CONDENSED MAGICK 101 written by Frater Akenu
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Table of Contents Introduction..........................................................................................................4 Theory..................................................................................................................5 Practice.................................................................................................................8 Trataka.............................................................................................................8 Sacred Chamber Ritual ...................................................................................9 Dream work...................................................................................................12 Elemental pentagrams....................................................................................12 Sigilization.....................................................................................................14 Strange noises during meditation...................................................................16 About minor elemental imbalance.................................................................16 About willpower............................................................................................17 Telepathy suggestion.....................................................................................19
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Introduction Some time ago I have written Magickal curriculum, a book giving a good routine and a consistent system for practicing occultist. Upon review of the book some concerns appeared regarding the time needed to practice the curriculum. It is understandable that in the modern world, people have less spare time available, we live in a fast world, we are constantly in a rush. My original book allowed certain time-savings by reducing practitioner's need to sleep, but because I do listen to my readers, I have chosen to write a second book with simplified routines for those who cannot afford any side time, that's the book you are currently reading, Condensed Magick 101. As you can expect, Condensed Magick 101 won't be as broad and detailed as Magickal Curriculum, there will be no section about invocations, evocations, no hypnosis, it will be just a simple introduction to the life of an occultist. After finishing Condensed Magick 101 you can extend your knowledge and your practice by continuing with the aforementioned Magickal Curriculum. Now about the format of the book. This book will be for convenience split into two sections. Theoretical part and practical part. Theoretical part explains the correspondence of elements and implications. The reason is to have a simple and yet broad enough system for our endeavors in Magick. Practical part consists of meditations, energy work, elemental exercises and few spells.
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Theory So, let's start with the elements, shall we? Some believe believe that this whole world consists of four primary elements, Fire, Water, Air and Earth. The belief is that Fire and Water origins in the Aether (Akasha), void. According to this belief Fire and Water should be just a polarities separated from each other. It's true that Fire and Water negate each other upon contact, that water can extinguish the fire and fire can vaporize the water. For this not to happen, there must be something between the fire and water. For that purpose a third element spawn, Air, element which separates Fire and Water. Then a fourth element spawned, Earth, element that limits all three previous elements. This is also true, generally speaking, where there is no Fire, Water or Air on our planet, there is Earth and in Earth there is a core (Fire), there are lakes (Water) and there are also gaps filled with gas (Air). Human body is also said to be consisted of elements. That the head is of Fire (Will), chest is of Air (lungs), guts are of Water and the whole body is of Earth. Notice the same concept: head (Fire) and guts (Water) are separated by lungs (Air) and all three of elements are limited by the body (Earth). This state of elements is called a balance, dis-balancing these elements can lead to sickness or even death (in most extreme cases) and that regeneration is a natural way of re-balancing the elements. Health means the elements are in balance, strong health equals to a greater quantity of elements in the body. More Fire (strong Will), More Air (better mental capabilities), More Water (balanced emotional life) and More Earth (strong and flexible physical body). Diet also must be balanced, Fire (getting energy from the Sun), Air (fresh air, a lot of oxygen, good breathing, strong lungs, strong heart), Water (a lot of fresh drinkable liquids) and Earth (food), avoid any of these and you will get into problems. There are also these qualities of elements: temperature and moisture. Fire is dry and warm, Water is moist and cold, Air is moist and warm, Earth is cold and dry. These qualities are also contained within the seasons: Spring: moist becoming warm Summer: warm becoming dry Autumn: dry becoming cold Winter: cold becoming moist.
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Now remember: Moist becoming warm, warm becoming dry, dry becoming cold, cold becoming moist. To vaporize the water you need a heat, heat warms the water and then vaporizes it, warm becomes dry. I think you can think of the rest of implications. You could actually even build your own training regime from this information, but let's continue. You already know a lot about elements and you already remembered most of it (if not all), let's finish it up with a table of correspondences: Elemen Cardin Association t al directi on
Qualities
Fire
South
Will, willpower
Warm, dry Red
Water
West
Emotions, sexuality
Air
Earth
Intelligence, memories, everything Warm, mental moist
Yellow
Earth
North
Everything material (physical Cold, dry body, but also wealth, etc)
Green
emotional
Table 1: Elemental correspondences
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energy, Cold, moist
Associated color
Blue
Image 1: Elemental pentagram You can notice that regarding the cardinal directions elements are wrong (Fire is next to Water), it also doesn't correspond with the Moist becoming warm, warm becoming dry, dry becoming cold and cold becoming moist. Cardinal directions are mostly a convention and we won't be needing them in our curriculum in any way, you just should know that this association partially comes from the elemental pentagram. We will speak about elemental pentagrams a bit later. For now let's just say that it is used by drawing the pentagram in the air or on the paper, depending on the starting point and direction, an element is chosen and is either invoked or banished, more of that later.
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Practice Let's start with a practical part now. A serious occultist should practice every day, consistency is a vital part of the regime. First of all we should learn how to concentrate and get rid of side thoughts. We should also practice are visualization skills. Because we don't have enough time we will use one exercise that combines all these qualities, trataka.
Trataka Trataka is a very potent meditation exercise, simple translation from Sanskrit could be “gazing”. You place an object (e.g. a candle flame) to the place where you can freely gaze on it (not too close, about 3 or 4 feet away from you). Gaze with open eyes as long as you can (but not till your eyes start to hurt, find an optimal time for your eyes), then close your eyes and stretch them as if you were trying to focus on some object in distance, after-image of the object you were gazing at should re-appear. Focus on the after-image and try to keep it as long as possible. At the beginning it will fade in a matter of seconds, as you keep trying, you will make it stay for a couple of minutes. That's not an after-image anymore, that's your visualization skill. Repeat this process for a couple of minutes. During the exercise you should also clear your mind, whenever some side-thought appears, just accept it and move it, re-focus back on the object. For the process of gaining the focus and concentration, also known as one-mind, you can also use the Antahkarana symbol for the trataka. Antahkarana is known to boost the effects of the exercise. Later you will also be able to use personalized Sigils to gain what you want
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Image 2: Antahkarana
Sacred Chamber Ritual 1. Stand still and take few deep breaths.Visualize about 1ft wide orb of white light about 1 or 2 feet above your head. 2. Point at the orb with your index finger and say: "Crown above my head, Kether". 3. Visualize a ray of the white light descending through your body down to the core of Earth while guiding it with your index finger. 4. Say: "Kingdom under my feet, Malkuth". 5. Open your arms like you are welcoming someone and during opening 9
your arms, visualize the ray of the light becoming thicker and thicker till it covers the whole room or space around you. During this say "Through the worlds". 6. When you are finished, standing with your hands wide open, say "Back to the Adam Kadmon". This is a general purpose ritual, ready for any occasion. It can be practiced every day or just once every two weeks, having longer pauses between iterations make the effects more noticeable, shorter iterations make the effects more consistent and stable but also less noticeable (after a long pause this ritual causes a strong vibration going through the whole body). This exercise is also good for opening and closing your rituals and ceremonies. Words of power in the ritual comes from Kabbalah. Kether is the highest sephira (fruit) on the tree of life, it resembles the unity of duality, the void, the Chaos. Malkuth (kingdom) is the lowest sephira of the tree of life, being most systematic and mundane (grounding effect of the ritual). Kabbalah also speak about 4 worlds, Asiyah, Yetzirah, Beriyah and Atzilut, thus the phrase through the worlds having the centering and banishing effect. Each world contains its own etz khaim (the tree of life) with sephiroth (plural for sephirah), this portion of the ritual also connects these sephiroth together. Adam Kadmon is a name of the “perfect Adam”, mankind as it was supposed to be, its final stage, this is the empowerment/invocation portion of the ritual.
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Image 3: Tree of Life (Etz Khaim) containing Sephiroth (fruits)
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Dream work Dreams are the vital part of the practice. Ability to recall, influence and fully control one's dream is crucial to the Magickal practice. Repeating the litany “I will remember all my dreams” over and over again before falling asleep increases the changes of recalling dreams after waking up, falling asleep with a selected occult symbol or imagery in mind can help influence the dream, can lead to dream invocation or even to lucid dreaming. Having an image in mind of falling asleep on the graveyard (in your imagination) and keeping that vision in your mind till falling asleep can lead to necromantic experiences.
Elemental pentagrams We have already said in the Theory (page 5) that the certain way of drawing the elemental pentagram either invokes (calls in) or banishes (sends away) a certain elemental energy. There are more methods of doing this, a practitioner usually sticks to the first one he learns because re-learning tends to be difficult.
The “A” method The “A” method is the most used one and also the most controversial one. Starting point for the drawing is on the highlighted A on the image below. If you want to invoke an element, you go to it, and if you want to banish it, you go from it. So for invoking Air you start at Water, than drawing a line to the Air, then drawing line to Earth, etc till you return back to Water, thus finishing the pentagram. Banishing the Air would start at the Air, then going to Water, etc, first move is always within the boundaries of the A.
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Image 4: The A highlighted on the elemental pentagram X (the other part of the pentagram), is used for invoking and banishing of the Aether, but we don't need that in this course. You might have already noticed one controversy. Banishing pentagram of Air is the invocation pentagram of Water., this is why pentagrams are usually drawn into certain cardinal direction to closely specify the chosen element. Another way is drawing a circle around the pentagram, clockwise for invoking and counter-clockwise for banishing. Drawing each line should also be visualized with a colored line. There are many different opinions of which color is best. Some say to use dark blue for everything, others speak about white and the rest about the colors of elements (green for Earth elemental pentagram, etc). Frankly, during meditations you should have already noticed a specially colored background, a color that keeps appearing, sometimes it also fills your whole field of vision and then it gets smaller and smaller till it disappears in the middle, just to once again fill the whole field of vision. Chaos Magicians humorously call it octarine (reference to Terry Pratchett), it's the color of your Magick, so use it for the pentagram visualization. 13
Clock method Clock method isn't used as often, the point is you start at the tip of the star where your chosen element is. Then you keep drawing the lines of the pentagram (going clockwise for invocation and counter-clockwise for banishing). There is also a finger association method. In that case you always start drawing the pentagram at the tip, first line going to the right for invocation or to the left for banishing, with all your fingers extended except one finger associated with a desired element being curled. Common settings (you can make and use your own) is: •
thumb: Aether
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index finger: Fire
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middle finger: Air
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ring finger: Water
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little finger: Earth
Important: All these methods have one thing in common, after drawing the whole pentagram you finish the procedure by point in the middle, “piercing” the pentagram with your fingers to activate it. To practice elemental pentagrams, you can e.g. pick one day of the week for a specific element (e.g. Monday for fire, Tuesday for Water, etc) and at that day in the morning do the Sacred Chamber Ritual, then the invocation pentagram and in the evening the Sacred Chamber Ritual and the banishing pentagram. Or you can use rituals that already incorporate these pentagrams like Gnostic Pentagram Ritual or Lesser Banishing Pentagram Ritual.
Sigilization Sigilization is a method of turning a desired outcome into an occult symbol. A resulting symbol is called Sigil, you can use Sigils for trataka or you can learn more about them in my Magickal Curriculum.
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Most used is the letter method. You write down your desire, then you cross out all repeating letters so each letter is contained only once. And then you mesh these letters into a symbol. I have prepared an example so it's easier to understand. Notice that O is used as a circle around the Sigil.
Image 5: Example of the sigilization process In the example you can notice that the last word of the phrase is completely crossed out. It doesn't really matter, we simply work with every letter just once, the point of Sigilization is to create an association between our desire and the resulting symbol, that's the task of the process.
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Strange noises during meditation You might have already noticed a strange buzzing noise during your meditation sessions. This noise is sometimes called Nada, and it's one of the signs of entering the lower form of trance, another sign is the color we have mentioned before as octarine. If you focus on Nada the sound will become more rich and more apparent, it can also happen that the sound becomes so thick that your whole body will seem to be melting (joining with the surroundings). It's completely normal and there is nothing to be scared about, it's just a higher form of trance.
About minor elemental imbalance Let's talk about minor elemental imbalances, now. Elements in the body have certain effects. Fire is associated with a Will, it could be translated as a will to do stuff. Lack of Fire equals to lack of action, lack of being able to stop intellectual processes and do some actual work. Air element is associated with memory and everything mental. Lack of the Air element is the lack of the thinking process, act of planning. On the opposite side having too much Air means you are too thoughtful to do anything. Water element is associated with emotions, too emotional person has a lot of Water element, a person with no empathetic skills, person that is emotionally cold has a lacking Water element. Having less Earth element equals to the weak body, having too much of the Earth element leads to pure laziness. These properties can be temporarily overridden by invoking or banishing certain elements (depending on what you need at the moment). For long term effects a conditioning is required. Conditioning can consist of the prize system (I will take a 10 minutes break after doing this 30 minutes of work) or a rubber band technique (you put a rubber band on your wrist and you make it snap your forehand whenever you are too lazy to do anything or you e.g. don't act as you wished you would). Generally the conditioning is an important aspect of Magick, more about it in the next section.
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About willpower What is a willpower A lot of things were said about willpower in the past but topic wasn't explained really well. If our real Self is our Will, then the endurance of this Will is what willpower stands for. It's like a muscle strength for the muscle or a bullet for the gun.
Why is willpower important for Magicians Willpower is a measure of affecting the world. Magician without willpower is like an artist without his tools or a musician without his equipment. Magician with stronger Will wins, same as a bodybuilder with stronger body can lift up more weight.
Willpower in history You should have already heard some story of old shamans, going without food for months, keeping their bodies in cold water for days or even wounding their bodies in states of trance before doing their rites. Reason is simple, willpower. By specifying a task that is hard to achieve, and by achieving that task, you train your willpower, strength of your Will.
How to train your willpower In modern society, we don't have time to go to wilderness for 40 days, we have to feed our families and ourselves, we have to pay taxes. 17
Fortunately, when you know that reason for being in cold water for a number of days is not about being in cold water for a number of days, but real reason is to do a difficult task, no matter what the task is, you can easily come up with your own training. Do you smoke? Are you a chain smoker? Can you be without smoking for one day? That's very hard, but not impossible. But beware, make a task a difficult, but not impossible to maintain, if you fail, your willpower will go down, rapidly.
30 minutes rule This is my favorite training method. Good old Czech Magick :). 1. Are you hungry? Wait 30 minutes before eating 2. Are you thirsty? Drink in 30 minutes 3. Are you tired and you want to go to sleep? Go for a 30 minutes long walk. During the walk you can remember all your good friends and old enemies and send positive thoughts in their directions.
Simple training way for very busy people First of all, this is not a very effective way, it does have a minor benefits but compared to the 30 minutes rule or oppressing your habit for days, it is nothing. Point is to simply specify what you are going to do before you do it. Example: I am going to brush my teeth in sake of increasing my willpower And after brushing: 18
I have finished my task for increasing my willpower I know it sounds retarded, but it works. For the last part we should also share something practical, maybe a way how to suggest some action telepathically to another person could do the trick.
Telepathy suggestion Telepathy suggestion is a simple way how to develop some powers and how to gain some quick results. For practicing telepathy suggestion you need some person that doesn’t know you are about to suggest action to, preferably turned back from you. Look at the back of skull of the subject and keep repeating in your mind: “You have to turn back at me. You have to look at me. You must turn back”. At first, subject will start getting nervous. Subject will slowly start looking around and after a while, subject will look at you. Never start this exercise when you cannot finish it and never stop till you get the result. Interrupting action in the middle is a huge shock for your willpower and next time, it will be harder to get results. In opposite case, every time you practice this exercise, getting results will be easier to you.
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