Sphere of Protection and Eastern Exercises

[ecosophia]

A project that I'm currently working on for publication is a manual of occult theory and practice for the beginning and intermediate student. This isn't a book about magic -- it's occultism in the sense found in Manly P. Hall and The Kybalion, the quest for wisdom and revelation through study of occult lore and practice of meditation and certain other related disciplines. The one ritual that plays a central role in it is the Sphere of Protection -- and thereby hangs a tale. 

One of the things that was just beginning to happen back in the waning years of classical American occultism's golden age was that certain  Asian exercises were beginning to find a home in the occult repertory. That's a process that deserves to be restarted, because (for complex historical reasons) Europe and the European diaspora lost their subtle-body exercises a long time ago, while Asia kept the traditions going. Since occult training (as distinct from magical training) doesn't involve circulating energy through subtle centers in the body -- the thing that can produce messy results when you mix it with Asian ways of doing the same thing -- it should be possible to combine occult training with practice of some of the more widely available Eastern exercise systems. 

"Should be possible" is a shaky reed to lean on, though. Thus I'd like to ask for some help from my readers. 

I know a fair number of readers of mine have taken up the Sphere of Protection as a regular practice, using either The Druid Magic Handbook or my posts here on Dreamwidth as a guide. I know that some of you also practice eastern exercises or physical disciplines such as yoga. What I want to know is whether you've noticed any interaction at all between regular practice of the SoP and regular practice of Eastern movement arts, including but not limited to: 

• Aikido
• Hatha yoga
• Karate
• Shintaido
• Tai Chi Chih
• Taijiquan

I've been able to experiment with Shintaido and Tai Chi Chih myself. (For those who aren't familiar with these, Shintaido is a movement art derived from martial arts, which was devised by Hiroyuki Aoki in the 1960s -- link here -- and Tai Chi Chih is a set of energy exercises created by taijiquan teacher Justin Stone in the US in the 1970s -- link here. I ended up exploring both of these after my magical practices and my practice of one of the old, very qigong-heavy taijiquan styles interacted badly and messed up my health; Tai Chi Chih is my current daily movement exercise.)  Your experience may be different from mine, though, so if you've worked with either of these and the SoP, I'd be grateful for your comments -- and if you've done something else along with the SoP, please consider telling me all about it!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

What kind of evidence is there that there were European subtle-body exercises which have since been lost? Are there historical records of some kind?

~Bewilderness

[ecosophia]

We know from various surviving sources that some form of dance was practiced for spiritual purposes by Pythagoreans in ancient Greek times, and that this was taken up by the Neoplatonists. Given that martial dances were an important part of ancient Greek military training, I think we can equate those dances to martial arts katas, and thus the dances of the philosophers make sense as movement exercises. Dance as an element of spiritual practice survived in various heretical Western religious movements into the Reformation era, but as far as I know the details have not survived. That's the most obvious evidence for a European tradition of subtle-body exercise.

[ill_made_knight]

I'm not a regular practitioner of the SOP, I do however do something similar. In what I do, I usually have complimentary movements for each 'station'. The ones I use are mostly of my own making as a result of contemplation for each. There are movements/gestures/poses in some of the above mentioned systems that are tied/related/correspond with the elements/six directions. A routine could be made up of those movements for each, for both the casting and contemplative work.

[ecosophia]

Duly noted!

SOP & Yoga: all good!

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, JMG. Interesting research project!

I have been practicing SOP for over 5 years now (funny now that I think of it, I don’t clearly recall when I started it). At the time that I started SOP, I had been practicing Yang-style t'ai chi ch'uan daily for a few years, and after about a year of doing both, the combination manifested poorly for me. I therefore stopped t’ai chi entirely. Then a couple of years ago, I decided to get back into a daily yoga practice: “sun salutations” immediately following SOP early in the morning, and other yoga postures in the evening. (I’m not sure if this is relevant, but my SOP is directed to Hindu gods, which may further harmonize with yoga’s Hindu roots). I have found the SOP/yoga combination to be very harmonious at all levels.

I’m curious to see what the final result of this research will be…


Ron M

Re: SOP & Yoga: all good!

[ecosophia]

Many thanks for the data point! I'd had the sense that hatha yoga ought to be compatible with the SoP, based on comments made by some of the elderly AODA members I knew some years back, but it's helpful to have it confirmed.

[grandswamperman]

Is this the system you mentioned a few months ago that uses the Sacred Geometry Oracle?

[ecosophia]

Bingo. It will include a recommendation -- not a requirement -- that students of the system take up one out of a set of movement exercises as a complement to the training.

[(Anonymous)]

I do aikido as well as the SoP. My first note is that they seem to draw on a similar set of subtle muscles, and so doing one right before the other makes the later one feel harder: I find it works much better to space them by at least a few hours. In my case, aikido in the morning, SoP in the evening works wonderfully, but others may find different things work for them.

I'd personally recommend doing both to those interested: the relaxation exercises in aikido work wonders for the SoP and meditation; while the SoP makes perceiving and working with ki much easier.

[ecosophia]

Many thanks for this! That's helpful to know.

[ecosophia]

A reminder to all -- please do not use profanity when commenting on this journal! I got a little lax about that over the last month, and inevitably the swear words have started popping up like mushrooms. If you made a comment and it doesn't appear, that's because I can't wash its mouth out with soap... ;-)

[(Anonymous)]

If I may say something slightly off topic. One of the things that has helped me the most so far from reading your work, besides the massive amounts of top-rate information regarding a vast amount of topics, is the way you say it and how you promote politeness. I just had a conversation with someone whose views were as opposite as it can be from mine and I had a wonderful time! I think most of the profanity and snarl-wording has laziness as its source...
open_space

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

Does the occult training that you have in mind exclude softcore magical practices like creative visualization, scrying and divination?

[ecosophia]

No, not at all. It will specifically include divination, and scrying works so well with discursive meditation that it would be a shame to include one and not the other. ;-) It will also include instruction in the use of affirmations, so creative visualization should go well with it. Since the core theme of the work is wisdom, rather than power or love (the goals of magic and mysticism respectively), it primarily focuses on the awakening of subtle perceptions and the attunement of the mind to spiritual realities, but some techniques for dealing with practical problems will also be included -- and the things you've mentioned fall into that category.

[(Anonymous)]

"Yogi Ramacharaka" has a nice book on Hatha Yoga ( http://www.yogebooks.com/english/atkinson/1904-08hathayoga.pdf )

Most likely, this book has nothing much to do with real Hatha Yoga per se, but I'm sure that it is compatible with Western occult training, given the background of its author.

[ecosophia]

It has precisely nothing to do with real Hatha Yoga per se, but that's Atkinson's style all over -- he packaged a very solid manual of basic Western physical culture training in an appealing and exotic label to get people to take it seriously. Peter Kelder's The Eye of Revelation, the book that introduced the "Five Tibetan Rites" to the occult scene, is another good example of the species.

[causticus]

Energetically speaking, what's the difference between traditional Tai Chi and Tai Chi Chih?

[ecosophia]

Traditional taijiquan was designed by Taoists to include patterns that set up very specific patterns of subtle energy movement within the body and concentrate energy in specific places. That's why it includes so many asymmetrical movements, and so many movements that have to be modified in significant ways to use in a martial context -- it's the preparatory training for a great deal of Taoist energy meditation. That's what makes it problematic for those who are doing a different kind of training.

Tai Chi Chih, by contrast, is designed to produce a general flow of vital force through the body, not concentrating it anywhere. The movements are simple and repetitive, and you do them on both sides, so the practice is symmetrical. Perhaps the best way to describe the difference is that Tai Chi Chih opens up the channels and lets the vital force flow through them however it wishes, while taijiquan pumps the vital force here and there under pressure.

[ecosophia]

Thuley (offlist), many thanks for your comments. Did you mean to send them as personal messages rather than posts to this entry? That's the way they came through...

[(Anonymous)]

Is it possible to reconstruct Western subtle-body exercises by using one of the following ways (or both)?

1 - Receiving psychic instruction from some inner plane adepts who had lived before the extinction of these exercises and practiced them.
2 - Studying the visual depiction of body postures in ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman temples.

[ecosophia]

You'd probably have to combine both those methods with a lot of personal experimentation, but yes, that should be possible. Are you interested in giving it a try?

[(Anonymous)]

Good evening JMG, This is SundaraYogaShala and I wrote in awhile back about combining various yoga practices with the polytheistic LBRP and the MP. All continues to work out very well and like some of the other commentators I always practice the two with a space of several hours in between and usually something hearty to eat.

A couple of weeks ago on MM someone recommended the book “Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha” by Swami Satyananda Saraswati teaching the Bihar method of yoga. I would like to strongly second that recommendation as an irreplaceable treasure trove of actually useful information. For years I have taught absolute beginners yoga and this is my go-to source. One of the things I like to teach my beginners is to feel and really wrap their heads around the presence of their energy body. The Pawanmuktasana series of mindfulness exercises at the beginning of the book excel at this. They are simple, powerful, easy to remember and anyone can do them. It’s all about linking the breath with the movement and paying attention. For example “padanguli naman” is toe bending...inhale and bend your toes toward you, exhale and bend them away. Fairly quickly they are understanding how our energy body is responsible for the twinkle in our eyes and what feels so good after a good laugh. And from there of course , it’s endless how we can work with the energy body, make it healthier and perhaps move onto to more specific energy work 😉

Also before I had mentioned bringing focused energy into other parts of the body than only the heart center (especially in my ashtanga class!) slowly over time. At the end of every practice I “namaste” and make eye contact with each student and then thank them. Lately after I “namaste” they have begun to spontaneously “namaste” and thank each other 😀. Nice to see some egos coming down and being replaced with a little comraderie.

Your project is very exciting and I look forward to learning more as it progresses Namaste to you fine teacher!

[ecosophia]

Many thanks for this! I'm glad to hear you're continuing to have good results with the fusion of yoga and Western magic -- and with teaching beginners to experience their vital bodies. That's crucial these days, especially.

[ecosophian]

Dear Archdruid,

I don’t have an insightful comment on Eastern exercise systems. But I do want to remark on your comment “Since the core theme of the work is wisdom, rather than power or love (the goals of magic and mysticism respectively) …”.

This trinity: Wisdom, Power and Love immediately reminded me of the myth of the Apple of Discord and the Judgement of Paris, where Paris, Prince of Troy, was appointed by Zeus to select the fairest Goddess among Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. The goddesses attempted to bribe Paris. Hera offered political power; Athena promised infinite wisdom; and Aphrodite tempted him with the most beautiful woman in the world. We all know what Paris chose and how it ended for him and his home city.

I think the chief lesson of this myth is to make us choose one goal in life and focus on achieving it with our limited resources (and mind the consequences). But I also think it’s a bit of a false trichotomy, because you need all three in your life e.g. what’s good in having all the wisdom in the world if you don’t have power to change anything?

So, in reality we all find a balance between these three goals, ending up as a point inside a triangle between these three values. The same goes for all the different schools of occult training. It would be interesting to see a chart of where each school lands. But I don’t have the knowledge to make such a diagram. Still I feel the thought was interesting enough to share it. Thank you for taking the time to read it.

[ecosophia]

Oh, granted. I tend to think that we choose a path based on what we need most, and pursue it in the hope of filling in gaps and coming into balance.

[(Anonymous)]

Did the overemphasis on ceremonial magic (rather than balanced occultism) in classical Golden Dawn contribute to its fragmentation?

[ecosophia]

I think it was something much more specific. The Golden Dawn degree system was keyed to the Tree of Life, so that each initiation corresponds to one of the spheres. That was fine as long as it stayed within the part of the Tree that represents the realities that most human beings can experience -- the four lowest spheres. The Adeptus Minor ritual, though, was keyed to Tiphareth, which is a level of consciousness most of us achieve briefly once or twice in a life if we get there at all. (The experience of the Tiphareth level is what is usually called "enlightenment.") If you invoke the influences of a level of consciousness you can't reach or can't sustain, what you get is its unbalanced reflection lower down, and the unbalanced reflection of Tiphareth lower down is egomania.

So the GD ended up with an Inner Order full of people whose egos had been stimulated in a very unhealthy way, and explosions followed. Many of the post-Golden Dawn groups, such as Dion Fortune's Society of the Inner Light, kept the methods of training and practice but replaced the degree system with one that wasn't keyed to the Tree, and the result was they didn't have the same problems.

Hatha yoga

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,
I have practiced hatha yoga for something like 20 years now and the SOP for about five, I think. I have not found any problem doing both.
Maxine

Re: Hatha yoga

[ecosophia]

Many thanks for this! A useful data point.

[(Anonymous)]

Don't know if this is too late since there's another post up, but I've been doing a daily Sphere of Protection along with a biweekly qigong class every week. So far it's been going great, but then I am a novice at both so who knows. The advice of my qigong teacher when I asked about this was to ask the powers or deities I invoke in the Sphere of Protection for only the level/degree of energy that would be most beneficial and least harmful for me.

[ecosophia]

Many thanks for this. No, it's not too late.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

I do the SOP daily and do yoga 4-6 times a week. In general, I do yoga before the SOP and I notice that on yoga days I tend to be more open and aware of the energies of the SOP than on non-yoga days. The sort of static-electricity feeling in my hands tends to be stronger on yoga days, too. The two seem to work well together for me.

Maria

[ecosophia]

Thank you for the data points!

Karate, SOP

[(Anonymous)]

I've done Shotokan Karate and the SOP, both about twice weekly for a few months. So by no means super intensive, but I've noticed zero interaction between them.

Before that I spent quite some time doing the 9 Hazels qi gong and the SOP daily. The 9 Hazels seems to increase the effects of the SOP, and I used it as warm-up before doing it.

Just one data point, but there it is.

Kind regards,
Brigyn

Re: Karate, SOP

[(Anonymous)]

If I may, I second the comment about 9 Hazels qigong and the SOP. I’ve done the 9 Hazels directly before the SOP and felt that it enhanced the SOP. I’ve tried a 5-element qigong sequence before SOP and found it pretty neutral--no help, no hindrance.
I had some chat with Adam Robersmith about this on the AODA forum, and he specifically designed the 9 Hazels to be balanced in terms of yin and yang energy currents. It may just take trial and error to find out which qigong sequences will help and which could harm. I like qigong very much and would hate to give it up.
One of my main TSW experiences was actually an unpleasant interaction between the SOP and other energy experiences I had one weekend. I had attended a kundalini yoga class one Saturday morning, then a “gong meditation” experience on Sunday morning where someone played a large gong for an extended time. It may have been a couple days later that I did the SOP, and when I got to Spirit Below I began to feel really nauseous and dizzy. If I even thought about continuing to Spirit Above the feeling got worse, and I was sure I was about to toss my cookies. So I stopped the SOP, and recovered pretty quickly. Since then, I’ve done the SOP with no problem--but I haven’t done either kundalini yoga or anything involving loud, extended vibrations such as a gong.

Karate and LRM

[(Anonymous)]

Hello!

How about interactions between LRM and eastern movement arts? Is that of any relevance.

Thanks!

Re: Karate and LRM

[ecosophia]

It's not specifically relevant to the project I'm working on at the moment, but it's worth knowing more generally, since I want to encourage Western occultists to explore appropriate Eastern arts. What's your experience been like? Please fill me in!

[(Anonymous)]

Here is an interesting research on the relations between Taoism and Western esotericism:
http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeVI/Dao.htm

[ecosophia]

Thanks for this.

[(Anonymous)]

Before I continue, I'm reminded of the old joke: how many tai chi students does it take to change a light bulb? Ten... One to change the bulb and the other nine to say, "that's not how my instructor taught me to do it".

I'm not sure, John. I've learned tai chi - I've won medals and trophies performing it - and I feel that maybe there was something wrong with the way you were taught (cue joke above). I consider myself a Taoist martial tai chi practitioner, which means I'm learning with a specific goal in mind. I have no ken with the more flowy, "wushu" type tai chi that one sees in most tournaments and YouTube videos :D. The (adapted) Yang style I practise is very specific and its principles mirror very much what Justin Stone seems to say, except for that finger fluttering, which is very disturbing to me. I don't want to bore your readers, but the hand movement isn't just a hand movement, there's still the potential for, and understanding of, movement even when the hand is still. For me, the fluttering implies a "LACK of flow" of chi, a blockage if you will, which is easily solved with the right mindset driving the right physical movements. I'm sorry, but that's the best I can do...it's difficult to explain in words.

Having said all that, I learnt that what I was doing was very much "Tai Chi Chuan + Qi Gong" (almost 30 years' practice) and not this Tai Chi Chih variant. I haven't felt any contradiction with the SoP (14 months' practice, still early days). My pantheon is Greek but with Taoist deities for Spirit Below/Above/Within and I have felt some response from them, so don't believe I'm meandering down a dead alley here.

Of course the Tai Chi I practise isn't "pure", if one can define what that actually means after all this time. But it harks back to the original purpose of Tai Chi, which is a very effective martial art. I was fortunate in having an incredibly gifted sifu, who combined high intellect and "breath" with the kind of streetwise smarts one can only wish for. I doubt I'll see his ilk again. (This one's for you, Keemo.)

[ecosophia]

If it works for you, great -- but I'm by no means the only person I know of who had bad results from combining them. The taijiquan I learned, for what it's worth, was the old Yang form taught by Tchoung Ta-Tchen -- here's a video of part of his form I learned it from his student Andrew Dale and Andy's student Gene Burnett. The training involved quite a bit of qigong, especially zhang zhuan, Emei MOuntain qigong and Tian Shan qigong.

The "fluttering hands" business seems to be a recent addition to the practice of TCC, btw -- the teacher I learned it from didn't teach it, and neither did Justin Stone's books. It's not something I do.

Okinawan Karate and the SoP

[fudoshindotcom.wordpress.com]

Apologies for the late response, JMG.

While it never came up in discussion during my time in the Dolmen Arch course, I experienced a distinct conflict between the SoP ritual and my karate practice which wasn't immediately apparent.

This dissonance became more overt as my spiritual practice evolved until, after receiving ordination in the GCC, I was compelled to discontinue martial arts training entirely.

Off the top of my head I would say the dissonance resulted from a difference in the intentionality with which energy is projected.

Having practiced Okinawan karate for the better part of four decades I feel qualified to say that though containing a solid philosophy of non-aggression, physical techniques are trained with the intent to cause injury. In fact, in the system I studied, blocks were meant to injure the attacking limb preventing further attack.

This is far different from the SoP, which I understand as creating a barrier that simply redirects any imbalanced or
negative influence contacting it.

Until now I had thought the decision to stop karate training had solely to do with a change in my personal life philosophy and the desire to leave the violence of earlier years behind me. Perhaps there is more to it than that.

Anyway, I hope this is of some use to you and if you have any questions please feel free to email me at vdc9119@aol.com.

Equinox Blessings,
Will

Re: Okinawan Karate and the SoP

[ecosophia]

Hmm! Fascinating. Thanks for this.

Friend of mine

[(Anonymous)]

who is a very serious Thelemic mage was also very serious traditional tai-chi student (also good enough to spar with it against other styles, I've seen videos of him doing so, so it's not hearsay.) Seems to have worked out fine for him, though it is also true he hasn't practiced tai chi regularly in years. But he was doing both at the same time for many years, and those were the years he was doing his primary intiatory work as a mage.

Greetings

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

You'd mentioned one of the reasons for body dysmorphia could be the increase in population causing more rapid rebirth, causing people to get confused.

I'm just wondering that for this to be true, dysmorphia should be more or less equally prevalent across the world, as people are being born all the time, but it seems to be related to culture. It makes me think it is more of an astral phenomenon? As the ideas spread to other cultures, dysmorphia becomes more common there too.