by Introducing the Effects of the Water Principle
Step III – Soul Education – Exercise no. 3
The aim of this session is to cultivate an experience opposite to that of the Fire Element. The Water principle represents a state of descent and contraction. It produces cohesion, creating bonds and attraction between molecules. As they cool and condense, they generate a downward movement. The Element is therefore experienced as the absence of heat.
The practice is as follows:
- Assume your habitual posture or āsana, close your eyes and imagine yourself in the middle of a vast ocean that surrounds you completely.
- Inhale the Element through the lungs and pores, using total body breathing. As you exhale, think of nothing and retain the Element within you.
- During the first practice session, begin with seven breaths. With sufficient concentration, you will feel a cold sensation that intensifies with each breath.
- After the seventh breath, remain for a moment with the sensation of cold throughout your body. Then exhale the Element seven times, continuing until no trace of it remains. While inhaling, keep your mind free of thoughts.
- In each subsequent session, increase the number of breaths by one. Bardon advises that the exercise should not exceed twenty minutes.
As always, Bardon describes the results that an advanced magician may achieve through intensive practice, such as influencing atmospheric phenomena or aquatic animals. However, as noted earlier, this exercise operates at the level of imagination. Its purpose is to elicit a response within the soul without external factors intervening. One indication of successful practice is the ability to maintain the sensation of bodily cold even when the surrounding temperature is high.
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