Sundry practical exercises

[Nebenkheperu]

For no specific reason (other than perhaps Lovingness - and isn't that all the motivation one needs?), I thought that I would start this thread by listing some practical, mostly daily (as opposed to being part of some more limited/aspected curriculum) exercises for the general occultist. I think these will potentially benefit the beginner (and adept?) alike, but especially the newbie i.e. someone who has recently started a lifestyle of contemplation, meditation, philosophical pondering and the like, especially if this new way of living is in stark contrast to one's earlier occult practices and thinking. I'm pointing my finger at the Moon of the more traditional Western ritual magic forms here, such as GD/Thelema/wossname, in variance to the more Theosophical way of approaching existence/cosmology/cosmogony etc.

In any case, my intention here is to list some simple somatic i.e. physical practices to counter-balance the more purely spiritual/intellectual ones, lest the aspirant fall victim to the infamous "Space Cadet Syndrome" and thereby cause much harm to herself & to innocent bystanders - this danger looms probably especially large for the solitary truth-seeker; could be a sudden imbalance. Anyway, the motto here being: "remember thy body!".

These I have nicked from LHP (and other) esoteric literature, but IMO the practices themselves are system-neutral and not even violently removed from any importantly specific contexts.
To recap: in my personal estimation, I consider the following to be of likely benefit to everyone, regardless of "magical current", school of thought or whatever pigeonholes one chooses to employ. I could probably unfold the individual exercises further and provide their sources, should someone request it.

But enough caveats, here we go, starting with Gurdjieffian/Fourth Way methods:

-every time you eat, concentrate and retain your conscious attention in your hands - how they physically feel.
-each time you read a book or e.g. watch a worthwhile intelligent video documentary - concentrate your mind into the feelings of your face. That focusing shall aid your learning/understanding of the subject matter.
-every time you pass a doorway, for a second or two focus your attention on the sensation of how your entire body feels. This helps you remember that you have an actual body/are incarnated; a "reality check" if you will.

Now onto more LHP ones:
-'Behind The Eyes': when you want the "focus of your consciousness" to be in your physical body, feel how the 'default ME/kāma manas' in most human beings seems to be located a few centimetres behind your physical eyes. So, slightly inside your skull/brain. This is a good technique to use when you are experiencing bodily pleasure. You are observing your body/the world from a point of earthly sensation and enhancing the same whilst focusing 'behind your eyes'.
-'The Crown': Use this when you want to distance yourself from your bodily sensations. Focus your attention on the crown cakra/κύκλος/"kehrä"/Kether & to drive home the point of you being a spiritual entity encased/imprisoned(?) in biological matter. The logic behind this is: you cannot truly know what you are in the mundane sense...only what you are NOT. As in "the eye cannot see itself", "the tooth cannot bite itself"...so anything you can feel or comprehend IS NOT YOU. Have pain in e.g. your left leg? Then it is NOT YOU. Feel an urge to (ab)use alcohol or some drug? Then it is NOT YOU. Feel depressed, sad, anxious? Then it's NOT YOU.
Keeping the focus of your consciousness in this "crown chakra" area of 'observing existence' can free you of all these urges, lessen pain and more besides...and, to boot, feel the gift of "The Master" aka the Black Sun and by extension the Black Flame.

Then for more playful (yet also hopefully profound) techniques:
-'Walking The World': When you go out for a walk or just move around indoors, visualise/imagine this: you are the central pole of the whole world/cosmos. Everything quite literally revolves around you - because you yourself are immovable; primum immobile (bad Latin, I know). So for instance, when you go out and walk somewhere, it is NOT you who moves. It is the world that moves. The motion of your legs/feet rotate the whole planet around you and in relation to you. In this way you are the world-pillar, the Irminsul, the Sampo, the World-Tree of various mythologies, the Axis Mundi, the Absolute (in a sense) etc...I think that this is the ultimate "centering/earthing" exercise - at the very least it feels vastly amusing.
-'Scaring The Kid': For a minute or few, observe your face in a mirror in dimly-lit conditions. The toilet mirror or a handheld one function equally well here. This actually serves as a double exercise: for the first one to three minutes as a tratak meditation, where you position yourself in relation (in terms of distance) to your reflection in a fashion which allows you to look yourself in the eyes, or to the spot between your eyes. With an empty mind...just stare without blinking. Soon you shall experience all kinds of optical distortions, which can be quite entertaining in themselves, yet beside the point of this practice. The second & more important phase is to maintain eye contact with your reflection, and start growling like a bear, lion or another such beast. Let yourself go...make all kinds of animal noises. The idea is to "scare" away your mundane self, the "social parasite" or the lowermost kāma manasic aspects. It's also hard (at least for me) to do this without laughing. But if/when you manage to perform this training, much will be revealed to you.
And should someone in your vicinity ask "what are you doing there?", you could either answer with a white lie e.g. "I'm contacting my animal guide", or more honestly (since lying should always be a no-no!): "Frater Lievo told me to do this". There! Truthfulness is its own reward.

But the above are my own recommendations for (mostly) daily practices; I would fain hear your own...to the benefit of everyone ogling this forum.

[Smaragd]

-each time you read a book or e.g. watch a worthwhile intelligent video documentary - concentrate your mind into the feelings of your face. That focusing shall aid your learning/understanding of the subject matter.

This sounds particularly interesting to me who has trouble reading alot of information at one sitting. I wonder if it could ease the mind to digest the information faster.


I have one helpful practice which I have come up with. It is for a quite specific problem so I hesitate to share it, but if it could help others with similar temperaments I think it is worth sharing. Rosary of Azazel could be seen as one possible preliminary practice for it as well as daily use of Prayer of Azazel. One should not deliberately seek a physical sensation in Anahata, but once it comes to you by itself, for example, through the invocation of Azazel, and/or through the beads of the rosary, you know how to reach it.

Now, the temperamental problem which this practice is aimed for is neurotic problem solving continuing even when solving the problem is not allowed to actualize for reasons you are individually not able to change. Such neuroticism can burn the nerves in a violent way and lead to harmful outcomes.

Focus on the perspective of the other party which prevents the problem solving and merge it with the physical activation of the anahata. This must not be taken as energetical onanism, but as a tool by which you understand deeply the (human) condition which prevents the other party to go in to the problem solving with which your own energy reserves are brimming with. Empathetic understanding should then actualize in your mind, and the reached buddhi should calm your physical nerves to find another time to solve the torturing puzzle.

I am not sure if this kind of physical connection through the heart center should be only used as an emergency option, and aim to strive for understanding with less physical methods in other cases. For example, in the Book of Paths (a English translation of which have been rumoured to circle in lodge Salome) there are the practices of Master's Providence and Sacrifice to the Central Fire (my own hasty translations) coming really close to this practice, and both of them have their expressed problems when used in improper settings. When it is too early to temporarily give up the charge you carry with your being? At which point such practices promote less understanding and more ignorant "love" of life without difficult questions? When does such pracices build more discretion between rhythms of your own and the others, between patience and forward-going Martian posture etc.? Such questions are crucial to be literally answered in order to avoid the forementioned onanism of the etheric centers in the body.

[Nebenkheperu]

Quite so. I will add another technique of a much more banal character, yet hopefully somewhat effective:

-ECI (Erotic Crystallisation Inertia): this is originally(?) Anton LaVey's idea, although probably not, since he was such a compulsive liar. But nonetheless this concept has been verified by clinical psychology studies in the past 20 years or so. Studies conducted in Europe for the most part, in nursing homes as well as in controlled (double-blind) tests, I gather. Proved to be useful in e.g. treating Alzheimer patients and the senile.
The idea in a nutshell is this: a human individual, when subjected to the music or other pop culture of his/her "sexual awakening" years, will benefit both physically and psychically from the same in his/her later years also. So, health boosts.

To put this very clearly in the format of instructions:
1) Make a playlist of the music you listened to between ages 13-25; on Spotify or suchlike.
2) Play it as background music during your daily chores, every day. The aim is a subconscious effect.
3) Rinse and repeat, especially if you experience benefits thereof. DO IT.

[Polyhymnia]

Uh, this thread is awesome.

Thanks for so many practical suggestions! I am particularly interested to try out the practices that involve the physical senses. I have nerve damage and brain lesions that make the physical sensations in my body disjointed. I'll start with the ECI and get back to you with the results.