The Practice of Daleth,
The four doors of the body of light

This practice will strengthen your asana, breath, strength all the systems of the body, build the body of light, and leads to astral projection.

I.
Assume a comfortable posture preferably in asana. I tend to advise the dragon posture for this exercise as the feet align better with the anus. (See Liber E for details) Begin the four fold breath until you are calm.

The Four-fold Breath: Relax and exhale to the count of four. Hold the breath out for a count of four. Inhale to the count of four. Hold the breath in for the count of four.

II.
Once calmness of mind and body has begun continue with the four fold breath while commencing with the middle pillar ritual.

Instruction during the Middle Pillar Ritual:
On the four counted in breath see the sphere brighten with power.
On the four counted hold feel and contemplate the sphere.
On the four counted exhale vibrate the appropriate divine name of the sphere.
On the four counted hold feel and contemplate the sphere.
Repeat this cycle four times per sphere.

III.
Once you complete the middle pillar ritual follow with the circulation of body light.

Instructions during the Circulation of Body Light:
1. On the four counted in breath, draw the energy up the right side of your body from Malkuth to Kether.
On the four counted hold, contemplate the power residing in Kether.
On the four counted out breath, draw the energy down the left side of the body from Kether to Malkuth.
On the four counted hold, contemplate the power residing in Malkuth.
Repeat this cycle four times.
2. Do the same, drawing the light up the back and down the front of the body, repeating this cycle four times.
3. Repeat this again by draw the energy up the center of the body into the sphere over the head during the four counted in breath.
On the four counted hold, contemplate the power residing in Kether.
On the four counted exhale, allow it to explode from above like a fountain and rain down into the sphere at the feet.
On the four counted hold, contemplate the power residing in Malkuth.
Repeat this cycle four times.

4. Now while still continuing with the four fold breath, see the energy of the middle pillar expand gently, permeating an oval shaped space around your body. Feel yourself floating in this light which is the light of the divine and all the universe.

IV.
Now begin the practice of the presence of God.
Instructions for the presence of God:
While continuing to breath, bring your attention to the skin covering your body and consider the millions of pores all over it. Begin to see that the pores expand with each inhalation and exhalation, letting the energy surrounding yourself from the middle pillar ritual in and out of the body. Feel the white light penetrating and dissolving into the deepest recesses of your physical body. Once this is accomplished deepen the porous nature of your skin into the depths of the physical body. See the flesh and bone as porous through and through, like a sponge. Feel the energy wafting gently through the depths of your being, nourishing every cell from within.

Once you are comfortable with this add the next stage of the exercise to vitalize the body of light. Visualize your body as clear as glass and maintain the sphere of energy surrounding you from the middle pillar ritual.

On the four counted in breath, see the energy flow into your body.
On the four counted hold, see the energy sparkle and crackle inside your clear body transforming into a form that will energize the body of light.
On the four counted exhale allow this energy to drift down to the feet area of your body and become almost like a golden white liquid, slowly filling your body.
On the four counted hold, contemplate the energy surrounding you and the accumulated energy within your body.
Repeat this cycle until you have completely filled your body. This energy that has filled the glass vessel that was your body is now your body of light. It will have been strengthen and revitalized from this exercise.

Once you have your fully formed and energized body of light you may remain in asana with the four fold breath and practice such rituals as the LBRP or the LBRH in the body of light. At first this will only be mental projection but repeat this daily and you will find in a short time as a month you will begin to have full astral projection in the body of light. At this time you may want to do such exercises in an astral temple or begin to explore the astral, and raising on the planes.

Good stuff.

Have been using the M.P to further my practice with Astral Travel, this seems perfect.

Question/s though;

You say to draw up the energy from Malkuth to Keter drawing the energy up the right side. Shouldn't it be up on the left and downwards on the right?

Tend to do my MP standing up, as far as bodily awareness is involved don't you think sitting cross legged makes it tougher to gain full bodily awareness which would include the soles of the feet as Malkuth/ADNI-HRAEZ and Yesod/Shaiddai as the genitial area which, when sitting cross legged is the same area as the base of the spine...?

HTP

Dk

I was following the instructions as per Regardie's instructions. In his writings he always advised sending the energy up the right and down the left, then up the back and down the front of the body. He never says why this direction. Although in later Golden Dawn papers they explain that following the circulation as per Regardie strengthens and brightens the sphere of sensation aiding magical workings and if you reverse the circulation down the right and up the left then it has more of a with drawing effect making it more suitable for meditations. So if your trying to center yourself then reverse the flow and if your trying to "power up" then go per Regardie. Either will work for this exercise depending on what you are trying to accomplish.



Standing is fine although if I am going to attempt projection work or meditation I do not do this as it tends to interfere and I get physically tired. Lying down is better because of this but falling asleep is a possibility. Which is why I advise asana. You are correct that sitting cross leggeded tends to interfere either with the energy involved or just a mental thing and has never worked for me with this, which is why I use the dragon pose or rock pose as some call it as you are sitting on your feet directly touching your anus and everything is aligned.

So in this practice the idea is to charge up the energy body not nessarily draw down to better meditate and project?



Hmmm... the only part that'd get to me would be ADNI, guess it still resonates at the feet as they'd be that much closer to the diaphram. Will have to work around it. Thanks for posting this, its excatly what I need. Should work perfectly with my rituals, even do the breath work but sometimes use Haaalm (inwards breath) hold count to five - Saaah (outwards breath) and so on.

Will post back as time goes on and I get better at this practice. Gonna print this out.

You seem to know about yoga, can you reccomend a good book that details positions?

HTP

Dk

This exercise can be used for a number of things. It is a practice all to itself but can also be used as a build up to projection, or pathworking, or ritual work, any number of things. Either purpose depending on your goals.


Well in 777 malkuth can correspond to either the feet or the anus, which I believe the latter is more of an eastern slant of the base chakra. Either way as I said I sit on my feet so I make the sphere large enough that the top is at the anus and the rest is around the feet.



Well there is popular yoga aka Hatha then there is the yoga work crowley talks about which is generally Raja yoga. Both are good but from a magical stand point Raja yoga is the one you want, it deals less with the physical body and more with stilling the mind. I am no expert I generally just follow Crowley's AA outlines. See Liber E, part one Book 4, and the first issue of the Equinox has pictures of the asana's crowley advocates.

Brilliant! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sun.gif)

Tried it last night outside of my ritual as I'm also adapting a few things. Didn't follow through and actually vibrate anything as I've stopped doing the BHP and it dosen't feel right without the LVX and the Hexagrams. Am now planning to carry on and attempt to finish the ritual in the Astral. Won't do the BHP until I can do it astrally.

Slight problem with the Asana and dragon position.. what is it? Was comfortable sitting cross legged but I think the dragon position might work better when I'm doing the ritual in full.

Also had a 'problem' getting to grips with oval part but thats probably the lack of the LVX didn't realise how much I miss it until now .lol.

Otherwise it was a great ritual! Got to grips with the glass house part, did the circulation as detailed and couldn't sleep. lol. Not sure if it had to do with charging up rather than down but I was wired, couldn't wake up this morning. Will try charging down from now to see the diffrence.

HTP

Dk

Any position will work fine as long as you are comfortable. I have already outlined why I personally chose the dragon pose due to it's alignment. That and when sitting cross legged or half lotus I tend to slouch so I find it easy to keep my back straight in that pose. It is real simple. Kneel down, put your knees together, and sit back on your heels which are also together. You often see zen monks meditating in this same pose.

You might be more flexable than me but this pose really hurts at first until you work at it. If your ankles are tight then you will feel pain in them, roll up a small towel and place under your ankles for support. Then if your thighs are tight then you will feel pain in your legs and will notice your full weight is not all the way back on your heels. Just place a pillow between your heels and bottom for support. If you practice at it then you will not need these supports for long as you begin to loosen up and tendons or whatever start to lengthen. You will find you seem to sinking lower and lower in the pose as time goes on as you lengthen until you can place your entire weight upon your heels. The ankles tend to loosen up first, although I am a runner which makes them tighten back up. Just takes daily practice. Try 5 mins a day then add 5 mins each week until you can do an hour. Crowley recommends starting with half and hour but I find that crazy.



That will come in time

Excellent thread Nero.
I've been doing this, essentially (as appropriately modified to personal path) . . . and its a process that flows well. (I sometimes include IAM's solar rite).

I have a slightly different experience with the dragon posture.
My legs fall asleep after 20-30 minutes in the asana. The interesting things is that after about an hour in the asana, when I'm "storing" the excess energy (naval sub-chakra) which I do in a "standing kneel" (verticle to my knees), I find that the movement of energy t hrough my root/sacral area is much more noticeable . . . and the storing is more complete.
I was told that the towel under the butt would help with this too . . . whatever works though.

That's really good because my feet fall asleep only after 5 to 10 minutes. lol Pins and needles when I get up.



Interesting, so I take it instead of the MP you use a chakra or Chi Kung energy builder? I stick to the MP in asana just because that is what I have always used. Although I do use Chi Kung right when I wake up (Ba Duan Jin) then follow this with which ever rituals I am working on, then finish with asana. Also I have been experimenting with pranayama techniques in the place of the four fold breath such as mantra work and alternate nostril breathing.

Got it.

Pretty good at that one. Can flop about when i need to .lol. Hope to start up proper yoga classes as well. Find the Lotus good when i can breath fluidly enough to get past any backache and tensions.

Chi Kung is good also, if you can incorporate it into dancing it works even better... get to go out and pull off some funky moves.

Yep, pins and needle too . . . either its taking longer to start or I'm getting better at not noticing (for egotistic reasons . . . I like to assume the latter lol)

Actually, I use the MP, then move down to the asana, breath in the "light" generated in MP. That gets coalesced to the sushumna nadi (spine). After a bit of coordinated pranayama (or 4fold when I'm being lazy) with the up-down movement along that nadi, I start on individual chakra.
So . . . both.

I'd found (experimenting) that I got a stiff neck doing the chakric work alone . . . but if I generated MP energy first it completely eliminated my neck problem. Now, this may not be an entirely complete insight, as much of the neck is referred pain from a shoulder impingment (which hopefully I will have surgury on soon). But it still eliminated my discomfort following ritual work . . . and the stiff neck thing was almost entirely shutting down any AP work.

Plus, doing the MP first gave a nice (intellectual) platform for continueing with targeted body-energy work. As I said, IAM's solar rite also works well . . . with a different feeling and effect.

Nero, I've found that targeted storage of the "worked" energy helps decrease the length and intensity of the pins-n-needles. I store in the sub-naval.

I never could get that thumb-up-the-nostril thing to work well . . . I just couldn't maintain that much concentration . . . which is odd, as some of my best/most energetic work has been in a dance-trance.
But I applaude you if its working!!

This post has been edited by palindroem: Feb 9 2007, 01:29 PM

Swear I replied to this... made a post about how the ritual is working for me and what not. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused012.gif)