Not only is it important to develop the faculties of the soul in their reflection of the elements, but it is important to develop the initiate’s capacity to meditate and practice yoga since their meditation is what will catapult their spiritual attainment. I write this article to provide yoga techniques associated with every elemental grade. In doing so when the initiate has completed their elemental grades at the time they finish the elemental grades they should have learned to be able to meditate for extended periods of time with ease and comfort. While these are not technically part of the elemental grades or magic mirror exercise the yoga techniques mentioned by Swami Vivekinanda in his work Raja Yoga fit neatly into elemental associations and so help complete the initiate’s learning process.
So this is my focus for each elemental grade when working on the refinement of the self.
These techniques are explored by Aleister Crowley in his Liber ABA Magick (book 4), Liber E vel Exercitiorum (book9), Liber RV vel Spiritus (book 209) and many more.
Earth
The grade of Earth is focused on the physical being of the initiate: the grossest part; the body. Before a person can meditate they might need to work on their body. Some people find sitting for extended periods very difficult, so how can you focus on the mental aspects of meditation if you need to move all the time? Crowley made a section devoted to this in his writing. It is called Asana which is a term commonly used in yoga to mean a posture. This posture is held for an extended period of time. I have known people to hurt themselves doing some of Crowley’s postures, especially the thunderbolt and the Ibis, so be careful. I have even been told of someone hurting themselves doing the dragon so build up to each Asana or posture little by little. Don’t know jump straight in with doing hours of each.
After a while, your body sends what I call a “tick” signal, which is an instruction to move. The body does this to check if the brain went to sleep. If you are able to resist moving you can trick your body into thinking you’re asleep. It will then make the position very comfortable and help you into a very useful trance state. Some people experience sleep paralysis in this state, which can be stopped by changing the breathing rate to a fast breathing rate, then switching to a slow breathing rate and back to a fast breathing rate until the body realises the brain is awake and is able to move again.
This is the first step of developing the states necessary for the meditation required in Magic.
This is also a good time to learn the words of the Mantras even if you don’t practice them.
Liber III vel Jugorum (book 3) is focused on developing self-control over the aspects of the self. The book suggests a form of self-discipline and keeping a record, unfortunately, the book suggests doing this by cutting into the arm and thereby keeping a tally of mistakes along with a very obvious self-discipline. I find this approach quite drastic and most people I know swap this out for a rubber band and ping themselves with it. They also should keep a tally in a diary or by drawing a short line on their arm, though many do not. I have spoken to some people and they sound like they enjoy catching themselves and disciplining themselves. They act with a sense of pride about it. This could be activating the reward centres of their brain, so it’s not fulfilling the purpose of the practice so whatever you do, it needs to be something that could not be mistaken as anything other than discipline, though being a person that cuts themselves isn’t necessarily going to help you fulfil your spiritual goals, especially if someone else sees and locks you up. You could save the mental part for the next grade. Maintaining this self-awareness for extended periods of time can induce quite a strong trance state.
Air
The aspect of the human most commonly associated with the air is the mind. Also, there are breathing exercises called pranayama so this is where you could master them.
Dharana is the control of thought. One of the easiest ways is to ignore thoughts that arise. Treat them like unwanted guests, ignore them and soon they will stop coming by. Keep entertaining them and they will drop by more frequently. This process is called Lojong (mind training) and is explored in great detail by my favourite Buddhist Nun Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo.
Liber III vel Jugorum activity associated with this grade could be the mental part though this is the hardest.
Water
Water is well known for its ability to absorb. So at this point, I would focus on Dhyana which means absorption. These are trance states where the mind feels a sensation of being absorbed into the object of focus. In Pali, this word is Jhana, in Chinese, it is rendered Chen and in Japanese Zen, although the teachings that surround these vary they have the same principle of trance state and absorption, which is probably the oldest meditation technique, is pre-sectarian Buddhism.
Fire
Having worked with all the elements at this point you can use the skills to perform entire rituals in your head. To step into an inner vision state and through that to “rise on the planes”. I hope to write more articles on a procedure for doing so, but suffice it to say the body requires large quantities of energy to do this, so much so that in fact some people including Robert Bruce have theorised that the body actually constructs a double in the spiritual planes for this purpose.
Some might associate the experience of one own fire with meeting with the highest aspect of the self and therefore Samadhi is quite fitting however others would associate this with a much higher grade that fits after a person has experienced communion with their Holy Guardian Angel.