use to you in this world you have created. Don't underestimate my ability. When my aura reaches out, I gather and communicate simultaneously, or I hide information. Whatever you need me to do, I am able.
Capable. Read me. I will read you. I will speak and connect you to others. I am smart and wish to be respected. I work best when aligned with the other parts of soul.
Now that we are firmly ensconced in Sticky One and have acclimated ourselves to raising life force, we can use that life force to charge up Shining Body. Shining Body includes our aura, an energy field that creates an egglike shape around us. This energy field is the first line of communication we have with the world. Shining Body includes the intellectual mode of
communication, yet this is not the whole of this part of the soul. The int cllrctual forebrain is helpful, but it is also easily disconnected from the
56
Bvolutionufv witchuuft
body and emotions. Getting in touch with the rest of the functions of
Shining Body gives the intellect a helpful context within which it can fi.mction more effectively.
Your first way of gathering and spreading information is psychically,
through the use of your aura. I ask urban dwellers who insist they have no
psychic facility, "You ride the bus, don't you? Don't you know how to 'read'
the other passengers? Don't you know how to take up just the right amount
of space and know when you are impinging too much upon someone else,
or they on you?" That sense is you, using your Shining Body to communicate with the people around you. Shining Body listens and senses, adjusts itself, communicates out to others, adjusts itself again. The more aware of
it you become, the better you can communicate, and the more information
you will have to work with.
Over time, the exercises for Shining Body will enable you to be more
fully present in all of your communicating centers. The following tools
widen attention and help to engage the body and all of the senses. I find
that life becomes clearer, fuller, and livelier when my Shining Body is engaged. You may find that communication improves because you will be more connected to the world around you and less locked inside yourself
alone.
SHINING BoDY D EVOTIONAL DANCE
To get acquainted with Shining Body, let us try to enter it physically
through Devotional Dance. This movement can help you discover the
edges of Shining Body, and it can charge it up, clean, and polish it all at the
same time. I love doing this in a group of people and looking around to
see how sparkly everyone suddenly looks. If you are doing this at home
alone, try to sense the difference in how you feel yourself and how you
mvoca.tion: Reco<snizin<s the nivine within
5 7
perceive the world around you before and after you do this movement.
Again, as with all the dance in this book, do not do anything that causes
physical pain. Let us begin.
Standing upright,Jeet comfortable, knees scft, not locked, notice where your spine is, and
check the alignment cf your skull on top cf your spine. You may wish to tilt your pelvis
slightly forward, to allow your spine to float more freely upward, in a straight line.
Bend your knees slightly, sinking down. They will move up and down at their own rate
as you do this movement. Now, begin a long inhalation with the backs cf your hands together,jmgertips facing down around pelvis level. Raise your hands in a straight line up your belly. They will begin to separate around chest level, when your elbows should be straight out
to your sides. Let your elbows rise with your triceps and upper arms, drawing your hands
up in a line in front cf your face, until they separate completely above your head as you look
up. All cf this has been one fairly quick motion done on that inhalation. Now drop your
hands slightly, to cup behind your ears, and push them up to the sky on a big, short exhalation (we'll be using the rest cf that breath shortly). Imagine that this clears all the centers cf your communication: your ears, eyes, nose, throat, and mouth.
Let your hands sweep down, slightly cupped and facing backward, arms out,Jorming a
curve as you bow your head forward, bending slightly at the waist. Your arms sweep all the
way behind you. Imagine an oval cf energy, arcing out from your hands' trajectory, with
you standing inside it. This motion happens on another big exhalation. The movement as a
whole has one big inhalation up, a short exhalation to clear communication, and a second
exhalation to describe and cleanse the arc cf your auric egg. This second exhalation, along
with the sweeping cf your hands, serves to "throw" the energy back over your head. You
your body (yet staying in their natural place on the sides cf your body, not crossing in fron�,
and then throwing that energy back up behind you, so it swings over your head again.
Start back over with backs cf hands together, drawing the energy up, then clear your centers cf communication and throw the energy with your arcing hands so it sweeps down and then over your head, like a wave. This motion and breath, done repeatedly, will clean your
58 · BvolutionQrr; witchuQft
shinin� sodv Devotional Donee
muocation: Recocsnizincs the oiuine within
5 9
Shining Body and revitalize it, charging it with the energy stored in Sticky One. Once you
have slowed this movement into stillness, stand again with one hand on your heart and one
on your belly. You should feel sparkly, clear, and clean.
Use this movement any time you feel that your energy is stuck or you
need greater clarity or better communication. By engaging the Sticky One's
stored energy, Shining Body becomes clear, clean, and connected, less myopic and more alive.
DEEP, ExPANSIVE ATTENTION
This exercise enables us to become more aware of the power and skills our
Shining Body has. Done over time, it can balance our energy, expand our
level of attention, and create a still space for us to think and act from. 12
The first time you try this exercise, it may be easier with your eyes
closed. Tape yourself reading the meditation, or have a friend lead you
through it, slowly. You will eventually be able to do this with no outside
verbal aids and with your eyes open, which is a more useful way to go
through our everyday lives. This is a potent, ordinary, everyday technique.
It should eventually become as easy as breathing, and require little time
and effort to achieve the state of dropped and open attention. Once you
are familiar with this technique, it can be helpful in many situations, including leading ritual, walking down the street, or engaging in clear communication with someone. This is not a trance technique, but a tool for living.
12Reclaiming Priestess Cybele taught me "dropped and open attention" many years ago. She
learned it from aikido sensei Wendy Palmer, author of Tht lntuitivt Body: Aikido as CL.irsentient Practice
(North Atlantic Books, 1 994). This is my own variation.
60
Buolutionanl witchuaft
Sitting or standing in a comfortable position, with your body relaxed, spine erect so the
energy can flow, begin to breathe deeply. Imagine a ball of energy in the center of your head,
behind the area on your forehead that we call the third eye. This ball of energy is magnetic
and rotates.
Let all of your attention flow toward the ball, st
icking to it, gatberingfrom wherever it
bas wandered. Keep breathing and let the ball do its work. Once your attention is truly fixed
on this ball, imagine that it slowly begins a descent through the center of your body, dropping
your attention down and down. Let this ball of attention drop through your throat, past your
sternum, down into your rib cage until it rests, gently, just between your navel and your sex,
in your area of will, your center of gravity. For some of you this may be a bit lower,jor others a little higher. Stay with your attention here for a while, sensing what this state is like.
Begin to let the ball expand in all directions until it reaches the edges of your pelvic cradle. Pause there. 1j it feels too difficult to hold, let it ease back down to a smaller size.
When you are ready, let the ball of your attention increase out until it is the same size
as your auric egg. Feel what it is like to have attention all the way around, three hundred
and sixty degrees. You now have eyes in the back of your head. You can now let your aura
intersect with that of another, communicating.
Practice expanding this circle even further, letting it shrink back and then grow until it fills
a whole room. Eventually, this should become as easy as breathing. It is your attention and your
energy, not something you need to force. It may take practice. Be patient, and keep breathing.
Once you have done enough, let your ball of attention shrink, slowly, until once again
it fills your pelvic cradle. Let it grow smaller until it is once again the size at which you
started, resting in your belly. Now let your attention move to where it is most comfortable,
whether in the belly or back in your bead.
At first, you may find that your attention shoots right back up to your
head, or even out of your body completely. Do not be discouraged. This is
an exercise, a practice, and over time your attention may more naturally
come to rest in your belly and click in with your Shining Body. After years
of practice, I am able to gather and drop my attention on one breath cycle
a�d l'xpand it on another.
Invocation: Reco<snizin<s the nivine within
6 1
CREATING AuRA CoLoRs
This is an exercise I use all the time. You can try it first at home, to familiarize yourself with it. After that, you can do it in a meeting, when you have to speak publicly, or when you need to calm yourself down. I use it
especially when I am walking down the street and need to change my energy. For example, if I am walking home from the subway station at night and see a clump of drug dealers or gang members ahead of me, I make myself "invisible:' Using my aura, I adjust my energy so they pay no attention to me.
You may want to begin this technique by doing the Devotional Dance
movement that will clear and activate your auric egg. Then swing your
arms gently, twisting your torso so your arms arc around you. This will
also help you to sense the parameters of your aura.
Still yourself and take a deep breath. Feel your auric egg surroundingyou. lj you can't
feel it, just pretend. Imagine that it is there. On a breath, imagine that egg filling with yellow,jor clear communication. Now breathe out pink,jor self-love. Next, fill your aura with the green of healing energy. Now fill it with gray Jog, for invisibility. Let yourself change
colors at will. It doesn't take long. Hold each color long enough to really sense yourself surrounded by it. Once you have a feel for this, begin to walk around. As you walk, let your aura change color. Once you are done with this session, fill your aura with whatever color
you need right now. Bring yourself to rest, one hand on your heart and one on your belly.
The more you practice this, the easier it will become. Using aura colors can become both quick and practical: I can see and feel results as they are happening. As you grow familiar with this exercise, you can alter it to
fit any situation. I have taught it to activists who need these techniques
whether in the midst of a big demonstration facing riot police or at a
school board meeting. I used it to good effect in my years at the soup
62
Bvolutionun; witchuuft
kitchen. It helps in breaking up a fight or listening to someone who is in
pain. I can change my aura to calm and soothe the situation. I can make
myself larger if necessary, when I am intervening between two angry sixfoot-tall men, or I can soften into a more comforting presence. You can also experiment with this technique in ritual, or during storytelling, enhancing the texture and range of your Craft.
sucred nove
I am deep within you, and I float above your crown, like a dove. I am all
wisdom, connected to the wisdom of the Sticky One. I am in tune with
all connections. I am one with everything, ancient. I see with eyes that
open on the inner worlds and into the worlds beyond. Trust me. Pray to
me. I hear you. I am ancestor. I am inner divinity and deep voice. I am
that which draws you and is drawn. I am Goddess, and I am with you.
Through me, you connect with other Gods and link with mystery. I am
your guide, your inner guide. Feed me. Tell me your troubles. I will hold
you and heal you. I am your deepest soul.
We have explored the two parts of the soul that are perhaps most easily explained and experienced. Using these as a basis for understanding, we are ready to link with our own divine nature, called Sacred Dove or the
God Soul.
Sacred Dove is traditionally seen resting just above the head and is
sometimes pictured as a ball of blue light. 13 When you see a Christian
icon, or a painting of the Buddha, you will often see Sacred Dove repre-
uvictor would sometimes tell me to "turn on my porch light and see who's there!" referring to the
Sacred Dove's ability to sense disincarnate beings. A similar concept is found in Kabbalistic writi,ngs: 'The lamp of God is the neshama of humankind" (Zohar II:99b on Proverbs 20:27).
Invocation: Reco<snizin<s the oivine within
6.3
sented as a halo. It intersects the auric egg, either physically kissing the top
of the crown chakra, the energetic opening that communicates to God, or
beginning just at the base of your skull (see illustration, page 48). Thus it
touches all of your parts: the physical body, the aetheric body or Sticky
One, and the aura or Shining Body. Sacred Dove is connected to all, even
to things one cannot know consciously.
Sacred Dove has the ability to distribute the energy stored by Sticky
One in the best, most efficacious way. When I need greater understanding,
or help with a situation, I breathe the problem up to my Sacred Dove.
Whereas Shining Body may talk, Sacred Dove listens, as is implied in the
embedding of sh'ma, to "hear" or "listen;' in the Hebrew name for this part
of the soul, neshamah.
Sacred Dove can also be enlisted to help others. When a person requests healing or help from me, I pray to my Sacred Dove, asking it to talk to the God Soul of the other person. This way my conscious forebrain,
which may have only partial information, isn't trying to make decisions on
its own, but is working from a state of connection. This gives new meaning to the Christian saying "Offer it up to God:' That is what you are doing, except in our case, divinity lies very close to you. It is the part of you that is made up of the divine spark, in mystic terms. It also helps when listening or speaking if my Triple Soul is aligned and all parts are in touch with one another, working in concert. Every situation can be improve
d by
this effort.
SAcRED DovE D EVOTIONAL DANCE
The following movement not only accesses my inner divinity, but with it I
can quickly raise energy to help set my intentions and power my magic. I
often use this movement as part of my morning practice, asking afterward
that I he open to my work and to the work of the Gods. I also use it as a
64
c:uolutiono.fv witchuo.ft
way to raise the energy needed to align my Triple Soul, sending a large
breath upward to Sacred Dove every fourth iteration. This movement can
serve to connect the divine within me to the divine outside of me.
Begin with your hands just below heart level. Do a slow inhalation as you move your
hands away from each other, inscribing an outward circle until your hands meet above your
head, arms comfortably straight, palms touching. Then, palms pressed together in a prayer
position, do a slow exhalation, bringing your hands down until they rest in front 1 your
heart. Begin the movement over, opening your hands until they rest, palms facing up, just
under your heart, then moving out into the circle once again. Do this as many times as feels
right to you,Jeeling the energy drawn in by your breath filling your body. In order to raise
more energy, you may rock from side to side, knees slightly bent. Exhale up every fourth cycle, aligning your Triple Soul. Once you are done, make your prayer or set your intention.
The circling of hands is the Star Goddess, known in Feri as Quakoralina: she encompasses all, creating, surrounding, and drawing in. The line of my hands moving from above my head down to my heart is the energy
of her first creation made manifest in the world. All things begin and end
with the heart. The line is also the alignment of my Triple Soul. So this
movement represents God Herself outside of me and God Herself within.
sittin<s und Listenin<s
Solitary meditation is when you get in touch with your God Sel£ You can also
meditate in a crowd. -VICTOR ANDERSON
Do a few minutes meditation every day-find out who you are and where you are
going. -CORA ANDERSON
The following exercise uses our God Soul's capacity to listen. This has trifold importance. It enables us to become more self-aware and to link up