Something special for halloween

[Awaiting_the_fifth]

Peace to all.

First of all, to avoid insulting anyone's religion, let me explain my view on Magick. As a buddhist I primarily believe that we each create our own world through our own focus and perception. Magick has never played a noticeable role in my world, neither have Gods or Spirits of any kind, but I do believe that all these things exist. I believe that there are other planes of existence which we cannot physically access but that the physical restrictions are produced by our own minds and so can be broken with sufficient mental discipline.

Now to my question, and if this seems condecending in any way I am really sorry.

To mark halloween this year I would like to carry out some sort of Magick ceremony, communicating with spirits or regressing to past lives, something like that, just to get a taste for this whole area of belief.

But I have no idea where to begin, so I would greatly appreciate it if some of our learned Wiccan friends could help me out with the details of some such rituals, or at least point me in the right direction to find them.

Many thanks in advance.

Forever,
Awaiting The Fifth.

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

Originally Posted by Awaiting_the_fifth

we each create our own world through our own focus and perception.

...which is exactly how I define magic.

Halloween is definitely the right time to try communicating with spirits or doing a past life regression, as wiccans believe the veil between the worlds is thinnest then.

I've never done any communicating with spirits (at least not intentionally), but I'll do my best to help you with past life regressions as I learned it.

If you want to check out a book, one I'd recommend is How to Uncover your Past Lives by Ted Andrews - very straightforward.

You might want to think if there is any time period or place that you have always found particularly interesting for no reason you can think of, and then kind of hold it in your mind as you do the following.

A good way to start is by casting a circle, in order to create a neutral space and to keep out any disturbing influences. You can find all sorts of step-by-step instructions on the net and in books, but the simplest way is to imagine yourself surrounded by a ring or sphere of energy or light. As a buddhist you do some meditation, am I right? The next thing to do would be to use some breathing or relaxation technique, as one uses in meditation. This is to calm you down and remove disturbing influences from inside, and to open your mind and spirit.

Imagine yourself standing on a cloud when a staircase appears before you, going down. As you descend each of the staircase's 30 steps, you go deeper and deeper into a trance. At the bottom, you see three doors before you. Enter one of the doors, whichever one you choose. Each door represents one of your past lives.* You find yourself in an attic-like room, filled with things from that particular life. You can wander around for a bit if you like, examining the things and getting a feel for what sort of person you were. Or you can go directly to the large mirror you see in the room. When you stand in front of it, you see yourself as you appeared in that life. Suddenly you realize that you can walk through the mirror and into that life.

Remember that everything you see and experience there has already happened - there is no need to feel sad or angry about any of it. If things get too intense, you can pull your point of view back and watch yourself from the outside, as in a movie. When you have seen enough, imagine yourself back in the attic room, exiting the door to the staircase. As you climb the staircase, with each step you become more and more awake. You can sit or lay where you are for a while, reflecting on what you have experienced, or perhaps you want to write it down in a journal. Don't forget to imagine your ring of light dissipating when you are done.


*Which is not to say that you have only had three past lives - the doors are different each time you do this exercise.

Some people prefer to have someone with them, guiding them through the past life visualizations. Or you can recite this into a tape recorder and play it for yourself. I find that kind of restrictive - I'm limited by the time that the recording gives me to descend the staircase or wander around the attic. I just recite it to myself, then I can take all the time I want with each step. Stay open to what your subconscious wants to show you - maybe there are lessons to be learned from your experiences in, say, renaissance Italy, whereas you were expecting to go to samurai Japan. Let yourself be taken to Italy then. Or maybe you're expecting to be a man in a particular time period, and it just doesn't work - then when you consider having been a woman, everything falls into place.

There are lots of variations on this, including taking a book off a shelf in a library, or looking at a portrait instead of a mirror. The book I mentioned above has lots of ideas, and I'm sure there are plenty of books and methods that others here can recommend.

To me, it doesn't matter whether what I experience ever really happened or not - I try to use it to help me with problems in this life, because this life is the only lifetime I know for sure I have.

In any case, have fun, and I hope all this is something along the lines of what you were looking for.

[Awaiting_the_fifth]

Halloween is only 5 days away and still no one will tell me how to communicate with the spirits?

Anyone? Any ideas?

Please?

[bgruagach]

There are lots of books out about communicating with spirits. I would suggest visiting a public library, or at least a good bookstore, and check out the books available on spiritualism, ghosts, etc.

Here are a few suggestions:

- try using a divination system commonly associated with spirit communication, such as a Ouija board (requires at least two people for it to really work) or a pendulum (you can do that by yourself)

- observe a candle flame and ask it questions -- sort of a "two for no, one for yes" thing but with flame movements or sputtering or whatever seems to be working in the particular situation.

- tarot cards, i-ching, or other divination systems can also be used to communicate with spirits

- scrying (gazing at a crystal ball or a bowl of water)

- my preferred method, looking into a regular mirror in a dark room with a candle lit on the floor behind me as the sole source of light... your image changes and becomes the spirit you are communicating with. This is really just a form of scrying.

ALWAYS, ALWAYS practice safe spirit communication, and start things off with a cleansing and blessing (whatever is appropriate for your religious path) and repeat the cleansing and blessing when you are done, even if you think there was no spirit response. It's better to be safe than sorry!

[wil]

@5-I think a shout out to your local coven should be enlightening, head out to Stonehenge.. get on your crop circle shoes...

Not totally being sarcastic here...seems to me if I wanted to explore some thinking alternative to mine...I'd visit some that do...you are not alone on that island shake some trees you'll get invited to the party.

[bgruagach]

Originally Posted by wil

@5-I think a shout out to your local coven should be enlightening, head out to Stonehenge.. get on your crop circle shoes...

Not totally being sarcastic here...seems to me if I wanted to explore some thinking alternative to mine...I'd visit some that do...you are not alone on that island shake some trees you'll get invited to the party.

And to aid with that, I'd suggest checking out the listings for your area at http://www.witchvox.com/xvn.html -- they list individuals, groups, stores, and public events for all over the world. Not every Pagan group or individual is listed, but those that are can help put you in touch with others in your area if you want to make some contacts.