How Magick is Like Origami

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AJ writes:

Hey, found your site on google. Looks like an amazing resource.

I’m really struggling with the energy breathing meditation because I find visualization very hard. I can only visualize myself in the third person. I wouldn’t have a clue how to visualize myself breathing in energy in the first person.

Can it still work if I only do 3rd person visualization?

Thanks for your help!

Thanks, AJ!

Short answer is yes, 3rd person visuals (imagining looking at yourself from the outside) should work fine.

Long answer is, most visualizations should work just fine. The point of a visualization is to communicate your intent to your unconscious, so as long as it speaks to you, it should work.

Even longer answer is, I hardly use visualizations. For at least a decade, my ethereal muscles have been conscious. It’s not that I’m aware of every little action they do, any more than I’m aware of each individual muscle in my fingers as I fold origami. But I also don’t visualize my arm moving, and I don’t visualize the finished origami crane. Instead, I watch a youtube video, see how the guy folds the paper, then consciously do that, focusing on the mechanics of each step of the process, stepping my fingers through it with a combination of conscious mind (for the way to hold the paper) and unconscious mind (for which individual muscles produce the desired movement of my fingers.)

I don’t think I can explain what it’s like to do magick consciously except through physical skills like origami. But hopefully that gives you some idea. And in Book 3 of the Initiation, (maybe Book 2), I’ll show you how to start doing magick consciously, too.

Back to AJ’s question: Do whatever visualizations feel natural to you. Don’t worry too much about the details. You probably won’t be using visualizations for long, anyway.

(And I don’t actually do origami. But anyone else re-watch the first season of House of Cards? It’s the first example that came to mind.)

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