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Relaxation
This exercise in the Astral Workbook is meant to prepare those who have never astral traveled before. It's for loosening up and relaxing enough to 'let go' of your other self.
Begin by regulating your breathing. Relaxation is a physical function. Your muscles use oxygen extracted from your bloodstream. Your bloodstream, in turn, extracts that oxygen from the air you breathe. By regulating your breathing, you increase the oxygen available in your blood, your muscles extract the optimum amount and are far happier to relax for you than they might otherwise be.
If you have studied yoga, you will know there are all sorts of complex breath-regulation techniques. But the one I want you to try is very simple. It is called 2/4 breathing.
What it comes down to is that you
1. Breathe in to the mental count of four...
2. Hold your breath in to the mental count of two...
3. Breathe out to the mental count of four...
4. Hold your breath out to the mental count of two.
It sounds simple and it is, although I should warn you there is a bit of a knack to getting it right. (You will know you have got it right, incidentally, when you begin doing it without thinking.)
The rate at which you should count varies from individual to individual. Start by synchronizing it with your heartbeat. If this doesn't work, play around a bit until you hit on the rhythm that is most comfortable for you. Get your breathing comfortable before you go on to the second part of the exercise.
Once you have established a comfortable rhythm of 2/4 breathing, let it run for about 3 minutes, then start the following relaxation sequence. (If you can hold the 2/4 rhythm while you do it, that's great, but chances are you will not be able to do so at first. In this latter case, just start your session with three minutes of 2/4 breathing, then go back to normal breathing while you carry out the main relaxation sequence, then take up 2/4 breathing again when you are nicely relaxed.)
Concentrate on your feet. Wiggle them about. Curl them to tense the muscles, then allow them to relax. Concentrate on your calf muscles. Tighten and relax them. Concentrate on your thigh muscles. Tighten and relax them. Concentrate on your buttock muscles. Tighten your buttock and anus, then relax them. Concentrate on your stomach muscles, a very common tension focus. Tighten then relax them. Concentrate on your hands. Curl them into fists, then relax them. Concentrate on your arms. Tighten them rigidly, then relax them. Concentrate on your back. Tighten the muscles, then relax them. Concentrate on your chest. Tighten the muscles, then relax them. Concentrate on your shoulders, another very common tension focus. Hunch your shoulders to tighten the muscles, then relax them. Concentrate on your neck. Tighten the muscles then relax them. Concentrate on your face. Grit your teeth and contort your features to tense up the facial muscles, then relax them. Concentrate on your scalp. Frown to tighten the scalp muscles, then relax them.
Now tighten up every muscle in your body, holding your entire body momentarily rigid, then relax, letting go as completely as you are able. Do this final whole body sequence again, then again - three times in all. On the third time, take a really deep breath when you tense the muscles and sigh deeply aloud as you let the tension go. You should be feeling nicely relaxed by now. If you abandoned your 2/4 breathing at the start of the relaxation sequence, pick it up again at this point.
Close your eyes and try to imagine your whole
body getting heavier and heavier, as if it were
turning to lead. You will find your visualization
increases your level of relaxation still further.
Enjoy the sensation of relaxation for the remainder
of your session. But stay vigilant. Should you find
tension creeping in anywhere (and you certainly will
in the early days) don't let it worry you. Just
tighten up the tense muscles a little more, then
relax them. Use the technique regularly until you
have trainer yourself to relax totally any time you
want to."
The proper method is as follows: Develop the body of Light until it is just as real to you as your other body... Ultimately, the relation of that body with your own must be exceedingly intimate; but before this harmonizing takes place, you should begin by a careful differentiation. The first thing to do, therefore, is to get the body outside your own.
To avoid muddling the two, you begin by imagining a shape resembling yourself standing in front of you. Do not say: 'Oh, it's only imagination!' The time to test that is later on, when you have secured a fairly clear mental image of such a body. Try to imagine how your own body would look if you were standing in its place; try to transfer your consciousness to the Body of Light.. Your own body has its eyes shut. Use the eyes of the Body of Light to describe the objects in the room behind you...
As soon as you feel more or less at home in the fine body, let it rise in the air. Keep on feeling the sense of rising: keep on looking about you as you rise until you see landscapes or beings of the astral plane. Such have a quality all their own. They are not like material things -- they are not like mental pictures -- they seem to lie between the two.
Now, however unsuccessful your getting out
of the body may apparently have been, it is most
necessary to use every effort to bring it properly
back. Make the Body of Light coincide in space with
the physical body... then recover the unity of
consciousness. If you fail to do this properly you
may find yourself in serious trouble. Your Body of
Light may wander away uncontrolled, and be attacked
and obsessed. You will become aware of this through
the occurrence of headache, bad dreams, or even more
serious signs such as hysteria, fainting fits,
possibly madness or paralysis. Even the worst of
these attacks will probably wear off, but it may
leave you permanently damaged to a greater or less
extent.
- Prepare the work area and magick circle; decide exactly what you seek on the astral plane.
- Before going into a light trance, use herbal fluid condenser to draw the symbol of the Moon Boat (a crescent) with your finger.
- Control breathing and go into trance.
- Imagine yourself growing smaller and finally small enough to enter the mirror.... Feel yourself being drawn into the mirror's portal.
Inside, you encounter a beautiful moonlit shore, above you is a star filled sky and ahead is a dark sea covered with rolling mists. There, waiting for you upon the sea, is the moonboat you have created for yourself. Step aboard and relax as a silken sail rises. Each time you breathe, the sail fills with your breath. You begin to float and glide swiftly and silently across the dark sea. There is nothing to fear in this calm seascape. Travel deeper into trance and further across the sea until you reach another shore....
Step ashore and experience the new land. Note the details of the landscape and how you feel about being there. Mentally call out to your astral guide and wait for her/him to appear before continuing on. When your guide approaches, greet her/him, and explain what you seek. Follow where the guide leads and take notice of all sensations and images.
When you feel that your needs have been met, thank your guide and return swiftly to the moon boat. Step aboard and return the way you came. Return slowly to your physical body and begin to see through your physical eyes again. You will remember all you saw and felt on your journey... write it all down in your scrying journal.
