// Method of Taking On A God Form // Adapted from Nocturnal Witchcraft, by Konstantinos. For all rituals and spells on Nocturnal Witchcraft, please see theBook of Shadows archive [please note that it is a growing collection of both what I write on the subject and collect from others]. I performed this ritual during the January 2011 Full Moon (Wolf Moon), and the results were wonderful! I have been able to retain the vision of the Goddess Hekate ever since almost as clearly as I had that night. I plan to perform this ritual during each spell before doing any spellwork. It creates a deep connection with the Goddess, unlike any other practice I have come across thus far (though I am sure there are many more wonderful than this that I am still to stumble upon). I will mention that although Konstantinos is a Wiccan Witch, this book, as far as Ive read through it, is applicable to all traditions of Witchcraft, especially Traditional Nocturnal Witchcraft such as my practice. Wherever Wiccan themes arise, they can be easily substituted by a more traditional one. His work is impeccable, regarless of its Wiccan undertones. At least this is my current perception of Konstantinos work. Before performing this ritual, I reccomend doing the Banishing ritual given by Konstantinos, which will both banish all negativity from your ritual area and consecrate it with pure energy. The ritual can be found here: BoS: Nocturnal Banishing & Space Consecration Ritual Nocturnal Banishing, & Space Consecration Ritual // Adapted from Nocturnal Witchcraft, by Konstantinos. This is a special ritual for me. I have had great success with it thus far. I decided to share it with you all along with its proceding ritual of assuming (taking on) a Godform [available here]. However, this ritual is designed for daily practice, whether or not it is proceded with the ritual of assuming a Godform. From my personal experience with this riutal, a sharp tingling such as electricity fills my hands and body. I find it thus a perfect method for conjuring energy spheres. I hope this practice will benefit you greatly. As a side, I would reccomend the following: In method, burn 2 black candles on your altar before you. Place a Gemstone or other Object of Power in your lap or in front of you from which will eminate dark power of the Goddess (i.e, Bloodstone, Smoky Quartz, Moonstone, Raven/Crow feather, Pentacle (though I reccomend always wearing one during any ritual, and, if possible, at all times in some form), Tree bark, etc.) Thirdly and lastly, if you are devoted to hekate, repeat the following invocation during your ritual: Io Hekate io ho. Prelude: The power of thought is immense and can accomplish much good, or harm, depending on who is wielding it. Negativity, in particular, has a nasty way of lingering in a place. Those with even slight psychic sensitivity find it uncomfortable to walk through a room where there was an argument, for instance. To ensure your own psychic experiences and training sessions are distraction free, youll want to quickly clear your surroundings of any counteractive energy that might have built up in a room. Indeed, this is how youll use banishings for now. With a little practice, however, the banishing technique revealed here can be modified to r i d a space or person of focused, harmful energies. To perform a simple training banishing, youll need nothing but the power of your mind. You can set up your nocturnal altar if you wish, but none of the tools will be required to perform the banishing itself. You could make use of the altar candles, however, as youll want to turn off electric lights and perform the rite by candlelight, if possible. Method: 1) Stand in the center of the space you wish to cleanse and take three deep breaths. 2) Close your eyes and imagine that you are standing between two spheres of energy: one is above you, one below. The one above is pulsing and silver. The sphere below you is the earth; see it in its entirety as a black sphere, to avoid distraction. 3) Sense how the crackling, silver light from above seeks to rain down upon the earth, where it can be absorbed by the black sphere. Feel this charged potential slipping around you, almost like a pulsing drizzle, and see the energy falling as brief sparks. 4) With your eyes closed,see yourself growing in height. You are moving up to meet the silver sphere, although your feet are firmly grounded on the absorbing sphere below you. 5) Raise both arms and touch the crackling energy above you. Take a deep breath and feel the silver light enter your hands. Open your eyes and exhale as you lower your arms. Feel the energy move through you, following the descending height of your hands. 6) Finish your exhalation with your hands in front of your chest. Form two crescents, thumbs up and fingers down, that face each other. Each linger should be touching its opposite counterpart. Were someone to stand in front of you, it would look as if you were holding a small invisible ball against your chest, with curled fingers underneath 7) Inhale again, feeling more energy come down through your head and body to chest level. Exhale, imagining the energy coalescing inside your chest as a tiny silver sphere. 8) Inhale, letting your hands move apart. Feel more energy come down to the sphere at your chest. 9) Exhale, moving your hands down lower and mentally see the power passing down through your legs and into your feet. 10) Slowly inhale and exhale three more times. With each inhalation, feel the power course down through your body. With each exhalation, imagine the sphere in your chest growing brighter, as it is drawing on some of the energy passing all the way through you. 11) For your next three slow breath cycles, invision the sphere growing to fill the room, bisecting the floor at its equator. That is, when youve finished expanding the ball you should imagine that half the sphere is underneath you and the room, while the other half is like a dome over you. Pull energy down with each inhalation; imagine the silver sphere expanding with each exhalation. You decide how large an area you want to clear of negativity, and scale each of the three expansions accordingly. For instance, to banish negativity from a nine-foot circle, grow the sphere to three, then six, then nine feet on the first, second, then third exhalations. 12) Close your eyes and reinforce your visualization, breathing normally. Feel the room pulsing with the energy you drew down. You are surrounded by a silver sphere in which no negativity can exist. Remain in the giant energy sphere for as long as you wish. Theres no need to close this cleansed space when you decide to leave the room. The sphere is made of borrowed energy that will naturally dissipate on its own, leaving behind all its positive effects. Notice I never asked you to imagine yourself shrinking back to normal size. This subtle alteration to your way of thinking reinforces your domination over any lesser and less desirable energies that once resided around you. Practice this simple banishing often. Once youve gotten the hang of it, it should take only two or three minutes to effectively perform. I recommend doing it before you go to sleep, and before you perform any kind of psychic training. You should also use the simple banishing before you cast a full nocturnal circle. Blessed be. )O( Under Her Shadow, Dani You get out of a ritual what you put into it. And most rites need a significant amount of power. You cannot perform magick by simply going through the motions, so to speak. You have to add energy or power to your words and actions in any ritual—with invocations its a matter of giving what youll ultimately receive. That is, although you need to expel some of your own power to make them work, only live invocations will bring the power of a God or Goddess to a ritual. And one of the most effective ways to empower an invocation or any other magickal act is through visualization and concentration. The knowledge you gather to write an invocation can be applied to generating power through visualization. While reading myths and legends associated with a God or Goddess, you develop a better sense of the beings personality and possible appearance. Let this image ferment in your unconsciousness—youll be using it during the calling. You should also try to come up with correspondences for a deity that make sense to you. For Hecate I like to have a rough old piece of obsidian, to remind me of how her wisdom is ancient and dark throughout; I also use a dried-up rose to remind me of how she works to corrode things to maintain a permanently pleasing situation. But thats just my symbolism. The only correspondences that will work for you, however, are the ones youre inspired to use after having read some myths. You need to determine which sympathetic energies to have present at your calling tp make the room and your own aura more receptive to the deity. If a sacred plant is mentioned for the deity in a myth (or if you come across such a correspondence elsewhere that makes sense to you), put it in a vase on your altar. Or, burn this plant—dried, first—as an incense (you can also just use one of the nocturnal scents listed in appendix B). The idea of setting up the room like this isnt to appease the Gods so theyll see fit to grace you with their presence. All youre doing is making sure your mind will more easily be able to sympathetically link with the specific current of our Creator that youre reaching out to. Dont worry if youre using a particular incense for no other reason than that you think Hecate, for instance, would like it. If you believe it makes sense to use a particular correspondence, your subconscious mind will gladly use that as an aid to attaining ritual consciousness. Now, with preparations out of the way, we can return to the image of the Goddessyouve been building. Before actually reading invocation within a ritual setting and a nocturnal circle (explained in the next chapter), you will need to make clear in your mind your vision of the deity. The trick here is to let your intuition guide you. You will likely pick up on various images while reading about the deity. Let these features come to you when youre preparing. Hair and eye color, manner of dress, voice, even posture—whatever aspects stand out in your mind should be trusted as inspired visions. Build an amalgam of them. Know that whatever form you select or create is the absolute correct form to work with. This is the form your subconscious, magickal mind will understand as being the best way to link to the deity. Consider again our example of Hecate. When reading about her I found myself imagining an older but still alluring woman, with a voice (hat has a subtle accent but an intense, imperious tone. Black and gray multilayered robes make up her garb of choice, in my mind. When you have a form selected and firmly in place in your minds eye, you will have to assimilate this image in a way youve done before . . . when thinking of yourself. Have you ever imagined yourself with a different haircut or wearing a different outfit? You will have to be able to see the godform youve built as a kind of outfit and makeover in your mind s eye. While invoking, you will have to know that you resemble the deity. Then, during the ritual, you will need to imagine that you are wearing the God or Goddess image as a second skin. Again, like attracts like. By having correspondences in the room that are related to the deity, the room is made ready to welcome the energy youre seeking. By having a knowledge of the deity in the forefront of your mind, you prepare your body to house the God or Goddess in much the same way. During the invocation itself, you will welcome the visualized form of the God or Goddess to your inner temple. Assuming a Godform: When you reach the point in your circle casting when the God or Goddess needs to be called (see the next chapter), stand behind the altar and prepare yourself. Do so by reflecting on what you hope to accomplish through the complete ritual. Think about the aspects of the deity youve chosen to work with. Why is he or she appropriate to your working? The point here is to remind yourself, before you begin, of your intent. Concentrating on intent should precede any magick to help you focus on the particular energies you plan on using. Try to simplify the essence of the deity to a word or two, such as protection or peace and healing. Repeat the chosen phrase silently and close your eyes. Continuing your silent mantra, tilt your head up and raise your arms, palms to the ceiling or sky. Keep your eyes closed and imagine a glowing silver maelstrom above you, shining in the darlyiess. See it as a whirlpool of cosmic light, much like a spiral galaxy would appear in a powerful telescope. However, this spiral is more like a cone, with its arms connected at a luminous point far above you. The other ends of these trailing streams of light spread around you and sink into the ground below, somewhere off on the horizon. It is a slowly moving vortex of divine energy youre beholding. Continue to silently repeat the phrase you chose. As you do so, fix your attention on one of the spiraling arms. The one you choose in this seemingly random way is the right one, have no doubt. See the arm begin to apparently grow in size. No, thats not right. . . what is actually happening? Is it moving down toward you? Straightening itself out gracefully, the spiral arm becomes a silver beam approaching the top of your head. Feel its pulsing energy approaching you. While the beam readies you, repeat your chosen phrase one last time, in acknowledgment that this aspect of Divine energy has just touched you. Relish for a moment the slight jolt you may feel. While taking a deep breath, begin to slowly lower your arms. The Idea here is to feel and imagine—with eyes closed—that the energy is entering you gradually from the top of your head as you perform this action. On your first inhalation, you should lower your arms to about shoulder level (so theyre pointing straight out at your sides). Feel the energy reach your shoulders. As you exhale, feel its pulsing in your head, neck, and shoulders increase in intensity. Take in another breath and lower your arms to forty-five-degree angles, feeling and seeing the energy lowering to your hips. Exhale, letting the energy pulse stronger now down through this area. Finally, take in a third breath, lowering your arms to your sides and imagining the energy moving down to your feet. On your final exhalation while concentrating in such a way, feel and Visualize the energy pulsing through your entire body. Concentrate on your link to this particular Divine energy current for a moment longer. See once again where the beam enters the top of your head. See your entire body glowing with this silver light. Be aware of your new aura or body of light. Open your eyes. You should feel as if you are in a slightly altered state of awareness, which is a result of more than just the visualizations and mantra you have performed. Its a result of the Divine power you have tapped. Use this altered state to proceed—know you are now close to the Divine. Look at any symbols you have gathered in honor of the God or Goddess you are about to invoke. Do not meditate on them. Rather, trust your subconscious to understand the significance the symbols have to your working. Here you will begin to either recite or read the invocation you have prepared. Having written or modified the words, you should feel the full impact ol their meaning resonate in your mind automatically. This is desirable, as youll be doing more than just reading or reciting here. As you slowly voice the invocation, begin to imagine, with your eyes open, that the glowing silver aura is morphing around you. Recall the type of visualization you perform when imagining yourself with a different haircut or outfit. Use this to now imagine your aura changing to resemble the form of the God or Goddess. While the pacing of it is not crucial, the process of godform assumption works easiest if you gradually visualize the changes as you recite the invocation. Try to see the general changes first and then focus on each detail. Its kind of like molding a figure from clay. First you establish the anthropomorphic form, then you mold the rough clothing outline, then you add specifics such as belts and accessories. Then, when youre really warmed up, you can work on the face. But feel free to visualize the aspects of your inspired godform in whatever sequence works best for you. When you finish reciting the words, close your eyes to put the finishing touches on your visualization. Some of you who are newer to visualization may prefer to not add color to the godform just yet. If youre comfortable with visualization, however, feel free to add details like actual hair, eye, and, say, robe color. (Incidentally, there are some shortcuts for boosting overall visualization ability given in part two.) You are now clothed and permeated with the form of the God or Goddess. You can act from this point on in the ritual with his or her power aiding you. Dont worry about visualizing the silver link to the top of your forehead any longer. Just maintain as well as you can the visualization of the godform surrounding you as you perform your magick. When the rite is ended, you will want to return to normal waking consciousness. Announce out loud that the rite has ended and offer your thanks to the God or Goddess for lending his or her aid. Please do not dismiss him or her as if you were letting an employee go home. This is an aspect of the Creator were talking about here! After offering thanks, close your eyes and visualize the godform slowly morphing back into the silver glowing aura. When all you can imagine once again is light, youll be ready to properly channel this energy. With each exhalation, imagine it beginning to dissipate, turning into a mistlike substance as it leaves the pores of your skin. Some of it will, through this osmosis process, leave you and return to the Source. Some of it will stay with you, providing quite a nice high for the rest of the night. Blessed Waning Crescent Night. Under Her Shadow, Dani Labels: Book of Shadows , Hecate , Hekat , Hekate
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 05:40:28 +0000
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