Thursday, August 21, 2008

Godform and Mantra

As a followup to my Operant Candle Magick post here is a meditation practice for step 5 of the template that I think should prove highly effective. I have yet to do any substantial testing on the method, so if you decide to try it out feel free to comment and let me know how it worked for you. Suggestions for improvements, as always, are very welcome.

This technique is essentially a stripped-down version of Tibetan Vajrayana deity meditation adapted to the Western magical system. It is also much simpler than its Tibetan counterpart with far fewer complex visualizations. I want this system to be as accessible and easy to learn as possible and I think what I have come up with will allow a practitioner to start getting magical results quickly.

To use this technique you will need some sort of counting device, like a mala or rosary. Such strings of beads have been settled upon by many different spiritual traditions and are both simple and effective. You can find malas at any Tibetan store and rosaries at many Catholic churches and church supply stores. You can also get the materials from a beading store and make your own. The standard mala has 108 beads, but yours can be made up of any number of beads that you find significant.

A. Assuming the Godform. After making your statement of intent, assume the godform whose name you vibrated when you performed the Greater Invoking Ritual of Pentagram of Hexagram. Most traditions recommend being seated for this, so if your candle is on the floor a cushion works well, whereas if your candle is elevated on an altar a chair will work better. The key is that you want to be able to stare at the candle comfortably.

Assumption of the godform consists of visualizing your body, speech, and mind as that of the deity. With deities that are represented by a particular image you should imagine as forcefully as possible that you have taken on the appearance of the image and go from there. With other deities such as the Judeo-Christian God there is no particular visual image, so imagine that your mind and body have become boundless and span the whole universe as an integral part of all that is.

This technique requires practice, but if you stick with it you will eventually be able to do it very convincingly and tangibly feel yourself as the deity.

B. The Mantra. If you prefer you can skip A. and jump straight to the mantra. A mantra is a word or set of syllables related to a particular deity in the Tibetan tradition. For Western ceremonial practice, the Heaven of Assiah name for the Liber 777 Key Scale related to your operation fits this description nicely. Each time you chant the name you count off one bead on the mala. Going around the mala once is called a round.

You can do one round for any ritual if you're pressed for time, but a number of rounds equal to the sphere numeration of your ritual will have a greater affinity to the outcome. Many malas are sold with round counters that allow you to keep track of where you are in the sequence and you should have one of these if you plan on doing multiple rounds. When you have finished your rounds chant some sort of grounding word of power like AMEN or AUM or AUMGN a number of times equal to the number of rounds that you chanted.

Chanting the mantra itself as the deity builds up energy for the operation. The grounding word then grounds the effect and binds it to the target. Make sure that you maintain your concentration on the candle during both phases of the mantra practice. This concentration should begin as soon as you start up the chant. Energy follows attention, so the magical energy raised will be directed toward your object of contemplation, whatever that may be, and you want to make sure that it is the candle.

This form of meditation should prove very effective in producing measurable magical results when combined with the Operant Candle Magick template. It can also be incorporated into your daily magical practices.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sounds very promising. I've never tried candle magick this way, but I'll sure try it from now on, if an opportunity arises.

I've used mantras in planetary and zodiacal rituals and found them very useful in raising energy.

I use the mantra for the specific planetary deity and zodiac sign after each of the ritual's conjunctions (the God, the archangel, the intelligence , the spirit; the sign, the geomantic intelligence), repeating it the number of times asociated to the sphere of the god/planet that governs the sign.

Anonymous said...

*conjurations