If you're counting the omer with me (join here), this is the post I mentioned as prep work for counting. If not, feel free to use it to prep for any kind of magical work. There's a lot of complicated visualization/energy manipulation in this, which can take some time to perfect. At least, it took me a LONG time to get the trick of it. That's ok! This is one of those "fake it until you make it" kind of things. You'll feel it when it clicks in. Do it every day (after a week or so of practice, you should be able to do it in less than 10 minutes). I promise that you'll feel the connections "pop" when they're right. This metaphor might not resonate for the boys, but it's a lot like orgasm. At first, you're mostly just faking it, secretly wondering if there's something wrong with you that you can't do it "for real". Then, you kind of get into faking it, twitching muscles and breathing hard and whatnot, but you still suspect that you're "doing it wrong", because you don't really FEEL it. Then, there's a little mini-quake. You definitely felt something! Wait...was that it? This shit is overrated. Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, it washes over you, all at once, and you're plugged in. THAT'S what everyone was talking about! You can feel the connection. Turns out it wasn't so overrated. I promise that if you do it every day, it will click, and you'll know when you're doing it right.
In this ritual, we're invoking various powers. There are two basic ways to think about this. The first way to think about it is that these powers are always present inside of you, and you'll just tuning into them; making mental connections to them, getting "in the zone". The second is to think of them as external powers that you're plugging into. , There's a great deal of debate in the magical community about which is "right", which I don't really want to get into. Personally, I think that, in order to really make it work, you have to do both. In this, I'm talking about it as if they're external, because the language is less complicated that way. We're going to connect to 15 powers in this. By the end of it, you'll be a World Tree uniting all the Powers.
Start off by centering in your heart. Seriously, your heart needs to be the Center of the motherfucking Universe. Make a fist with your left hand and put it over your heart. Put your right hand on top of that and press your fist into your chest, hard enough that it hurts your chest a little bit. (I learned this pushing trick form Jason Miller; it's very effective.) Breathe in, concentrating your essence down, down, down into your heart. Feel the whole universe contracting down, down, down into your heart. Eventually, when the pressure is at it's limit, feel everything explode out, Big Bang style. Grow larger and larger, more and more diffuse, colder and slower.
Way, way out, at the outer circumference of the universe, past the black, past the cold, past the depths, the light of Ein Soph Aur (or whatever you call the Light Beyond the Darkness) shines. Feel it radiating into the world, moment by moment creating it, the subtle warm heartbeat the cosmic background radiation (metaphor!). Stretch up, up, up, becoming so large you fill the universe, becoming coextensive with all that it. Feel the Light Beyond filling you, warming you. Shrink back down to your regular size, but maintain a shining cord of light tying you to the outer edges, through the darkness, to the Light Beyond. The cord should "plug in" at the top of your head.
Feel the crystalline song of the stars descending through you, down your spine, passing through your heart (the center of the universe) down along your spine. You might feel it getting "stuck" at certain points. If that happens, try to imagine it like warm water, softly melting through the obstruction, and it should flow on past. If it's really, seriously STUCK and won't move, you're probably going to need some help from some kind of energy manipulator. I've had EXCELLENT results with acupuncture. This energy should naturally collect and pool in your belly or womb. just below the diaphragm. (I gather that some people's collects higher up, just below the diaphragm. That's fine too. Maybe better, I don't know.) If you can't feel it settling, try very subtly tensing and releasing your abdominal muscles rhythmically, from top to bottom, in a ripple. Leave a reserve of energy there; we're going to use it to connect to all the other powers.
Let the energy sink the whole way through your spine, exiting through your anus and sinking into the Earth. Deep, deep, down, through the Earth and the rock, deeper and deeper, at the center of the world below is the Heart of the World, the power of Life and Evolution and Decay and Renewal. Feel all your tension and worry, all your filth and impurity and "sin" sink off of you, washed down into the Earth, where it will decay and renew, being made clean again. Keep a cord/pipe running down into the Heart of the World, plugged in to your anus. (haha, she said "plugged into your anus")
Turn your attention again to the pool of energy in your belly. Send it down your right leg, sinking roots into the earth. Connect to your maternal ancestors (as literally or metaphorically as you want). Feel the love of your mother, and Mother-love in general. Feel the unbroken flow of connection, mother to grandmother, back through time. If you're Jewish, try connecting back to Rachael, and then Leah, and then Rebbecah, and then Sarah, and from her to Inanna, and from her back into the Heart of the World. If you're not Jewish, connect back to some other mythic-priestess tribal ancestress (make one up if you have to; you're looking for the "mother of your people". ). Through her, connect to any Goddess (or God) that descends and returns. And from Her into the Heart of the World. This is NOT the "universal brotherhood of man" kind of ancestry. It's your PERSONAL tribal ancestors. This is the pillar of Order, of Tribe, of Safety. This is the pillar of Love. We'll plug into universal human ancestry next.
Return to the pool in your belly, and send roots down your left leg, tracing along your paternal ancestry. This time, we are going back further. Run back through your paternal ancestors (literal or not), paying especially attention to any magicians. Keep going back, back, back to the paleolithic era, the first emergence of people like us. Find a shaman there. Connect through him to Pan (or any other spirit of Wild Places), and from there back to the Heart of the World. (For me, this involves tracing back evolutionary though animals, back, back, back to the first single-cell where life sparked.) This is the pillar of Chaos, of Wild, of Nature. The Pillar of Power.
You might want to switch left/right or male/female legs. I suspect, in particular, that for many men "universal family of humans" goes through the female on the left and "personal tribe" runs through the male on the right. Experiment to find what works for you. You can be as literal or as loose about how you understand "ancestors". These are just any dead people you can draw strength from. You can use saints and boddhisatvas and folk-heros as well as literal ancestors. It's just those "who went before".
Next, we're going to connect to the four directions (or four elements, or four archangels). I know there's a lot of back and forth about how to assign these. Personally, I think you should listen to the space your in to decide. For example, my home is less than 3 blocks from the Long Island Sound. When I'm at home, I call water in that direction (south).. There's a massive oak tree immediately outside my front door. I call Earth in that direction (west). Etc.
You can "call quarters" any way you want. For this, what's important is that you "plug in" to each element.
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