Simple Exercises for Enhancing "Astral" Sight

I find that being able to "see" spirits, entities, energies, and etc goes a long way in assisting in magical work. The problem is, most of us aren't naturally able to see these things, and even if we were able, we'd have a hard time determining whether it's something real or just delusion (hint, 90% of the time, it's the latter).

A friend of mine also asked what sort of techniques can be used to learn to scry - and if it's good to learn scrying sooner than later. I said it was.

So with that, I think it's good to work on "astral" sight early on. Obviously if you are consistently doing the visualizations in preliminary exercises such as the LBRP, BRH and MPR, you are already starting to develop it. Here are some more suggestions.

Building the Astral Equivalent of the Room

This is pretty useful, and is especially important when you start doing evocation. You are more likely to see spirits in your minds eye, or "on the astral" than you are in full physical manifestation standing before you. Now, I'm not saying physical manifestation is impossible - but you have to figure that part out for yourself. This technique helps you perceive what energies and entities are astrally in the room with you. Any time I do an evocation, I always check the astral equivalent of the room.

To start, it's pretty simple. Find a room relatively free of clutter and sit in the center on a straight-backed chair. Face a direction of some significance to you. Golden Dawn people may face east, towards the direction of sunrise. Though sometimes, in the Golden Dawn system, you sit in the east facing west, to identify yourself with the rising sun). That's just one example though. Make sure you are comfortable, and then do some sort of relaxation and mental quieting exercise. I prefer to do either the Golden Dawn "Fourfold Breath" or Jason Miller's "Vase Breath" for a few minutes. Just make sure you have lulled yourself into a state where your heart rate is slower, your breathing is slow and steady, and your mind isn't racing at a mile a minute. By focusing on the breath, I find it also quiets all the background crap/chatter in my mind. I don't force it, of course. Any time my mind wanders, I just gently re-direct attention to my breath. You'll notice that's going to be repeated a lot here. DON'T FORCE THESE THINGS.

Once you are relaxed, close your eyes and begin to build an image in your mind of the room where you are sitting. Don't force it, just gently allow it to appear to you. It will become more detailed as you keep going. After a few days to a few weeks, depending on your latent ability, you should be able to get a pretty exact image of the room stored in your mind. At that point, you should start to notice a few things. You'll see subtle energies around the imagined version of the room. I tend to get the image in my mind of pulsating wisps of light and color, though people of a darker persuasion may see pulsating shadows (e.g. as described in Konstantinos's Nocturnicon and E.A. Koetting's Works of Darkness). Some may disagree with me, but I think they are the same damn thing. Once you begin to get this, you have built the astral equivalent of the room. Remember to briefly jot down all of your experiences in a notebook.

This is where the real fun begins - you may start to notice that there are outlines or shades of PEOPLE in the astral equivalent of the room. You may start to notice astral garbage - e.g. weird shapes, snakes coming out of the floor, balls of light that float around called 'sprites,' etc. Don't become alarmed - this stuff can't really harm you. Don't get too attached to any of these images either, just write down what you perceive in your mind, and let it be. Eventually, you will be able to do this with your eyes open, superposing what you see astrally in your imagination over what you see with your naked eye. Don't push it though - that will come with time. You also don't need to be able to do it with your eyes open for the next exercise - so don't worry if you can't. It will come when it comes.

Applying the Astral Equivalent of the Room To Simple Ritual

At this point - it might be a good idea to perform an invocation ritual, and apply these techniques. To start out, the LIRP (the INVOKING form, not the LBRP everyone and their mother suggests on the internet) is a good and straightforward suggestion. If you don't know the difference, it's pretty easy to look up in the first knowledge lecture (Neophyte grade) of Regardie's Golden Dawn. Then do the Middle Pillar exercise if that's useful to you, as this tends to get you in a good gnostic state if done properly.

Now, build the astral equivalent of the room as before, but also include the things you created in the LIRP. This would basically be the white circle, the electric blue pentagrams, and the archangels of the four quarters. Please note - I said "created." KNOW they are there, whether or not you can see them yet. As before, do this visualization gently, and let it come naturally - you might not be able to do it your first try. Thats okay! As with the previous exercise - you are doing this in your imagination, and keeping your eyes closed is fine.

Once you have this built up, try to see what else is in the room. Since you are invoking, you are bringing spiritual energy in - not attempting to keep things out. So what do you see? Are the archangels static pictures, or do you imagine them moving? Do you perceive any energies or colors radiating from the pentagrams and archangels? Is anyone else in the room with you? Are the entities that show up making any gestures? Do you get the impression that if you could "hear them," they'd be saying a sentence? If so, try to imagine what their voice would sound like. As before, write everything down. After each attempt. Since you opened with the invoking form of the LRP, you might want to close with the banishing form, especially if you start to see that things are "showing up."

Once you have noticed results with this technique, try using the ritual of the pentagram to invoke other elements (Air, Water, Fire). What changes in what you "see" in your astral equivalent of the room?

At this point, it's worth repeating the point that you should not become obsessed with any visions. Just write them down, interpret them if need be, and move on. You need a bit of a sense of non-attachment here.

This technique has greatly helped me with evocation. For example, when I evoked Lilith (see the blog from a few days ago), I had my eyes open, staring into the incense, and also build up the astral image of the room in my mind. Lilith appeared in the astral image of the room, but I could also see her outline in the smoke. Now, did that actually appear? It's hard to tell - a camera might have just caught me staring into the smoke like some stoned idiot - but when doing the ritual, when you've successfully merged the astral sight with the physical, to the evocator, it's real enough. That's what matters!

Eyelid Scrying

If you've been doing all of the things I suggest up until now, congratulations, you are already scrying!! Specifically, you have been doing a closed-eye form called "eyelid scrying." Read anything by Benjamin Rowe, and that's usually the technique he recommends. One of the most fun things when you learn to scry is not just seeing the stuff in your room, but adventuring to other planes of existence. I'd recommend the tattwas of the four elements. It's pretty easy to do. Grab Regardie's Golden Dawn for reference and make one of the tattwas in the correct colors out of construction paper. Then, do the LRP (invoking form) + MPR in your chamber, and stare at the tattwa card. Eventually, usually after about 30 seconds to a minute, you will notice a "glow" around the edges of the shapes. At that point, put down the card and stare at plain white paper. You will see the tattwa, but in it's complementary colors (this is a trick of the eye). Close your eyes, and imagine this inverted-color version of the tattwa. Then vibrate the divine names of the element (these are the same names on the Golden Dawn elemental tools). If you feel you are not in a relaxed enough state, you may wish to vibrate the divine names 4 times each.

Now - imagine you are going through the tattwa as a door. If you could see on the other side, what would you see? Just bring the first thing you imagine into focus. This can take time - if you are having trouble, just KNOW something is there and don't worry about *seeing* it. What would it look like if you could see it? Would it be a landscape? An entity? As you start answering these questions, you slowly, but surely, WILL see something. At this point, your vision has begun. If you see an entity, be sure to test it. I gave some techniques in a previous blog on elemental invocations for scrying that provide a framework for testing entities. Have fun with it. Don't forget to write everything down, and close with the banishing form of the LRP. Try all four tattwas. Generally - when I scried the elemental planes, I'd get a landscape first, then a figure which I tested and identified as an elemental or daemon (not to be confused with Demon - those are a lot nastier!). Then, it would guide me through various parts of said landscape, where I'd meet other entities that I could test - these often included the angels, elemental kings, and archangels. Just remember - like when you were scrying the astral version of your ritual chamber, don't force it. Let things build gently and naturally. And remember to write everything down.

Mirror Scrying

Eventually, you'll probably want to move beyond eyelid scrying into something that can be perceived to be more objective. In this case, it's very similar to the experience I just described with Lilith - you see that something should be in the mirror in your minds eye, and your real vision reciprocates. That doesn't mean that what you are seeing isn't real. Very often, when scrying or doing evocations, entities will tell you things you couldn't have possibly known. Or you will ask the entity to help you with something, and they will do it. Remember - the key is to repeat the experiment many times, just as a laboratory scientist would, and note the results. As Aleister Crowley said, "Let success be thy proof!"

So how to mirror scry? Generally, I think calling upon entities to teach you helps with this. So ignore the people who say simply stare into the mirror every day until you finally see something. That's just an exercise in frustration, in my opinion. Some useful scrying teachers for me have been the Enochian Luna Senior of Water, LAOAXRP, the governors of the Enochian aethyrs, and the master angel of the Enochian watchtowers, EHNB. Another entity that has helped me vastly in recent weeks is a Neptunian intelligence named Mepsitahl, first mentioned in Konstantinos's Summoning Spirits. Mepsitahl comes from the Sephirah Chokmah, and is ruled by the Archangel Raziel. Even black magicians love Mepsitahl, as is evidenced by E.A. Koetting's Works of Darkness, who recommends calling her to help you learn to scry in a mirror. When I worked with her, I used Koetting's methods, which simply involve staring at her sigil and repeating a short conjuration. Working with her was the first time I literally saw a face in the mirror. She wears aqua robes, and has a headband with a bright aqua jewel over her third eye.

Regardless of what entity you choose, simply call them by whatever means you choose to work with until you know they are there - only this time, don't imagine them with your eyes closed. Project your imagination of them onto the mirror. Even if you can't see them with your naked eye yet, know their presence has filled the mirror. Thank them for coming, and then tell them you have called them to learn how to better hear and see them in the mirror. Perform any visualizations they suggest. One way to know you are on the right track with mirror scrying, is the surface of the mirror will start to cloud over as your eyes unfocus. This is the first step towards looking beyond the mirror, and not just in the mirror.

A last thing of note - some people recommend Poke Runyon's "facial distortion" technique. In this, you stare at your face in a black mirror until it gets distorted, with the idea that it will turn into whatever entity you are calling. I'm not a fan of this because I can't get over the distraction my own face provides. Call it lack of mental discipline if you want, but I always feel like I'm just going back to seeing my reflection - and honestly, I've seen visible manifestations in the mirror using the methods I outlined above.

The set up I use is to have the mirror angled so that nothing is reflected in it (it's pure black), and I have two black candles at either side and slightly behind the mirror so their light doesn't reflect. I like using black candles, because white candles are too bright and become a distraction. If you are working with Kabbalistic entities, it might be a good idea to have candles with the color of the Sephirah you are working with (e.g. Blue for the Archangel Tzadkiel of Jupiter).

Well - that about sums it up. Remember - scrying is fun, and is an adventure. You are seeing and visiting other worlds, and communicating with entities from those worlds. Show some respect, be a good tourist, and don't forget to enjoy yourself!