You will learn to use your scrying device or speculum more quickly if you are familiar with the techniques of visualization. Visualization is the ability to create a picture in your mind’s eye and transfer this image to walls, ceiling or mid-air, mentally changing its color, shape or size. When you are first training yourself to scry, you will find it helpful to practice with visualization, mentally creating an image and then transferring the image onto the speculum surface. This will acquaint you with the sight of an image on your speculum so that when you begin to achieve results in your scrying you will be familiar with the sight and it won’t disconcert you.

As with scrying, it takes a little time to develop the ability to visualize at will. You must be prepared to expend energy and time to allow your ability to manifest. You should set aside a period each day in which to experiment with the process – a time when you will not be interrupted. Thirty minutes each day should be enough.

Even if you haven’t worked with scrying or magick to date, you have experienced visualization. When you are fantasizing or daydreaming and you become immersed in the scenes inside of your head, you are visualizing. The following exercises will help you to gain and control that ability:

1) Begin thinking about a subject which is dear to you, a particular fantasy that you have, such as the house you would like to build, the picture you would like to draw or the person you are in love with. Concentrate all of your attention on this subject and enjoy your thoughts, seeing in your mind’s eye the house, the picture or the lover. Now become aware that you are visualizing. The scene in your mind’s eye will probably waver or disappear at this realization. Re-grasp it firmly in your mind and hold it there for as long as you are able.

2) After you have successfully completed the first exercise and have been able to consistently visualize the scene every day for a week, sit down in a quiet, private room and allow yourself to relax. Decide upon an object in the room, a chair for example, and look at it very carefully, keeping all of the thoughts on the chair. Notice the shadows on the chair, the wrinkles in the fabric, the grain of the wood. Now sit back and close your eyes. Try to bring the image of the chair into your mind in all of its detail. Experiment with this exercise very day until you can do it. After you have successfully visualized the chair with consistent results for a week, go on to exercise three.

3) Continue using the same object that you have been visualizing. Bring it into your mind and hold the image. Now open your eyes and see the object before you (the image in your mind, not the physical object), and place it at eye level against a solid colored wall, preferably a white wall. Practice this exercise for the next three days.

4) Now when you visualize the object against the wall, change the color of it. Change it back to its original color. Practice changing the color of the object with many different colors. Now raise and lower the object on the wall. Turn it completely around and upside down. Return it to its original position.

Visualization is not difficult, but it does require time, determination, quiet and patience. Once you have mastered the techniques of visualization, it will be a simple and natural step to transfer images to your speculum. By training yourself with visualization, you have acquired the necessary discipline, patience and meditative qualities essential to successful scrying.

When you scry, it is important to place your back to the source of light rather than facing the light. I prefer semi-darkness with three lavender candles behind me for illumination. You will find that objects in the room will reflect slightly in the surface of your speculum. Do not let this bother you. You will become accustomed to the sight and will soon find that the reflections aid you in forming pictures on the surface of the scrying device.

You will gaze at the surface of your speculum (ball, scrying mirror or chalice of water) not into the center of it- not trying to penetrate it with your eyes. It is helpful to relax your eyes, slightly unfocusing them, when you scry. If you wear glasses, you can wear them or not when you are scrying. It is not your physical eyes which are seeing, but your psychic self and glasses won’t make any difference in the quality of the images.

Practice by yourself, in a quiet room with the speculum set before you on a table covered with a dark solid colored cloth. Be seated in a comfortable chair and relax. Pick up the speculum and concentrate on it, warming it with your body heat. Set it back on the table and still your mind. Open yourself up the impressions about to be received. Do not stare at the speculum and strain your eyes. Gaze at the complete speculum not at any particular point on it. You will find that the speculum really does cloud up. I have experienced images in two ways – the symbols or picture will begin to appear in the center of the speculum and gradually become clearer, rather like a picture print being developed, or the image will begin to appear at the side of the speculum and drift over to the center. It is important to note here that if the image comes from the side, you must continue to gaze in the center of the speculum. If you turn your eyes to look at the coming image, it will most likely disappear. If you fail to see anything the first few times, don’t be discouraged. A number of sittings are necessary when first training. It helps to use the ability that you developed in your visualization exercises and visualize an object, then transfer it to the surface of your speculum. Let the image rest there, relax yourself and allow the image to change by itself. By practicing this technique you will gradually learn to see in the speculum.

It is also important to remember when using a speculum of any type that it is merely a focal point for your mind. The image is not really there on the surface or within the speculum. Your mind is placing it there. The speculum merely serves as a tool to facilitate this ability.

When reading the future do not despair if you see something that you don’t like. The future is not a cut and dried affair. When reading the future, you are seeing what is most likely to happen if you or your querent (the person for whom you are reading) proceeds on the same path now traveled. People change and by that change so do events and the future. If you encounter a possible future that you don’t like, meditate on how you can change it into circumstances which will benefit you. This is the value of divination – knowing the most likely outcome from the actions you are now taking and thereby having the knowledge you need to make the future your own.

When you are not using your scrying device, store it out of busy areas of your home and out of the sunlight. It’s a good idea to store it wrapped in a silk cloth in a box out of the way. If you want to subtly display your speculum, you can set it on a table (out of the sunlight and not in busy areas) covered with a silk cloth.

Plan to spend thirty minutes a day practicing with your speculum. As with any occult studies, learning to scry with consistent and true results requires an investment of interest, energy and time. You will find yourself amply rewarded for your investment and effect, however, if you have the will and perseverance to pursue it to its successful end.