The Sri Yantra Mandala
What is Creative Visualisation? Have you ever tried it? Done right, it’s exceedingly powerful. Essentially it’s the basis of all modern magic, and the so-called Law of Attraction, but maybe you need a little practice first – here’s a guide to getting started. Before any creative visualisation work, you should make sure you’re as relaxed as possible. Maybe fifteen minutes or so will be required before each session – remembering, too, that you need plenty of quiet! This is where the real magic will start, as working with images (if done correctly) will touch base with what occultist Dione Fortune called the ‘astral body’. This is your emotional centre, the part of the Unconscious realm which ‘contains’ all the information about your real desires. We communicate with this part of ourselves unknowingly every day – our actions, the way we behave reinforces what we are really saying to the unconscious.
For example, I can tell myself a thousand times that I am not afraid of something. But if I go about in ways that suggest otherwise, the Unconscious will soon get the real message! Some people have convinced themselves they really want to attract a lover or even lifelong partner, and will use creative visualisation (i.e. magic) to assist them. Supposing, then, even after a year, that nothing ever happens – we should wonder why the magic isn’t working. But what almost certainly is happening is they aren’t fulfilling their part of the bargain. The desire may be there, but as success approaches, they end up sabotaging their own chances, for one reason or another. The likely cause in this scenario is that they aren’t prepared to give of themselves emotionally; or they have fantasies about the ‘perfect partner’ that no one human can really measure up to.
In other words, they only think they want a real relationship; but as they’re afraid to commit, or deal with reality, this new love affair/partnership/marriage never has a chance to get started. The Unconscious, at any rate, will know the real situation – how you truly feel deep down. No matter how much the conscious ego deludes itself. And this is the area we are attempting to impress with visualised images – the energies of that ‘real situation.’
When we use creative visualisation, a powerful signal is sent to the Unconscious and impresses upon it a certain ‘truth’ or Reality that mere thinking does not. This is how raw feeling works. This is how symbolism works – the impact is emotional, it operates at the gut level, and words are not necessary. In the end, this is how your desires are met with the Law of Attraction, as the Unconscious can’t tell the difference between ‘real’ and powerfully imagined. (One of the best books covering creative visualisation, by the way, is Al Koran’s Bring Out The Magic in Your Mind.) If you’re using goal-oriented images or the power of intention, you will find the exercise below nice and calming. And powerful.
Starting at your feet, imagine a small bright light shining on your toes. Don’t just ‘see’ this light; ‘feel’ it too — its soothing warmth. Keep on until you can actually ‘feel’ the mild heat from this glowing light upon your feet. Next, move this imaginary light along your legs and repeat the process; feel how relaxing it is to be bathed in this white light. Apply it now to the whole of your body: arms, shoulders, hands, and face. Feel your whole being bathed and immersed in this warm glowing light. Keep on for about fifteen minutes, and then slowly allow the light to fade. This ritual will not only give you some practice at visualising – it will relax you, too.
Our next encounter with creative visualisation will be that of simple, recognisable shapes. To get started, take a look at the picture at the top of this page – it is the Hindu Sri Yantra (“sacred tool”) mandala derived from the Shri Vidya school of tantra, with its nine interlocking triangles radiating out from the central (bindu) core. Without getting too much into the theory (as I’ve covered this elsewhere), let’s just point out that this symbolic diagram contains all the primal archetypes in the Universe. For example, the point in the centre of the yantra represents the One which underlies the Many forms of manifestation in the world (of which you are but one!).
Just meditating on that central core, with your eyes nice and relaxed, can itself bring about a state of inner balance and harmony. There is a much larger, correctly coloured image of the Sri Yantra here, which you can view from your desktop, or download and print to use in serious meditation and creative visualisation.
As you focus on the inner point, after five minutes, allow your field of vision to enlarge – move your eyes around the border of the yellow triangle – then move outward to include the triangles containing green, black, red and blue. (Of course, they’re interlocking too.) Also, move in alternate directions – don’t just follow the outlines upwards; move downwards too. Then follow the circles (symbolising the eternal Now) the lotus petals (your unfolding awareness) and the square (the material world you inhabit – notice how it comes last.)
Then close your eyes and recreate it as an image in your consciousness. This will need some practice, but try to recreate the square and its T-shaped portals, the circles, lotus petals, the triangles and the centre core. Recall all the various colours. Like I say, this will need some practice; it will take time, and retaining the image might prove more difficult than it first sounds. Just see for how long you can hold the image in your consciousness. As an aid, print it out and hang it where you’ll l see it every day. Let the visualisation imprint itself on your consciousness. (There are also many versions of the Sri Yantra online which can be used as ‘wallpaper’ on your computer desktop.)
As the physicist Patrick Flanagan – who published an article on how to draw the Yantra (or ‘power diagram’) says: ‘we have shown that shapes and diagram can exert powerful effects on the subtle energy body. These effects have been measured by means of acupuncture and kinesiology.’ It is time now to summon those powerful effects on your inner being.
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