Proficiency in visualization is most important to all occult training.
The receptacle of the imagination is integral to the processes of creation.
Change through intent begins with inspiration, passing through the realm of the imagination,
This can be manipulated by the emotions of enthusiasm, desire, empathy, and compatibility and is transformed into a manifest outcome according to the proficiency of the process (Air, Fire, Water, and Earth respectively).
Without the ability to visualize, projection into the astral realms is almost impossible (at least consciously; it is done automatically in the sleep state).
The ability to visualize is integral to spell crafting and can lead to dramatic changes and accomplishments, especially if you are freefalling.
The term “visualize” has been described in various ways in many books and by many people.
Still, there are some who do not think they can visualize because of how it has been described.
The problem is one of communication.
The word that best articulates the function within the mind that can visualize is imagination.
Remember the expression used during childhood that related to the bridge between the seen and the unseen?
Mum or Dad or some other well-intentioned person would say to you, “Don’t be silly, it’s just your imagination playing tricks on you,” or “You don’t see anything there, it was just your imagination.”
If you were little and the shadow in the corner of the darkened room scared you, it really wasn’t much consolation to be told to go back to bed and stop imagining things, was it?
What if there actually had been something there?
Many a natural-born witch, a gifted writer, artist, musician, or inventor may have been deterred from their true path by that demeaning, belittling expression “just your imagination.”
So visualization is the imagination, but not just the imagination.
Daydreaming without conscious control is probably the closest you could come to the “just…” function.
The mind is not simply a mechanism that has only one level to its being.
There are degrees, or depths, to the imagination that need as much concentrated training as any other technique.
When the required depth is plumbed, it is possible to stand with the eyes open and see clearly that which you have created with the power of the mind.
As meditation is the process of stilling the mind while relaxing the body, so visualization utilizes that peaceful, relaxed state for the creation of altered states, increased awareness through controlled and conscious intent, contact, manifestation, and summoning.
What begins with the exercise of controlled creation of a one-dimensional image, becomes the creation of a three-dimensional image, then the transmutation of a concept or idea into an image or a series of images, then in turn to the activation of things and people, and the creation of situations that eventually transpire in the realm we understand as material.
From there you will seek through the aid of
(1) the center,
(2) meditation or contemplation,
(3) visualization to transcend the realm of the physical in search of truths that can only be obtained elsewhere.
There are several exercises presented here. You are to train systematically, starting with the first exercise and continuing until you are competent before proceeding to the next.
Some of you may find the exercises extremely difficult, while others just sail through.
