Auras
Everything and everyone has an aura. However, some have a larger(brighter) aura than others. Most auras you may encounter have 3 layers of color, with one usually being the most dominant. The three layers represent physical, emotional, and spiritual well being or state. Physical being the one closest to the body and spiritual being the furthest from the body. The thickness of the aura is determined by how someone may be feeling at the present time. For example, if an individual has a lot of pain and that is were their energy is being focused than their physical aura will be quite larger than normal.
Try This: Relax your mind completely and then relax your eyes by defocusing them. This is kind of like staring off into space. Allow your eyes to continue to relax and allow your mind to receive the images. With a piece of unlined white paper, place a penny in the center on a table. Try to determine the aura of the penny(usually green).
However, objects vary in color due to the owners that came in contact with them and how they felt at the time.
The more you practice, the easier it will be to train your eyes to defocus easily.
Sometimes the surroundings or clothing can effect your aura. When you begin practicing on a person's aura, you should be aware of several things. It would be best to do a reading outside in the daytime. The area of the head primarily is of the emotional well being and can sometimes be a different color than the rest of the body. You should try to see the aura of their hand for best results because it is not influenced by the colors of the clothing. You will want to record the auras as you see them. When you start seeing auras, ask the person how they feel emotionally, physically, and spiritually and where they believe their energy is being focused at currently. This will help you later to know when someone is sick or in trouble or even lying to you. Also when someone is pregnant the aura will change either by adding another layer of aura or an overlapping aura.
You can not only see auras, you can also feel auras(similar to feeling the stone's energy).
Try This: Hold your left hand up in front of you in a vertical position with palm facing right. Then with your right hand in front of you palm facing down. Move your right hand up and down slowly. Start very close to your left hand but not quite touching. You should be able to feel a light sensation on your palm. Continue by pulling further away from your left hand to see how far you can sense your aura.
If you are having difficulties defocusing your eyes you should try the following exercise.
Try This: Hold your hand up in front of you with palm facing towards you. Pull your hand closer to your face slowly until your eyes are forced to defocus. Now try to see the aura.
A candle flame is also another good one to try. The aura is very intense and quite vibrant. You may find it easier to turn the lights off and sit before the candle flame. Sometimes just relaxing will help you to see auras.
If you are finding that you still can not see the colors flowing off of people and objects, perhaps you can at least see energy patterns. Energy patterns exist everywhere and can be described as clear movement. In places where there is intense power the energy patterns would be much stronger than a place that has not been occupied or that has been cleansed.
Try This: Using some rubbing alcohol or another form of cleanser, place it on your counter top or table. With a wash cloth wipe down the table using slow strokes. Can you see the energy patterns changing where you have just cleaned?
Energy
Energy resides in everything and everyone. With a little practice you should be able to feel, see, and use this energy. Energy is directly related to magick, it is the fuel of spell working.
First, you must understand that white and black magick is a misconception. Black is not an evil color and white is not a holy color. Black is for use in banishing, creating new beginnings, and represents the night. White is used for purification, cleansing, and use with universal energy. Magick is neither evil nor good. It is manipulation of energy to change things to improve our lives or someone else's. Energy is neutral! If the energy is used for negative purposes it is not the magick that is evil, but rather the practicioner who is directing the energy. You are apart of the energy you send out, so it would be well advised not to send out negative or harmful energies.
Second, you must know and understand the Law of Three. -What you send out will come back to you times three. Which brings us to the scientific law that states "like attracts like". To even think about negative thoughts can cause the negativity to attract to you. Have you ever noticed someone who continually says how unlucky they are seems to have the worst luck? And also the opposite...those who are constantly lucky possibly believe they are. Are horseshoes really lucky or are they lucky because we believe they are?
Power of Stones
Stones have long been a source of true magick. They contain the power of divination, healing, aid in luck and love, and many more wonderful things. Stones can teach us so much about the world and its energies. Pick up a stone. Hold it in your left hand for 5 minutes, then place it in your right hand for 5 minutes. What do you feel? The hand you write with is your projecting hand and the other is your receiving hand. Holding the stone in your projective hand you can charge or empower the stone with your intent.
Try this: For example(you can try it with anything), if you want to bring love into your life. You would visualize love coming into your life while clasping the stone in your projecting hand until you feel a vibration coming from the stone.
To check a stone's obtained energies simply place the stone in your receiving hand. Do you feel a vibration radiating from the stone? You can easily cleanse a stone by placing it in a bowl of water with a little salt and then setting it out during a full moon. You should learn to feel the energy before you start to work with it. Your understanding of why things happen and the power of "knowing" it exists will make it that much easier for you to do successful spell work.
Quiz
1) Hold your hand up towards the sky(away from the sun). What do you see?
2) Place your hand against a blank wall. What do you see?
3) In the exercise, Seeing the Pennies Aura. Were you able to see the aura? If so what color(s) did you see?
4) Are you able to feel the vibrations of stones and/or other objects currently?
5) Have you successfully charged/empowered a stone?
Lesson 2
Grounding
Are you having trouble concentrating? Does your life feel chaotic? Are you forgetting things? If so, most likely- your mind, body, and spirit are out of balance. In order to re-focus your energies you will need to ground yourself.
Grounding is fairly simple. You'll need about 30-60 minutes of your time.
Try This: Sit on the floor and relax completely. Forget all of your problems, worries, and other things on your mind while you are grounding. You'll be able to handle your problems much better once your not so overwhelmed. Flow out all of your negative energies through your feet and hands by placing them flat on the floor. Your hands and feet may tingle some or you may feel a warm sensation, continue until you feel completely grounded and relaxed. Don't rush it!
When ever you are encountering a lot of energy you should always ground afterwards. If you don't you will be facing a lot of emotional problems including mood swings and unnecessary anger.
Other techniques include:
-touching a tree with both palms
-getting down on your hands and knees outside in the grass
-taking a cleansing bath with bath salts or swimming in the ocean.
Meditation
Meditation can be done by most anyone, although some individuals have difficulty. Difficulties may range from lack of visualization techniques to over active thought and inability to focus. You should search for the meditation that works best for you. For instance, here are some techniques:
-simply sit at a table with a candle lit in front of you. Concentrate on the flame and add a chant that best suits your meditation session.
-sit outside. Close your eyes and listen to just the sounds of your surroundings and clear all your thoughts.
-lay down and visualize your body being in one of the elements and being apart of it at the same time. For example, visualize your body being surrounded by water. Feel the gentle wave of the ocean rippling around your body. Picture any place of water that you would be the most comfortable in.
-visualize yourself taking on an animals body. For example, a bird soaring above the clouds with the wind carrying you through the sky.
-let your mind wander and take on its own journeys.
***You can also try guided meditations for spiritual and emotional healing, where a person walks you through a step-by-step journey of visualization to heal any spiritual and emotional pain.
Visualization
The key to all magick lies in your ability to focus and build the energy. You must concentrate on your visualization to accomplish this. For some, this is an easily done task but for many it requires lots of practice to strengthen the minds eye. You should try simple colors and shapes before getting into more complex spell work.
Try This: Close your eyes. Visualize a red ball. Then begin changing the color to orange and then to yellow and so on. (green, blue, indigo, violet) Continue practicing this until you can do it with ease...then try it with shapes. (triangle, square, rectangle, heart, etc.) Once your minds eye has been developed or if you can already due this easily you should try the following exercise.
Try This: Take any ordinary picture or photograph. Concentrate on the picture for about a minute or until you have the details memorized. Close your eyes and try to hold the image(s) in your head for as long as you can. Try again and try to have more detail in your image then the first time.
Now the next exercise will involve the movement of an object. You will need to be able to visualize movement in order to perform some spell work were an action needs to take place. For example, if you want to lose weight...you should visualize the area that you would like to lose weight in and see it going from present to reducing to how you would like it to be.
Try This: Visualize shaking hands with someone you know well and can easily picture. See your hand moving towards that person and the other person's hand moving towards you. Visualize shaking the person's hand and pulling your hand back at your side.
Quiz
1) After the Grounding exercise, how did you feel?
2) Are you able to focus at least one type of meditation for an entire session (30-60 minutes)?
3) Do you have any difficulties focusing color visualizations?
4) How detailed can you visualize? a whole picture? only 1 object or person in the picture?
5) In the visualizing movement exercise, were you able to visualize it as if you were watching a movie right in front of you?