Magic Training Techniques

Introduction

A large component of Druidry is practicing mental techniques to expand the abilities and capabilities of the mind. This includes the basic practice of meditation as well as visualization procedures meant to help expand the ability for consciousness to interact in the environment. Here, there are two environments defined: the mental environment, and the physical environment. These Druid mental techniques are designed to help increase the degree of interaction an individual can have with the mental environment, which then increases the degree of interaction with the physical environment as the individual increases their cognitive skill. For Druids, intelligence and genius are skills that can be learned by training the mind using similar techniques as those outlined in this chapter.

The Nature of Meditation

Meditation is sustained attention. There are several techniques for meditation, including:

• Focusing attention on the breath.

• Focusing attention on a mental visualization.

• Focusing attention on a word or phrase (mantra).

Meditation strengthens the muscle that controls sustained attention. There are both active and passive types of meditation. During active meditation, one contemplates ideas and concepts or imagines scenes. During passive meditation, one attempts to calm the mind and reduce thoughts. Meditation can be done while sitting, walking, and other forms of activity

Astral Projection

During meditation, one can travel to different places in the astral realm called astral projection.

To perform astral projection, imagine your body in a different location from either the first- or third-person point of view, and imagine all the details of the scene. Using the first-person point of view is more difficult, but more effective since you are physically located in that place from your point of view. Once in a location, you can move around and interact with objects and beings present in the space, such as walking, talking, and performing activities.

Interactive Scenes

Scenes with many active components can be imagined during astral projection, such as a temple, palace, or marketplace.Visualizing scenes is an advanced form of astral projection that requires significant practice as there are many elements for the mind to consciously hold in attention.

Mental Artifacts

Use mental artifacts, such as a staff or golden rod, to help root and anchor your visualization, i.e. imagine seeing yourself hold the rod from a first-person point of view.Through time, holding the rod will help focus your mind, keep your visualization intact, and make the experience more real.

The Nature of Mental Visualization

Mental visualization is a procedure done in the mind where the individual imagines an object, shape, or other item. Mental simulation is a technique that takes this procedure one step further by imagining the object through time doing some activity. One can visualize absolutely anything that you can imagine. However, certain visualizations have different effects on the energy structure of the body.

The eye inside your mind that is picturing a mental visualization or simulation is referred to as the mind’s eye. The mind’s eye is a muscle that requires exercise in order for it to function at full capacity. This means that as one is learning how to do mental visualization, the clarity of the mental image and simulation could be quite low. Some individuals may not be able to see anything at all when they visualize. However, the individual can still maintain a sense that the scene is present and be somehow aware of what is happening within their mind even without a full picture of the details of the event. The important thing to remember is that this procedure is a skill that can be learned, fine tuned, and expanded by practicing techniques. Four techniques for improving the clarity and breadth of mental visualization are: the Druid Ball Technique, the Apple Cutting Technique, the Scene Setting Technique, and Energy Visualization Technique.

Druid Ball Technique

For this activity, imagine a sphere in your mind’s eye with half of the sphere the color black and half of the sphere the color white. Imagine the color separation happens horizontally, so white is on top and black is on the bottom. Next, imagine the sphere rotating towards you. Slightly increase the speed of the rotation such that you can see the colors flipping between white and black. Then, imagine a second dimension of rotation. Try to see the motion of the black and white in two dimensions. Finally, instantiate a third degree of rotation and try to see the ball rotating in three dimensions.

Apple Cutting Technique

Imagine a red apple in your mind’s eye. Zoom into the apple to examine the details. Investigate whether there are any yellow striations on the apple. Rotate the apple so that you can see the top. Is there a stem? Is the stem bent? Visually inquire as to the details of the top of the apple. See the indented component that houses the stem. Zoom into it to examine the details. Next, rotate the apple to the bottom. Count the number of nubs. Zoom into the nubs to see the area between the nubs. Inspect it. Next, zoom out and picture the whole apple in your mind’s eye about 1.5 feet from you.

Slice the apple in half with your mind. Open it to see the inside. Examine whether there are seeds. Examine whether there is a slightly discolored area around the seeds. Zoom into the detail of the seeds and zoom back out to see the cut apple. Next, slice the apple into four pieces. Position the apples in a horizontal line with the seeds facing you. Now rotate the apples around so that the red skin is facing you. Next, align the apple parts in a vertical line. Perform the same rotation viewing the seeds and the red skin. Finally, bring the four apple components back together into one whole apple.

The advanced version of this technique involves cutting the apple into 8 or 16 pieces, cutting all those pieces in half horizontally, and rotating them in opposite directions in a circular motion. Additionally, the individual can imagine the apple slices dancing around to the beat of music they play in their mind. Then, bring all the pieces back together and form one apple again to conclude the technique.

Scene Setting Technique

This activity is designed to help you imagine entire scenes in your mind. First, picture yourself in a relaxed setting, such as a meadow in the middle of the woods. See yourself in the meadow in your mind’s eye. Picture the tall grass and flowers in the field. Examine the woods around you in the visualization. Try to see as much detail as possible. Zoom into different parts of the scene to inspect it to get more detail. When you zoom back out, try to hold the details that you just inspected in your mind to increase the amount of information you are actively maintaining in your mind at once.

Picture yourself doing an activity in the meadow, such as walking around. Practice going between first person view and third person view. For the first person view, actually look through the eyes of the body you are visualizing. Look down and watch your legs walking. Look around from the perspective of your visualized body and see what you can see from that perspective. Next, take the third person perspective and see your whole body in the meadow as if from a camera installed above and behind (or wherever you’d like) your body. Practice picturing the whole scene in different configurations. For example, you could add a cabin to the scene and have your character enter into the cabin to look around. The next time you visit your internal mindscape, you can remember the cabin is there. In this way, you can continue building out your mindscape to include more objects, buildings, and natural features, such as rivers and waterfalls. Adding to your mindscape will increase your ability to visualize more parts of a scene and ultimately imagine the energy that can heal you.

Energy Visualization

The body has energy flowing through it. This energy can be visualized to help direct its flow to different parts of the body. To visualize your energy, close your eyes (or keep them open) and imagine there is a flow of energy coming from the top down, and a flow of energy coming from the bottom up meeting in your heart chakra or third eye chakra. Visualize this energy as a white column flowing down from the top and up from the bottom. The energy coming down from the top is known as the solar current and it is associated with the sun. The energy coming from the bottom is known as the telluric current, and it is associated with the Earth. The emergent energy that comes from the balancing of these two energetic streams is referred to as the lunar current and it is associated with the moon.

The name, color, and position of the seven main chakras.

Imagine the color of each of your chakras radiating from your chakras. Imagine that they are both a generator of energy and a receiver of the universal energy that is currently bathing your body. Each chakra can receive the pure white divine energy and differentiate the aspect that it needs to fill the particular color of the chakra.

Divine Counting

One relationship that is worth contemplating on the path of Druidry is that of a seed, a tree, and a forest. There is a mental technique that can be used to help contemplate this relationship as well as expand mental visualization and conceptualization faculties. This procedure is based on a simple counting procedure 1-2-3-4-3-2-1-0-1/0. Each number corresponds to a functional part of the lifecycle of a forest that will be described below.

It is critical to note that these concepts are layered concepts, which means that once one concept is activated it should be held in mind while activating the other concepts. For example, considera triangle broken into four quadrants. When the counting commences, it colors each quadrant of the triangle progressibley while still maintaining the coloring of those that came before it. This is true on the way up the triangle as well as the way down. Thus, there would be one color on the way up the four quadrants and a darker color on the way down representing that all the quadrants are active.

1 represents one whole tree and the entire unit of that tree. 2 represents the crown and the roots and the associated energy production and generating procedures of those two systems. 3 represents the emergent life consciousness of the individual tree as it is sustained by the 2 emergent energy generating forces of the crown and the roots. 4 is the entire forest as it relates to one tree planting other trees. 4 is the family of trees produced by a great tree. Then, the user progresses back down the triangle of related concepts beginning with 3, the emergent consciousness of the tree as it is supported by the dual nature of the tree (2), i.e. the two polarities of life generation processes. Finally, the user arrives back at one full tree activated in the mind’s eye, and then the count goes to zero, which is the seed of the tree, which is then planted in the soil to produce the 0/1 life perpetuating principle.

Here, zero means the potential of the universe and 1 means the life of the universe. When the tree is zeroed into the seed, it becomes potential life. Then, once it is succcesffully planted, it becomes an actual tree, another 1, and it starts the cycle anew. The Figure below describes an abstracted form of the counting sequence described above.

The Nature of Healing

The body heals itself naturally. Healing is facilitated by both food and mind. The mind heals by using mental visualization to imagine energy at the afflicted area. Consciousness is able to direct extra resources to places in the body to stimulate healing in the area that attention is focused. The mind can be trained to sustain this attention through time to make a significant impact on the healing process.

Meditation trains the mind to sustain attention and improve healing. Practicing mental visualizations also helps train the mind to sustain attention. Meditation and visualization exercise a muscle that is involved in healing.

The effectiveness of a mental visualization on healing is determined by: 1) The clarity and detail of the visualization in the mind’s eye, and 2) the person’s belief in the truth and reality of what is being visualized.

Energy

Energy can be visualized as a color anywhere in and around the body. Each color has a different effect on the healing process because it affects the individual’s subjective experience during the visualization procedure. White is a universally healing color.

Crystals

Crystals focus and amplify mental energy produced by visualizations. Visualizing a crystal giving off energy creates that reality. Different crystals affect healing in different ways.

Visualized Scenario

In addition to directing energy to certain areas, it’s possible to visualize energy around your entire body in your mind’s eye: the body can be engulfed in healing flames, the body can be completely encased in a color, like being inside a white granite stone made of light.

Visualized Body

The mind can stimulate healing in the body through the direction of energy and providing a blueprint for the body to strive for. For example, one can imagine each of their cells as radiating pure healing white light and see the entire body as one white shape that is radiating healing energy.

Alternatively, one can imagine what the exact component of the body looks like in its optimal state. For example, someone trying to heal their heart could look at a diagram of the heart, study its functions, and then try to visualize a perfect image of their heart and its pumping processes within their chest. This perfect image would then act as a program to inform the body which area to focus healing on and what ideal state can be achieved.

Cognitive Anchoring

This is a basic technique to help with memory aid, i.e. remembering important concepts, ideas, theories, and goals. When trying to remember a concept or group of related concepts, try to imagine or generate the central idea that ties them all together. Develop a ~1-3 word title for the anchor. The title should enable you to unpack the entire concept, it should remind you of the critical details of the idea. Repeat the cognitive anchor multiple times in different ways. Practice unpacking and repacking the meaning behind the anchor words. Set your will to remember the anchor indefinitely.

This is an operation of cognitive chunking. Multiple pieces of information are holographically represented as one piece of fractal information that can be decoded to yield a larger meaning. The information is holographic because one component of the whole can be used to deduce the whole meaning. The information is fractal because as you zoom into the concept, you get more details that are essentially the same meaning.

To summarize, if you come up with a really good title for your idea in your mind, it will be much easier to remember the entire idea. Think hard about the right title as you are thinking of the idea and then anchor that title with the idea, so they can be retrieved together. This technique follows the principle of neurons that fire together, wire together. When concepts are activated together, and attention is devoted to their activity in the mind, then those concepts can become related neurologically. This increases the likelihood that the desired piece of information can be retrieved at the time of need.

Memory Palace

The memory palace technique is an established mnemonic technique to remember large quantities of information. In this technique, the individual constructs an internal space and places objects in that space that represent parts of the intended memory structure. For example, one might imagine their childhood home as the scenario. Then, depending on what was being memorized, the individual creates and places objects in the home that represent the meaning, i.e. a stanza to a poem, a piece of a formula, a part of a cherished memory, etc. The individual then places these objects in a specific order so the space can be traversed systematically. During the traversal, the individual can recall, in order, what the meaning of each of the objects are. This technique utilizes the cognitive anchoring technique described above to chunk a large amount of information into a small container represented by a concrete object or phrase. This object can then be ‘unpacked,’ so to speak, to re-derive the intended information from the memory.

Memory palaces can be grand or small depending on the context in which they are formed. The actual scenario can resemble an artificial or natural environment. This basic technique can be used to help remember any type of information, and in any quantity, depending on the memory palace skills of the individual.

Tai-Chi

Tai-Chi involves visualizing energy around the body and moving that energy with slow and steady physical movements using basic stances that help root and generate energy. While doing Tai-Chi, it can be important to use the basic stances and physical formations of the tradition as a starting point for forming your own personalized practice.

The basic stances of Tai-Chi. © Guy Robinson.

Tai-Chi Stances

Horse stance is the core or resting stance of Tai-Chi. In this basic stance, the energy ball can be created, maintained, and moved around the basic positions of the body. Moving to the Bow and Arrow stance shifts the energy of the body to one particular direction. This facilitates energy work in that quadrant of the body, such as moving the energy ball around in that region.

From the Bow and Arrow stance, one can move to the Empty stance where the energy of body rests on one of the back legs of the stance (either left or right). This pose balances the energy on the back leg and can be used to push the energy outward.

From empty, one can move into either Tiger or Rooster. One moves into Tiger by stretching out the front leg in front of the body. In Tiger, the energy of the body is lowered and focused on the back leg once again. In this stance, one can move energy overhead in different arching configurations. Alternatively, one can move from Empty stance into Rooster stance. Rooster is a balancing pose that moves the energy of the body upward. From this stance, one can bring telluric energy from the bottom upward. In this stance, it is natural to stretch the arms upward and outward to radiate the energy being generated by this balancing stance.

Energy Production

To produce the energy that will be utilized during the Tai-Chi movements, one can visualize an energy ball that is being generated between the hands. For example, one can imagine a ball of blue energy (blue is for energy work, white is for healing) between the hands as they are cupped towards each other. One can actually begin to sense this energy ball by moving the hands closer and farther apart as one is concentrating upon generating the energy ball. Do this for several moments as you tune yourself to your own energy.

After the energy has been visualized into a ball of light, the individual can move this ball around their body to tune different regions of space. The ball can be moved to the left side, the right side, up above, and down below. This procedure can start in Horse stance and move onto Bow and Arrow to move the energy from the central portion of the body to either side.

After moving the ball around the body, concentrate on modulating the energy in different ways. For example, you can make the ball larger or smaller, different colors, or even rainbow colored. Then, move this new energy ball around the body in different ways through each of the basic stances to build your own customized routine. The routine should last between 5-15 minutes. It helps to play some music during this procedure. The exact type of music does not matter, as long as there is a beat to go with the flow of the activity.