I wanted to write a bit on utilizing magickal and natural forces around us. How to control these elements and process them with and without ritual. To a many witches/magick users, ritual and spells which are long and drawn out are not nessecary, you can cause magickal influences by force of will and knowlegde of the energies around you.
We must become one with our environment and our body to fully utilize the energies within and around us. there are many types of energies in all environament, elemental energies, human energies, spiritual energies and the straight magickal energy. Now to use these energies you must recognize that they are a part of you and you are a part of them. You can look within and feel them, hear them, and see them. They all flow on a stream and you can control where in that stream you want to be. To visualize the energies which are around you there are several simple thing you can do.
1) Close your eyes. Take several deep breaths trying to inhale that which is around. See what colors and images you see as you do this.
2) Hold your hands about 5 inches apart from each other. Force energy through your body, down your arms and into a ball between your hands. Feel what kind of energy it is and how it reacts with what is around you.
3) Hold your arms in front of you, palms facing up. Spread your fingers out and stand with you feet about a foot apart. Face the sky and draw energies into you third eye. Feel the divine voice and understand through that voice what energies are around you.
4) Ground yourself. Sit on the ground in the mountain position (on your knees with your feet under your bottom). Place your hands on your thighs and allow energies to enter your heart. Push these energies back out and try to see how your body has effected them. Balance yourself out with the energies around you and the energies within you.
5) Meditate on the energy stream which is around you and your place in it.
Now we must also understand what kinds of energy there are and how to identify them. Probably the easiest type of energy to identify (and thus the most often called upon) is elemental energy. I believe that every element has an opposite and a consort. (One it clashes with and can control it, and one it works well with and amplifies it) I also believe that the traditional five elements of the pentagram is out of balance and thus I have added a sixth one to the group to balance it out.
Now, to control these energies, you must be able to control their consort and their opposite as well. Their consort to fuel them and their opposite to control them. You can control elemental energies many ways, some are easier than others and some are more useful than others. You can control them through spells, rituals and other assorted types of magick (stone magick, rune magick, herbal magick, candle magick etc) but I am not going to focus on those.
The easiest way to use elemental energies (outside of tools and ritual) is to use your body as a channel for the energies around you. This can be difficult for some people, as some people are very closed off to outside energies and have a hard time letting other things flow through them. There are several ways to practice allowing elemental energies to flow through you. The best way to practice allowing other energies in it to connect yourself with one element at a time.
To connect with Earth practice grounding. Also sit in mountain position (you sit with your shins on the ground, resting your bottom on your heals/bottoms of your feet) and place on hand on top of the other (face up) and press the tip of your thumbs together. Place your hands close to your torso on your thighs. Close your eyes and relax. The earth energies should easily flow around you.
To connect with the Air elemental energies you should (sitting mountain position) make the 'OK' gesture with your hand and then place the tips of your middle finger together. Your palms should be facing up. Now breath in and bring your hand level with your chest as you do so. Breath out and turn your hands over and bring tham above your head. Breath in again and pull your hands back down to your chest. Turn your hands over and breath out as you pull your hands down to your thighs. Repeat this as nessecary.
To connect with the element of Fire you should (sitting in the same position) bend your arms to about a 90 degree angle. Make the "OK" gesture with your hands. Put your arms in front of you like you are trying to make a basket, do not let your finger touch. Breath in and visualize pushing energy from your heart around your body, following your right arm, jumping across the gap between your fingers, to your left arm and back to your heart. Repeat this.
To connect with the Water elements make your hands into a 'W' shape with your thumbs touching each other. Sitting in the same position as before, place your hands in the 'W' position on your knees. Make sure to beath in slow 'fluid' breaths. As you breath in, move your hands fluidly upward to about the level of the crown of your head. As you breath out fluidly move your hands back down to your knees. rest them there for one breath. Repeat.
Now, connecting with the Spirit elements is much much easier. Place your elbows by you side, bend your arms to a 90 degree angle with your palms facing up. Your forearms should be in front of you. You may rest them on your knees if you are sitting in a lotus position. Tilt your head toward the sky. Close your eyes and slowly lift your hands above your head. Slowly bring your hand back down being careful to keep your palm facing upward.
To connect with the elementals of Chaos is probably the hardest to do. Most people do not accept chaos as something useful or powerful, so they deny it into their body and lives. Now to connect with the elements of chaos you should sit with the bottoms of your feet touching each other in front of you in a circulare shape and your arms in the same position as that for fire. Slowly straighten your arms out in front of you as you breath out and bring them into your chest as you breath in. Return to the original position holding your breath.
Now, once you are familiar with these elemental energies, how they feel, what they do, how they react with your personal energies; you can try summoning them to you without using these exercises.
To do this, begin by trying to make 'balls' of elemental energy. The easiest way to accomplish this is to place your hands infront of you, palms facing each other and about four inches apart. Focus the energy between your hands. You should feel the same type of energy you were feeling when you did the excercises depending on what type you are calling. If you want to control the specific element more, call up the elements opposite as well. If you want to expand the energy, call it's consort.
OK. Now that you can channel these energies how can you use them? This is simple. Once you have learned to channel the energies easily, you can simple call upon them at any time and use their properties to aid you. You use the force of your will to make things happen. For example, instead of casting a long intricate rain spell, you simply channel the elemental energy of water and will it to rain. It is the same as casting a spell, but simpler and less time consuming. You can do this on the fly as well. You can call upon these energies to protect you, harm others, change weather, summon spirits etc.
