“Up she sailed as high because the moon in her hand she carried a brush. Old woman, oh whither so high? To brush the cobwebs of the sky” – DJ Conway

For millennia we’ve got been obsessive about worlds beyond our own, plagued with unanswered questions of where we go once we dream, endlessly riddled with fantasies of worlds beyond the monotony of on a regular basis life. The satiation of all these desires is made possible due to the magical practise of astral projection. But what does that even mean, and how are you going to learn to do it? Below, we share our step-by-step guide.

The astral realm is a supernatural plane of existence. It has been the main focus of mystical practices in Hermeticism, theosophy and ancient types of magick and witchcraft. Exploring the astral realm requires the cultivation of the ‘astral body’, also often called the energetic body, or as Deleuze and Guattari consult with it: “the body without organs”.

The astral body is the energetic double of our physical bodies. The hermetic rule of “as above, so below” suggests that if there’s a physical body of realms below, there should be a replica of this body that exists in realms above. Astral travel, also often called astral projection, refers back to the flight of the astral body, because it splits from the physical body and journeys across alternative high-frequency planes of reality.

Ideas of with the ability to astral travel were a outstanding feature of the 1600 witch trials, with many reports of witches confessing to flight with using flying ointment –  which is usually composed of mildly poisonous plants with psychoactive effects like belladonna and bat’s blood. In 1647, Henry Moore, a Christian student of occult philosophy, wrote that the witches were flying with their astral bodies, and never their physical bodies, and thus began the discourse on this unconventional sort of travel. 

So why should we astral travel? Astral realm law states that what is modified on the astral may have equal – and if not, even greater effect – on the physical realms. Within the words of Twentieth-century British occultist Dion Fortune, “the astral body is linked to the physical body, just as a mother is connected through the umbilical cord together with her unborn child”. In other words, because the two bodies are deeply interconnected, the cultivation and understanding of the astral body enables a greater understanding of the physical body. What we learn within the astral realm can provide insight into our lives within the physical realm. 

It is usually (from my experience) a good looking place to journey to, stuffed with silver-bodied entities, orbs of ethereal light larger than the sun, and a way of someway feeling at home – as if that is somewhere you’ve been before, and can sooner or later, be again. 

In addition to being a chance to raised understand our own potential beyond physical constraints, the astral realm may offer a secure refuge to those that seek it. It comes as no surprise, that inside a digital age that boasts a plethora of other realities, there’s a growing interest in a reality that exists beyond any technological escape, beyond algorithms, shadowbans, usernames, and pixellated figures and forms. We seek lands unknown, lands beyond the digitised screens that permeate all features of our lives. 

THE BELLY BUTTON METHOD  

This method requires you to succeed in a trance-like state also often called the hypnagogic state. Be sure that you might be relaxed, at the sting of wakefulness and sleep, and start to flex your hands and feet along with your mind, without physically moving them. Try a number of more times until you start to note a separation between the body you might be imagining being flexed, and your physical body. Next move to your bellybutton, and lift yourself out from it, as if the flexing body were tied to it by an invisible umbilical string. Whenever you feel yourself lifting out, cut the string with imagined scissors and luxuriate in your flight!

THE HAMMOCK METHOD

This method requires you to assume yourself on a hammock, woven with threads of iridescent light, positioned between two calming trees of your selecting. The astral realm, in all of its mystery and wonder lies beneath you. Imagine yourself rocking backwards and forwards, slowly reaching a relaxed vibrational state. Whenever you feel completely relaxed, between the rocking, gently roll yourself out of the hammock, where you’ll land feet first within the astral. 

THE ROPE METHOD 

This method, formulated by Robert Bruce, is one of the effective techniques for astral travel. Imagine an invisible, imaginary rope hanging out of your ceiling. This rope might be used to exert dynamic pressure at a single point in your astral body to force its separation from the physical. Once you might be capable of reach the rope, start climbing it, as you pull yourself out of your body. Keep climbing the rope until you might be capable of see your physical body lying still in front of you. Then, unpeel yourself out of your earthly ties and journey!

THE HERBAL METHOD 

This method can use any of the above methods, with the extra use of lucid dreaming herbal concoctions. I create a homemade mix of Mexican dream herb, Egyptian Blue Lotus, in addition to freshly foraged Mugwort and Passionflower – all herbs which have been used for hundreds of years for divinatory and lucid dreaming purposes and should not dissimilar from the principal ingredients of witch’s flight ointments (though barely less poisonous!). This mix can either be drunk before sleeping, as a tea, or smoked with tobacco, and can enable you to to lucidly unwind yourself from the spool of mundane dreams, and into the astral. 

THE FORGETTING-EVERYTHING-YOU-KNOW METHOD 

It is a step that is commonly excluded from astral travel guides – and it’s namely the importance of allowing space for spontaneity and coincidence. As a toddler, certainly one of the primary indicators of my psychic-ness was my ability to ceaselessly astral travel. I started in my bedroom above my physical body, and later in all different realms and dimensions, and even at times to my friend’s homes, who would join me in flight. Once I grew older and discovered my spontaneous flights had a reputation, and their very own personal doctrines, lore and methodologies, a number of the magic was lost and I used to be unable to travel as freely as I could before.

One night I asked my guides to assist me astral travel again. That night, as an alternative of falling into the dizzying familiar warmth of the astral realms, I had a dream where I used to be climbing the astral ladder, positioned in an archaic library. As I climbed the ladder, books would full and tumble below me, and with each step closer to the astral, the shelves would completely empty themselves. The subsequent morning I awoke and burned all of my books, notes and re-learnings of the realms I had grown up exploring. I ended actively attempting to astral travel and halted my attempts to learn all the things I could know on the subject. Just a few weeks later, spontaneously, I started with the ability to astral travel again.  

The message is evident: the more we all know, the less able we’re to explore realms that we cannot ever fully conceptualise or understand. When all else fails, forget all the things you realize, burn it in the fireplace, and the flight will find you sure enough – because it at all times does, somewhere above your phantom umbilical cord, below ceilingless skies and inside a world of boundless magic and wingless flight.

Isabella Greenwood is a Priestess, sorceress and spellcaster. Follow her on Instagram here.

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