u/PhilosophyPlane1947

In relation to the post about the critique of Chaos Magick. For me, that's the difference between practitioners who will get long-term results and those who will only get a glimpse.

You are free to change your mind (I do this a lot, people changed my mind too ofc), but if you say something you aren't prepared to defend as you say it, and you instantly "paradigm shift" to feel more comfortable against other currents, you are just a conformist who found in the system (yes, chaos magick is also a system) a shelter. Speck of the dust that is thrown by forces instead of making forces your little bitch.

I’ve become interested in Crowley’s idea that you can impose your will remotely through astral projection. It could be done by spellwork, of course, but I desired to do it very regularly and precisely, and this method would be inefficient for that purpose. So I had to learn astral projection.

I did my research on resources, but the books I found didn’t resonate with me, so I decided to engineer it myself. I must first say that I am proficient with meditation and visualisation, so if you can’t remain still and stabilise energy, then it is not for you. But using this method, I got decent at it relatively fast. 

The first belief I had to overcome was, considering my intended use, whether the thing was real or just a hallucination. So I decided to do this with my eyes open. My HGA told me that if the astral perception feels more real than what I see with my physical eyes, then I can’t argue with it. It worked. 

While learning how to exit the body, I used a rope for visualisation. I was able to separate pretty quickly, but my issue was that any distraction pulled me back into my physical body. Feeling cold in the spine, a thought arising, or noticing something with physical eyes - all of this broke my belief that I was actually astral projecting.

I needed some anchor for this belief to hold. I realised that we possess different types of bodies, and awareness within them can be perceived independently. I discovered we have:

1. Physical body - no explanation needed.
2. Energy body (later I discovered people refer to it as the subtle body) - for me, it is contained within the physical body; I believe other people can experience it differently.
3. Mental body - this one is the trickiest. For me, it is like a small sphere hidden inside my body that changes size, while at the same time being this very large sphere outside my body. When I try to grasp it, it changes for me. 
4. Astral body - it is a bit larger than the physical body, translucent but noticeable

We probably have other types of bodies as well, but for now, this was enough as an anchor.

As I mentioned earlier, any distraction pulled my awareness of my astral body back into my physical body location. It was probably some defence mechanism from my subconscious. After establishing anchors, my subconscious calmed a bit, and my astral body was no longer instantly pulled back into my physical body; instead, it was slowly drawn towards it. 

So when I felt heat in my heart chakra, I could feel it and even become distracted for a moment, but my astral body would remain close to the place where I “left” it. And then I was able to focus on my astral body, bringing back my attention to this part of awareness. The same applied to thoughts, and to physical movement if it happened involuntarily. All I needed was to realise that my awareness can be divided into different parts that can act independently.

While I wasn’t reading anything solely focused on astral projection, I was influenced by reading these books:  Visual Magick by Jan Fries, Magickal Revival by Kenneth Grant, Six Ways by Aidan Wachter, City Magick by Christopher Penczak, Complete Guide to Witchcraft by Raymond Buckland, and Shaping Formless Fire by Stephen Mace.

Hope someone can find it useful. 

I started checking the songs two years ago, and for the third time, there is one "witchy" song. For people from the US who may not know, it is a song contest where European countries compete.

Currently, the representation of Yin/Yang as the Goddess and the Horned God speaks to me. The former didn’t fully resonate with my subconscious. I will try taking these symbols.

What other elements could be useful? I’m generally drawn to witchcraft right now. I’d really like to hear the opinions of people who were Wiccans or who successfully incorporated parts of this tradition into their practice.

Inspired by a comment that misunderstood desire as simply wanting something.

"Desire" originates from the Latin dēsīderāre ("to long for, miss, or request"), which likely meant "await what the stars will bring" or "feel the lack of stars" (from de- "from" + sidus "star/constellation"). 

"Wanting" originates from 16th-century Middle English as the present participle of the verb wanten (to lack/be deficient), replacing the earlier form wantand. It stems from the Old Norse vanta ("to lack"), rooted in Proto-Germanic *wanatōną and PIE root *eue- ("to leave, abandon, empty"), signifying a deficiency rather than desire. 

Interpret it as you will.

I often see people refer to gnosis as just an “altered state.” That’s not quite accurate. It’s not just any altered state.

When you are in gnosis, you should feel your desire throughout your entire body. That's the famous "one pointness". It’s a moment when spacetime itself takes a break. After successful spellwork, reality shouldn’t feel the same. Sometimes, when I come down from gnosis, I find myself thinking, “What the fuck just happened?”

The method used to induce gnosis should also correspond to what you want to achieve. For example, why do people use orgasm to charge a sigil meant to find a job? Sexual energy is powerful, but it’s not something you have full control over. I came on a sigil once or twice, but only when the work itself had a sexual nature.

It doesn’t have to correspond perfectly - but if your intention has no connection at all to sexuality in your subconscious, then it’s probably not the best method. You should be at least able to visualise a method sexually. Crowley had his spirits born from actual man-woman sex, and that’s fine. But if you only treat it as an intense moment without deeper meaning, you probably need to revise your methods. 

Gnosis also doesn’t have to be a short moment. One of my favorite methods of inducing it is dancing. I don’t often use it with sigils, but more for spirit work. It can last anywhere from 15 minutes to even 3 hours. I did charge a sigil through dancing once, and it worked profoundly - but again, in my subconscious, dancing was strongly associated with that intention, even if it didn’t make sense to my conscious mind. 

Compare this to the 'New-age think positive' types who try to transcend aggression by pretending it isn't there. Often enough they lose the ability of expressing any emotion at all. How many 'white-lighters' can be loud, wild, spontaneous, joyous or gladly mad? How good are your chances to heal a disease when you cannot honestly admit that it exists?

It's the biggest trap in the New Age movement. It comes from a misunderstanding of the "frequency" tool, assuming you should vibrate only higher and higher. They often reject lower vibrations and thus lose what makes them human.

Thoughts?

Neither-Neither state can be described as a state of non-attachment to any belief. When I’m in Neither-Neither, I imagine a line before me that moves left or right, horizontally or vertically. This line can also shift into other shapes (e.g., <), but it must divide your perception into two pieces.

Let’s say I’m trying to exhaust the desire to manifest a candle starting to burn with my will alone, without using any physical fire source. One side of the line is me accepting that I lit the candle, the other side is me accepting that I failed. Maybe it flips vertically, so I only feel the fire without the candle actually lighting. Maybe I see the fire clearly, but it will be only in my imagination. You move through every possible outcome, and when you truly exhaust desire, the line disappears completely, leaving you at peace with every outcome.

The key is not to think through scenarios with the mind, but to feel as if they have already happened. You may notice that, deep down, some outcomes make you feel different than others. Don’t judge that. Simply observe how your body reacts.

If done correctly, it removes any lust for results. You have already lived through every possible outcome of the spell. There is nothing left to wonder about. You have accepted failure and accepted success. After that, you can induce gnosis to perform the spell.

Questions?