Magick 101: Meditation & Trance: An FAQ

What is meditation?

Meditation is the act of actively calming your body and mind and bringing yourself to a state of rest and mental clarity, typically with the intention of achieving trance.

How do I meditate?

Most, especially the inexperienced, begin meditation by bringing their body to a relaxed state. If you are new to meditation, it’s best to begin during a time when you’re already tired and relaxed. To start, sit or lay down in a comfortable relaxed position. Close your eyes, and let your body relax itself, but be careful not to fall asleep. Some find that incense, music, or calming white noise aids in relaxing themselves and clearing their mind.

Next ones mind needs to be brought to a calm and relaxed state, which is more difficult than calming ones body. Tricks like counting ones breath or focusing on an unanswerable problem are counter-productive to achieving trance and should be avoided. Generally one should attempt to clear ones mind, or else to calmly focus on those things which will be dealt with during the meditation. All thought needs to flow without excitement or stress or anxiety, or any other emotion. The mind needs to slow itself down. During meditation one should be introspective, detail oriented, and analytical slowly spending however much time is needed on each thing. One should refrain from thinking quickly or covering many things in a short period and from thinking about things that illicit emotion. Once the mind begins to relax and some level of clarity is achieved, the practitioner should then allow the mind to wander where it may, to look at whatever comes up.

What is the purpose of Meditation?

Meditation provides many benefits to the practitioner over time. It helps to strengthen ones mental capacities including concentration and focus, and also allows one more control over the physical aspects of their body, and at the same time mediation becomes easier as one continues to practice it. However the typical purpose of a meditation session is to achieve trance.

What is trance?

Trance is an altered state of consciousness in which the mind is more finely attuned and working at a higher level. A person in a state of trance has a greater degree of focus, clarity, and concentration. Additionally almost all of their psychic abilities are working at a higher level, including psionic magick, channeling, energy manipulation, divination, past life regression, and remote viewing. A person in a trance state has greater access to their subconscious and untapped mental and magickal potential. A person in this state may experience changes in personality, regressions, and a higher intelligence.

What does trance feel like?

The best thing that it can be compared to is the state an exhausted person is in shortly before they fall asleep, where they are still awake and actively aware of their surroundings but their mind is wandering and creating images and dreams seem to be flooding in, except that one is wide awake, and the mind seems more focused. Beyond that, it can only be said that it must be experienced in order for it to be explained because it is not completely like anything else.

What can be done with trance?

Many things can be done in trance. Channeling, remote viewing, and speaking with entities and ghosts are all easier to do in trance. Energy manipulation, psionic magick, and spell and ritual work are all more powerful when done in a trance state. Many practitioners like to use meditation for past life regressions and to balance their energy (and sometimes its almost mandatory to balance energy). Puzzling over riddles and questions or general introspection are easier to do in trance, partly because of ones heightened mental state and access to their subconscious, but also because things like channeling, divination, and remote viewing are easier in this state and may lend new information to aid in solving the problem.

Are there different degrees of trance?

Yes. There are light trances in which the practitioner’s state of consciousness has barely been altered at all, all the way up to heavy trances where the practitioner may even appear to be asleep. Generally, the heavier the trance the more powerful the trance. One should note though that sometimes, while attempting to achieve trance, practitioners fall asleep, so it may just be that a practitioner has fallen asleep and has not achieved trance at all.

Is meditation necessary to achieve trance?

No. Trance can be achieved without meditation, especially by one who has spent time training themselves to achieve trance in meditation. Spell and ritual work and large amounts of raised energy may also trigger trance in an individual.

What is the relationship between trance and spellwork/ritual?

Trance amps up any spell or ritual work and makes the practitioner much more powerful. For any type of spell or ritual work the practitioner should, at some point during the working, achieve trance, at least lightly if not heavily. For powerful spells that require large amounts of energy, a trance state is pretty much mandatory for success.

What is the relationship between trance and psionic magick?

The same as that between trance and spellwork/ritual. Most who are, well, talented are able to pull off simple psionics without much effort or need for trance, but for greater feats trance becomes an invaluable aid, and in any case will increase the power and success rate of the practitioner.

How should I position myself for meditation?

The body should be in a relaxed state, either sitting or laying down. The practitioner should feel comfortable and in a position they could, under typical circumstances, fall asleep in.

What should I wear for meditation?

Meditation can be done wearing anything, or nothing at all, especially by a trained practitioner. If one is just beginning though its best to wear clothing that makes one feel comfortable, as if they are going to bed, and nothing that will make them self-conscious. Clothing that may physically irritate the practitioner and call the attention of their mind should be avoided, as should clothing that makes one too hot or cold (a blanket is fine if one is too cold). Holding or wearing magickally enchanted objects and ritual tools should be avoided during meditation unless they are the reason for the meditation.

Is there any benefit to using yogic positions (ie the lotus position)?

Certain yogic positions better align the body for energy movement and naturally raise large amounts of energy, both of which aid in meditation and trance, and a practitioner utilizing certain positions will generally have more success and more intense experiences. However in order for the yogic positions to be used one must be at a point in their yoga exercises that they feel completely at ease in the position and their is no pain or undo stress put on the muscles, otherwise the physical and mental strains the yoga positions will put on the practitioner will be more counterproductive to the meditation than helpful.

Will drowsiness effect meditation?

Typically drowsiness will aid in bringing ones body and mind to a relaxed state and may make meditation easier, the only downside being that one may end up falling asleep instead.

Will energy effect meditation or trance?

Large amounts of energy will aid the meditation and make achieving trance easier, and it will intensify the trance once it is achieved. The type of energy used, however, may taint process and could effect the direction in which the mind is drawn.

How do I meditate on a question?

Simply keep the question in your mind and ponder it during meditation, and hopefully it will still be your focus when you hit trance. Not only will you be more adept at answering the question in trance, but you may also be able to break free and channel other sources, remote view related things, divine into the future, and you may draw entities more knowledgable about the subject to you for conversation.

How do I meditate on an object?

Generally you should be holding or wearing the object during meditation, or have it close to you. You should focus and concentrate on the object during meditation, and hopefully take that focus into trance. It’s almost exactly like meditating on a question.

Why Do They Call Themselves Satanists (And Other Fun Facts About Group Structures)

They claim they don’t follow any concepts of Christianity, including those surrounding Satan. They don’t worship or even believe in Satan (those folk call themselves Luciferians, not Satanists, mainly to differentiate themselves from Satanists). Most members are actually atheists, typically with no spiritual views, or if they do have them they are few and limited. If you ask them why they call themselves Satanists, they’ll come up with all sorts of insane and convoluted answers that may partially tie into the philosophies of Satanism. Ultimately though, it isn’t truth.

The real reason they call themselves Satanists is product branding. If they called themselves something else, like say Levayism, then very few people would have heard of them and their membership would be limited to those few who actually care about what Levay thought. But Satanism had a reputation long before the Church of Satan opened its doors. People already had an idea of what it was. And centuries before Levay came along there was already a long line of customers forming who wanted to be Satanists, but had no where to go.

Generally Pagans are a very poor lot. Ceremonial magicians can go either way, some are rich, more often though they have expensive tastes and a poor work ethic though. So for groups like these to form groups in the community, they need to think of creative ways to fund themselves. One method is the pyramid scheme. You have a short few who do the serious work, the inner circle, and this group is funded by the much larger outer circle. Everyone only has to put in a little, and that little bit is enough to fund the smaller inner circle group and keep it operating.

The problem is the inner circle will eventually get to big. Generally the allure of these groups is spiritual progressions, particularly making it into the inner-circle where the best secrets are. Now as an example, if you figure it takes five outer-circle members to fund each inner circle member, that means every time you promote a member to the inner circle your outer circle has to grow by five members. When the group’s growth peaks there’s a lot of room to hand out inner-circle promotions, but eventually it slows down. It might seem as if one could sustain the group indefinitely by sparsely handing out inner-circle promotions, but then we get into another problem. You don’t need a gross gain of five members, you need a net gain. And if you aren’t promoting them into the inner-circle fast enough, they’ll leave and go to a different group. In the end the group falls in on itself.

The CoS was not the first group to employ this method, but it was the first to effectively combine it with product branding to circumvent its worst flaw. The word Satan draws in a lot of members. And these people don’t want to be promoted or get enlightened. They come for other reasons. They want to show off to their friends, be bad-ass, be a rebel, screw with their parents, fuck with Christianity, whatever. They pay their dues, and the Church makes them a member, even gives them a card to show off to other people. And in turn these dues fund the magickal work, and in some cases even the private income, of a select few Satanists. It’s a method that could possibly be sustained indefinitely, because the outer-circle is large whereas the inner-circle can be kept small.

Of course there are other methods to employ too. You could go the route of fleecing the rich. Basically you find well-to-do types and convince them to enter into your group, and then get them to make large donations to it. There is the ‘some second rate things in life are free’ types. These people hold meetings and rituals in parks and at local restaurants and bookstores. The very rarely do any real work. There’s also the pay to play model employed by groups like the New Agers, but this only works if, like the New Agers, the average member of the group is upper middle class with money to burn on books, tapes, seminars, vacations, ect.

Methods For Training Ki For Battle

Introduction

What follows are advanced exercises. It is assumed that the practitioner has already trained themselves in and has a basic understanding of methods of basic energy manipulation and can perform all simple tasks such as raising, moving, grounding, and modifying energy. Practitioners who have not yet at least had some success with these abilities will most likely have little success, or possibly even understanding, of these exercises, and said practitioners are encouraged to first attempt to master the basics of energy manipulation.

Energy for battle (Ki)

Only certain types of energy are preferable for attacking. Many forms of divine energy along with lifeforce energy are useable. So are most energies that are, for lack of a better descriptor, neutral. The energy of the dead would be okay, so would the energy of the earth. The best energy though is energy is a purity of a being, without taint of any sort (certain types of divine energy may be more effective actually). The practitioner should, at this stage, be working on bringing this energy to a greater intensity without necessitating a taint. Intensity sans things like rage and violence is what is being sought.

Many practitioners make the mistake of utilizing emotions like rage and anger to attack. These energies are fiery, they burn. So long as they are allowed, they burn through the energy of the practitioner, even when they aren’t being used. The greater the intensity, the greater the amount of energy being burned. And so a practitioner makes his own ceiling, where once he reaches a certain degree of power, his power will completely drain him. Also these energies tend to be clumsy and inefficient. It takes a lot more energy of this type than it does to accomplish the same task with a calm energy, the reason being wasted energy, and so once again we’re needlessly burning energy. And then there’s the matter of overkill. Furious energies tend to take everything from the practitioner for a single punch. One super do-or-die attack (this can be controlled to a degree, but once again wasted energy). This not only exhausts the practitioner, potentially dangerously, but it also requires the practitioner to use more energy than he may need to, and also leaves the practitioner with less control over the energy (and a Magus is supposed to be all about control).

Exercise 1: Weight Training

This exercise is done with weight lifting, or any kind of exercise utilizing weights. It’s important to know which muscles are being worked by the exercise in question (generally the ones the hurt and get bigger as you do it). As you work out move energy into the working muscles. Have the energy become solid to lend strength to the muscles, and also have it work with the muscles to aid in completing the exercise. You may also wish to try moving energy to the point of contact with the weight or machinery and pushing outward to further aid in performing the exercise, although this isn’t necessary. This exercise will get the practitioner used to moving energy into muscles and using that energy to perform tasks, and at the same time will help the practitioner to do more revs and use heavier weights, helping them progress faster towards their workout goals.

Exercise two: Punching

Note: Perform this exercise on a bag, not on a person, even one holding pads.

As you punch the bag, move energy into your muscles to aid you in punching harder. Once you’ve mastered this, work on moving the energy first into your muscles, but during the punch moving it on to the tip of the middle to knuckles, so that at the time of contact the energy is centered there and hits the target. From here the practitioner should not just work on improving the intensity of their energy, but also reducing the size of the point at the tip of their knuckles the energy encompasses without losing any intensity (The same amount of energy equates to the same amount of force, and spread over a smaller area… it’s very basic physics).

This exercise can be modified to fit any sort of attack, the most important thing being to move the energy to the part of the body which is making contact.

Exercise three: Shadow Boxing

Again with the punching bag, this time the practitioner will throw a punch at the bag, but stop just short of making physical contact (best to keep it as close as possible to begin, within half an inch if you can manage). Following the same procedures as exercise two, the practitioner will now, at the apex of the punch, attempt to throw the energy forward to hit the bag without touching it.

The practitioner can further complicate this exercise by immediately drawing back their fist, and at the same time attempt to draw back in as much of the energy they threw out as they possibly can.