Introduction To Ritual Workings On The Planes

This article follows on from my previous article on visualisation, in that I see this as a natural progression, it is for me at least.

Although I’ve had a long time to play out there, to be honest, I’ve not really gone exploring. It does not serve my purpose to go off playing with the various inhabitants or travelling to amazing places. They are there, I know that, but my purpose there was, and still is to create and maintain a safe place to work which removes the need to require physical rituals. It is that on subject I will focus on in this article.

I chose this way of working a long time ago for a number of reasons:

• I’m highly creative therefore I find it easy to work with my mind

• It’s physically more convenient for me as I can be anywhere and if I feel in the need to do something its just a jump with the mind away.

• As I’ve moved deeper into the Egyptian path I’ve taken on more of the traditional forms, but they require some fairly serious physical changes such as shaved body hair, constant purification of the body, various make-up and odd costumes which are difficult things to maintain along side a contemporary life style. Through this method I can drastically change my appearance with minimal effort by jumping into another ‘body’ on that plane.

• Most importantly my Goddess wanted me to as it suits her better, and those reasons why will become clearer further on.

What Is The Astral or Other Planes?

Before we get to far into what I will be talking about, a little step back to discuss the location where we will be going.

There are so many books on the subject, many with wildly differing interpretations, but some of the more common themes I will now discuss.

The first is that outside this physical plane that some call the Material Plane, there are set of planes of varying energy levels, many books will list names for them, and include describing various areas and their inhabitants. There is also a frequent referral to seeing a silvery thread that links you with the material plane which you should endeavour to keep safe from breaking. In a lot of books there is a morbid fear of this line breaking or being broken by mischievous things to stop you getting back to your body. There are a so few as to be considered no examples of someone not getting back. I can’t honestly say if it’s there has ever been a silvery thread attached to me, and I’ve stopped noticing it, its never been there or I’ve modified my environment so much that it’s no longer visible. May just be a part of folk history.

The view or interpretation will depend on your particular path, or experiences as they may draw you to a particular location . The gist being that we are going to or already are somewhere other than the physical plane using our mind, whether you visual travel to a dark empty plane, an elemental plane or woodlands. That’s up to you, this is your workings and you have to find your own way, something that books tend to forget and take you down a particular road which can be quite distracting if you are not comfortable with it.

How Does Visualisation Help In Working On Planes?

All planes are essentially blank canvases, the appearance is subject to the will of those that inhabit it, and this goes for you too. Going to an ‘inhabited’ area will be problematic as their effect on their home plane obviously be greater than yours, choosing somewhere empty and there are lots of of it considering they are infinite, you will stand better luck in doing what you need to do.

As the environment is under your control obviously this is more convenient than the physical reality so whatever you find difficult in the physical world you can change here, and like I said, I need to apply a variety of physical changes to my own form. Too, if you work with deities or other worldly entities, then working on a non-material plane can benefit both sides as they will normally find it easier manifest there, so the experience can be a whole lot more intense than in this physical reality – so be warned! These as you might notice are two reasons why I chose this method and one happens to refer to deities. That’s why mine wanted me to use it.

So there are no limits? That is true, but there is also greater risk from the environment that is essentially chaotic in nature and from any thing that may be in the area. This is where we will go next in discussing forming safe environments against these external risks.

Forming You Own World

Building on all that experience and effort from creating convincing visualisations, this is where the most rewarding part comes in, it’s also the biggest is it takes time and effort to at least initially construct and maintain your environment there. Like general visualisation, and more specificity when you are trying to ‘wish’, its important to really keep it there, go there frequently to reinforce its existence and tweaking it so that you really can believe it and ensuring its real to you, otherwise this will will weaken its effect.

As an example I have placed my temple in the middle of an endless desert. When I go there I sense the heat on my skin, and the sand between my toes and it you know me well then you will know I hate sand between my toes. But I’m aware of it and it reinforces my awareness of and connection with the environment I have created, even if it’s an annoyance, but that’s what would happen in reality. I could change it to never happen but that would feel odd as I expect sand to be everywhere, and sometimes when go there sand is heaped against the closed door or its managed to work it’s way along the corridors, but a brief desire to clean it up is all that’s required.

This is why grasping visualisation skills are important, for analogy think about driving a car. At first its hard work understanding all the controls, getting them to work together, lots of thought is required to co-ordinate things over time you can actually have a conversation while working the pedals, all of it comes naturally in the end. So the same with visualisation. Frequent use builds up the skills and mental agility to keep the images in your mind without having to constantly think about it which will only distract you from any workings you do there.

If you are asking why I am repeating the same things from the visualisation article? Then my answer is that you may already be on other planes and depending on the environment you have created there is a chance that it’s gravitated towards a suitable planner location to house it’s self. But as it is self contained you may not reliases it. Create a door, go see what’s the other side?

Now something that’s occurred to me while analysing my workings for this article, and that’s the use of physical rituals and more specifically the use of protective circles. Some times I’ve cast them, sometimes not so my advice is that although I’ve not noticed any change in effect, you might have to experiment yourself. Whatever works is always good.

From your visualisation you may already be somewhere you feel you would like to set-up camp, that’s great, if not then go looking. If you feel you are getting no where, then perhaps you may already be there so you might have to make a little room, either way we are then ready to start making camp.

The area you want to construct will take some time to do. There are a few things that can really help with this:

• Draw a picture – you don’t have to be a great artist but sketch out, artistically or technically as a plan, how ever you think you can then use to visualise it. The aim is to ensure that each time you are there you can keep the images of the area consistent. That will strengthen it’s existence in the place it’s in and in your mind.

• Jot down words to describe it – think of the senses. If its a leafy glad, are the leaves on the ground dry or wet to your bare feet? Can you hear animals? Water? Wind? Is it warm or cold?

These things provide a rough model in your mind and as previously mentioned once you have something in your mind you can push it out to your subconscious where the real magic can begin.

Now how to apply that to where you end up in your visualisation? Depends on how much you really believe in this model or can handle with picturing it in your mind. The more creative people could perhaps find picturing it easy, so in their case maybe either picturing a door and when you walk through its into the area you’ve modelled, or you can just blank out what you see around you and replace it with the model.

If this is too much to keep in your mind, then what about changing it bit by bit. Add one small feature at a time. Think jigsaw puzzle. You can see lots of little bits that you collect over time and fit together to form the whole.

While building you will need to make a decision on how to get to it if you want it different to your normal visualisation workings. If you have placed it as a door off of your normal journey make a common entrance even if its to magically appear in a puff of smoke, as previously repeated, routine is key to successful progress.

Making It A Safe Place

So you have a room, a glade whatever, so what makes this feel safe for you? For example with my temple I have it situated in the middle of an endless desert, but bizarrely on the horizon, very faint in the intense heat of a blazing sun, is an encircling range of mountains. That is my border. I’ve placed my temple infinitely away from the edges. Distance, mountains and baking heat of the sun are my protective shields. No one can survive that intense sun for such a long journey to my temple.

Anything you have previously learnt on magical shielding will apply here too and can be a little more literal. Multiple layers are more effective, just remember that this is not your home plane, there will be inhabitants that will be stronger so layers are more effective.

Another highly effective form of defence is to keep the location secret, keep the door secret. Now I’ve been telling you about my temple, but I’ve not told you it’s exterior or interior details, only the desert, so you will not be able to visualise it and be drawn to where it is. And as I’ve been working this one for many years then it’s sort of matured and the layers hiding it are thick. The knowledge of it’s appearance is important as this will aid in you and anyone (or thing) in finding the pocket you’ve created.

There is little more that can be discussed as this now become a very personal journey but I hope I’ve stimulated some thoughts on this subject.