3 juli 2010

Scryings - The difficulties we might face

Scrying is one of the simplest things to do and one of the most useful when working in a hermetic paradigm, yet many have issues with it, either not trusting what they see or never getting to the point of scrying.

I, personally do not make a difference between "scrying in the spirit vision" and "travelling in the spirit vision", as defined by several Flying rolls, for example.I see these two things as the same thing, using different spirit senses, vision being the first one to develop and
travelling involving more senses then vision.*

Many of my students struggle because they try to first empty their minds fully, then expect profound, highly abstract experiences to happen as linked with their scrying into the elemental kingdoms or, say, a planetary sphere.Some claim they do not have the visualisation skills, the powers of imagination needed or that they get extremely archetypical pictures, like knights and dragons and angels and faeries. They complain that they are aware of the room whilst
scrying or even travelling.

None of these things is a bad thing!

Firstly, everyone can scry/travel. If you have ever had a dream or a daydream that you remember then you have the skills needed. Since you are not actually leaving your body, you being aware of certain forces that YOUR MIND the TRANSLATES into
symbols you can understand, the fact that it is extremely archetypical or that you aware aware of your surroundings isn't so odd. During some good sessions of course, the sky could be falling down and you wouldn't notice.**

Jung noticed arhetypes for a reason. I bet that if we pick anyone from the same metanarrative, then they will get the same scrying results with very archetypical images. Frogs, witches mickey mouse etc.

Things to avoid when scrying:

1 Do NOT empty your mind. Quickstart the scrying by focusing and geting your mind to work for you on a symbol. a taro-card,
sigil, glyph, chart, colour.
2 Do NOT ignore the physical. You will spend unnecessary energy trying to ignore your scratching and that you can hear the
outside world. Be aware of them.
3 Avoid thinking your are in the process of leaving your body. You are NOT. You are sitting here, now whilst you are
experienceing a traveling in that sphere. Odd, huh?

Things to do when scrying:

1 Link yourself to what you are scrying to. Open the chart, visualise it around you, touch the thing you are trying to travel into.
2 Start by imagining walking somewhere that you know very well. It is easier to "remember" then to build up. For example, walk down your stairs. remember last time you walked down there. Actvate all your senses. Then again, link to the image, say
the taro-card. Then, walk through it.
3 Use a usefull system to test things. If you work in a tradition, use those symbols, this is important. If not, decide on
some symbols, then stay consistent. Say, if you see someting you think is a sexual fantasy and not a scrying into the realms of earth then test the vision with,
say the letter daleth for GD people, or by visualising the cube of earth if you're a mason etc.
4 If visuals are hard for you, talk to yourself, whisper or in your minds eye and tell yourself your story.
"I am waking down my steps and see the symbol of mars at the bottom. I touch it and walk through. The other side I see a
battlefild. very Lord of the ring. I test thios by saying "Lord Mars, strengthen my vision." the Lord of the rings battlefield turns into an ancient roman field of war. I black wolf walks up to me...." etc. You get my point.
5 Use your knowledge of the plane! The more information you give your MIND the easier your own mind will be able to show, in symbols, that which you are experiencing.

Person A might see: a cybernetic warrior angel wielding a large machinegun talking to a Borg queen

Person B might see: A knight in shining armour and a sword talking to beehive/flower

The masks the archetypes wear are different, yet it is quite obvious that what they see is the same thing.***

Thing to be aware of:
Scrying is Lucid daydreaming. Treat it as such and be receptive and have fun. Don't overdo it. Good Scrying is one side of the coin to evocation into crystals and spirit vision.****
Let your dreams gain wings.

*Astrally travelling about and out of body experiences are however something completely different and not something that I will talk about right now.

**For the men out there, if you have ever been a teenager and had some serious masturbation fantasy going on, you'll know what I mean.

***I have scried the same thing with groups of people enough times to have, at least, anectotal evidence.

****There is a massive difference between very very realistic astral scryings and manifestation of an entity. Those who claim otherwise have not experienced the difference for themselves. However, evocation unto manifestation is not necessary for many things, say communication.

4 kommentarer:

  1. Great points and tips regarding scrying Argent. I tend to be very, very weary of scryed information - both my own and most definitely the full-bore ramblings of modern magicians. I think what you describe above is very accurately portraying contemporary scrying, or as you say - lucid daydreaming. I do believe however that the GMP and other arabic and Hellenistic sources describe something quite different - true visions.

    My feeling is that all contemporary scrying needs to be backed up by analogue divination if it is aimed at extracting important information. I feel that people are trusting their own fantasies to quickly, and going off on long ego inflated head trips using these methods. Which, to me, is very dangerous when dealing with spirits or at best a waste of time.

    I think there is place for it in a gifted and experienced magician's hands - but you know - if Dee, an accomplished occultist by all accounts, didn't trust his scrying abilities and resorted to finding a seer - contemporary folks could do well to tear a page from his book. Some things just are not as simple as "if you try hard enough and it will happen eventually".

    SvaraRadera
  2. Thanks Balthazar,

    I'm still finding a good form for the blog with a mix of insights, oral teachings, rants and useful tips.

    I agree with you that there is of course an important difference between contemporary scrying and real visions, yes. That, in my experience is the classical 20-80 divide. at first you'll get 80%psychology and self understanding, and 20% real "Visions from Above" (TM) yet you can with modern scrying methods or tried and tested ancient tech flip this coin into the opposite. But, first most people need to develop the general ability to actually...well.. see anything :D

    Also, true visions, being a prophet to (the) god(s) etc is something that takes a long time to master and does require the 80 to be real stuff... I am always baffled by young pagans who see an entity during a drumming session in the woods and suddenly emerge as anointed priests of Wotanhercules :)

    This is why good tests of the visions is important. And usually some form of the alchemical cleansing process, n o matter tradition. Nosce te ipsum, if you do not know yourself, your inner worlds, your own mind; how do you know what is just wishful thinking, fantasy and what is a true revelation?

    The Emerald Tablet and all texts show this. Until the ego is something we are ok to put to the side, until we in ourselves do not "organise properly" how do we expect to see anything but chaos out there?

    In most old texts there is a call for a scryer, a young boy is usually the case. I do think however that it is possible to do without and still be skilled. Rumi and many tantrics managed well. But the "fake it till you make it" BS is the most dangerous when it comes to scryings isn't it.

    Still, I'm happy to read through pages of self exploratory scrying material and then suddenly see the real light shine through when someone I am teachiing how to scry suddenly does the flip into 20% psychobabble self exploration and 80% real insight from above given by the guardians of the realms scryed.. Rather that then the
    "I cannot scry its so hard, I am shit at visualising" or the "I saw an angel who told me i should get a divorce. Doing so now".

    SvaraRadera
  3. Thank you for this. I just happen to need some pointers in this sort of thing right now. I'll be making some notes in order to "road test" some of it.

    SvaraRadera
  4. You're welcome. Feel free to prod if there is anything and I'll try and answer in a comment or a full post

    SvaraRadera