Wednesday, January 14, 2009

NAZ OLPIRT (“Pillars of Light”): Enochian Energy Work Exercise

I've recently been reviewing some of my notes on Enochian magick and came across this simple exercise from my ritual archives. It's similar to the Middle Pillar exercise but uses the Enochian elements from the Tablet of Union, under the rationale that in the Enochian system it is the Tablet of Union with which the magician's interal energies should be most closely aligned.

The colors that are associated with each element in this exercise are not the Golden Dawn colors, but are taken from combining the colors of the "cloths" in Edward Kelley's original vision of the four watchtowers with the elemental attributions revealed in the later "round house" vision. However, if you prefer it is quite easy to replace the colors given here with those used in the Golden Dawn system.

  1. Start off by standing in a normal, relaxed pose. Keep your spine straight and imagine your head suspended by a thread from above. Breathe slowly and easily through the nose into your diaphragm. Place your tongue so that it is touching the roof of your mouth and keep it there except when vibrating the words of the ritual. Make sure you hold the tongue in that position when breathing in.

  2. Using your projecting hand (usually your dominant hand), trace a clockwise circle above your head and intone MADRIAX ("the Heavens") three times. Visualize a sea of luminous brilliance above you, beyond and encompassing all colors.

  3. Touch the center of your forehead (ajna chackra) and intone IAD ("God") three times. Visualize energy akin to pure, clear light forming at this point, sending its rays outward to the four cardinal directions. Do not completely drop the visualization of luminous brilliance above you. You are adding to your visualization, not replacing it. This instruction holds true for all of the following steps.

  4. Touch your throat (vishuddha chackra) and intone EHNB ("Spirit") three times. Visualize a sphere of bright lavender light forming at this point.

  5. Touch the center of your chest (anahata chackra) and intone EXARP ("Air") three times. Visualize a sphere of vibrant white energy forming at this point.

  6. Touch your solar plexus (samsara chackra) and intone BITOM ("Fire") three times. Visualize a sphere of glowing red energy forming at this point.

  7. Touch the lower abdomen just below the navel (svadasthana chackra) and intone HCOMA ("Water") three times. Visualize a sphere of green energy forming at this point.

  8. Drop your hand to the level of the perineum (muladhara chackra) and intone NANTA ("Earth") three times. Visualize a sphere of solid black energy forming at the chackra point.

  9. Drop both hands to your sides and intone CAOSGO ("the Earth") three times. Visualize the completion of a circuit that begins above you in the heavens, descends below you into the deep earth down the front of your body and then ascends upwards to the heavens along the back of your body.

  10. As you visualize the circulating energy, start with both hands at the level of the perineum, palms turned upwards, and then raise them to the level of the top of your head as you inhale. Then turn the palms downward and drop them back to the level of the perineum as you exhale. This breathing should be deep, relaxed, and as smooth as possible. When performed properly you should feel a light tingling sensation up and down the spine that roughly follows your hand motions. Hold this visualization of the energy circuit in concert with your breathing for as long as is comfortable or appropriate.

  11. To conclude the exercise, make the Sign of Osiris Risen, crossing your arms over your chest, and intone TA CALZ I OROCHA ("As above the firmament so beneath you") as you visualize any excess energy that you have focused at each of the points of your body descending below your feet into the vast darkness of the deep earth, breaking the circuit. Feel a wave of relaxation sweep over you from your head down to your feet, sweeping any remaining tension into the deep earth along with the grounded energy.

If anyone is interested in adding this to their daily practice, let me know how well it works for you. It seemed pretty effective for me back when I was doing almost exclusively Enochian work.

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9 comments:

Imago said...

93 Scott,

I just tried that Middle Pillar exercise - very nice! A question: any particular reason that you have all the energy centers ground completely out of the body and break the circuit with the Madriax above? I actually thought that it was very effective for releasing tension and worked just fine, but it seems to go against the grain of most explications of the Middle Pillar.

Cheers,
Lalitha

Scott Stenwick said...

It's because the final step of the ritual is the concluding gesture. As I imagined when writing it, there would be a pause of some substance between steps 9 and 10 as you hold the visualization of the circulating energy.

Thinking about it more, the overall structure of this is more akin to a Qigong set than it is to a strictly performed Middle Pillar. I might have even written the original version back when you and I were taking those Qigong classes - the manuscript it came out of was last updated toward the end of 2003.

So it's kind of like this:

(1) You start out pulling down Heaven energy.
(2) You bringing this energy to the various body points as it makes transitions through the elements, finally becoming Earth energy.
(3) You visualize the energy traveling back upwards to the heaven point, and then continue the circulation.
(4) Finally, when you are ready to conclude the exercise, you ground any excess energy into the earth.

I should maybe add some clearer notes to that effect. Now I'm also thinking that some Qigong-inspired hand movements might work well while holding the visualization and breathing. In fact, I think I will...

master bates said...

@Scott; I have been doing a different variation on an enochian middle pillar exercise based on the tablet of union, but using different names from EHNB and using the Regardie model. So I start at the kether sphere and vibrate ehnb,move down to the throat or daath and vibrate xcai, down to solar plexus for aont, to the perineum area for rmto and finally to the feet or malkuth for paam and then return back up to the crown of kether. It seems to fit quite neatly and somewhat surprisingly, feels smoother than the traditional Hebrew God names. I also plan to try this variation and compare the results.

Scott Stenwick said...

My first rule is that if it works it works, so by all means let me know how it turns out when you compare your results. I have not personally tried that version, so more data is always helpful. Let me know if it turns out that it doesn't work as well, too. Often we only hear about new techniques when they prove successful, but in magick as in science you can learn from failures as well.

Lazarone said...

Hi Scott,

When we are moving hands in later part of NAZ OLPIRT exercize, should we visualize "energy" on inhaling going up with hand movement toward above from bellow, and then down from "Heavens" with exhaling and hands going down? Do you correlate visualization, hand movement and breathing in that part of exercise?

Can this process with energy "going up" be comparable with Kundalini raising?

When you charge spirits in rituals with Enochian table do you vibrate names of angels toward the particular table or do you intone those names? Then what is your "inner visualization" in that moment, and not only in charging, but in addressing Enochian entities in general? When intoning or vibrating names of entities.

Regards.

Scott Stenwick said...

Yes, that is how I generally do it. Hands up / energy rising as I inhale, hands down / energy descending as I exhale. That's the "normal breathing" version. There are more advanced Qigong practices that involve reversing the flow, reverse breathing, and so forth, but the standard version works fine with this ritual.

The rising energy is comparable to kundalini rising, although some practitioners reserve the term "kundalini rising" for when the corresponding sensation become especially intense.

I don't use Enochian tables or charge anything at them. That's Golden Dawn Enochian, which I don't personally practice. There's no evidence in the diaries that the Great Table was ever intended to be broken up into directional tables, and there's no evidence from the diaries that it has any particular function in ritual aside from being a reference that you use to look up the Great Table angel names.

So my inner visualization for all of them is pretty much visualizing the name flowing out into the universe and the corresponding entity responding to it. Some people do visualize the Enochian letters of the name and report good results with that, but I've never found it necessary in my own work.

My whole Enochian process is covered in Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy and Mastering the Great Table, my two published works on Enochian magick.

Lazarone said...

Thanks, Scott!!! Great!!!

When you do visualize how the name is flowing out, do you use the Sign of the Enterer at the same time of intoning Enochian names and (after) the Sign of Silence?

During all this process (prayers, invocation, charging...) do you assume any (Enochian) Godforms like those of Seniors when calling lesser angels (forex.)?

In general, when assuming the Godform, is that Form is bigger than your aura in your visualization so that encloses you, or it is smaller?

I have both your books, Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy and Mastering the Great Table, :)

Best sincere wishes!!!

Scott Stenwick said...

I do not do that personally, but if you want to use that method (which you absolutely can) you would vibrate the name as you give the Sign of the Enterer and then retire for a moment in the Sign of Silence afterwards.

Not usually. Dee's preliminary invocation places you in the general position of deity which grants you authority over the Enochian entities. You don't need any other visualizations. Dee's Enochian follows the basic structure of sixteenth-century grimoire magick, which doesn't employ any addition godforms.

Godforms should match the size of your aura in my experience. They should not be larger or smaller. You are trying to identify yourself with the deity, which works best if treat yourself and the deity as the same "size" so to speak.

Lazarone said...

Thank you, Scott, once again thank you! Great!