Method of Colour Visualisation

[mark0987]

93,

I have just re-read the chapters on the pentagram and Hexagram rituals and as of late I am invoking various elemental and planetary energies.

I have a few questions about the method Jim has written in pearls of wisdom about using the king scale of the path you are wishing to scry for the background and hexagram drawn in complementary colour. My questin may sound a little stupid, but what is meant by the background?

Is it merely the gaps in between the lines of the shape drawn in the air, or am I to visualise a sort of square upon which I draw the shape?

I also assume that complementary colour refers to the same sort of idea as the 'colour wheel' kids are provided in an art lesson?

This method seems better than my current one, but I am one of those annoying sorts of people who need to know exactly what they are doing!

93, 93/93.

[Jim Eshelman]

...what is meant by the background?[/quoe]
By the time you're done, the entire space surrounding you - the whole room, etc. - is the background color, as if you were inside a space painted that color (which, psychologically, you are).

Is it merely the gaps in between the lines of the shape drawn in the air, or am I to visualise a sort of square upon which I draw the shape?

Even more than that (see above). Another way to think of it is that, as you move around the room, you are painting the whole of space in this color.

I also assume that complementary colour refers to the same sort of idea as the 'colour wheel' kids are provided in an art lesson?

Exactly. One easy way to remember this (if you don't have the basic color ideas in mind) is that it is the color of the opposite sign of the zodiac. Thus, blue is Sagittarius and orange is Gemini - blue and orange are complements.

This method seems better than my current one, but I am one of those annoying sorts of people who need to know exactly what they are doing!

I admire that kind of precision. OTOH, I also want to suggest you not struggle excessively with the fine points of this, because the mental attitude of obsessing the minutia loses part of the power - it's a different part of the brain.

It's pretty cool, though, to look up at the end of invoking fire and find that you are standing in a temple, a sphere, a world that is an uninterrupted field of red, interrupted only by four vast pentagrams and a connecting horizontal circle.

[mark0987]

93,

Even more than that (see above). Another way to think of it is that, as you move around the room, you are painting the whole of space in this color.

This makes more sense, to radiate the space with the principle being invoked on an astral level, rather than just the pentagram alone.

I do have another question which has jut arisen, I hope you don't mind. (I have only just really moved on from just performing the lesser pentagram ritual.)

When you perform another ritual in the same place, do you visualise the pentagram and hexagram on top of one another, one in blue, the other in gold, and then whatever principle you are involking all at once?

Or is it more a matter of, you do the LBRP have it visualised well, then move on and let that visualisation fade into the background whilst you do the hexagram ritual, and so on?

I have read different opinions on this matter, I find visualising it all at once hard to do, but if that is a more correct way I will try until I get there!

93, 93/93.

[Jim Eshelman]

When you perform another ritual in the same place, do you visualise the pentagram and hexagram on top of one another, one in blue, the other in gold, and then whatever principle you are involking all at once?

You can, but I think that's misleading. Establish one task, then place your mind on the next task.

There are some places where you do want a [list=]cumulative[/list] astral visualization, though usually when you are building a single complex thing. For example, in Temple of Thelema's private work, a series of three separate actions cumulatively builds 11-point seals at the gateways, and therefore it is valuable to hold the larger framework in mind during this one 'building.'

However, for most work of the kind you seem to be describing, the effectiveness of your ritual ("it did its job") and your trust and confidence in what you are doing can free you to devote your attention (as you go) to simply the step you are currently doing. Think of it this way: You banish, and the place is banished. It will stay that way unless you do something to disequilibrate it. So next, you go on to the next step, whether a purification or a general invocation or a specific invocation, etc., and give that next step the whole of your attention.

The symbols are purer that way. An exception (as mentioned above) would be when your entire operation (all of its phases) is building a single, complex geometry (or other pattern) that needs all of its parts simultaneously present.

Or is it more a matter of, you do the LBRP have it visualised well, then move on and let that visualisation fade into the background whilst you do the hexagram ritual, and so on?

Yes. The visualization fades, but its effect does not fade.

[mark0987]

Thank you!

I might be able to get some actual work done instead of questioning everything now!