FuRTHER AsTRAL TRAVEL
The following exercise is less complex than the last, yet may feel more
risky. I recommend doing it a little bit at a time, practicing for five or ten
minutes your first few times, and then working up to actual journeying.4
After you read through the exercise, I will offer suggestions for which parts
to use as practice.
Prepare yourself and your space for this working. Gather some candles,
or a lamp with diffused light. You want the room quite dim. You will also
need a small dish of water, some water to drink, and some food, preferably
protein and starch. As I stated in the chapter on North, sugar is definitely
not recommended, as it won't replace any of the fuel you will use on this
JOUrney.
You should have a soft blanket to cover up with. When the spirit is
journeying, the body can become cold, and if the blanket is too scratchy,
it can act as a physical irritant to bring you back into your body before you
are ready. Before you begin, you should align your Triple Soul both as a
way to make your journey easier and as a form of protection on the astral
planes. Your working will be more successful if you are centered, whole,
and aligned. You may cast a circle and call the Guardians if you wish. As
a matter of fact, if you are first learning this work, formal casting is
advisable.
41 have adapted this work from notes from Victor Anderson and the Night Hares teaching covrn
(Tom Johnson and Willow) and frnm my own years of training.
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Lie down in a comfortable position in a dimly lit room. Imagine the contents of the room
clearly, the rug, furniture, paintings, where the door is . . . Now imagine that you hold a
heavy weight in your right hand. Feel it there, solid and real. Now imagine that there is a
helium balloon tied to your left hand. Feel the lightness and buoyancy as your hand gently
rises. Feel the contrast between the weight and the lightness. Let these go. Now feel the heaviness of your physical body and the lightness of your spirit body. Feel your spirit body begin to separate out from the physical. First, let your spirit hands and arms begin to rise. Then
feel your head and torso follow, until your spirit body is sitting up. Now allow your spirit
body to stand up out of your physical body. Let your spirit body begin to travel wherever it
wishes to go. Notice that at first, you can see the room you started out in, but it now glows
with an aetheric light.
You begin to move, perhaps rising to fly, perhaps walking with ease through this space between spaces. Choose a destination, perhaps the next room, or a journey down through your neighborhood. Notice what you can see and what seems different from regular physical vision. Let your night senses open and let your psychic eye take in this new iriformation. Once you have journeyed a short while, begin to feel the tugging of your physical body as it calls
to you. The iron in your blood calls you back to your physicalform,jor you are human.5
Let yourself flow back toward where you began, journeying through all the places you passed
on your trip outward.
As you near the room where your physical body liesJeel it calling to you more strongly.
Enter the room. Look down at your physical feet. Prepare to enter back into your body,
slowly, gently, and easily. You will remember everything you did on your journey. Slowly
enter, dropping gently back into your physical form. Feel yourself enter your feet, your hands,
the back of your skull. Ease on down. Once you feel yourself fully in, take a deep breath
from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet. Slowly open your physical eyes. Wig-
gle your toes and fingers. Pat your chest and belly. Dipping your fingers in the bowl of water near you, splash some on your face and rub some on the back of your neck, to make sure you are all the way in. Say, "I am body and spirit, emotion and mind, present and whole,
-'Victor also suggestrd krrping somr iron, such as an iron nail. on your altar to call yourself back.
powecs Above: Risin<s und oceumin<s
225
this instant in time." Sit up. Drink some water. Massage your feet and tug your earlobes.
Eat some food to fully reground you in your physical form.
To acclimate yourself to this practice, begin by going through the technique up until the point where your spirit body is sitting up. Then let the spirit body lie back down into your physical body. You can do this several
times, easing your way up and down, until you become used to the sensation.
If you are engaging in the suggested daily sitting practice, it will be of
great help to your astral travel. If your mind tries to engage you with a
nonessential worry while you are on your journey, your sitting practice will
have taught you that you don't need to clutch onto the thought. It is just
can move on past, not interfering with your travel. If you have not been sitting, your thoughts may actually grab you and plunge you back into your physical body, causing your journey to come to a jarring end. Sitting quiets your attachments to your mind, it quiets your body and, done long and often enough, it eventually quiets the rate and vociferousness of the thoughts
themselves.
Journev to the stur goddess
We have already met the Star Goddess, Quakoralina, she who is source,
Mother, God Herself. Once you have practiced the basics of astral travel,
take yourself on a journey to meet her.6 You should prepare your space according to the instructions in Further Astral Travel, gathering food, watt•r, and whatever else you need both to be comfortable on your journey and to
return fully.
6) worked on this journey with F<·ri pri<·st Tom Johnson of Night Hares.
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t:uolutionafv witchcfaft
Align your Triple Soul. Breathe deeply. Relax. Let your spirit self leave your physical self
behind. You are floating. You are flying. Out to the stars and the spaces between the stars. You
are going to the places where stars are born. As you journey,jeel the iron in the stars calling
to you. Feel �koralina calling. You journey closer and closer to her, noticing the universe
around you as you travel. As you approach her, notice how you feel, what you see and sense.
You are getting nearer and nearer. She is vast. Source if all. You are drawn closer to her. Wbat
is she like as you approach? Let yourself bask in her presence. She can nurture your soul. She
can give you insights, gifts, and healing. She is pure abundance. Float in abundance for a while.
You will notice that you, too, have the power to give. Your spirit body begins to generate gifts
for the Star Goddess. See them float out from you, toward the Mother. Did you know you
had such gifts in you to give? Within her sphere if abundance, all is made, and all is possible.
It is now time to return to your physical home from this, the source if your soul's birth.
Thank �akoralina and begin to move back from this place where stars are born. Moving
easily, you retrace your journey. Let your spirit self travel back. Notice all the places you
passed on your way out. Has anything changed? As you draw in closer, you begin to feel the
iron in your blood calling you. Return to the room from which you began. See your body in
front if you. Begin to float down, slowly and easily. Gently. Sink back into your physical
form: into
your feet, your legs, your hands. Nestle up against your spine. Fill your flesh with
spirit. Relax. Gently fill yourself, sinking all the way in. Take a breath from the crown if
your head to the souls if your feet. Open your eyes. Rub your belly. Splash some water on
your face and pat your whole body. You are home.
Lookin<s up ut the skiJ
We have traveled beyond our physical bodies on a journey to the Star
Goddess. We can also have a relationship with our physical universe while
remaining firmly in our bodies, standing on the ground. We do this by
opening to our connections with the phases of the moon and sun in its
seasonal dance. There are tides within our bodies that respond to the pull
of the moon and our emotions respond to the waxing and waning of the
powers Above: Risin� and nceumin�
22 7
year. Setting ourselves into alignment with these forces can help us remember that we, too, are part of Nature, not separate from or above it. It is all around us and within us, too.
A Witch attempts to be in tune with the cycles of Nature. As creatures
of Nature ourselves, we are affected by the sun and moon much as arc
plants, animals, or the tides. What happens to you when the earth obscures
the sun? Or when the earth's shadow falls upon the moon? Begin to notice
the sun phases where you live. Winter and spring in Northern California
are quite different from winter and spring in Delaware? What are the signs
you read that tell you when one season is flowing into another? When do
you start to feel the strength of the sun? That is the time to begin putting
plans into action. Begin to tune into the phases of the moon. When you
look in the night sky and see that the moon is on the wane, you may want
to take time to cull-old habits, thoughts, or piles of paper!
We can work with the Gods of Feri according to season or moon
phase. The monthly moon phases also translate out into the larger year.
Your work with the Gods and with your intent can use both cycles to complement the work you need done. Place yourself and your own cycles, emotional and physical, in concert with the cycles of the natural world.
Though Quakoralina, the Star Goddess, and Melek Taus, the Peacock,
can help us during any phase, I have given them a place in these cycles to
illustrate how you may want to work with them.
Moon Phases
Waxing Moon: What do you want to draw in? Call upon Nimue and Dian y
Glas for help.
Full Moon: What do you want to acknowledge as manifest in your life? Invoke
•
the fertile powers of Mari and T wr.
7You may want to reference the Witchts' Almanac (Witches' Almanac Inc.), which comes out in tlw
spring of every yt·ar, or the Old Farmrr:< Almanac (Old Farmer's Almanac), available in tlw filii.
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Bvolutionun; witchcraft
llilning Moon: What do you want to cleanse and clear away? Draw upon the
•
wisdom and decisiveness of Anna and Arddu.
Dark Moon: Catch your riflection in the mirror of QJ.takoralina or travel through
•
the dark eyes of Melek Taus. See the beauty in blackness.
Sun Phases
Spring into Summer: What have you planted that is growing? Nimue and Dian
•
y Glas show you the first rush of creation.
Summer into Fall: What are you growing and readying for harvest? Mari and
•
T wr embody the ripeness of mature strength.
Fall into Winter: What are you harvesting and what will lie fallow? Anna and
•
Arddu lend the ability to cut away dross and settle into rest.
Winter into Spring: What gathers together in darkness to be born? QJ.takoralina
•
opens Her arms to cradle you as Melek Taus shows you bow to join what bas
been separated: light with dark and potential with action.
Oriented in your body, on the earth, yet gazing at the sky, breathe in
your ability to expand. Breathe out and grow larger than you thought was
possible. You are connected to the multiverse, spinning on this planet you
call home. Get ready to reach down into the core of that home.
8
powers Below:
Li�htin� the nurkness
Enter the spaces below your feet; the worlds below your consciousness.
This is fecund space, where things grow in the darkness. Sink deeper.
Feel the heat. There are things that swim here in the flames that are
housed in the core of the world, the core of your inner spaces, where a
bright star burns. Our tool here is the cauldron, the bowl of your belly,
cradled in the bones of your pelvis. The cauldron: the Witch's tool of
transformation. Light the fire below, and see what is cooking: What
feeds you? Is it nourishing or poison? Light the fire within, let the dross
burn away, let things that live in darkness be lit by the shifting flames.
Gaze into the fire of the cauldron: What do you see?
fire burns deep in the center of the earth. Exactly what it looks like,
.we are not sure, but theory has it that it is hot iron, liquid and then
,
solid, moving, pulling in, condensing, and reacting. There is a fire in the
center of our selves. Exactly what it looks like, we are not sure, but meta-
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Evolutiono.rv witchcra.ft
physically, psychologically, energetically, I am betting it looks a lot like the
center of the earth, part molten, part solid, and holding gravity.
This chapter continues the work of expansion we began with the Star
Goddess, Quakoralina, and the Peacock God, Melek Taus. In it, we will examine our shadow spaces. These spaces might contain things we have pushed down within ourselves: old, unexpressed anger, childhood traumas,
feelings of inadequacy, a fierce desire that we don't feel we deserve to attain. The exercises in this chapter, coupled with the work we have already done, will help us to plumb these depths.
This is ongoing work. It does not and actually cannot be done all at one
time. You may wish to augment this work with counseling, support groups,
or a magical circle that gets together for the express purpose of helping
its members through this work. I remember how supported I felt to have
circle sisters holding magical space for me as I pounded on a pile of pillows, crying and angry, as old emotions were brought to the surface.
When patterns are hidden, they can exert a controlling force over us
that we are barely aware of. Brought to the light, we can see what they are
and work with them. The dark is powerful, not evil. Sometimes things
need to grow there, to gestate until they are ready to come out into the
world at large. Sometimes, however, we keep things hidden out of embarrassment or fear. The things we hold on to are human and sacred. Acknowledging that they are part of our lives gives us power. We can claim these dark powers instead of letting them claim us. We can learn to walk
at night without fear, for the night is part of our deepest selves.
In this chapter we will work with the cauldron as a representation of
the core fire. That energy will help us to face our fears, to claim our powers and responsibilities as warriors, and to gaze upon the unseeable.
powefs selow: Li�htin� the Dafkness
23 1
The cuuldfon
The cauldron is both a symbol a
nd practical tool. Witches were often portrayed as gathered around a large iron pot, cooking up potions and spells.
This represents Hecate's cauldron, the brewer of operative magic. Thr
cauldron also appears frequently as a source of inspiration, abundance,
and rebirth, especially in Norse and Celtic myth: the Dagda's Cauldron of
Plenty; Cerridwen's Cauldron of Wisdom that must be stirred for a year
and a day; Odhrerir, the Cauldron that holds the mead of poetry; the
Welsh Cauldron of Regeneration.
The cauldron is also a symbol of transformation-it burns old dross
and feeds new life. 1 It can be used to transform disparate ingredients into
nourishing food. The cauldron is my symbol of practical alchemy, where
solid matter joins with water and through the application of heat becomes
something entirely new. Like the transformative power held in the alchemist's alembic, the cauldron's power shows the beauty of friction, of the Pythagorean harmonic of two notes played together forming a third,
or the reconciling force of grace that rises from a yes met by a no.2 It is the
third road that leads to faery, the place of paradox.
We have the ability to hold disparate things, to hold them until thl·
very tension of the holding creates its own heat. Then something new can
emerge within us. The cauldron also holds the flames of change, the power
of the phoenix, the power of the great Below and the shifting earth, the
power of the great star that heats our core, creating the possibility of lite.
1Using the black mirror as a tool of Above and the cauldron as tool of Below comes from my own
work. Though these concepts are used in Feri, they are not earmarked as tools of thrse dtn·,·ttoll.d
spaces.
25ee the work of G. I. Gurdjieff filr information on thr Third Force. thr Rrconnli11g that ari"·'
from holding both thr Affirming and Dmying. Srr Pythagorean Harmonics f(H· a similar id,·a.
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Bvolutionun; witchcraft
Are we open to that life? Can we let things burn, becoming fuel for a new
desire? Can we burn for truth?
cookin� Lies into gifts
Alchemy is the art of blending disparate elements in the hope of creating
a new substance. There is a cooking process that ensues here, a degeneration and transformation of the original ingredients. From this grows a new substance that was hidden as a seed in the original elements. The following technique uses the cauldron as our alchemist's alembic to metaphorically "cook" what we throw in. In this exercise, the pot holds the flame inside, rather than resting on top of a fire.