The Art of Skrying

By Fra.Veos

Table of Contents: Introduction Theory -Mental and Astral Mechanisms of Skrying -Magick vs. Mental/Psionic Skrying -Concerning the Nature of the Visions and Entities Practice -Prerequisites for successful Skrying -Psychic and Mental Skrying -Magickal Skrying -Pathworking on the Tree of Life Epilogue

Introduction: One of the first experiences I ever had in experiencing the other planes of existence was through the use of Skrying. At the time, I was like so many other young magicians out there, trying to keep my practices secret from my ignorantly Christian family members while I was still living at home. As such, I heavily practiced Psionics at this point in time of my life, being an effective means for me to train the mind while being incapable of acquiring the materials needed for magickal workings, and still being able to keep my practices hidden from the parents to prevent unnecessary Drama. Though I was practicing Psionics and some eastern practices such as Yoga and Tai Chi, I was still immensely interested in deities and other planes of existence, which is when I started to originally practice with Skrying, being the only effective means I had at the time to assure myself of these other worlds which made the Universe seem so much more interesting than it had before. The first Skrying technique I ever employed was that of an Enochian Magician/Author by the name of Benjamin Rowe, who wrote a very simple and short article about Skrying that presented it as a mental process, and could be applied to my Psionic practices at the time. This process will be covered completely in the Practical part of this Article. As a side note, I will say that Benjamin Rowe is perhaps one of the most unappreciated and unrecognized authorities out there, especially for Enochian Magick. Later on in life, when I had the means to finally start practicing magick in its fullest sense, I sought out a means of magickal skrying. This is a particularly broad category, as there are many different methods to Skry with the use of magickal implements. Still, I came across the Tattwa Skrying presented by Regardie in his book The Golden Dawn, which probably delivered the final blows to the Order itself as its original establishment. I took and expanded upon this method in a manner that Im sure Regardie did as well, and learned to utilize it as an

effective means of contact with the Inner Planes. I will say, that even after invocations and evocations, Skrying is without a doubt the simplest, most convenient means of contacting other planes and entities, and the purely mental form of Skrying can also serve as a nice, peaceful meditation and contemplation period. That being said, I hope you all thoroughly enjoy the article and get some use out of it. I am quite sure that most, if not all of you, will only practice with the Mental Skrying and leave the Magickal methods of Skrying to itself. This is fine by me, but make sure you read about the Theory and Practice to both methods, so that you can fully understand and appreciate both methods for their Pros and Cons. Enjoy.

Section I: Theory Mental and Astral Mechanisms of Skrying: The mechanics of Skrying is a fairly complex discussion in itself, so I will attempt to keep it short and to the point, for the benefit and use of the reader. Most Skrying takes place in the mental realms, which are directly influenced by the Mind itself. Does this mean that Skrying is all in the mind? Yes and No. Yes, in that anything that takes place in the mental realms and is perceived or acted upon by your mind as purely mental and contained within the mind itself. No, in that you are not making up random events, as the phrase usually suggests, i.e. its all just in his head. Without the preliminary training that is needed to effectively skry (as will be covered later), you may very well only perceive made up imaginations and mental illusions. However, with diligent practice, the student will have no problem in silencing the mind, and taking complete control of the mental realm as needed for the Skrying process. Mechanics of Mental Skrying: The first type of general Skrying we will call mental skrying for lack of a better term for the moment. This is the Skrying mentioned above in the introduction as being mainly Psionic in nature, which Benjamin Rowe taught in one of his articles. Though the process will discussed in full in the Practical part, it will do good to examine the mechanics of it before delving into the practice. All of the realms are interconnected, in a manner very similar to the way that the Astral, mental, and physical bodies are connectedthrough matrixes. The Physical realm is connected to the Astral through a subtle layer of magnetism and ethers hermetically called the Archeus, which is the Astral Matrix. The Astral Realm itself, if seen in a hierarchy, is dominant over the physical realm, and subservient to the Mental Realm. The mental realm is connected to the Astral via the mental matrix, and is Dominant over the Astral Realm. In mental Skrying, the student is utilizing this mental dominance as a means to establish communication with the Astral realms via the Mental Matrix. However, the mind can only directly affect the mental realm, as the Body of Light can only directly affect the Astral, and the Physical can only do so with the physical world. It is through these matrixes that the effects of an action are translated into another realm via cause and effect or sympathetic reaction (like affects like).

Mental Skrying utilizes Mental Projection, which of course takes place in the mental realm. The scenes that you see are wholly composed within the mind itself. How is it then that we can be sure of what visions we see and what spirits we speak with? The Astral Realms forces are directly reflected into the Lower Mental realm (where skrying takes place), and as such, the spirits of the Astral are perfectly capable of communicating with you in a purely mental, and symbolic form. The downside to mental projection is that the mental realm is not as concrete as the astral, and so the forces seem less tangible, even with immense amounts of practice. Sure, the student will eventually start to feel the breeze, or smell the flowers in a field while Skrying in this manner, but there is still a distinct difference that experience can teach better than words, which separates the astral and mental experiences. There is much more that could be said to clarify the whole matter theoretically, but we would have to examine the whole of Astral and Mental mechanics and dynamics, which would be quite a lengthy endeavor, which is certainty outside the scope of this article. As above said, experience is the best teacher, and will help you understand for yourself the mechanics behind Skrying and the operation of the different realms with each other. Mechanics of Magickal Skrying: Magickal Skrying is much more complex in nature than purely mental skrying is. However, it is a considerably more involving method, which makes the magician feel as though he is truly there, at that place, experiencing each moment as a reality. Seeing as how it operates more on the Astral than the mental realms, the visions and experiences are much more concrete than the other method of Skrying. With this method, the ritual implements are usually physically applied to the skrying session, along with some ritual work to verify the forces being worked with. Though the actual skrying itself can take place on the mental realm, it is usually done with either a subtle type of controlled astral projection, or the use of a magick mirror. When the magician enacts different parts of the ritual, he utilizes universal laws to attract the desired force. Once this force is connected with, he then utilizes either mental or astral projection to project the consciousness into the desired sphere of the Astral. By use of symbols and gestures, different types of the same force can be distinguished from each other, and the magician can then choose which force is wanted for the skrying session, and enter into that sphere. This usually entails actually stepping through some sort of symbolic door that represents the force itself. Once having passed through such a gateway, you become immersed in the actual world of that force, and can see the spirits that operate therein performing there jobs. At this point, different formula can then be applied to the astral light in order to clarify the images, and clear false or distorted ones. An Astral guide can also be employed to lead you through this world and teach you about its operations on the different levels of manifestations. Now, all of that can, to an extent, be done mentally, as long as the magickal gestures and symbols are still applied accordingly in the mind. However, skrying with a physical object, while opening up more options to the magician, is considerably more complex, and involves actually creating a tear so to say, between the astral and physical realm via the astral matrix. Clairvoyance and Clairaudience are a must for this method of skrying.

Magick vs. Mental Skrying: At this point, the reader may be trying to determine which method seems cooler. For Gods sake and for your own, please dont ever let that be a determining factor in any part of your life, especially the spiritual part. There is one distinct difference that should be taken into account. The magickal method is more effective, while the Mental method is much more practical and useful, as it can be done at any place, anywhere, at any time, and much of the same information and knowledge can also be acquired. Personally, I employ the mental method considerably more than I do the magickal method, due to ease. However, the Psionic is at a bit of a misfortune here, as the magician can experience both types of Skrying with good results, while the Psion will have to learn a considerable amount about magick before using the magickal method, and thus is restricted mainly to the mental method. However, the mental method saves a lot of effort, time, and spiritual energy. It is also just as effective in most situations as the other method. It just lacks some of the total experience that the astral projection allows for. Perhaps the most important distinguishing factor that the magickal method allows for that the mental process doesnt, is the complete testing of the spirit and the Visions received. The magician can employ different symbols and gestures, such as the Grade Signs or the Pentagram, to test the validity of an experience. This will be elaborated upon in the practical section.

Concerning the nature of the Visions and Entities: The Visions that are experienced are usually dramatic experiences that teach a considerable amount to the student. In the case of mental Skrying, the visions are almost always harmonious with some intent that the subconscious is trying to make you realize. Visions are usually more prone to happen during a magickal skrying session than a purely mental one, but the mental method can be employed quite well to experience what is happening in different places at different times, especially in the Astral realms. The mental skrying is most effective as a tool for exploring the mind and the subconscious, and as such, most things found therein are different levels of the consciousness. This is largely the key to Pathworking, which will be discussed later. This method of skrying is probably one of the best means of introspection and achieving higher states of self awareness and conscious control. However, this does not mean that everything seen in the mental sessions are purely in the subconscious. You will come across many interesting creatures and spirits in these sessions, that can teach you very effectively in different matters that they are concerned with. In a mental skrying session, the student interacts with the spirit on his or her own level, which is ALWAYS safer, whereas in magickal skrying, the student works with the spirit on its level, which is why many more precautions must be taken in such a working. You are in their house, and you are only a guest until being initiated into that sphere. In both cases, treat any spirits with the utmost respect and kindness. You will find that most spirits found in such sessions are friendly in nature, and will actually want to befriend you. Concerning Visions, they are usually triggered as the result of a sudden raising of the consciousness into a certain current that is higher than the one being worked with. A good example of such a vision is that of the Universal Mercury as recounted in Regardies The

Golden Dawn. In all circumstances, complete absorption into the skrying session is absolutely necessary, due to the fragile nature of such visions, which require a delicate balance of forces that will be thrown out of proportion at the slightest disturbance in the mind.

Section II: Practice

Prerequisites for Successful Skrying: For Mental Skrying: It is absolutely imperative that the student undergo some form of mental and physical training such as Asana, Pratyahara, and Dharana to stop all possible physical or mental hindrances. Such breaks in concentration will destroy a skrying session. Aside from that, many people will fool themselves by thinking that they have successfully talked with a spirit, or seen a distant place, when in reality, it was the result of an overactive imagination that hasnt been put in check by a trained mind. A good general rule is that if you can imagine the opposite of what you are seeing mentally, then it probably isnt there. If it is hard to do such a thing, you may be having an authentic experience. The largest problem is that people spend a week or two on something like Pratyahara or Dharana, and assume that they now have perfect control of their thoughts. They say that they can hold a thought for up to 10 minutes without a break or change in form of the image or thought. Such is usually a lie, but not necessarily of their own complete fault. When someone first starts a system for training the mind to control its thoughts, the mind, being untrained, has a very low perception ability. As such, it cant actually realize if there has even been a break in concentration sometimes, because its observation powers havent developed yet. This is why many people have great success in such practices as Dharana at first, and then get worse and worse as time passes. It is not that they are getting worse, for the contrary is actually truethey are getting better. Their mind is learning to perceive its own mistakes and subtleties. The student should be able to hold Asana for up to 30 minutes, and Dharana for 10 minutes without interruption before attempting Mental Skrying. For Magickal Skrying: Aside from the above prerequisites, the student must be able to effectively perform the Pentagram rituals, both the Lesser and Greater forms, along with the Hexagram rituals should he ever wish to skry into the planetary realms. Having completed at least up to Step V of Bardons Initiation into Hermetics is a gigantic help, as the student will be able to successfully shrink and expand the consciousness, and project it at will into the being of a thing, along with having control of the 4 elements in the practical sense. Should the student wish to take it one step further and use the magickal mirror, then Clairvoyance and Clairaudience are a must-have.

Mental Skrying After talking about the techniques, Im quite sure you are ready to hear what exactly the different methods are. So then, let us get right to the practice of it! **Before beginning for the first time, construct in your mind your own little world, but dont make it complete. For example, a lake, with some plains, some caves off in the distance, trees around the plains, and maybe a Volcano in the distance or something of the sort. In general, it is best to have most of the view a little fogged over, kind of like the fog-of-war. These unknown places will be explored later.** 1. Take up your Asana that was used during your earlier training. The God-Form of Hermetics and the Lotus form of Yoga are perhaps the two best positions both magickally and mystically for the occasion. Most people know what the Lotus Form is (legs crossed, feet on inner thighs, back straight, head aligned with spine, Crown point suspended, chin up). However, the God-Form is a little more comfortable for those who lack the flexibility, and it is just as effective for this operation. Sit in a chair, knees together, feet together. Legs form a 90 degree angle at the knees with the floor and chair. Back straight, eyes forward (or closed), chin up, hands placed palm-down upon the Knees. 2. Close the eyes, and feel your body out with the mind, making sure to be aware of every muscle and bone possible, the skin, hair, etc. Try to feel out the Aura (if you cant do this, then you should probably be doing other things than trying to Skry right now). You will probably feel a few inches bigger once this slight mental/astral shift has occurred. Staying in the first-person view, start to imagine yourself rising from your place and starting to ascend 3. Mentally affirm your world that you have previously constructed in thought, and simply go there. Picture yourself passing upwards from the body into an almost gel-like substance, and pushing through it, until suddenly you pass, and are in your world. Stay in the first person! This is extremely important. 4. Examine where you are, your surroundings, etc. Walk everywhere instead of floating. Use your hands, feet, legs, eyes, etc as you would in the physical world. Try to feel the ground on your barefeet, or the bark of the Trees, or the Water in the lakes. Try to smell the flowers or the fresh breeze. Try to hear the sounds of water falling, or trees brushing in the wind. Totally immerse yourself into this environment. 5. Do what it is you came to do. 6. When done, think about your physical body back in your room, and start to descend through the ground of your world. Come out the other side into your room, and slip back into your body, realigning your mental eyes with the physical eyes. 7. Stay seated for a minute or two, recollecting the experience, while doing some simple stretches to get the blood flowing. Record the entire event in a journal. Notes to the Mental Skrying Method: Seems simple right? It actually really is, and very safe as well. Eventually this little world of yours will become very real in the Mental, and then eventually the Astral Realms as well. It is also a very effective means for spiritual teachers to meet with you one on one

and teach you. The key is to become completely immersed in the environment. Once you have become skilled at getting there and immersing yourself into it, then start exploring this place. Many times you will just happen to bump into a spirit of some sort, who is usually more than willing to talk with you. After a while, start to build a house or temple (if youre a magician) for yourself. When I first started with this, I hand built a stone temple for the Earth element that took a little more than a week to build, because I would go out into the nearby woods and look for stone, and then pick it up and carry it to the site of the temple. Then I would actually start to hand-build the stone temple, trying to feel the weight of the rocks, the heat of the day, etc. There is almost an endless list of possibilities with this method of skrying, because it is such a free-form method. Prophecy, one of the mentors here on Veritas, is quite adept at actually healing people from a distance with this method of Skrying. Also, some may notice that the beginning and ending procedures seem a lot like those for Astral Projection. In most instances, this will not result in a full projection of the Astral, but only a full projection of the mind. The Astral body itself is not utilized enough for full projection in this exercise.

Magickal Skrying: 1. Prepare the Temple accordingly, and lay out the needed magickal implements for the sphere that you intend to access. Put on the Robe, Lamen, and any insignia needed. Make sure you have the Wand. 2. Perform the invoking ritual for the desired force 3. Assume God-Form, and fortify the Astral Body with an energy-raising rite such as the Middle Pillar Rite (Golden Dawn) or an accumulation of the LVX through the pores and lungs into the body. Expand the Aura and fortify it, Vibrating the appropriate God-Names. 4. Close eyes and switch consciousness to Ruach 5. Formulate the Robe, Lamen, Insignia, and Wand Astrally, along with any other weapon needed. 6. Project the Nephesh out of the Body, and transfer the Ruach therein. Vibrate AHIH or another suiting God-Name to establish Harmony and union. 7. Raise on the Planes through the use of appropriate symbolism for the operation, i.e. The Hexagram for the Sun, or Privithi for Earth element. 8. Enter into that sphere by projecting consciousness and Will 9. Having entered, observe the landscape, but go no further until a guide comes. Vibrate the appropriate divine names and use the Hexagram or Pentagram to invoke the force continuously to vivify the picture. 10. When guide arrives, test it with appropriate signs and gestures, and await for reply.

11. Go about your business with the Guide 12. When finished, thank guide, and retrace your path (VERY IMPORTANT) back to where you started, and enter back in through the portal. 13. Think of the World, your room, and your physical body. You should be there by now. Banish before entering the body. 14. Realign with the physical body and restore normal consciousness, followed by banishing the room and closing the ceremony Notes on Magickal Skrying: This method can be a little more dangerous, and overall not quite the friendly experience generated in the mental skrying. However, be communicating with the deities in their own realm, they have much more skill, and are able to demonstrate an immense amount of knowledge about their workings in that realm, and the workings in general of that ray itself upon the Earth. This method can be applied to the elements, or the planets. As you can see, the magickal method is more beneficial, but less practical in a lot of circumstances. Also, the magickal method opens up access to different levels of force than the mental method. To clarify the whole process and the experience thereof, I will provide an example of such a working from one of my first skrying sessions with this method, taken from my magickal journal. The actual teaching I received cant be given, but the events that took place can be given with little harm. After employing the proper ritual practices to invoke the Earth Element, I close m y eyes and project the Astral Light out of the body, and mold it into my body. Upon projecting my consciousness into this body of light, which is filled with the Earth element from the previous invocations, I immediately look to the North into the invoking pentagram, and approach it. I then perform the sign of the enterer and pass through the Earth Pentagram into a tunnel-like system, in which at the end there is a great door, bearing the sign of Privithi. I come to the door, and it does not open. I Vibrate Adonai HaAretz. The Door becomes gel-like, and I employ the Sign of the Rending of the Veil and pass through the door. I find myself suddenly stepping onto an earthy environment, the ground seems clay-like, there is the appearance of a mine in the distance, and there are what seems to be blobs of some sort traveling back and forth with something in their hands. I take my Astral Wand (As I am in full ritual attire) and engrave the Hebrew Letters Aleph-Resh-Tzaddi(final) into the air until the letters start to illuminate with the Astral Light. The more I vibrate the God Name while inscribing the Hebrew name for Earth, the landscape becomes much more vivid, sound comes into the picture, sensation comes in as well, the blobs clear up and end up being Gnomes, working in the mines. Upon tracing the invoking pentagram again, one among the Gnomes comes to me and asks to guide me through the land. I test him with the Zelator Sign, and he responds with the Same. I accept the offer. I apply the Earth Pentagram to no effect, showing his validity. He shows me some of the workings of the gnomes, and leads me into one of the caves, which seem to have gold and silver along the inner walls. We go into a chamber and sit at a table that appears to be in the shape of the Greek Cross. He tells me.. . When he is done talking, we return back to the outside of the cave, where he gave me his name and a hearty good bye. I called upon Ghob, and several gnomes then came and led me back to my place of starting. I left through the portal, and finished the ceremony.

Thus was my first skrying attempt with the Earth Element. With practice, it is usually the angel of the sphere who will guide you, and not one of its elementals.

Pathworking: This doesnt necessarily fall under the category of skrying, but I said that I would provide it here in this article, seeing as how some of the same techniques are used. For those unfamiliar with the term, Pathworking refers to the mystical climb up the tree of Life instead of the magickal climb. It is strictly meditative, and can be used both as a means of achieving higher levels of awareness, or for helping attune the Astral Body to a certain energy before a Ritual. The process starts in Malkuth, and the mystic follows the paths of the Tree in an initiatory type manner. It is not suppose to replace initiation, but It can still be a powerful tool for awakening the consciousness, and could probably be adapted to some Yoga practices with little difficulty. The Key to the practice is a deep state of meditation, accompanied with a good, sound theoretical knowledge of the Hebrew letters (The Paths on the Tree) and their occult correspondences (the elements, planets, and Zodiac). A working knowledge of the 4 color scales, particularly the King Scale, is very useful as a meditative aide, and the name of the Hebrew Letter can be vibrated as a mantra for another nice aide. The entire process bears a resemblance to Skrying in that the mystic completely immerses himself into a mental/astral environment of the path. Thus, for the Path of Shin from Malkuth to Hod, you would find yourself starting on an actual path that resembled the earthiness of Malkuth, and as you progressed, you would find the path becoming more volcanic in nature. Perhaps one of the best published examples of pathworking is in the book The Sword and the Serpent by Dennings and Philips, in the Appendix. Pathworking can be a spiritually rich experience, and several entities may also come into contact with you, particularly the Angel of the Sephirah you are heading to. Just because you did one meditation and walked the path of Shin to the Sephirah Hod doesnt mean that youre initiated into Hod. That path should be traveled over and over again, until you feel like the master of that path. Every working, make not and record any thing you see, and then afterwards test it with the correspondences of the path. For example, did you see any animals or plants? If so, then what colors were they? What did the air smell like, the ground look and feel like, and the creatures sound like? What was the lighting like? It goes on and on. It is not unusual to see things that look as bizarre as the events taking place in a Tarot Card. Pathworking can make for an interesting experience, and anyone who is a hermetic magician using the Tree of Life (as all do now a days) as a system of self initiation, I highly recommend this method of meditation. It is approached in a similar manner to Mental Skrying.

Epilogue: So, there you have it. Hope you enjoyed the article, and can extract some use out of it for your own practices. For those who wish to practice the magickal method without all the

physical Garb, then I highly recommend attaining at least to Step VI of Bardons Initiation into Hermetics. Otherwise, the power generated by you alone will probably not be enough, and safety will become an issue. I do apologize if the Magickal method I gave seems a littlenot all there. I am very iffy about posting actual full-on magickal operations on a public message board, because for the one person who actually goes through the necessary training and does it right, there will be 100 idiots who think they have some special ability and can just skip all of that and go straight to the goodies, no training, precautions, or anything. Unfortunately with magick, this can be extremely dangerous, and in ritual work, can result in anything from a mild sickness, to possession, to death, depending on the type of forces being worked with. So there is my disclaimer. Hah. The process given above for the magickal skrying is written in such a way that a magician who is ready to actually perform it will know what blanks to fill in. Also, I was originally planning on giving the Means of traditional skrying with a Crystal or Magick Mirror, but I feel like this is plenty of information and teaching to suffice for now. I apologize, and hope you enjoyed the article. ~Veos Last Edit: May 08, 2007, 08:59:52 AM by Veos