These are the meditations and practices I do daily. Maybe you can use some or all of these to help you along the way of your own path. I will first list all the practices I use daily, then the ones I use intermittently through the week. I will then give a short explanation of each.
Daily Practices:
I try to do these everyday, usually being the first thing I do after waking up in the morning.
Tratakam Yoga- The Fixed gaze
Sigil Magick
Pranayama Yoga
Wim Hof Breathing Technique
Personal Mantras
Silence of the mind (no thoughts)
Candle Magick
Self Hypnosis/ Trance
Scrying
Contemplation/ Hold a Thought
Creative Expression
Intermittent Practices:
I do these periodically through the week, I try to do at least one of these daily, along with the daily practices listed above:
Kundalini Yoga
5 Tibetan Rites
Lamasery Exercises
Middle Pillar
Rudolf Steiner 6 basic exercises
Fasting
Alchemical Transmutation of Sexual Energy Exercises
Practice Explanations:
I do all of these daily practices, usually in the order listed, and one intermittent practice typically within 45 minutes to an hour. I use either this 5 minute interval timer or 10 minute interval timer, so it is easier to switch between each practice while maintaining a timely schedule.
Tratakam Yoga- The Fixed gaze. As it sounds it is a practice that involves staring at an object while in total concentration and silencing the mind of any other thoughts. Try not to blink, or blink as little as possible. It may be hard at first but it does get easier over time. This is also one of the the first steps to practicing Magick. Many people will concentrate on the flame from a candle, a small dot, sigil, geometrical pattern, or tattva. You can use anything depending on what you want to direct your willpower towards. Personally I use either a candle flame or a Sigil while practicing Tratakam.
I frequently use the seal/ sigil of this website:
A brief description of this sigil/ seal meaning: Most obviously this is an inversion of a part of the 'Great Seal' of the multi-'national' incorporated Amerika, infamously used on the $1 federal reserve fiat monopoly money. Technically it is a double inversion, as the self-serving occultists have already inverted and blasphemed the original 'eye of providence' representing the third eye and spiritual intuition, onto the seal of their- materialistic, slave controlling, Babylon money magick.
On top of the upside-down pyramid, is the Vitruvian Man. To me, this represents the divine LOGOS as Adam Kadmon or man-perfected,a human perfectly balanced in thought, word, deed; mind, body, and spirit. Of course on the top is still the original Latin "Annuit cœptis" meaning "Providence favors our undertakings." On the bottom, the Latin has been changed to 'Humanae Libertas' meaning Human Liberty.
I use this Sigil to help the Logos/ Logoi emerge into both, my personal and the collective consciousness and subconscious of other divine sparks incarnated in the physical realm. This Logoi is transitioning from the sleeping and subtle underlying force it has been, into the active ruling principal and overlying force. If this is agreeable to you, then please use this Sigil to set forth these intentions as well. Of course you can always create your own sigil or find one that represents something personal to you.
Pranayama Yoga- Is the practice of breath control. Typically you are using your fingers to block one nostril, while breathing in and out of the other, alternating between each nostril. There are a number of variations I use the traditional 4-fold breath while I do it, being: inhale 4 seconds, hold 4 seconds, exhale opposite nostril 4 seconds, hold 4 seconds, repeat. A more advanced version I use is this (I use a different mantra):
Personal Mantras- Mantra meditation is just repeatedly saying out loud or in your mind, words, tones, sounds, or phrases. This should help you clear all other thoughts and reach a trance state. You can always make your own; it can be real words or just sounds/tones. Whatever works best for you; here are some other examples to experiment with:
Through me flows a river of unconditional love, THE SPIRIT FLOWS FROM THE SOURCE, HA LA POU LA PLANE, TEA LEAVES, HOLLOW BAMBOO, OM MANI PADME HUM, AUM, ALPHA/OMEGA, THE JEWEL IS IN THE LOTUS MANTRA, E EMO LEETOE LYTOE ZONYA, WHITE CLOUDS, BLUE SKY, ABRACADABRA, La-Um-I-L-Gan, Edom-El-Ahim-Sabbert-Zur Adom, Merkut-El- Shab-El, Hale-Sur-Ben, El-Zabrut, Zin-Efrim-Quar-El, Namu-Amida-Butsu, EL-OM
Wim Hof Breathing Technique: While sitting or lying down in a comfortable place, take 30 or more quick, deep breaths, inhaling through your nose and/or mouth and gently exhaling (you want to saturate you body with oxygen). Then, take a deep breath and exhale all air out; hold until you need to breathe in. Inhale again, as deep as you can, and hold it for 10 or more seconds. Repeat as many times as you like.
Silence of the mind (no thoughts): One of the easiest practices to explain and hardest to do. Sit or lay down in a comfortable position. Don't think. If thoughts come, gently let them pass.
Candle Magick: Have you blown out the candles on your birthday and made a wish? Then you have performed candle magick. A brief explanation is- you are staring at the candles (either on the cake or during your meditation), the fire represents the active mind that you are willing your wish onto. You then release your will (wish) into the ether via the smoke produced from the blown out candle. Your wish has now merged with Universe. I light some candles every morning for my meditations, and at the end of the meditations I give my thanks to Universal and Life Forces, hold what I will/ wish in my mind, then blow out the candles.
Self Hypnosis/ Trance: There is no short way to go over the methods of hypnotic induction to go into trance. Some people can do it very naturally, others not so much. With practice it does become easier though, and you will only learn through experimentation with different methods. I can get into trance within one to two minutes now. Basically getting to the trance state for hypnosis is subjective to each person, the goal is to get into a receptive, meditative-like state, in which information can bypass most of the conscious filters and communicate directly with the sub-conscious. For example you can go into trance by driving on a long stretch of road, listening to music, listening to someone with monotone voice, staring at a object (Tratakam), meditation, reading, and almost anything else you can think of. If you were to measure the brain waves of someone in trance they would be in the Alpha-Theta range, though different hemispheres may actually vary depending how deep into trance they go.
I have over 20 books on trance and hypnosis in the Library, here are some of my favorite though:
Trance-Formations_ Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Structure of Hypnosis
Instant self-hypnosis_ how to hypnotize yourself with your eyes open
Scrying: Is staring with the fixed gaze at a reflective surface usually crystal or obsidian. This is another reason why Tratakam is important to practice. Though I do not always do this in my morning routine I will try to do it at least 5-10 minutes once a day. I use an obsidian mirror and like to be in a dark room with some candles as the only light source. See what you can learn from your reflection.
Contemplation/ Hold a Thought: I do this daily but usually not in my morning routine. How long can you hold a thought for? How deep can you go into that thought? I define contemplation as a fixed, profound, totally focused and centered thought typically about existence, experience, your reactions, consciousness, spirituality, true-self, gods, archetypes, all-mind, source, or other higher conscious/philosophical thinking. Though similar to mediation and some would say could be a form of meditation, which I agree with, I also see it as: “While contemplation is a train of thought about something, meditation is training the mind to rest in a particular focus that leads to a connection to the source of consciousness itself. “ I like to think if meditation helps us to Know Thyself then contemplation helps us to Love Thyself. Mediation and contemplation should be balanced out, try not to over-think things, but also try not to avoid thoughts.
Creative Expression: For my creative expression I write (obviously), play drums in a band, and train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai, which surprisingly (to some) has a large of amount of creativity when sparring once you reach a higher skill level. Of course there are many outlets that include activities such as creating/ performing Music, Art, Writing, Poetry, Sculpture, Dance, Theater, Martial Arts etc. Creativity helps merge the conscious and sub-conscious and can also get us into trance like meditative states where we commune with higher-mind and consciousness. Practicing any creative outlet can help us achieve gnosis, still the mind when meditating, live with love, strengthen will, and expand perception. Additional benefits are that it can give sense of purpose, power, increase mindfulness, concentration, patience, skills, mood, self-esteem and much more.
Even if it is only 10 minutes a day, find something that allows you to express yourself and DO IT. Do not think about it, do not worry about "not being good," you do not even need to plan; if you like art just doodle something, if you sing then start singing, put music on and dance, take the instrument you haven’t played in years and play.
The next practices are done periodically, I choose at least one to do a day. They take about 15-30 minutes depending on which one I do.
Kundalini Yoga: Is working with the energy that lies dormant at the base of the spine until it is activated (as by the practice of yoga) and channeled upward through the chakras in the process of spiritual perfection. This is very powerful and when I started 10 years ago it worked so well, that I had to stop for a few years because my mind was not spiritually mature enough for the energies. I have now continued to practice but do it moderately with much more respect. There are many books in the library as well as plenty of websites and videos to learn Kundalini practices. My favorite instructor that I use is the Anmol Mehta Youtube Videos.
5 Tibetan Rites: Pretty simple exercises that most Yoga practitioners would be familiar with.
Lamasery Exercises: Are a Gnostic version of the 5 Tibetan rites with some added exercises, made by S. A Weor. This website has a full explanation and diagrams. You can also read the instruction of S. A Weor in this PDF article (no diagrams): Exercises Of Lamasery
Middle Pillar Exercise: This is a visualization meditation exercise, activating the five psychic centers of the Middle Pillar in the body. In ways, it resembles the arousing of chakras, but follows the Kabbalistic pattern, and the concept of Light descending and then circulating. Each center is visualized as a sphere of colored light about six inches across one at a time, and then its God Name vibrated four times. After all five centers are established, then currents of energy are visualized rising internally from the base and then descending externally to enter again to energize the aura. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is thought to have created it (or at least popularized it). You can learn more at this website that has a guided Mp3. I also like to use this video that has Israel Regardie guiding you through:
Rudolf Steiner 6 basic exercises: You can read them all here in this short article: Six Basic Exercises of Rudolf Steiner These exercises are used to: "1. Control of thought aims to gain control over what you think. 2. Control of will aims to gain control over your actions. 3. Equanimity - the exercise of feeling - aims to be aware of your feelings, to weaken strong feelings and strengthen weak ones and to balance them. 4. Positivity aims to see the positive in addition to the bad and the ugly. In this exercise thinking and feeling are combined. 5. Open-mindedness aims to be always open to new experiences. In this exercise feeling and willing are combined. 6. Inner harmony: the sixth, in which the previous exercises need to be practiced in order to create harmony between thinking, feeling and willing."
Fasting: Everyday I partake in intermittent fasting, where I try to only eat in a 7-8 hour window. It will help if you eat a clean diet of NO processed food. Especially avoiding processed sugar and flour. Eating these things will have a detrimental effect on your meditations and many of the other practices explained here. I also do a 24+ hour fast at least once a month. This seems hard at first, but really is not, you will realize most of your "hunger" is a somatic response based on habits and you can go much longer without eating then you realize with no negative side effects. There are many benefits that you can read about. It is important that if you do intermittent or other fasting, that you are eating the same amount you usually would in that 7-8 hour window, do not become malnourished as this is not the point. Increasing self-discipline, mediation, and AVOIDING PROCESSED FOOD, will help greatly with fasting.
Alchemical Transmutation of Sexual Energy Exercises: There are a variety of different practices and reasons for the transmutation of sexual energy. Since there is so much to sexual transmutation and many methods I have a separate blog post dedicated fully to the subject, you can see if any of the practices can help you by reading more here: Alchemical Sex- Transmutation of Sexual Energy in Theory and Practice
I hope some of these exercises help you on your own path.
In divine service to Mother Sophia, Logos, and Elom