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Underground > Temple >

Be a guest in my astral home

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05:32 / 09.07.05

Recently I was flipping through the book "Hannibal", which I read years ago, and I was reading about Lector's "memory palace", a place in his mind he could retreat into during moments of contemplation, crisis, or just to chill. It struck me as being very much like an astral temple. But what really intrigued me is the part towards the end of the book where he becomes surprised to find someone he knows inside his palace, and how his palace eventually connects with this person. Which got me thinking: Perhaps one could visit someone else's astral temple, and if so, how would they experience it, and how closely would their experience corrolate with that of the temple's builder?

To investigate this I'm opening my astral temple to this community for about a week. Because I'm interested in seeing how other people interpret it I won't say much about it other then the fact it's a 3 story mansion with a large backyard area. Months of mental construction has pretty much made it a concrete image in my mind's eye, but maybe other people will see it differently. So I invite you to explore it and afterwards please get in touch with me and tell me about your experience, perhaps even make out sketches or crude maps if need be. I'm very curious about what type of creatures you'd encounter, in fact there's quite a few odd things in the place and they have names and identities but perhaps they'd manifest differently to you. Basically I want to see how other people interpret an astral construct and how closely such interpretations match with the original. Anyway, the passcode to get in for this week is "SUTGE", so you can just say that word and project yourself to the front door. Don't worry, all security devices have been turned off for this week so it's perfectly safe.

09:37 / 09.07.05

To investigate this I'm opening my astral temple to this community for about a week.

Dude. You'd think twice about this if you'd ever seen Illmatic, Gypsy and ghadis on an evening out.

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14:22 / 09.07.05

Well, try not to get drunk and burn the place down.

01:04 / 10.07.05

How do we get there?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

01:48 / 10.07.05

*reads shopping list*

Marshmallows... hot dogs... charcoal... lighter fuel...

What?

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03:23 / 10.07.05

Well, I usually get there through pathworking... Just close my eyes, go into a light trance, and just visualize myself outside the front doors. You can do the same, just close your eyes and get relaxed andf say the word I provided and just visualize yourself standing outside the front doors and then just let the images come as they are.

16:03 / 10.07.05

has any one been able to travel to the Astral Mansion yet?

16:05 / 10.07.05

would someone PM me with directions on Astral Projection? tell me what I should expect, and I imagine that it is different for different people. I would like to become a man with the ability

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21:23 / 10.07.05

astral projection is just one way, you can also reach it through pathworking or magical daydreaming (which basically is just as noted above relaxing, closing your eyes, and visualizing yourself at a certain place and then exploring that place in your mind). I liken it to playing a stage in a first-person shooter (like DOOM or HALO) that you've never played before: as you progress through it it reveals itself to you.

01:02 / 11.07.05

I will try to get there thru dreams. I have my doubts about my ability to get there, but we'll see. Will post with observations one way or the other.

Thanks for leaving the key under the mat!

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02:16 / 11.07.05

Splendid! However, any experiences should be PMed to me... When the week is over (on Saturday) then it would be a good idea to post what happened. This is ideal because one should go in having very little expectations of what they encounter/see and I'm afraid that if someone reads about someone else's experience before they do so it may register in their subconscious and thus manifest in the experience because they'll be expecting to encounter it. It will be interesting at the end of the week to look at all the experiences and see if any of them have any notable synchronicities.

02:21 / 11.07.05

How the hell do you pronounce "SUTGE", by the way?

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03:11 / 11.07.05

I dunno... "Sut Gee?" "Sut Gi"?

06:10 / 11.07.05

Is this some sort of internet chatroom wotsit, then?

09:18 / 11.07.05

man.
i wa thinking the same thing...
what happens if trolls get in?

10:39 / 11.07.05

what happens if trolls get in?

Syph's the mansion admin, they'll get banned.

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

06:03 / 12.07.05

Syph, where are you at? I get this great sense of a distance or a gulf between myself and your "house". Curious if this is distance related or possibly something else.

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13:00 / 12.07.05

I live in Rhode Island. Lovecraft land.

14:28 / 12.07.05

I'm afraid 1)of accidentally ending up in Hannibal Lecter's memory palace (he's a powerful thoughtform I reckon) or 2)ending up in Arkham in a creepy Memory Asylum where something wears Sypha's face like a mask and invites me in, only to feast on my astral flesh in an unutterable banquet of horror.
Must remember not to be afraid...

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

08:04 / 13.07.05

Thank you for that lovely image, Quantum. Now I don't think I'll be able to even face the milkman without a shiver.

Syph...interesting. Makes me wonder about astral range. Then again...Lovecraft country. God only knows what old Howard's writing did to astral space there. Not really one of my specialties, astral space, so I really cound't say.

09:02 / 13.07.05

Syph, you might be interested to know the origin of the "memory palace" idea. Harris took it from Francis Yates' work The Art of Memory.

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17:50 / 13.07.05

Yeah, Harris mentions that book in the afterward section of "Hannibal". I'll have to look it up one day.

Allow me to clarify: My notion of astral temples (I think I did a thread on this once) is derived from Nema's excellent book "Maat Magick", which perhaps gives the best, most lucid explanation of the subject I've yet encountered. She splits the universe into 10 density levels: Level 10, Malkuth, is the physical universe we're used to, while level 9 is the dream state, and a part of level 9 is the Astral Planes. She advises the magician to build a working space in this level, an astral temple. She says that we all have a small personal vestibule on level 9, and that our personal astral space is connected to a vast common area similiar to cyberspace that is shared by all of humanity (her personal space is a plain of stars, lavendar sands, and so on). The idea is that when you construct your temple you have one part of it that acts as an interface: A doorway, a magick mirror, a warp zone, whatever you wish to call it, that connects your personal astral space with the common astral region. To access this area you basically get comfortable, sit down, close your eyes, and visualize yourself in this place. The only danger with this is one runs the risk of becoming an armchair magician who spends all their time doing work in the astral.

I myself used the interface as a means of exploring qabalistic imagery a few months ago. What I'm doing here is inviting people into my personal vestibule, which I guess would be like letting people try out your personal computer (and, using Nema's analogy, if each vestibule is like a computer then I guess the astral is like the internet). Just don't bring any trojans or worms with ya.

Unconditional Love

19:41 / 13.07.05

whats that movie where jennifer lopez goes into the mind of a serial killer when hes in a coma, with muzick by the master musicians of jajouka, its on the tip of my tongue but i cant remember. anyone?

Unconditional Love

19:43 / 13.07.05

the cell?

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21:31 / 13.07.05

That's it.

18:24 / 21.11.05

I'm very curious as to what came of this. Did anyone actually visit this place? Or make sketches or blueprints of it? This is an interesting experiment, and I would love to know what happened.

18:51 / 21.11.05

For my part, I remember PM'ing Sypha to tell him that I had been unsuccessful in my attempt. First time I'd attempted something of that nature tho, so not surprising.

12:54 / 22.11.05

Alrighty, I'll give it a go.

The concept of memory castles or astral temples is an interesting one, and was indeed used to great effect in Hannibal. Meeting and interacting with other people (ie. external entities) within one's astral temple is intriguingly analogous to the Internet, but personally, I'm sceptical. It seems to me that, at best, it might be akin to saying to someone, "you were in my dream last night" and subsequently creating a mutual narrative in the cold light of non-astral space. If it actually worked, though, it'd be like dreaming ESP or summat.

So... did anyone try it? If so, what was it like?

13:32 / 22.11.05

So... did anyone try it?

You've got me on Ignore, don't you? ;-)

As I said above, I did try it, but it didn't work for me. Why not? IMO, it was a combo of A) me being a first-timer at this and B) insufficient description of where I was trying to go. I think if I would have had a description of at least the front door to the temple, it may have helped. A "solid" starting point, as it were. I understand not wanting to taint the results with too much description beforehand, of course, but Bard mentions above a "sense of distance" and I think B) here may help explain that.

I'm willing to try again, if there is still interest in this.

13:35 / 22.11.05

Ooh, sorry, glossed over your "unsuccessful" there, Monk.

13:50 / 22.11.05

Thomas Harris nicked the idea from Francis Yates The Theatre of Memory
I'm not totally sceptical of the idea myself. I had someone succuesfully skry me from a distance, in a way that surprised me, and have had some interesting results (though not definitve) other times. Wouldn't slam the door on the possibility, anyhow. Don't know about the specifics of this experiment, though.

14:29 / 22.11.05

No worries, 'nesh.

14:36 / 22.11.05

Illmatic, would you mind sharing some specifics of the successful skrying? I'd definitely like to hear more on that.

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21:36 / 22.11.05

Well, not trying to say too much but: The exterior of the temple resembles the magician's house that appears in the very first issue of Sandman (in fact, on the very first page). The front of the house, at least, I know this sounds vague but the only other way I could depict it is through pictures. The courtyard is surrounded by a square brick wall that stops at the sides of the house: It is impossible to get to the backyard from the frontyard, it can only be accessed through a door in the house (well, impossible for non-astral travel). In the distance there are mountains.

21:44 / 22.11.05

I had someone succuesfully skry me from a distance, in a way that surprised me, and have had some interesting results (though not definitve) other times. Wouldn't slam the door on the possibility, anyhow.

Surely this is a different kettle o' fish from scrying, though? Scrying would be the remote observation of flesh and blood goings on (a la out of body experiences) whereas visiting a foreign astral temple would be more akin to penetrating someone else's (sleeping) psyche ie. observing stuff that never actually takes place in the material world.

I wouldn't slam the door on the possibility. I'd keep my hand on the doorknob, though, and maybe push it nearer the jamb. With convincing feedback, though, I might well widen my crack. For certain visitors, anyway.

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