High Magick: A Guide to the Spiritual Practices That Saved My Life on Death Row - Damien Echols 2018
Practicing Variations of the Fourfold Breath
Fundamental Practices of Magick
As I mentioned before, it’s important to understand that we’re exchanging energy all of the time. This happens in multiple different ways, but the most important way that we take in energy is through breathing. You can go weeks without food, just a few days without water, but only a couple of minutes without air. Every time your body inhales or exhales on the material plane, your energy system is doing likewise on the etheric level — only it’s bringing in energy instead of oxygen. Our breath can help us to align ourselves with different external energy currents, and it also helps to bring our internal energies into a state of balance.
Magicians and mystics throughout history have realized methods for harnessing power through the breathing process. Your first primary practice — and one you’ll keep coming back to time and again — is an ancient technique intended to utilize the breath to its fullest potential: the Fourfold Breath.
You’ll use the Fourfold Breath a lot in your practice of magick. Eventually, the version I’m outlining here will take on a unique form depending on your own experiences and discoveries. Over time, practicing the Fourfold Breath will enable you to better understand just how energy works, and there seems to be no end to what you can learn. After engaging this practice for more than twenty years, I discover something new all of the time.
PRACTICE ” THE FOURFOLD BREATH: QUICK VERSION
Before I present some of the more advanced Fourfold Breath applications, here’s a simple breakdown of how the practice works. You can see right away why it’s called “fourfold”:
1.Inhale while counting to four.
2.Hold your breath for a four-count.
3.Exhale for a four-count.
4.Hold (before inhaling again) while counting to four.
5.Repeat.
Just to get you started, try this version a few times, and pay attention to what happens to your attention and energy level as you do so.
As you become more proficient at doing magick, you may find that some other variant of the Fourfold Breath practice works better for you. Try this version for a while and see how it develops. As I suggested elsewhere, instead of a count of four for each step, you might find that holding to the count of two is best. As time passes, you’ll figure that out for yourself, but until you become more familiar with magick, use the fourfold method.
Okay, if you’ve tried out this bare-bones form of the Fourfold Breath, take the next step: the Fourfold Breath with Visualization.
PRACTICE ” THE FOURFOLD BREATH WITH VISUALIZATION
Follow the same pattern as before, but now add visualization. Remember: visualizing can take many different forms, and hopefully by now you’ve discovered which one works best for you. For many people, it helps to simply imagine energy in the form of a bright light.
1.Inhale while counting to four, pulling in energy.
2.Hold your breath for a four-count.
3.Exhale for a four-count, releasing the energy.
4.Hold (before inhaling again) while counting to four.
5.Repeat.
This is the traditional technique that’s first taught to students. Again, try it for a while to see how it develops for you. Over time, I altered the practice such that I draw in energy while inhaling, release the energy while holding my breath, and then I visualize the energy growing even brighter as I exhale. You’ll discover what works for you with time, practice, and patience, but it’s best to start with this version.
By working with your breath in this way, you’re actually learning the fundamental techniques for shaping energy. You’ve been breathing your entire life, but now you’ll learn to do so in a way that achieves a specific purpose: to manipulate and apply energy — your own and that which you pull from other sources. One specific application that you’ll learn later is charging a particular object (for example, a talisman) in order to pull in the energy of love, prosperity, or peace. However, before you’re able to practice magick at that level, you have to be thoroughly familiar with these foundational exercises.
Now that you’ve tried the introductory steps of the Fourfold Breath, it’s time to learn about the lunar and solar applications. Detailed instructions for each practice follow below, but here’s a brief explanation before you start practicing to learn more about what these applications are all about.
The Fourfold Lunar Breath will help align you with the feminine energies of the universe — for example, it will awaken your spiritual guidance system and increase your psychic intuition. The Tarot is a subject too vast to cover in much detail in this book (although I talk more about it later on), but if you’re familiar with the Tarot then I’ll point out that the lunar application will bring you in closer contact with the energies represented by the High Priestess card. The Fourfold Solar Breath, on the other hand, will allineate you with the masculine energies of the universe (represented by the Sun card in the Tarot). This form of the Fourfold practice is intended to increase your vitality, self-confidence, and foster self-assertion.
It’s best to practice the solar and lunar applications at a specific time each day. Ideally, they become a part of your daily routine. I suggest starting out by doing each of these practices once a day for a week for at least five minutes per session. If you have more time, that’s good. Feel free to continue for as long as you’re enjoying the process. And just as with your physical body, results depend on how much time and attention you dedicate to these applications, but make sure you give them equal amounts of time. This will ensure that your solar and lunar energies are in balance.
This is a practice you can do easily in public, so I encourage you to practice when you’re able. I often do the Fourfold Solar and Lunar Breaths when I’m on the subway. New York is a city of tunnel dwellers — sometimes it feels like I’m spending half of my time commuting from one place to the other underground. The plus side of that is that I have a lot of time to practice. Although it’s ideal to be able to set aside a special time and place to practice magick, I want to emphasize that you shouldn’t wait to practice until circumstances are just right. The situation may never be just right, and part of being a magician is learning how to adapt to your surroundings and deploying magick in whatever circumstance you find yourself. If you’re stuck in traffic, waiting in a doctor’s office, or taking your morning shower, spend a few minutes practicing the Fourfold Solar and Lunar Breaths. And if the only place in your house where you can get away from everyone is a closet, then make your closet comfortable, and hide in there while you practice this form of breathing. The more you do this, the more that practicing magick becomes like a reflex.
Again, as long as you do each of the Fourfold Solar and Lunar Breaths in a balanced way for a few minutes each day, it doesn’t matter how long you commit to each. I’m going to present two versions of each exercise, and the first is an extension of the last practice I offered, only this time you’ll be filling your body with the actual energy of the sun and moon.
Solar Application
I was on death row when I first started doing the Fourfold Solar Breath. I worked my way up to about an hour a day of the practice, and I quickly realized just how much energy it gave me. For example, I could run for an hour or so — running in place in my cell, that is — and not feel drained at all. I would be covered in sweat, breathing hard, but I still felt refreshed and replenished.
The sun represents the source of all life on our planet. When you focus on the sun and dedicate your attention to it, you’re aligning yourself with the source of all of the energy in this world. By linking your energy body to the sun’s energy body, you become one with it, and this will eventually enable you to put tremendous energy into your magick. The same is true for the moon, too. We start by aligning ourselves with these potent sources of external energy, we become familiar with magnetizing their power, and then we can move on to working with more subtle energies. For example, in a bit I’ll give instructions for connecting to the seasons in order to help you allineate with the natural energy currents that flow through Earth’s atmosphere.
The more you do this practice, the more you’ll feel revitalized and full of your personal power.
The best time to practice the solar application of the Fourfold Breath is when you first wake up in the morning — when the sun is actually rising and is most powerful and pure. If you can, go outside at this time and feel the sun’s rays on your skin. Feel its warmth on your body and its light on your face as it spreads its energy all over the earth. Ideally, you’ll become so adept at the solar application that you’re able to stand in complete darkness, visualize the sun’s morning rays on your body, and feel all of these sensations in detail. Become familiar with them so that they’re easier to call up as your magick progresses.
Okay, now you’re ready to try out the solar application of the Fourfold Breath. I’m going to present two ways of doing this in more detail than I did before, but you’ll see right away that the practices you did before are essentially the core of these more extensive versions.
PRACTICE ” THE FOURFOLD SOLAR BREATH APPLICATION: VERSION 1
Here’s the first version of the solar application of the Fourfold Breath:
1.Lie down in a comfortable place where you won’t be disturbed. Take a couple of minutes to just relax. Let your muscles go slack, releasing all of the tension you can. A helpful way to do this is to begin at your feet and work your way up your body: relax your toes, then the tops of your feet, then your ankles, shins, calves, knees, and so on. Take your time and really feel the tension leaving your body.
2.When you’ve relaxed your entire body, inhale to the count of four while visualizing yourself being filled with the golden energy of the sun. Take your time, and feel the golden light permeating and expanding in your body from the bottoms of your feet to the top of your head.
3.Hold your breath to the count of four. Keep imagining that your body is filled with the brilliant light of the sun.
4.As you count to four and exhale, push the golden light from your body. Feel it exit the top of your head, leave your face and chest, and move out of every pore of your skin. Visualize the solar energy leaving somewhat forcefully, as if your body were a giant air bladder or a pair of bellows.
5.Hold to the count of four. Imagine that the energy you have pushed from your body now radiates throughout the aura that surrounds you. Pay attention to the feeling of being surrounded by this solar energy.
6.Return to step 2 above, and continue to practice the Fourfold Breath with this particular visualization for as long as you can. Notice how the practice develops the longer you engage with it.
7.When you feel done, clap your hands together once, sit up slowly, and go about your day.
You’ll notice that I end a lot of these practices by telling you to clap your hands. The physical sensation of clapping in combination with the sound it creates will bring you back to a normal state of consciousness. It’s a helpful signal to your psyche, and one that will help you transition back out of some intense internal experiences.
Traditionally, after accumulating the necessary amount of energy, ceremonial magicians hurl it out into the universe so that the energy will accomplish whatever it was programmed to do. After that step, a mage stomps their foot while touching their index finger to their lips — what’s known as the “sign of silence.” The point of this gesture is to pull the consciousness back into the body and away from the energy that’s been directed into the universe. When you see someone making these gestures, it can look a little strange, so I wanted to come up with something less noticeable.
The gesture isn’t as important as the signal itself. When you clap your hands, know that you’re sending a message to your psyche to switch modes of consciousness.
The more you do this practice, the more you’ll feel revitalized and full of your personal power. Additionally, the Fourfold Solar Breath is a potent cleanser. By consciously pushing energy out of your body in this way, you also eject impurities and break through whatever mild blockages might be impairing your energetic body.
The first version of the Fourfold Solar Breath involves imagination in a visual and tactile way — you’re both seeing and physically feeling the sun’s energy in the form of a golden light. This works great for some people, but others are mostly vision-oriented visualizers. If you’re that kind of person, version 2 might work better for you. Try both ways out and see what works best.
PRACTICE ” THE FOURFOLD SOLAR BREATH APPLICATION: VERSION 2
Here’s the second version of the solar application of the Fourfold Breath:
1.Start as you did before by lying down and relaxing your body. For this version, though, you don’t need to be quite as thorough. Just find a nice spot, close your eyes, and let the tension go.
2.Inhale to the count of four. As you breathe in, visualize the sun rising from the horizon. Imagine it slowly ascending up into the sky in front of you.
3.Count to four as you hold your breath. Imagine the sun at noon. It balances perfectly and evenly, shining down on you from overhead.
4.Now exhale to the count of four, and see the sun begin to set. It descends gradually in the evening sky until it reaches the horizon and slowly sinks below it.
5.Hold your exhalation. As you count to four, imagine that the sky is completely dark. It is night and only the stars shine down on you faintly.
6.Return to step 2 and repeat the practice for as long as you can. Again, pay attention to what happens each time through, and note how your visualization develops or changes.
7.When you feel finished, clap your hands and sit up slowly, transitioning back into a normal state of consciousness.
Lunar Application
As I mentioned above, lunar energy is associated with the deep, feminine parts of ourselves that deal with intuition and bring us closer to divinity. The Fourfold Lunar Breath practice takes you inward into your own psyche and energy system. Over time, you’ll notice particular benefits of doing this practice regularly. Maybe your dreams will become more intense or prophetic, or perhaps you’ll simply become more aware of the various energies present when you enter a room. These side effects might be vague in the beginning, but if you devote yourself to the lunar application, they will move beyond mere impressions into something more powerful and useful.
Just as it’s best to practice the solar application in the morning, the optimal time to do the Fourfold Lunar Breath is at night, right before you go to bed, while the moon is waxing (growing into a full moon). Typically, magick to increase something in our lives — prosperity, romance, security — is done during the lunar phase when the moon’s energy is growing. On the other hand, magick to decrease the presence of something — poverty, loneliness, or illness — is performed when the moon is waning. Keep in mind that you don’t actually have to see the moon to engage in this practice. You can still do this meditation and gain a lot of benefit.
You’ll note that the two lunar versions mirror what I presented earlier regarding the solar application of the Fourfold Breath. The only real difference here is in what you’ll be visualizing while you do the practice.
PRACTICE ” THE FOURFOLD LUNAR BREATH APPLICATION: VERSION 1
Here’s the first version of the lunar application of the Fourfold Breath:
1.Just as you did in the solar application, lie down in a private spot and relax your body. Let go of all of the tension throughout your body, starting at your toes and slowly making your way up to the top of your head.
2.Inhale to the count of four, and visualize that your body is being filled with the beautiful, silver light of the moon. Really feel that energy entering your body and growing inside.
3.Hold your breath to the count of four. Keep imagining that your body is filled with the moon’s silver light, and get in touch with what that feels like.
4.As you exhale to the count of four, energetically push the light from your body. Feel it leave the top of your head, your face and chest, and out of every pore on your body. Hold to the count of four. Now the silver light permeates your aura and glows. What’s that like? Note the sensations in detail.
5.Continue and repeat this cycle until you reach a stopping point. Clap your hands, sit up, and go about your day.
Just as with the Solar Breath, the two forms of the lunar application speak to different people and result in different effects. The following version relies more on your sight-directed visualization skills and, to that end, I recommend it to anyone who wishes to strengthen that type of imaginative ability. Additionally, the following version is meant to activate your energy body.
PRACTICE ” THE FOURFOLD LUNAR BREATH APPLICATION: VERSION 2
Here’s the second version of the lunar application of the Fourfold Breath:
1.Close your eyes and sit or lie down in silence. Let your mind clear. Don’t force it by pushing thoughts away, just let it happen. The more you meditate, the easier it is not to get hung up on thoughts and merely allow them to come and go.
2.In your mind’s eye, see the full moon as it rises up from the horizon. Do this as you inhale to the count of four.
3.As you hold your breath for the four-count, visualize the moon hanging at the highest point of the nighttime sky. It casts its glowing, silver light down on everything on Earth from directly above you.
4.Exhale to the count of four. Watch as the moon slowly descends back down to the horizon.
5.Hold your breath for a four-count. The moon has disappeared, and the sky is dark and blank.
6.Go back to step 2, and repeat the visualization and breathing pattern.
7.When you want to conclude your session, remember to clap your hands and sit up gently before moving on to other activities.
These practices build on one another and are intended to thoroughly familiarize you with the fundamental skills necessary for engaging in the more complex rituals of high magick. It’s best to work with the Fourfold Breath exercises regularly — daily, if possible — and spend weeks or months doing so before moving on.
I also want to offer one more application of the Fourfold Breath, one that will build on the prior practices you’ve done that include both tactile- and sight-oriented visualizations. This one is slightly more advanced, however, so be sure to have a strong grounding in the previous work before moving on.
Seasonal Application
This form of doing the Fourfold Breath is designed to bring you into contact and communication with the energy of Earth. Everything in our lives moves through cycles and seasons, much as Earth does. For example, most places on Earth experience the fluctuations of spring, summer, winter, and fall. We experience these seasons internally, even if they don’t show up as pronounced as they do in the outside world. Even so, our internal rhythms match those of the planet, and everything about us coevolved with the natural world. We are part and parcel of the earth. We are not separate beings living on top of an inanimate globe. We ourselves are aspects of Earth’s energy system, regardless of how conscious we are of that or to what degree we live in harmony with it.
If you truly want to practice high magick in a way that will change your reality and manifest your desires, you first have to master the basics.
You’ll go through the seasonal application of the Fourfold Breath much like you did earlier, but this time you’ll dive deep into the imagery and sensations that each season evokes. And like I said above, we’re going to use touch- and sight-related visualizations, so you’re really going to be trying to see and feel the seasons in your body. You’ll also be calling up memories, which can incorporate and blend several forms of visualization at once.
As you go through the Fourfold Breath practice in this seasonal way, relax your body as much as possible. The more you do that, the more you’ll be able to move from your everyday waking consciousness to a somewhat altered state. And the more familiar you become with that state, the more powerfully your magick will manifest. So, in addition to teaching you how to align with Earth’s energy, these simple techniques will introduce you to the process of altering your consciousness, of slipping into a state that’s different from your everyday waking mode in order to communicate with divinity in whatever forms you perceive or understand it. God, Divine Mind, the Source, Emptiness, Atman, Ein Sof, Great Spirit . . . It doesn’t matter how you conceive of divinity or something “greater” — these practices will enhance your connection to it.
As before, there’s no limit to how long you should do the Fourfold Seasonal Breath, but aim for at least five minutes a day. That’s a good amount of time to begin with, but push yourself a little when possible. Furthermore, I recommend practicing for at least a month before moving on to other rituals. Keep in mind that the more familiar you become with these beginning exercises — the preliminaries and the different, progressive versions of the Fourfold Breath — the easier and more coherent the later complicated rituals will be. Right now I’m trying to encourage you to build a strong core. Every technique in this book builds on the last, so it’s better to take your time and work out the kinks before moving on. If you truly want to practice high magick in a way that will change your reality and manifest your desires, you first have to master the basics.
So, that being said, let’s do the actual practice of the seasonal application.
PRACTICE ” THE FOURFOLD SEASONAL BREATH APPLICATION
1.As before, find a quiet place to sit or lie down. Close your eyes, relax, and take several long, slow, and even breaths.
2.Inhale to the count of four, and visualize spring in your mind and body. Just imagine anything that prominently speaks to you of this season, and focus on that as you inhale. How does the air feel when you step outside on a warm spring day? How does the fresh grass feel beneath your bare feet? Smell the various budding plants and flowers. Spring means different things to everyone, so focus on what it means specifically to you. What comes to mind? Calm, pleasant rains? The sound of birds chirping in the morning? Whatever comes up, imagine it as vividly as you can.
3.Hold your breath to the count of four, and envision summer. Imagine the sun overhead, burning brightly. Feel its heat on your skin, and note how powerful the light is during this season. The smells are different during summer, and your body feels different, too. Maybe you recall how much you sweat during summer, the refreshing cool of spring water or swimming pools, and perhaps even a pervading sense of freedom and optimism. Whatever it is, visualize it as well as you can during the four-count.
4.Now, exhale and see the summer sky change colors as it shifts to the unmistakable hues of fall. The heat fades away, and the air turns crisp. The trees begin to thin as their leaves change from green to yellow, orange, and red. For many of us, autumn is synonymous with Halloween. Perhaps you remember the excitement of choosing a new costume, or the scent of aisles full of masks and costumes in supermarkets and department stores, or the taste of candy corn and cheap chocolate. You can also recall what it feels like to pull out your fall clothes — how they smell after being in the closet for so long, and how different they feel on your skin. Allow all of this to happen during the count of four.
5.Now hold your breath. Count to four as you envision winter. The trees are stark now — leafless like skeletal fingers reaching up into the gray sky. There’s a chill in the air that gets into your bones, and the air feels sharp and clear in your chest. Remember how it sounds to walk on the grass as it crackles with frost or ice, and feel what it was like to hold snow in your hand for too long. For some people, winter means sitting around a fireplace inside, along with all the smells and other sensations that calls up. If you were a child who celebrated Christmas, what memories come up during that time? Whatever arises, make your imagination vivid and clear.
6.When it’s time to inhale, return to step 2 and watch as winter transforms into spring. The warmth returns, the world changes, and the entire cycle begins again. One season flows into the next as naturally as your breathing.
7.Perform the Fourfold Seasonal Breath multiple times — as many times as you are able. When you want to end the exercise, clap your hands and move on with your day as before.
As you repeat this seasonal practice, do your best to not struggle or strain. Simply relax and allow the memories and sensations to arise in your mind. Maybe the same images and feelings come up each time through, or maybe new memories arise and reveal themselves. See what happens over the course of each cycle, and take note of how your practice develops from one week to the next. And be sure that you feel fully grounded in all of these forms of the Fourfold Breath before moving on.
Next up, you’ll learn the three most important rituals of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. They’re your next step along the path of high magick, and the following practice — the Middle Pillar — is particularly intended to help you master the basics of energy manipulation. Specifically, you’ll learn to energize your aura, control energy circulation, and remove whatever blockages have built up in your energetic body.
Talisman of the Archangel Sandalphon
INTERLUDE
SOME HISTORY OF MAGICK
There isn’t a single piece of knowledge or information in the universe that a magician can’t use in one way or another. When I was on death row, I studied a lot about history, especially the history of magick.
Humans began practicing magick as soon as they developed the faculty of imagination, which enabled them to remember past experiences and project their minds into the future. You can see this ability clearly at work in the prehistoric cave paintings that depict the interdependent relationship of early people and the animals they hunted for sustenance. This is an example of sympathetic magick — creating a link between an object and a desired outcome. It’s similar to the way that a voodoo doll works (well, at least the Hollywood version of one): you form an energetic connection between the doll and a real, living person, and then you direct energy into the doll in order to affect that person. So the earliest forms of magick we know about worked something like this. Prehistoric people painted scenes on the walls of caves in order to make those links and hopefully fend off starvation during the long, cold winters.
As primitive societies developed, people began to specialize into roles, and the role most relevant to this topic, of course, is that of the magician, shaman, or medicine man and woman. These people often lived apart from the rest of the tribe, only visited by others during times of need. They were fundamentally “other,” yet a necessary part of the group, so they lived on the fringes, viewed with a mix of reverence and suspicion. Magicians have always lived on the edge — somewhere just beyond the reach of traditional values and beliefs.
As mainstream religions rose to power — largely to subjugate and control citizens — they began to view magicians as immoral and dangerous. The luckiest magicians were ostracized or went into hiding; the less fortunate were burned at the stake or tortured to death in some other horrible way to send a clear message to anyone who might still be practicing magick. Hierarchical structures can’t tolerate what they can’t govern. Magick is dangerous because it’s about self-empowerment, as opposed to adherence to rigid, predetermined belief structures. So, at least in the West, practitioners of magick were persecuted for hundreds of years.
Eventually, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn formed in the late 1800s in London. They focused on various occult practices, theurgical magick, and alternative means of spiritual development. The Order gave equal status to men and women, and included some of the brightest minds of the era, including W. B. Yeats, Pamela Colman Smith, and Aleister Crowley — a controversial figure once named “the wickedest man in the world” by English newspapers. These people delved into Hinduism, Taoism, early Egyptian religions, and various Western mystery traditions, and they assembled the core practices into a working system of magick.
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was actually three distinct orders under one banner, organized somewhat like concentric circles. The first circle — the Outer Order — was for beginning students who were supposed to master basic exercises and rituals (for example, the next practice in this book: the Middle Pillar). The second circle — the Inner Order — was by invitation only. The Inner Order served as guides for those in the Outer Order, and if beginners in the latter group showed dedication and promise, they were brought into the Inner Order, where they learned advanced forms of practical magick. I’ll say more about the third circle below. When the original members of the Golden Dawn disbanded, most of the practices of the Inner Order would have been lost were it not for Israel Regardie, the personal secretary of Aleister Crowley.
Regardie went against the rules of the Order and published the practices and rituals. To this day, these books have never gone out of print. Regardie was a staunch advocate for the Middle Pillar and the Lesser Banishing Ritual (also coming up), and he said that just doing these two practices every day for a year would be just as good as being initiated into the Inner Order. After that period of time, one’s energy centers would be awakened enough that magick itself would serve as one’s teacher. From personal experience, I can say that this is true. At some point, I began to perceive a higher intelligence gently nudging me toward new discoveries, modifications, and techniques.
The third and innermost circle of the Order consisted of “secret chiefs” who had completed the great work of magick — spiritual immortality. These beings have transcended the need for incarnation in the physical realm and dedicate their activity to the liberation of other practitioners (somewhat like bodhisattvas of some Buddhist traditions). For most people, this sounds like fantasy or delusion. However, if you make it far enough down the path of magick, you begin to feel guided in ways I described above, and the notion of these evolved beings doesn’t seem as farfetched. Among other things, they act as lights in the distance that constantly beckon and guide us forward.