Help Me Get Started

[TheArchitect]

I'm sure you guys get tired of the endless "what path" and "what book" and etc questions. If it helps at all, I can promise that I made a dedicated effort to get some ideas of answers to my questions.

Quick background:
I have gotten decently involved in practicing various types of magick at various times. Often with a Golden Dawn, hermetic bent, occasionally with a qigong angle, etc. I think my problem has been that each time I tried I got steadily more and more involved to the point that the practices became more than my life could support (I'm currently in medical school). At some point the frustration from that would bubble up and I would just give it up for years until I tried again and repeated the cycle.

Right now, though, I'm committed to beginning a lifelong practice of 20-30 minutes a day of magical activites. While I recognize that many of you are advanced practitioners and the idea of committing only 20-30 minutes a day is laughable, that is what my life will afford me. I recognize this will keep me from becoming as advanced as many of you, and all I can say is that hopefully one day circumstances change, allowing me to devote more time. Also, for the record, I think several decades of 20-30 minutes of work could add up to a significant amount of practice and hopefully "set the stage" for advanced practices when more time becomes available later.

So... what should I do with my 20-30 minutes?

Please help me develop my short daily routine that I'll do for... you know... the rest of my life until I find myself with time to become more involved in a certain path.

To help you help me, I'll fill you in on some of my goals and things I'm interested in.

-Main concern: I want to engage in a practice that will set me up to, when I have more time down the road, will have a really solid foundation to build off of and move down a more advanced path.
-Health and energy work: this is something I'm interested in. I'm not sure the best way to tackle this; I've read some recommendations about NEW energy ways; I've also just thought about going at it from a CM angle and doing an MPR every day.
-I'm only mildly interested in "practical magick." I figure on the occasion I need something I could cast a sigil and hope for the best; this is not a large concern for me.
-Back in the day I heard really good things about this: http://www.qryztufre.com/spell/solarl.html thoughts on that as part of my 20-30 minutes?

IE: The two primary goals are to build a solid foundation for later work in a path I become interested in, and promoting my own health/energy/life.

Please help me! I appreciate your knowledge and advice!

Please let me know if any further clarifications would help you help me more!

THANK YOU!
Wyell

[Hadit]

93.

Actually that amount of time is ridiculous to me because it's far too much time. Once you get better you could accomplish the same in about 1 minute. A good practice would be practicing adorations of the sun four times daily. It's easy to do and useful, doesn't require anything but a moment of peace. Also, find a way to remind yourself that every intentional act of Will is magick. Finally, remember to apply and reference the Law of Thelema in every aspect of your life.

[Rin]

30 minutes isn't much, you're right, but like you said, it can easily add up. Every moment of training and practice counts. Just make sure you dedicate yourself to a single system of training, with that amount of time, you won't get anywhere trying to diversify.

I'd recommend, as always, Franz Bardon's Initiation Into Hermetics. It's a full training manual, with instructions in meditation, energy work, practical magic and spiritual development which will take the practitioner all the way from an early aspirant to a magician adept, or higher. It's non-denominational, meaning no matter what your belief system is (bar atheism, I guess), it will fit in. And the book was written specifically for people who didn't have personal masters and/or didn't have hours a day to practice (although the exercises can be practiced for that long, if one chooses to). It's the perfect system for your situation. He also has two sequels, one about evocation (a complete guide to the ritual summoning of spirits) and one about kaballah (the real kaballah, that is, the construction of magical formulas to induce an effect, not the "pathworking the tree of life" stuff people think of when they hear the word these days).

If you do take it up, just remember to follow his instructions to the letter. A lot of people skip exercises or whole steps, or move forward before they completely master an exercise, and they grind to a halt in their progress, or even set themselves back.

I'd also recommend two guides written by people who've mastered the system. The first is ''Commentary on Franz Bardon’s 'Initiation into Hermetics'" by Frater Veos, and can be found as a free download with a quick google search. The second is "A Bardon Companion" by Rawn Clark, and can be found on amazon (along with Initiation Into Hermetics itself). The commentary is a bit more practical, while the companion is a bit more theoretical, but both have something to offer the student of Bardon's system of training.

Good luck!

[lupenthewolf]

Regardless of what path you choose to follow meditation forms a strong foundation for virtually every form of magickal practice. Even a few minutes of energy meditation can help you focus on other tasks more easily.

Also in my experience it isn't about the amount of time you put in, it's about the amount of effort. Even 30 minutes a day can be worth hours if you're truly invested in what you're doing [smile]

[corvidus]

Medical school is fairly hectic isn't it?

Maybe the best thing would be 30 minutes of blocking out all thought processes.
Might be a good balancing point, plus a clear mind, IMO, is part of foundation work

[LandOfShadows]

Hi,

The only system I follow is the XOYLO, my own system, had no Occult influence or background prior.

Here is a link to my publications: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/deoqx5y9exri ... Cmc2a?dl=0
All for free.

If you want hard copies you can find them on my Website.
As long as you find your Birth moon you only need to use that window, 3 days out of every moon cycle... Read the Basic teachings, then the Advanced.

The Magick in this system though is geared around ritual summoning, and it takes a calm mind, and an understand of your own mind.

LoS
Steve

[TheArchitect]

Guys, I just want to thank you all for your responses. I really appreciate the help. I'll try to address you each in turn:

-Land of Shadow
Thank you for your tip, but personally, I'm hoping to follow a system more within the "beaten path." Part of my goal is to limit my practice to 20-30 minutes but also keep it simple stupid. Unfortunately trying to grow along a separate and not as well beaten path is generally more complex and takes extra study and etc.
Btw, it freaks me out that your files are .exes and not pdfs or docs or whatever. Didn't want to download.

-Corvidus
Thanks for the reply! Med school is a b*itch ;-). Are/were you a med student too?
I've thought about doing just a basic meditation for those 20-30 minutes, but I really want to do something that involves some actual magick/energy work. Obviously meditation would have to be some part of that practice, but maybe with energy/ritual involved too.

-Lupen the Wolf
Same response as above about meditation.
Adding energy to the meditation, IE energy meditation, is a little more attractive to me. Do you have any resources/guides you'd suggest to get started on that? Thanks!

-Rin
Thank you for the suggestion of IIH. Personally, I have started that path before, and I think that's the defintion of what I tried to descrbie in my post. In order to advance, more and more and more time was required, to the point that I was trying to engage in the exercises for hours. In fact I think some of the exercises require you to do it for long lengths of time before advancement.
I would agree that it's probably an unparalleled resource for someone to learn magick, but that person simply has to have more time to devote than I do.
Btw, those follow along guides you suggested are great; I've been there before.

-Hadit
Thank you for your suggestions. i assure you, I definitely plan to do part of your suggestion, to keep in mind that each act of will is an act of magick! That's a good mindset to have.
Do you have a resource that explains more about the sun salutations?
I'll admit, I'm not totally in love with the sun salutations idea, just because my schedule can be so whacky and often times I won't get that free minute to do the salutations on time. However, maybe I can modify and try it?
Either way, I still want to have something I can come home to every night and sit down and practice for 20-30 minutes.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions! I hope you'll continue to entertain my plea for help here and help me nail down a good plan.
Thus far I'm most seriously considering some kind of energy medition for 20-30 minutes, running through an LBRP and MPR, NEW energy ways, sun salutations, and maybe a few other things.
Anyone have any more advice?

Thanks!

[Hadit]

93.

I understand the thing about schedules. What I do is about a minute meditation upon waking up, at noon, either at sunset or when my day is winding down, and then at midnight / bedtime, whichever comes first. I jus focus on the deity corresponding to the position of the sun and their attributes while doing some controlled breathing. Khepri to give thanks for waking up another day, Ra to tap into that endless creative energy, Atum the finisher of the world for the finish of my day, and Set who protects the sun during the night and it's battle against chaos

[LandOfShadows]

HI,

The exe files are flash compilers, virtual books, I used a Web program called Flipping Book to create them... They are safe.

Here is the site: http://flippingbook.com/presentation-examples/

The XOYLO system does have the opening of the lock ritual that you can do each day, this helps align your energy centers and open to energy around you.

Please at the very least check out the basics... If the exe files worry you that much then use the link in my signature that will take you to a post in this forum with the full books contents.

Steve.

[magari]

If your life is truly ruled by a schedule which prevents you from dedicating any decent amount of time to your practice then I recommend you scheduling some vacation time to explore whatever it is you need to explore.

Daily rituals can add up, but major leaps and bounds in progress will come a lot easier through perspectives and experiences that border on the extreme. This can be assisted by a major change in your setting, diet, sleep cycle, ect. Thats why I recommend a vacation.

[Shinichi]

Ignore what everyone else has said and focus on two things.

First, your schedule, as a matter of life-balance principle. If you really only have 30 minutes a day to do what you want, you seriously need to learn how to organize your time better. This isn't a jab, but is rather a serious suggestion. You don't have to cut out eight hours a day to focus on magic, but if you really like the arts then giving up a TV show to have an extra hour a day isn't that difficult or drastic a sacrifice. Yes, school is tough. I'm a student myself. But you see, magic is tough too.

Second, provided that you stick to your half-hour maximum, the best training track that I can suggest is this:

Step 1) Focus on Mental Discipline for a while. Since you've done Bardon, I highly recommend his step one meditations. Observe to relax the mind, Focus to sharpen the mind, and then Relax into Mental Silence. This sort of mental training will prepare you for more work later, and once you really learn it you can maintain it easily.

Step 2) Learn the fine art of Mental Projection, correctly. I highly recommend A Short Course on Scrying by Rowe, but only because you have experience and I feel that you will be able to handle the training. 30 minutes a day is more than enough for this practice, especially after doing sufficient Mental Discipline exercises (and preferably mastering the Step Two and Step Three Imagination Exercises of Bardon as well).

Step 3) Learn the fine art of Lucid Dreaming, correctly. In particular, learn how to fully enter your "Magic Place" created in Rowe's aforementioned training, so that as soon as you lay your head down upon your pillow you can enter directly into a fully lucid dream experience by quite simply stepping directly into the Inner World.

Once you have done this training (correctly), you will have every moment of sleep available to you for mental and psychic practice. Energy Work should be avoided, since Lucid Dreaming (and Mental Journeying thereafter) is a Mental experience that excludes your energy body, but a lot of occult work can be done like this. You can even do your homework, provided you remember to actually write things down physically upon waking the next morning. [wink2]

And once you have your dreams available to you, you will have your half hour to use on other practices -- like the energy work that you can't correctly do in dreams, or other things.



~:Shin:~

[Hadit]

93.

In other helpful advice, you should ignore anyone who storms in, tells you to ignore everyone else, and then let's their ego give a solo lecture.

On a side note, it's definitely a serious issue if you only have 30min free time. Forget occultism, that's bad from a psych 101 perspective.

[Shinichi]

In other helpful advice, you should ignore anyone who storms in, tells you to ignore everyone else, and then let's their ego give a solo lecture.

Ah, but there's a pleasant word game and mystery. "Everyone else," upon being read by someone other than myself, includes myself. [wink2] He should do what he decides, picking from whatever sources he finds useful for his aims.

Really though, don't take the little bits of life so seriously. Sometimes a storm is necessary, but the storm itself is doing nothing less than following its Will regardless of how others perceive it.



~:Shin:~

[Hadit]

In other helpful advice, you should ignore anyone who storms in, tells you to ignore everyone else, and then let's their ego give a solo lecture.

Ah, but there's a pleasant word game and mystery. "Everyone else," upon being read by someone other than myself, includes myself. [wink2] He should do what he decides, picking from whatever sources he finds useful for his aims.

Really though, don't take the little bits of life so seriously. Sometimes a storm is necessary, but the storm itself is doing nothing less than following its Will regardless of how others perceive it.



~:Shin:~

93.

I misinterpreted what you said and deeply apologize for my now rude response. Flaw of internet communication.

[RoseRed]

Shin is an advanced practitioner who has earned my respect.

In all seriousness - you can't go wrong with working on your meditative skills. I completely understand a hectic and busy schedule. I also believe that you are committed to doing what you can with the time that's available to you. This is a lifelong journey and a good meditative base is invaluable.

What to get started with? What are you drawn to? And what culture do you hail from?

[Rin]

Firstly, I'd like to say that I firmly maintain that Bardon's system can be practiced with half an hour a day (albeit at a slower pace than someone who practices more heavily), it just requires the rotation of exercises once you get beyond the first step.

Secondly, I'd like to back up Shinichi's first point - I'm sure you don't spend literally every waking moment except for 30 minutes a day working on your medical studies or performing activities to facilitate those studies. If you're truly serious about the spiritual path, then that means making sacrifices of your recreational activities (of which I'm sure you have at least some - nobody could handle med school if they did absolutely nothing but study). I'm sure the idea isn't appealing to you, but the spiritual path has always called for sacrifice and discipline. Maybe it means giving up one of the TV shows you watch, or cutting back on your (recreational) reading time or your social life, or even as a last resort waking or going to bed half an hour earlier/later (although eventually this will cease to be a problem, as a lot of genuine spiritual/energetic training systems will eventually reduce the amount of sleep you need). In short anyone can find time if they're willing to make the necessarily sacrifices, It's just a question of whether you can summon up the necessary discipline to do so - how much does this really mean to you?

There's another two systems I'd like to recommend, I posted this is another thread yesterday so I'll just copy it over, although I'll mention something that I didn't last time, as it didn't seem relevant - the Flying Phoenix Celestial Healing system is designed for spiritual development as well as improving your health and granting healing abilities. 3 months of practicing the basic set of exercises improved my clairvoyance more than over 2 years of the rest of my practices combined.

http://www.occultforum.org/forum/postin ... 2&p=487335

There are also energetic practices your friend's father could take up himself which could at least aid the healing process. I'd recommend looking into the N.E.W. (New Energy Ways) system by Robert Bruce, which can be found online as a free publication of 70 pages or so. There are further techniques in his book "Energy Work," which can be found on amazon as a paperback or ebook.

I'd also highly recommend this system of Chi Kung, the Flying Phoenix Celestial Healing Chi Kung system. It not only increases the health, strength and energy (both physical and spiritual) of the body like all genuine chi kung systems, but accumulates an energy and initiates internal alchemical processes designed specifically to increase health and longevity, I practiced the system myself for a few months and found it to be incredibly beneficial to my own health (although nothing so serious as cancer), and would continue to do so if I had time on top of the training of my current teachers. You can find an excellent set of DVD's which teach the system here: http://www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html and more information about the system (including extensive posting by the current lineage holder and teacher of the system) here: http://thetaobums.com/topic/12639-flyin ... 8437,d.dGY

[Shinichi]

Shin is an advanced practitioner who has earned my respect.

And here I thought I had a few more years to go before I got to that level. [razz] Oh well. Thank you. [blush]

As an aside, I also forgot to mention an important note: regardless of what you decide, Architect, 30 minutes a day is indeed enough to grow as long as it is 30 minutes every day. Consistency is the key to any genuine development of any art or study, and in the pursuit of such, 30 minutes every day for five years will yield you far more results than five hours once.

But I still think scheduling is important. [wink2]



~:Shin:~

[RoseRed]

You know me, Shin. I say what I think.

I agree that scheduling is very important.

I also happen to think that there is a level of devotion here that will outlast med school. So what if it takes an extra few years to reach a level of adept-ship. He's already following his Calling as a Healer. The rest is gravy.

I find it commendable, that even with this hectic schedule, that the OP is willing and has already cleared his schedule, so as not to neglect this aspect of his training. (If you're a girl - I'm sorry, I'll use her from now on - just let me know.) This isn't some teenager wasting time with video games or D&D. Priorities. He's made occult training one of them.

[TheArchitect]

I just want to thank you all for taking a few moments to reply and help me move forward. Lot's of good ideas here.

About my schedule. I just have to say that there are certain realities of being a medical student that necessitate a 30 minute/day promise. From a scheduling point of view, I just ask that people please don't question the scheduling situation. Unfortunately it has become an emotionally charged issue for me, because battling the medical school schedule has progressed to become one of the more bitter fights of my life. (Side note: don't ever go to med school; I would give a lot for a do-over card on that one.)
While there are certain rotations and situations where I may have more time, there are others where I often have to struggle to find 30 minutes. I don't want to get into it too much, because I don't want to feel any need to defend myself, but for example, a week ago, I spent every day from 4 AM to 7:30 PM at the hospital. Between the dog, sleep, studying, and my girlfriend (it just wouldn't be right to spend at least a little time together every night)... well, there wasn't much other time.
Other rotations (the current one) afford me more time.
But at the end of the day, this will be fairly unpredictable and variable for the forseeable future, so I looked at my schedule and feel strongly that I can commit a daily 30 minute period to magickal practices (perhaps at the hospital I can find time for some other things like a few breathing exercises or sun salutations and etc). And that's just that.

I LOVE the idea of developing skills in lucid dreaming, which would allow me to practice some magickal exercises at night. That would be an absolute game changer for me and would grant me several hours more every night. I will absolutely be looking deeper into that advice, Shin. Thanks!
Shin: Can you suggest any resources for the development of lucid dreaming skills? I would really appreciate some good resources! Thanks!

In any event, at the current time, I've more or less settled on working on some energy meditation skills for the next few months. Maybe with a foundation in that I'll be able to branch out a bit. I'm thinking I'll start with NEW then move up to energy meditation then take it from there. Then I'm not sure sure; maybe some CM style stuff? Does that sound like a decent idea?

Does anyone have any more advice?

Thank you again, all, for all for the tips. It has been incredibly helpful, and I welcome any more that anyone has.

[minervajane]

From what I've heard about med school, I give you credit for even thinking about doing anything else right now. School should be your primary focus for the time being, obviously, and you don't want to get over taxed. Meditation can help you get through it. If you don't mind a Buddhist flavor, here are lots of guided meditations to get you started. https://www.youtube.com/user/dhammalokameditation

Here are some that are 30 minetes http://www.dhammaloka.org.au/downloads/ ... -hour.html

Good luck:)

[Rin]

Energy work, and meditation to focus, control and clear your mind, are the foundation of pretty much every spiritual or magical system there is, so if you start with at least some form of those (either combined or separately) you can't go wrong. Even 15 minutes of each will add up over the years until you reach a point in your medical studies where you have more free time. There are also smaller practices like the solar adorations you mentioned (depending on where you go in terms of practice), imbuing food and water and auto-suggestion when you wake up and before you go to sleep that can be worked into your daily life without consuming almost any time at all.

(Side note: don't ever go to med school; I would give a lot for a do-over card on that one.)

It's never too late to think over your path in life. If scheduling is the sole issue and you sincerely want to devote your life to medicine*, then push through, but if your desire for a 'do-over card' is more than just the stress of med school, and you think you may not genuinely want to be a doctor, then perhaps you should stop and think about what you're doing with your life. I've met a lot of people who became a doctor for the wrong reason, and none of them were either particularly good doctors or especially happy people.

*And in most branches of medicine - other than maybe general practice or research -, it will be a devotion, with spiritual practices necessarily coming second, to a degree depending on where you want to go with medicine and especially if you plan on also having a family - speaking as someone who has several medical types in their family and has witnessed how much of their life it consumes.

Just a suggestion. And likewise, magic & spirituality are practices that require serious dedication if you want to reach the heights of what can be achieved, as opposed to being a more casual practitioner. If you're aiming for Adepthood, let alone Mastery, then it's going to take a long time, if it will be possible at all, practicing alongside a medical career, let alone one of the more time consuming medical career options.

I'm not saying you should just go drop out of med school tomorrow to devote yourself to studying magic/spirituality, just that these are issues you'll have to take into account if you plan on a medical career and also want to be a practicing magician/mystic. I get the impression you need to do some thinking about what it is you really want to do with your life.