Lesson 2
Meditation
Meditation is one of the most wonderful paths to gnosis because it leads to many other skills. So much of the witch’s way falls under the umbrella of meditation. Some people take the classes I offer not out of any interest in pagan religion, but to learn to meditate and develop themselves psychically. Modern science is now proving the benefits of meditation for stress control and overall health. Learning to quiet your mind and open up to your intuition is the first step to more major undertakings. Don’t let the simplicity fool you. Just because something is basic doesn’t mean it is always easy or doesn’t need to be practiced. To effectively command the skills learned in this chapter, you must practice them regularly.
The first step to a successful meditation practice is to make a space for it in two ways. The first is the outside space, a place in your home for you to meditate. By designating a physical space in your environment, you make a space within you for this change. One helps create the other.
To make a physical space for meditation, I suggest building an altar. An altar is a basic tool in the practice of witchcraft. An altar is just a workspace for your tools. As you progress on this path, specific ritual tools are placed on the altar, but at this point, you are creating a meditation altar. The tools you need are the ones that remind you of your path. Your altar can be a piece of furniture designated solely for this use, or a spot on your nightstand, desk, or bookcase. Choose a place for your altar that you can see when you are meditating. I started with a shelf across from my couch, where I sat to meditate. If you can use one room for only magickal practices, that’s great, but most of us lack the space, so the room usually doubles as a magickal room and something else: office, den, living room, or bedroom. Choose a comfortable room, where you can mark out your own territory, if only a corner.
On the altar, place any items that make you feel good, including any magickal trinkets you have picked up along your path so far, such as candles, incense, statues, crystals, feathers, stones, tarot cards, and tree branches. Use anything that signifies magick for you. Arrange them in any manner that feels intuitively correct for you, and change this arrangement as often as you like. Let this altar be a focus for you. Every time you walk into the room, you see it and are reminded of your meditation practice.
You don’t need these tools or an altar to meditate; the meditation itself is an internal practice. These physical tools can help you develop a regular practice and serve as a reminder. By building a practice in a regular space and at a regular time, you develop good meditation habits. If you cannot set up an altar, do not let that stop you from meditating.
Mark your meditation times with a simple ceremony, a “tuning in” process to delineate this time as different from your normal, day-to-day life. Start by lighting a candle on your altar. Use a white candle until you learn the significance of other colors. If you like incense, burn some. Certain substances help create a sacred space for meditation and ritual. They do this by “raising the vibration” or spiritual energy of a room. Most are also known as substances of protection for this reason. Frankincense and myrrh are favored by the witches in my coven. You will soon associate these scents with meditative and magickal work. Then say a simple intention to set the stage for the space. Your intention could be formed like this:
“I ask in the name of the Goddess and God to receive my highest guidance in this meditation.”
Or:
“I ask the Goddess and God to protect and guide me in this meditation.”
Such statements are programming yourself and your space with the experience you wish to have. Intentions of protection, guidance, healing, or experiences for the highest good are best. Clarifying for your “highest good” requests that the experience be guided by your divine, higher self, rather than your ego.
Now sit down comfortably before your altar space. Posture is important. Don’t strain any muscles. Everything should be comfortable and relaxed. Wear loose clothing. Some people wear special meditation clothes. This can help shift your mind from daily life to a meditation practice, but it is not necessary. You can either sit in a cross-legged position, what people used to call “Indian style,” or if you are more flexible, a lotus or half-lotus position with your feet up on your thighs. The lotus position does not necessarily make for a better or worse meditation. Use a cushion for comfort and support. If cross-legged is uncomfortable, then sit up in a flat-backed chair with your feet flat on the floor and your palms in your lap or resting on your thighs. This position is sometimes called the Egyptian meditation style because so many Egyptian statues are found in this pose. You do not want to cross your arms, and unless you are sitting Indian or lotus style, you want to avoid crossing your legs, too. It tends to disrupt the flow of energy in the body, and I’ve noticed that those who do it have more difficulty. Your hands can be in your lap, resting on your thighs, or with one hand cupped in the other with your thumb tips touching. Traditionally, women put the right hand into the left, and men put the left into the right. You can also rest the wrists on the knees, palms up, holding thumb and first finger together. My student Alixaendreia presses the tips of her spread fingers together gently, in the shape of a tent, thumb to thumb, index to index, etc., with a space between the palms for her most powerful meditations. Each finger relates to one of the five elements, and she stimulates those energies with this hand position. She discovered it intuitively, but it is an Eastern mudra. Do what is comfortable for you. You can lie down flat on your back, if that is what is most comfortable, but be sure not to fall asleep. If you do find yourself falling asleep in meditation, switch to an upright position. Upright positions with a straight spine aid the flow and focus of energy.
Entering Altered States
Relaxation is the first step in meditation, and it is often forgotten. By preparing your body to meditate, you ease the transition from focusing on your outer reality to your inner reality. Sometimes all the body needs is permission from the mind to relax. Through relaxation, the magickal worlds open up for you.
Breathing is a big component of relaxation. The basic technique of meditation is to observe the breath. Breath is one of the ways to shift your consciousness. Deep and relaxed breaths lower your brain waves from beta into the lower states of meditation. Control of the breath, particularly through counting exercises, leads to a meditative state quite quickly. Just allow the breath to develop naturally and do not do anything that is uncomfortable to you.
Total Relaxation
1. Get into your meditation position.
2. Relax your body. Be aware of your head, from your crown to the back of your neck. Take a deep breath, exhale, and relax all the muscles in your head and neck. Relax your jaw. Relax your face muscles. Relax your eyes and forehead. Feel all tension drain away.
3. Take a deep breath, exhale, and relax your shoulders and arms, all the way down the arms, past the elbows, to the wrists, hands, and fingertips. Waves of relaxation melt away all tension and stress.
4. Breathe deeply and as you exhale, release all tension in your chest and lungs, your upper back, down your spine to the lower back, abdomen, waist, and hips. Feel them completely relax as all tension drains out of you.
5. Take a deep breath, exhale, and release all tension from your legs, starting in your thighs and moving down to your knees. Relax your shins and calf muscles, down to the ankles, feet, and toes. All the tension drains out of you.
6. Breathe deeply and relax. Enjoy the sensation. Scan your body as you breathe. Do you feel any remaining pockets of tension or pain? If so, imagine as you breathe in that your breath magickally reaches the tension anywhere in your body and takes the tension away as you exhale.
7. Relax your mind. Any thoughts, worries, or concerns from the day melt away and leave with your breath as you exhale. Don’t let them concern you any longer. Relax your mental body completely.
8. Relax your heart. Release any unwanted feelings, emotions, and memories as you exhale. Open your heart to the love of the Goddess and God.
9. Relax your soul. As you breathe, feel the pulse and rhythm of life that moves through you and know it moves through all things. Follow your inner light for guidance and protection.
Now add a visual focus to your meditative practice. Like focusing on the breath, turning your attention to an object is a focus for entering an altered state. The very process helps relax the body and deepen the breath. It builds your powers of concentration and clears out a lot of extraneous background noise in your mind. One of the first meditations I learned was to focus on the flame of a white candle on the altar. It is a simple exercise, but something I still go back to when I need to get in touch with my roots. You will probably find yourself coming back to this exercise even after you advance to other skills.
Candle Meditation
1. Start by lighting a white candle on your altar if this is not part of your regular practice. Dim the lights. Sit in your meditative state. Do exercise 7: Total Relaxation.
2. Direct your gaze to the burning candle. Do not stare intently, but face the candle with your eyes open. Let your focus soften.
3. Let the image of the candle fill your thoughts. Focus solely on the candle and stay in the moment.
4. Do not strain your eyes. If they are tired, close them, but visualize the candle in your mind. If visualization is difficult, alternate between opening your eyes and studying the candle, and then closing your eyes and re-creating the picture in your mind. This will help build your visualization skills. Do not worry if you have difficulty holding the image. Hold the idea of the candle in your mind. Relaxation with focus is more important than visual skill at this point.
5. Do this meditation for a few minutes at first and build to longer intervals. When done, close your eyes, rest, and relax.
You can substitute any object for the candle, re-creating it on the screen of your mind.
Inner visualization is another path into the meditative state, and many people claim it is the most powerful because the talent lends itself to many other magickal practices. You’ve learned how to feel and experience your own personal energy and the energy of a partner in previous exercises. You have some understanding of this invisible force. But our conscious mind has difficulty processing energy, or even understanding it. That is why we connect with the psychic and divine minds. The psychic mind can process psychic energy, but has difficulty translating the experience so the conscious mind can comprehend it. Our psychic self has to use a code that the conscious self can understand. This code is symbolism. Symbols can stand in for concepts and energy. Personal symbols are private messages from your own unconscious, your own psychic self, to your conscious self, as when we have dreams. General or universal symbols, falling into the realm of archetypes, is how the collective unconscious speaks to humanity.
Visualization is the process of using these symbols. Most people see in their dreams. Other senses may be involved, but dreams mainly have a visual component. Likewise, the easiest method to get a direction or command to the psychic mind is through the use of a visual symbol. Practitioners of magick have always studied symbols, from petroglyphs and ancient alphabets to dream interpretation and vision quests. The symbols of our collective and personal mythology are the ways to direct power. Those who understand the symbols and can project them, through intention, will, ritual, and, yes, visualization, tap into a power we all possess, but few use.
Visualization is a very effective and quick method of altering your consciousness. The advantage of this method is that your “psychic muscles” are activated and “warmed up” from the process, and will function more effectively in deeper meditations.
Counting Down to a Meditative State
1. Get into your meditative position. You can do exercise 7: Total Relaxation and exercise 8: Candle Meditation if you would like. Relaxation and focus before any exercise is great, but this countdown can also be used alone to get into a meditative state quickly.
2. Visualize a giant screen before you, like a blackboard or movie screen. This is the screen of your mind, or what is called your mind’s eye. Whenever you visualize or recall anything, or remember a person’s face or anything else, you project it on to this screen. You have always had it, but now we are going to give it some attention. Anything you desire will appear on the screen.
3. On the screen of your mind, visualize a series of numbers, counting down from twelve to one. With each number, you get into a deeper meditative state. The numbers can be any color you desire, drawn as if writing them, or appearing whole.
Now visualize 12, see the number 12 on your screen, 12,
11, see the number 11 on your screen, 11,
10, see the number 10 on your screen, 10,
9, see the number 9 on your screen, 9,
8, see the number 8 on your screen, 8,
7, see the number 7 on your screen, 7,
6, see the number 6 on your screen, 6,
5, see the number 5 on your screen, 5,
4, see the number 4 on your screen, 4,
3, see the number 3 on your screen, 3,
2, see the number 2 on your screen, 2,
1, see the number 1 on your screen, 1.
4. You are at your meditative state. Everything done in your meditative state is for your highest good, harming none. You are now counting down to a deeper, more focused meditative state. Count backward from thirteen to one, but do not visualize the numbers this time. Let the numbers gently take you down: 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. You are now at your deepest meditative state, your magickal mindset, in complete control of your magickal abilities.
5. From this point, you can continue on to other exercises and experiences, or meditate at this level for a while and bring yourself up, counting from one to thirteen and then from one to twelve. Gently start to wiggle your fingers and toes and slowly move to bring your awareness back to the physical.
6. Take both hands and raise them up over your head, palms facing your crown. Slowly bring them down over your forehead, face, throat, chest, abdomen, and then groin, and “push out” with your palms facing away from you. This gives you clearance and balance, releasing any harmful or unwanted energies you might pick up during your magickal experiences. Tell yourself:
“I give myself clearance and balance. I am in balance with myself. I am in balance with the universe. I release all that does not serve.”
7. Ground yourself as needed.
This exercise effectively takes you into a meditative state. Even if you have difficulty visualizing the numbers, hold the concept of them, if not the visualization, in your mind until it grows stronger.
In the first part of the meditation, we count using the numbers twelve and thirteen. Witches follow the natural cycles, particularly those of the Sun and Moon. The solar calendar is based on twelve divisions, like the twelve zodiac signs, and the lunar year is based on thirteen Moons. The Sun is associated with more masculine, linear, and logical thought, so during the active, solar twelve count, you are actively visualizing and controlling what you see on the screen of your mind. The Moon is linked with the intuitive, feminine energies, emotion, and mystery. During the lunar thirteen count, you do not try to visualize or control anything. Simply go with the flow of numbers and allow it to happen. Psychics and witches often rely on feelings and intuition rather than concrete visualization and direct messages. Doing both counts brings us into balance with the masculine and feminine energies within. Both are needed to make magick.
At the end of this countdown, you wave your hands down over your crown and over the front, vertical axis of your body, the chakra line. Chakras are spiritual energy centers in the body. We are primarily working with the third eye, or brow chakra, on the forehead between and above your two physical eyes. This point controls your sense of psychic “seeing,” visualization, and what many call the mind’s eye. During visualization, this chakra is more active. In fact, during many magickal practices, your energy centers activate, like taking a running car from out of neutral and into gear. They are always on, but in different states of activity, depending on what you are doing. Clearance and balance return these centers to a normal energy level to prepare you to focus your energy again in the physical world. It also helps detach any harmful, unwanted energies you may have come across in your magickal practices, returning you to a state of clarity and balance.
As we continue with further exercises and meditations, refer to exercise 9: Counting Down to a Meditative State to get into your magickal mindset. If you are not comfortable with a visual countdown, you can use the techniques of exercises 7 and 8 to begin meditation. Some people modify the countdown to suit their own needs. You can imagine a set of twelve steps that you are walking down, perhaps in a spiral staircase. This engages not only the sense of sight, but also the feeling of movement. Whenever you complete your meditations and exercises, always end with the last few steps of exercise 9, including counting up, clearance and balance, and grounding if necessary. These help prepare your senses to return to physical reality. The count up is a very important part of the process. Do not skip it just because you become aware of the physical world before you count up.
There are many meditations and exercises designed to help you access these psychic abilities and improve your skill at creating and holding visual images. The next exercise starts with a series of basic shapes (Figure 7).
Basic Visualization
1. Start exercise 9: Counting Down to a Meditative State to get into your magickal mindset.
2. Again, call up the screen of your mind. Imagine that it is like a board where you can control all the drawings. You can use any color to draw this set of shapes. You might find it helpful to physically raise your hand and “draw” the shapes in the air in front of you with your finger.
3. Draw a triangle on the screen of your mind. Hold the image for a few moments. Then wipe it away, like wiping away chalk dust. Again, you can physically move your hand with a wiping motion.
4. Draw a rectangle on the screen of your mind. Hold the image for a few moments. Then wipe it away.
5. Draw a circle on the screen of your mind. Hold the image for a few moments. Then wipe it away.
6. Draw variations of the triangle, rectangle, and circle. If you are comfortable with these three shapes, then move on to other, more complex shapes, like a diamond, parallelogram, pentagon, hexagon, and octagon.
7. If you feel confident with these two-dimensional shapes, try working with three-dimensional shapes, starting with the cube, box, and pyramid. Later, try more complex three-dimensional shapes, like the Platonic solids, such as a tetrahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron, or icosohedron. Do not be intimidated by them. Allow them to appear on the screen of your mind and hold the images as best you can.
8. Wipe all the shapes off the screen of your mind and clear it. Then ask for the energy and image of an orange to appear on the screen of your mind. See the orange before you, as if a real piece of fruit is hanging on an invisible tree. Take note of the color, and variations of color. Is it completely ripe?
9. Notice the texture of the orange’s skin, the curves and bumps. Reach out with your physical hands and pretend to grab it. The orange is now in your hands. How does it feel? Can you smell it? Peel back the skin. Can you feel the wetness of the juice on your hands? Can you taste it? Use all your senses.
10. Experience the orange fully. Then magickally visualize yourself putting it all back together, perfect and unbroken. Hang it back on the tree on the screen of your mind.
11. Thank the orange, and wipe the image away, erasing it.
12. Return yourself to normal consciousness, counting up, giving yourself clearance and balance, and do any necessary grounding.
If you practice this meditation often, you can skip the shapes, if you’d like, and start with the orange. Replace it. Use any fruit you like, or substitute other objects, like an egg, leaf, or crystal. Although you think you are visualizing an object, you are doing more than that. It’s like playing pretend, but you are not playing, you are actually connecting to the energy of an orange from somewhere in space and time. The orange was not physical, but it was real. You were reaching out to it and your mind made a little simulation of it before you, so you could observe it. If you try this exercise twenty times, you will probably get twenty different oranges, unless you have the intention to get the same one each time. Little blemishes and details you might not think to include if you were completely making it up will be there.
Affirmations
Affirmations are beneficial statements we make to ourselves, out loud or silently, to reprogram our deep levels of consciousness. You know that magick requires an alignment of the conscious mind with the psychic and divine minds. One of the methods of achieving this alignment is through meditation, quieting the inner chatter to bring this harmony. From this alignment, magick flows. When people start meditating, many are filled with a sense of accomplishment, while others are unsure if it is really working. This uncertainty can accompany disbelief, doubt, and fear. The root of these frustrations and fears is found in the subconscious, a connecting link to your psychic mind.
Humans are like vast, unlimited computers, capable of quite literally anything we set out to do. We are only limited by our programming, the directions, instructions, and images we contain. As individuals, we program ourselves, but use templates and programs from our family, friends, and society. Unfortunately, at the moment we do not live in the most life-affirming and optimistic world, and our self-programming can reflect that. Every thought and idea becomes a part of our overall programming. If we think we are unworthy, unwanted, or unloved, our self-esteem falls. Feeling confident and good about ourselves is paramount when using our magickal abilities. If our programming prevents us from feeling connected to spirit, our abilities are greatly diminished. When we try to connect to them, the blocks surface. When difficult feelings arise in meditations, at any level, we are attempting to clear through the blocks.
Clearing away the blocks through experience is important, but there is another way to tackle this problem: through direct, conscious reprogramming. Because every thought you have becomes a part of your new programming, consciously think new, helpful thoughts to replace the old programming with the new. Affirmations are the new programming. The idea of inner programming does not replace free will or conscious choice. We choose and create our own programming. Most of us have accepted a log of programming that is not of our own making. Now is the time to take back control and responsibility.
Daily affirmations are a great way to instantly reprogram the subconscious and gain greater access to our personal power. They can be done in meditation, to deeply implant them in your consciousness. They can also be done in a regular beta state with great effect. Here are some sample affirmations that have helped me and my students. This set is great to start out with to build self-esteem and a sense of connection to your own spirit.
I love myself. I love all others. I am infinitely loved.
I forgive myself. I forgive all others.
I am walking in the love of the Goddess, God, and Great Spirit.
Everything I do is for the good of all involved, harming none.
I am open to my highest guidance.
For those who have programmed blocks to their own prosperity, using these affirmations can help clear the way to great blessings.
I am successful and talented.
I am prosperous.
I have all the money and resources I need.
I am always in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.
I am joyful in all that I do.
This third set of affirmations is to open and awaken psychic abilities.
All of my senses are growing stronger every day.
I am safely opening and increasing all of my psychic abilities.
I am seeing psychically.
I am hearing psychically.
I am knowing psychically.
I am traveling psychically.
I am psychic.
This last set creates personal health and prepares you to take an active role as a healer. Healing is one of the highest skills learned in witchcraft.
I am completely healthy on all levels.
I am in balance and harmony.
I release all that does not serve my highest good.
I am safely opening my healing abilities.
Many of these affirmations are in the form of “I am” statements. The phrase “I am” is very powerful because it connects the affirmation to the highest quality of your being, your higher or divine self. The phrase goes back to an Old Testament phrase when the Divine, taking the form of a burning bush, says, “I am that I am.” You don’t have to be Jewish or Christian to use the power of these two simple words. In the kundalini-yoga tradition, a popular mantra is “Healthy am I. Happy am I. Holy am I.” In the Silva Mind Control Method, they use “Everyday, in every way, I am getting better and better and better.”
The “I am” statements are also in the form of what you want to create, rather than what you don’t want. An affirmation of health is “I am healthy” rather than “I am not sick.” In the latter, you are focusing on the word sick, and may be creating more sickness, even though that is not the intent of the statement.
Affirmations are often said a certain number of times. Sets of three are popular, for not only the pagan Triple Goddess, but for the conscious, psychic, and divine minds. Saying affirmations in sets of three, nine, thirty-three, ninety-nine, and 108 are extremely effective. Others prefer sets of four, for the four elements. The elements correspond to our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual bodies. Use what resonates most strongly with you.
In a way, affirmations are a form of magick. Once, when too sick to meditate or perform a ritual, I said the affirmation “I am completely healthy on all levels” thirty-three times in the shower, preparing to go to the doctor. I had a nasty case of the flu. By the time I dried off, I felt completely fine. I was not congested or lightheaded anymore. I went to the doctor anyway, and he said I should have come sooner to him, because it looked like my body had already fought it off. He assumed that I had been suffering for a week or two by my progress, and not just two days. That was my most immediate success with affirmations. Now, if it is possible to do this and heal the physical, think how powerfully affirmations work on your subtle mental programming.
Don’t feel uncomfortable doing affirmations. When you start them, there is a tendency to feel awkward or foolish. Let yourself feel that way—it will soon fade. Then get back to the affirmations, no matter how silly it seems. That is part of your programming. You are trying to dissolve feelings of self-consciousness so that you can be free to do whatever you want, whenever you want, without embarrassment. Once you start to see how powerful they are, you quickly overcome the embarrassment. The power of affirmations has made me rethink many song lyrics I sing over and over again, as well as using expressions such as “He’s a pain in the neck.” Your words literally create your reality.
Affirmations
1. Choose at least five affirmations from the previous lists, or create your own. Focus on which qualities you would like to bring to you. Memorize them as best you can, so you will be able to recite them in a meditation.
2. Start exercise 9: Counting Down to a Meditative State to get into your magickal mindset.
3. Once you are at your meditative level, recite each affirmation at least three times.
4. Take note of how you feel when you recite each affirmation. You may not feel anything at first, but you are subtly changing your inner programming. You may see things, or think of people or places from your past. Let the ideas flow in and out. Do not hold onto them, but remain aware of them. They can give you clues as to what issues need attention.
5. Return yourself to normal consciousness, counting up, giving yourself clearance and balance, and do any necessary grounding.
Instant Magick
Instant magick is the practice of putting your will into motion very quickly, using the power of visualization and attaining a light meditative state through the use of a trigger. There are many names for it: the power of creative visualization, projecting (because you are projecting your will into the future to manifest), or causal magick. It is a form of magick without deep meditation, ritual, or tools, and many discount it because of that, thinking “anyone” can do it so it is not “real” magick, but I disagree. Yes, anyone can do magick if they decide to, and the rewards of instant magick are by no means little. These seemingly insignificant acts help us reevaluate the way we create our own reality from moment to moment.
Such instant spells never cease to amaze me. When you start out in the practice of magick, it is easy to chalk success up to coincidence, even as you learn metaphysically that there are no real coincidences. Still, it’s a hard fact to swallow when most of us are told otherwise throughout life. If you are able to integrate this talent into your daily life, your results venture out of the realm of coincidence and into the truly amazing. You then learn to expect the amazing and live a magickal life.
Instant magick is projecting your will forward through visualization and specific intention to create an opportunity, lining up what seem to be coincidences. You do this by entering a light state of alpha, a meditative level where you can still talk, walk, drive, and carry on with everyday life. The sensation is similar to letting your mind wander for a moment, but it is not wandering. In fact, it is truly focusing, but only for a few moments. In those few moments, you state silently or out loud what you want to happen, or visualize it. You do not even need to close your eyes. Imagine it for a moment.
You reach your light magickal mindset through intention. By programming a trigger, you can reach this state no matter how stressful a situation is. There are many times in life when we need access to our magick and meditation skills, but circumstances do not give us the time, space, and quiet we are accustomed to having. The trigger helps us. It is like a post self-hypnotic command that says, “When I do some specific motion, I will enter a light trance state.” Triggers can be hand motions, gestures, words, or images that, when performed, help us reach our magickal mind.
Although you can choose any trigger you like, I suggest a simple hand position. I originally learned from Laurie Cabot to cross my first and second fingers to activate my trigger. She taught it as the basis of our expression “I’ll cross my fingers,” when we want something to happen. Children’s games associate crossed fingers with lying, and that root also probably comes from witchcraft, when the craft was associated with harm. I was surprised to find out that this position is actually a mudra in Hindu mysticism. Author Gurunam (Joseph Michael Levry) says, “If you need a favor, or have a wish, such as wanting a raise, all you have to do while asking for it is cross the middle and index fingers. . . This procedure balances your energy, thereby momentarily increasing your magnetic field for your desire to be fulfilled.”1
Other mudras that are potential hand positions for your trigger include putting the thumb and index finger together, putting the thumb and middle finger together, or even putting the thumb with both the index and middle fingers together.
Experiment in meditation and see what feels comfortable to you. The reason why I suggest simple hand movements is because grand and sweeping gestures attract attention, and you want to be able to do this when you drive and have a conversation with someone and not necessarily explain what you are doing. In Celtic myth, thumb sucking is a trigger for inspiration and wisdom, though I don’t suggest using it in public. Some use a specific word as their trigger into the trance state and a word to end the trance state. Use what feels comfortable to you. You do not necessarily have to vocalize the word to make it effective.
Once you program your trigger, you can use it for many different effects in your everyday life. Here are some of the more traditional ideas used by witches. I combine visualization with intent. Sometimes I ask the Goddess and God for my intent, silently in my mind, and ask that it be “correct and for the good of all involved.”
Accelerated Learning
Hold your trigger when reading a book, studying for a test, or listening to a lecture. The teaching will penetrate deeper and be more fully understood. When you need to recall the information, use your trigger again. Some people can re-create the pages memorized on the screen of their mind, and “look up” the answers.
Affirmations
Use your trigger when you do affirmations and you don’t have time to get into a meditative state.
Animal Communication
You can project your thoughts to animals, and receive impressions from them as well. Try “speaking” to a pet or other animals, and see if it responds. This communication is not limited to animals, but also extends to the consciousness of plants and even minerals.
Bending Time
Believe it or not, time, or our perception and movement in it, is not as immutable as you think. Next time you are running late and do not have enough time to get to your destination, use your trigger and imagine yourself getting there exactly on time. I’ve used this many times to get to jobs on time when running impossibly late. There is a joke that there is “real” time and pagan standard time, running about a half hour late. It does not have to be so, if you use instant magick.
Body Control
We have far greater ability to control our bodily systems than we currently use. Medicine is exploring this frontier through something called biofeedback control, but witches and shamans have known about it for a while. You can control your response to extremes in temperature and pain. The next time you are out in the cold, use your trigger and either imagine yourself warm or unbothered by the cold. I’ve tested it out on cold New England mornings waiting for the bus, and I’m very glad I learned this skill.
Cosmic Telephone Message
Cosmic telephone message is a quirky way to say you are leaving a psychic message for someone to call you. It is particularly useful when the person is out of reach. Use your trigger and think of the person you wish to reach. Leave a message, like you would on an answering machine, asking him or her to call you. Usually you will hear from the person in three days, saying, “I don’t know why, but I was thinking about you.”
Early Warning System
Holding your trigger with the intention of awareness in times of danger can keep you alert and prepared for anything. Although I am not advocating any speeding laws to be broken, I use my instant magick to warn me of police speed traps.
Guidance
As you continue with this training and explore the world of spirit guides, you can use your trigger to instantly make a connection to higher guidance and ask questions.
Healing
People have a remarkable ability to heal themselves and others. You can use your trigger and visualize yourself or the other person getting better, more healthy and vibrant. Other techniques will be explored later, and your trigger can help you access them instantly.
Internal Alarm Clock
We all have a biological clock. Our bodies know what time it is by the cycles of the day, and if we are in tune with them, we can know, too. My student Heather does not wear a watch. She does her trigger and asks Spirit what time it is, and gets an accurate time. I use my trigger before bed and visualize a clock with the time I need to wake up. I tell myself and my body that I will wake up refreshed at that time. Although I love to sleep in, I get up when I do this, feeling fine. It can also be used as part of a morning meditation, for those suffering from insomnia. When you wake up, set your internal alarm clock for the time you plan on going to bed, and sleep will come much easier.
Memory
Use of your trigger improves memory. Use your trigger when meeting new people, to remember their names. When you introduce yourself, think your name as you say it, so your new friends will hear and remember it on a deeper level.
Parking Spaces
My favorite trick of instant magick by far is visualizing a parking space near the door of my destination about fifteen minutes before arrival. Almost always, there is one. Don’t pick an exact space, but an approximate location. When I was going to a city college and working in a major urban area, parking was always scarce, but this little bit of magick proved very valuable. My friend Rich uses his trigger when driving on congested highways, to visualize a space safely opening up when he changes lanes. You can even use your instant magick to get unstuck from the mud or snow.
Protection
Enter your light meditative state when feeling unsafe and ask the Goddess and God to protect you from all harm. This activates your personal shield of protection. Call on your protective spirits. You need not know them to ask them to intervene for your highest good. You will learn more specific techniques of protection and how to meet spirits as we progress through the lessons.
Reduce Anxiety
If you have a tendency to get anxious under pressure, or stress easily, use your trigger and tell your body and mind to calm down. Use it for any performance situation, public talks, meeting new people, visiting family, and job interviews. Use your trigger if you feel road rage or need to cool down after a long day and can’t fully meditate.
Repairs
As our intention can heal the body, strangely enough it can also repair inorganic systems. I’ve used my trigger to visualize ailing cars, computers, and office equipment working. I even use it when signing on to the Internet. I know a crystal healer who successfully uses crystals on her car, so visualization on machines is not far-fetched. Usually this magick is a stopgap measure, but it can be more permanent. At one job, I was a computer-systems administrator, not because of my knowledge and skill with computers, but because of my ability to experiment and do magick. I think I kept the system running through sheer willpower, and after I left, I heard from my office friends that the system crashed and took quite a while to repair.
Traffic Lights
Another popular use of the trigger is to get traffic lights to turn green, but this can be dangerous. What if you switch a circuit that makes your light green without turning the other lights red? It is far better to start your journey and visualize all lights being green, getting you to your destination on time, than to try to “force” each set of lights to turn green as you approach.
Victory
Some feel this is cheating, while others think of it as using all the resources at their disposal, so I’ll let you make the call. Your instant magick can manifest your success at contests, sports, and games of chance. It is quite effective for dice games. I don’t necessarily consider it cheating, because everyone is projecting their will at the game. I know lots of people who are not witches who unknowingly practice instant magick. Since they don’t believe in magick, they call it good luck.
Weather Magick
When in difficult or dangerous weather, particularly while driving, use your trigger to project a clear and safe path for yourself.
You need not be limited by these examples. Just as I found special tricks to fit my lifestyle and needs, you will expand your instant magick into new areas. The most important thing to notice about all these acts is how mundane they are. I am not putting simple magick down; I am just emphasizing that the simple acts of life can be infused with magick. Your everyday reality is a vehicle for living a magickal life. Many people who follow a spiritual path resign it to a particular time when they are “being” spiritual, usually once a week at a service. Don’t think magick is relegated to a few special times a week when you sit down and prepare to do it. Witches weave the threads of magick, family, home, and world together because they are all parts of the web of life. Integrating your magick, and more importantly your magickal viewpoint, into your daily life is a very important step.
Although technically these simple spells should work for you regardless of your path or tradition, if you do see yourself on a spiritual path, I would suggest thanking the divine powers, the Goddess, God, and Great Spirit, for every gift, even those that did not occur. If an act of instant magick does not happen as you intended, there is probably a reason for it. Perhaps being late for work even though you tried to bend time might have prevented you from being in an accident. Giving thanks is a great lesson for any path, because gratitude opens up a whole new world of blessings.
Now that you have an idea of what instant magick can do, try this meditation to program your own trigger. This exercise should be repeated several times to ingrain the program into all levels of consciousness.
Programming Your Trigger
1. First decide on what trigger position feels comfortable to you. I suggest your first two fingers and thumb together or crossing your middle and index fingers.
2. Start exercise 9: Counting Down to a Meditative State to get into your magickal mindset.
3. Once you are at your meditative level, physically perform your trigger on one or both hands. I like to program both hands so I have a choice as to which one I use, depending on the circumstances. If I trigger both hands, I feel I go a bit deeper.
4. State to yourself, “I program this as my instant magick trigger. With this trigger I can instantly access a light meditative state and all my magickal abilities, for the good of all, harming none.” Say this statement three times.
5. When done, return yourself to normal consciousness, counting up, giving yourself clearance and balance. Ground yourself as needed.
When you hold this trigger position, you enter a light magickal mindset. When you need to get out of this state, release the trigger. The process is that simple.
Finding a Place of Power
One of the most important tenets in the traditions of witchcraft is the sacredness and power of the natural world. Making space for meditation in your inner reality by building an altar or shrine and then maintaining a practice is an important step. Another foundation stone in the process is to find a place in nature that is special and sacred to you, if possible. It does not have to be deep in the woods, but someplace accessible to you, to serve as another meditation spot where you can commune with the forces of nature as a pathway to yourself.
Some of your magick will seem easier or harder outside of the safety of your home because you are communing with all manner of new energies. This can be in a park, a trail in the woods, a beach, a stream, a lake, or someplace off the beaten path where you feel safe, comfortable, and relaxed. You may find such a spot as you continue your earth walking from exercise 6. Use common sense in selecting your area. If you are not an experienced camper or hiker, do not pick a place deep in the forest, far from help, in case you get lost. If you live in an urban environment and can’t find a suitable place in a park, then don’t worry, but the next time you are out of the city and in the country, try practicing your meditations there.
Make or find a shrine at this spot, even if it is temporary. You do not need to put candles or incense in your shrine unless you want to do so, but try sitting by a special rock or tree that helps you make this connection. Spontaneous psychic experiences have been known to happen when you venture forth into nature, in search of a place of power.
New Assignments
• Exercises 7 through 12—Complete and record your experiences in your Book of Shadows. Incorporate them into a regular routine at least three times a week, if not daily. Early-morning or late-evening meditation times are usually best, but do not meditate lying down in bed, or you will always associate meditation with sleeping. Sit up. Do exercise 12: Programming Your Trigger at least three times. Practice the orange meditation often, using all your senses. Use instant magick in your daily life.
Continuing Assignments
• Daily journal—Write three pages a day.
• Honor and recognize your intuition. Continue to ask it questions.
Tips
• Prepare your space and set the mood for meditation. If you would like, use some soft, repetitive music or perhaps a water fountain.
• Develop your inner narrator. Take the voice within you that may act critical and skeptical, and give it a job to do. Train it to be your coach rather than distract you. Silently tell yourself to relax your body and mind. Silently instruct yourself through each step of the meditations, as if someone were there to help you. If you get internal criticism, thank the voice for sharing, but kindly ask it to sit down and focus on the task at hand. This inner guide will help you become your own best teacher.
• Always make sure to count yourself down and count yourself back up. Always give yourself clearance and balance at the end. Always check in to see if you need to ground more after the meditation.
• Don’t rush. Relax and take your time. You can spend quite a while with relaxation and breathing before getting to specific exercises. Let your body and mind tell you when you are ready, and then count down.
• There is no real “getting there.” Some sessions seem deeper than others, but many students expect to feel “under,” as if they were at a stage-hypnotist show. There are many levels of meditation, and all of them are valuable. You can still be in a meditative state and have your mind wander. The alpha state is much like daydreaming, and when we daydream, our minds wander. When you recognize this, bring your thoughts back to the experience at hand. Don’t feel you are failing because your mind is wandering. Sometimes you are distracted by outside noises. That happens to everybody. You are learning to bring more focus and direction to your meditation time, but that takes a lot of practice. Witches are walkers between worlds, and must be conscious of both, but as you practice, you will begin to withdraw your senses into the inner world for greater lengths of time. Do not berate yourself when meditation does not fulfill your expectations. Bring your focus back and do your best.
• You shouldn’t fall asleep when meditating. If you do, reevaluate your sleeping and eating patterns, as well as your work habits. Take care of your physical body.
• Some people meditate better in the early morning hours. Others, like myself, meditate better at the end of the day, before bedtime. Experiment and find out which time, if any, is best for you.
1. Gurunam (Joseph Michael Levry), Lifting the Veil (New York: Rootlight, Inc.) 42.