Understanding the Void and the Inner Worlds

There has been a lot of confusion in various magical discussions as to what certain words mean that are used in terms of visionary work, like what is the void? What are the inner worlds?

What are the inner worlds?

The inner worlds are states of power and consciousness that exist outside and independent of the human body. They are not a product of our collective imagination however our collective imagination over Millennia has created interfaces or images by which we can understand and interact with the various forces that exist all around us. These forces are the forces of the universe, the templates of creation and destruction, and some are energetic constructs that humanity has built and worked within throughout our history. Through visionary work we can interact with various beings such as angelic beings, land spirits, deities, demonic beings, the dead etc. We find these beings in various inner realms, for example the realm of death, the underworld, the angelic realm, the desert/tree of life etc. We can also plunge deeper into the inner worlds to experience and interact with the forces of nature, of life and death and of Divinity itself. This interaction is not new and has been used in various ways by tribal magicians, ancient priests, mystics and visionaries from various cultures throughout time. In the west we slowly became divorced from this method of working for a variety of reasons from cultural beliefs, religious dogma, scientific rationalism etc. This divorce has had a massive impact on magical practice in the west and we are only recently starting to slowly recover from that severing. Bear in mind that the use of these words is my usage that I learned. Other traditions that still work in these areas sometimes use different names, but the place is the same, so it is important to understand the place itself and its function rather than just get hung up on the name.

The void
The void itself is the most commonly misunderstood term used in visionary magic. Some think of it as the Biblical abyss, some think it is the astral realms and some think it describes their head the morning after a bottle of whisky. The void is a place of nothingness that holds the potential for everything: it is like the universe drawing breath before it breathes life into existence. Everything comes from the void into manifestation; it is the raw power of potential, when the energy has gathered to create and is just on the threshold of the process of manifestation. For kabbalists, it is the power of Divine utterance/potential as it begins its parade down the Tree of Life, taking its form from interacting with the spheres of power before finally manifesting in Malkuth. In visionary magical terms the void can be worked with in two key ways. The first way to develop a way to work with the void is to imagine the void as a place of nothingness that lays beyond a threshold: we imagine a flame, we pass through the flame using the element of fire as a gateway, and we pass into a place where there is no time, no movement, nothing. As the student gets used to being in a place where there is nothing and being able to have a still and silent mind, they have acquired the ability to work with the

void. Because the void is full of all potential, it can be used as a stepping through point or threshold to gain access to other places. It is also a very good tool to use to slow the mind down so that clear work can begin. You can step through the void, and you also experience the void by having your mind totally still and silent. The next phase of working with the void is to bring the void into yourself, or better said, to tune yourself to the void. Instead of stepping over a threshold to the void, you simply sit and slowly silence your mind and body until you are nowhere and nothing. Within that silence you focus upon the void as the place that all potential and creation comes from: the shift from being still and silent to awareness of the void as the energy from which everything flows moves your consciousness from simple stillness to being within the void. That shift of awareness is a major tool in magic and allows the deeper powers within you to rise to the surface while plugging you in to the power frequency of creation, the power potential that is within everything manifest. Everything is constantly creating and destroying at an energetic level in some form or other and the use of the void shifts you into that stream of power and consciousness. It is not an easy thing to do and some people take months to learn the technique, some take years and others can master it in weeks. It is a very individual experience but it never stops deepening and developing: the power of the void within you deepens and grows throughout your working life as a magician until it becomes an extremely profound and powerful experience. It really depends upon your own mind, the environment in which you live and also the external input your mind receives on a daily basis. For someone who is used to living in a very simple way, the void is not too difficult a task for them to achieve. For someone raised around computers, fast bites of information, tv, phones etc, it can be much harder for them to master the stillness. But it is not impossible. The longer your attention span, the easier it gets. The void can be used as a threshold, it can also be a place to work if you are working on a magical task that involves mediating a new power, energy etc into the manifest world. It is also extremely useful if you are magically attacked by a powerful being: when you go in the void, your boundaries loosen and you spread out your consciousness to everything that is around you.... you become like mist which in turn creates a situation where the being has nothing to grab onto. Comes in very handy!

Stilling the Monkey Mind....why?

It is very important, particularly with visionary magic, but really, in all magic, that the mind can be properly stilled and silenced. Once that has been achieved, then the magician can learn to use their mind with absolute focus to achieve magical patterns, inner contact and hold/mediate power without distraction. The mind is the major tool of the magician and a monkey mind is a disaster in magic. Meditation, working with the void and learning focussed simple ritual are all ways that a magician learns to harness their mind and imagination to work with it. Magic is the moving around of energy and power; it is interacting with other beings through consciousness, so a trained mind is absolutely essential. The longer term training of the mind in magic also begins the process of re wiring the brain so that the brain learns the magical skills in detail, learns to recognise and work with the magical images or vocabulary in depth, which in turn allows the magician to do his or her job. It is exactly the same as learning a detailed skill such as a classical art, or master carpentry or a science at a doctorate level. The brain has to adjust itself to

develop specific skills that only long term work and study develop. This is why instant magic manuals, ritual recipe books etc do not make a magician: constant work and training in specific areas of inner and outer work make a magician. Being aware of how much of a monkey your mind really is can be a bit of a shock. Just test it by sitting in a room with no stimulus: no noise, no people, nothing to look at. Sit in the silence and be aware of your thoughts. See how your mind jumps from one thing to the next, how much your body wants to move; it can be quite a revelation. Then shut your eyes and sit silently. Again be aware of thoughts, movements that the body tries to make: we are very rarely silent in our modern world. Once you are aware of the level of monkey mind you possess, then you can start to slowly train the mind to settle, to be quiet, for the body to be still and not itch, move, twitch. Dont try to force it too much in a determined I am going to conquer myself way. Just practice once or twice a day to be silent for a while and slowly let that time build up until you can sit in silence for a long time without realising how much time has passed. With that achieved, work with the void visions to see how different the two states of silence feel. One is simple silence and stillness. The other is silence and stillness but with a huge sense of power behind it. That is the creation potential that is in the void. The next stage is to practice walking around the house and then down the street in a state of inner silence. This one is harder but is the initial training for empowered ritual: ritual worked with while the mind is in the inner worlds. You learn to be in two places at once, with the mind in the inner temple or in a specific inner realm while the body is conducting a ritual action. The power begins to flow from the inner world through you and out into the ritual. That ritual forming of power is then mediated out into the world in whatever form you are working on. (c) Josephine McCarthy 2012