Meditation, Mindfulness and Magick
There is nothing mysterious about meditation – essentially, it is a means of increasing one’s awareness and vitality and is a fundamental part of Initiate training.
Techniques of meditation are numerous, but the two techniques taught by the Order are genuinely esoteric. The first, and most important, is the Star Game -used as a game, the Star Game is meditation, perhaps the most valuable ever devised. No special techniques are required – just a knowledge of the rules of play and some understanding of the symbolism of the pieces. Everything else follows naturally, in its own way and own time; nothing is strained. The Star Game in this sense is simply ‘wu-wei’ – that is, an aspect of ‘physis’ (note: ‘physis’ is a Greek word which can be translated depending on context as ‘natural unfolding’, ‘the natural condition’ or ‘essence of Being’). The second technique of meditation is also very simple: it is a relaxed concentration on the spheres of the septenary Tree (for which see Noviciate Study Notes, ‘Septenary Correspondences ‘).
Mindfulness is a term applied to a particular state of mind – quite often that induced by meditation. It is a relaxed awareness of one’s surroundings. There is no tension, indeed often no awareness of ‘self’ and can be cultivated by meditation, proper practice of Martial Arts, and techniques like blindfold walking. It is the outward appearance of inner strength and understanding and its cultivation is essential to mastery of the higher Grades of magickal initiation. It is the beginning of that profound empathy which it is one of the aims of the seven-fold way to create within the individual and which is the essence of all magick: an empathy which finds its most significant expression in the natural form of the Rite of Nine Angles.
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