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On my last Open Post, I fielded a great set of questions about the Sphere of Protection (SoP). For those of you who aren't in the know about what that is, the Sphere of Protection is a religious ritual performed once a day, a "banishing ceremony" in Western magic that revolves around a triangle of daily practices: the SoP, divination, and discursive meditation.
As an aspiring Druid mage, I have performed the SoP once a day, usually in the morning, for the last six years or so.
As I have mentioned quite frequently on this blog, we are currently soaking in a collective astral morass which is the result of the human race becoming exceedingly materialistic and trashy. For this reason, many newbies are seeking out the SoP and Western magic in general in order to clean up the trash in their own lives, and to discover a connection with the Divine that does not involve grinning, cap-teethed preachers with multiple McMansions or sitting for hours inweekend corporate seminars church services pretending that the person in the pulpit knows more about spirituality than any average Jane on the street.
From my limited experience, and it truly is limited as I was a Hitchens-quoting atheist less than a decade ago, the SoP is a way of cleaning up one's vibe and one's mind, but not in a brainwashing sort of way. It starts a process that can only be complete with daily discursive meditation, which eventually transforms your way of thinking until almost all thoughts you have (aside from OOH YUMMERS CHOCOLATE CAKE!) are a form of discursive meditation. Divination is helpful too, but it is discursive meditation that is the crucial one. Divination is more of a prosthetic way of reaching the divine to get around normal human handicaps, such as the mental chatter over chocolate cake mentioned above.
The problem is the SoP is hard. It's hard to dedicate the time every day. I am able to perform it 365 days a year for 6.5 years because I am a high-functioning autistic with an addiction to routines. I get upset if my routines are interrupted, and I often seek to keep them at a high cost. I'll do the SoP late at night if I could not get to it in the morning, which rarely happens.
Another one of my autistic tics was catatonia: disappearing into my imagination for an hour at a stretch as a child. This panicked my poor mother when I did it on a crowded ice rink at age six and could not be woken up. Perhaps this ability to enter the imaginary space is why I have not had issues imagining portions of the SoP.
The person wrote to me:
I wrote a detailed post back to him/her which I have copy pasted here but with more detail than the original response. We autistics love our details! Of course I welcome questions about the SoP or my magical practices in general in the comments. It is my opinion that we need as many people doing the SoP as possible these days because the astral is so trashy, including Christians who can do the SoP using aspects of Jesus, the angels, God the Father, etc. Just don't do it around your own kids going through or under the age of puberty, for reasons that I will do my best to explain in a future blog. Keep in mind a gazebo somewhere in a forest preserve where your kids aren't there is fine, or at a friend's house as the energy doesn't seem to affect other people's kids.
My reply with even more detail:
The SoP is a tall order! It took me a couple of years to have any confidence in doing it. Even at the time I made that video, there were many hiccups to work out.
As far as asking JMG to help with the SoP, what's funny is that it's like asking J.S. Bach to teach a remedial music class for highly-caffeinated 9 year olds. It's hard for him to come down to their level. Not so tough for me, because "highly-caffeinated 9 year old" is one of my dominant personalities, plus my magical expertise is limited to the remedial at this point, so it's not as difficult for me to talk about basics.
For vibrating a sound, I made a video about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7hOUkJzcCM
I hope it helps you. Notice that the humming sound has the "color" of an accordion note. It can take a long time to make that color but once you get it in head voice/falsetto, you will be well on your way.
2.a Yeah, I remember reading that and thinking "LOL whut?" Nobody has ever been to the center of the Earth, so what that would smell like is beyond comprehension. Personally, I have never been caving or spelunking, so I don't know what those "deep places" are like at all.
As far as the imaginary component of the SoP, do you ever look at a photo/video of a place and imagine what it would be like to live or travel there? For instance, this site recommended by Princess Cutekitten is especially good for "transporting" your imagination outside of your immediate
circumstances: https://www.window-swap.com/Window
The Gate of Air
For the Gate of Air, I often imagine a birch forest at sunrise in the early spring when frost is on the ground. I imagine what it would be like to be Agafya Lykova, waking up on a spring morning alone in the Russian taiga:
https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/russias-loneliest-woman-hermit-agafya-lykova-to-get-new-home-in-the-wild/ Of course I imagine other scenes for the Gate of Air. It all depends.
This morning, I imagined Minnesota's George Crosby Manitou State Forest. I have never been there, but it is one of the most ancient forests in the Americas. https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/minnesota/oldest-forest-mn/ As someone who loves talking to trees, I am considering a pilgrimage at some point in my lifetime.
I imagined morning sunlight pouring through the trees and a fine mist rising off the cold ground in early April. I imagined the feeling of coming home when I talk to the old beeches, maples, and oaks. I drank in the sights of squirrels running about and the sounds of birds chattering as they gathered food and made nests. Thoughts tried to intrude, for instance rehashing the visit with a relative yesterday that disrupted my precious routine, but I put them aside to "see" the pink morning sky through the tree branches.
The Gate of Fire
For the Gate of Fire, sometimes I merely imagine my own neighborhood on a hot summer day. I imagined watching people go into Dairy Delite from my sweltering car (I don't have working air conditioning). I imagine walking by my neighbor's house. She grows arbor vitaes in earthenware pots. I don't know what her secret is but they are very healthy and she leaves them all winter long. I "see" the plants growing in mine and other people's yards -- daylilies getting ready to pop, dandelions, purslane, plantain.
This morning, I imagined a river in Guatemala. I have never been to Guatemala but I have seen lots of pictures. The river is green with algae. There are tropical birds of the kind and color you would never see in Illinois. The water of the river shines black and brown and vegetation chokes the river banks.
The Gate of Water
For the Gate of Water, I imagined a beautiful mountain-surrounded lake in Colorado in Autumn. This one was easy because it actually is Autumn right now where I live. I have never been to Colorado, again, I have only seen photos.
I'll often imagine Alaska as well though I have never been there. My recent obsession is mountains and mountain lakes, despite having very little experience because travel isn't my thing. One place I tend to return to is a mountain lake that I believe is in Anchorage. I saw a photo of it once. Someone poured sand to create a small beach. Mountains can be seen in the distance. The picture is very blue (water is the blue gate) with a blue sky, blue mountains, blue water. Sometimes I get flashes of my past lives through the water gate and it was via this gate that I "saw" my previous life as Peter the Singing Sailor, a Portuguese man who I believe lived in the 1700s and died at sea when his ship got wrecked. I also believe I have seen one of my future lives, and that is why Alaska is so strong for me. I think one day I will have a future incarnation where I will spend a great deal of time in Alaska.
The Gate of Earth
For the Gate of Earth, I imagined my parent's house on December 31, 1968. They had just moved in at that point. The house used to be a khaki green color, so that was part of my visualization. Sometimes I imagine a snowy landscape further north than Illinois. It all depends, once again.
Many, many American Indians, including Mayans and Incans, believed the Milky Way galaxy was a sort of bridge to the afterlife. The dead were able to talk with the living during the sacred time we now identify as New Years. I imagine this bridge being bright and visible on a clear winter night, allowing me to talk and hang out with my dead loved ones once a year.
The Spirit Below Earth Gate
When we get to the Earth/Spirit Below Gate, I recommend rubbing your hands together vigorously, touching the ground, and then putting your hands on your naked belly. Imagine some healing spirits from the Earth coming up to to help heal your gut and to bring pragmatism and good sense of the "I don't let perfect be the enemy of done" variety into your heart. This I find to be easier than imagining the actual interiors of the Earth, which I have only experienced as mud and rocks when I have dug in my garden. I do however imagine tree roots reaching down, drinking up water. Trees often go as deep into the Earth as they are tall, which is a factoid I've always enjoyed.
The Spirit Above Sky Gate
When you get to the Purple Gate/Spirit Above, raise your hands to the sky and imagine light beaming down and being surrounded by the All-Fathers like this scene from The Dark Crystal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAHhpMJbfxQ
I once had a dream where a friend of mine and I took a detour into a forest and I encountered some old, long-bearded men chanting and singing in a grove. I introduced myself to them and they were generally amused by me and a friend of mine. My friend was excited to show off his magic and proceeded to do some parlor tricks which involved shooting colored balls of energy out of his hand. I started the prayer I was trying to memorize at the time... "Grant us, O Holy Ones, thy Protection..." and suddenly they surrounded me in golden light and took me somewhere. I don't remember what happened after that.
At any rate, I assure you, the SoP is not a trolling exercise! I sincerely hope this helps.
As an aspiring Druid mage, I have performed the SoP once a day, usually in the morning, for the last six years or so.
As I have mentioned quite frequently on this blog, we are currently soaking in a collective astral morass which is the result of the human race becoming exceedingly materialistic and trashy. For this reason, many newbies are seeking out the SoP and Western magic in general in order to clean up the trash in their own lives, and to discover a connection with the Divine that does not involve grinning, cap-teethed preachers with multiple McMansions or sitting for hours in
From my limited experience, and it truly is limited as I was a Hitchens-quoting atheist less than a decade ago, the SoP is a way of cleaning up one's vibe and one's mind, but not in a brainwashing sort of way. It starts a process that can only be complete with daily discursive meditation, which eventually transforms your way of thinking until almost all thoughts you have (aside from OOH YUMMERS CHOCOLATE CAKE!) are a form of discursive meditation. Divination is helpful too, but it is discursive meditation that is the crucial one. Divination is more of a prosthetic way of reaching the divine to get around normal human handicaps, such as the mental chatter over chocolate cake mentioned above.
The problem is the SoP is hard. It's hard to dedicate the time every day. I am able to perform it 365 days a year for 6.5 years because I am a high-functioning autistic with an addiction to routines. I get upset if my routines are interrupted, and I often seek to keep them at a high cost. I'll do the SoP late at night if I could not get to it in the morning, which rarely happens.
Another one of my autistic tics was catatonia: disappearing into my imagination for an hour at a stretch as a child. This panicked my poor mother when I did it on a crowded ice rink at age six and could not be woken up. Perhaps this ability to enter the imaginary space is why I have not had issues imagining portions of the SoP.
The person wrote to me:
Kimberly,
having watched your excellent video on the Sphere of Protection, and attempted the SoP consistently over the course of several months, I am perplexed about this practice.
Why? Aside from the major challenge of conjuring & sustaining visualization of the many requisite images with sufficient focus, vividness & clarity, there are a couple of key ingredients I have been struggling with.
JMG has been dismissive (YMMV), so I turn to you in hopes you may have some helpful insights thru your experience.
1. Vibration. According to JMG:
"Vibrated? That's a way of pronouncing words used by ceremonial magicians. To learn how to do it, try chanting a simple vowel sound like "aaaah," changing the way you hold your mouth and throat until you feel a buzzing or tingling feeling somewhere in your body. With practice, you can focus the vibration wherever you want, inside your body or outside of it, and it becomes a potent magical method. For now, do your best, and see how steady you can get the buzzing or tingling sensation."
Am genuinely curious how many people attempting the SoP have actually achieved the level of vibration & control JMG claims is possible (and indeed essential?). "Focusing vibration [at all seems a tall order, but:] wherever you want" -- really??As you are an experienced voice/song/music instructor, I imagine you may be better qualified than most to speak to the technical possibilities here.
2.a
"imagine as intensely as possible the deep places of the Earth and the immense powers that dwell there. Engage all your senses, so that you smell and feel and hear as well as see the imagery."
What? How? Are folks just glossing over the impossibility of this? What imagery, exactly? Am I'm just lacking imagination?
2.b
"imagine as intensely as possible the realms of outer space far above you and the immense powers that dwell there. Engage all your senses, so that you smell and feel and hear as well as see the imagery. (What does space smell like? According to astronauts, it smells a little like a scorched barbecue grill -- hot metal with an odd hint of meat.)"
Smell, feel and hear... "outer space". Wait, what? smh
How? Again, is the answer just: sorry, you lack imagination?
I want to believe the SoP is not just some sort of massive trolling exercise ala "The Druid's New Clothes."
Thanks for providing this open post & to you & anyone who can provide data points to help provide clarity.
I wrote a detailed post back to him/her which I have copy pasted here but with more detail than the original response. We autistics love our details! Of course I welcome questions about the SoP or my magical practices in general in the comments. It is my opinion that we need as many people doing the SoP as possible these days because the astral is so trashy, including Christians who can do the SoP using aspects of Jesus, the angels, God the Father, etc. Just don't do it around your own kids going through or under the age of puberty, for reasons that I will do my best to explain in a future blog. Keep in mind a gazebo somewhere in a forest preserve where your kids aren't there is fine, or at a friend's house as the energy doesn't seem to affect other people's kids.
My reply with even more detail:
The SoP is a tall order! It took me a couple of years to have any confidence in doing it. Even at the time I made that video, there were many hiccups to work out.
As far as asking JMG to help with the SoP, what's funny is that it's like asking J.S. Bach to teach a remedial music class for highly-caffeinated 9 year olds. It's hard for him to come down to their level. Not so tough for me, because "highly-caffeinated 9 year old" is one of my dominant personalities, plus my magical expertise is limited to the remedial at this point, so it's not as difficult for me to talk about basics.
For vibrating a sound, I made a video about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7hOUkJzcCM
I hope it helps you. Notice that the humming sound has the "color" of an accordion note. It can take a long time to make that color but once you get it in head voice/falsetto, you will be well on your way.
2.a Yeah, I remember reading that and thinking "LOL whut?" Nobody has ever been to the center of the Earth, so what that would smell like is beyond comprehension. Personally, I have never been caving or spelunking, so I don't know what those "deep places" are like at all.
As far as the imaginary component of the SoP, do you ever look at a photo/video of a place and imagine what it would be like to live or travel there? For instance, this site recommended by Princess Cutekitten is especially good for "transporting" your imagination outside of your immediate
circumstances: https://www.window-swap.com/Window
The Gate of Air
For the Gate of Air, I often imagine a birch forest at sunrise in the early spring when frost is on the ground. I imagine what it would be like to be Agafya Lykova, waking up on a spring morning alone in the Russian taiga:
https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/russias-loneliest-woman-hermit-agafya-lykova-to-get-new-home-in-the-wild/ Of course I imagine other scenes for the Gate of Air. It all depends.
This morning, I imagined Minnesota's George Crosby Manitou State Forest. I have never been there, but it is one of the most ancient forests in the Americas. https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/minnesota/oldest-forest-mn/ As someone who loves talking to trees, I am considering a pilgrimage at some point in my lifetime.
I imagined morning sunlight pouring through the trees and a fine mist rising off the cold ground in early April. I imagined the feeling of coming home when I talk to the old beeches, maples, and oaks. I drank in the sights of squirrels running about and the sounds of birds chattering as they gathered food and made nests. Thoughts tried to intrude, for instance rehashing the visit with a relative yesterday that disrupted my precious routine, but I put them aside to "see" the pink morning sky through the tree branches.
The Gate of Fire
For the Gate of Fire, sometimes I merely imagine my own neighborhood on a hot summer day. I imagined watching people go into Dairy Delite from my sweltering car (I don't have working air conditioning). I imagine walking by my neighbor's house. She grows arbor vitaes in earthenware pots. I don't know what her secret is but they are very healthy and she leaves them all winter long. I "see" the plants growing in mine and other people's yards -- daylilies getting ready to pop, dandelions, purslane, plantain.
This morning, I imagined a river in Guatemala. I have never been to Guatemala but I have seen lots of pictures. The river is green with algae. There are tropical birds of the kind and color you would never see in Illinois. The water of the river shines black and brown and vegetation chokes the river banks.
The Gate of Water
For the Gate of Water, I imagined a beautiful mountain-surrounded lake in Colorado in Autumn. This one was easy because it actually is Autumn right now where I live. I have never been to Colorado, again, I have only seen photos.
I'll often imagine Alaska as well though I have never been there. My recent obsession is mountains and mountain lakes, despite having very little experience because travel isn't my thing. One place I tend to return to is a mountain lake that I believe is in Anchorage. I saw a photo of it once. Someone poured sand to create a small beach. Mountains can be seen in the distance. The picture is very blue (water is the blue gate) with a blue sky, blue mountains, blue water. Sometimes I get flashes of my past lives through the water gate and it was via this gate that I "saw" my previous life as Peter the Singing Sailor, a Portuguese man who I believe lived in the 1700s and died at sea when his ship got wrecked. I also believe I have seen one of my future lives, and that is why Alaska is so strong for me. I think one day I will have a future incarnation where I will spend a great deal of time in Alaska.
The Gate of Earth
For the Gate of Earth, I imagined my parent's house on December 31, 1968. They had just moved in at that point. The house used to be a khaki green color, so that was part of my visualization. Sometimes I imagine a snowy landscape further north than Illinois. It all depends, once again.
Many, many American Indians, including Mayans and Incans, believed the Milky Way galaxy was a sort of bridge to the afterlife. The dead were able to talk with the living during the sacred time we now identify as New Years. I imagine this bridge being bright and visible on a clear winter night, allowing me to talk and hang out with my dead loved ones once a year.
The Spirit Below Earth Gate
When we get to the Earth/Spirit Below Gate, I recommend rubbing your hands together vigorously, touching the ground, and then putting your hands on your naked belly. Imagine some healing spirits from the Earth coming up to to help heal your gut and to bring pragmatism and good sense of the "I don't let perfect be the enemy of done" variety into your heart. This I find to be easier than imagining the actual interiors of the Earth, which I have only experienced as mud and rocks when I have dug in my garden. I do however imagine tree roots reaching down, drinking up water. Trees often go as deep into the Earth as they are tall, which is a factoid I've always enjoyed.
The Spirit Above Sky Gate
When you get to the Purple Gate/Spirit Above, raise your hands to the sky and imagine light beaming down and being surrounded by the All-Fathers like this scene from The Dark Crystal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAHhpMJbfxQ
I once had a dream where a friend of mine and I took a detour into a forest and I encountered some old, long-bearded men chanting and singing in a grove. I introduced myself to them and they were generally amused by me and a friend of mine. My friend was excited to show off his magic and proceeded to do some parlor tricks which involved shooting colored balls of energy out of his hand. I started the prayer I was trying to memorize at the time... "Grant us, O Holy Ones, thy Protection..." and suddenly they surrounded me in golden light and took me somewhere. I don't remember what happened after that.
At any rate, I assure you, the SoP is not a trolling exercise! I sincerely hope this helps.
