HOW TO ASTRAL TRAVEL

This article is being written in response to the overwhelming interest in
“Astral Travel”.  It is my hope that I can dispel many of the myths of Astral
Travel, and provide some common-sense approaches to the subject for the student.

WHAT IS ASTRAL TRAVEL EXACTLY?

The very first myth I wish to dispel is the nonsense concept of “Out of Body”.
When speaking of Astral Travel, the term works well enough as a metaphor;  but
many people today seem to have forgotten that it is only a metaphor.  How many
hours of wasted time have students invested in half-baked techniques of “getting
out of the body”?  I, personally, spent years laying on my back vainly trying to
figure out exactly how to leave my physical body.  Likewise, most of the people
who I run across report the same results.

Astral Travel is, quite simply, a method of visiting other planes.  However,
it is the nature of these planes that are gravely misunderstood.  Let us use, as
an example, the Wizard who spends much time Astral Traveling into the various
Planetary Spheres- also known as the Seven Heavens.  In all of the mythological
writings which describe these Heavens, they are specifically described as Higher
Realms.  However, when we read the writings of these Wizards, the journey is
described as an inner one.  In Shamanic Cultures as well, the Astral Journeys
known as “Vision Quests” were known to be the inner realms of the Shaman’s
psyche.  In Australia, the Astral Elm is plainly called the “Dream-Time”.

And so the Astral Realms are, in fact, the inner realms of the Self.  Thus it
is that getting “out of body” is a worthless goal- not to mention impossible.
Of course, others will present evidence that they do have interaction with other
Beings- sometimes right here on Earth- while Traveling.  These experiences are
often valid, and their nature will be covered below.

The basic thing to keep in mind is that you have been Astral Traveling all of
your life.  Being that the Astral Realms are within us, then the obvious
realization is that gaining them is simply the gaining of a certain level of
consciousness.  Have you ever been so extremely bored that you “zoned out”?  You
entered into a fantasy of some sort, and lost track of everything going on
around you.  You were perfectly awake, yet you were “a million miles away”.
This was Astral Travel.  Dreaming is another form of this, and Lucid Dreaming is
certainly a form as well.  It’s that simple;  there are no hidden meanings to
this.  Dreams and Daydreams are Astral Travel.  The only “trick” is in learning
how to do it at will.

GIVING THE ASTRAL BODY A WORKOUT

The first and foremost thing we must do is give the Astral Body (or Body of
Light) a workout.  After spending your whole life in a wheel-chair, one can not
hope to be a runner without some effort toward physical therapy.  Thus it is
that I will stress the need for three practices to be done daily for a while
before you can hope to achieve any real success.

One is a Purification and Balancing Ritual.  This will serve to blast out of
your aura (the Astral Body) all of the garbage that might otherwise hinder
progress.  I suggest the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram very strongly
for this purpose.

Two is a Charging of the Chackras.  This will bring large amounts of Energy into
the aura, and get all of it’s component parts up and running.  For this purpose
I suggest the Middle Pillar- which should be done immediately after the
Purification above.

And Three is the Circulation of the Body of Light.  This consists of two or
three different exercises, all designed to immediately follow the chakra
charging.  One is to visualize Energy rising from the ground, through the body,
and bursting forth from the crown of the head like a fountain to rain back down
to the ground.  This should cycle repeatedly with the breath- Energy rises with
intake of breath, and falls back to the ground with each exhalation.  The next
is to visualize Energy running up one side of the aura and down the other- first
up one side and down the other, and then up the front and down the back.  You
can also make it change distances-  first a full arm’s length from the body, and
then later make it go up and down along the spine.  This should also cycle with
the breath.

Do this everyday at the same time.  After you have learned the exercises so that
you can do them smoothly, allow them to continue for a couple of weeks before
continuing with the following.  Once you begin the methods below, do not
discontinue them at all.  It would do no harm to do them everyday for the rest
of your life, but at least do them until you have mastered Astral Travel.

METHODS OF TRAVEL

Before you continue reading this, I want you to try an experiment.  Get into a
comfortable sitting position, or perhaps lay on your back.  Clear your mind, and
begin to fantacise about something.  It doesn’t matter what- just chose a
setting and allow a little movie to play out within your mind (you don’t even
have to be involved in the movie).  Do this now, and then read on afterward…

Now, at this time I will ask you a few questions.  Number one:  Were you able to
accomplish the exercise at all?  Were you able to bring any pictures into your
mind, and have them be solid enough to have any impact?  Number two:  Did your mind wander?  Was it hard- or even impossible- to keep your mind focused on the fantasy?  Did you keep losing your train of thought?  Did you perhaps fall
asleep?

And, Number Three:  How real was the fantasy?  Were you aware of what was
around you in the room you sat or laid in?  Did you have to move the characters
of your fantasy around consciously like puppets?  Did you have to write the
story as it progressed?  Or, were you able to completely lose yourself into the
fantasy?  Did it seem to take on a life of it’s own and just take you along for
the ride?

If you were able to completely lose yourself into the fantasy, then you are very
lucky indeed.  Most likely, however, you experienced some of the above
problems- if not more.  The skill of Astral Travel is the skill to avoid these
problems;  and, as you can see, not one of them has anything at all to do with
getting “out of body”.  Following, then, is a method you can use to gain an
Astral Experience.

MAKING THE ASTRAL BODY

The first thing you have to do is to make your Astral Shell.  Of course, it’s
already there, but it’s your ability to picture it that lacks.  Thus, we will
work on some techniques for this.   Of course, you will surely experience all of
the same problems as you did during the above exercise.  However, if you do this
often you will get better at it.  There are no easy answers, only practice,
practice, and more practice.  It is best to do this everyday at a specific time;
begin at perhaps five minutes, then ten, then fifteen, twenty, and so on.

Get into a nice quite place where you can be sure you won’t be disturbed.  Get
comfortable in either a sitting or lying down position.  Now, take a deep
breath, and as you do so imagine a great amount of Energy being drawn into you.  You can visualize this coming from everywhere, or from the Earth, or from Above- it doesn’t matter.  Just make sure that you see and feel this Energy building higher and higher as you take in the breath.  Don’t worry about whether it is real or imagined, just imagine it and know that it is working.  Once you get
used to the feeling, you’ll know it’s not just imaginary.

Now, once the Energy is built, let all the air out.  As you exhale, hold your
hands out as if grasping a ball, and imagine all of the Energy being forced
between them in a spherical shape, and glowing a Golden color.  Once you get
used to doing this, you will notice a very specific effect.  Holding this ball
of Energy tends to feel much like trying to hold two magnets together with the
same poles facing each other.  You’ll feel a kind of non-physical “push” against
your hands.

Once you’ve accomplished this, visualize the Ball moving away from your hands
to a short distance in front of you.  Immediately see the sphere take on the
shape of a body- specifically yours.  Once more, I stress, don’t worry about if
this is real or imagined.  It is real.  What the beginner must realize is that
what he imagines IS real.  The methods I’m describing are simply ways to make
the imagination seem more real.

At this point, you have a version of yourself standing before you.  Of course,
it could (and should) be an idealized version of yourself.  I usually picture
myself in full Ceremonial garb.  Spend time picturing this.  Allow it to move
around some.  You can even get up and move, visualizing it matching your
movements (this is similar to an important technique that I will describe
later).  You can even go ahead and picture yourself doing something in an
imaginary world- but I would reserve this for a while at first.

The point behind all of this is to help you to visualize yourself.  You should
become so familiar with this picture that you can easily call it to mind.  At
first, however, you will probably have difficulty.  You will only see parts, and
often forget details.  Each time you do this, simply correct it and go on with
the exercise.  As you practice, it will get better.  Give this about a month or
so- or until you are good enough at it to satisfy yourself.  Remember, the only
one you can lie to or cheat on this is yourself.

Lastly, as you do this, and the vision gets more stable, you can dispense with
the golden sphere.  Just gather the Energy and send it out to form the Shell.
Just remember that this should only be done once the Shell is fully formed, and
you can easily picture it in all detail.  Making the golden sphere will help you
focus your mind to the goal.  Once you’ve accomplished a good mental mock-up of yourself, then proceed with the following:

THE ASTRAL TEMPLE

This method is one which kills two birds with one stone.  Many, possibly most,
Magickal Traditions put a certain amount of stress on the Astral Temple, Middle
Temple, or Place of Comfort.  All of these are names for the same thing- a kind
of personal space upon the Astral Plane which only you can access.  Once you
master Astral Travel, it is a place where you can go to perform Ceremonies at
any time, anywhere, and with little notice.  Best of all, it will always live up
to the image of your own dream Temple or other Sacred Magickal Space.

The practical work on this is extremely simple.  Get into your usual place, at
your usual time, and start to fantacise:  Get a good picture of your ideal
working space.  See yourself walking around in it.  Examine all the implements
upon the Altar and the Temple furniture.  Have fun with it- it’s that simple.
Of course, you’re just adding the aspect of a background to your previous
visualizations.  You want to be able to call the image of your Temple to mind as
easily as the image of your Astral Shell.  You’ll want to give this a month or
so as well.

Besides walking around in the Astral Temple, you may wish to perform a simple
Ritual.  The Cabalistic “Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram” is a rather
nice one, as well as the other Rituals I mentioned above such as the Middle
Pillar and Circulation of the Body of Light.  In fact, you will want to
eventually perform these daily Rituals strictly on the Astral.  This serves as a
kind of gauge for progress- to see how far you can get through the ritual before
losing the train of thought.  In time, you will be able to perform the entire
Ritual.  It will seem less forced, and, most importantly, you will lose track of
your physical body.  However, keep in mind that you should NEVER attempt to cast a spell while learning.  What harm could be caused if you get half-way through a spell and then lose your train of thought?

Another thing to keep in mind is that it is OK to see yourself from the outside
at first- as you did in the first exercise.  Just daydream as you normally
would.  As you become accustomed to it, you can begin to try the Astral Body on
for size and daydream from the view-point of the main character- you.  After a
while, this will happen naturally anyway.  Above all else, BE PATIENT.  Give
this time- it could take months to make progress.  You would short yourself if
you gave up even before a year (though, don’t allow that to frighten you, as you
should have results much sooner than that).

A SIGN TO LOOK FOR

As you practice this, I’m sure you’ll be looking for some kind of sign of
progress.  Of course, the main sign is that you forget about the physical body;
that you get lost within the fantasy completely.  However, there is also another
side-effect you will notice in time.

Events on the Astral are not limited the same way as they are here on the
physical.  There is no inertia to overcome, no muscles to flex, no atmosphere to
push through, no gravity pulling down, even words do not have to formed on the
lips and vibrated through the air.  Thus, you may spend what seems like an hour
or more upon the Astral, only to wake and discover that it’s only been fifteen
minutes to half an hour.  This “time displacement” is only achieved by becoming
properly lost in the fantasy, and forgetful of the body.  Thus, it serves as a
great sign-post for progress.

BODY MOVEMENTS

There is one final aspect of the above work that I wish to now stress.  As you
move within the Temple, and you finally begin to view the fantasy from your own
viewpoint, you will want to pay special attention to how your own body feels.
Not your physical body, but the Astral Body.  Feel your legs as they move, and
your feet as they move across the carpet, tile, grass, or whatever.  Run your
hands along the surfaces of the Temple furniture and implements.  Feel the
temperature of the air around you.  Hear any sounds that may be present.  This
is an important aspect of gaining full Astral Travel;  this is the “trying on of
the Astral Body” I mentioned above.

There is also an exercise that you can use to aid this process.  Just as above,
the main problem with gaining Astral Travel is the difficulty of “tricking”
yourself into feeling like you are there for real.  Therefore, we can aid our
Astral Senses by first getting better acquainted with our physical ones.

To begin with, simply sit or lay in your comfortable, quiet place as usual. Hold
your hand in front of your face and look at it.  Don’t just glance at it, but
really look at it as if you’ve never even seen a hand before.  Take in every
detail you possibly can.  Most importantly, move the hand.  First flex each
finger.  Then move the entire hand in various motions.  All the while, pay very
close attention to exactly how the hand looks during that motion, as well as how
it feels.

Now, while keeping the hand in front of your face, close your eyes and create a
mental picture of the hand as if it were “overlaid” over the real one.  As you
move your real hand, picture the imaginary hand making the same motions. Since your real hand is acting as a guide (even though you can’t see it), this
shouldn’t be too difficult.  While you do this, tell yourself that the physical
sensations you are feeling from the motion are coming from the imaginary hand-
that is, forget about the real hand as best as you can.  Finally, once you get
that down, cease moving the real hand altogether and allow the imaginary hand to continue it’s motions.  You may be surprised to notice that the physical
sensations- which you have tricked your mind into thinking are coming from the
imaginary hand- do not cease.  Of course, they will waver some at first because
you will be able to feel your real hand stop.  However, the skill here is to
ignore that sensation and to remain focused on the imaginary (Astral) hand.

Once you have this down, then continue with both hands.  From there proceed to
your arms.  And do not stop this process until you have targeted every body-part
possible in this way.  Do this with walking, sitting, crouching, etc., etc.,
etc. A good friend of mine once made the wonderful suggestion of doing this
(once you are working on full-body movements like walking) in a pitch-black
room.  If this is not possible, then simply closing or blindfolding your eyes
will do.

Once again, this is not a process of hours, days, or even weeks.  Give it a
couple of months at the least.  The point here is to become intimately familiar
with your body-movements, and it will take as long to do this with each movement as it takes to become familiar with anything.

THE OTHER SENSES

Once you can  A) control your mind to have a decent daydream, and  B) trick
yourself into thinking you are physically there, then you can proceed onto the
other senses of the body.  This exercise will be a breeze once the above is
mastered.

Around your comfortable area, place five different objects that relate to the
four senses of smell, touch, taste, and hearing.  For instance, place a glass of
vinegar about five feet to your left;  a bowl of ice five feet in front of you
to your left;  a lolli-pop five feet in front of you to your right;  and a bell
five feet to your right.

Now, sit in your place, relax, and clear your mind.  Slowly stand, walk to the
vinegar, and take a good whiff.  Then continue to the next station and push your
hands into the ice.  Go from there to the lolli-pop and taste it.  From there
continue to the bell and ring it, and finally return to your starting place and
sit or lie down.  Just as above, REALLY experience these things as if you’ve
never been exposed to them before.  Normally we take these things for granted,
and that is why I’ve suggested such extreme sensations as vinegar, lolli-pops,
and ice.  Also, don’t forget to concentrate on your body-movements while you
stand up and walk from one station to the other.

Do this a few times until you feel you are familiar enough with the procedure.
Then, upon returning to the starting position, simply imagine yourself arising
and repeating the process anew (you might want to actually project the Astral
Shell as described above first).  Once again, you want to trick yourself into
thinking you’re really doing these things, and to forget about the physical
body.  If you lose train of thought at all, simply imagine yourself returning to
the starting point, and then physically get up and start over again.  Also, you
may also wish to picture the Astral part of the exercise as being within the
Astral Temple.

This process shouldn’t take as long as the first procedures.  At this point, you
should be getting pretty good at it, and things will fall into line rather
quickly.  But, still, give this a couple (or more) weeks to really set strongly
within you.  As it gets easier, you may wish to alternate the sensations. Change
the vinegar for a sweet smell, the lolli-pop for a salty taste, the ice for
something warm, soft, or rough, and the bell for other sounds.  Once you
dispense with the physical objects altogether, spend time on the Astral
alternating them.  Pick up the glass and will it to be vinegar, and then
immediately will it to be another liquid, and then another. And so for the other
stations.

By the time you complete this, you should be pretty set as far as the Astral
Body goes.  You have charged it, fitted it for size, and gotten used to walking
around in it.  At the same time, you have fully constructed your Astral Temple
for later use.  All in all, you are Astral Traveling, and it only remains to
make some use of it.

SENSORY DEPRIVATION

Before I continue, I want to briefly discuss the concept of gaining Astral
Projection by way of sensory deprivation.  This is a kind of short-cut to the
practice, but as you will see it is certainly not the desirable method.

In the Ancient World, an Initiate into a Mystery Tradition (or sometimes even
manhood in general) was forced into Astral Projection for the purpose of coming
into contact with Spirit Guides, Gods, Elevated Masters, and other such
concepts.

Especially in the instance of “coming into manhood”, the Priests did not have
the months necessary to train one for Astral Travel.  And, quite frankly, these
Ancient Cultures did not have the sophisticated techniques we do today to make
the process any easier.

The Ancient Egyptians would tie the Initiate to a stone slab in a dark,
soundless room for three days.  Of course, the Initiate was not bond fast- but
if he got up, he would not be able to re-tie the knots himself and his failure
of the ordeal would be known.  In the Celtic lands, the Shaman would wrap
himself in a hot, scratchy wool blanket for a few days.  Other Cultures would
mutilate the body and, literally, half-kill the Initiate.  The purpose of all
the above is the same:  to deprive the mind of all of it’s input (the sensory
deprivation), and also to make the person as uncomfortable as possible without
actually killing him.

The result was that the mind HAD to wander elsewhere- else it would surely go
insane.  Simply, the lack of sensory input, food, and water, as well as the
pain, would make the person hallucinate.  The Priests would have previously
spent time training the Initiate in their systems- filling his head with all the
appropriate Symbolism- so that the hallucinations were more than likely to
follow along those lines.  If they did, then the Initiation was a success.  If
the Initiate failed to meet the correct Astral Beings, then he was deemed
unworthy of the Path, and sent elsewhere.

What might surprise you is that you have, most likely, already undergone this
very Initiation!  Remember above when I asked if you had ever been so bored that
you “zoned out”?  When I speak of this, I tend to think back to my school days.
Long hours sitting in a drab classroom, listening either to absolutely nothing,
or to the incessant droning of a teacher.  Not being allowed to move, fidget,
speak, or focus your attention on anything of any interest.  Add to this the
horribly uncomfortable seats they made you squeeze yourself into, and (if you
happen to be old enough to remember the older ways, or Catholic) even the pain
of the stick as the teacher patrolled the class looking for reasons to abuse
you.

And what was the result of this?  You zoned out, went a million miles away, and
basically went jaunting around the Astral Plane.  You didn’t know it then, but
now you do, and I hope it brings things into perspective.  You’ve already been
Initiated into the Art of Astral Travel.  Of course, we experience some problems
because (unlike the Ancients), these were the very times that we were told to
“come back to earth” or to “stop pretending!”.  Now we simply have to learn how
to Pretend again, and to make practical use of it.

SO, DOES THIS MEAN IT’S ALL IN MY HEAD AFTER ALL?

The answer is no.  Astral Travel is not a state of getting out of body, but it
is a the gaining of a state of consciousness that is not restricted by the body.
As Shamans and Wizards alike know, the deeper into our Selves we go, the closer
to the “Collective Consciousness” we get.  Ninety-nine percent of what we
experience on the Astral is totally subjective.  However, there is that small
percentage of the experience that is objective.  People can interact with each
other, and with other Entities upon the Astral.

One of the things that seems to draw most people to Astral Travel is the concept
that we can do things such as visit friends or other Earthly locations. However,
what is not understood is that this is not Astral Travel, but Etheric Travel.
To understand this concept, I will simply have to explain how the various Planes
are constructed.

THE PLANES AND SUBTLE BODIES

There are five principal Planes (supposedly accessed by various spiritual
“bodies”) that concern the student of Astral Projection.  For those of you who
have read other books on Astral Travel, you will be familiar with the following
list of “Subtle Bodies”.  From the highest to the lowest they are:

-Causal Body
-Higher Mental Body
-Lower Mental Body
-Astral Body
-Etheric Body
-Physical Body

You will notice that the Astral Body is the second step from the physical. The
fact of the matter is that all Astral Travel occurs here.  Some theorize that it
is possible to travel on the Higher Planes, but I do not know if this is the
case at all.  The higher Planes shown above are more concepts than anything
else.

If, when we Travel, we are upon the Astral Plane, then when are we on the
Etheric Plane?  The answer is simple-  the Etheric Plain is the realm of the
Conscious Mind.  Modern science has long pondered exactly what the Mind is.  The brain we know- but the physical matter which we call a brain does not account for the concept of the sentient and conscious Mind.  The Mind is not something physical, but it is certainly something that interacts with the physical.  Thus, the Mind must be one single step above the physical- which is the Etheric Realm.

The normal Etheric state is to be perfectly awake and conscious of the world and
the body.  When we Astral Travel, we are elevating our awareness another step
higher into the Astral Realm.  And thus is the difficulty with Etheric Travel.
In order to project to a physical location, we must force our awareness back to
the level of normal waking consciousness, but somehow keep ourselves from BEING awake and conscious of our bodies and immediate surroundings.

This is certainly possible, but it is extremely difficult.  Most texts on Astral
Travel will speak of this “Out of Body Experience” occurring to people who are
sick or dying- where their Mind is not functioning properly to begin with. In
fact, I have personally Etherally Projected once in my life- while I was
extremely sick.  It was fun for what it was worth, but that wasn’t much.  It is
not only a rare and difficult thing to achieve, but it is basically unnatural,
and an overall useless practice.  If it were indeed of any real use, I assure
you the Spy industry would be a vastly different field today.

ENTERING THE HEAVENLY REALMS

Now that you have both the practice, and the concepts behind the practice down,
it’s time to leave the Astral Temple and start visiting some of these Outer
Realms the Grimoires tell us so much about.  Though I will not go into any major
detail at this time, I will at least cover the concept.

Many sources tell us about “Gates of Entrance” which we can pass through and
meet all kind of strange and wonderful Beings.  They give us the image of the
Gate, and the formula for entering, but only the Initiate may know exactly what
the “Entrance” itself is.

Let us say that you wish to visit the Astral Realm of the Forces of Aries.  You
would construct an image of the Aries Symbol, in the proper colors of Aries, and
place it upon your altar.  You would then go about a Ceremony of Invocation for
the Forces of Aries, complete with a Calling of the Entities who you wish to
speak to within the Gate.  Once all the power has been raised, you would sit
before the altar, get a good picture of the Aries Image in your mind, and then
Astral Travel through it.  Some teachers have you actually enter the Astral
Temple first, and then to see a Gate, Door, or Curtain at the edge of the Temple
with the Image upon it.  Then, already in your Astral Body, you simply walk
through the Gate and into the land beyond it.

From that point onward, everything you experience will relate to Aries.  You
will meet with the Beings you have Called, and They will guide you through the
land and teach you what you are ready to learn about it.  If you call no Guide,
or if They simply to not show, then you can walk around and see the land for
yourself.  Though, you will more than likely see things that you will wish to
have clarified at a later date.

This practice is for the intermediate to Adept student ONLY.  One must know all
about the Sign of Aries so that one can verify the vision.  For instance, if the
Adept enters the Aries gate and sees a vast sea with mermaids lounging on rocks,
then he knows that a mistake has been made (for Aries is a Fiery Sign, not a
Watery one).  The beginner would not recognize this, and thus would be receiving incorrect information.  Of course, there is little to no chance of the Adept entering a Gate with such contradictory results.  And, in fact, the same goes for the beginner.  Instead, the differences will be subtle enough to fool the
Wizard if he is not on his game.  There are many skills that must be learned so
as not to be deceived within the Gates.  I am specifically leaving these skills
out, as well as the above mentioned Ceremonies, so as to discourage any foolish
experimentation.

The Major point to visiting these Realms is Initiation.  As we visit each Plane,
we will be Initiated into the Forces contained there.  We can become Initiated
into the ways of Fire, Water, Air, Earth, the Zodiacal Forces, and the Planets.
We can Astral Travel into ANY symbol to learn more about it- be it occult or
mundane.  One could Travel into that man-shape on men’s rooms if one so desired.

SCRYING

As a final note, I wish to mention Scrying.  This is exactly the same as Astral
Travel, with the exception of not losing consciousness of the body.  You do not
participate in the vision, but simply watch it as an observer.  As above, any
symbol can be used for this.  For general divinitory purposes, many things can
be used such as a crystal ball, candle flame, etc.  Of course, there’s nothing
wrong with just closing your eyes and going for it as well.

Other than that, I will not go into the subject of scrying.  I do hope that the
above has greatly helped you in your search for Astral Travel.  And I hope that
it has cut through most of the bull surrounding the subject.  Good luck on your
journeys!

_______________________________

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