Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
In this essay I will expound on Astral Travel, its importance in the Great Work and provide useful information to encourage a beginner to experiment and research for himself or herself the wonders of this mysterious world.
The Astral Plane is made of a more finer material then the physical plane. When traveling in the Astral you can easily pass through walls, shape-shift, fly, perform rituals and do anything that your imagination is capable of creating. But in order to do astral work in a convenient manner one needs to develop his or her Astral Body, or as it is sometimes called, the Body of Light.
The very first step for the beginner is to sufficiently develop and strengthen his or her Body of Light. This takes Concentration and Practice but soon enough the Persisting Aspirant will attain some kind of success. Here is my advise on what to begin with, it should not however be taken dogmatically, but only as an example to develop your own techniques:
1. Perform Lesser Banishing Ritual of Pentagram or the Star Ruby.
2. Sit in your Asana and imagine your Body of Light coinciding with your physical body.
3. Rise up in your Body of Light from your physical body and emerge into an Astral Plane. Each of us manifests differently on Astral Plane and my suggestion for the Aspirant is to research it individually by experience.
4. Now take some object in your hand, such as a stone or a sword. Feel its weight and coolness. Touch the ground on which you are standing, touch the water, smell the flowers, breath in the air etc... the aspirant will devise multitudes of such exercises that will strengthen his or her Body of Light.
5. When you are thus developing your Body of Light you explore the Astral Plane. As you travel you may see beautiful valleys beneath you, invoke places you want to be at and look about you as you find yourself in the forests, in the snow and rocky mountains, in the deserts and on the river banks. Strange figures and shapes will appear and disappear before you, a being may come and guide you through your journey. It is essential to test such beings according to the instructions in Liber O.
The second step is to perform ritual work in the Astral Plane. For this you will need an Astral Temple. The operation of building such a Temple is itself a very useful and important exercise of concentration. The principle is the same as with developing your Body of Light i.e. practice makes perfect and the Aspirant must not be discouraged by failure but persist until he succeeds:
1. On an empty field construct a Temple according to your will.
2. Enter the Temple's heavy doorway into a large hall, there on a marble floor is an engraved circle for your ritual work and an altar with your magickal weapons.
3. Begin with short rituals such as Banishing, License to Depart and Adoration Unto Nuit. As time goes you will become more confident and you may then try performing long and complex rituals such as Liber V and experiments such as invocations after wards checking the symbols of your consequent vision in the table of correspondences in Liber 777.
The ability to perform rituals on astral plane will be of a great assistance when you cannot perform the rituals physically in situations such as when you are riding in the bus or reading a book in a public library, you will thus not miss a single day of magickal practice!
Also it must always be kept in mind that every Astral practice should be recorded with every possible detail, this will be of use when judging your progress.
Astral Travel is very important on the path of the Great Work, in your early exercises you will struggle to push your visions to sufficient clarity, you will work hard to succeed in building your Temple or trace pentagrams and by performing these difficult Astral exercises you will acquire the power of tremendous concentration and obtain great control over the powers of your being and mental faculties, your thoughts and emotions, thereby strengthening your character.
No doubt, conquering the Astral Plane is a hard battle that only the strongest may win, but it is also the strongest who will enjoy the rich spoils of their victory!
Love is the law, love under will