Starters pt 2

Meditation pt 2
Object Focus
Using meaningless things, a mark on the wall, a star, hold it with a fixed dead stare. Do not let the eyes distort the image, nor let the mind wander. Focus entirely on the object, as if nothing else was even in the world. The object is your world, nothing else matters. Aim for at the minimum 30 minutes at the start, but if you can keep it up for hours then so much the better.

This Dead Stare gave rise to the idea of the “Evil Eye” and with practice, if targeting a Being, the Being will feel the stare, and may feel uncomfortable and nervous. If such a connection exists then Kai or maybe even thoughts can then be transferred this way.

Sound Focus
Any simple sound can be used to control that part of the brain which controls speech, and this is very useful for certain types of spell casting and Words of Power. “Um”, “Om”, “Ah”, “Hum” are all sounds with no intrinsic spiritual, egotistical, or emotional value. Thus the mind will be able to just concentrate on the sound, without digressing. Say the sound in your mind, repeat it over and again. The sound is your world, nothing else matters, just keep repeating it over and again. If you find that the sound even repeats itself during sleep, this is a good sign.

Image Focus
Imagine a simple shape, circle, cross, square, triangle. And with your eyes closed focus on the object, with out any distortion to its shape. When you have mastered the image, switch focus to another basic shape, and focus on that image until you have mastered that. When you can clean and clear switch images after holding for a length of time, try to do the same with your eyes open, projecting the image onto a blank wall, and hold a single image still and with no distortions. Then switch images to another basic shape and hold that image the same as the first. Projecting an image strong enough for others to see will take an immense amount of Will and concentration on your part.

Cleansing
There are various types of Cleansing that I myself use, so here goes.
Room/house/area – What you will need is Salt, a bowl, and either a paint brush (unused) or a pastry brush, or somesuch. Pour the salt into the bowl and add water. Mix together with clean fingers, and while you are doing this ask your main God/ess that you use for protection to bless this water to cleanse and bring balance to your home. The words come from your heart, not mine, and they can be as elaborate as you need, but mine are quite simple. Using the brush, spray the water into the furthest corner of the room from windows or door, asking your God to cleanse and bless the house. Then stand in that corner and spray into the room, but and this is the real important bit here, leave the doorway until last, so the energy has somewhere to go, otherwise it is all for nought. Do not pen the energy in. Work from room to room, floor to floor top to bottom, leaving the stairs the last thing upstairs and the front hall/room the last downstairs. The energy can get out through windows or door, even if they are shut, so it can get in via these ways, so sprinkle salt in-front of all windows and main external doors. Asking your God to protect the house from bad energy. Job Done.

Item/Personal – Smudging works very well here, and the American Shamans have been using it for hundreds of years, so there must be something in it. Incidentally a Wicca Witch taught this to me, so it just goes to show. Always learning, and you never know when. Anyhow, Again ask your God/ess to help protect and cleanse while you are doing it. Light some incense of your preference and using a Feather or a few if you have a few waft the smoke towards the item/person. It could be your paint brush, Golden Sickle, Robe, or yourself, though doing yourself can be a tad awkward, well I found it a little problematic.
If you can imaging a white light coming from the person/item while you are smudging, if you can not then say a small mantra type spell “I call upon Name to bless and cleanse this Item with your brilliance to purify”. Make sure that you do both sides, front and back. And if doing on a sick person, you can also breath in a lungful of smoke and focusing your Healing Energy blow the smoke onto the effected area.

Personal 2 – This one is different from the last one, because all you are using is either soil or salt. Depends on what you have and preference. This could also be classed as a grounding, but I have put it here. Have a bowl of soil/salt (no water this time). If you are feeling that you have an excess of energy, or having bad thoughts and feelings, place your hands into the salt. Feel the salt, rub the salt between your fingers, and then focus on the energy/feeling you would like rid off and feel it flowing though your body, into your hands and into the salt.
Ask your god to take the energy away from you and pour the salt/soil either into the drain, or put it onto the garden. Thus the gods will deal with it from there. Just please remember to thank whichever God/ess for their help, and a small offering of silver/tobacco/food will be a nice thank you.

Stones – Now I have been told that I am wrong to do it this way, but it works for me, so I do not give a damn. But as always go with your gut feelings here. And if it feels wrong, then ask another how they do it. Simples. Blessed bowl of salt water as in the Room above, and place the stone in the water. Let it stay there for atleast 1 day, making sure that the Sun and Moon can shine on it. Then remove the stone and rinse the salt off and put it somewhere safe for a few days so it can re-charge itself. Now this can be used for new stones and those that you have been using for a while and they feel drained.

Shielding
Now I only know one basic way to do this, and I taught myself, but there are a few ways and I am asking a very experienced Witch for her help, which I am sure she will give me, and thus you.

Right centre yourself facing North while pointing in that direction with either finger, hand, knife, sword, etc. and call upon the Powers of the North to guide, protect, and shield you in this working. Keeping your are outstretched turn to face the East visualising a white line going around from North to East in a circle. Call upon the Powers of the East to guide, protect and shield you. Follow around to the South and then the West and finally back to the North. Say (similar) “My Circle is Cast”. You have cast your circle. Arm still out, go from the North to above you, down to the South (turning to face that direction) underneath you and (turning again) back to the North and say (similar) “ My Circle is Covered”. Turn to face the East and again go above to the West, Below and back to the East and say (similar) “AS above, so below, Balance in all things, My Circle is crossed”. When you have finished working, reverse the process talking away the lines until you are facing North and no circle.

The Others will be here when I ask her.

 

Basic shielding

Apr15

I was asked to write something about basic shielding and so here it is:

There are many ways to shield and to work well they need to be personalized to the user. So take each method and then see how it fits. Not everything works for everybody and sometimes you need a different shield than the one you have been using.

So let’s start with the all purpose I’m overwhelmed so I just want to shut everything out. You can visualize a brick wall or castle wall depending on whether you are modern or prefer old symbology.

Ground and center. I suggest if it’s the first time and it’s not the dead of winter sitting down somewhere directly on the ground outside. Sometimes if you are working with a new set of symbols it helps to do something literally to start.

Visualize building a wall around yourself, brick by brick or stone by stone. Visualize what you want to keep out and build your wall higher and higher until you feel the world or whatever you want to keep out isn’t there.

If you are a beginner, do this at least once a day until you can just put the wall up and not have to do it brick by brick but for the first week, at least do it brick by brick.

Remember to take the wall down. You do need to be able to feel something and keeping the wall up will lead to a damming off of energy. Great way to start having migraines if you’ve never had them before.

Another kind of shield is a bubble. This shield is permeable and lets some things in but keeps most things out. Start again by grounding and centering and visualize blowing a big soap bubble around yourself. Visualize good things passing through the bubble and negative things on the outside. Negativity bounces off and returns to its source. Let the bubble go when you are not out in public and let yourself breathe.

You can visualize the element you find easiest to work with surrounding you. This can look like an unbreachable moat but tends to keep everyone at a distance and if you are visualizing fire can really heat things up literally so this is not meant to be anything but a quick and dirty defense.

Visualizing armour can be a great help. Christian children are sometimes taught this in Sunday School using Ephesians 6:11 (the armour of God) or at least I was long ago. Now I visualize my Ren Faire pirate gear. It’s the same concept. Visualize a knight putting on their armour. The breast plate protects your heart and solar plexus or your power center. The helmet protects your thoughts. Greaves and gauntlets protect where you walk and keep you from traps and the gloves help you to work. Visualize putting it on piece by piece you can do this as you dress in the morning using your mundane clothes but imbuing them as protective armour but it’s better to do it on your skin than something that could be taken from you. If you are feeling particularly beleaguered, add a sword and shield and if the thing you are dealing with is big and nasty, maces are really good but most things do not need more than armour. Some times visualizing a shield in front of you is all you need.

The “You no see me spell “ works amazingly well and is fairly simple. Simply visualize yourself as not being there. Visualize eyes sliding off you and focusing on something else. No fair using in class so the teacher doesn’t see you. I have used this when exes were around and they never saw me and in fact went and asked someone 10 ft away from me where I was. This takes an enormous amount of energy and can rapidly tire you out because you have to hold it consciously.

And when all else fails, a dose of Rescue Remedy will make you head blind enough to deal with whatever the attack perceived or real is. Stops everything cold, personally I can’t deal with the feeling but it does work and work well.

Copied from http://elfkat.wordpress.com/ With much thanks Kat.

 

Grounding
There are several ways to do this, from basic to not so basic, but all of the ones I know are simple to do.

Wall – Now you can use a wall, pillar, gravestone (not really sure about the effects of this one) as long as the stone goes into the ground. Which even includes the big chimney towers, because although at the top it is a long way down, they are still into the ground. Place your hand flat against the wall and feeling the overflow of energy flowing though your body into the stone and back into the Earth. If it helps you then imagine the energy as a light (your choice of colour) flowing down your arms into the wall and going down into the ground where it joins with the Earth’s Energy.

Chair – Put a chair onto the Earth, or Grass and sit on the seat. It does work quite well with bare feet, but depends where you are really. Focus on where you are and still yourself, Balance yourself completely. Nothing is there, just you and the Earth and the Chair. Feel your energy flowing through you and down to your feet, down into the Earth. Again, if it helps then visualise. You are giving of yourself to the Earth. Now Feel the Energy rising up from the ground, though your feet, feel them get warm and tingle. Feel the energy rise though your legs to your body and up to your head, Feel the warmth thoughout your entire being, feel yourself relax. Take as long as you need to. You are centred and balanced. This one is very useful if you are stressed and need to relax to study or do an important working. Now if you live on the 20th floor of your block, (somebody has to) then fear not. It can work the same as with the wall, just will take a little longer, but if you can find a small green space, (without dog muck!) you can just sit and do it. A chair or sitting are best rather than standing, because it may take a little while.

As I said above, the salt bowl without water can be used to get rid of excess or bad energy.
Basic Shaman Circle
Some paths believe that once a circle is cast you can move around freely in whichever direction you care to. But I feel that this is detrimental to the energy flow. Remember Circles within Circles, wheels within wheels. So if you are in the South facing North but you want to face West then walk to the West and face East, give thanks, continue to the North to face South, giving thanks and finally East to face West to do the Working. Thus the Energy flows around and with you, rather than jumping from the South to the East. For me this works better. Personal choice depends on what works for you.

Now if you want to do an Earth working, using a circle, it is better to start outside the circle from the North and travel around to the South. Give respect to the South and enter the Circle facing North. Focus on the Working and what you want to achieve and then travel around to the North and face the North. And do your working. When you have finished with the circle Give thanks, turning to face the directions starting with the one to your left and give thanks. Ending with the direction you are using, facing outwards. Turn to the centre and step into the centre and then close the circle.

I will be honest with you here, it has been many years since I last cast a circle I have forgotten the closing ritual. But if you do want to know, and I suggest that you do find this out for yourself, you should ask any one of the Wicca/Magicians out there who have been doing it for a long time. They will be able to set you straight on the proper techniques for closing a circle.

Evoking Ritual
Many people Invoke or Evoke various Godforms during the course of their workings. And for the most part you can do this with just the circle. Because you are calling the energy of the Spirit into you, so that you now have the energy of said Godform to help do the working. This is perfectly normal practice and Wicca and various Chaosist, Magicians and Voodoo priests, as well as many Shamans, who call the energy of the Power Animal into themselves.

I have done this many times, but in meditation without a circle, my choice. But some people have used the Evoking Ritual just to prove themselves the best in their field. Ego takes over and quite possible game over. The most notable example is Mr. A Crowley, who really believed that he was the best ever and will be, and his power was unmatched. He ended up unhinged, to say the least.

While I did not know him personally I have studied his books and works, and the books of those who have followed him. And while I was studying his works with a very good friend of mine, we came across the Devils Calling Prayer, and about him invoking a Spirit from the 9 Circles of Pandemonium Itself. Now this to my mind was a very stupid thing to do. For the latter he used the full Evoking Circles, with all of the Words of power needed.
Now for obvious reasons I have not included the Words of Power. Because this is a warning against doing such things. But if you go out and manage to work out the Words, and the full Ritual and then fuck up, (as he did) then that is your doing, my hands are clean. Do not do this, it is not worth it. My Friend whom I shall call X wanted to try the Devils call, and I strongly advised against it. As for the Full Ritual, I know not. But X went off the rails slowly, but firmly. He started on taking chemicals, his personality became unstable, he became more vicious than usual, and eventually left the city. But we shared an Alter, and He did say to me that if he goes bad he will stop using the Alter. So I know that he did do something stupid.

But I do not believe in Deamonds and Hell.

So

So they do not exist, ha, got you there matey.

What about God the Father?

Nor Does he.

But millions of Christians say he does exist, they believe in Him, just because you do not believe in Him does not equal He does not exist. The Power of Belief shows that He does exist. Thus If He exists, then Hell also exists, and with it the 9 Circles of Pandemonium City. Satan does exist, and so do all of the others, Crowley knew this, accepted this, as to whether he believed in them, that is a matter for debate at another time. But my warning is this. The being whom Crowley called upon was from the mid levels for the Circles, and not really a nice one at that. No they are not all bad, Satan is one of the Better ones. But there are nameless, formless ones from the lowest circles who make all of the others look like cute fluffy bunnies. And should you get one of these, it is doubtful, (in my option anyway) that even a binding Ritual with all of the Sacred words written around the triangle will not stop the being from just walking into the Pentagram where you are standing and well, not even words can explain what will happen to you.

Following on from this but in the same vein, there are certain Shamanistic practices which have the sole purpose of killing the target. Once again, I shall not cover these here, because I know you not, and thus I can not trust anyone with these very dangerous practices. I keep myself in check, due to my conscience but do you? Some of you may well say you do, and some of you may well do, but others may well not, but if I do teach on here, then those less stable persons will have access to very destructive spells. Should you come across them yourself, then that is up to you.
Divination
There are many types of divination techniques available for the student if you look for them.

Tarot – probably the most popular and widely spread of all. But the packs are machine made, and there are hundreds of different types available to the student. So which one should you use? Quite a good question. Mainly go by feel and guidance from above. But I do not like the meanings which came from the book in the pack. Ah, bit of a bind then, bugger. Do not worry about it to much, to be fair. What you need to do is study the pack, each card in turn. What does the picture tell you? And what is the title, not the name of the card 4 cups etc. but the actual meaning of said card? 4 cups – Luxury. So what does luxury mean to you, and what about reversed? Write it down, go on, what are you waiting for. He, he. Try that way if the book does not fit.

Nordic Runes – As created by the All Father Odin himself. Oh FYI, Odin did not create a blank Rune, that is a recent thing. Why they did it I know not, because the blank rune is covered by the Rune Pertho, which means Mystery and secret. Pertho (Perth Row) is in the second Aett. Once again if you have brought a set in clay or on card and they come with a book of meaning which you are unhappy with, just take the names and what they mean to you. As for reversed Runes? I am unsure as to when this practice started, ask a Heathen if you are interested, but myself, I did not use the reversed meaning. Maybe I am wrong in this, oh well, shit happens.

Celtic/Nature Runes – These came about largely as a variation of the Nordic Runes, and by far the easiest to make yourself. My Sigel Set is a type of this set. Many Witches make their own set from clay, bone, or stone, or even wood. These are personal to the witch and have the meanings that the Witch put into them. Go on, read my page on Sigels and give it a try yourself.

I Ching – Chinese divination. I have used this well in the past, but I can not find my book, someone has hidden it. It does take a little getting use to, the messages are usually cryptic at best. If you do get a book and decide to try to do it use 3 coins of low value (I use 3x2pence) and keep these coins only for the use of the I Ching.

There are many other types of Divination out there, but there are books and blogs and websites full of information. Learn what you want, take what you need, and Use what you feel.
Sigels and Mantras

When I get around to finishing this piece, I will. Check back later.