littledoomwitch:

hello, friends and amigos. we’re going to make a big post about how we all get into the astral. if you don’t see your way up here, tell me and I’ll add it to the original. this is an accumulation of all the ways I know, have been told, and make sense to me. SO LET’S HAVE FUN.

there are four main ways to go about entering the astral planes.

• Meditation – exactly what it says on the box. the act of sitting down and relaxing yourself to the point where you’re spending long periods of time completely thoughtless. this act is said to calm the physical body to the point where the spiritual one can break free and explore. a really great place to read more into this would be the first section of Liber 4. he talks a lot about meditation, getting yourself into a thoughtless state, and an added mantra.

• Visualization – this one can be a bit more loose when it comes to a general definition. this can be the act of anything from just thinking about being someplace else, imagining yourself doing a variety of things to pull yourself away, imagining a place for you to be, but the key is that you’re thinking up something instead of thinking of nothing at all. this can be a bit detrimental to some, as they may not always “believe” themselves since they caused the visualization in the first place.

• Dreaming – Ah yes, the dreaded “lucid dreaming”. some are good at it, some can’t stand it, others barely even dream. I’ve only had success with this a total of two times, so I can’t speak a whole lot on it. but, like with meditation, it’s exactly what it says on the box. the act of going to sleep, entering a lucid dream, and taking control of it to explore other planes of existence.

• “Splitting” – this is really just what I’ve dubbed those of us who can just be a billion places at once. this is the idea that “splitting” up your soul, energy, what-have-you can allow you to have multiple iterations of yourself in more than one place. so, by just switching to whichever fragment you choose, that is where your awareness goes. this can be the explanation to why some people have completely different and fulfilled lives in other planes of existence. splitting can take place through the first two methods, but people will usually find that once they start doing this, that’s what they stick to.

now, of course there are things that don’t quite fit into those categories. taking things like drugs, spirits, friends pulling you in, trauma, and ritual are also all viable ways to explore other planes, but those would be the most popular. and now this is going to get a heck of a lot more confusing, as I’m going to break them down into subgroups and then just tell you every way I know with a little blurb of information on each one. ready? let’s do this.

• Trance – evoking a lulled, thoughtless state through multiple outlets, most notably through dancing, music, drugs, and repetitive motions or sounds.

Meditation

• Guided meditation/Hypnosis – this would be having a second person or a group of people who are not in a state of meditation taking your thoughts and manipulating them as they see fit. while this is a useful way of moving to other planes, you are at the mercy of the other person and must be ready to trust them with where they’re taking you.

• Binaurial Beats – I’ve heard other people using this with success, but basically you put this on to help you meditate and focus on the noise being made.

• Drugs – yes I know I said this doesn’t usually fall into a specific category, but if you’re taking something with the intent of it aiding you in meditation (flying salve/mugwort), then this is definitely a viable way to go. there are other ways to locate some “more legal” substances, but “less legal” substances are perfectly viable as well. I can’t say I have experience in either, but know that they do have their pros and cons. just like everything, be smart with your usage.

Visualization

• Sitting Up – this is the most basic form of visualization ever. this is the act of lying down and then imagining yourself sitting up. for some people, this works a lot better once they’ve been able to properly get themselves up and out.

• Happy Place – I always recommend this to first-timers. a lot of people have trouble with meditation because they can’t stop themselves from thinking of things and distracting themselves, so I say do the opposite. imagine yourself in a place you’re familiar with and know well, a place that would keep you safe and comfy. and then explore for a while. expand slowly. open a door, walk out, and see what you find. A popular “happy place” among practicing magicians can be the temple made just for you.

• The Rope –  imagining your spirit attached to a rope, chain, etc and pulling yourself out of your body.

• The Hole – imagining your spirit falling from your body and down into a hole. where this hole spits you out may be decided by you or not.

• Falling – a subset of The Hole, but the feeling or idea of falling can cause some people to want to leave their body, usually due to traumatic experience. this can be created in a visualization, and is aided also by holding your breath.

• Water – this seems to be a pretty popular visualization technique. this can range from the very typical “training warrior” who sits under the waterfall to achieve some sort of oneness from nature to imagining yourself in the shallow end of a pool and walking out someplace new and deeper than you expected. not for people who don’t feel safe in water.

• Doors – another popular technique, mentally placing yourself with a room that has a door in it and opening the door, allowing it to lead to any possibility of things.

Dreaming (These will be different techniques to achieve a Lucid Dreaming status, not different ways to dream.)

• Affirmation – the easiest way to, at the very least, start remembering your dreams. this can just be the act of, before going to bed, saying aloud to yourself “I will remember this dream tonight” or “I will dream tonight”. this can be further assisted with cataloging/writing down your dreams as soon as you wake up. yes, as soon as possible so you remember everything.

• Time Check – making sure you check the time in dreams, along with in real life. in dreams, time can end up being randomized or out of place.

• Dreaming? – take the time in normal, day to day life to sit down and ask yourself if you’re dreaming. the more you do this and the more you leave notes to yourself telling yourself that you’re not dreaming, the more you’ll end up doing it in an actual dream. so, if you end up asking yourself “am I in a dream?” and you say yes, then you may have sleuthed it, friend.

• Returning to the Dream – this is pretty much the only way I can lucid dream. I find that if you are woken up from a deep sleep or a vivid dream and go back to sleep to “return” to it, it’s significantly easier to manipulate and be in charge of it.

• Kitchen Timer – this can also work with setting an alarm at a certain time. but this is a bit of a more stimulated “Return to the Dream” method. you set an alarm/timer for a time in the middle of the night when you expect to be sleeping, and allow it to wake you up. hit snooze or reset the timer every time. keep doing this until your sleep is so light, you’re aware of the dream you enter.

• *Personally, I do not suggest the sleep paralysis route. some people find it helpful, but I’ve found that it leads mostly to frustration or OBEs (out of body experiences) that are forced through fear and trauma. you’ll also find that people tend to get pretty spooked through initiating sleep paralysis, be it from seeing figures at night or hearing weird things.