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

Rapture
The Three Rs

Everybody has a different key to open the magical realms. Everybody walks a different path and has different intentions. Some traditions share similar techniques, but their practices can be as varied as the number of practitioners.

Different forms of trance work have been the key to my personal magical work. Light meditative trances lower your brain waves from beta level, your normal waking consciousness, to between seven and fourteen cycles per second, or alpha level. While in this altered state, you can activate your psychic senses, perceive energy as color, light, or sound, and make changes in the physical world by shifting these newly perceived energies. You enter a new relationship with reality by altering your perception. “Gnosis” is another term for this phenomenon.

Start by meditating. Meditation is a simple and effective way to alter your perception of reality. It is a quieting of the conscious mind, the ego, to transcend normal reality and make a connection or union with the divine forces. It sounds much harder than it is. There are many techniques for doing this. Some focus on an object, breathing, or a mantra, a repeated word or phrase. We will start simply with an object, a candle flame. Many notice that time passes much faster or slower when meditating, as if they were in a different world. They are, or at least part of them is.

If you have never meditated or done any visualization exercises before, find a quiet place where you will not be interrupted. Turn out the lights, turn the ringer off on the phone, and light a candle. Feel free to light an incense that is relaxing and meditative for you.

EXERCISE 1—SIMPLE MEDITATION

Connecting to the Flame: Start by staring into the flame. Sit a comfortable distance away from it. For some people, the light may be too intense. If that is the case, stare past the flame. Look at the light and the shadows behind it. Let you eyes go in and out of focus. Turn all your attention to the fire before you. Feel the flame giving off white light, all the colors of the spectrum. The light fills the room you are in and protects you from all harm. Some people say a short prayer or invocation to any personal deities.

Relaxation: As you stare at the candle, stray thoughts will come into your mind. You may have difficulty focusing solely on the candle. This is normal. Coach yourself through a relaxation of your entire body, starting at the top of your head and moving down. Relax the muscles in your head, face, neck, and shoulders. Feel your jaw relax. It is as if gentle waves of water are flowing down your body. Pay attention to the sensations of release and then let them go, moving on to the next part of your body. Relax your shoulders and arms, hands and fingers. Feel all tension leave you chest and torso. Work through your trunk, until all tension has been released. Work down through your legs to your toes. You entire body relaxes.

Going Deeper: Count backward from 12 to 1, counting each breath, still looking at the candle flame. With each number, you go deeper into your meditative state. Let all extraneous thoughts go as you count. As they arise, acknowledge and release them. Thank your conscious mind for sharing, but now let it take a break for a while. Tell your ego that it does not have to be “in the driver’s seat” for this. All outside noises only serve to deepen the experience. You will react to them only for your safety and highest good. Feel a gentle soothing sensation fill your body. You are comfortable and relaxed. It feels much like a lazy afternoon of daydreaming. The feeling of daydreaming is the alpha state. You have reached your meditative state with ease.

Being Open: Be open to whatever feelings, sensations, or experiences you are having, without judgment. You are only looking for a period of relaxation by quieting the internal dialogue. This can be difficult. If you slip out of this state, gently coax yourself back in by relaxing your body and counting down. Just be. You do not have to do anything. Feel yourself simply at the center of your own universe, your own perspective.

Grounding: When this experience feels complete, consciously count yourself up from 1 to 12 and open your eyes. As you return, you may feel light-headed and not quite all together. This is a normal response. You need to ground yourself back in this reality. Such flightiness is often caused by deep meditation or energy work. That is why so many New Agers have a reputation for being a little “out there.” Most are just a bit ungrounded. To ground yourself, get on the floor and visualize any remaining energy flowing down into the earth. If you feel as if you are floating, imagine a ray of light passing from the base of your spine down into the earth, like a string tying a balloon down. Some people do something physical, like standing up, moving around, holding on to a piece of furniture, or hugging a tree. Eating is another excellent way to ground. That is why so many rituals use bread or cakes as part of the ceremony, to ground you afterward. Experiment and find a technique that works for you.

Even though you can eventually feel and perceive more than usual, you may not do so at first. That is perfectly normal. Right now, concentrate on achieving a daydreamlike state. Keep your expectations simple. Some people have very moving experiences and cry afterward, but that is quite rare. Most people think “no big deal” and cannot figure out what meditation has to do with magick. They are looking for action. The link between the two will become more apparent as we go along.

Practice this exercise. The more often you do it, the easier it will be. This is the first building block, one that may already be familiar to you. Soon, you will no longer need the candle and will be able to achieve this sensation in a matter of moments. It is a great trick when you are stressed out at work or with your family.

Achieving your trance state is the first step. By visualizing in this state, you affect reality. Magick consists of making a change with your will. All its forms have many practical applications. For instance, you are running late for work. You may be fired if you are late again. Don’t panic, relax. Relaxation is the key. You don’t even have to get into a deep trance state while driving to work. Just get a moment of relaxation. Imagine yourself getting to work on time, safely and easily. Imagine yourself walking in and looking at the clock. You are exactly on time. No one is angry. Then keep on driving, safely, confident that your magick is working. Reality will conform to your expectations. If you don’t think you will be late, then you will not be. This is a great way to get parking spaces by the door. Visualize a spot near the door about ten minutes before you reach your destination. Visualization is co-creation in action. I did not think you could use magick or spiritual discipline for such things, but my teachers encouraged me. This little trick kept me sane during college, trying to find the ever-elusive parking space on a crowded city campus. Magick lets you flow with the universe and makes life easier. Things become less of a struggle. They flow easily when you are in the right place at the right time, doing what you need to be doing. Visualization is one way to tell the universe what you need.

Color and light are ways to manipulate energy in physical reality. By visualizing different colored light, you can change reality in situations that may be too complex to visualize in detail. If family gatherings are particularly argumentative, try this before going to the next one. Get into your trance state and picture everybody at the gathering surrounded by blue light or blue mist. Blue brings peace. It heals the spirit. At least, that is my interpretation of it. What do the colors mean to you? Each one has a different energy and has a different effect when used in a trance, changing with the practitioner’s beliefs.

EXERCISE 2-COLOR ASSOCIATIONS

Before starting this exercise, it can help to have a box of colored crayons or some colored paper. If you have strong visualization skills, these may are not be necessary, but they can help.

Make a list of colors using the entire spectrum, or get out your crayons and paper. You can stick to the traditional colors of the rainbow—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet—or mix in other hues, like gold, silver, brown, black, white, magenta, pink, and turquoise.

Do Exercise 1 to get into a trance state (see page 17). Find a place of relaxation and awareness. You do not have to go too deep.

Open your eyes to look at the crayon or paper. If you are not using such tools, keep your eyes closed and visualize the color. Think of something to spark your imagination, like a fire engine for red.

Reflect on the color. How does the color make you feel? Do you notice any changes in your body, thoughts, or feelings? Some notice a temperature associated with a color, or perhaps a memory or a person. Write all these interpretations down without censoring yourself.

Go through all the colors you plan to use that day. You can always go back and do more. When you are ready, count yourself up from 1 to 12 and ground yourself.

Hopefully, the colors will inspire a broad range of responses. The spectrum can be a useful magical palette, a simple tool for your magical toolbox. Colors can be used for healing, love, peace, self-esteem, good communication, success, prosperity, protection, and almost anything else. Simply visualize the color around yourself or any person or place you wish to affect. Many of these areas in life are too complex to visualize all their variables successfully, but colored lights and other constructs of intention work to give the energy a general intent. Instead of visualizing the actual physical healing, particularly if you are not sure what is wrong, apply the healing energy of light where it is needed. Colored lights can be used in conjunction with other shapes and intentions. Visualizing a shield around someone will give him or her general protection from harm without visualizing all the possible sources of harm.

Color and the Chakras

Part of trance work is becoming more aware of energy. All magick is a manipulation of energy to cause change. When you experiment with color, as you did in the previous exercise, you experiment with different frequencies of energy. Color is intimately related to the quality, the personality, of many forms of psychic energy. The first step in understanding and mastering such energies is to be aware of the energy within your own body. Altering your consciousness brings your awareness to the realm of unseen forces. There, you can perceive energy in yourself, in others, and across the world, but first, start with your own body. The human body has energy centers, vortices of energy, much like smaller versions of the energy vortices around cities and sacred sites. These energy centers have different names, but most commonly they are called chakras.

For those not familiar with the chakra system, it derives from Hindu metaphysics, but is now used widely in many other systems. Each chakra is a swirling energy center, a vortex of spinning light. Chakras are aligned, more or less, along the spine. Each one has a particular function, not only in our physical existence, but in our multidimensional existence as well (see figure 1, page 23).

The crown chakra is at the top of the head and is usually white or violet. Divine energy works through the crown. The third-eye chakra is at the forehead. It is purple or indigo. The third eye sees the space between space. Our psychic, clairvoyant powers operate through the third eye. The chakra at the throat is blue. Not only does it rule speaking and communication like telepathy, it also takes in sound, such as messages from spirit guides, gods, and totems. The gift of clairaudience works through the throat. The heart chakra is in the chest, colored green. Emotions work through the heart chakra. Through it, you seek a loving connection to others. You give and receive love through the heart, eventually moving toward an unconditional love of all. Below the heart is the solar plexus, in yellow, right below the diaphragm. The solar plexus works with personal power or lack thereof. Lessons of self-control and desires to control others work through this energy center. The solar plexus also helps you conquer fear. Near the navel is the belly, or sacral, chakra. This chakra relates to connection and sex. It is sometimes associated with the spleen and looks like an orange sphere. Through the belly chakra, you, as a spirit in a body, seek to connect to others like yourself. That intimate connection often occurs through sex. The belly is also related to your instincts, your primal reactions. Here, you listen to your “gut reactions” on matters. At the perineum, below the tailbone, is the root chakra, usually red. The root chakra works with life energy and, through it, survival. The root chakra works with the physical body and physical satisfaction. It is usually the first chakra to activate in the upward progression to the crown. One of my favorite books on the chakras, focusing on a lot of the traditional Vedic material, is Wheels of Life by Anodea Judith (Llewellyn).

Figure 1. The seven chakras.

Most likely, other chakras exist, but these are the generally accepted ones. There may be chakras that lie between these seven, and other smaller ones throughout the body, including the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and major joint areas. Working with the energy in the chakras is a way to bolster personal power. We become more aware of the chakras while in the trance state. Some people feel them, while others see them, when doing magical work. By perceiving the chakras and the field of energy around them that some call the aura, you can tell when someone is healthy, sick, unbalanced, or unhappy. If you are more tactile, you can run your hands across the aura or over the chakras and feel “warm spots,” “cold spots,” and holes. Sometimes, the sensation is fluid and free for health, and thick, dense, and murky for illness. Those with clairvoyant gifts will perceive this information in terms of color and light.

Care of your own chakras and aura is an important part of magical practice. Most magical traditions use some ritual or visualization to open, clear, and balance these energy centers. They are particularly important to urban practitioners, since we expose ourselves to many other potential dangers. The city can be more hostile to us energetically than, for instance, a remote farm. In cities, we contend with concentrated pollution, electromagnetic fields from many power lines, and the sheer volume of psychic garbage strewn about by our fellow city dwellers. This garbage is created by stress, crime, and often simple unhappiness and disconnection from life. The thoughts of unhappy, unhealthy people actually pollute our astral mindscape. I personally believe that is why cities are often centers of violence. People are unaware of this psychic pollution, but it affects them, along with the physical contaminants in large urban dwellings. Those who are aware of it sometimes suffer more, but, once you are aware, you can protect yourself.

The Golden Dawn, a quite successful urban magical group that fostered many offshoots, has an exercise called the Middle Pillar. The Middle Pillar brings divine energy down through four energy centers in the body, corresponding with four major chakras. Our exercise here will focus on the traditional seven chakras, drawing energy up from the earth and down from the sky. This, or a similar exercise, is important to help you learn to control your personal energy, as well as all the energy around you.

EXERCISE 3 - ENERGIZING THE CHAKRAS

Start Exercise i to get into a more meditative state and become aware of yourself and your energy (see page 17).

Visualize a beam of light, like a rope or string, from the base of your spine, your root chakra, down to the center of Earth, much like the grounding cord discussed previously. This connects you to Earth. Ask to connect to the heart of Earth, and not to any intervening impurities. The energy of Earth is pure, clearing energy.

Visualize energy coming up from Earth through this cord and through your legs, up to your spine. Feel your root chakra open, swirling around like a ball of red light. Feel the color red at the base of your spine. Some people see it, others feel it. Simply know this is happening. If your psychic senses are more developed, you may get more information. As you do this exercise, your psychic senses will increase.

The energy moves up to your belly chakra, opening it up in a swirl of orange energy. Feel the color orange in your belly. Know it is there.

The energy moves up to your solar plexus chakra, opening it up in a swirl of yellow energy. Feel the color yellow in your solar plexus, right below your diaphragm. Feel the power of this chakra.

The energy moves up to your heart. Feel your heart and chest open wide as the swirling green chakra opens up. Feel your heart open and know the color green is in your chest.

The energy rises up to your throat. Feel the chakra open up in a swirl of blue energy. Feel the color blue in your throat. Know the power of communication at your throat chakra.

The energy rises to your brow, or third eye. Feel the psychic chakra open up in a swirl of indigo energy. Feel the color in your head, opening up your psychic abilities. Know they are opening up.

The energy reaches the top of your head, your crown. Feel the chakra open up in a swirl of lavender or dazzling white energy. Feel the colors of your crown chakra. Know you are opening up to your own divinity.

The energy rises out of your crown up into the air, like a fountain, connecting you to the sky. Ask to be connected to the heart of the sky.

Feel the energy from the sky descend like a lightning bolt, entering your crown, and quickly moving through your brow, throat, heart, solar plexus, belly, and root chakras, descending through the grounding cord and into the earth. All your chakras are cleared, energized, and opened.

continue any other magical work you desire. Once the experience is complete, feel any remaining energy that is not correct for you return to the earth and sky. You are left refreshed and realigned. Count yourself up from your meditative state.

You should do the chakra exercise before any magical work to prepare yourself for the shift in energies. Also do it whenever you feel mired in day-to-day life or weighed down by the people around you. It balances and aligns you to a higher power.

The next meditation can be done with the chakra work, since they are very complementary. Part of our need to cleanse and rebalance our energy systems is simply that we do not have strong boundaries in this society. Most do not have the strength of self to be centered, grounded, and protected from all the psychic pollutants and dangers. We either take on other people’s “stuff,” or we project our own onto others. Most involved in the magical arts are very empathic and are often potential healers, usually taking on other people’s problems unknowingly. This never really helps anyone in the end. It is a bad enough habit in day-to-day life, but in magical life, protection becomes a necessity. There are many energies out in the magical worlds that a practitioner would not want to take on and carry.

EXERCISE 4-SPIRITUAL PROTECTION

Do Exercise 1 to attain a meditative state (see page 17). The first time you do this exercise, I recommend starting with Exercise 3 and remaining in a meditative state (see page 25).

Visualize yourself inside a bubble. This is your energy field. It may look like a giant egg or a sphere that extends at arm’s length around your body and a few feet above your head and below your feet. If you do not see it, feel it, simply know it is there.

Imagine and allow yourself to feel the holes in this field, any place where you are “leaking” energy or allowing it to come in. Usually, these places feel like cold spots. Imagine that you are like a maintenance person, with psychic tools to the fix holes in your “wall.” Visualize yourself “spackling” over the holes with colored light. Use whatever colored light from your psychic “toolbox” feels correct for you.

Once your repairs are complete, you will be inside a shield of protection. Imagine it as a force field from a science fiction movie, or an unbreakable glass ball. Light can get in and out, but no harm can pass through. Now, program the shield, holding this intention in your mind for a minute or longer: “This shield protects me from all harm on any level.” Exhale strongly and release the intention into the shield. Feel your thoughts program the shield.

Once you feel confident that the shield is in place, count up from your meditative state. Reaffirm this shield before all magical undertakings.

Going Deeper

Deeper trance work brings you deeper in other realities. By entering a light trance, you can understand and work with other levels of the reality spectrum. You can affect the energy to make magick, to make change in your life. By going deeper, you open up the doors and peer directly into a strange new world, making all the connections. Some trances even let your consciousness pass the boundary between realms and travel there unencumbered by physical laws.

Ecstatic trance opens the doors to perception. The exercises above work by simply quieting and slowing down the mind. They are more inhibitory. Ecstatic trances are exhibitory, usually requiring more physical movement and action. They create rapture, a joy or harmony with the universe, allowing you to see the connections between all things. The layers of reality are exposed and the ladder, or tree, can be climbed into new worlds. Climbing the World Tree is a very shamanic practice, but all magick workers can function in this way. We all can work in a realm of multidimensional choice.

Raptures can lead to deep journeys in which you “undo” yourself. You undergo a journey in which you cease to identify with your physical body and personality. The undoing journey is a prime initiation. Sometimes, the traveler will have visions of being torn apart, only to rise from the dead in other realms. Often, the resurrection process results in a new piece being added to the body-a new bone, a stone, or a crystal. For the modern traveler, it may be a microchip. On the other hand, the process can leave the traveler with an injury that never fully heals. Lame legs are very common in Western mystery traditions, as with the wounded teacher, Chiron, of Greek myth. The father shaman of the Norse, Odin (or Wotan) is missing an eye from his travels of power. The reintegration process downloads a new, magical insight into the true nature of reality. Rapture is one key to this new reality.

Through the initiation, you understand your ego for what it is. The ego holds your fear of death. Your personality and your body may cease to be at some point, but your spirit self will live on beyond death. Through initiation, you cultivate a new relationship with your own mortality and death. That is why death is considered an ally of the sorcerer, because it brings change. Magick is the force of change.

By identifying with the spirit self, you transcend the ego limitations and the body limitations. You transcend limitations of the physical universe. Transcendence is the rapture, since you see that reality is larger in scope than you ever thought. This brings true, deep pleasure—a connection to everything. Other truths emerge, like divine inspirations, about your interconnection and unity, not only on this level, but in all dimensions. The experience can unhinge some people, because they are still physical beings. The job of the magick worker is to function well in all of these worlds. The undoing journey should give you strength, not end your ability to relate to your community, friends, and family. You must walk between the worlds, with one foot planted firmly in each.

Only the initiations of those deeply walking the shamanistic path can lead to such difficulties. Most who do so are ready for the experience and are guided by the higher powers. Often, the process is instigated by a shamanic sickness, such as a fever, forcing the individual into altered states in order to travel. Once the initiation is complete, the original physical illness is usually cured. Other traditions work with deep trance states through music, dancing, chanting, sex, prayer, or ritual. Their deep trance experiences usually focus on enacting a spell through visualization or intent, without the otherworldly journeying, even though the two are intimately related.

Achieving an ecstatic state is like reaching the daydream sensations of a light alpha trance. With practice, it will get easier and easier. The word “ecstatic” can be misleading, because it does not mean that the whole trance will feel like a continuous two-hour body-wide orgasm. There will be moments of pure pleasure, bliss, or enlightenment. Every part of your being will be in union. All internal conflicts will cease. For some, it is like an epiphany in which everything makes sense. Others feel a clear, but mindless, exhilaration. The ego is suspended. Some get a sense of tranquillity. These can all be forms of a deep trance connecting you to other realities.

This next exercise uses a more traditional form of trance-inducing techniques. It is more exhibitory than simple meditation techniques, but falls slightly short of being ecstatic. Sound, particularly rhythm, alters consciousness and brings a rapture all its own. Think about how your favorite song seems to spirit you away to some special place when you hear it.

With sound, your mind has something constant occupying its conscious, ego side. Repetition is expected, and no new thoughts or analyses are needed by the mind. You flow with it. This frees your spirit self, the other aspects of consciousness, to perceive a different reality and journey there. Some call this astral projection, others shamanic journeying. For now, we are simply focusing on what sound does to the mind and what other realities are opened.

To start, you will need some audio accompaniment. Sound is sacred and can bring us to new worlds. Shamans are said to “ride the drumbeats” into the other worlds. If you have someone who can drum or rattle for you, that’s great. Most of us don’t and the noise often leads to complaints from neighbors. The stereo and walkman are the 20th-century shaman’s best friends. When the goal is to work with city spirits, you have to become a techno-shaman and make friends with all your potential tools. Tapes of drums, rattles, tones, chants, and white noise are available in many music and New Age shops. The music should be something fairly rhythmic and atonal, since melody and chord progressions may distract you. Lyrics make things difficult. You don’t want to end up singing along instead of journeying. Michael Harner, author of Way of the Shaman (HarperCollins), has a series of recordings with shamanic drumming that are quite good (see Bibliography). I’ve also had successful results with Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum (Rykodisc) and Peter Gabriel’s Passion (Geffen Records). You can even record your own music if you feel so inclined. Tape recorders, keyboards, and drum machines are musical helpers. Many inexpensive drum machines have preprogrammed beats and styles whose tempo you can adjust to suit your needs. Dance music that is low on melody and high on beat is also ideal for those suited to those styles. Using machines and prerecorded music may seem to run contrary to the magical idea that everything needs to be natural. As you delve into the urban magical world, remember that everything is natural. Technology is not inherently bad. We must only be vigilant against its misuse at the expense of others.

This exercise is facilitated by wearing comfortable clothing and a blindfold such as a scarf or even a flaxseed eye pillow. For deep trance work, lying down is recommended, as long as you don’t think you will fall asleep. Falling asleep during spirit work is not always bad. Sometimes spirits cannot work with us on a conscious level, so we fall asleep to contact them. Lying down relaxes your body and improves the blood flow to ease you into a deep trance. Wear comfortable clothing and use a pillow under your head or legs.

EXERCISE 5—TRANCE WORK WITH SOUND

Get into a meditative state using Exercise 1 (see page 17) and reaffirm your protective shield (see page 27).

Start your musical accompaniment. Lie down, get comfortable, and tie the blindfold around your eyes. Physical light can distract you from a journey. Simply listen to the music and let it take you wherever it does.

Feel the pulse of the music as if it were the rhythm of the world. Feel it move you, guide you. Feel yourself ride the drum, as if it were a great locomotive taking you on a mysterious journey.

Feel, see, and know that you are traveling through the dark, through the beat, through a tunnel. Feel the sensation of traveling quickly through a tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel, there is a light. You are simply traveling to the end of the tunnel and looking out without exiting it. Look around and be open to any images you see.

Return from the tunnel. Travel back, again using the pulse of the music. Feel yourself return. When the experience is complete, return your awareness to the waking world and take off your blindfold. Ground yourself and turn off your music.

This simple experience can grant you new insight into yourself through important images and messages at the end of the tunnel. It can also serve simply as an introductory experience. We will be using these techniques to traverse the shamanic landscape of the urban jungle.

Sacred sound can lead you to another avenue of trance work: dance. Dancing—around the tribal fire or around your living room table—can bring you to a state of trance. Ecstatic movement is an age-old tradition. Tribal magicians do it. Voodoo practitioners, before being “ridden” by the loa (their gods) do it. The whirling Dervishes are famous for it. And now, the “club kids” and trendsetters do it. I have a student who has combined traditional belly dancing with witchcraft to move energy and invoke spirits.

Hopefully, everyone has had some experience with dance before, whether it be formal steps or the simple freedom of moving your body where it wants to go. By really going into the dance, you lose yourself to it. You feel the dance and experience a synchronization with the world for a brief time. You may not be completely graceful, but that doesn’t matter. You are somewhere else.

Dance is a wonderful medium not only to open up your perceptions to other worlds, but to synchronize your physical body with your own subtle bodies of emotions, mind, and spirit. It raises energy for your magick. I do some dancelike movements in my tiny altar room to balance my body with my magical intentions and to raise energy. I can feel and see the energy swirling around my body as I move. The energy trails from my fingertips, often weaving into an image of my needed goal.

One sure way to destroy this trance state is to be self-conscious about your movements. If you are not comfortable dancing, make sure you are alone and in a place where you can practice this exercise without feeling self-conscious. Most of my practices are sohtary, so that’s not a problem for me. Judging yourself during this trance dance, however, can be counterproductive. You should simply thank your conscious mind for the critique and then ask it to sit quietly in the corner.

You will need a an audio support for this, as well. This time, though the beat is important, you can be more particular with the music you choose. If the music has words, sing along. Flow with whatever music you have, on the stereo or in your head. Make sure the music is something that resonates with you, from New Age world music, to tribal or ethnic pieces, to rock and roll or disco. It doesn’t matter, as long as you can move to it.

Exercise 6 is not as regimented as others. These are simple guidelines to help you experiment with a technique in the privacy of your own home. As you explore the basic building blocks of magick, altering reality, and opening your senses, some will work better than others, but you should have experience in many different techniques. When teaching in a classroom setting, anything that requires movement or speaking is most difficult, simply because people are afraid of making fools of themselves. In tarot, the Fool is usually the one having the most fun and good luck. You now have the luxury of playing the Fool in the privacy of your own home. Do not skip this exercise. Play with it. Experiment with different music. Enjoy it.

EXERCISE 6—TRANCE THROUGH MOVEMENT

Prepare your space by making sure you are comfortable. Move furniture out of the way to give you more room if you need it.

Ground and center yourself. Feel comfortable, calm, and relaxed.

Start your music. Make it loud enough to dance to, but not so loud as to make you or others uncomfortable. Or wear headphones.

Move in whatever way your body leans. You can start by simply swaying. Move only your arms and hands to the music, or only your feet. Do not try to do everything at once, but let the song build up within you. Feel the beats and do not think about it at all. Let it come with ease. If you are self-conscious, close your eyes, but make sure that you will not run into anything.

When the process feels complete, stop the music. It may go on for one song, or for a whole album. Ground and center yourself.

Think about how the dance made you feel. If you were very self-conscious and based in the ego, repeat the exercise until you can let go a bit. This is a great exercise to do at a dance club if you like, since no one will be able to tell what you are doing, and you will be feeding off the energy in such a charged environment, instead of in a room alone.

In more complex rituals, you may see or hear the spirits whose attention you’ve attracted. You may see more light and color, as your second sight is opened by the trance. You may see with your third eye, or your brow chakra, above and between your two physical eyes. You may hear through your throat chakra, which transmits and receives all spirit communication. By entering an altered state, you become aware of your other chakras and the gifts they give.

For now, you are simply becoming aware of the many ways to enter an altered state. Later, we will build on these techniques to explore city magick.