Hands-On Chaos Magic: Reality Manipulation through the Ovayki Current - Andrieh Vitimus 2009

Energy Manipulation II

Now that we have practiced banishing, let's do some more information/energy exercises. Before and after each game, clear your mind and banish.

The Ball Game Variant: Catch

With your partner, match the direction of the energy flow so that your receiving hand is pressed against the producing hand of your partner and vice versa. This is essentially creating an energy circle. Allow the energy to flow between you and your partner for a few minutes so that you become comfortable with each other.

After a few minutes, break the circuit. You should each try to force both hands to output energy. Couple your hands around the sphere as if it is a small sphere. Position your arms so that each person can reach the sphere. Imagine with all five of your senses a rubber playground ball forming between you. Throw the ball up and make sure it can stay cohesive. After that, play catch with the sphere.

Feel free to defy Newtonian physics, throw the ball against the wall, bounce it against the ceiling, or have it trace out irregular paths. (For the few people who need it, this is not dodge ball.) Now, repeat the game, but this time try to use different breathing patterns while you are forming the sphere.

The Ball Game Variant: Inner Taffy

Use the procedure in the last exercise to create a combined energy ball. Once the ball is created, one person should stick his or her fingers into the ball. After the exercise, that person should journal about the experience. The other partner should repeat this process.

After each of you have determined how the ball feels, you should both grab it and start molding it into whatever you desire as if it were a lump of clay. If you can agree on a new shape to mold the ball into, feel free to be creative. If not, just mold it as desired according to your whim. Abstract creations are great. Record the new "abstract" shape. If you both agreed on a shape, keep working on it until you agree that it is indeed what you were both imagining. For a kick, get a third participant and hand that person the new creation without saying what the shape is (let the person guess).

Start simple. Cones, hearts, clouds, spheres, cylinders, and other simple objects work well. You can then move on to more complex objects like 3-D infinity symbols, chaos stars, hourglasses, cups, swords, and other sigils and symbols.

Elemental Ball Games

Not surprisingly, the energy ball games continue. Up to this point, all of our energy spheres have tended to be neutral energy from within ourselves. This is sometimes referred to as life force or chi (Liang and Wu 1997). With the games we have been playing, we are now going to shift our own energy and create something with a different information pattern from our normal energy. Elemental energy forms the basis of many Hermetic teachings as well as some earth-based religions such as Wicca. Learning to produce the energy patterns without tools allows you to slip right into a ritual and contribute even if you are unfamiliar with the system.

Relax and breathe while sitting for about five minutes. After the five minutes, pick a traditional Persian element: earth, air, fire, or water. Spend a few minutes thinking about the core properties of that element. What pops into your mind when you are thinking about the element? Initiation into Hermetics by Franz Bardon (1999) has some great information on the elements if you are unfamiliar with them. Write down what you believe are the core properties of the element for you. There is no right answer. Try to express each element in terms of the five senses, and try to have details for each sense. Fire for me might be associated with red peppers for taste and warmth for feeling.

Repeat for each element until all four are completed. Spirit is an unusual element, and it is the most ephemeral element. We are going to skip the spirit element. Feel free to experiment with it on your own.

Using your personal correspondences and the core schema of each element, create a sphere of energy. As you are forming the ball and pushing the energy into the ball, imagine that what you hold has all the details you imagined corresponding to that element. Hand the ball to your partner. Do not tell your partner what type of energy sphere you gave him or her. Ask instead. Record what your partner thought it was as opposed to what you thought it was. Right and wrong are irrelevant in this game. You may notice that the sphere feels looks different, sounds different, etc. Later, as you practice, you may get a much better intuition of how to label that difference (i.e., what element it is). Now have your partner produce the ball, and you guess what element the sphere is.

The Switch Elemental Ball Game

In the first elemental ball game, we created a sphere of an element. As a warm-up, repeat that exercise. Now, with a partner, take the sphere and then change it to a different element. When you return it to your partner, have him or her guess which element it is. Most importantly, have your partner note how it is different from when he or she handed you the sphere.

Remember to sense each aspect of the element with all five senses and then change each sensory part of the ball of energy. For instance, for earth, see it as a rock, then as rock melting to lava, and then just a fireball. Of course, the other senses would shift too. This is easier if you break down the conversion process into mental steps for each elemental conversion (there are twelve possible conversions). Since you have sensory details written down for each element, you can sit down in advance and figure out how to shift one to the next. Try to imagine a metaphor for each conversion (just like the earth-to-fire conversion).

Hover Ball Game

Make a sphere of energy. As you create it, will the ball to defy gravity and stay where it is without support. At first, just imagine with all five of your senses that the sphere stays where you put it. After you get the ball to hover, walk ten steps away from it and come back to the ball. If it loses cohesiveness, reduce the distance and repeat until you can get the ball to hover successfully. Keep increasing the distance you can walk away from the ball and have the ball stay exactly where you told it while remaining intact. After you get to about fifty or more feet away, feel free to go on to the next game. Of course, if you are really a go-getter, keep trying to extend the distance. After each attempt, write down in your journal how far you were able to walk away and still have the ball hover.

Puppy Ball Game

Create a ball that can hover as in the hover ball game. Instead of having the ball remain stationary, try to get the ball to follow you around at a certain height off the ground. Pay attention to the ball as it follows you. After you are sure that the ball is following you, stop paying attention to it. See how long it takes before the ball dissipates. Continue to try to extend the time the ball can follow you without concentration. After you reach ten minutes or so, find a partner and each allow your energy ball to follow the other person. Verify that the other person's ball is still there. See how long you can keep the ball going. Write down your increasing success in your journal.

Moon Ball Game

Create a ball that can follow you as in the puppy ball game. After you are sure that the ball can follow you and not dissipate without concentration, visualize and will it to revolve around you as if it were a moon. The moon can revolve around you at any speed you wish, in either direction or orbit. Once you have the moon revolving around you, give the moon specific details. Will it to have craters, be spiky, gaseous, rock hard, or whatever comes to mind. Play with the moon. After you give it a texture, give the moon a smell and hear it passing by you as it orbits.

After you feel you can do this, partner up and repeat the exercise. Have your partner describe what he or she feels, sees, hears, and smells around you. Write your results from playing both parts in your journal.

Now It's Your Turn

Mix up the breathing exercises with the energy exercises. Are some techniques more effective with certain breathing styles or a certain posture? Do some of the mantras you have practiced have an effect on the energy balls? Does imagining a sound, scent, or taste change the feeling of a ball? How does your mood affect the feelings of the energy spheres you are creating? Try as many different combinations as you can with posture, gesture, breathing, and these energy exercises. What unique combinations seem to work for you?