Index of Magical Practice

There are several kinds of knowledge related to working magic. One type involves learning the meanings of symbols, and the correspondences of many, many things. Books about these can often feel like endless lists requiring memorization. I haven’t gone that route. Some readers may feel they’ve gotten to the end of my book without acquiring enough special words, spells, sigils, rules, and facts from just such lists as I’ve avoided. If so, I encourage you to go on to reading other books of magical training and lore.

I have concerned this book with the type of knowledge involving pathways of the mind. Traditionally, the word “pathworking” has been applied to guided imagery meditations using the symbols and correspondences of the paths and spheres of the Qabbalistic Tree of Life. Sometimes the word “pathworking” has been used to include more general types of guided imagery meditations, such as those I’ve offered. Even though I am not dealing with the “paths” of the Tree of Life, I find it an appropriate term because one of the byproducts of this kind of meditation is to enliven pathways of the mind. It is hard to explain directly how to use different mental pathways. It is equally hard to describe directly how to learn the nuances of your modes of intuitive perception. But I can describe a guided imagery meditation, and those who make the journey will be learning some of those hard to explain things during the process.

As a byproduct of working with guided imagery meditations, you will learn how intuitional impressions come to you. You will learn how to conjure the look and feel and experience of a thing in your imagination. Although many people are derisive about the power or importance of something merely imagined, I find that by the means of conjuring in your imagination, you learn much about conjuring things in a magical sense as well.

This book offers the beginnings of a course of magical study or self-improvement. Making connections for yourself, rather than waiting for an author or teacher to spell them all out for you, is one of the most important skills you can acquire. This appendix illustrates some ways to expand on a piece from the story to make an exercise for your practice. Pursue the pieces that suit you, and expand on them in your own way. You will gain much greater self-knowledge from the choices you make, than from passively following a regimen set out for you. You’ll also find it easier to maintain a playful approach if you skip around to whatever catches your interest. If you remember that even important work can be fun, not drudgery, you’ll find the work easier to include in your life.

If you choose to work from this book, my suggestions are simple. Dare to go ahead even if you don’t feel well prepared, since we are always a work in progress. Make a regular habit of spending some time on meditative journeys or questing for answers. Keep a journal of your experiences, answers, and progress.

Use your favorite relaxation technique, or any of the meditative inductions from this book, to achieve a meditative mental state from which to work. When you find a method you like, practice will improve its effectiveness for you. The tree meditation induction given in the “First Lessons” chapter offers the most detailed guided meditation in the novel. Or try counting down into a meditative state, in the manner given in the chapter “Into the Deeps.” Or use a very basic technique: sit comfortably, close your eyes, breathe deeply, and relax each part of your body in turn, from toes to eyelids.

Index of Meditative Inductions:

Tree Meditation

Hands Vibrating

Three Basic Steps

Mountain Meditation

Count Down

Labyrinth

Once you have achieved a meditative state, try any of the guided imagery from the story. You can pick randomly from the Index of Magical Practices to choose the day’s exercise. Or you can open the book anywhere and choose the nearest question, mental filter, or set of images to meditate upon. You don’t have to follow the order presented in the story. And your results will probably not match Morgan’s—after all, you’re a different person. Let your subconscious suggest other turnings in the path, other spirit guides and insights. Then write them down! Symbols, details, and understanding are often quickly lost as we shift back to our everyday frame of mind.

Index of Journeys, Techniques, and Experiments:

Arrive at the door of a school of magic.3

Meet a guide to help you.3

Make your wishes at a magical fountain.3

Choose a candle to light, and dedicate it to something.5

Light your flame from the representative you are drawn to.5

In a place of many treasures, choose three to indicate your myth.6

Follow Ezmara’s vision journey.7

Correlate omens from another’s tale to your own life.8

Finish sentences beginning ‘I am…’.8

Let your mind empty onto a blank wall.12

Invoke an embodiment of qualities you seek.12

Go to the pyramid gazers for answers. Or try gazing for yourself.14

Find the lamplit grove beside the Faery river, and be met by the Sovereign.20

Take a swan boat ride into the misty lands along the Faery river.21

Walk the road between tall, gift-revealing hedges.21

Enter the Celestial Library, and be shown your book or record.23

Be instructed by a Dream Master before sleeping.26

Wait by the Forest Well for your own rendezvous with an Otherworldly initiator.38

Turn ballads or fairy tales into a meditative journey.39

Gaze into a bowl of liquid for scrying.42

Use other senses than your eyes to see with.45

Enter the door in the Faery Mound.46

Make a spell fire of naming each influence that has fueled your life.47

Dress with magical significance: choose color, emblems etc. to put on your person.47

Examine the string of connection to a main identity point for you.50

Go through the door in the hedge, and follow the path beyond.54

Write from a few beginning words related to an answer you’re after.61

Meditate on perceiving someone else.73

Write a self evaluation.78

Match up tarot reading positions with things in your life.81

Draw a picture or diagram of second sight impressions.82

Look with your inner eye for the bright lights around you.86

Seek answers at the Tor of Avalon, Round Table, Primeval Forest88

Learn something from the elemental powers at the Cave Mouth.97

Stand at a boundary to receive a gift brought for you.97

Do the 2-sided cloak exercise.99

Meditate on someone’s true nature, best interests, and taboos.101

Find your individual connection to the Goddess.112

Imagine a control room for your psyche.114

See what memories arise for ‘letting go,’ being elevated, or in harmony.116

Turn up the images on your cards laid on the table.118

Visit the Old One’s cottage.135

Switch places with your Other Self.139

If feeling stuck, forgive yourself for anything you may be or have been.143

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