Introduction to the Draconian Path (Part 9)
Magic training
Every candidate for initiation must be clear about some concepts before taking their first steps in practice. Draconian magic is very demanding, and therefore it is not something that we should take lightly, this requires a lot of time and daily work. It is not possible to advance on this path if we only carry out our practices from time to time or when we have free time. This is the main failure or lack of progress in many that are just beginning. It is all a matter of will, and it will always depend on the vision that we have of what this path, this vision has to do something passionately, it has to be an adventure in itself. If we take it with one more activity than many that we do in our daily lives so this is not for us. If we start with the right attitude, it is possible to progress in all of this.
Every aspiring magician must first learn the basics before wanting to do complicated things. I believe that everyone should first learn to meditate, to relax the mind and body, then to visualize. These are the most basic first points since if we do not learn to close our senses to the external world, we will hardly be able to successfully invoke an entity. The same happens with visualization, if we are not able to see an apple with our mind’s eye, we will not be able to visualize a complex scenario that will connect us to some region of the astral plane. Anyway, no problem, all the practicalities will be covered in this guide.
Now let’s see some other things that need to be understood in a theoretical way so that when we practically apply them there will be no confusion. The first thing I would like to analyze is the astral vision, and when I say astral vision, I do not only mean «seeing» but also listening and perceiving energies from the other side. Some people have a natural talent for this and others who have to work to have results. Neither is better or worse than the other, in every person there is some kind of psychic talent asleep, and with proper exercise, you can wake up. Awakening this talent is necessary for anything we want to do within magic, be it invocation, evocation, projections to the astral plane, etc. There are countless ways to awaken astral vision, and in the practical part of this guide, I will present exercises that have served me tremendously and are perfectly suited to the draconian path.
Another aspect that we must learn to handle is the invocation, this is a widely used practice on the path, the idea of invoking is to call an entity, demon, spirit, etc. inside the magician’s mind, in this way we experience a mystical communion with this entity, it is possible to learn from it, learn its powers, obtain advice and teachings, as well as can reveal words of power, sigils that we can then use to working with that entity, or finding inspiration for new rituals. The invocation experience is somewhat sublime, each entity we invoke has a different personality, different energy, and each time we do this it may be completely different from the previous time. As always, one has to prepare for this, there must be no prejudice, and one must approach this experience as something sacred, as something unique, we should not take it as something else, and always with great respect.
Another practice widely used on the path, but much more complex is that of evocation, this practice requires a good development of the astral vision since the entities to be evoked do not belong to our plane of existence. There are countless methods and ways to perform a successful evocation, the methods employed within the draconian path do not employ the classical forms of ceremonial magic. We do not use triangles, circles, or Christian-type prayers to threaten the spirits that we will summon. Once again, we will do it out of respect and since we do not see these forces as threats, but as allies, friends, and teachers, we do not need a barrier between them and us. You may be wondering, but isn’t this dangerous? the answer is yes, but in the magic of the left-hand path, everything involves some kind of danger.
Channeling/possession is another practice employed by many, it is a fairly advanced practice and while I will outline some practical methods on this, it requires quite a bit of prior preparation. The channeling/possession of an entity supposes that the person has to have some kind of development of mediumship. Without this, it will not be possible to have any results at all. This practice is very interesting, but perhaps it leads many to an important mystical delusion, so it is always convenient to be very analytical of the messages obtained in this type of experience. I will try to explain briefly what this is about, the magician dissolves his ego, enters an altered state of consciousness, and allows the entity to make use our body and mind, so the spirit can speak through the initiate, transmit messages or make it a living «oracle». The latter is very interesting when working in a group since doing it alone would not make much sense. However, it is possible to work in the possession state in a solitary way through automatic writing, here the person in the trading state can channel the messages from the other side through writing. People who have this highly developed ability can write entire books, can paint, and can receive all kinds of messages. It is a very interesting practice, but very energetically exhausting, so it is not advisable to do it all the time and leaving it alone for special occasions would be recommended.
Dream works occupy a very important place on the path, here we also have a practice that takes a long time to be controlled, it is very frustrating for many who just start with this because they have no results. My suggestion, a lot of patience and keep trying. The ability to use dreams as a magical practice is not a simple thing, the mind has its filters and blockages and they are there for a reason, I am not a psychologist so I will not explain the subject, but overcoming these barriers is possible by far work involved. It is possible to achieve incredible things in the dream world, the techniques for this are not complex in themselves, but it is the will to do a systematic practice that gives more work, in the practical part of this guide there will be some exercises that will help you.
Finally, and no less important is the subject of Scrying, this is a technique that allows you to see in the astral, for this, all kinds of instruments are used, the most common are mirrors, whether they are common or very special: black mirrors. But in this category, there are many other elements that we can use, a black bowl with water, a campfire, smoke, crystals, etc. This is a very useful tool and we will use it both in evocation rituals and it can also be used to travel to other planes of reality, or use it for divination sessions, among other things.
Well, with this we finish for today, we are very close to entering the practical part of this guide, it only remains to develop some more topics that are important to know theoretically before arriving at the practices.
Daemon Barzai