Perseus Arcane Academy

Category: Meditation

  • Rune Grandmaster Donald van den Andel on the Armanen Path, Odin as a Spiritual Model, and the Journey to Runic Mastery

    Rune Grandmaster Donald van den Andel on the Armanen Path, Odin as a Spiritual Model, and the Journey to Runic Mastery

    Introduction

    As promised here is the second post concerning the Knights of Runes. Very happy to share this interview with Donald van den Andel, a renowned Rune Grandmaster, on his journey into Runic magic and spirituality. He provides deep wisdom for seekers drawn to this profound path. Huge thanks to him for spending so much time and sharing so much.

    Knights of Runes
    General introduction to Knights of Runes
    Interview with Jurgens Pieterse
    Interview with David Wolfheart

    Interview Donald van den Andel

    PAA: What first drew you to explore Ásatrú faith and Nordic Runes after having been raised Christian? Was there an ‘aha’ moment that sparked seeking your ancestral spiritual roots?

    Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to communicate with your readers. I recounted my journey to Ásatrú in my book Tales from the Ironwood: The Spiritual Journey of a Modern-Day Heathen. There I explained that it would not be fully accurate to describe me as having been raised Christian. Certainly I was baptized as an infant and continued in an on-again, off-again manner through the time of my confirmation as a teenager. In the years that followed, my twisting spiritual path led me away from Christianity to Atheism. Spiritual matters remained of profound interest however, so I didn’t simply abandon God. I looked to various authors who expressed serious skepticism of Christianity including Nietzsche and Bakunin. It was only later, when I was in my thirties and raising two children, that I returned to Christianity. Throughout that period, I went deep. I read, for the first time, the Bible from cover to cover. I began teaching Sunday School classes (explaining Luther’s Reformation to Eighth graders) and confirmation classes. Notably, during this period I had a profound spiritual experience at a time of particular need. While praying intensely over the health of my mother, which was failing at the time, I saw a figure surrounded in the brightest of white light. While no words were spoken or heard, I understood explicitly that my mom’s health would be fine (this was some 25 years ago and she’s still with us today.) I interpreted this sign within the the language and symbolism of Christianity. Hence, I teetered between this being a direct message from Jesus Christ or perhaps an angel. There was however no indication, outside of the paradigms of Christianity, as to where or whom such a message originated. Today, I believe firmly in various Higher Order Energies as these are recounted and experienced by practitioners of the world’s major and minor religions —as well as by initiates of magickal systems including, for example, Solomonic Magick. I believe the names, and the images themselves are attributed based on cultural standards and adherence to a particular set of religious paradigms. That is to say that the Angels and Demons of Judaeo-Christianity may be the same spiritual beings or Higher Order Energies that an Ásatrúar would call Elves and Dwarfs.

    I believe that our journeys —and mine in particular—is the result of the entire series of steps along the way. Each step is as important as the prior and the next in taking us to where we may be at any given moment.

    Donald van den Andel

    But you have asked me about an “aha” moment—a spark that led me to seek my ancestral spiritual roots. I believe that our journeys —and mine in particular—is the result of the entire series of steps along the way. Each step is as important as the prior and the next in taking us to where we may be at any given moment. With that said, in a short span of time, my father died of an aggressive form of skin cancer and I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. It was not at all that I had become angry with God—but rather that I felt a driving need for authenticity. I determined that our time —at least in this life—was limited. I needed to explore who I was. At the time, I thought that better understanding my ancestral spiritual roots would help me to realize that. I understood that I had begun to repeat the tenets of Christianity because they were a set of beliefs, that as a Christian, I was supposed to accept. But there were several such concepts that I didn’t truly believe. I may be described as somewhat of a skeptic—and have long approached many cherished sacred ideas in such a fashion.

    PAA: Can you describe a powerful or mystical experience you had when first practicing Rune Yoga and feeling the energy flowing through you? How did that impact your path?

    When I began practicing Ásatrú, I was lucky to have a very knowledgable Gothi leading our fellowship. A Gothi is the spiritual leader of Ásatrú groups. Our Gothi was particularly interested in education and conducted in depth classes on a variety of subjects —and sometimes brought in guest experts. Oddly enough I was extremely excited to attend my first couple of Rune Yoga classes (these utilized the Elder Futhark runes) but didn’t experience anything remotely “mystical” at all. For those who may not be familiar with the practice, Rune Yoga is performed by forming the position of the rune with your body while generally chanting the rune name or some variation of that name. I found myself, as did others in the room, attempting to form one position after another and chanting the name of the particular rune. It was essentially an awkward but enjoyable bit of exercise. I innately understood that there was more to this practice. I began my own studies and again went deep. I began to work my way through “The Nine Doors of Midgard” —the training curriculum of the Rune Gild that was authored by Edred Thorsson (aka Stephen Flowers). The initial lessons required the student to form the given posture —beginning with the ISA rune — essentially standing straight up with one’s arms at one’s side for ten minutes. The early lessons did not even include the chanting. It was this course work that resulted in the powerful flows of energy that I felt coursing through my body. The powerful and very evident experience of such energy has motivated me to continue this practice to this very day.

    PAA: How has your background studying philosophy and aspects of Western esotericism like Crowley’s work informed your approach to Runic magic? Do you see connections?

    As I indicated earlier, I believe that each step along the life path is as relevant as another. Each was essential in bringing me to where I am today—and such steps lead to the steps yet to be taken. On one hand, we are made up of our earlier beliefs and thoughts and works, but on the other hand, we are likely to think differently than we did in years past. With regard to Crowley specifically, I often consider his most famous saying, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” For me, and I believe for Crowley, this often misunderstood sentence means far more than “do as you desire.” At its heart is the concept of “will” and the intersection of man’s will with God’s will. Here “will” is that one critical thing that you are meant to do. Our actions and desires, at times, may actually prevent us from a proper execution of what is willed. At one time, I stumbled attempting to utilize the language of “Left-Hand Path” and “Right-Hand Path” in my rune work. Today, I have come to realize that Rune Magick is neither Left nor Right Hand Path — and it may also be considered both. There is a “life energy” that the runes provide us the ability to tap into. Such “life energy” has been given different names by various authors —each such name is weighted with many many references and ideas that are not helpful — and so I attempt to avoid such terms as: Orgone, Vril, Odic, etc. Such energies undirected are simply energy. It is ultimately the will of the Rune Magician that is critical in the directing of such energy. The practice of Rune Magick allows us to bypass the rational mind and harness our magickal abilities through the primal symbolism of the runes. This idea is similar to that manifested through sigils as described by Austin Osman Spare and many of today’s Chaos magicians. I believe that Rune Magick is largely a part of the Western magickal tradition. To understand it then, it is important to consider Western magick and its practitioners. While some might argue that Rune Magick is uniquely Northern Magick, we know very little of the actual Northern practices. What is generally understood and practiced today, when it comes to the runes, has its origins mainly in the Western occult tradition.

    PAA: What called you to delve deeper into the Armanen Runic tradition specifically versus other Runic systems? What did you find compelling about it?

    Like most practicing Heathens, my interest was almost exclusively the Elder Futhark for many years. I read a book here or there that described the “Armanen” runic tradition or the Younger Futhark or other systems, but for the most part, I worked with the Elder system. One day Jurgens Pieterse, a Grand Master in Knights of Runes, offered an online course on the “Armanen” system and I signed up for it. To be honest, I thought it was a single class and it would be over in an hour or so. It was simply an introduction, and it began my training and in depth studies of the “Armanen” system. I found almost immediately that this system of runes demonstrated a particularly powerful energy. I became very taken with the curriculum —which was that authored years earlier by Karl Hans Welz—and began to experience magickal insights that eclipsed the work that I had performed previously with the Elder Futhark.

    PAA: You describe Odin as a role model for seeking magical wisdom while remaining humble. How does that Wanderer mindset influence your own Rune work and initiation?

    Odin is central to my understanding of the runes and my spiritual journey. One of Odin’s many names is Gangleri which basically translates to “The Wanderer.” We see this name used in several places including importantly in Snorri Sturluson’s Edda as well as Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen.” For me, the Wanderer is the seeker. Odin is always wandering the nine worlds seeking new knowledge. He is the ultimate seeker of wisdom. He is not all-knowing, but rather “all-seeking.” Ásatrú, Odinism, or Wuotanism (as Guido von List called it) oftentimes comes with its own limitations and orthodoxy. At least some of those I’ve come in contact with seek to establish dogma and orthodoxy where there is arguably none. I’ve encountered Ásatrúars who limit their entire field of exploration to the Icelandic Sagas and Eddas. While these are very useful works, some are aghast to find a significantly wider range of materials on my library shelves. The Wanderer does not stay in Asgard each day repeating the old tales to the gods and goddesses that surround him. Rather he travels — oftentimes to Jotunheim — the land of the Giants — generally understood as his most powerful enemies, to exchange and seek wisdom. There are no limits to where one might seek new wisdom — and similarly there is no orthodoxy that may not be supplanted by a better more powerful alternative. As a teacher or mentor of the runes I urge my students to perform the early lessons precisely as written however. There comes a time, latter on the initiatory path when experimentation and variations on the themes and lessons are relevant and critical to understanding.

    PAA: What does being recognized as a Rune Grandmaster mean to you after years following this spiritual pursuit? How has it impacted you personally?

    Your question reminds me of a comment made by my favorite philosophy professor back when I was an undergraduate. She told us, “When I was younger, I knew all the answers, now, I don’t even know the questions.” The process results in an external recognition. This largely came as a result of work performed. It does not however bequeath some special power or wisdom. It has reminded me at times, when I was not behaving optimally, to consider, how, as a Grand Runemaster I should behave. It has helped me to become more introspective and to better appreciate what is most important in life. In that, it is often the simple things, family, friends, kindness. It is worth asking whether our actions or our words are making the world a better place or not. Do we sow division or unity? This is a specially important consideration when we turn to social media — but is also important in all of our day-to-day interactions. It is also a paramount consideration when we ponder our spiritual path. Does our path create more division or unity? The divisive path is the incorrect one as such division not only negatively impacts the objective world around us — it has a negative impact on us directly. Ultimately our thoughts of others become a part of our unconscious mind through the process of autosuggestion. Self-help author, Napoleon Hill wrote, “whatever we do unto others, we do unto ourselves.”

    PAA: What inspired you to document your experiences and learnings in books like ‘Tales from the Ironwood’ and ‘Untimely Meditations’? What niche did you see them filling?

    I’ve always enjoyed writing. I find it very cathartic. The two books are quite different from one another. With “Tales from the Ironwood,” my objective was to write an Introduction to Ásatrú book. I realized however that there were many such books available in the marketplace—and many of them were quite good. My unique angle would be to tell my story—how I came to discover Ásatrú. I dovetailed my personal experiences with an explanation of key elements of Ásatrú. For example, I discuss the various holidays and celebrations. I hoped that my book would be inspirational to some who read it. I believe that I fulfilled that goal based on the feedback that I’ve received.

    “Untimely Meditations” is entirely different from “Tales from the Ironwood.” The rune training curriculum that I undertook required a report be written and submitted to the Grandmaster who was conducting the course. I wrote such a report for each of the 18 runes that make up the system. At the time, I was becoming more and more interested in magick and decided to write a lengthy magick book of which the 18 rune essays would be the centerpiece. I toyed with various titles, wrote a lengthy introduction, and began assembling the chapters. Upon inspection, however, I found it to be too sprawling. It was a collection of articles and essays —but not a complete whole. One by one I began removing chapters until the book was sized down to its current form. Unlike what I discovered with “Tales from the Ironwood,” there are very few good books on the Armanen system in English. My unique angle to the runes was two-fold. First I associated each not only to the Hávamál verses that Guido von List identified long ago, but I also explored their meaning in terms of the traditional rune poems—from whence runes gain their meanings. Secondly, I viewed the runes in terms of a mythological narrative. For me, that narrative was the tale of the Norse gods. For each rune, I determined a meaning beginning with the Ginnungagap through to Ragnarok. All along however, I remained anchored in the Hávamál verses and the traditional rune poems. I do not suggest that this is the only way, or even the correct way, to understand the runes. Rather it was my personal attempt and understanding. I would urge budding Runemasters to discover their own narratives when exploring the runes.

    PAA: How do you see the role of Runic systems in the modern revival of pagan faiths like Asatru? Do you feel called to help restore ancestral magical knowledge?

    While I discovered the runes following my conversion to Ásatrú, I don’t think such knowledge plays a key factor in the revival of the various pagan pathways. I find most Ásatrúars have only a mild interest in the runes. Some may be interested in the magick but others are rather suspect of it. There are several issues that arise. One issue is that the pagan pathways that show interest in the runes are themselves modern “reconstructions.” That is to say that very little is known about the actual day-to-day religious practices during actual pagan times. Such ancient practices also varied greatly both by geography and time. The runes too represent a much more modern practice than most would acknowledge. Surely we have ancient accounts of rune magick in the Sagas and various rune carvings that appear to have no other purpose than magick. With that said, our modern era is a very different world than the one in which such methods were used — and again we know little of these methods. When we adopt practices such as rune meditation, rune yoga, visualizations, hand mudras, and rune chakras, we should realize that these are fairly modern inventions — mostly dating back a hundred years or so. This in no way should diminish the effectiveness of such practices. I use them and find them very powerful—but if you are organizing an Ásatrú group that believes itself to be living a rugged Viking life-style, you are right to be skeptical of rune yoga and other modern occult practices. Personally, I would like to help restore many of these runic practices, but I would not describe them as ancestral knowledge.

    PAA: What guidance would you offer sincere seekers today who feel drawn to start learning the Armanen Futhark and its mysteries?

    The so-called “Armanen” path is a challenging and difficult one. I believe the 18 rune system to be a very powerful system of magick that can provide positive outcomes for the individual and the world. The term itself however is maligned and somewhat taboo due both to its detractors and adherents. First, it is important to understand what the term means and refers to. Guido von List created the term “Armanen” to refer not to the runes, but rather to an estate of people—a class, comprised of priests, leaders, teachers, and bards. He argued that in antiquity such a class represented an elite that were literate and understood doctrines of secret knowledge. He contrasted this group with the general population and the people who made up the other two estates, mainly the military class and the craftsmen and farmers. These latter comprised the bulk of those who practiced what I’ve been calling Ásatrú but which he called, using the Old High German term, Wuotanism. If we break the term “Armanism” down to its roots we arrive at the two key syllables “Ar” and “Man.” “Ar” is often described as “people of the sun.” I think a clearer and more accurate esoteric definition would be “the enlightened.” It refers not to any ethnic group (as we see such groups are made up of people of varied talents), but rather to those who are “enlightened”—those who hold some special or secret knowledge. “Man” refers to mankind’s relationship to God or the gods. It is our spiritual self and our spiritual relationship to the various Higher Order Energies. Together then “Ar-man” refers to those enlightened people who hold a special spiritual relationship with the divine essence.

    I entitled my book, “Untimely Meditations” because, following the Second World War and the Nazi use and appropriation of runes in their symbolism, flags, uniforms, etc., many became wary of their use. The early Armanen masters are all tarnished by such associations. It is important to understand that most of this is unfair and inaccurate. Von List died in 1919 and argued that the runes should not be used for political purposes. His key followers Siegfried Kummer and Friedrich Marby who developed the practices of Rune Yoga, and Rune Mudras embraced a racial view of the world. The Nazis however were vehemently opposed to occult practices, despite what some might fantasize or think. The Guido von List Society was allowed to exist through the Nazi period but not to recruit any new members. Kummer and Marby were arrested and their rune work and schools were shut down. Marby was shuffled between various concentration camps for some 99 months until he was finally freed by American forces when they liberated Dachau.

    In the years that followed, leading figures like Karl Spiesberger and Karl Hans Welz removed any traces of race and ethnicity from their books and teachings. Still, it is especially the 18 rune system that is controversial because of such associations. My guidance then is to know the landscape. Recognize that the runes may be practiced by anyone from any background or culture with startling effect.

    PAA: What continues to drive your own Runic practice and writings today after initiation to high levels of mastery? What yet calls you onward?

    Following my initiation as Runemaster, the first thing that I wanted to do was to begin my training all over again. I know several Grand Runemasters who have gone through the curriculum multiple times. Each time one works through it, new ideas are discovered. I am driven to better understand the runes esoterically and to better understand what some refer to as the “High mysteries.” Today, I continue to explore the runes but also expand my horizons through increased understanding of the Western Hermetic magickal tradition. There are countless avenues to explore. I am particularly interested in publishing the works of the various masters in our new journal entitled, “FUTHORKH: A Journal of Rune Esotericism and Magick.” Years ago, I attended a class in Sigil Magick led by a woman who was very experienced in her magickal practice and some 15 years or more my senior. While the class was conducted at an Ásatrú event, her methods were derived entirely from Austin Osman Spare whose works she strongly recommended to her students. I had the opportunity to discuss magick with her for quite some time following the class. I asked her how long it would take to become well-versed in magick. She responded, “Two lifetimes.” I understand that to be minimum requirement.

    PAA: Thank you so much for such wonderful answers. We greatly appreciate your time in sharing with us.

    Further Information

    Knights of Runes
    General introduction to Knights of Runes
    Interview with Jurgens Pieterse
    Interview with David Wolfheart

    Introduction to Magic

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  • The Three Transformations: The Alchemical Art of Jing, Chi, and Shen

    The Three Transformations: The Alchemical Art of Jing, Chi, and Shen

    Introduction

    The triad of transformations entails the purposeful manipulation of jing, chi/qi, and shen (alternatively referred to as vital, astral, and mental for adherents of Hermeticism), representing an age-old meditation methodology of profound significance.

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    But strangely enough, it is not often clearly explained or even acknowledged in many training methods (I am well aware it is a model you see in different systems my point is that it is usually hidden behind walls of unnecessary theory and the point is lost), really in modern times it is thanks to practitioners like Sifu Mark Rasmus, Jake Green, Bob Smith (Sixty Skills) that we have clear teachings like the three transformations openly available to all. When I started though all the energies where discussed the experience of each and the process of identification was very much a trial-and-error process, reading Rawns ‘A Bardon Companion’ and checking his message board, not to forget the Bardon groups on Yahoo. But still nothing ever explained things so simply as the Three Transformation, which thanks to Sifu Mark Rasmus, I learned in 2012, and more recently Sixty Skills made available for free via Perseus.

    Why is it important?

    Because it allows practitioners to manipulate their energy matrix actively. By learning how to perform the three transformations, practitioners gain the ability to convert vital energy into astral and mental energy, and vice versa. This capability enables them to control their energy and specify which form of energy they choose to work with, whether it’s at the vital, astral, or mental level of existence. This control over energy is fundamental for practitioners of meditation, yoga, and magic, as it empowers them to enhance their physical performance, develop out-of-body experiences, and navigate different levels of reality more effectively. All of this is absolutely key but is rarely clearly explained in any of these traditions.

    Passive versus Active Transformation

    As mentioned above, the Three Transformations allows you to actively transform these energies. As humans there is already a passive transformation taking place. We need vital energy to live and to sustain all our physical and energetic systems. This is normal and is also something that happens passively in many systems, over a period of time changes occur as large amounts of raw material get transformed and in turn feel their awareness and capacity to think much improved. But it is unplanned, passive and far slower than consciously planning the process.

    Why is identification important?

    As emphasized at the outset, discerning these energies often entails trial and error. In certain systems, practitioners may remain oblivious to these subtle forces, whereas in Hermetic and Yogic traditions, these energies are codified. However, they often linger as mere theoretical constructs, devoid of direct experiential understanding for many. This knowledge vacuum underscores a missed opportunity, as once comprehended, the process appears straightforward, requiring not decades, but a mere weekend to grasp. Armed with this understanding, exercises assume a newfound depth, where anticipation of requisite mental energy precedes endeavors, yielding superior outcomes. Mastery lies in deciphering the puzzle pieces, discerning factors that influence exercises positively, thereby enabling strategic planning and ensuring ready access to vital, astral, or mental reservoirs. For example, if needing to study for long periods of time we need mental energy, knowing this in advance we can prepare accordingly.

    How do we identify Vital Force?

    To identify vital energy, it’s essential to understand its characteristics and manifestations. Vital energy, also known as “jing” in traditional Chinese theory, is the energy generated by living things. It is associated with physical vitality, strength, and the basic life force present in all living beings.

    Here are some ways to identify vital energy:

    1. Physical Sensations: Vital energy often manifests as physical sensations of vitality, vigor, or strength. It can be felt as a sense of aliveness or vitality in the body.
    2. Health and Well-being: Vital energy is closely linked to overall health and well-being. A person with abundant vital energy tends to have good stamina, resilience, and resistance to disease.
    3. Physical Performance: High levels of vital energy can enhance physical performance, including strength, endurance, and agility.
    4. Energy Practices: In energy practices such as qigong or yoga, practitioners often focus on cultivating and harnessing vital energy. Sensations of warmth, tingling, or pulsation may indicate the presence of vital energy during these practices.
    5. Mind-Body Connection: Vital energy is not just physical but also has mental and emotional components. A strong mind-body connection, where mental clarity and emotional balance support physical vitality, is indicative of abundant vital energy.

    By paying attention to these signs and engaging in practices that cultivate and harness vital energy, individuals can become more attuned to its presence and effects in their lives.

    How do we Identify Astral Energy?

    Identifying astral energy, also known as “qi” or “chi” in traditional Chinese theory, involves recognizing its subtle and dynamic nature, which influences emotions, sensations, and consciousness. Here are some ways to identify astral energy:

    1. Sensory Awareness: Astral energy often manifests as sensations in the body, such as tingling, warmth, or a sense of expansion. These sensations may occur during practices like meditation, qigong, or energy healing.
    2. Emotional States: Astral energy is closely tied to emotions and feelings. Heightened emotional experiences, such as joy, love, or serenity, can indicate the presence of astral energy.
    3. Intuition and Gut Feelings: Astral energy is associated with intuitive insights and gut feelings. Pay attention to subtle inner guidance or instincts, as they may be influenced by astral energy.
    4. Energy Flow: In energy practices like qigong or tai chi, practitioners focus on cultivating and circulating astral energy throughout the body. Sensations of energy flow, such as waves or currents, can indicate the movement of astral energy.
    5. Mindfulness and Presence: Astral energy is often felt most acutely in moments of deep presence or mindfulness. Cultivating awareness of the present moment can help individuals tune into the subtle vibrations of astral energy.

    By developing sensitivity to these signs and engaging in practices that cultivate astral energy, individuals can deepen their understanding of its presence and effects in their lives.

    How do we identify Mental?

    Identifying mental energy, also known as “shen” in traditional Chinese theory, involves recognizing its abstract and conceptual nature, which influences thought processes, intellect, and consciousness. Here are some ways to identify mental energy:

    1. Thought Patterns: Mental energy is closely associated with thoughts and mental processes. Pay attention to your thought patterns, including analytical thinking, problem-solving abilities, and creativity, as they reflect the presence of mental energy.
    2. Clarity and Focus: Mental energy often enhances clarity of mind and concentration. When you feel focused, alert, and able to comprehend complex concepts, you are likely tapping into mental energy.
    3. Intellectual Insight: Mental energy facilitates intellectual insight and understanding. Moments of epiphany, deep understanding, and realization indicate the activation of mental energy.
    4. Abstract Concepts: Mental energy deals with abstract concepts and ideas beyond the physical realm. Engaging with concepts such as philosophy, mathematics, metaphysics or even your tax returns involve the utilization of mental energy.
    5. Problem-Solving Abilities: Mental energy enables problem-solving and decision-making processes. When you effortlessly devise solutions to challenges or make logical deductions, you are leveraging mental energy.
    6. Inner Reflection: Mental energy supports introspection and inner reflection. Engaging in self-analysis, contemplating existential questions, or exploring personal beliefs involves the activation of mental energy.

    By becoming attuned to these signs and engaging in practices that stimulate mental energy, individuals can enhance their cognitive abilities, deepen their understanding of themselves and the world, and cultivate greater mental clarity and insight.

    Path of Enlightenment

    The path of enlightenment, refers to the movement of consciousness from a more gross or physical state to a more refined or spiritual state. This journey involves the transformation of energies from vital (jing) to astral (qi) and then to mental (shin) levels. This is something you experience every time you perform the Three Transformations. Here’s a breakdown of the path of enlightenment:

    1. Transformation of Vital Energy (Jing) to Astral Energy (Qi): Initially, the practitioner focuses on converting vital energy, which is the energy emitted by all living beings, into astral energy. This conversion process allows the energy to become less constrained by time and space, as astral energy is timeless.
    2. Transformation of Astral Energy (Qi) to Mental Energy (Shin): Once the energy has been elevated to the astral level, it can then be further refined into mental energy. Mental energy operates beyond the constraints of physical form and space, representing concepts and ideas without spatial limitations.
    3. Benefits of the Path of Enlightenment: Engaging in the path of enlightenment enables practitioners to actively manipulate their energy matrix and gain control over their energy. This control facilitates experiences such as out-of-body experiences and enhances spiritual development.
    4. Understanding Levels of Reality: Practitioners learn to identify and work with different levels of reality, recognizing that energies manifest differently depending on the level. By understanding and harnessing these energies, practitioners can achieve greater spiritual growth and personal development. Beyond the mental we move to Akasha and then onto Non Dual Light.

    Overall, the path of enlightenment involves the conscious transformation of energies from a gross physical state to more refined spiritual states, leading to enhanced spiritual experiences and personal growth. We can also reverse this process and we get the ‘Path of Manifestation’, I am sure you can see how this would work now.

    Vital Energy as a Base

    As the title suggests, without a strong foundation in working with Vital Energy then we have very little resources to convert. We need the raw material so need to work on building our capacity, we then need to work on decreasing the time required to reach our maximum capacity of Vital Energy. Essentially getting to a point where we feel further breathing of that material does very little and is not worth the time spent.

    1. Foundation for Energy Conversion: Vital energy serves as the foundation for converting into other forms of energy, such as astral and mental energy. This conversion allows practitioners to access a wide range of energies and enhance their abilities beyond their innate energy levels.
    2. Stress Adaptation Model: Similar to physical training, working with vital energy follows a stress adaptation model. Consistent practice increases the amount of vital energy available, leading to greater vitality and resilience over time.
    3. Impact on Health and Well-being: The state of one’s vital energy affects overall health and well-being. Unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as smoking, drug use, or lack of sleep, can deplete vital energy, leading to reduced energy levels and susceptibility to illness.
    4. Efficiency of Energy Conversion: While it’s possible to convert mental energy into astral and then into vital energy, it’s generally a less efficient process compared to converting vital energy into astral and mental energy. Therefore, maintaining a robust vital energy base is crucial for optimal energy manipulation.
    5. Long-Term Effects: Accumulating vital energy through practices like the three transformations can have long-term benefits, including increased strength, neurological response, and immune system function. However, it’s noted that while vital energy can enhance longevity and overall health, it may not drastically increase lifespan beyond a certain point.

    Key Takeaway

    Understanding and practicing the three transformations of energy (jing/chi/shen or vital/astral/mental) is crucial for spiritual and energetic development, enabling individuals to identify, engage, and manipulate different states of existence.

    Summary

    • The three transformations involve converting vital energy to astral energy to mental energy and back again, with additional transformations beyond mental energy into akashic and non-dual light states.
    • These transformations are relatively easy to teach because they represent states of being encountered frequently in daily life.
    • Mastery of these transformations is essential for advanced meditative practices, allowing practitioners to identify discrete states of existence and work with them consciously.
    • The process involves both physical and mental development, including the building of pathways, tissues, hormones, and neurotransmitters necessary for sensing and engaging different levels of reality.
    • Proficiency in the three transformations is particularly important when working with energies of planets and kabbalistic letters to avoid energetic overload.
    • Advanced practitioners can learn to generate energies and sensations simultaneously across multiple levels of reality, enhancing their manifestation abilities.
    • The ability to perform the three transformations allows practitioners to be specific in their energetic work, preventing energies from blurring and facilitating the identification and manipulation of different energies.
    • Learning the three transformations is crucial for preventing overwhelm and imbalance in the body and mind by shifting energies between states.
    • Overall, mastering the three transformations is considered one of the most practical and important exercises in the hermetic tradition, providing a foundation for spiritual and energetic growth.
  • Beyond the Inner Planets: Sixty Skills Explores the Solar System’s Frontiers in Search of Kabbalah

    Beyond the Inner Planets: Sixty Skills Explores the Solar System’s Frontiers in Search of Kabbalah

    In this interview we continue to follow the journey of Bob from Sixty Skills as he journeys to the outer planets and beyond into the extra solar region with his private group maintaining the focus of learning letter magic and gaining wisdom from planetary spirits who specialize in Kabbalah.

    Personally, I think this is extremely important work as it encourages people to keep moving (no glass ceiling), to do the work, to work methodically and logically taking ownership over our progress, as Bob often mentions taking an engineering approach to the work. This post also marks the release of the next phase in the Sixty Skills curriculum, following the Master Course which provides a path similar to that found in Initiation into Hermetics but with a curriculum designed to be completed in around 18 months. This next phase is the Kabbalah Course which you can find more info about here.

    UPDATE: Sixty Skills Planetary Kabbalah Course Released May 2024

    PAA: You have been on something of a wild adventure for the last 2 years, journeying beyond where most journey to the outer planets. Do you think we are in a different age now and just like the 5-minute mile, once one person broke that barrier it opened the floodgates for others, do you see something similar happening within the Franz Bardon tradition? Or do you think it will remain the domain of just a few?

    Bob: I think the engineering-based approach to teaching these things that I, and others, have begun using has taken root and is rapidly spreading. Given the time, and other prerequisites needed to do these practices, it won’t ever be something for everyone. But the number of people doing this is increasing rapidly.

    Bardon and his compatriots lived in a world where the media was centrally controlled and reaching others with similar interests took weeks via snail mail. Also, people were much poorer then and had to devote much more of their time to merely surviving. None of that is true today.

    PAA: Following this first question, what was the response from beings and guides that you met on the outer planets to having human beings turn up at their door?

    Bob: Measured surprise is probably the best description of what I saw. The only group that seemed relatively uninterested were the Plutonian spirits and they have a reason for that…as everyone shows up eventually in their view.

    Keep in mind that the reception I received largely resulted from the great deal of focus on why I went to these places in the first place. From what I’ve gathered from others, those going to these places out of curiosity generally do not receive a welcome of any kind. They are largely ignored by the entities that dwell there.

    Only my focus on learning letter magic and contacting the spirits of Kabbalah on those planets resulted in the encounters I had. I suspect this would work with any goal (becoming an entrepreneur, a master engineer, etc.). But you need to have one. As these planets all work as refinements of the inner planets this would seem to make sense. You are there to refine your knowledge of something, not to gain it initially.

    PAA: Now you have released the Kabbalah Course, the first of three, the second being the Planetary Kabbalah course and the 3rd the Zodiac course. You have also mentioned in the past that if people really knew about the Kabbalah, then they would want to do it. Can you take this opportunity now to explain the benefits of this work to someone who may be working through IIH or the Master Course.

    Bob: To the degree magic exists in the world, the magic of the letters (i.e. Kabbalah) is magic. If someone can engage in three-point concentration (color, sensation, and sound) they can do this. It is no more complicated than that.

    As a phenomenon in nature, if you follow the proper sequence of actions, you will get the appropriate result. Period.

    That is why this is a science whose application follows all the normal methods involved in engineering.

    It does not require the influence of an egregore. It does not require ritual. It does not impact your freewill.

    Everything else requires subordination of your will to another entity. All other methods involve borrowed power be it via rituals, talismans, tools, etc. You become something else’s bitch.

    In this, you are the talisman.

    People claim they want to be magicians/wizards. This is how you become one.

    PAA: You mention the importance of having first learned Kabbalah and the letter combinations before working with the planets. In what specific ways did this change the nature of your relationship with the spirits compared to if you had just jumped onto the planets?

    When you understand the power of the letters, you can decode, and replicate, any esoteric force being generated. This is a big deal. Merely by observing what another practitioner is doing you can replicate it. Often this is even better than the original as it is bereft of the egregoric influence most ritual/traditional systems have.

    If you practice with the planets first, the spirit must run the energy for you. This creates dependency as you rely upon the spirit to get your body to generate the appropriate energy. If you know Kabbalah, then the spirit can show you how to do something and then you can do it on your own.

    It is the difference between doing someone a favor and teaching them how to do it on their own.

    Just as with people, this changes the nature of the relationship dramatically and quickly. I’ve often had sprits tell me, “Don’t copy my energy, copy the energy of what I am doing.” It has gone as far as having spirits ask, “what are you doing here?” if I contacted them after they had shown me how to do something a few times. Emnasut was not all that excited the last time I directly projected myself into his realm.

    As a result of this, the spirits end up engaging in much less influence over your life. This in turn greatly reduces the impact upon your freewill. Compacts between the practitioner and the spirit become much less relevant.

    If you practice with the planets first, the spirit must run the energy for you. This creates dependency as you rely upon the spirit to get your body to generate the appropriate energy. If you know Kabbalah, then the spirit can show you how to do something and then you can do it on your own.

    PAA: How much of a foundation does one need to do this work? Can we say that for serious students wishing to understand the mechanics of what is occurring a Step 8 of IIH or completion of the Master Course is required?

    Bob: To work from the most simple standpoint, to get better at athletic performance, engage in the martial arts, or perform things like healing hands, a practitioner only needs basic skills. And keep in mind, specialization can be profound over time. This is how people squat 360 kilos/800 pounds. Specifically, if they can feel the energy and engage in three-point concentration, they can go far.

    The more developed your subtle senses are, particularly clairvoyance and clairaudience, the clearer the transmission of energy will be. If you just have good clairsentience, you will know how to do something, but you won’t know why. Things will happen via intuition.

    The scary part is that it will even work for someone without any clairsentience. The challenge here is getting them to practice “imagining” all the things needed to generate the effect when they are not receiving any sensory feedback. This is how a lot of the internal work gets lost in the martial arts over time. Students who are good at mechanics, but lack sensitivity, just start deleting the magical details as they cannot see how they are important.

    This is also how a lot of cult leaders work, say in tai chi circles. They know techniques like using a strong magnetic line of force to essentially brainwash the susceptible. And their lack of sensitivity results in their not actively feeling the energetic effects of the resulting backlash. Combine this with some NLP training and you are off to the races. It won’t work on everyone, but it will work on enough people to build an audience of maybe 20-40k followers over time.

    People are not complete sheep however and they eventually break away from it. That is why these cult types are constantly going through boom-and-bust cycles. It is also why they never train high level cultivators either.

    Completing step eight of IIH, my Master course, or any like level of training will deepen the benefits of working with the letters.

    So, to be clear. To work with the letters/Kabbalah, you only need to be able to feel energy and hold three-point concentration.

    PAA: What kind of experiences did your group have as they worked on the planets with you? Was the experience of a guide one that was shared? Or were the experiences unique spending on what each practitioner brought to the table?

    A mix of experiences in accordance with an individual’s level of clair (primarily clairvoyance, clairaudience, and clairsentience) skills development. All participants had common experiences based upon the nature of the entities/planets. So, everyone got Kabbalah/letter magic information.

    From there, it diverged according to the nature of the individual. The liberal arts types had a hard time with the engineering spirits of Mars. The mentally constipated didn’t enjoy Uranus, etc. The whole process of the entity reflecting off the nature of the individual provided most of the differences between personal experiences.

    Additional Questions Related to Outer planets & Kabbalah Spirits

    PAA: Uranus – Who were the two Uranian spirits P and D that your group worked with? What was unique about their teachings on Kabbalah compared to other planetary spirits? How did they demonstrate generating forces that you were then able to mimic?

    Bob: The Uranian spirits were both Kabbalah teachers and designers of machines that bring letter energies into the physical. They predominantly taught letter H, I, J and K variants. Additionally, most of the Akashic force generated had more of a letter U than letter E flavor.

    They would generally run a given force for me and expect me to repeat it. This would go on for a few sessions and they would switch to something else.

    And of course, they gave me the design for the Living Crystal.

    PAA: Pluto – You mention the Kabbalah machines that could generate letter energy directly into your body. How exactly did this work compared to normal letter practice? What effects did you notice from having the energy generated this way?

    Bob: I would essentially think of a letter combination, be transported to a cave with the specific machine in it, step up/into the machine and it would start generating the energy for me. The primary difference here was twofold: (1) most planets deal with a certain set of letters, Venus and J come to mind, while this could deal with any letter combination; and (2) the machines generated the energy at the cellular level. This allowed a practitioner to generation most of the effect of vibrating the letters with the voice without making any sound.

    Since Pluto deals with a refinement of the vital body this makes sense.

    PAA: Pluto – You describe finding models of ancient egregores and hint at being able to reconnect with lost magical systems. Did you or anyone in your group attempt this? What happened when you engaged with any of these models?

    Bob: I can’t comment on this openly to protect the privacy of others. But if someone wanted to break into a new industry and had the prerequisite hard skills, this would make it happen very quickly. Pushing energy into one of these things made a very quick very solid connection form.

    I don’t know if this would remove the need for a physical initiation into a magical lineage or not. Someone would need to experiment with this.

    PAA: Pluto – The information you provide on what happens to subtle bodies after death is fascinating. Did you learn anything more about the timeframe and process of the astral body losing energy? How long can it be recharged?

    Bob: The timeframe for the exhaustion of the breath that powers an astral body seems to take about a week in the real world. Some books say up to 40 days. I imagine if a practitioner had done a lot of pranayama work in life it would take longer.

    The power of the elements is effectively corrosive on both astral and vital substances. Simple exposure to the astral realm gradually dissolves an astral body. Working any magic from the astral without a supporting physical body does this very quickly.

    Methods exist to recharge the astral body after death. I won’t get into that here as this is where a lot of vampire myths come from.

    What I will say is that you can build mental power after death by using the single pointed focus exercises.

    PAA: Pluto – You describe Pluto as a gateway to the extrasolar region. Did you or your group travel beyond Pluto during this work? What did you experience in terms of entities or energies once moving past Pluto?

    Bob: Yes. We made several trips. For those interested Radcu from Bardon’s 360 Heads of the Earth Zone also deals with extrasolar travel. My group invoked him a few times and he was very willing to help us out as well.

    The extra solar realm is a handful. As I’ve written about previously dead planets, rouge stellar structures, cosmic Kabbalah libraries, the home of the Titans and a whole lot more lurks out there. Also, the radiation of the place is corrosive to human beings’ subtle bodies and minds plus unpleasant things lurk in the dark as well. Always remember to clear out with Emnasut (first genius of the Sun Sphere in Bardon’s second book on Practical Evocation) afterwards.

    The value in doing this work seems to be in bringing concepts/ideas not native to our solar system into it. As I’ve mentioned before, Buddhism seems to be one of these. A more invested practitioner would need to explore this link fully. I’d be very curious to hear what they find. It would make an excellent topic for a book. IT might even have some degree of mass market appeal. Truly.

    PAA: Pluto – You describe Pluto as a gateway to the extrasolar region. What did you experience in terms of entities or energies once moving past Pluto? Also, the idea of keeping things out as much as a gateway to other places. Were they surprised to receive human beings?

    Bob: As far as being both a gateway and a barrier, Pluto is curious. Its surface looks more like a frontier garrison than anything else. The kind of place where you must be prepared for a surface bombardment at any time. Clear-cut wide-open space around the few structures to allow for a free field of fire in the event raiders show up. Hence everything being underground.

    The entities seemed to be pursuing their own goals. None were truly hostile. I liken it to being a tourist in eastern Turkey. The locals would be annoyed if people showed up in number but given how rare visitors are they are mostly curious even if they don’t understand you. I’ve had more than one state things like “it has been a very long time since anyone has come here.”

    PAA: Pluto – Regarding the cave of egregores, how would you recommend someone new to this determine which systems are worth exploring versus those that should be left alone? What criteria can help discern if a particular magical system still has relevance?

    Bob: Trial and error unfortunately. Don’t forget to banish via Akasha and/or Solar energy afterwards. Keep Emnasut on speed dial. Working with P from Uranus it became very clear that the ancient Phoenicians practiced blood magic. Certainly not on the scale of the Meso-American groups, but it was a thing. Not pleasant. The worldview of these things is what it is. You do not generally change them. They change you.

    As for relevance, vet any information you get heavily. Vet it. Vet it again. And vet it a third time for good measure. If an easier/better way exists to do something using modern technology, maybe you should just let dead things lay there instead of resurrecting them. The past was often far worse than the present. The worldview of the ancients is practically alien to the modern mind. Remember this.

    PAA: Extra Solar – You discuss a cosmic Kabbalah library with different letter attributions. Did you gain any insights on how this extraterrestrial Kabbalah operates compared to our solar Kabbalah? Is it knowable or usable for those living in our realm?

    Bob: The associations were different, and no I will not discuss these here, as were the energies generated. I was specifically warned to not ever/never generate those energies internally with the human body as their very existence is destructive to us. Only generate them externally to the body.

    With that in mind, I am not advanced enough in my own practice to know why someone would want to learn this. Practically speaking it is only useful when outside our solar system. And every solar system has its own system. So, the cosmic version would only be used in extra solar space. I think. I don’t really know.

    It may be why so many of the “channeled mysteries” the New Agers work with are ultimately so destructive to human beings. The energies are literally out of this world, and we are not designed to handle them.

    PAA: Extra Solar – You describe the extrasolar region as the origin point for ideas not native to our solar system, like Buddhism and veganism. Did you learn anything more about how these ideas were transmitted or adapted to our realm?

    Bob: Not really, as I didn’t pursue it. Clearly someone went out and came back. Beyond that it is hard to say. I will say the largely mental nature of the Zodiac meditations mirrors that of Buddhist practice. And may explain why so many Greeks in the Silk Road cities converted to Buddhism.

    PAA: You mention that the Zodiac constellations are far removed from human existence and exert a mental influence. Could you explain more about how their distant nature enables them to affect us mentally?

    Bob: It is unclear if the constellations generate mental energy writ large or if they simply provide something similar enough to work as a substitute. Think endogenous testosterone production versus exogenous supplementation.

    As a practical matter, the vast distances they exist in separate from mankind makes any of the other energies they generate too far away to reach us. Vital force only reaches a few meters from the living thing projecting it. Astral force can in theory reach the ends of the universe, but this appears to take time and as collections of stars these things do not really have living breathing organic bodies to generate astral energy with.

    Again, as collections of stars, they are dynamos of energy production in general. And they all have a faint angelic, or solar, nature to them. They act in an advisory function. Not a command oriented one.

    PAA: When using your body as a talisman to generate the energies of the Zodiac, how long do the effects last? Is there a way to make the effects more permanent?

    Bob: As a rule, 24-36 hours. Longer with greater practice. And the effects seem to become permanent with 2 hours of practice a day and running the energy in the background the rest of the time for roughly 100 days. Counterbalancing may become impossible when pursuing this. Expect some degree of discomfort. Beware what you ask for, as you shall surely get it.

    PAA: You provide several methods for working with the Zodiac – seated meditation, energetic practices, and consuming charged elixirs. In your experience, which method produces the most tangible results in everyday life? What are the pros and cons of each?

    Bob: Seated practice generates the quickest changes but does not last without extensive repetition. See above. Energetic is largely the most useful for healing others, martial arts, etc. But can be emotionally destabilizing and energy is ultimately a trap as it does not convert to the physical for the most part. A little is enough. More is questionable and too much is useless if not damaging. Consuming elixirs penetrates the tissues most deeply and is the preferred method for permanently changing oneself. But these take the longest to prepare and their effects may be permanent.

    PAA: What kind of preparation is required for this kind of work? Is it possible to split it into two camps: those very serious practitioners who have gone through a curriculum like that in IIH or the Sixty Skills Master Course and in the other camp those who are happy to tune into these energies without knowing how everything works. Both get results but the details and information may vary in depth?

    Bob: That is exactly it.

    Not everyone needs to be able to drive a car like a Formula 1 racer. Most people just need a school bus driver’s level of skill. And this is how these things are done outside of Bardon’s system.

    If you look at something like Xing Yi, they have five elemental based fists. Each fist has a movement. Each fist has a specific energy associated with it. Each energy has a sound, sensation, and color.

    That sounds a lot like the magic of the letters / Kabbalah to me. Because it is the same. It is just a limited application.

    I’ve built the Kabbalah course so that it can be completed strictly through clairsentience and included that training in the course (building the ball, astral energy, etc.). So, it is accessible to virtually anyone. This is why people who buy the Kabbalah course will see a repetition of some material from the Master course.

    If people want to engage in the letters on a much more comprehensive level, then they need to complete IIH through level eight, the SixtySkills master course or a like curriculum. And this is the ideal way to do this work.

    It is not the only way.

    And as always, the perfect is the enemy of the good.

    If you want to go from being a benchwarmer as an athlete, then the letter D is what you want to work with intensely. Just remember to counterbalance with a water letter or you’ll probably develop a disease like Crohn’s.

    PAA: Your blog posts documenting these explorations of the outer planets have been inspirational to read. When you first started with KTQ doing the first key did you ever think it would lead you to where you are now with the Zodiac and Sepiroth?

    Bob: I had no idea.

    I just wanted to learn more letter magic.

    But a journey of 10,000 steps starts with the first step. Luckily, I had a good roadmap and fell in love with it. Frankly, on some level, I’ll never retire as I have something to keep me busy for the rest of my life. Few can say this.

    PAA: Of all the outer planets so far, what has been the most surprising thing for you personally? Were you somehow expecting what you witnessed or was it all completely unexpected?

    Bob: All of them really…. but Pluto probably the most so. No publicly available book explicitly deals with what goes on out there. It is all just general guidance at best or surprisingly incomplete. It is odd as I’ve been privately contacted by several individuals since finishing this work and they’ve confirmed everything I’ve written about here.

    PAA: Often you mention your guide for these explorations, would you experience the same guide on each visit? Or was this just on the first occasion?

    Bob: E, as I’ll call him here, was there if I asked for him to be. He didn’t need to be after I learned the L-U-D letter combination. Other times I’ve made the trip with Radcu.

    It’s a big world and lots of ways exist to trip the light fantastic or travel into the dark.

    PAA: Thank you for continuing to share your discoveries with the community.

    Sixty Skills Curriculum

    Master Course: There are two ways to get involved with the curriculum. If you are unsure or just starting out, you can purchase a single course and develop a specific skill set that the single course focuses upon, this is great if you just want to work on your weak areas and filling in the gaps.

    Alternatively, if you intend to take this training as far as you can and actually experience what so many can only read about then the Master Course is highly recommended as it will save money over buying single courses and it gives you every aspect required to develop yourself sufficiently for becoming Magically independent – meaning you have access to your own Akasha and Non-Dual Light.

    This access to Akasha and Non-Dual Light is really the first requirement for further advanced work, without this foundation you open yourself to potential problems. The Master Course contains the ENTIRE 18-Month curriculum, over 30 separate courses giving you everything you need with structure and clear communication to bring success. See previews of all courses here.

    Learn More About the Master Course

    Kabbalah Course: This is the next logical step for those who have completed the Master Course or equivalent via other methods. It also allows those who have not quite achieved those requirements a condensed path in obtaining the required skills. In Sixty Skills style Bob has you focusing on what truly makes a difference in your training, hence progress is rapid. Just as the Master Course laid an important foundation, this course lays the foundation for working with the Planets (Inner and Outer), Extra Solar and the Zodiac. For those involved in this work for some time you will realize how rare this kind of information is, the outer planets are rarely discussed much less visited. The rarity of this information further increases with extra solar and the zodiac – this is practical work of interacting with those spheres, not theory.

    Learn More About the Kabbalah Course

    Planetary Kabbalah Course (Coming Soon)

    Zodiac Course (Coming Soon)

    Additional Information

    Sixty Skills Courses
    Sixty Skills Kabbalah Blog Posts
    Sixty Skills Teacher Page

  • Complimentary Magical Courses from Perseus Arcane Academy

    Complimentary Magical Courses from Perseus Arcane Academy

    Welcome to the Perseus Arcane Academy. I’m thrilled to introduce four fascinating free magical courses offered by our esteemed instructors on topics ranging from magic to energy transformation. See a post on our paid courses here.

    Introduction to Magic

    First up is Introduction to Magic by Andre Consciencia. You may have heard whispers of secret societies, arcane rituals, psychic abilities, and ancient mystical texts full of power. Andre will peel back the curtain on the world of real magic. Discover how silence, stillness, and inner work can unlock altered states and connect you to the objects of perception, allowing you to cause change. Forget obscure jargon and elite gatekeeping – this course makes magic accessible. Over 13 sessions, the mystery dissolves and magic becomes a practical science. Follow along with care and integrity, and you’ll gain skills to successfully work long-forgotten spells and rituals.

    If you like the approach shown in this course then explore all of Andres courses, Magic and Mystical Introspection and Ceremonial Magick.

    About the Course Creator

    André lives in Moita, Portugal and has been a dedicated practitioner of magic and mysticism for more than two decades.

    He met Fraternitas Hermetica (an order based on the works of Franz Bardon) while still a minor and had an initiator that stood even after the order vanished. He also has worked with his old initiator for 20 years. He has experience of other magical systems such as AMORC, Order of Michael’s Grail (with roots on Dion Fortune), Thelemic Golden Dawn, Astrum Argentum, the Typhonian OTO and the OTOA-LCN.

    André teaches neo-shamanism and has his own active group of practitioners. Aside from his shamanic path, which he puts to use as a simple way to reach the uninitiated, he has been through the hermetic magical systems of Franz Bardon, as well as through systems presented by Rosicrucian orders and Thelemic organizations, still being a member of the Chaorder of SilverDusk and a member of the Inner Council of the Horus Maat Lodge, in which he holds the Portuguse Nexus.

    Join the Course for Free

    The Three Transformations

    Next is The Three Transformations by Sixty Skills, unveiling the ancient art of transmuting jing, chi and shen. Hermeticists (Franz Bardon students especially) called this process vital to astral to mental, while Chinese sages spoke of physical to subtle energy. It’s not just for enlightened masters! This course reveals how to actively engage in these energy conversions yourself. Learn why you’d undertake the three transformations, how to move from gross to subtle energy, where to place the energies, and more. While these practices seem like relics of the past, they’re fundamental to the human experience. Join Sixty Skills to revive your connection with these living traditions.

    If you like the approach shown in this course, then explore all of the Sixty Skills courses here.

    About the Course Creator

    SixtySkills is transforming the traditional transmission of meditative, and yogic, instruction from one of master to disciple to a modern online learning format. SixtySkills has covered the globe and over a thirty-year period derived the key techniques from all the major schools of Buddhism, Hermetics, Hindu-Yogic, and Taoist practice. Sixty Skills brings yogic, and meditative, instruction into the 21st century. No more kneeling at the feet of the master. All of the primary skills needed to engage any of the various meditative phenomena are available here via distance learning. If you have the work ethic, then no secrets are necessary.

    Join the Course for Free

    Hermetic Fundamentals

    Finally, Hermetic Fundamentals by Perseus Arcane Academy trains you to put teachings into action. This is a practical doing course, with each new lesson spread over 2 weeks to build discipline. Many collect information without gaining ability. Knowing is not the same as doing! This course challenges you to follow through, completing exercises regardless of doubt. It is a text course, no exciting videos. Can you persist through the entire period of 10 lessons? Success here trains the mindset to fully master esoteric skills. You’ll move beyond intellectual knowledge into applied magical practice.

    Join the Course for Free

    Clint Sabom – Steps 1-3

    With Initiation Into Hermetics, Franz Bardon has created a masterpiece of magickal ascension, giving all the necessary instructions and theory to rise to adepthood.  The book itself has an energy all to its own. However, getting through the steps of Initiation Into Hermetics can prove to be difficult, arduous work for many.  It’s tempting to slack off on the exercises when life seems to get in the way.  It’s common to stay on one or two steps for years on end or indefinitely.  Most people that start the work never seem to get through the first three steps. 

    This class is designed to walk you through each step, and share with you my own experience of going through the first three steps.  Yes, there are shortcuts, hacks, and additional tips for achieving magickal equilibrium. 

    About the Course Creator

    Clint Sabom is an Executive Spiritual Coach for Bardon practitioners.  He went to Vassar College where at 21 he had a spontaneous kundalini awakening. He has lived in a silent monastery, is widely published, and also works as a psychic.  He offers coaching sessions those interested.  He can be reached at thegraveyardcowboy@gmail.com

    Join the Course for Free

    As always if you have questions about anything related to Magic, Evocation, Kabbalah etc, just get in touch. We may not always have the answer, but we will do our best to put you in touch with someone who does.

  • Achieving Self-Mastery: How Discipline and Rigor Lead to Spiritual Attainment

    Achieving Self-Mastery: How Discipline and Rigor Lead to Spiritual Attainment

    This post is a response to feedback and private messages received over the years in regard to practice and the pursuit of self-mastery. For anyone who reads the following and sees it as common sense then this post is not directed at you….but thanks for stopping by.

    Rigour – it is done in a strict, thorough way.

    Real Life Success

    I wanted to write this as I worry a little about younger students who write with questions. I am happy to help answer what I can but often the answers are not going to help too much as the person in question is perhaps being a little unrealistic in their approach to Magick. Now let’s be clear, I know the path is full of amazing and hard to believe experiences but these all come with years of practice and maturity. Yet one of the downsides of hearing about Magicians work and experiences is that though for the vast majority of people this information is taken as inspiration. For a small minority they begin to build their life, dreams, activities and entire personality around their practice of Magick. Instead of being their given name on social media they now have some spiritual title, they are more focused on building their success in the unseen, in an area where it cannot be measured and verified than the real world.

    I am not directing this at anyone so please do not take offence. I simply worry that for the young, this approach will do you no good in life – just my opinion. It is important to work towards success in every aspect of our lives especially areas where this can be verified. Now success does not mean you have to be the best at everything it means you set goals for yourself and work towards achieving them.

    This is why sports, athletics, combat sports like BJJ, MMA and Muay Thai are so valuable (you can exchange this to calisthenics/kettlebell but you miss a little of the fear factor). They are a verifiable way of working through fears, overcoming self-imposed limitations and being 100% certain of achievements. This does wonders for the subconscious.

    So, anyone working mirrors in Franz Bardon’s Initiation into Hermetics (or equivalent system), I believe would do well to incorporate something physical and based in the real world with non-spiritual people into their life.

    The key word I mentioned at the start of this post ‘Rigour’. To learn the lesson of what it is to do something with rigour – thoroughness. When you do this you gain a confidence in the things you have achieved, you know what it cost you. You know it is real. This is what I often see as missing in the correspondence I receive. Complaints of not being able to do step 1 vacancy of mind, not being able to do the throne posture. I ask how long they did it for, ‘a week’ or ‘just once’ is the response!

    Take one of the first lessons in the Hermetic Fundamentals free course, it asks you to sit in your chosen position for increasing amounts of time starting with 5 minutes. You add time all the way to one hour. The requirement is that you are physically still, not scratching, moving, no adjustments, no checking the time. Any movement means you restart the clock.

    Very few people go all the way to an hour, and very few repeatedly do this. It is a simple requirement, not hard to understand but the ‘Will’ to do it is often lacking hence the need for the exercise. It is much easier to find a pigeon feather on your doorstep and imagine you are in contact with the arch angels than it is to sit motionless for one hour. One is the imagination (generally) and the other is something that can be verified and timed.

    Mouni Sadhu mentioned something similar in his excellent manual on concentration, to paraphrase he mentioned how it is often easier or more comfortable for people to follow some guided meditation or guided visualization with multiple components all occurring at the same time, the attention is split so much that it becomes a little distraction with no real value. Compare this to concentrating on one single thing to the exclusion of all other sensory gates. Barely anyone got beyond the second series of exercises in his book.

    General Suggestions

    From this post I may sound terribly goal orientated but honestly, I am not that bad. It is just about being honest with ourselves and what we hope to achieve from any given activity or behavior. So if you are utterly obsessed with magic, the universe, the mysteries of it all, then I can completely relate as this has always been me. But to investigate these things properly requires time. Time costs money, as most of us sell our time for money in order to house and feed ourselves.

    To be able to spend your time on the things you find most interesting then is a result. The cause must be for you to achieve success in your working life. To always aim towards a success in everything you participate in. (Remember it does not mean the best it just means better than you were) This is balance. Success in every aspect of life rather than overly focusing on just the spiritual while the ither important parts of life are neglected.

    If you are under 30 (regardless of age but especially for the youth) develop new skills outside of official education, learn to code, learn a language, learn how to cook etc. If you are weak then get strong, if you strong then get mobile. If you are one extreme, then investigate the other extreme.

    It is essential that the aspirant strike a balance in life and not become consumed solely by occult interests. Success in “real world” pursuits, such as career, relationships, and physical fitness, builds confidence and a strong foundation of willpower that will support magical practice. Sports and other physical disciplines that have concrete goals and measurable results are excellent ways to develop mental determination and learn to push beyond perceived limitations. The self-mastery required in these earthly endeavors translates directly to the inner work of the mage.

    When the individual strives for realization in all facets of life, each realm supports and reinforces the other.

    Specific Suggestions

    Now let’s get back to ‘Rigour’. How can we apply this specifically to our practice? Well, you could join the free course on Perseus: Hermetic Fundamentals

    You could try to work on Physical Stillness:

    1. Choose a position, cross legged, sitting on a chair etc. You choose but this will get longer so it needs to be something you can be comfortable in.
    2. Get a timing device.
    3. Set the clock for 5 minutes, double check the alarm is set.
    4. Sit motionless, NOTHING MOVES, no excuses.
    5. Details: Your eyes can gently focus on one spot or keep them closed.
    6. Chest naturally breathes so it moves.
    7. Add 5 minutes every day up to one hour.
    8. Do 3 days at 1 hour – Journal your results, what you feel before, how it makes you feel during and how you feel after.

    You could do something with Pushups:

    1. If for example 10 pushups is your maximum.
    2. You will do 50% of your maximum =1 set x 5
    3. So 5 pushups is one set, you will do this 5 times with 1-2 minute break in between each set.
    4. Do this Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
    5. On Sunday test your max reps.
    6. Recalculate 50% of max for the next weeks schedule. So, if new max was 20, the following week will be 10 pushups = 1 set x 10.

    Of course, these are just examples. They both build Will Power – imagine the Will like a battery. When you resist unhealthy habits and urges, taking control of yourself you build the battery, when you let yourself be controlled by feelings and urges your battery weakens.

    This rigorous training strengthens the mind and forges the mental “muscle” needed to persist in the face of challenges on the magical path. Simple but demanding exercises for focus, such as sitting motionless for increasing durations or pushing to muscular failure with calisthenics, create true grit and teach the body and mind to overcome urges and discomfort. Such practices prepare the aspirant for activities like ritual, meditation, and astral travel which require absolute mental clarity and unwavering concentration on subtle forces not discernable to the untrained senses.

    Conclusion

    The wise student understands that a lifetime focused solely on occult pursuits, disconnected from worldly success, is unrealistic and imbalanced for most. The magician seeks self-mastery and spiritual growth in tandem with external achievement. When the individual strives for realization in all facets of life, each realm supports and reinforces the other.

    Through leading a grounded, balanced existence distinguished by discipline and rigor, the aspiring mage slowly transforms their mind into an unwavering, concentrated instrument of their enlightened Will – the ultimate tool for unlocking their creative magical potential. The focused mind is the supreme ally of the magician.

    Learn About Sixty Skills

    SixtySkills is transforming the traditional transmission of meditative, and yogic, instruction from one of master to disciple to a modern online learning format. SixtySkills has covered the globe and over a thrity year period derived the key techniques from all the major schools of Buddhism, Hermetics, Hindu-Yogic, and Taoist practice.

    Learn more about Sixty Skills
  • Power Up Your Practice with Elastic Force Chi Kung – Sifu Mark Rasmus Courses now on Perseus

    Power Up Your Practice with Elastic Force Chi Kung – Sifu Mark Rasmus Courses now on Perseus

    This marks a great occasion, as a long time ago in 2012 I went out to Thailand as I was feeling stuck with my then approach to Initiation into Hermetics, I had heard about Sifu Mark Rasmus, corresponded with him which assisted me greatly, and generally heard great things from those who had made the trip.

    Learn more about the Elastic Force Chi Gung Course Here

    I spent a week being shown a multitude of approaches that would speed up progress and open me to new ways of approaching the exercises. It was so good that I returned a few years later (generously assisted by one of his students, Joey). Again, I was given so much to work with that I was able to make quick progress and overcome any challenges in the exercises I faced. All thanks to Sifu Mark.

    We always kept in touch and so now after 12 years since first meeting him and training with him we now have his 6 progressive courses on Perseus (The first is up, the others to follow). So, if you want to go through a similar training to what I did in 2012 but now in 2023 much improved in every way then head over to Perseus and have a look at the first course of six, Elastic Force Chi Kung.

    Elastic Force Chi Kung

    Unlock your true potential in the internal arts with Sifu Mark Rasmus’ comprehensive online Instructor Training Program. This unparalleled course provides in-depth instruction on Elastic Force Chi Kung and other profound practices, granting access to insider techniques and principles normally reserved for inner door students of most traditions.

    With a video library of over 750 lessons structured around a principle-based curriculum, students gain invaluable knowledge and skills for rapid advancement as teachers and future leaders of the Chi Kung community. Filmed during private trainings, workshops, and courses, these exclusive videos break down foundational and advanced topics, from Qi Gong exercises to harnessing intrinsic energy and developing explosive Fa Jin power.

    Sifu Mark guides you each step of the way, sharing decades of hard-won mastery refined through tireless effort and uncompromising commitment to practice. Beginners can start from the basics, learning at their own pace with his clear, detailed instruction. More experienced internal artists find a direct path to refinement and greater understanding.

    This is a truly unique opportunity to further your practice under a generational master. By enrolling in the program, you take the first step towards achieving the heights of skill and wisdom passed down through the living lineage. With perseverance and Sifu Mark’s guidance, you gain the tools to unlock your potential and become an embodiment of the internal arts.

    What you will Learn

    Sifu Mark Rasmus’ online Instructor Training Program provides a profound path of development for meditators, yogis, martial artists, students of Magic and Hermetics, and all sincere seekers of the internal arts. Through step-by-step video instruction, Sifu Mark guides you to:

    • Build a robust Qi Gong practice through detailed instruction and guided exercises for energy cultivation, circulation, and control. Master foundational techniques and internalize core principles.
    • Develop explosive Fa Jin power through specific training methods. Learn to harness intrinsic energy and deliver it skillfully.
    • Enhance mind-body connection and mental focus. Use meditation, visualization, and other techniques to increase awareness and achieve alignment.
    • Delve deep into intrinsic energy systems within the body. Open meridian flows and activate dan tians through precise training protocols.
    • Expand your practice into advanced realms. Deepen intrinsic energy skills, refine Fa Jin, and achieve higher states of consciousness and being. Attain mastery under Sifu Mark’s guidance.
    • This course prepares the way for deeper Hermetic work entered into in courses 3,4 and 5 and provides you with vast experience in wielding these forces.

    For those committed to profound self-cultivation, this program provides unique access to the transformative wisdom and practices of the internal arts lineage.

    Why do this Course?

    Learn more about the Elastic Force Chi Gung Course Here

    So as you can see, I am a little excited to have Sifu Mark on Perseus as it marks more than a decade pursuing this path since training with him over in Thailand. His teaching is truly life changing as can be seen in the lives of his many successful students, he holds nothing back in person, in his book or in these courses. In many ways I think the courses are ideal as in person it is hard to absorb so much information in a short time. So having the course allows you go over what you learned in person as much as you want until you get mental clarity and practical understanding.

    This as mentioned is the first of six progressive courses, course 1 and 2 can be taken by anyone but the others really require some background and foundation built in the student in order to be most effective. This first course builds the foundation and allows you to have practical experience of Sifu Marks teachings. This practical experience is so important and is what makes Sifu Mark and his students so successful, as the forces he talks about are not just theorized about they are truly experienced by partner work, multiple partners of different shapes and sizes. There is no room for kidding ourselves. Even working on your own via the course there are ways for solo trainers to ensure they are keeping their feet on the ground and truly developing skills.

    So if you would like to experience Elastic Force Chi Gung, build a foundation or hope to visit Sifu Mark for live training in the future then this first course is ideal.

    Learn more about the Elastic Force Chi Gung Course Here

  • Kundalini, Hermetics and Meditation: Interview with Ryan DeBlanc

    Kundalini, Hermetics and Meditation: Interview with Ryan DeBlanc

    Today we have Ryan DeBlanc on the blog. I noticed Ryan wrote a really nice post on Kundalini that was shared by one of our mutual friends. I contacted Ryan to discover he was super friendly and very willing to answer some of my questions for the blog. So huge thanks to Ryan for spending the time on these questions.

    Interview

    PAA: Please provide a brief introduction.

    Ryan: First of all, thanks so much for having me on your blog. I really enjoyed the articles you sent me and I’m glad you asked me to participate. 

    Before getting too far into my introduction, I’d like to provide a brief disclaimer out of respect for the systems I practice: I haven’t been given the clearance to teach in any of these systems yet, so I don’t want my answers to be overly associated with them. Some of my opinions may differ from what they would say. My opinions also change over time as I continue to develop, as I believe they should for all practicioners. 

    With that out of the way, here’s a brief introduction and history of my time practicing internal arts:

    I’ve always had a high sensitivity to subtler aspects of reality, and I’ve felt a strong pull towards the spiritual path for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, my awareness of energy and certain psychic senses were overwhelming. Due to being raised near Salt Lake City, Utah, in a family that was a bit overly paranoid about mental illness, this kind of thing was really looked down upon. There was concern that I was schizophrenic when I was little, which was thankfully discarded after visiting psychologists. My family always had the best intentions for me and I have no hard feelings about it whatsoever. These days, looking back on my childhood makes me laugh. Life is funny.

    It took me a long time to find proper guidance for internal arts and spiritual cultivation. I went through many systems that either didn’t do anything or made me sick through improper practice. Thankfully, I eventually ended up finding safe, effective, and proper instruction.

    The first system I found was Adam Mizner’s Heaven Man Earth Taijiquan. I was lucky enough to have a Heaven Man Earth teacher just a few hours away from me. I began my era of proper training with him. Nearly immediately, it explained many things about my life and began to teach me how to develop. I’ll always be very grateful to him for teaching me and to Adam Mizner for creating his system and being available to his students.

    The second system I found was Damo Mitchell’s Lotus Nei Gong. Damo’s instruction through the online academy has also proved to be a great gift. Damo’s knowledge of internal arts is vast. To me, he also demonstrates a very high level of skill both with his practice and his character. I consider myself very fortunate to be able to interact with and learn from him.

    The third system was Hermetics. I didn’t actually seek this one out. A teacher/highly skilled practitioner saw where I was at with my internal development at the time and offered to take me under his wing and learn Hermetics, in order for me to keep progressing at a steady rate. He completely blew my mind immediately. He’s also a highly skilled Qigong and Taijiquan practitioner.

    PAA: Hermetic/Evocation and Kabbalah – What are you able to say about these subjects?

    Ryan: My instructor’s approach to Hermetics seems to be a bit different than how some others approach it. Rather than solely focusing on the magic that’s so alluring and tempting for so many, he really emphasizes integrating release into practice. This is something I personally believe to be incredibly important, especially if one’s aim is liberation. The psychic and magical training is fascinating, but I believe that one needs to be able to move past the tendency to become obsessed with it in order to stay on the path to liberation. I see what I’ve learned from him as a set of tools to use to aid me on my path, as well as markers of progress.

    I’ve received quite a few direct transmissions from my instructor, and we’ve since become good friends. More recently, I also started to practice with another Hermetics teacher as well who is directly under Sifu Mark Rasmus. I also consider him a good friend.

    PAA: How big a role does mental training and the development of concentration have in your practice?

    I’m of the opinion that mental training is very important for any spiritual path. Training be able to maintain one-pointed concentration for extended periods of time is vital. With time, my training has allowed me to become more and more used to it. 

    These days, I’ve started to be able to release into it rather than needing to bring my attention back to a meditation object every five seconds. I believe that being able to release into concentration rather than fighting yourself for it is something that’s needed to achieve meditation. 

    Another aspect of mental training that I consider vitally important is character development. Character development isn’t solely mental training, but I feel it’s easier to categorize it under that umbrella for the purposes of this interview. 

    Being able to see thoughts and character traits for what they are allows you to begin to disidentify from them. Nearly all of us have negative thoughts and character traits. Those who can’t begin to disidentify with them will always carry their negative personality traits in their bodies. That condition prevents release, and to me, release is one of the most important aspects of the spiritual path.

    PAA: From seeing some of your social media posts you mention about the difference between the aforementioned mental training and real meditation, could you expand on this and provide your definitions of what would be considered meditation. The wording you use ‘it is very rare to find someone who has achieved meditation’, so do you see meditation as the result rather than the process.

    Ryan: I’m a fan of calling things what they are to avoid confusion. The spiritual path is tricky enough as it is, so I believe that any form of distinction we can get our hands on is helpful. I initially got my definition of meditation from someone who trains with one of the most respected Buddhist meditation masters in the world.

    To me, meditation is complete absorption. This means that all sensations and all perceptions leave. You’ve merged with God, Dao, The Absolute, or whatever you want to call it. I don’t really believe it’s possible to describe the state of meditation because there’s no content that can be understood mentally. Even calling it a state feels incorrect. 

    The closest I’ve come to being able to describe it is saying that it’s like being in dreamless sleep but somehow still “conscious” and “bathed in light”. That still feels like a highly inaccurate description, but it’s the best I can do. The first time it happened, right before I entered the state, I thought I was going to die. Still, I released into it anyway. Maybe I’m a little crazy after all!

    I have no formal education in Buddhism and no Buddhist teacher, so I can’t say for sure, but I’ve been told by people I respect that I’ve entered this level of Jhana. 

    Despite having been told that, I approach all aspects of internal arts as if I’m a total beginner and that I’ll never know anything for sure, especially when it comes to meditation. I know that I’m no better than anyone else and I don’t want to fully assume I’m correct without a qualified teacher confirming it for me. 

    Avoiding delusion is important, so I can only go off of what people I really respect tell me, and what things objectively seem to be. I don’t want to put ideas into anyone’s heads or spread misinformation.

    PAA: One post that caught my eye originally was the common occurrence of people mistaking types of Chi/Energy for a Kundalini Awakening. Could you expand on this point and provide some insight into what are huge differences? Also could you expand on what motivated you to write the post? 

    Ryan: What motivated me to write that post is that Kundalini Yoga is actually the first way I began to make myself sick through not understanding what I was doing. I was told about what genuine Kundalini Awakening is from a teacher I really trust. Through my own experience, I’ve also found that what he said is true. Well, when I say my own experience, I mean nearly everything other than actual Kundalini Awakening. 

    Kundalini is not the energy running up your spine that you feel during a Kundalini Yoga class. What you’re feeling there is an elevated amount of Yang Qi (a kind of electrical energy) moving through the spine into the brain. This can cause major problems if the body isn’t open enough to allow it to move out of the brain, which is the case for the vast majority of people. 

    It can cause constant panic attacks, fry your nervous system, and mess with your organs, just to name a few. This is exactly what happened to me. I also had scoliosis that I was told would require surgery to fix, so the amount of pain I was in from sending that much energy through my damaged spine was the most pain I’ve ever been in. Luckily, I was later able to fix my spine with Qigong. 

    It’s possible that the severity of my sickness was because I already had an awareness of energy long before I started doing Kundalini Yoga, but I still think that it’s a harmful practice unless one has already opened the body enough to be able to efficiently conduct energy.

    From what I understand, nearly nobody has actually awakened their Kundalini. I don’t know of anyone alive that has. There may be one of two people, but they’re likely not public about it. There was a famous Yogi that brought the word Kundalini to the west, which I believe is where much of the misunderstanding comes from. If what he taught is anything to go by, he definitely didn’t awaken Kundalini either. He was mistaken. 

    Awakening Kundalini is absolutely insane. It’s so far down the line for the vast majority of us that it’s pretty much not even worth talking about. It’s said to be so unbelievably painful that you pass out, vomit, scream, and other stuff like that. It’s like your entire being is on fire. 

    It also literally changes everything about you. When I say that, I’m not talking about psychological changes, experiencing new planes of existence, or other psychic stuff. That stuff comes near the beginning of the spiritual path as far as I can tell. That stuff is fascinating, but actually pretty irrelevant for the most part if your aim is Nibbana. I believe those abilities should just be treated as markers of progress, not something to get stuck on. 

    Awakening Kundalini means you’re pretty much at the end of the spiritual path. Like, you’re pretty much done. Also, the Siddhi (abilities) that one is said to attain when one fully awakens Kundalini are not metaphorical. People think they are, but they’re not. To be blunt, until you come across someone who can physically be in two places at once, set things on fire with their minds, literally fly, or some other crazy things like that, then you haven’t met anyone that’s done it. 

    If people don’t believe any of this, that’s fine. I totally understand why they wouldn’t. I wrote that post just in case it can help one or two people avoid making the mistake I made, and avoid getting sick. 

    I hope your readers don’t take what I say here as discouragement for spiritual practice. You can still go very far without awakening Kundalini.

    PAA: You mention there being more to the breath work, what else should people be considering when engaging in these practices?

    I think that the most important aspect of breath work in the beginning is letting it properly anchor down into the lower abdomen. Most people breathe with their chests, which pretty much makes any higher level practice impossible. 

    The key to this practice is that you don’t force yourself to breathe with your belly; you have to allow it to happen. If you force it, you’re not really changing anything.

    Wherever your attention naturally goes when you breathe is how low your breath actually is. You need to accept where your breath actually is, even if it’s all the way at the top of your chest. Just keep breathing and allow your attention to be where it is. With enough practice, the breath will sink and your attention will be drawn into the lower abdomen.

    PAA: Lower Dantien – This is a big one. Real place, created place, felt, visualized?  What is your opinion on this and what has led you to this conclusion?

    PAA: Yes, this certainly is a big one. My opinion is that it’s not a place in the body, and that you don’t have one unless you’ve built it. To use an analogy, there’s a vacant lot where it goes, but you haven’t laid the foundation or built the building unless you’ve properly practiced the necessary internal work.

    There are lots of ways for the Lower Dan Tian to develop, and some are more direct than others. Basically, to build the Lower Dan Tian, a Yin field needs to be build in the area where it goes. This becomes the container that eventually fills with Qi. If you try to put Qi in there without first building the container, the energy will just disperse. 

    In a way, the whole body can eventually become a Dan Tian, with a profound fullness of Qi that doesn’t disperse.

    The lower Dan Tian gets more complex than just that as well, but I don’t feel I’m qualified to speak on it quite yet.

    I think that two of the best ways to develop the Yin field are Taijiquan and various practices within Neigong, one of them being Dan Tian Gong. Neigong more direct in a way because you’re directly creating the field rather than just releasing until it fills. In my opinion, both practices are equally as effective. They just have different focuses. Choose the one that suits your goals.

    PAA: Anything else you would like to share about any of these subjects?

    Ryan: I’d just say to make sure you get your practices and information from legitimate sources. Beyond that, all I’d say is to remember to enjoy your practice! It’s a really profound and special thing to do, so keep appreciation for that. Have fun!

  • Meditation: Mindfulness and Meditation Tips

    Meditation: Mindfulness and Meditation Tips

    Before we learn how to Meditate we must learn where Meditation came from, what it is and why we should spend time upon it. If you are one of regular readers or magical practitioner you can probably just skip this post as this is looking at absolute basics.

    If you would like to be guided in these practices, then check out our courses. You can even try a free course here.

    Universal Origins of Meditation

    Meditation is a word well known the world over but thought of in very different ways depending on who you speak to and where they are from

    Let us begin very simply. What do we all do when alone in nature or when looking at the night sky? If you are anything like me then immediate contemplation is the answer. When seeing something so vast like the night sky filled with stars the mind begins to wonder and the mystery of it all such as what does it all mean? Who am I? Why am I here? Begin to fill the mind.

    Did we plan these questions? No. But they rise to the surface when the mind is removed from its normal day to day mundane activities.

    So ancient man is no different from modern man in that there was wonder, and contemplation and answers were sought.

    It could be said that answers were found in the form of Entheogens widely used by Native peoples around the world. This usage led to deep experiences lasting hours and requiring much contemplation to assimilate after the event.

    Was this called meditation? No it was simply a natural process of the experience. But is it meditation? Arguably yes! So I think we can agree that meditation has been around for a long time under many names with various goals.

    Though we cannot say for certain where it came from as i suspect the answer from many locations around the world as wherever man can think and contemplate he will build systems around these natural functions to facilitate results and to repeat results.

    Some of the earliest documented history that we have to look for the origins of Meditation come to us from the Indus Valley Civilization 3000BC.

    At this point language developed sufficiently to record important aspects of their culture. Part of what was recorded were the ancient tantras which included mention of Meditation. This was specifically mentioned in the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra.

    This ancient tantra did not stop at mentioning Meditation methods instead it covers 112 techniques forming a dialogue between the legendary Shiva and his wife Parvati.

    There are many more discoveries of the existence of Meditation practices from the period of the Indus Valley civilization which you can find in the further reading section.

    Now that we have established the ancient origins of this practice let us now now move to the stated goals of the practice.

    Why Meditate? Stated Goals of Meditation

    This is a question which can be viewed from many perspectives. It’s almost like saying why exercise. For some it’s to stay healthy, for some it’s to see how far they can go, how strong and fit can they get? For others it is life or death if they don’t exercise they may well worsen their current health issues.

    So what influences our goals? This is a good example of what the legend Terence Mckenna mentioned in his many discussion about Culture.

    Culture can be seen as our operating system in the world. It has been installed since the day we were born. Everything we see and here is recorded and responded to by our subconscious. Whether we like it or not it is a mechanism that is constantly at work 24 hours per day 7 days a week.

    This cultural programming then forms our hopes and dreams and how we go about achieving them. So if we are religious then Meditation may take on this religious perspective, if we prefer a more modern scientific approach then it takes on this guise.

    Each approach comes with it goals associated with that approach.

    Religious Goals of Meditation

    It could be argued that religions do not meditate that they in fact use prayer. This again depends upon our perspective. But essentially when used in Religion such as Buddhism it spans the goals from Right Mindfulness, Right View and Right Concentration.

    This is part of a very detailed tradition. First to develop Serenity (Samatha) and then Insight (Vipassana).

    In the Hindu traditions stemming from the Indus Valley civilization the practice contains some of what we find in the Buddhist tradition due to one growing from the other.  But we also have much more dwelling upon specific deities which represent specific qualities.

    This is seen in the ancient traditions and also within the Vajrayana Buddhism and the old Bon Traditions.

    The deities and gods (small god not to be confused with God, the all, the undefinable) though also worshiped in their own right also represent specific qualities and quantities. It’s tricky to define these traditions with a sweeping statement as even within the same tradition they can have multiple branches and different influences with micro lineages complete with their own origin story and method of practice.

    Have a look at the various Yoga systems you see everywhere nowadays with everyone talking about this Chakra and that Chakra. If you research each Chakra you will see that each relates to Color, Sound, Quality and my point here Deity.

    Essentially once we strip these Religious systems of their Cultural wrapping the goals can be summarized as Liberation.

    Liberation from the monkey mind, liberation from thoughts we do not want in our mind. Liberation from unwholesome thinking and ultimately if you believe in it then liberation from reincarnation.

    Health Goals to Meditation

    This is a big reason for people to start Meditating and to actually continue with the practice. Accepted so much that you can even find doctors recommending the practice.

    There have been studies made around the world relating to its benefits such as a 1992 study in the “American Journal of Psychiatry” that found meditation reduced symptoms of anxiety and panic in some people with anxiety disorders, while a 2007 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found some evidence that meditation helps to improve cardiovascular health.

    So we have evidence. It does help even the government admits it.

    Modern Goals to Meditation

    The modern goal of meditation is often simply to quiet the mind. To shut out the noisy world and taste some peace and quiet.

    Even if lasting for just a few minutes per day this escape from worries and stress is enough to keep people coming back for more and to seek this experience in variations of Meditation such as Tai Chi  and Yoga Asana.

    One of the benefits spoken of by practitioners is that it keeps them young, clear thinking and full of energy. Well recently evidence to this has been found by a study from UCLA that found long-term meditators had better-preserved brains than non-meditators as they aged.

    Participants who’d been meditating for an average of 20 years had more grey matter volume throughout the brain — although older meditators still had some volume loss compared to younger meditators, it wasn’t as pronounced as the non-meditators.

    Very good news for meditators and more than enough reason to give it a go I think learn how to meditate in order to get some peace, quiet and boy band looks.

    Types of Meditation

    Do I need to write this section? Is it not just close your eyes? Well actually no there is a lot more to it and it is quite a rabbit hole once you get started and get your first glimpses of results.

    This will be a general overview of approach rather than an encyclopedic look at styles as each tradition, school and teacher will have their unique approach. You decide for yourself if what follows fits your view of meditation.

    Contemplative

    This is where you will sit quietly with a chapter heading in your mind. It is a form of concentration (looked at later) whereby you allow a flow of thoughts that focus upon one subject. For example I think of a tree, maybe I see this tree in front of me and I can ‘contemplate’ the size and feel of the tree.

    What it’s life must be like, how it survives and how it is the home for many other creatures and animals. Going further back I can look at how this tree grew itself from a small seed and that it has been alive and flourishing longer than I have been alive and will go on long after I am gone.

    Do you see that this was a guided flow of thoughts focused on a subject… this is contemplation.

    Devotional

    Some would argue this is not meditation (myself included) but I include it as maybe this will work well for you.

    This is a form of distraction and use of the emotions. Through the fervent recitation of a prayer, a mantra etc for long periods of time the meditator can change their state of mind to one which is uplifted and focused upon the content of their prayer, mantra etc.

    This can also occur through the use of music and is seen in many traditions ancient and modern both through solo practice and group/tribe practice.

    Why do I not view it as Meditation? I will cover this more later on in this article but the important aspect here is that replacement was used. Replacement in itself is an acceptable form of practice as you replace many potential troublesome thoughts with one more constructive thought.

    Seems like a good process but there is a difference in how that is achieved. If it is through concentration and willpower, the long forgotten discipline then this can be a great method but if it is based upon emotion stirred up by prayer,mantra, singing then this is not something you can rely upon in your daily life as you are using your already undisciplined emotions to create a euphoric state that cannot be readily recreated in daily life.

    Success on the cushion is not much success if you cannot take it into your day and interact with the world. I underline the fact that this is simply my opinion on the matter.

    Energetic

    Energy, Chi, Qi, Prana, Kahuna it goes by many names but is found in all the old traditions if we look long enough.

    Not only did the ancients accept that there was a kind of universal life force but the also constructed very detailed models of how to use this energy for our benefit and ultimately how to get the highest mystical results which blur the lines of reality for us in the modern world.

    Again to detail each tradition and the difference is not the point here. I want to bring some clarity instead to some subjects readers of this article may be familiar with.

    Now Ancient models of the Universe not only accepted this Universal life force but also broke it down further into element systems.

    I will look at the Vedic/Tibetan model one which is also used by the Western Mystery Schools. (Yes Iam aware of 5 Elements model, plus others but here we will keep it simple)

    Four Elements make up this system, Fire, Water, Air and Earth (Remember earlier I spoke about qualities and quantities? The same is true here).

    Add to these Four the original substance from which they were born, Akasha.

    Briefly each element has an overriding quality which can be expressed positively or negatively depending upon the purity of our system.

    Fire – Will Power, Force, Electric, Expansiveness, Heat.

    Air – Thinking, Contemplation, Lightness.

    Water – Emotions, Magnetic, Attraction, Cold

    Earth – Solidity, Heaviness, combination of the 3 prior Elements.

    Now lets look at basic Pranyama….

    It is genius when you look deeper into this. The belief is that a human being has many channels of energy in the body. The most important of which are the Left (Ida), Right (Pingla) and Central (sushumna). These have traditional names but we will keep to the English as you can read more in the further reading section below.

    Through the process of purifying our system our expression of the qualities of these elements becomes positive. At this point we gain a balance in life and in ourselves.

    Taken further the Yogi will use their breathing exercises to bring the life force into the Central Channel.

    Left controls all the mental processes while Right controls all the vital processes. Left is known as the moon, and Right as the sun. The third channel, the central channel travels directly up the center of the spine and is the channel for the awakening of spiritual consciousness.

    It is through the Central channel that the mythical Kundalini is awakened and flows through.

    Now this all sounds very exotic but what is the point? Does it make a person be able to meditate? Arguably yes but like all these things YOU are the laboratory and only you can say if it gives you the results you are looking for. What is the potential? Well something very mystical indeed. The Jalu (Rainbow Body). The meditator will actually transform into Rainbow light. Which after ganing control and working with these energies learns to dissolve the very elements. Sounds crazy? I know it does but tell that to the Tibetans who have made careful records of almost every Rainbow Body Experience that has occurred not just in the last 2 thousand years but their Ancient Bon Tradition records Rainbows bodies occurring all the way back to 10,000 years!

    Mental

    Now of course everything we do affects the mind. But with this approach the mind is not being altered by something outside of itself. At least not directly.

    The mental approach is what I would call the return to old school practice and because of that it is extremely effective. But it is also very unpopular in these modern times.

    Why? Well because everything is easy now. Nothing is supposed to be challenging or stretch you in the slightest to achieve it and most importantly I believe many do not want real change to happen internally. They want peace and a relaxed mind without changing the contents or the habits of that mind.

    Now please don’t take that as a negative judgment as I am just as guilty of this thinking it is just an observation of the modern world. We want the result but are not too keen to change anything to get it.

    Let me explain the most important point.

    Meditation should result in you being in control of your mind. A mind in control of itself does not say I will not do xxxx again and then 1 hour later go an do that thing.

    A mind in control of itself does fight with itself with one part wanting to be a certain way and another part addicted to a habit.

    A mind in control of itself is the Master Mind (Master Mind by William Walker Atkinson) who can silence the mind immediately, who is informed by emotions and not controlled by emotions.

    This is the reason I mentioned distraction earlier on. It is a valid method but often only because the mind and its powers are not sufficiently strong enough for the task of being the Master Mind.

    Another example, have you ever followed one of those guided meditation where they say imagine this and imagine that and you end up with some unfocused imaginations with some golden light thrown in for free?

    Did it help? Maybe it did as it took your mind away for the usual concerns. But did it stay with you and are you now in the driving seat of your mind rather than a concerned passenger?

    You see the point.

    Mental Control

    Now just to illustrate the importance of mental control and its components of Willpower, Attention and Concentration, go and get an analogue clock which has a second hand, the one on your Ipad works just fine.

    Now set the timer for 10 minutes.

    Begin the timer and watch the second hand. Nothing but the second hand must occupy your mind.

    If another thought replaces the second hand in your mind for even one second. Or if you forget yourself for one second then you start again.

    You want to see how long you can remain 100% focused upon the second hand.

    Be honest could you do it with no tiny breaks in focus? If you could well done….

    Attention

    This last exercise was a good example on another quality attention, and its practice. It seems to be a lost art nowadays as it is far easier to put meditation music on and get in the mood (emotion dictating mental clarity).

    Attention should be trained from now until the day you leave this earth. How to do it?

    Some examples.

    Observe people around you, are they fidgeting? Are they moving their feet, tapping the floor? Scratching beards? Busying their hands?

    Think of it like this every little movement costs mental fuel. You can spend it or save it.

    When you save it then it can be used to fuel your will power and resistance. Maybe part of you wants to go for a drink but YOU part that is thinking previously vowed you would never drink again.

    The part of you that resists is the Will Power. You need this fuel.

    So if you cannot sit still or talk needlessly,  then try to restrain these movements and unnecessary speech.

    Build up your willpower fuel tank.

    Maybe you want some food? Then resist and delay it. Well done you have built your will power fuel tank.

    So just like the new age books say attention to the moment. This is a massive secret of secrets.

    Do not meditate to have a more relaxed mind in daily life! Instead spend every second of your 24 hour day – your daily life, trying to be as aware and awake as you possibly can to the ‘texture’ of the moment.

    Why meditate then? You spend your 30 minutes to 1 hour per day doing your meditation on your cushion in order to go further.

    Further? Once you experience no thoughts. Then you will get a taste of what is possible. Each session will then endeavor to go deeper.

    You will then double your efforts in daily life and see the results of your meditation time. So, each feeds the other.

    Concentration

    In this article we have seen there are many approaches to meditation. All have their place and if you receive the results you desire then everyone should be happy.

    But their is an underlying dare I say truth. It is that Concentration is key to the process. What ever approach you are taking in meditation or in any other endeavor if you are unable to concentrate then your results will be lacking.

    If you are able to concentrate then this means you have both attention and willpower. With these qualities whatever you do on the meditation cushion or in the corporate world will be improved.

    If you cannot focus on the second hand of the clock with no external thoughts, or without forgetting yourself for 10 minutes then really the use of Music, Incense, Mala and Asana will surely help your temporary and immediate state of mind but will ultimately only be covering up the lack of concentration ability.

    This is sometimes a bitter pill to swallow but the sooner the better. Of course you need to test this for yourself and if you come to a different conclusion and are happy with it then blessings to you.

    But if you come to a similar conclusion that in the words of Mouni Sadhu (Paraphrased) there is no Meditation without Concentration.

    For those that share this view and want to know more…what follows is a guide to beginning meditation and to start seeing results in your daily life.

    How to Meditate

    Thank you for reading up to this point.  So far we have covered the origins and background to meditation with some of the common approaches.  Now we will look at how to develop the qualities required for a fruitful practice of Meditation.

    Each of the following steps can be tried over the course of days or weeks. To begin with why not try each step for 7 days. I ultimately leave this up to you as self responsibility is key and some steps you may immediately understand and ‘get it’ while other steps may take you longer.

    When trying this you do not have to take it all on as gospel truth instead just take this as a working model.

    All exercises can be taken incrementally starting with 1 minute and building up.

    Step 1: Center of Force

    This is a soul searching stage as we need to become very clear on why we wish to Meditate. If we are not clear on the ‘why’ then the how is not too important as there will be no consistent practice of meditation.

    So be clear on our goal. There is another reason for this as remember the subconscious is always at work. It simply acts on what the conscious mind provides it with. So be careful and very clear with the message you give to your subconscious it is your greatest ally if you work with it.

    We also need to clarify our model of reality and our place in it.

    For our approach here we see the Universe as a sea of creative energy and the part of us that thinks and observes is the ‘I’, the center of power.

    This Center of power IS the Center of the Universe as every point within the infinite Universe IS the Center.

    Once we can see ourselves as the powerful Center of the Universe then and begin to feel this in our personality then we are ready to begin.

    Exercise: Get a feeling for this quality and breath it in early in the morning. Nice big breaths filling both the chest and diaphragm.

    No holding of breath, no internal pressure.

    Thats it! On to Step 2.

    Step 2: Bodily Control

    We mentioned earlier how unnecessary movement can waste our energy and to restrain this movement will mean added fuel for our willpower.

    Exercise:

    Sit on the edge of a chair with your back straight and your knees touching with a 90 degree bend at the knee.

    Place your palms on your thighs.

    Remain relaxed.

    Remain completely still.

    Do this for 10 minutes.

    Remember do not fool yourself or make excuses. No movement.

    Step 3: Attention

    Exercise:

    Pick spot on the wall and focus on it or use this image and focus upon the center point:

    You can put a small coin on the floor in front of you if you want but the main point is pick a point and focus upon it.

    Do not let other thoughts come into your mind. Do not exchange another thought, image or sound for the object of focus.

    Do this for 10 minutes.

    Step 4: Observation

    Now we have built some force. Now the exercise changes.

    Sit still as before and simply observe the mind. Do not try and control it, instead simply observe the the thoughts that PASS through your mind.

    Do not forget yourself and follow the thoughts. Let them pass by.

    Start with 5 minutes then go to 10 minutes.

    Step 5: Single Subject Thought Stream

    One single thought.

    Pick a subject like a local park or person etc.

    Now keep your thoughts focused upon that one subject. Do not forget yourself.

    Keep your thought on that subject, so if I choose the park I will think of what it looks like, where it is, what does it contain, who goes there, why they go there.

    All thoughts connected to the original subject with no forgetting of yourself or the subject.

    Start with 5 minutes then go to 10 minutes.

    Step 6: Zero Thoughts

    You will now not allow any thoughts to appear in your mind. This is sometimes thought of as impossible but let me assure with the fuel you have build up in the previous steps you absolutely can do this.

    Put all your attention upon stillness. Do not stop thoughts instead focus on stillness.

    Do you see the difference?

    To stop your thoughts means you are focusing on thoughts. Like attracts like.

    So focus upon stillness.

    If it helps you, imagine blackness surrounding you on all sides and that you are sat within it.

    Another tip is to remember the eyes movement affects the state of mind (hence candle staring etc and the previous exercises).

    So keep the eyes still and focused on the point between the eyebrows. If the eyes are still then so is the mind…in theory.

    Only use this as temporary crutch. As soon as you can maintain stillness through the power of your will power then do so. Now of course there are many steps beyond the will power approach, this is just to get you in the door, to provide an experience.

    This Step is for life. You want to see how deep and how still you can get.

    Make this a daily exercise.

    Step 7: Enjoy

    Build the required qualities.  What qualities? Attention, Will Power and Concentration.

    Build these and apply the resulting mind power to resisting your negative qualities and transforming them into positive.

    Practice, practice, practice, then congratulate yourself as you now know how to meditate – or at the very least have create the foundation.

    Conclusion

    So there you have 7 steps which appear very simple. It is true they are simple but not easy. You can go a long way with each exercise and they are far more powerful than they appear.

    They all relate to very traditional stages and exercises without the cultural baggage. Is there more?

    Absolutely but without this foundation it really does little good to add on more exercises only to perform them poorly. A few sharp tools is all you need.

    Top Tip: Use Universal Principles to build success, get success in one of the methods. Stop – repeat the process and go a little further. I would advise not to practice into failure as this will create a negative cycle.

    Now get yourself a notebook and keep track of your practice and the thoughts and dreams you have and enjoy the ride.

    Use these posts ‘Introduction to Mental Training‘ and ‘How to Meditate and Enter the Void‘ to help with building the foundation.