As famous magician Lon Milo Duquette says: “Magic is indeed all in your head, but your head is a lot bigger than you think it is!”
Magic is the study and direction of certain forces of the human mind, and a study of the ‘spiritual side’ of nature. Being a successful magician depends on possessing the ability to tap into these little-understood powers of the human mind, which means understanding the laws by which they operate and strengthening the mental “muscles.”
So how does Magic actually work? How do you train your mind for magical practices?
Astral light
Magicians, prophets and sages from a wide range of cultures have spoken of the ‘fifth element’ of astral light, also known as akashawhich is understood as the “all-ness” that underlies reality.
This ethereal substance, identical to the light of the stars, is the vibrational root of all material. Everything that physically manifests in this three-dimensional universe grows into a physical being from this vibrating substance, as a flower grows from an essential seed, and this ethereal essence forms an energetic “blueprint” or “map” that underlies the physical world.
Ceremonial magic, rituals and manifestation work work directly on this light and thereby influence the physical world. In fact, our thoughts, words and actions shape and direct this ethereal substance – and by extension all of nature – at all times, whether we are aware of it or not. However, a magician sculpts this astral light purposefully to influence the desired outcome by appealing to the mysterious forces belonging to the subconscious.
The powers of the subconscious
One can use the akasha simply by commanding, “So be it!” Magic works through the subconscious, and the subconscious does not respond to demands or the brute force of the conscious will.
The subconscious is more likely to respond to suggestion. The subconscious mind is high deductive. As a ripple spreads across the surface of a pond, any impression made on the subconscious will set off a chain reaction of deductive conclusions within the personality. This part of the psyche is not concerned with whether something is ‘true’ or ‘false’. Your subconscious does not question the premise or ensure that the reasoning is correct. Like a receptive and fertile garden, seeds planted in the matrix of the subconscious are germinated and nourished regardless of their empirical status.
It is for this reason that atmosphere and atmosphere are given so much importance in any religious ritual. The purpose of music, incense, ceremonial clothing and symbolic images is to ‘speak’ to the unconscious levels of the participants, thus evoking a certain atmosphere. mood in the psyche, to evoke the great magical powers that lie hidden within it. The subconscious mind cannot be convinced or commanded to cooperate with us; that must be so enchanted to do this.
The power of symbols
Your imagination is powerful enough to move mountains if you know how to nurture your subconscious mind properly. Imagination is a powerful tool through which strategic suggestions can be made to the subconscious mind to influence a series of inferences that result in an outcome one would like to manifest.
We must speak to the subconscious mind in the language of symbols to communicate effectively with her and invoke the powers she has. The subconscious mind communicates through pictorial imagination, an archaic way of speaking that developed long before speech. It is as unresponsive to logic or argument as a deaf man, but shows it a picture, and it understands and is only too willing to cooperate now that it knows what is required of it. A symbol bypasses the frantic boredom of your conscious mind, ignores your neurotic fact-checking and trivial excuses, and sails straight across the rapid rivers to the shores of inner knowing.
Due to the deductive nature of the subconscious mind, a symbol is an especially powerful tool in magic. Because they speak to the old, non-rational parts of you, symbols have the power to cast spells, break spells, hypnotize, summon forces both from within the human being and from beyond the cosmos, and directly upon the to work in astral light.
A large part of esoteric training consists of learning to identify, form and interpret symbols to tap into the higher forces they express. Role-play dramas, music, mantras, chants, meditation on sigils, ceremonial tools, garments, and visualized scenes are all methods that use symbolism to awaken, intensify, and direct the mind’s magical abilities. In ancient traditions from all over the world, symbols are used to redirect consciousness, to quiet the mind, to invoke certain types of powers or abilities, to strengthen weaker parts of the psyche, to induce religious ecstasy and to increase or excite rapture, to promote religious ecstasy and rapture. wisdom, to promote self-reflection and open channels of information from heavenly sources.
Before Tarot cards were used to predict the future, their main use was magical meditation. An adept chose a card whose essential qualities he desired and meditated on it. Simply gazing at a symbolic image is enough to awaken forces dormant within your being, because the sacred geometry of the images communicates with the part of you that is receptive to that language.
Even if you don’t consciously register all the details latent in the design, there is a more primitive part of you that registers the curve of the moon, the watery wavy lines, the phallic protrusion, the arc of the sun moving, the pupil of an eye. Esotericists studied color and sound extensively, using precise frequencies of color and tone to create specific effects on the atmosphere, physical body and mind of participants.
Exercises for magical training
There are three types of imagination that a magician must train: auditory, visual, and intuitive.
Most of the time we think in words, or in a series of images, like in a movie. The third and higher type of mentality is thinking in terms of pure idea, where the idea arises in the mind completely as a revelation or epiphany. Intuitive imagination comes as a flash of sudden insight, which then gradually unfolds like a flower blooming as we realize more and more of its implications.
People generally tend to be audible or visual in the way they work with their minds, just as they are right or left handed. When we train the mind, we pick one ability at a time and focus on strengthening it.
To train auditory imagination—the ability to think in words—you can practice giving imaginary lectures in your mind for five minutes on simple topics with which you are familiar, imagining that you can hear yourself speaking. Choose an ordinary and even boring topic – not something you are particularly passionate about – because an everyday topic is more challenging to keep clear in your mind.
To train your visual imagination, you can create an inner movie of yourself walking around a familiar place. Practice recalling every little detail along the path, and after a while you’ll be amazed at the vibrancy of the scene you can create.
Intuitions can be expressed in words, but that is not always the case. The practical way to approach this level is through meditation on a particular idea rather than a pictorial image. To begin with, many related ideas will come to mind.
The purpose of this kind of mental meditation is not so much to solve mental or physical problems, but to bore a hole, so to speak, in the shell of concrete mental ideation to the formless levels beyond. Then intuition can flow in, bringing seemingly irrational but spiritually valid impulses into action or further realization.
Opening a neural pathway to the subconscious or establishing a practice of it “channel” is greatly improved by practices like automatic writing, where you surrender to whatever forces you choose to encounter.
With persistent and systematic esoteric training and development, we strive to open access to this intuitive level at will. This should give the person who can do the right thing at the right time, based largely on hunches or on higher levels, a sense of spiritual destiny, even if to the rational mind the circumstances seem to discourage this particular course of action .
Training these abilities will provide a direct link not only between two levels of the mental plane, but also between the Higher Self and the lower self. Enjoy incorporating these exercises into your magical practice.
