The Wand posture is assumed and the Rousing of the Citadels is performed. In the visual imagination Nephesh-substance is ejected from the region of the upper abdomen and the astral key-figure, or whatever shape is to act as Watcher, is formulated. I tend to make mine look like a simple sphere, about the size of a basketball, with the addition a pair of skinny arms by which it might make signs or indications to me.
By an act of will this is sent to wander about the glyph in a predetermined route, after the manner of any ordinary charging, beginning at an appropriate place and ending with the point of the Sun. It may require some explanation to get the point of the matter across to the Nephesh, and in service of that, a map with the glyph marked upon it may profitably be used. When once the Watcher has been satisfactorily despatched to its destination, the operator must detach his attention from the matter. He can very well go about his ordinary occupations, until the time comes at which he has determined to recall the Watcher.
It would be wise for the individual, upon first making the attempt of this formula, to send this Watcher out to a specific location for a short period of time and to report what is found there in much the same manner as the original formula dictates. After a few tries with this, the Watcher could be sent out for a trip once 'round the glyph, being instructed to take note of anything that seems much out of the ordinary. If this does not prove too taxing, the magician might instruct the Watcher to take a number of spins around the Glyph, taking care to carve a nice, neat path in the astral as it is done. If six or seven such circumambulations do not tire the magicians, then this can be considered a good number. Experiments will need to be conducted to see just how long it takes for the Watcher to accomplish these tasks.
For the recall, the operator should take the Wand posture, facing in that direction to which the Watcher was despatched. The Rhythmic Breath is established, and the Watcher mentally summoned. Then, in the visual imagination, the figure is to be made to reappear, and is to be brought to rest about eight to ten feet from the operator; it is then to be re-absorbed by the usual method. Remaining in the Wand posture, the operator repeats the Rousing of the Citadels. The Setting of the Wards is not employed in connection with this formula.
Now follows the reviewing of whatever impressions the Watcher has gained. The God-form posture is most suitable for this purpose. Sitting quietly, and re-establishing the Rhythmic Breath, he simply allows impressions to rise into his conscious mind. Until he is experienced in this method of gaining knowledge, the operator is likely to be disturbed by the fact that the impressions coming to consciousness have no sure mark of their origin: they might come from his imagination, they are fairly certain at first to stimulate and to be coloured by his imagination, and he is unsure what value to set upon them.
The only remedy for this state of uncertainty is the usual procedure of the magical student: to record faithfully and at once, then later if and when opportunity offers to make comparison with objective fact. Where discrepancies occur, judgment should be reserved. The difference may be due to a simple error, or some other factor may have caused it. Here the intention of limiting perceptions to the terrestrial level should be of help, but it is to be recognised that until the operator has full control of the method, other levels may intrude, whether at the Watcher's end of the experiment or at the operator's. None the less it is of great value to overcome these early difficulties by practice. If persevered with, this Formula can be brought to a stage where much can be learned by means of it.
If the operator prefers not to use the key-figure, the Watcher may be formulated as a simple sphere. The use of animal shapes for the Watcher is to be avoided by any below Adept status:- the less advanced would most likely choose the form of a creature for which his own instinctual nature had an affinity, whether known or not to his conscious mind: this affinity might cause unintended powers to be transmitted to the Watcher from dark and primitive recesses of the lower Nephesh, so that the Watcher would then act with some degree of volition and would continue to grow in strength as it drew in more Nephesh-substance, Experience shows that such invariably become malicious. (These comments have no reference to the adoption of animal forms as transformations of the astral vehicle during Helionic projection, when the conscious mind is present with the astral vehicle and is in full control of it.)
When the student has become thoroughly habituated to the use of the Formula of the Watcher already given, and to those further efforts recommended above, another and considerably more advanced practice may be undertaken. For this to be successful, the student must be quite accustomed to the procedures, not only of sending forth and recalling the Watcher, but also of passively bringing into consciousness the impressions gained therefrom.
In this second practice, the gathering of impressions takes place very much as we have described it, but before the recall of the Watcher, so that the operator can in fact keep pace with impressions as the Watcher receives them. The one necessary caution here, is that these impressions should continue to be passively received as they arise within the mind, avoiding any direction of the attention towards the Watcher until it is to be recalled.
This article is adapted from Formula of the Watcher, which can be found in Mysteria Magica (Llewellyn) by Melita Denning and Osbourne Phillips. It has been changed only slightly to accomodate the needs of the project at hand.
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