chapter 1

Sarasvati

saraswati

Usually she can be found by the sacred river’s edge, or floating on her lotus, her black hair flowing down a moon-white sari, the air alive with the mellifluous music of her vina. Saraswati’s fingers on the strings cause golden ages to arise, and when she ceases from her craft, civilizations fall and the universe is diminished.

She sits in mantric meditation, a crescent moon upon her forehead, bindi of light, drawing deities from her potent spoken spells. She crafts the notes into yantras, geometric shapes infused with Vedic energy. These she may give as rewards to her favorite poets, sages, and winsome minstrels wandering lost in the world of delusion, of Maya.

She will dip her admirers in the river of despair, blacker even than her pure black hair, or make them dance spinning into the mire; then on Hamsa, the pure white swan of infinite transcendence, she will glide to them, offering gifts.

A searing draft of inspiration to unclog the blocked channel; a suddenly discovered talent to the sensitive whose skills seemed useless; an iron will unto the genius whose mind kept slipping sideways, downward into matter, undisciplined. Thus will she hone her devotees to perfection once they have been baptized in her eternal waters.

Silver as moonlight she glides, a breath of fragrant hope floating above the tumultuous depths of ignorance; her gifts of speech, culture, and religious quest the rafts of our religious transiting.

Look! Beyond the river sits a gleaming city of many marvels—Saraswati’s citadel of astral gold, as yet uninhabited. A populace big enough to fill it must first brave the treacherous waters, following the Muse—and utopia will be theirs.

In the meantime, bards may sing and others dream of her promise, elevating thought and art, with every aspiration moving one step closer to fulfilment of Saraswati’s gifts, and of the soul’s sublime potential.

Aum Hrim Aim Kreem Saraswati Deviya Namaha

Saraswati is one of the Tridevi, or holy trinity of goddesses in Hinduism, along with Lakshmi and Parvati. She is Goddess of Supreme Wisdom, Knowledge, Language, and the Arts. In some scriptures she appears as a female counterpart or Shakti of Vishnu, along with his wife Lakshmi. In other versions she is wife of Brahma, God of Creation, sometimes his daughter, and occasionally both. According to the Matsya Purana, for example, Brahma creates Saraswati as he meditates upon pure goodness, doing this in different descriptions from his mouth, navel, or seminal fluid. The new goddess is so effulgently beautiful that he soon falls in love with her. Anxious to escape his amorous advances, the modest Saraswati positions herself out of his direct gaze. In order to view his creation, Brahma creates another face. Saraswati moves, and again Brahma generates new features with which to appreciate his daughter, eventually totalling five. At this point Saraswati flees to Shiva for protection; he promptly sobers Brahma by tearing off his topmost, or fifth, head—representative of ego. Contrite, Brahma resolves to bless his daughter instead of pursuing her, giving her the free-flowing assets of a river with the ability to irrigate the minds and souls of men; bestowing her with the ability to gift speech to mankind; and finally, having her reside within his very form, so that he might never stultify and always learn more.

At times Saraswati is paired with Ganesha or with a local god pertaining to the arts. Considering the great antiquity of Hinduism—its primary dissemination by shruti, or spoken word—and its spread over a vast continent as well as to other countries, disparities are not surprising. However, she is usually depicted alone, happily independent, belonging to no individual, just as the arts themselves belong not to their creator so much as to humanity itself.

Saraswati’s name means “fluid” or “flowing,” as is water that can be river or lake or rain; as is a spirit when joyful to be part of the universe, imaginative and inspired; as is good music, poetry, inspiration itself. She is also known as Vak, or speech: Saraswati offers the tools by which to reflect upon and thus understand one’s human nature, and its ultimate truth—all is connected and we are without exception each part of the Absolute. Thus her name also means “one who bestows essence of self.” In her aspects of Supreme Goddess of Speech, Vagisvari (she is sometimes said to derive from the five tongues of Brahma) and of Wisdom, Mahavidya, Saraswati is seen as the mother of the Rig-Veda; all of the scriptures are her metaphorical children. She also features in the Puranas as Goddess of Language and Linguistics, often foiling demonic entities through this medium. For example, at the request of the devas for help against the demon Kumbhakarna, Saraswati cunningly twists his tongue as he claims a divine boon, thus causing him to request “Nidra-Asan,” or sleep, rather than “Indra-Asan,” or the seat of Indra. When the god-hating demon Rakshasa has undergone austerities and is about to claim a boon from Brahma, Saraswati again steps in and causes him to say, instead of “nirdevanta”—let there be no gods—the subtly different-sounding “nirdratva,” or “let me sleep.” He promptly falls into a slumber from which he can awake only once every six months. Thus, Saraswati is a goddess of precision in execution, of absolute clarity. Her tricks demonstrate the dire consequences of speaking carelessly, and the spell-like properties latent in each syllable, each seed-sound.

Presiding over language and its articulation, Saraswati is also matron goddess of theater and thaumaturgy; of enlightenment through entertainment. Playwrights, actors, and all involved with the arts appeal to Sarawati for divine inspiration. The knowledge and skill she provides are yogic—that is, they unite body and spirit, opening the psychic constitution to be filled by the waters of the Divine. This in turn channels spiritual bliss and potential liberation. In contrast, many of the arts associated with Lakshmi are commercial, pleasurably time-wasting, and are subsequently deemed impure from a Brahmic standpoint, although Lakshmi when worshipped in her entirety also offers wisdom and morality. However, it is Saraswati who denotes moksha-patni, the arts that generate liberating wisdom. This in turn leads to skill and all sorts of self-development that can help harness wealth, symbolized by Lakshmi: although popularly depicted as rivals or antitheses, Saraswati and Lakshmi can in fact bring highly complementary elements.

In the Rig-Veda particularly, the oldest of the Hindu scriptures, Saraswati features as a river goddess, thus denoting fertility, free-flowing spirituality, and the purity and life-giving properties of water. Later on her fertility came to be regarded as primarily cerebral rather than physical; she is the spring of inspiration, imagination, and creativity, as well as of language and learning. In the Rig-Veda, the river Saraswati runs a now-arid course parallel to the ancient Indus, from the Himalayas northwestward to the sea. The present-day river associated with her, the Sarsuti, runs a quite different course: the “drying up of the Saraswati river,” on whose banks the Vedas themselves were most likely written, could either be taken literally, or as a metaphor regarding the drought of spiritual wisdom of this era, the Kali Yuga. Debate continues as to the exact location of the river this goddess once personified; aerial photographs have recently been revealed of what some scholars deem to be its original course before India’s territory was divided as it is now; opposition to this theory is inevitably political as much as scriptural.

Whatever the case regarding her geographic embodiment, the now-independent Saraswati’s connection with initiations and religious experiences is clear, as is her affiliation with all water, or spirit, which flows to earth from the heavens, and with the concomitant hydraulics, which require intelligent study to apply and which are symbolic of all fruitful endeavor. In the Vedas, India is sometimes referred to as Sapta Sindhu, land of seven rivers; of these, it is the Indus river which later gave the word Hindu via the Greeks to the populace of its latter-day banks, and the word India to Bharat.

As well as acting as a territorial border, the crossing of a river denotes the oft-troublesome transit from old circumstances to new, and bathing of course represents rebirth; as such Saraswati also presides over healing properties and processes. She is a baptism-epiphany goddess, and guards over the processes thus engendered.

Saraswati is also a source and upholder of emotions such as nostalgia, hope and inspiration—essential ingredients of any musician, bard or artist. She is the Muse herself: music, poetry, and scholarly success are amongst the boons she can bring. She improves memory, and is approached for aid in study and educational issues. Chanting her mantras can improve learning skills and fend off mental deterioration and senility. She is widely worshipped in India as Goddess of Culture and Learning, her spiritual presence in schools and universities being equally vital to that of the teachers, books and pens—and nowadays, computers—that are venerated in conjunction with her. Her associations with sound and meaning make the singing or chanting of mantras an especially beneficial manner in which to approach Saraswati.

Saraswati represents the essence and meaning of the Vedas; thus all knowledge, sacred and secular, originates from her. Naturally she is honored as mother of Sanskrit, most ancient, holiest and wholly spiritually precise of languages. Riding Brahma’s white swan, Hamsa, she glides above the murky imperfections of the material (earth) plane, the graceful epitome of purity, intelligence and transcendence. She is divine eloquence. The creation of all the worlds and their inhabitants is accredited to Saraswati and Brahma during their celestial honeymoon, a singing into being of multiple thoughtforms through sheer joy and playfulness, which, like Lakshmi’s lovemaking with Vishnu, lasted many ages.

Saraswati is also Mataji, the divine mother of her devotees, the homely and nurturing aspect of copious Hindu goddesses. Even the ferocious Kali is often approached as such, and will indeed respond favorably to the trust her “children” necessarily invest in her. However, where Kali represents necessary destruction and dissolution, Saraswati, rarely fierce and ever-dreamy, preferring the power of the word over that of the sword, personifies creative intelligence. As such she is represented as dazzlingly white, clad in a moon-bright sari—a luminary in the world of dark ignorance. Because she is instigator of the arts, she is matchless in grace and beauty, an expert in the endless variations of the celestial dance. Her name reflects the lucid, luminous, liquid qualities of her form and movements.

When depicted, Saraswati sometimes has one face and four hands; sometimes five faces, eight hands, and three eyes; and on occasion, in her Mahasaraswati aspect of Durga/Parvati, she also sports a blue neck. Her first four hands hold a vina (lute), aksamala (rosary), padma (lotus flower), and pushtaka (book). The other four clutch a sankha (conch shell), chakra (discus), trishula (trident), and ankusa (elephant goad). The rosary is illustrative of spiritual sciences: yoga, meditation and mantras. In Saraswati’s case it is often made of pearls, white as Indian moonlight in autumn, one of her seasonal attributions; sometimes this is substituted with a crystal mala: another type of beaded prayer-chain or “garland”. The discus shows that she is not without defence: a chakra properly thrown is a formidable weapon, and the same may of course be said of the trident. The chakra also incorporates into Saraswati’s repertoire of human excellence the dimension of physicality and athletics. She is a balanced goddess, quick to indicate the proper and timely use of our skills to further human development—hence also the elephant goad, provoking this symbol of heavy, dense matter swiftly in a specific direction, overruling it with intelligence. Lord Ganesha uses the same tool to remove obstacles from the path of Dharma. Worshipped in schools and universities, the attribution to Saraswati of these tools of self-improvement makes perfect sense.

The lotus flower represents the unfolding of all life in perfection, and its microcosm, the individual crown chakra; while the lute demonstrates creative rendition. Conch shells represent alertness and the act of listening, as well as having obvious aquatic associations. Saraswati’s noose suggests that we may hang ourselves by overindulgence in one area or talent; that life is finite so no time to waste, and suggests the self-eliminating impulse experienced by many creative and spiritual types who find themselves helplessly mired in the maya-matrix: the mundane, illusory world. Overcoming the challenges of the Dark Night of the Creative Soul is itself an initiation.

The peacocks by which Saraswati is often accompanied are beloved of the Hindu pantheons and particularly sacred to Krishna, gentle god of love and attraction; they carry a double meaning. In one sense peacocks are regal and beautiful, their plumage apparently featuring the all-seeing eye; they symbolize the full glory of spiritual practice and the opening of the ajna and crown chakras particularly. In another, they have long been associated with ostentation and the dangers of the material world, primarily of pride, and their piercing screech and unattractive feet have upheld this dichotomy. However, the self-aggrandizement and ignorance that they can symbolize would of course be held well in check by a divine entity, so they keep their tails closed in the company of Saraswati, aware of the wisdom of humility. We should not “display” our knowledge for its own sake, or in order to outshine others. Their beauty is intense, however, as a reflection of the divine: “The Pride of the Peacock is the Glory of God,” as poet-artist William Blake put it in Proverbs of Hell.

Saraswati is often depicted with a swan, representing the ability to glide over the murky waters of imperfection; or with a goose, a bird reputedly able to separate milk from water, or spiritual truth from falsehood.

Thus Saraswati is the civilizer, the impulse to evolve, taking humanity step-by-step from cave to computer, from clodhopping to Bharatanatyam (Indian classical dance), from flesh-tearing brutality to intelligent discernment and finest cuisine (again aligning her with Lakshmi, generally deemed a more materialistic deity: but both are needed). She would rebuke, however, any insular extreme—hence one of her symbols being the noose—expressiveness and unity of mind, body and spirit are paramount to her criteria, just as in any good school’s curriculum: mindfulness, meditation and respect for the sacred should be taught along with the sciences, humanities and arts. All that unites profound thought and learning with spiritual intuition and creativity, lies in her domain.

Approaching Saraswati: Preparation

Saraswati presides over evening prayer, and early evening is an appropriate time to approach her; the fuller the moon the better, as Saraswati is said to “shine like many moons” herself. She is sometimes described as being smeared in sandalwood paste, so sandalwood incense is beneficial in evoking her.

Saraswati’s puja is celebrated in early spring, thus buds and spring flowers, especially yellow ones, will also help to create the environment conducive to this goddess. A bath with lotus or ylang-ylang oil should help you relax and get you on the right wavelength. Light candles of white and yellow, and contemplate the perfection and unsullied beauty you are about to encounter; listen to some relaxing music as you prepare (preferably mantras, kirtan, sitar …). Appreciate the skill, both spiritual and practical, that went into its composition. One would be nothing without the other—we all know of music that is emotional drivel, or conversely, empty melodic structures; this balance is one of Saraswati’s major facets. In her, the practical is elevated by higher feeling, and high-flying ideals are earthed through skill and craftsmanship. She is the force that brings the strands of interlacing harmony to the mind of the musician, who listens and writes, or plays them spontaneously. She is the music of the spheres, an audible sacred geometry. Consider how poetry, sculpture, and innovative art spring up whenever she is near.

Meditation on AUM is the ideal start to these exercises.

When you have relaxed, surrounded yourself with pleasant scents, and performed your preparations, meditate on the “aum” sound for as long as it takes to get fully in the mood.

You are now ready to encounter Saraswati on the inner planes.

Exercise for Inspiration

Sit comfortably on your floor, chair or bed, keeping your spine as straight as possible. If you are a yogi/yogini in training (or actual) and can manage lotus posture or some other suitable asana, all the better.

Having laid the mantric foundation with the “aum” sound, you are ready to progress to recital of one of the simplest and best mantras for balanced creative pursuits: that of “aum kring kring kring.” Strictly speaking, this should be chanted (or mouthed while mentally chanting) at least 108 times, counted out on a rosary/mala. Completing the mantra will guarantee your success, so it is well worth setting aside the time to see it through. It will also create a mood conducive to the following visualization.

Start all the exercises by assuming the posture most comfortable to you but which won’t induce sleep, and draw a few deep breaths. Golden light is pouring into the top of your head. Be aware of your chakras, starting at the tailbone and rising up; of your state as spirit made manifest. Gradually, the chakras begin to turn and whir, and as the speed increases, so does the light flowing into and from them; at first slowly, dimly, like a lamp in fog; then brighter, sharper, more effusively. Continue this process until the light-producing motion is firmly established in your mind’s eye, your body is shining with colour, and preferably, until you can physically feel the glow.

Now, mentally link the pulsating, growing energy of your tailbone area with the zone above and between your eyes.

Breathe in deeply and out deeply, aware of the base chakra’s light beginning to seep upward as you do so.

Next, deliberately and firmly pull this red energy up your spine toward your third eye area. Notice how the two types of chakra-energy combine to form a deep reddish-indigo. Your base chakra continues to spin brightly, infused with the purple color from your third eye zone. Now your base chakra, spine, and pineal gland are all glowing with a vibrant indigo-red.

Holding this color strongly in your mind’s eye, take a deep breath of light and imagine you are traveling in lotus posture over a vast purple sea whose waves shimmer in a thousand hues of purple and red, creating sharp and subtle colors you would never have thought possible, so subtle, diaphanous and multidimensional are they.

The sky in which you are levitating is also purple, but a deeper, more intense shade punctuated from time to time by passing distant moons—silvery-white orbs whose light seems to make you travel faster and higher. You can change speed and direction with a flick of the switch of will, but at the moment you are happy to be traveling through such a beautiful astral space on your way to supplicate the great goddess Saraswati.

After a while you begin to perceive thin silver cords around you, invisible to your outer vision, but you can feel them growing thicker; reminiscent of the strings of a lute. They seem, on closer inspection, to be vibrating with infinitely pure atoms of skilfully plucked sound. There are many of them being sounded at once, and you are traveling faster still into the heart of this symphony, your vision sharp and senses rejoicing in this astral wonder.

Now, call to Saraswati.

Ask her to allow you to approach her in search of inspiration.

All around you are tiny atoms of pranic energy, vibrating very quickly and making you envision each as a universe in its own right. Your body is also charged with positive energy: the prana is permeating you even as you hang suspended in Saraswati’s sacred space.

Before you know it, a glowing white figure sitting serenely in a lotus flower is gliding toward you. You can see the tiny red light of her bindi from here, like a rose petal on snow. Gracefully you begin to fly toward her, still in lotus posture. Even as you think it you arrive, touching her feet in humility.

Saraswati’s hand alights on your crown chakra, sending vivid shots of energy into your brain and down your spinal cord. The purple sky, which you know is saturated with all the energy of all the universes, is being absorbed into your body via the top of your head, your ears, your mouth, and through the back of your neck, at the medulla oblongata.

Observe Saraswati, Goddess of all the Arts; and how she interacts with you. When you feel fully charged with creative ability and potential, thank her.

Wait for Saraswati to depart before you do. Never turn your back on her—social graces are important to this goddess—the same of course goes for all deities. Politeness will be rewarded, while rudeness and laziness are anathema to Saraswati, most cultivated and courteous of goddesses.

Observe everything you experience as she leaves and as you return, and when you do, open your eyes and immortalize the experience as a thank-you offering to Saraswati—write it as a story or poem; paint it; turn it into music or dance. Such a gift cannot fail to please the Mistress of the Arts.

Visualization for Self-Healing:
Aiding Transition and Change

Saraswati can also be approached for healing powers, for yourself and others, especially if the ailment is psychological and connected with trauma or maladjustment to change. Depression after a bereavement or agoraphobia as a result of an unwelcome move or loss of social status are examples of Saraswati’s potential healing domain. She helps us transcend our concerns and take a fatalistic overview—in its most positive sense. An advanced Hindu neither celebrates good nor bemoans loss, and is aware that circumstances on this plane are continually in flux and that pleasures and pains are merely transitory; in some respects, Saraswati embodies this belief. However, through Saraswati the intense experiences are not simply endured, but are sublimated into the arts; thus even the destructive becomes creative.

A visualization along this vein could bring you the necessary zest and courage to break out of a low period and try something creative and new; anything from learning a new language to writing a song or a poem. Saraswati teaches us that everything happens for a positive purpose, and she can help us cross that difficult river of change, be cleansed, and reach the shore in safety.

Sit quietly, shut your eyes, and mentally gather together all of your negative feelings about the situation you have been undergoing. Think of the things you would like to leave behind—those aspects of your life that have been hindering your progress. Bundle all of your hurt, disappointment, and reticence into a big black bag; take as long as you need to strongly feel and envision this process.

Now, visualize yourself standing at a river’s edge. This side of the bank represents your past, the river is the process of change, and on the other side awaits your new, liberated life.

Take the big black bag of woes and bury it by the water’s edge. Again, take as long as you need to properly complete this task.

Feeling relieved, if a little rootless, you resolve to cross the river to inhabit your new life. In you wade until you are waist-deep in water. Behind you is everything that has become obsolete in your life, and all of the negative feelings about the situation you have been enduring.

Notice how the ground feels beneath your feet: rocky, slippery, sandy. The water itself represents your present state of being, and it may be murky, clear, fast-moving, tranquil, or turmoiled; your inner eye will tell you how it is. Either way, you know that the stretch of river before you is very deep and that you are likely to have difficulty sustaining your direction. Can you make it to the other side?

For a moment or two, contemplate how you are going to cross. Think of all the good things waiting for you over there—your creature comforts, empathetic company, exciting new experiences. Try to feel enthusiasm for this future, even if only because it has to be better than your present situation. You will need to employ all of your willpower to help you across. Determine not to be washed downstream or deflected from your course.

You cast your inner eye around for something to help you reach the opposite bank. It looks quite inviting now, but there is a danger of being swept away if you forge any farther ahead.

Suddenly, you see a huge, brilliant swan floating down the river toward you. On its back is a woman in white robes, resplendent and smiling. Your main impression of her is a mass of flowing, fragrant, mellifluous light that is intelligent, compassionate, and divine. As she glides toward you, try to mentally connect with her and ask for her boons.

Explain to Saraswati why you are stuck. Describe the problem that initiated your depression or stultification, and emphasize that you are eager to reach the other side of the river and the new life that waits for you there. Take as long as you need for this prayer-like supplication.

When you emerge from your inner monologue, you find that a large lotus leaf is floating beside the white bird. With a swish of her slender hand, Saraswati invites you to climb onto the leaf. She tells you to concentrate on reaching the other side of the river. As you focus, you start to move.

You are aware that Saraswati is behind you, ready to help if any trouble occurs.

As you draw closer to the riverbank you notice a small temple with the aum sign painted on it, red against yellow. There is wonderful, strange music coming out of the temple, and its unusual architecture fascinates you. Its stained glass windows are amazingly crafted and intense, inspiring colors beam from the building.

When you reach the other side of the river, dismount and step with assurance onto the new terrain. You turn to thank the goddess, but she is gone.

Excited by the adventure and eager to explore this new land so full of beautiful intriguing things, you head for the temple in order to thank Saraswati.

No sooner have you thought it than your feet rise off the ground and you are delivered to the threshold, where a potent wave of billowing incense and vibrant sound engulfs you. Feel the Aum running up and down your spine, through your limbs, jiggling every atom of your body. In the smoky sound flash all kinds of colors; subtle and vivid shades, pulsating violet hues, and streaks of red and flowing blue.

If you are wearing astral shoes at this point, kick them off before crossing the temple threshold.

As you enter, you feel as if your body is being shaken by incredible mechanical thunder but welcome it, as you know it is breaking up the clay straitjacket of your previous monotonous existence and exposing the brighter subtle body beneath it.

Soon, you are feeling very light and agile and are impatient to explore this new land in your new vehicle. Find the shrine and pluck a candle, a string of flowers, or a cake from the ether; place it at the foot of the altar and thank Saraswati for guiding you into the next cycle of your incarnation.

Now, leave the temple and come back to your body. Remember that you are anxious to get out and experience all the wonderful things this new land has to offer. You will deliberately seek the unusual.

Open your eyes, and when you are ready, write down everything you have experienced in this visualization. Analyze it if you so desire: what or who did you see when you were looking for help to reach the other side? Does the water seem calmer to you now in retrospect? What were you standing on before you were rescued? Perhaps you will even start a dream-diary now—why not? The subconscious is a fascinating thing, after all; who’s to say that one reality is any more substantial or significant than another?

Academic Excellence: Preparation

Saraswati is the ideal deity to whom to appeal in the cause of academe. You may please her simply by appealing to her in a creative manner. Saraswati loathes sterile learning, but logical effort combined with passion and inspiration will gain her favor. The practical and the spiritual must combine. This is a cause particularly fitting to India itself, a country whose spirituality reputedly outweighs its utilitarianism. This imbalance was exploited in the time of the Raj, when India was invaded by those of the opposite makeup. As Jodh Singh ruminates in The Wild Sweet Witch, “It is true that we are impractical, visionaries, dreamers … it is because we put the spirit first and these Europeans always think of the material. This is why they are our masters, but the things of the spirit are more important, and there, they are children” (Mason, 88). Happily, Westerners are no longer in any way “masters” of India and its people, but we remain spiritual toddlers in comparison to even the most humble yogis of their number. In Saraswati we find the balance between these extremes of materialism and spirituality; a combination of the best features of each element.

The following meditation is simple, and is best performed in the morning before school, work, or on the day of examination. Lavender, tea tree, eucalyptus, or peppermint oil are excellent evaporated in the room or used in the bath prior to this exercise. They provide a mental tonic and are ideal when concentration is required.

Visualization for Academic Excellence

Sitting comfortably, imagine yourself inside a giant purple egg. This egg is Akasha, the symbol of all knowledge, the source of all understanding and revelation.

Chant mentally or actually the mantra “Aum Aim Kring Saum Saraswatiye Namaha” as many times as you need to get into the zone, 108 being the usual number for a successful Hindu mantra. As you sit there, feel the sharpness of your intellect, your keen desire to learn, and the spiritual presence of Saraswati, who presides over all educational matters.

Admire the deep, unusual purple that fills the air around you: in it abides every atom of creative intelligence ever extant, from the source of primitive building tools to the inspiration of Mozart. This is the origin of every theory on life, death, and the universe; every terrestrial and spiritual achievement.

Nearby, shelves heave with the weight of many books. A faint smell of incense hangs in the air; a hint of an arcane ritual that makes you contemplate the esoteric contents of the tomes. Underlying this is the scent of the books themselves; the pervasive library-smell of aging pages.

Feel yourself being elevated by visiting this sacred space.

Breathe in deeply, and concentrate on your crown and pineal chakras; connect yourself with this incredible pool of illumination.

When you breathe out, imagine the channels of your perception being cleared, creating an information superhighway of your mind.

Continue to breathe consciously in and out until the relationship between you and the Akashic information is firmly established and unquestionable.

Now, imagine your aura fired in purple, like a flame. You are becoming a luminary.

Your resolve is strengthened; you know your capacity to be infinite. You can absorb wisdom and inspiration through your crown chakra and third eye at will; the potential is limitless. Abide in this state for as long as you feel is of benefit, or as long as it takes to really believe this cosmic truth.

Return to the room braced and alert, and apply yourself methodically to your study or the matter in hand. This, combined with your awareness of higher things and a clever originality, cannot fail to aid you in the realms of creative academe.

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