Magical exercises - they are not a game

by Emil Stejnar

(translated by Richard Tschudi)

In the year 1958 I had the following experience. It happened in Vetlanda, a small
city in Sweden. I had just welcomed a visitor from Vienna, a good friend of mine
to whom I felt a strong connection, because of the many years we did researches
together. There were plenty of news to share and in the evening we did an
experiment with a magical wand which I constructed according to special
instructions. Then we went to bed and had long discussions before we fell
asleep.

The foot-ends of our beds were facing each other and they fitted exactly between
the walls and there was no gap at all between the beds.

Suddenly I had a feeling that I was turning and swirling madly in a whirlpool of
red and black flames. I was full of fear like never before and I believed to be lifted
up into the air. Then from somewhere I heard my name called and I woke up. I
found my self sitting at the farthest end of the bed and only very slowly gained full
consciousness. In the other bed my friend was as well sitting on his bed and he
was still calling my name.

As I now noticed, my bed was now slopped on the wall. The head of the bed was
stuck on the wall with its feet 40 centimeters above the ground and in the
morning we noticed scratches on the wall-paper indicating that the bed must
have been lifted at one time up to1 meter from the ground. The room was in a
state of great disorder. Books and music records were scattered on the floor. The
table was standing on some of the books.

After we calmed down my friend reported the following: He was woken up by a

cold draft of air and wanted to get up to close the window, however the window
was already closed. Then he noticed that I was sitting in the middle of the bed
and was staring with my eyes filled with fear ahead of me. Around my head was
a strange green light which seemed to emanate from my eyes. Then the head of
the bed started to lift up. My friend said that I was screaming terribly and that I
moved to the end of the bed. He called my name a few times, turned on the light
and then I came to me (woke up).

At that time I assumed that the cause of that spook was the experiment with the
magical wand. It was a nine-time coiled spiral made of a wire of fine-gold and
fine-silver and a magnetic iron top. The whole was stuck on a staff of elder wood
and was meant to be especially appropriate for invocations.
Today I know that the magic wand was very innocent. The real cause was the
one-sided magical exercises which I practiced for a few months prior to the
incident. Like any beginner I focused on those exercises which appealed to me
particularly and neglected others. I overdid asceticism and I tried to strengthen my
will-power by all kinds of methods.

In this manner I created a reservoir of power which had to discharge itself eventually
because I did not assign a task to that power-reservoir. Any power which is transformed
by will-power exercises has to be consciously associated with a quality, a name or a
meaning if you want to have control over this power. Otherwise this power or energy will
automatically connect with a part of the so called unconscious and then works
independently, mostly against us, or it can also be misused by entities.

This is an important law in practical magic. From this can be deduced: Every quality,
idea or goal towards which we are striving will soon join up with a force so that it can
manifest itself. This force will be extracted from us unless we do not consciously create
his force by will-power exercises or do not have control over the idea.

Most beginners are disregarding this fact or are not aware of it yet. However,
magical exercises are not a game. It wouldn’t occur to anybody to play around
with the bare fingers with a high voltage power-line. But when it comes to magic,
many believe they can visualize and meditate on what ever they like although
very dangerous powers can be contacted.

This is also the reason why many students give up practicing after a few months
or they are forced to do so by tragic fate. The divine providence, in this manner
prevents damages that sooner or later can occur to spirit and soul.

The right way therefore is to practice and strive with spirit, soul and body equally,
and create an elemental equilibrium on each level. The best instructions are
given in the book: “Initiation into Hermetics” by Franz Bardon. Whoever works on
his or her occult perfection has to observe the law of the interaction between
force (power) and might (quality). He or she should these might’s (qualities) and
forces (quantities), which are automatically created and are released by the
magical exercises and then ban and capture them consciously with a gesture
(mudra), a ritual, or a seal. Or he or she should bind these might’s and forces
(quantities and qualities) with a clearly outlined quality or attribute. He or she
then creates magical aids without any special effort, which will serve him or her
well on the path. The usual side effects which every practitioner experiences
during his or her apprenticeship will eventually wear off.

(note by the translator: This part of this article first appeared in the German
esoteric magazine “Anubis – Zeitschrift fuer praktische Magie und Psychonautik)
# 10, December 1988.

The last paragraph that follows was added by Emil Stejnar when he republished
this article in his book: “Die vier Elemente – Der geheime Schluessel zur
geistigen Macht. (Ibera Publisher-Vienna)
 ***
Today, I don’t need anything else to add to my conclusions of the time when I
wrote this article. However in the mean time I discovered where the phantom,
which had tried to pull me out of my body, came from. When my friend and I did
the preparation for the experiment (with the magic wand), we went to the
“gallows-hill”. It was a place of execution in the 18th century. The land on which
house where we lived in was build was also on a place of execution, where in
1543 sixty people were beheaded after a peasant uprising. This information I
found out much later. It is understandable that the elementaries which we
absorbed at the “gallows-hill” and then brought to our house, where they
animated the schemes of mortal agony of the place and as a result the phantom
could manifest with the help of my unused energies which I created with my
magical exercises.

Bardon also refers in step XI of his third book of instructions: “The Key to the true
Kabbalah” to the important difference between a might and a power (quality and
quantity). I urgently recommend that every Hermetic Practitioner studies that
chapter in depth and takes it to heart.

(this article was translated by permission from Emil Stejnar)