Tantric Temple - Exercises - Introduction to an Abyss Walk

Fears and unwanted thinking patterns create knots in your chakras. Once your Chakra knots are exposed, and you know what sort of problem you are working on, you can begin untying them. If you begin unraveling knots, (when they take up too much of your head space) don't hesitate to perform this exercise.

Set aside several hours where you can be undisturbed in temple space. Light your favorite incense and candles to remind yourself this is a magickal act. Cast a circle around the entire room, so that you have as much freedom of movement as possible.

Imbibing sacraments, if you want to includes this, should be done as soon as you are comfortable. Alcohol works very well, but I don't recommend hallucinogens for this purpose.

Now, just sit back and think about your past. Think about your parents, siblings, and friends growing up. Start thinking about the knot you are working on, and what may have caused that block. You may know this right off the top of your head; if this is the case, it is probably something you have avoided thinking about for a long time. Now, you MUST think about it. This is the purpose of this ritual.

If the memory isn't apparent, think about your knot. Put the impact of your greatest fear into motion by imagining a scenario that would invoke it. (for example, if you're greatest fear is being left alone, imagine yourself stranded in a strange place.)

Name that emotion. Put a handle on it. Now, ask yourself "When was the first time I felt this emotion?" If you can't remember the first time, try to find the earliest occurrence of this emotion in your life. Somewhere in your past you made an emotion-based decision that "The world works this way." This decision is wrong for you because it is contrary to your True Will. However, it is ingrained in your makeup, confusing your entire being, and causing knots in your psyche. Not only do you have to go back and fix that decision, you have to unload years of emotion/energy build-up that it caused. Traditional therapy methods ignore the energy part; that is why it takes so long. Untying the knot with the help of magick will clear the energy all at once, and allow the decision to be seen without any emotional cover-up immediately.

Once you remember the very first time you felt this emotion, replay the scene in your head with as much detail as you can remember. Think about the location, the people present, the furniture or weather that day. Figure out all the details and relive the scene in your mind as vividly as possible. Put yourself firmly in that reality.

As soon as you can pheel the emotion-laden energy begin to rise in yourself (tears, anger, shame) begin drawing it out of your system and grounding it. You can visualize all of the energy going into the ground directly from your aura, or visualize a conduit of some sort or this purpose. (Make sure any conduit is in vacuum mode!) You can also sink the energy into a crystal, a pillow, a chair, or any other inanimate object. Don't worry if the object isn't set up for absorbing energy - the idea is to get it out of you, not necessarily to charge an item. Spit out that energy as you relive the scene in retrospect. Some questions to think about are:

How old were you?
Where were you? Describe the room and any objects you see.
Who else is there?
What is happening?
What is being said?
What are you feeling?
What would you like to say or do?

Sometimes, at this point, you need is to say what it was you didn't say. Scream it if necessary. Get it out there! Imagine the person who needs to hear it in the room with you. Pour it out anyway it wants to come. Don't stop it just because it is uncomfortable. Remember, you are in a safe, secure, sacred space you created yourself. There's no sense in you stuffing that emotion again. Cry, yell, or fall apart emotionally. This can take anywhere from 10 minutes to several hours.

You may find it helpful to use a mirror to speak to, or write it in your journal as it comes out. As the emotional energy comes out, ground as much as possible. You may find memories that were previously hidden. You may remember abuse that was repressed for years. Do not back down from these memories! You must do this with perfect love and perfect trust in yourself. This moment is a very volatile one for you. You may need to rely on you own intuitions to know exactly what to do. Use your instinct and pheelings to get through it.

When the bulk of emotional energy has been emptied (you'll never get it all) ask yourself what conclusions the "younger you" cam to at that time. You must find the fault in this thinking yourself. Is the "younger you" correct in making decisions for the "now you" body? Re-think that decision, and come up with one that applies to your current reality.

Relive the scene again, this time without needing the emotional purging. Walk into the scene again as an observer in your "now you" body. Talk to the "younger you" and all the people involved. Correct the situation in your memory as only a wiser person could. Whether you picture yourself striking your oppressors, or merely speaking to them, you may need to purge more emotional energy at this point as your life lessons flash in your head. YOu may remember all the times you reacted badly to the same sort of situation. You may find another problem life-lesson now. If so, repeat the process of purging and re-evaluating it. Ground the energy as before, until it is all out. You may still find "bubbles" of this energy in the coming days; ground it out whenever you find it. Know that the scene will never happen again, and no one will ever be able to push those buttons in you again. Ground out any residual energy and take down the circle.

A classic case of untying knots occurred with S as I was writing this chapter. He wasn't motivated to get a job and support himself. Except for what fit into his backpack, he didn't have any belongings. I checked his energy, and his problem was in his survival (3rd) chakra. I asked him what scared him about making money. His answer was "None of the money I make will ever mean anything. It's just a physical object, and it isn't important. Besides, it doesn't last." I asked him to recall the last time he was pressured by other people to get a job, (which always angered him) and the emotion present in him at that time. Then I asked him to find the first time he felt that particular emotion.

The earliest scene that he connected this emotion to was when S was 7. He recalled sitting on his bed, crying in a room he shared with two older brothers. At first he couldn't remember why he was crying. I told him to take the memory back to when he walked into the room. That's when he remembered his eldest brother yelling at him to get out of the room. When this little Sam didn't obey his eldest brother, he was punched hard several times and left crying on his bed. The decision he made was that "I don't have a right to live here, nothing here belongs to me." This was the decision that was wrong for him, and caused him trouble by discouraging him to own anything.

The final step for S was to imagine himself as an adult coming into the room and punishing his older brother for the violence inflicted. This couldn't happen in the original scene, but when he ran it through his imagination, it made him feel vindicated. He knows now that he has the freedom to have possessions and money of his own, and that no one will take it from him again. He landed a job the following week.

Sleep immediately after you do this rite. You will probably be exhausted anyway. Your subconscious mind must sort through this stuff before your conscious mind. When you wake up, make sure you feel rested and light. Do not confront any oppressors from your past! You are not fit to do so until you finish "floating." You will float for several days after this as the puzzle pieces of your psyche rearrange themselves. Floating feels like being inside a large pillow, or seeing life through a fog. It is an instinctive reaction to untying knots and should not scare you. (Some students say they feel high. Enjoy it.) Try to keep yourself from spending these days hibernating. Write in your journal every day to help things settle down. At this point, anything offered to your brain as "truth" will either be accepted or rejected without question, so be careful where you go and who you talk to.

If you seem to feel normal, without floating, it could be you haven't purged enough energy from the knot. As you have come this far, and your decision was rectified, you will slowly leak the energy out on your own. Keep an eye on your old behavior patterns, (which won't go away as easily) and to ground any emotional energy you feel is attached to them. The whole purpose of your learning magick is to become best person you can be. This means changing the old behavior patterns into something you would rather have. With this in mind, you shouldn't worry if you don't float at all.

If you are still floating a week later, you have more knots to untie. Do the exercise again while you are still floating, but change some aspect of it (the temple space, the lighting, or the background sounds) so that you can remember the two rituals as separate events. Your memory of this time period will be splotchy, so keep writing in your journal every day. In the event that you know there are several knots to untie, you may take them all apart in one day, but this becomes hard work. My student B had 7 knots, which we untied in one day. Most of his knots were related, because he grew up the son of a drug addict. While he cannot remember the whole day, he knows that he was totally exhausted by the end of it, and can remember most of the issues that had him tied in knots.

You should not try to do anything magickal until you are solidly back on your feet and not floating any longer. You will see the world in a whole new light after this, and any natural shields will be easily removed. The entire process of untying knots is this:

Find whichever chakra holds the knot
Look into the memory banks to see where it came from.
Relive the experience in imagination.
Purge all of the energy it created originally, and all the stuffed emotions.
Go into the memory and fix it, using current perspective.
Rearrange any ideass about yourself that may shift.
Go to sleep, so the unconscious mind works on it first.
Float for a few days until the mind is settled.
Go forward with a new outlook.

Skipping any of these steps will make the next knot even more complicated to untie.