AMBER LOVE 25-JULY-2013 Earlier this week I trekked nearly two hours to return to my home-away-from-home Mystickal Tymes in New Hope, Pennsylvania. This is the location where I have done most of my spiritual and witchcraft studies including Witchcraft as a Science with Laurie Cabot, two levels of Wicca, tarot and miscellaneous other workshops. Jason Miller presented his lecture on scrying, THE ART OF SEEING BEYOND ORDINARY PERCEPTION. This is merely a brief recap of the lecture because it’s not for me to recite every detail taught by an expert.
Inside the store, the authentically distressed wooden bookcases are lined with almost no books like they once were back when I began shopping there almost 20 years ago. Now, everything is filled with candles, statues, Tibetan singing bowls, rows upon rows of incense, and so much more. Six people gathered on folding chairs in the walking aisle of the shop’s layout. Instructor Jason had the perfect amount of space between the nook of the tall cases. One of the store’s owner, Eric Lee stayed on hand to interject from his own experiences. The attendees were a skillfully diverse group of interested parties which included myself as a practitioner since a young age, a young man who didn’t know what to make of his intuition, Wicca students, and an archeology student who was exploring Wicca, though not scrying specifically, for her research. It was surprisingly outnumbered 5:1 female to male ratio.
Jason’s introduction briefed us on some of the convenient advances mobile devices have given the spiritual community. He recommended Google Sky Map which is like the Google Goggles – you point the device towards the sky and it dynamically shows you the celestial bodies and constellations. He also said there are interesting Japanese palmistry apps where you can place your palm on the touch screen and have it interpret your lines.
The lecture was divided into two main areas of discussion: Meditation and the actual practices of scrying. As a world traveler, perpetual student, and author of several books on magick, Jason has learned the importance of dedicated daily meditation. He pointed out that there are often ritual practices which are extremely useful but are basically relaxation techniques and mistakenly called meditation. He drove home that when he discusses meditation is very specifically talking about aligning the spine, breathing with awareness, and having a chosen focus. For the purposes of scrying, he said mantra chanting is not the best approach especially for beginners to the arts. Jason offered examples of objects on which you can focus such as simplistic peytons (pentagram designs), a crystal, or the simplest dot on a piece of paper. He also said there is no excuse for not meditating. He is a busy husband and father and he makes time. The benefits make him more alert and productive not sleepy and feeling at a loss of his 20 minutes. He recommends the book, MEDITATION IN A NEW YORK MINUTE.
Moving on to the subject of scrying, this is where a practitioner looks into an object, usually a blackened concave glass or scrying mirror but also often things like crystal balls or the insides of eye lids for those who close their eyes; and then interpreting messages and visions received through this focused journey. It can also be a two-way interaction where the practitioner can send out spells. One should be aware that if spirits are evoked, you must have a plan for what to do with them.
The actual physical practice involves expanding your vision to include the periphery to get a soft 180-degree view. Of course, you also need to return to that posture of your meditation practice. Have awareness of your breath. If you are doing the reading in reference to someone else and it’s possible to have an object belonging to them, you can also incorporate psychometry.
Jason warns that some of messages you receive will in fact be of your own fantasy and desired projections. You need to be skeptical of yourself and learn to identify what should be weeded out as noise or irrelevant data in order to seek out the kernels of truth. In closing, he recommended the website RuneSoup to explore the language of sigils and symbolism.
This was my first time at a lecture by Jason Miller and found him to be everything I could want in a public speaker. He was funny, sometimes filthy, always engaged with the people in the room and above all, he wasn’t arrogant about his decades of accumulated knowledge. If you have a fear that speaker about magick is going to be a patchouli- (or pot-) scented hippie with dreadlocks and sandals, this man is pretty far from that stereotype. He also wasn’t presented like Professor Snape in all black with curiously long fingernails who can’t wait to brag about how many bottles of 2002 Seavey Cabernet Sauvignon he owns. You want to learn from someone you see as a regular Joe who just happens to be a lifelong spellcaster.
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.