Taking inspiration from @RavenClaw, this will be my journal for working through the OAA Discourses of EA Koetting.
I have casually been practicing some of the exercises off and on for years. The initial meditation exercise is also found in EA’s early book, Works of Darkness, and the second exercise is also in the Soul travel course so I’ve practiced them when I worked through those.
However, I haven’t been consistent enough to actually get to the point of taking the Flames. I want to change that. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of the Discourses that has the seal of a Baron of the Eighth Flame drawn on the inside cover in goat’s blood so I want to at least get to the point of evoking him.
Woke up at 445 AM this morning, and after fitfully rolling around trying to get back to sleep for another couple of hours, I decided that if more sleep wasn’t in the cards, then this would be a perfect time to practice the first OAA exercise.
I carry a lot of physical tension in my body, and I mean a lot. My muscles are stiff enough to practically be body armour at this point, and I have never found the simple breathing pattern of the exercise (breathe in, hold the air and gather all tension in the chest, before exhaling) to be sufficient enough to relax me so I did EA’s cloud exercise (found in his book Questing After Visions as well as the BALG soul travel video course) as a preliminary step to remove surface tension before the exercise proper.
I could not see the black mist against the darkness of my room, but I could feel it all around me. In the past when I have done this mediation, I have had to force the vision to form, but this time, I had barely brought my room into inner focus when I felt the sensation of something pressing in on me. After focusing my awareness on the feeling, I noticed my hands in my inner sight had a silver glow. Interesting. I’ve never seen that before.
After focusing on the sensation of pressure upon my skin for a few minutes, I decided to drop it, and move onto the second exercise, visualizing a pendulum. I cleared my inner sight and the awareness of pressure against my skin went away. I then brought the image of a golden pendulum, like what you would see in a grandfather clock, into my mind’s eye and watched it swing for several minutes. I have difficulty accurately judging the passing of time so I’m not sure exactly how long I was able to maintain the pendulum before my mind started to alter it to keep its interest. I think it was probably two or three minutes or so.
Performed the initial meditation exercise before bed. I still couldn’t see the black mist against the darkness (which was odd because I could see my hands clearly in my inner vision) but I did become aware of its presence around me. When I breathed in, instead of the mist coming closer to my skin, my hands started to fade out, like they were being absorbed into the darkness around them. It was kind of neat, but also a bit strange. I’ve done this meditation many times before and have never seen this effect.
After about five minutes of focusing on the mist, I cleared my inner vision and began exercise two, visualizing the pendulum. I was able to hold it for approximately four minutes this time.
Hey brother @DarkestKnight , Rory here, if you remw.bwe me… im curious.
What would it take fo a magician such as myself ( after loosing 100% of my items grimioras, and any sort of achievwment attained and prestiege of certain currents and had pride in my sacred spaces ( indoor and 1 outdoor). Both of which seemed pricelesa to me with the valuable and rare grimiores and ready for certifies initiation and achievwmwnt theough spellwork, meditation and the developing energy bodies with my pahysical implementation t
The prime aspect unto which jad the most considerable control over the rest of my multidimensional self . Mosy consisting of my body of darknesss, with removed chackras, my mental body of light and the inner daemon tbat had the strength and memories of alll incarnations and knowledge untill the day qhen it is needed to fully compose all of that eneegu what consosists pf ( I). I STILL HAVE SOO MUCH MORE TO ACCOMPLISH BUT THE SMALL TRANSITIONS THAT I HAVE HAd, has motivated me right back wheee i want tho be and look forwaes to looking at it
I guess my question was how coulld i get my hands on the material needed to begin working with this path @DarkestKnight if you dont mind me asking. Lol
Performed the first exercise. Once again, there was no visual of the black mist, only a sense of presence. The book says to perform this exercise in either total darkness or by candlelight but I think i will try it next in daylight. It’s easy to become aware of the sentient darkness when you’re sitting in darkness, but it’s not so easy in the bright light of day. If I really want to see if I have mastered the exercise, I should be able to sense the darkness even in the blazing sun.
After becoming aware of the darkness for a few minutes, I cleared my mind and moved on to the next exercise, the pendulum. This time, I set a timer and was able to hold the image for seven minutes. Those seven minutes were not completely without deviation, as my mind kept trying to alter the tempo of the pendulum’s swing, but I was able to keep it fairly steady nonetheless. I think I’ll be able to move to the next exercise soon, once I can hold the pendulum for ten full minutes.
However, the third exercise involves charging candles and I will have to order some in the required colours. I may move on to the fourth exercise while I’m waiting for my candles to arrive.
Performed the first exercise in a pitch black room at one-thirty in the morning. Again, no visuals of the black mist but there was the unmistakable feeling of presence. I felt like I was being observed by multiple beings and it felt like they were standing over me as I sat in my chair in the darkness.
I also had the distinct sensation of something around my head, like I was wearing a hat. It felt heavy, and my ajna was pulsing.
After a few minutes of being observed in the darkness, I cleared my mind and went onto the next exercise, the pendulum. Usually, my mind chooses a simple gold pendulum, like that of a grandfather clock, but this time I got a ruby pendant, and it immediately brought to mind one of my first servitors, a buxom woman who wore a hypnotic gem around her neck to help facilitate trance. I tried really hard not to let the pendulum morph into me staring at her…um…assets.
After about five or seven minutes of visualizing the pendulum, I let it fade away and brought myself back up into waking consciousness. The heavy sensation around my head slowly faded as I watched some cartoons to come down.
Performed exercises one and two. Really felt the darkness pressing in on me but still no visual of the black mist. After being aware of the darkness for a few minutes, I cleared my mind and visualized the pendulum. The image was back to the gold pendulum rather than the ruby pendent it was last time and I was able to hold it for ten minutes.
I ordered some small holders for the beeswax candles I have from etsy and they came in today so I feel I am now ready to move on to the third exercise.
