you chant, or as a stand-alone exercise:
Chant Aha (ah ha) while focusing on the heart chakra. Gradually, follow the sound of the chanting outward into your aura. This repetition cleans and strengthens the aura, plus aligns the physical-etheric-astral energy fields in the process.
Amazonite, amethyst, labradorite, moonstone, and hypersthene are good stones for aligning the subtle bodies with each other and with the physical.
Forming a Routine or Program of Practice
Do your grounding, centering, aura and subtle body work every day for at least 3 to 6 months. This builds a solid foundation, after which you may relax into a program of practicing 2 to 3 days per week.
For most people the highest benefit is derived from doing the exercises between waking up and leaving for the day or otherwise beginning your daily routine. Within the first hour of being awake, it is generally agreed, is the optimal time frame.
None of that last paragraph may apply to you, so don’t try to squeeze yourself into a box. Rather, formulate the plan that does work best for your personality and preferences.
The main thing is to take your time and practice perfectly, as in deliberately and with good technique. This article was admittedly not a great technical breakdown, but I’ll update soon with better detail, and you can contact me in the meantime if you have questions.
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