Soul Mirror Work

Information and advice for those new to the Occult.

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RockDemon
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Soul Mirror Work

Post by RockDemon »

So as I was doing my introspection for a few weeks now, decided to go on and set elements for the attributes I have already found. And the perfectionist in me wants to set all the elements exactly and correctly. Do you know of any good quick reference that has some big list of attributes elements with them?

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RoseRed
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by RoseRed »

I have no idea what you're talking about.

What elements and which 'soul mirror'?

What are you trying to do?
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by ulvfdfgtmk »

I guess he´s refering to the soul mirror as taught by Franz Bardon in IIH.
I would be interested aswell, however I also heard that one should go with ones intuition while putting the qualities under the different elements and figure out over time which ones were placed correctly and which ones should´ve been put under another element.

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RoseRed
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by RoseRed »

Gotcha. I never studied Bardon.
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corvidus
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by corvidus »

If we look at an emotion or emotional response according to Hermetics, then each emotion is necessarily composed of all four elements--but usually with one predominating. There are also volatile responses, and fixt responses.

For example, Anger. It is predominantly Fire (volatile) as an actively-aggressive response, but predominately Water (fixt) when passively-aggressive (a famous alchemical phrase: the common burn with Fire, the sages burn with Water. Or something like that).

Also consider that men are usually actively-aggressive whereas women are typically passive-aggressive.

As for Melancholy, it is predominantly Earth in its passive form, but when melancholy becomes active it is more like Air -- this Airy/active type of melancholy gives rise to emotions like Anxiety and withdrawal from reality (basic ungroundedness).

Interesting enough, Fear can be attributed to all of the elements, both actively and passively. Fear provokes many of these emotional reactions.

Just my thoughts on the matter :)
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RoseRed
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by RoseRed »

I'm glad you shared them.

So, the soul mirror he's talking about is a specific item with a prescribed ritual? Because it's also a commonly misused phrase for different types of scrying mirrors. Or the common name of the mirror you use to see people's real face while they sleep. I just want to make sure of what we're talking about.
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by E. »

When creating the 2 lists Mr. Bardon gives good examples of elements to emotions and the extension of those emotions we have to think very well back to their root emotion and can try our best to attribute it to a certain element.

I know it's not much help but I went through the same thing trying to match up element with emotion.

Good luck on your journey!
E.

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RockDemon
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by RockDemon »

RoseRed wrote:I have no idea what you're talking about.

What elements and which 'soul mirror'?

What are you trying to do?
I am talking about the Hermetic Soul Mirror. The one from The Intiation Into Hermetics.
ulvfdfgtmk wrote:I guess he´s refering to the soul mirror as taught by Franz Bardon in IIH.
I would be interested aswell, however I also heard that one should go with ones intuition while putting the qualities under the different elements and figure out over time which ones were placed correctly and which ones should´ve been put under another element.
Well yes but I need some starting point.
E. wrote:When creating the 2 lists Mr. Bardon gives good examples of elements to emotions and the extension of those emotions we have to think very well back to their root emotion and can try our best to attribute it to a certain element.

I know it's not much help but I went through the same thing trying to match up element with emotion.

Good luck on your journey!
E.
Yes , Master Bardon gives some good examples but it is not so clear-cut in practice.
corvidus wrote:If we look at an emotion or emotional response according to Hermetics, then each emotion is necessarily composed of all four elements--but usually with one predominating. There are also volatile responses, and fixt responses.

For example, Anger. It is predominantly Fire (volatile) as an actively-aggressive response, but predominately Water (fixt) when passively-aggressive (a famous alchemical phrase: the common burn with Fire, the sages burn with Water. Or something like that).

Also consider that men are usually actively-aggressive whereas women are typically passive-aggressive.

As for Melancholy, it is predominantly Earth in its passive form, but when melancholy becomes active it is more like Air -- this Airy/active type of melancholy gives rise to emotions like Anxiety and withdrawal from reality (basic ungroundedness).

Interesting enough, Fear can be attributed to all of the elements, both actively and passively. Fear provokes many of these emotional reactions.

Just my thoughts on the matter :)
Thanks Corvidus, actually you made the picture a bit more clear to me.

And one more thing. Let's take for instance the ungroundedness brought by Corvidus. How can I figure out if it is lack of earth element or it is overabundance of air element in me?

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corvidus
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by corvidus »

You'd have to examine yourself as a whole, and take into consideration a sort of sliding scale.

Say you have 100 total. 25 + 25 + 25 + 25. Obviously these represent the four elements con tainted in one particular system. When you have an emotional/energetic shift, or you're working with one particular element, it brings these out of alignment. Now you're 75 + 15 + 5 + 5. Keep that up long enough, or not bringing it completely back to normal, and the systems which are lacking are prone to infection/disease/debilitating weaknesses.

However, according to Astrology and our birth charts, we're all composed of a unique combination of elements and rarely is anyone so evenly quartered. I'd look to astrology to try and find a 'baseline'.
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by Cybernetic_Jazz »

I actually decided to try Poke Runyon's suggestion - ie. getting Prescilla Costello's astrology book, doing my own chart, and then working my elemental mirror after studying Universal Master Key. I will admit that Universal Master Key is a great read and a great one-a-day inspiration guide just that, unfortunately it's as muddy as the short description in IIH.

For right or for wrong I remember breaking it down like this:

Fire - related to will, volition, and things that stay close to that.
Water - emotional self-insulation
Air - Thought, intellect, being up in the stratosphere
Earth - Maintaining or pertaining to due diligence in relationship to physical needs.

I think Nick Farell came up with this analogy similar to this and I like it so I'll use it:

You're at the office after-hours finishing up a project and feel hungry.
1) Earth - you see an apple and a peace of cake in the fridge; you decide to go with an apple because it'll give you the best quality of energy.
2) Air - You decide that you just want to get the project done and ignore your hunger.
3) Water - you realize you're a bit stressed and need some comfort food - so you choose the cake.
4) Fire - You realize you really have a hankering to hit the local sports bar for a black-n-bleu, fries, and a beer so you hang it up and go out (or really anything you'd rather be doing with or without food).
You don't have to do a thing perfect, just relentlessly.

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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by Neko-phyte »

corvidus wrote:However, according to Astrology and our birth charts, we're all composed of a unique combination of elements and rarely is anyone so evenly quartered. I'd look to astrology to try and find a 'baseline'.
I'll let you know now, RockDemon, that you don't have a lot of the air element in your natal chart (and even less with fire), but you have more earth and water. As far as splits go, you're actually as evenly split as you can get with zodiacal temperaments (ever so slightly leaning towards fixed) and the elements aren't too bad either. I've dedicated today to sitting down and doing as much as I can of the report, as I finished my final assignment two days ago and needed yesterday to recover from it (darn thing was intense and stressful right down to the final minute!).

Good luck with the ritual work :)

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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by RockDemon »

Thank you all very much guys.With your help I did some work. Also it was good to see that there are improvements as I read through my negative attributes. I finally cultivated some willpower and consistency, perseverance. Also I finally gave up smoking. I didn't smoked for almost about a month. [yay]

@Corvidus: You seem to have done a lot of work on soul mirrors :)

@Cybernetic_Jazz: Interesting analogy, thanks. I read the Universal Key as well, but yes it is still very vague.

@Neko-phyte In fact most of my negative deeds came from lack of willpower (lack of fire I guess), and the other ones were like combinations of earth and water. Thanks. And good to hear you passed that stressful assingment :)

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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by Neko-phyte »

Thank you! I've also passed doing the more difficult parts of your chart now as well; not quite on the homestretch yet but we're close. ;D

I'm really glad you're able to do some good work with the mirror! Bardon's book is on the list of things I want to read through, and this soul mirror work has led to me deciding to shift it up higher in priority (the list of books to read is massive).

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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by Sypheara »

You lot are actually making me, for once, want to read Bardons work properly and to stop skim reading.
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by RoseRed »

I know, right.

Actually, I have a list of them on my bucket list now LOL
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corvidus
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by corvidus »

RockDemon wrote:@Corvidus: You seem to have done a lot of work on soul mirrors :)
Haha quite right.. this kind of work will happen naturally when you isolate yourself and ingest psychedelic mushrooms. They act as a very good mirror, to show you who you really are.

I also practice the internal martial arts, and a decent understanding of the body's energy systems is required so you don't hurt yourself.
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by RockDemon »

Neko-phyte wrote:Thank you! I've also passed doing the more difficult parts of your chart now as well; not quite on the homestretch yet but we're close. ;D

I'm really glad you're able to do some good work with the mirror! Bardon's book is on the list of things I want to read through, and this soul mirror work has led to me deciding to shift it up higher in priority (the list of books to read is massive).
Sypheara wrote:You lot are actually making me, for once, want to read Bardons work properly and to stop skim reading.
RoseRed wrote:I know, right.

Actually, I have a list of them on my bucket list now LOL
In my opinion Bardon is quite a worth read.
corvidus wrote:
RockDemon wrote:@Corvidus: You seem to have done a lot of work on soul mirrors :)
Haha quite right.. this kind of work will happen naturally when you isolate yourself and ingest psychedelic mushrooms. They act as a very good mirror, to show you who you really are.

I also practice the internal martial arts, and a decent understanding of the body's energy systems is required so you don't hurt yourself.
[lol] Gonna try someday :D

I do not practice any martial arts but I do some stretching and gym exercises and sun salutations, do you think it is enough?
Bardon talks in the theory part of the book about body energy system , does it suffice for now ?

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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by corvidus »

For the more mainstream practices, yeah that's enough. And Bardon only really gives a general overview of occult anatomy. There is much that he left out (like the microcosmic orbit pathway, the three major energy centers, the major and minor channels and centers, etc).
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by Shinichi »

I don't have a lot of time to go into this with depth, but I wanted to make a short post on this given that I actually finished the first few steps of the IIH.

1) There are charts, but creating the soul mirror the way Bardon instructs (without a big correspondence reference) is part of the Initiation process. You are meant to meditate on the Elements, contemplate their nature, observe their principle essence and study how that core energy expresses itself in different ways upon other things.

2) The point of the soul mirrors and Magical Equipoise isn't to make the elements equal, but rather in balance as well as to refine them. It's fine if you have 50 Fire virtues, 20 Earth virtues, 10 Water virtues and 20 Air virtues. Equipoise is not equalpoise. Rather, the aim is to expel the toxic expression of the energies ("vices"), and cultivate the generative expression ("virtues"), and create an inner harmony where these energies naturally work together. So rather than the Legarthy Vice from Earth pulling down the Ambition Virtue of Fire, the Patience Virtue of Earth can instead temper the Ambition in a healthy way. Balance. Harmony.

3) Virtue = anything that helps and encourages your personal goals and spiritual practice, Vice = anything that harms and hinders your personal goals and spiritual practice. For some people, like monks, celibacy is necessary and thus all sexual desire is a vice. For someone married, the problems of impotence would instead be a vice, even though it is a virtue for the monk. This is another reason Bardon does not provide a big correspondence chart. Every individual is different. Your initiation is your own, and you must figure out your own True Nature and what is good or bad for you. And its not just emotions. Habits, actions throughout the day. Everything.

4) To answer corvidius' suggestion to look into astrology, Bardon does that later, but in the ancient practical initiation way. The purpose of Elemental Equipoise, fully realized by Step 8, is to achieve the baseline harmony of inner energy. Not equal, but balanced, so none of the elements dominate you and they all work together nicely. When this is done, then you move through Planetary Ascension. When this is achieved, then you achieve a deeper level of Equipoise, via the balance and mastery of planetary energies. Then you ascend through the zodiac. It's not simply about mapping your psyche. That's just the first step. After that, you refine and balance yourself to progressively deeper and higher stages. It's Initiation. The Mysteries. "The Path of The True Adept," as Bardon originally named the IIH (the translators changed it).

I really wish I could post more on this right now, but dammit, life....



~:Shin:~

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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by RockDemon »

Hey there Shinichi , Thanks for replying. Just one more thing
Shinichi wrote:You are meant to meditate on the Elements, contemplate their nature, observe their principle essence and study how that core energy expresses itself in different ways upon other things.
. How to meditate on the Elements exactly? Just read about them then sit and think about them? Or imagine for example a fire and concentrate on it? Or light a candle and meditate on it's fire.. then get some water and concentrate on it etc ?

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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by Shinichi »

Those and other things. Read Bardon's words on the Elements carefully. Study the Classics, Empedocles, Plato, Aristotle, since these are the foundation of Bardon's teaching. Learn the Primary Properties of the Forces (Hot, Cold, Wet, and Dry; Fire is Hot, Dry and an expression of the Electric Principle, Water is Cold, Wet and Magnetic, etc). Study the Four Temperaments, and look around in the world, in your friends, in different animals, to see which Element rules their personality and life (which Temper they are). Another part of Equipoise means transcending the Tempers, because the elements are all healthy and in balance and one alone does not rule you like that.

Study, meditate. Don't rush it, build a connection to the Elementary Forces and absorb an understanding of them. As you progress through the next few steps, when you do the accumulations and such, your initiation with them will run deeper and so your understanding will also run deeper. That's when you'll be able to notice your mistakes in the Soul Mirrors. Till then, just try your best. The elemental organization, especially early on, is not as important as the transmutation of vice to virtue. I gave up on the elemental organization entirely after a while, because it was more important for me to focus on general refinement and inner harmony parts.



~:Shin:~

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RoseRed
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by RoseRed »

I'm not sure where the post is that he flew through another work, listed a bunch of other more advanced work that was rather simple. Do you still recommend going through the entire thing or approaching it from a different perspective?
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by Rin »

Brilliant thread. Not really much to add except that I wouldn't worry about perfectionism too much (except to be sure to add it to your traits :p ), since the Soul Mirror is generally advised to be something you repeat regularly throughout your lifetime. I'm working on my third one right now, and when it's done I'm going to be very interested to go back and compare it to the first two (which I've been avoiding looking at to prevent unconsciously influencing what I put into the new one).

I do want to second Shin's advice about reading the classics if you want to ruminate on the nature of the elements. Observation also helps enormously - just going outside and immersing yourself in the experience of the elements, the wind brushing past your skin, the moisture in the atmosphere, the firmness of the earth under your feet, the heat sun on your face. You can also look internally for this - sit down and meditate, feel inside your body for it's physical form and structure (earth), the constant flow of liquids which sustains your life, the intake and outtake of air via your lungs when breathing, the heat your body naturally generates and the electrical currents which run through your nerves. This kind of internal observation is a great way to develop a feel for the state of your body and, as you advance in your practice, will lead to awareness of higher and higher levels of your being (simply focusing on your breath in the right manner can eventually lead to awareness of the flow of etheric vital force which accompanies it, which can lead to a widening awareness of the etheric currents along which it runs, which can lead up to an awareness of the astral body, and so on).

After all, this is why the elemental energies are (after the vital force) the first that a trainee is familiarized with and works with in almost any system of magic - because even in the densest physical layer of our environment, we're surrounded by substances which reflect their properties and are imbued with their power (although, of course, are not the elements themselves - the water, the H2O you drink, isn't the same thing as the metaphysical elemental energy of Water, just it's closest approximation in the physical plane - the elements cannot exist in their pure form physically).

I'd also like to expand on the concept of virtues and vices (traits) a bit, since this confused me a lot when I was first working on my soul mirror. Traits are not binary - if, say, "cowardice," to pick an easy example, is a negative trait someone puts down on their mirror, then it isn't simply a matter of aiming for "courage." Courage can just as easily, in excess, turn from a virtue into a vice (foolhardiness, brashness, or something similar). Constantly rushing into situations with no fear of consequences is just as bad as constantly avoiding the same situations because of an excessive fear of the consequence.

Instead, think of each trait as a spectrum, with an extreme at each end, and in the center of the spectrum, a balanced state which you are seeking. With the current example, that could be something like "prudence." So:

Foolhardiness--------------------Prudence--------------------Cowardice

In general, you want to avoid extremes and to seek balance in all things, although as has been pointed out, what that balance is exactly is different for each person.
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by RoseRed »

Can I get a quick rundown on what it's purpose is? And why it's repeated?
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Re: Soul Mirror Work

Post by Shinichi »

RoseRed wrote:Can I get a quick rundown on what it's purpose is? And why it's repeated?
It's a map of the psyche and your character. You put your virtues and vices, good and bad habits, on paper, so that you can look at yourself honestly and work out problems, even deep problems, by applying the exercises that follow this one (autosuggestion, raw will power, conscious eating, drinking and breathing). This exercise, though I varied it a little for my own needs, is how I completely rid myself of both ADD and serious Depression, as well as other things. It helped me actively and directly cultivate honor, and other "virtues." It is a practical approach to bettering ones character, and it is periodically redone because ones character evolves. The soul mirrors I wrote down six years ago are very different from the one I might write down today, because I have gone through so many things that refined and developed my character and overall psyche, and I have different strengths and different flaws now.



~:Shin:~

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