Ä Area: Magick ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Msg#: 202 Date: 07-29-96 00:58 From: Khephera Read: Yes Replied: No To: All Mark: Subj: How to Astral Travel ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Hello All! Well, I kept promising to put together a coherent document on Astral Travel, and FINALLY here it is! I hope it offers some insight. ;) Comments, questions, suggestions and nasty remarks accepted. ;) _ _ _ O / _ _ C_U_T_ H_E_R_E_ _ _ _ O \ HOW TO ASTRAL TRAVEL Permission is granted to distribute this work in electronic form, with these conditions: 1) No fees may be charged for the distribution or transmission of this document, other than standard charges for use of transmission lines or electronic media. Distribution for commercial purposes or by commercial entities is specifically prohibited. 2) All copies distributed must contain the complete, unedited text of the original document and this copyright notice. 3) Persons acquiring the electronic version of this document may make one printed copy for their personal use. All other rights are retained by the author. .This article is being written in response to the overwhelming interest in "Astral Travel". It is my hope that I can dispell many of the myths of Astral Travel, and provide some common-sense approaches to the subject for the student. WHAT IS ASTRAL TRAVEL EXACTLY? .The very first myth I wish to dispell is the nonsense concept of "Out of Body". When speaking of Astral Travel, the term works well enough as a metephore; but many people today seem to have forgotten that it is only a metephore. How many hours of wasted time have students invested in half-baked techniques of "getting out of the body"? I, personally, spent years laying on my back vainly trying to figure out exactly how to leave my physical body. Likewise, most of the people who I run across report the same results. .Astral Travel is, quite simply, a method of visiting other planes. However, it is the nature of these planes that are gravely misunderstood. Let us use, as an example, the Wizard who spends much time Astral Traveling into the various Planetary Spheres- also known as the Seven Heavens. In all of the mythological writings which describe these Heavens, they are specifically described as Higher Relms. However, when we read the writings of these Wizards, the journey is described as an inner one. In Shamanic Cultures as well, the Astral Journeys known as "Vision Quests" were known to be the inner relms of the Shaman's psyche. In Australia, the Astral Relm is plainly called the "Dream-Time". .And so the Astral Relms are, in fact, the inner relms of the Self. Thus it is that getting "out of body" is a worthless goal- not to mention impossible. Of course, others will present evidence that they do have interaction with other Beings- sometimes right here on Earth- while Traveling. These experiences are often valid, and thier nature will be covered below. .The basic thing to keep in mind is that you have been Astral Traveling all of your life. Being that the Astral Relms are within us, then the obvious realization is that gaining them is simply the gaining of a certain level of consciousness. Have you ever been so extremely bored that you "zoned out"? You entered into a fantasy of some sort, and lost track of everything going on around you. You were perfectly awake, yet you were "a million miles away". This was Astral Travel. Dreaming is another form of this, and Lucid Dreaming is certainly a form as well. It's that simple; there are no hidden meanings to this. Dreams and Daydreams are Astral Travel. The only "trick" is in learning how to do it at will. GIVING THE ASTRAL BODY A WORKOUT .The first and foremost thing we must do is give the Astral Body (or Body of Light) a workout. After spending your whole life in a wheel-chair, one can not hope to be a runner without some effort toward physical therapy. Thus it is that I will stress the need for three practices to be done daily for a while before you can hope to achieve any real success. .One is a Purification and Balancing Ritual. This will serve to blast out of your aura (the Astral Body) all of the garbage that might otherwise hinder progress. I suggest the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram very strongly for this purpose. .Two is a Charging of the Chackras. This will bring large amounts of Energy into the aura, and get all of it's componant parts up and running. For this purpose I suggest the Middle Pillar- which should be done immediately after the Purification above. .And Three is the Ciruclation of the Body of Light. This consists of two or three different excercises, all designed to immediately follow the chackra charging. One is to visualize Energy rising from the ground, through the body, and bursting forth from the crown of the head like a fountain to rain back down to the ground. This should cycle repeatedly with the breath- Energy rises with intake of breath, and falls back to the ground with each exhalation. The next is to visualize Energy running up one side of the aura and down the other- first up one side and down the other, and then up the front and down the back. You can also make it change distances- first a full arm's length from the body, and then later make it go up and down along the spine. This should also cycle with the breath. .Do this everyday at the same time. After you have learned the excercises so that you can do them smoothly, allow them to continue for a couple of weeks before continuing with the following. Once you begin the methods below, do not discontinue them at all. It would do no harm to do them everday for the rest of your life, but at least do them until you have mastered Astral Travel. METHODS OF TRAVEL .Before you continue reading this, I want you to try an experiment. Get into a comfortable sitting position, or perhaps lay on your back. Clear your mind, and begin to fantacise about something. It doesn't matter what- just chose a setting and allow a little movie to play out within your mind (you don't even have to be involved in the movie). Do this now, and then read on afterward... .Now, at this time I will ask you a few questions. Number one: Were you able to accomplish the excercise at all? Were you able to bring any pictures into your mind, and have them be solid enough to have any impact? Number two: Did your mind wander? Was it hard- or even impossible- to keep your mind focused on the fantasy? Did you keep losing your train of thought? Did you perhaps fall asleep? And, Number Three: How real was the fantasy? Were you aware of what was around you in the room you sat or laid in? Did you have to move the characters of your fantasy around consciously like puppets? Did you have to write the story as it progressed? Or, were you able to completely lose yourself into the fantasy? Did it seem to take on a life of it's own and just take you along for the ride? .If you were able to completely lose yourself into the fantasy, then you are very lucky indeed. Most likely, however, you experienced some of the above problems- if not more. The skill of Astral Travel is the skill to avoid these problems; and, as you can see, not one of them has anything at all to do with getting "out of body". Following, then, is a method you can use to gain an Astral Experience. cont... Khephera -!- Msgedsq 3.20 ! Origin: Horus - Altamonte Springs, FL (1:363/263.777) Ä Area: Magick ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Msg#: 203 Date: 07-29-96 01:00 From: Khephera Read: Yes Replied: No To: All Mark: Subj: How to Astral Travel II ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ MAKING THE ASTRAL BODY .The first thing you have to do is to make your Astral Shell. Of course, it's already there, but it's your ability to picture it that lacks. Thus, we will work on some techniques for this. Of course, you will surely experience all of the same problems as you did during the above excercise. However, if you do this often you will get better at it. There are no easy answers, only practice, practice, and more practice. It is best to do this everyday at a specific time; begin at perhaps five minutes, then ten, then fifteen, twenty, and so on. .Get into a nice quite place where you can be sure you won't be disturbed. Get comfortable in either a sitting or lieing down position. Now, take a deep breath, and as you do so imagine a great amount of Energy being drawn into you. You can visualize this coming from everywhere, or from the Earth, or from Above- it doesn't matter. Just make sure that you see and feel this Energy building higher and higher as you take in the breath. Don't worry about whether it ir real or imagined, just imagine it and know that it is working. Once you get used to the feeling, you'll know it's not just imaginary. .Now, once the Energy is built, let all the air out. As you exhale, hold your hands out as if grasping a ball, and imagine all of the Energy being forced between them in a spherical shape, and glowing a Golden color. Once you get used to doing this, you will notice a very specific effect. Holding this ball of Energy tends to feel much like trying to hold two magnets together with the same poles facing each other. You'll feel a kind of non-physical "push" against your hands. .Once you've accomplished this, visualize the Ball moving away from your hands to a short distance in front of you. Immediately see the sphere take on the shape of a body- specifically yours. Once more, I stress, don't worry about if this is real or imagined. It is real. What the begginer must realise is that what he imagines IS real. The methods I'm describing are simply ways to make the imagination seem more real. .At this point, you have a version of yourself standing before you. Of course, it could (and should) be an idealized versoin of yourself. I usually picture myself in full Ceremonial garb. Spend time pictureing this. Allow it to move around some. You can even get up and move, visualizeing it matching your movements (this is similar to an important technique that I will describe later). You can even go ahead and picture yourself doing something in an imaginary world- but I would reserve this for a while at first. .The point behind all of this is to help you to visualize yourself. You should become so familiar with this picture that you can easily call it to mind. At first, however, you will probably have difficulty. You will only see parts, and often forget details. Each time you do this, simply correct it and go on with the excercise. As you practice, it will get better. Give this about a month or so- or until you are good enough at it to satisfy yourself. Remember, the only one you can lie to or cheat on this is yourself. .Lastly, as you do this, and the vision gets more stable, you can dispense with the golden sphere. Just gather the Energy and send it out to form the Shell. Just remember that this should only be done once the Shell is fully formed, and you can easily picture it in all detail. Making the golden sphere will help you focus your mind to the goal. Once you've accomplished a good mental moch-up of yourself, then proceed with the following: THE ASTRAL TEMPLE .This method is one which kills two birds with one stone. Many, possibly most, Magickal Traditions put a certain amount of stress on the Astral Temple, Middle Temple, or Place of Comfort. All of these are names for the same thing- a kind of personal space upon the Astral Plane which only you can access. Once you master Astral Travel, it is a place where you can go to perform Ceremonies at any time, anywhere, and with little notice. Best of all, it will always live up to the image of your own dream Temple or other Sacred Magickal Space. .The practical work on this is extremely simple. Get into your usual place, at your usual time, and start to fantacise: Get a good picture of your ideal working space. See yourself walking around in it. Examine all the implements upon the Altar and the Temple furnature. Have fun with it- it's that simple. Of course, you're just adding the aspect of a background to your previous visualizations. You want to be able to call the image of your Temple to mind as easily as the image of your Astral Shell. You'll want to give this a month or so as well. .Besides walking around in the Astral Temple, you may wish to perform a simple Ritual. The Qabalistic "Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram" is a rather nice one, as well as the other Rituals I mentioned above such as the Middle Pillar and Circulation of the Body of Light. In fact, you will want to eventually perform these daily Rituals strictly on the Astral. This serves as a kind of gauge for progress- to see how far you can get through the ritual before losing the train of thought. In time, you will be able to perform the entire Ritual. It will seem less forced, and, most importantly, you will lose track of your physical body. However, keep in mind that you should NEVER attempt to cast a spell while learning. What harm could be caused if you get half-way through a spell and then lose your train of thought? .Another thing to keep in mind is that it is OK to see yourself from the outside at first- as you did in the first excercise. Just daydream as you normally would. As you become accustomed to it, you can begin to try the Astral Body on for size and daydream from the view-point of the main character- you. After a while, this will happen naturally anyway. Above all else, BE PATIENT. Give this time- it could take months to make progress. You would short yourself if you gave up even before a year (though, don't allow that to frighten you, as you should have results much sooner than that). .A SIGN TO LOOK FOR .As you practice this, I'm sure you'll be looking for some kind of sign of progress. Of course, the main sign is that you forget about the physical body; that you get lost within the fantasy completely. However, there is also another side-effect you will notice in time. .Events on the Astral are not limited the same way as they are here on the physical. There is no inertia to overcome, no muscles to flex, no atmosphere to push through, no gravity pulling down, even words do not have to formed on the lips and vibrated through the air. Thus, you may spend what seems like an hour or more upon the Astral, only to wake and discover that it's only been fifeteen minutes to half an hour. This "time displacement" is only achieved by becoming properly lost in the fantasy, and forgetful of the body. Thus, it serves as a great sign-post for progress. BODY MOVEMENTS .There is one final aspect of the above work that I wish to now stress. As you move within the Temple, and you finally begin to view the fantasy from your own viewpoint, you will want to pay special attention to how your own body feels. Not your physical body, but the Astral Body. Feel your legs as they move, and your feet as they move across the carpet, tile, grass, or whatever. Run your hands along the surfaces of the Temple furnature and implements. Feel the temperature of the air around you. Hear any sounds that may be present. This is an important aspect of gaining full Astral Travel; this is the "trying on of the Astral Body" I mentioned above. cont... Khephera -!- Msgedsq 3.20 ! Origin: Horus - Altamonte Springs, FL (1:363/263.777) Ä Area: Magick ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Msg#: 204 Date: 07-29-96 01:00 From: Khephera Read: Yes Replied: No To: All Mark: Subj: How to Astral Travel III ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ .There is also an excercise that you can use to aid this process. Just as above, the main problem with gaining Astral Travel is the difficulty of "tricking" yourself into feeling like you are there for real. Therefore, we can aid our Astral Senses by first getting better aquianted with our physical ones. .To begin with, simply sit or lay in your confortable, quiet place as usual. Hold your hand in front of your face and look at it. Don't just glance at it, but really look at it as if you've never even seen a hand before. Take in every detail you possibly can. Most importantly, move the hand. First flex each finger. Then move the entire hand in various motions. All the while, pay very close attention to exactly how the hand looks during that motion, as well as how it feels. .Now, while keeping the hand in front of your face, close your eyes and create a mental picture of the hand as if it were "overlayed" over the real one. As you move your real hand, picture the imaginary hand making the same motions. Since your real hand is acting as a guide (even though you can't see it), this shouldn't be too difficult. While you do this, tell yourself that the physical sensations you are feeling from the motion are coming from the imaginary hand- that is, forget about the real hand as best as you can. Finally, once you get that down, cease moving the real hand altogether and allow the imaginary hand to continue it's motions. You may be surprised to notice that the physical sensations- which you have tricked your mind into thinking are coming from the imaginary hand- do not cease. Of course, they will waver some at first because you will be able to feel your real hand stop. However, the skill here is to ignore that sensation and to remain focused on the imaginary (Astral) hand. .Once you have this down, then continue with both hands. From there proceed to your arms. And do not stop this process until you have targeted every body-part possible in this way. Do this with walking, sitting, crouching, etc, etc, etc. A good friend of mine once made the wonderful suggestion of doing this (once you are working on full-body movements like walking) in a pitch-black room. If this is not possible, then simply closing or blindfolding your eyes will do. .Once again, this is not a process of hours, days, or even weeks. Give it a couple of months at the least. The point here is to become intimately familiar with your body-movements, and it will take as long to do this with each movement as it takes to become familiar with anything. THE OTHER SENSES .Once you can A) control your mind to have a decent daydream, and B) trick yourself into thinking you are physically there, then you can proceed onto the other senses of the body. This excercise will be a breeze once the above is mastered. .Around your comfortable area, place five different objects that relate to the four senses of smell, touch, taste, and hearing. For instance, place a glass of vinager about five feet to your left; a bowl of ice five feet in front of you to your left; a lolli-pop five feet in front of you to your right; and a bell five feet to your right. .Now, sit in your place, relax, and clear your mind. Slowly stand, walk to the vinager, and take a good whiff. Then continue to the next station and push your hands into the ice. Go from there to the lolli-pop and taste it. From there continue to the bell and ring it, and finally return to your starting place and sit or lie down. Just as above, REALLY experience these things as if you've never been exposed to them before. Normally we take these things for granted, and that is why I've suggested such extreme sensations as vinager, lolli-pops, and ice. Also, don't forget to concentrate on your body-movements while you stand up and walk from one station to the other. .Do this a few times until you feel you are familiar enough with the proceedure. Then, upon returning to the starting position, simply imagine yourself arising and repeating the process anew (you might want to actually project the Astral Shell as described above first). Once again, you want to trick yourself into thinking you're really doing these things, and to forget about the physical body. If you lose train of thought at all, simply imagine yourself returning to the starting point, and then physically get up and start over again. Also, you may also wish to picture the Astral part of the excercise as being within the Astral Temple. .This process shouldn't take as long as the first proceedures. At this point, you should be getting pretty good at it, and things will fall into line rather quickly. But, still, give this a couple (or more) weeks to really set strongly within you. As it gets easier, you may wish to alternate the sensations. Change the vinager for a sweet smell, the lolli-pop for a salty taste, the ice for something warm, soft, or rough, and the bell for other sounds. Once you dispense with the physical objects altogether, spend time on the Astral alternating them. Pick up the glass and will it to be vinager, and then immediately will it to be another liquid, and then another. And so for the other stations. .By the time you complete this, you should be pretty set as far as the Astral Body goes. You have charged it, fitted it for size, and gotten used to walking around in it. At the same time, you have fully constructed your Astral Temple for later use. All in all, you are Astral Traveling, and it only remains to make some use of it. SENSORY DEPRIVATION .Before I continue, I want to briefly discuss the concept of gaining Astral Projection by way of sensory deprivation. This is a kind of short-cut to the practice, but as you will see it is certainly not the desirable method. .In the Ancient World, an Initiate into a Mystery Tradition (or sometimes even manhood in general) was forced into Astral Projection for the purpose of coming into contact with Spirit Guides, Gods, Elevated Masters, and other such concepts. Especially in the instance of "coming into manhood", the Priests did not have the months necesarry to train one for Astral Travel. And, quite frankly, these Ancient Cultures did not have the sophisticated techniques we do today to make the process any easier. .The Ancient Egyptians would tie the Initiate to a stone slab in a dark, soundless room for three days. Of course, the Initiate was not bond fastly- but if he got up, he would not be able to re-tie the knots himself and his failure of the ordeal would be known. In the Celtic lands, the Shaman would wrap himself in a hot, scratchy wool blanket for a few days. Other Cultures would mutilate the body and, literally, half-kill the Initiate. The purpose of all the above is the same: to deprive the mind of all of it's input (the sensory deprivation), and also to make the person as uncomfortable as possible without actually killing him. .The result was that the mind HAD to wander elsewhere- else it would surely go insane. Simply, the lack of sensory input, food, and water, as well as the pain, would make the person hallucenate. The Priests would have previously spent time training the Initiate in their systems- filling his head with all the appropriate Symbolism- so that the halluncenations were more than likely to follow along those lines. If they did, then the Initiation was a success. If the Initiate failed to meet the correct Astral Beings, then he was deemed unworthy of the Path, and sent elsewhere. .What might surprise you is that you have, most likely, already undergone this very Initiation! Remember above when I asked if you had ever been so bored that you "zoned out"? When I speak of this, I tend to think back to my school days. Long hours sitting in a drab classroom, listening either to absolutely nothing, or to the incesent droning of a teacher. Not being allowed to move, fidget, speak, or focus your attention on anything of any interest. Add to this the horribly uncomfortable seats they made you squeeze yourself into, and (if you happen to be old enough to remember the older ways, or Catholic) even the pain of the stick as the teacher patroled the class looking for reasons to abuse you. cont... Khephera -!- Msgedsq 3.20 ! Origin: Horus - Altamonte Springs, FL (1:363/263.777) Ä Area: Magick ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Msg#: 205 Date: 07-29-96 01:01 From: Khephera Read: Yes Replied: No To: All Mark: Subj: How to Astral Travel IV ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ .And what was the reult of this? You zoned out, went a million miles away, and basically went jaunting around the Astral Plane. You didn't know it then, but now you do, and I hope it brings things into perspective. You've already been Initiated into the Art of Astral Travel. Of course, we experience some problems because (unlike the Ancients), these were the very times that we were told to "come back to earth" or to "stop pretending!". Now we simply have to learn how to Pretend again, and to make practical use of it. SO, DOES THIS MEAN IT'S ALL IN MY HEAD AFTER ALL? .The answer is no. Astral Travel is not a state of getting out of body, but it is a the gaining of a state of consciousness that is not restricted by the body. As Shamans and Wizards alike know, the deeper into our Selves we go, the closer to the "Collective Consciousness" we get. Ninety-nine percent of what we experience on the Astral is totally subjective. However, there is that small percentage of the experience that is objective. People can interact with each other, and with other Entities upon the Astral. .One of the things that seems to draw most people to Astral Travel is the concept that we can do things such as visit friends or other Earthly locations. However, what is not understood is that this is not Astral Travel, but Etheric Travel. To understand this concept, I will simply have to explain how the various Planes are constucted. THE PLANES AND SUBTLE BODIES .There are five principal Planes (supposedly accessed by various spiritual "bodies") that concern the student of Astral Projection. For those of you who have read other books on Astral Travel, you will be familiar with the following list of "Subtle Bodies". From the highest to the lowest they are: -Causal Body -Higher Mental Body -Lower Mental Body -Astral Body -Etheric Body -Physical Body .You will notice that the Astral Body is the second step from the physical. The fact of the matter is that all Astral Travel occures here. Some theorize that it is possible to travel on the Higher Planes, but I do not know if this is the case at all. The higher Planes shown above are more concepts than anything else. .If, when we Travel, we are upon the Astral Plane, then when are we on the Etheric Plane? The answer is simple- the Etheric Plain is the relm of the Conscious Mind. Modern science has long pondered exactly what the Mind is. The brain we know- but the physical matter which we call a brain does not account for the concept of the sentient and conscious Mind. The Mind is not something physical, but it is certainly something that interacts with the physical. Thus, the Mind must be one single step above the physical- which is the Etheric Relm. .The normal Etheric state is to be perfectly awake and conscious of the world and the body. When we Astral Travel, we are elevating our awareness another step higher into the Astral Relm. And thus is the difficulty with Etheric Travel. In order to project to a physical location, we must force our awareness back to the level of normal waking consciousness, but somehow keep ourselves from BEING awake and conscious of our bodies and immediate surroundings. .This is certainly possible, but it is extremely difficult. Most texts on Astral Travel will speak of this "Out of Body Experience" occuring to people who are sick or dieing- where thier Mind is not functioning properly to begin with. In fact, I have personally Etherally Projected once in my life- while I was extremely sick. It was fun for what it was worth, but that wasn't much. It is not only a rare and difficult thing to achieve, but it is basically unatural, and an overall useless practice. If it were indeed of any real use, I assure you the Spy industry would be a vastly different field today. ENTERING THE HEAVENLY RELMS .Now that you have both the practice, and the concepts behind the practice down, it's time to leave the Astral Temple and start visiting some of these Outer Relms the Grimiores tell us so much about. Though I will not go into any major detail at this time, I will at least cover the concept. .Many sources tell us about "Gates of Entrance" which we can pass through and meet all kind of strange and wonderful Beings. They give us the image of the Gate, and the formula for entering, but only the Initiate may know exactly what the "Entrace" itself is. .Let us say that you wish to visit the Astral Relm of the Forces of Aries. You would construct an image of the Aries Symbol, in the proper colors of Aries, and place it upon your altar. You would then go about a Ceremony of Invocation for the Forces of Aries, complete with a Calling of the Entities who you wish to speak to within the Gate. Once all the power has been raised, you would sit before the altar, get a good picture of the Aries Image in your mind, and then Astral Travel through it. Some teachers have you actually enter the Astral Temple first, and then to see a Gate, Door, or Curtain at the edge of the Temple with the Image upon it. Then, already in your Astral Body, you simply walk through the Gate and into the land beyond it. .From that point onward, everything you experience will relate to Aries. You will meet with the Beings you have Called, and They will guide you through the land and teach you what you are ready to learn about it. If you call no Guide, or if They simply to not show, then you can walk around and see the land for yourself. Though, you will more than likely see things that you will wish to have clarified at a later date. .This practice is for the intermidiate to Adept student ONLY. One must know all about the Sign of Aries so that one can verify the vision. For instance, if the Adept enters the Aries gate and sees a vast sea with mermaids lounging on rocks, then he knows that a mistake has been made (for Aries is a Firey Sign, not a Watery one). The beginner would not recognize this, and thus would be recieving incorrect information. Of course, there is little to no chance of the Adept entering a Gate with such contradictory results. And, in fact, the same goes for the beginner. Instead, the differences will be subtle enough to fool the Wizard if he is not on his game. There are many skills that must be learned so as not to be decieved within the Gates. I am specifically leaving these skills out, as well as the above mentioned Ceremonies, so as to discourage any foolish experimentation. .The Major point to visiting these Relms is Initiation. As we visit each Plane, we will be Initiated into the Forces contained there. We can become Initiated into the ways of Fire, Water, Air, Earth, the Zodiacal Forces, and the Planets. We can Astral Travel into ANY symbol to learn more about it- be it occult or mundane. One could Travel into that man-shape on men's rooms if one so desired. SKRYING .As a final note, I wish to mention Skrying. This is exactly the same as Astral Travel, with the exception of not losing concsciouness of the body. You do not participate in the vision, but simply watch it as an observer. As above, any symbol can be used for this. For general divinitory purposes, many things can be used such as a crystal ball, candle flame, etc. Of course, there's nothing wrong with just closing your eyes and going for it as well. .Other than that, I will not go into the subject of skrying. I do hope that the above has greatly helpped you in your search for Astral Travel. And I hope that it has cut through most of the bull surrounding the subject. Good luck on your journeys! Blessed Be, may Yahweh and His Asherah guide and keep thee, Ar ReX Em SeXem Eref Neter Au-a Rx Khephera -!- Msgedsq 3.20 ! Origin: Horus - Altamonte Springs, FL (1:363/263.777)