OccultForum.org

Hi everyone. So I’ve followed Bardons book, and indeed every other one I come across seem to be in agreement that one of the most important beginning steps in magic is to balance the elements within yourself. Bardon encourages one to do this with the soul mirror, and even claims that manipulating elemental energy before attaining balance could be dangerous, but in like the golden dawn they seem to use the elemental rituals one at a time to do it. So I was wondering if it would potentially be more efficient or effective or easier to attain this balance through elemental rituals (like today I sense I’m really sluggish, i have too much earth, so I should use an air invocation ritual or even just air meditation), or if I just gotta our nose to the grindstone and summon the willpower to overcome all my flaws through willpower and consciousness. Tbh I wanted to try to astral project and I even listen to binaural beats to help, but can’t seem to do it, even when I feel parts of my body start to rise it’s a struggle and I sweat and my heart rate increases, and I suspect imbalances to be the problem.

I think of the elements as an arbitrary division of "everything" into four rough categories.

Since whatever you can imagine could come at you in the form of a weird dream, an astral projection, etc., treat the balance as being ready for anything.

E.g. if your heart races fast during AP, figure what exactly is causing this, meditate on it, etc. If you can't cope with trippy, you'll have a rough time on the sensory exercises especially since your own projections can seem very real.

Try not to think of it in a magickal sense. Think of it as growing older, maturing your personality, etc.

It's really just about facing those parts of you that you avoid, so you're never caught off guard.

Then can I safely start working with the elements like in bardons chapter 3?