Carl Jung from Red Book
Magick is the art and science of changing consciousness at will. Dion Fortune
These are a few simple exercises to help train you to experience in altered states of consciousness.
The first is to cleanse and relax.
The second is to build an escape hatch, so that wherever you are, whatever you are doing – no matter what is going on with the drum or other people – you can come back to your body.
The third is a trauma-based method for those of us who have fear about leaving our bodies, or trauma in our body.
FIRST – CLEANSE, RELAX.
Relaxation is essential for any spiritual work. It is the first key to open the locks of consciousness and the Worlds.
Different people relax in different ways. Many people use a body scan technique (my favourite method). Some people like the tension/release – of making muscles tight, and then letting them go, called “Progressive muscle relaxation.” This causes spasms for me (not my personal preference).
Meditation is important – it cleans and conditions the brain and keeps it fresh for new experiences, and teaches us about the presence of the now. The important thing about relaxation is you learn to fall into alpha – that light, pre-dreaming state where your body is relaxed and your mind is floating. This is why I do a few minutes of alpha (heart beat rhythm) drumming before I start the theta rhythms – to remind you to relax the body and mind.
I encourage anyone to find music that helps keep an alpha state of awareness, and find time to drift and float in alpha – just breathing, not judging – feeling the state, so that you are aware of what relaxation feels like, and become more skilled at dropping yourself into a relaxed state at will. To recognise alpha music, find something which gently slows your heart beat.
Cleansing can be part of relaxation, or it can be a ritual or ceremony that you choose before you meditate or journey. I love salt bathing, as my body has no choice but to relax and let go. It is cleansing, as the salt draws out impurities. Many cultures use smudge and smoke for cleansing ceremonies. In India, they do a fire ceremony called puja for cleansing. Prayer can be an important form of cleansing – letting go of what is not needed, setting intention for what it is that you need.
In a proper shamanic setting, there would be sweat lodges, herbal cleanses and fasting in preparation for Journeys. I encourage no food within 4-6 hours of Journey time. Some teachings suggest no meat the day before a journey, especially a plant medicine journey.
In our Drum Circle, I offer different means of cleansing – using earth, water, and air. Earth – we slap our bodies with rosemary, or pour what is not needed into a stone or bowl of earth, we dance. Water – I use a scented spray like a gentle shower (the shaman would spit the water onto you, adding spiritual potency, but in modern society, we are leery of spit!). Air – cleansing, deep breaths, and breathing out the impurities or unnecessary energies, breathing in light and higher vibration. Out with the old, in with the new. Each breath is a renewal and a cleansing. In outdoor rituals, I would like to do more with smudging and smoke. I’m still working on a fire cleansing, as I’m careful in the yoga studio, and I am not qualified to perform a proper puja.
TWO – “This is My Hand”
This is a lucid dreaming or dream yoga technique.
When I have initiated people into drum practice, I have asked for a wiggle of the hand, and I will ask the drum to bring them back.
This is less practical in a group, though if anyone waggles their fingers I will bring the whole group back. Better safe than sorry!
So – establish a practice in your daily life that gives you the power to change your state at any time.
Several times during the day, look at your dominant hand, and say to yourself, “This is my hand.”
Get so that you are familiar with your hand – its curves, scars, wrinkles, shape of your fingers and palm. See your hand in a number of circumstances – washing dishes, writing, typing, waving, reaching, holding, giving, clenching, fanning, wiggling. “This is my hand.” Always. “This is my hand.”
Then – when you are in an altered state of consciousness, you now have a tool, a power that you can use to adjust consciousness.
For lucid dreaming, this gives you the power to shift your dream, and guide it directly. If your dream is uncomfortable, you look at your hand, say, “This is my hand,” and you can come out of the dream, or, as you develop more skill, adjust and guide the dream by choosing a different situation. The awareness of your hand is a key to the shift.
In the journey world, it is the same. As soon as you look at your hand, and recognise, “This is my hand,” you now have the power to return to your body, or even shift the journey to something you are more comfortable experiencing.
This is an important and empowering skill.
THREE: FLEX
- Build sphere.
- Relax
- Flex – Choose an object. It may be a stone, or leaf, a feather (natural items), or it may be an object of sentimental significance, like a piece of jewellery, a gift from a loved relative, or a toy from childhood.
Later, the sphere and ceremony will be less essential – but for the first few session, please consider doing the work in a Medicine Wheel or Sphere.
Flex your attention – focus on the object for a few breaths. Then FLEX your attention back into your body – your breath and heart region is a good place to focus, but maybe you will choose your left foot big toe. Just make it the same every time (which is why I say heart and breath is best – but if you are “safer” in your left big toe – that’s fine!). A few breaths in body, then FLEX back to object.
Continue this process for 3-5 minutes. The purpose of this exercise is to make you aware of the “attention muscle.” In mindfulness, the attention is more drifty, let it come, let it go. This is mindfulness, too, but tuning your mindfulness into a more active focus.
FLEX: Object.
FLEX: Body.
FLEX: Object.
FLEX: Body.
After 3-5 minutes of FLEXing, let go let go let go and float for the rest of your meditation.
This exercise is developed from a trauma technique for making room in your bodyand expanding your body’s capacity for feeling in safety. The goal in trauma is not to suppress trauma, but to make room so that it is safe to come out. Some might even call it dissociate / associate: “I am in the object” (dissociate), “I am in my body” (associate).
Over time, this tool will also enable you to inhabit Universal Consciousness, or the Witness in meditation. FLEX: I am All. FLEX: I am One.
In shamanism, this helps with travelling and shape shifting. It can also give you deeper insight into those things which you encounter. FLEX – I am the flower, FLEX – I am myself. This will strengthen your compassion for yourself and others.
The more you practice the flex, the stronger your attention muscle will get. It is something you can do while commuting: Flex (attention in that poster), Flex (in my body again). You can do it while shopping: Flex (attention in the apple), Flex (in my body again). I don’t recommend it while driving or in situations that require your full attention. But if you have a little space or time – a moment waiting at the bank: Flex (in a pen on the desk), Flex (in my body again).
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Magick is the art and science of changing consciousness at Will. These are a few tools which improve your magickal ability, and help you in entering and controlling altered states of consciousness.
I think of these three tools – relaxing in alpha state, “This is my hand,” and FLEX – to be excellent pre-journey skills to develop.
