City Magick: Urban Rituals, Spells and Shamanism - Christopher Penczak 2001

The Sky City
Meeting the Makers

WORLD: Upper World

COLORS: White, blue, gold, orange

ELEMENTS: Air and fire

TOTEMS: Pigeon, duck, seagull, and all other birds

ARCHETYPES: Divine father, sky kings and queens, celestial beings, angels, ascended masters, aliens

POWERS: Mind, clarity, perception, memory, weather, knowledge, direct communication, direct information, channeling, higher self, spirituality, enlightenment, power

The sky city is the home of the gods, the upper world in the shamanic traditions. This is the celestial realm, a fabled city of gold where nothing goes wrong and everything is in harmony. The sky heroes and masters live here, drinking the ambrosia of immortality and enlightenment, which I imagine looks like drinking liquid light from crystal goblets. Their very presence is illuminating. It is hard to believe that this world of light and love so far above the waking city exists. This is the mythic heaven, or one version of it.

Some shamanic traditions have abandoned the celestial city in favor of the denser, earthy underworld. They find the sky gods too remote and impersonal, uncaring about the everyday needs of the people. Darker gods know better how to feed your hungers. I think the sky city helps feed the extraordinary hungers, not the commonplace ones. Perhaps humanity stopped reaching for the sky at one point, for the higher ideals, but we are starting to reach up again. The upper world is the realm of the spiritual seeker contemplating the eternal question of existence, the nature of the universe and one’s role in it. These answers can be found in any or all of the three worlds, depending on what you seek. Those who need to understand, not just know or feel, the answers seek the upper world. These practitioners seek enlightenment, not just a simple remedy to their problems. The airy realm is the domain of the mind, as well as of the spiritual fires. With modern culture’s new fascination for winged cherubs, guardian angels, and alien saviors, we are reaching yet again to the realm of the sky gods. Hopefully, we will ask the right questions and get the answers we seek.

To get to this sky city, you must fly. The Worldscraper pokes its head through the cloud barrier that veils the upper realm from our view. Even on a clear day, the astral clouds form a protective shield between the realms. There are many ways to master the air. In your meditative journey, as you climb the tower, you must reach the roof. Once there, you can see and feel the shining city. You may have a totem capable of carrying you. Even if you have a winged totem, like a bird, how can it carry a person? You are not bound by the rules of physics on this journey. On the spiritual journey, thought and intention are the laws of reality. Will yourself to be smaller and carried easily, or will your spirit totem to be bigger and able to carry you. Merge with your totem, as it carries only your essence. Winged totems and all kinds of sky creatures-birds, planes, clouds, and shooting stars-are messengers from the celestial realm.

If you do not have a winged totem, there are other means available, again through thought and intention. You can fly, float, or cloud-jump. Magical ladders or ropes can materialize to assist you. The means is not important, but the journey is. Anything you can imagine, you can do on the shamanic journey. Think about how you will fly or climb to the sky city.

EXORCISE 10-TRAVEL TO THE SKY CITY

Prepare your ritual space. If you choose to use a sound accompaniment, prepare your material. Dim the light. Light candles and incense if you like. Get comfortable.

Start with the intention to travel to the sky city. Think about the qualities of that city. If you have a specific reason to journey there, such as to find higher guidance, think about your reasons. If you don’t, this can be an introductory journey to acquaint you with a new magical realm. Even if you have been to other upper-world realms in other traditions, working in an urban environment and intention can yield different results.

Repeat Exercise 3, the chakra meditation (see page 25), and start it with the simple meditation technique found in Exercise i (see page 17). Visualize each chakra as a floor in a cosmic skyscraper. The elevator shaft carrying this energy is your spine. Continue on to Exercise 4 and affirm your protective shield (see page 27).

Before you, visualize the Worldscraper, a building of immense power connecting the hidden world to the sky city and to the visible city in which you live. It towers above any building you have ever seen, cutting through to the hearts of the three realms. You stand before the entrance. Reaffirm your intention and ask your animal spirit to guide you. Then step inside.

Wander around this first-floor lobby. Search for your path to the top floors. Let your guide lead the way. The terrain may be completely different from a typical office building. You may be in a swamp, forest, or desert. They may be mixed with the terrain of the office, as if nature had reclaimed part of the building. Imagine a lobby filled with water, plants and reeds, trees, soil, or sand. Will you take a path through the elevator, or up the stairs? Are there other options for you? Explore and climb upward.

You reach the top floor, possibly an observation deck of some sort. Looking down at the street below, everything looks completely different. Colors and shapes are strange. The light above you is biding, coming through the cloud covering of the sky cities. You must determine how you will cross this airy abyss to the next world. Can your totem fly and will it carry you? Can you fly? Does a rope greet you? Or perhaps a god of the upper world lends a helping hand. You are so close, yet a bit too far away. Use your ingenuity to get there. Everyone has his or her own personal solution to this riddle.

Once in the land of the sky city, explore. Is it a city at all? The images may be traditional, heavenly, or futuristic—a technological wonder built above the old world of the visible city, as in so many science fiction movies. Seek out the powers you want to contact. They may be in the form of gods, angels, aliens, or other beings who have the information or power you seek. Things in the upper world tend to be much more direct and straightforward. There are few games or riddles. If you are worthy, you will receive knowledge or be pointed in the right direction for the next stop in your quest. Thank any beings who help you.

When you feel the experience is complete, return to the Worldscraper and climb down to the lobby. You can retrace your steps, or follow an entirely new path. Exit the building and bid farewell to your guide. Let the image of the building fade from your mind’s eye.

Reaffirm your protective shield, using light to clear and release any unwanted energies that may have crossed back into this realm with you. Make your shield burn bright, vaporizing and transmuting any harmful energies or thoughtforms. Use whatever color is for purification and transmutation, as described in Exercise 2 (see page 20). If in doubt, violet is a good transmuting color to use in your shield at this time. Ground and balance yourself after the experience, and write down any insights you gained from the adventure.

My own experiences in the sky city have been mixed with past expectations. Coming from a Celtic witchcraft background, this realm started to look more like the rolling fields of milk and honey, a paradise realm, when I first journeyed there. As I continued on my path, influenced by the urban culture around me, the sky kingdom morphed into something akin to the ancient city-states imagined in places like mythic Atlantis. The artistry and technology was almost magical, with flying chariots, floating lights, magical fountains, healing temples, and power supplied from magnificent crystal pyramids. All of the instant comforts of the 20th century, without the overpopulation, pollution, crime, and disease, were contained in the heavenly kingdom. Later, my images depicted a more futuristic Utopian society, not relying on the past, but on a mythic future, in which disease and social inequalities were conquered and everyone loved truly and deeply. People flew as easily as walking, tapping their natural psychic abilities as part and parcel of this new enlightenment. The sky city was the bright shining city of Utopia, where living beings reached a balance with nature and incorporated nature’s designs into the landscape.

Your first experience in the sky city may be very different. What do you envision as a modern heavenly realm? What is the new mask of heaven? Many people anticipate that space brothers and sisters will carry them off in the final hour, whisking them away to another planetary heaven. And that is just as likely as pearly gates and saints greeting you at the door. All of these images are simply interfaces to something indescribable. Which mask works for you? No matter what you think about now, your actual experience may be quite different than your expectations.