The second day's concentration is on the mental aspects of magick and ritual work, and is mostly in workshop form.

• A. Meditation

  Describe meditation as a means of altering your mental state by relaxation and concentration. Contrast meditation and trance state. Discuss the use of posture (asana) and paradoxical breathing (pranayama) to attain a meditative state, then do a few quick exercises.

• B. Visualization(s)

  Explain the difference between imagining and visualizing, then stress the similarities. Stress the fact that visualization is something that you will continually get better at - but there is still no "wrong way." Then lead the students through the following exercises:

  • 1. Grounding and Centering

    Using the seven chakras as steps along the way, guide them to visualize energy being drawn up from the Earth and blown through the tops of their heads (at the crown chakra) in a free-flowing fountain. Then (if they seem up to it), guide them to mold and direct that energy flow into a circle, then a sphere of blinding white light. Have them draw the circle back down through their spines until it is returned to the Earth.

  • 2. Contacting Your Magickal Self

    Get them as relaxed as possible and in a deep meditative state, then starting with a visualization of a Safe Place in the forest, lead them to a fairy hill, then through the Maze of the subconscious until they are somewhat lost. Guide them to a long stairway, then through the door at the top. Then set the mental setting - that at the doorway they change into a powerful magician, and suddenly all of the tools and symbols in the room are meaningful. Instruct them to study the tools for a while. After a minute or two, lead them back out through the maze, then to the clearing, and wake them back up.

  • 3. Aura Reading and Healing
    • a. Diagnosis

      Guide them to ground and center (as II.B.1, above), then stand in front of an evenly-lit white wall. Have them open their eyes and stare at a point in the distance beyond the instructor. (Note: this will for some of them be the first time that they'll be channeling power with their eyes open, so take your time.) Instruct them to look for the greyish line around me (that is actually an optical illusion). Once they've found it, instruct them to visualize it being replaced with a wash of color. Have them examine it for variations in thickness or color.

    • b. Treatment

      Point out an ill or sore region on the instructor's body. Have them examine it for variations in color or brilliance. Pick one student, then have him wrap his hands in the energy that he's drawing, then "tune" it to the color of the healthy areas in the aura. Instruct him to use his hands as if he were rubbing on oil or paint to color over the sick area, visualizing the new color (healthy energy) replacing the older area, and continue until the color stays changed after he's no longer touching it or until he gets tired.