EXCERPT FROM NEW BOOK

The following is a excerpt from the rough draft of the influencing section of my upcomming book "The Sorcerer's Secret, Strategies in Practical Magick". I thought it might be interesting to post here because in it, I take a small digression from the topic and talk about the nature of magickal correspondances and whether they exist in only the mind of the magician or whether they exist objectivly themselves. I hope you enjoy it.


DROPPING ANCHORS

Anchors are an NLP term for events that your mind associates with a specific feeling or idea. The most famous example of an anchor is probably Pavlov’s bell. Pavlov would ring a bell before feeding his dogs every day. Eventually he could get the dogs to salivate simply by ringing the bell with no food present. People experience anchors all the time. Songs that evoke the nostalgia of old lovers and smells that remind you of mom’s kitchen evoking a sense of home are examples of anchors. Your morning coffee signaling the brain that its time to wake up even before the caffeine hits your system is another.

The anchors I list above are all examples of anchors that are set over long periods of time. A skilled practitioner however can set and use anchors in the course of just one conversation. Returning again to the example of a car salesmen talking about the feeling of freedom and joy that came with owning a first car, while the salesman is doing this he can make a gesture like stroking his chin. If he does this a few times, later in the conversation he can stroke his chin and remind the client of this feeling of freedom and joy without ever mentioning the pitch. In courses on advanced techniques of public speaking they teach how to set anchors for the audience by saying different things at different point on the stage. Eventually, by moving to a particular spot on the stage, your audience will experience a certain response. This in itself IS magick, but its taught openly in corporate marketing, sales, and speaking seminars. Just because modern society has accepted it and uses it, doesn’t make it not part of magick anymore. Of course, real sorcerers will be able to amplify the effects using direct application of energy, which I will get to shortly.

In a sense, much of the gestures and correspondences of magick are anchors. If a ceremonial magician uses the color red, it probably evokes feelings of martial power because of its association with the planet mars. If a Tibetan magician sees the color red it is associated with the magick of enchanting and influencing people. If a Rootworker sees red it evokes the magick of sex. If a Haitian Vodousant sees red it evokes the Petro nation of Loa. Colors, gestures, directions, and words are all anchors that are used to call certain powers and feelings to mind.

Now, because one thing may have different associations in different systems of magick, it is tempting to think that the correspondences have no real meaning exists only in your own mind. This is a mistaken view. While it is true that the correspondences of color, direction and so on have to inherent and universal meaning, that doesn’t mean that they don’t have a firm meaning beyond just your own brain. They have a meaning within the current of magick that you are working, and as long as you are standing within that current, you should take heed of their meaning. For example, an old roommate of mine was once making a daily practice of a Jupiter Invoking Hexagram ritual that used the GD style of drawing the hexagram in a certain way to invoke certain planets. Instead of feeling the power of Jupiter flowing through him however, he spiraled into a depression and uncharacteristic sluggishness for weeks. One morning, while I was watching him do his daily practice I noted that he was making Saturn Invoking Hexagrams by mistake. Though he didn’t know the system well enough to know the difference, even subconsciously, the mistake caused Saturnian energies to be evoked. Despite his intent, despite his will, the technical mistake caused the wrong planetary energy to be invoked, and because he was not prepared to channel that energy, it got out of control. Clearly, the correspondence between the gesture and the planet existed beyond just his own mind.

In short, while the correspondences of a system may not have independent and universal existence, the current that they exist within does. If you evoke a being or power from one system by the protocols of another, if your ritual works at all, it may not take it kindly, If you choose to work with multiple currents, a perfectly natural thing to do our increasing small and multi-cultural world, you need to take this into account. That said, lets take a look at how to use all this effectively in conversation.

If we know how to channel different energies subtly, without all the show of the tools and robes that one might use in the temple, we can impregnate our anchors with magick. One way to do this is to use the pore breathing techniques from the first section of the book and fill your body with the essence of a pure element or planetary power, than channel it towards the gesture that you are using as an anchor. Not long ago I used this technique to calm down a family member that I knew would be upset when I had to share some bad news. I started the conversation by saying some flattering and calming things while placing my hand over my heart. Meanwhile I quickly accumulated elemental water energy into my heart. After I broke the news and could see this person starting to fly off the handle, I dropped the anchor by placing my hand over my heart again and letting the elemental water flow between us.

In the Hevajra Tantra, there are techniques for controlling other people by accumulating enchanting energy by seeing a silent mantra encircling the heart, than letting that energy flow out in hooked lights that enter the right nostril of the target, and flow out the left nostril back into your body. I have used this technique while using traditional mudras (hand gestures) from that Tantra as anchors. The effect on the target was immediate and amazing. They were repeating everything I said, and agreed to it all. I was tempted to end the conversation with “these are not the druids your looking for”, but figured that would probably blow it…