Besides Bardon, have you come across other reading material on the Elements?
In the practical form as presented in the IIH?
No.
But there's plenty of mention of the Elements scattered throughout occult works, old and new.
Most materials I've seen which do have any practical instruction make use of rituals/ceremonial methods, however, and that is not a route I would suggest for someone genuinely determined to penetrate into the of heart of Elemental Magic.
There may be one or two books out there that are closer to the IIH than I know of, but I have not come across such works personally.
Can you recommend other reading on the elements?
Or is IIH our one and only bible to bring us through?
Personally, I find it a great benefit to be reading on the subject while training on the practices. It helps with motivation.
No, I can't really recommend anything other than the IIH. It's simply the best source I know of, both theory and practice, put together into a clear and concise course of instruction that is unparalleled thus far.
If anything, I may recommend getting a copy of Bardon's Q&A book, as it has close ties to the IIH and may compliment your studies well.
Re: Soul Mirror
Are you intentionally going into the dark aspects of yourself as a path or has this way come about of itself, a natural evolution of your personal practices?
My path has been the anti-pole to Bardon's since the beginning.
"Going into the dark aspects of yourself" is an understatement, as my path has revolved around my absolute purification and expansion into a perfect negative entity, similar to the negative intelligences of certain Planetary spheres, "demons", and etc.
As you know, dark/light both need to be integrated in-line with each other. Those scales sound like they need to be made even/balanced.
Not necessarily.
This concept is entirely dependent on your destined spiritual path and the role you are meant to fulfill.
I would say that most humans will require some mix or blend of Dark and Light as you speak of, but there will always be outliers who need to fulfill the more "Polar" roles.
Bardon and his teachings are quite similar to my own in a way, just in the opposite direction. His teachings emphasize the Light and Active(Positive) Polarity, while my path is the opposite emphasis of the Darkness and Passive(Negative) Polarity.
Admittedly though, I do emphasize my praxis of polar extremity much harsher than Bardon's course as presented in the IIH, but that's because my personal god-concept is directly tied to the polar force of Darkness itself.
I think I remember a comment from Rawn Clark regarding the Soul-Mirrors that sums up the situation well for most practitioners though.
He remarked that it is best if the student tries to get in touch with his own intuition to guide him in the practice of the Soul-Mirrors, as Bardon's emphasis on purging every negative quality possible may not be healthy or correct for everyone.
Equipoise is relative to every individual and their own inherent composition, and just like the universe contains a cosmic spectrum of diverse principles and essences, so too do humans possess a vast variety of unique spiritual compositions that may not always fit entirely within Bardon's exact instructions.
How has the transmutation of the Pos/Neg aspects of the elements been for you?
As in, have you transmuted any emotions - such as envy into caring/providing - for example?
Non-existent. I do not practice the Soul-Mirrors in this fashion, as elaborated just previously.
My work with the Soul-Mirrors more resembles the refinement of existing negative qualities, and balancing the weaknesses of one negative Element with the qualities of other negative Elements which counteract them - but I do not attempt to foster Positive vibrations of the Elements under any circumstance.
In this way, a relatively "healthy" form of equipoise is achieved within the negative spectrum.
I suppose you could roughly imagine it like the scenario between the differences of a high-functioning sociopath against a low-functioning one.
Re. The deepening of ourselves into the elements.
I know that this is really in the realm of the abstract and words for instruction are hard to hit home, especially on something so ephemeral.
Yet the question has to be posed. How do we deepen ourselves into the elements and commune with them?
I tend to gather as much symbolism and relatedness to the principle of the element, and be there within it, for sometime.
As Bardon says somewhere within the IIH, it should be the goal of the initiate to come to see every inch of the Universe through the lens of the Elements and their activities.
Trying to understand the Elements, and paying attention to how they express themselves in every aspect of existence will deepen your communion with them.
When you work with the Elements directly, you must try to sense their true vibrations, beyond just your own concocted imagination of them. Really try to get a "feel" for their essence.
Rawn Clark elaborates on this in his commentary about the accumulations in Step 3.
The extensive chart found at the end of Bardon's Q&A book will also be very valuable in this regard, especially when it comes to understanding the Elemental Temperaments within the Soul.
Immersing yourself in aspects of nature that emphasize the Elements is also a good practice.
If you find yourself in the heart of a mountain forest, a beach by the ocean, somewhere with lots of open air on a windy day, or in the desert and anywhere else where it is extremely hot and experiences intense sun-exposure, try to meditate on the presence of the corresponding Element in each scenario and let their essences seep into your being.
There used to be a series of exercises written on the old Veritas forum by a practitioner of the IIH under the name of "Prophecy", called the Elemental Harmony exercises, and they closely resembled what I just described to you now.
Unfortunately, that's all long gone.
Either way though, these kinds of practices will greatly develop your relationship with the Elements.
May I ask about your tactile senses?
I cannot, or if I do, it is very weak sense of feeling, when I feel without any aid.
Though, if I imagine myself, with an astral hand/body, of sorts, the sensations are very clear. The touch of grass, metal, dampness of dew air - etc etc.
You said it was your strongest of the senses. Can you feel without having a corresponding astral/imaginative body to work with?
It was not my strongest sense, only "decent" enough to work Elemental Magic.
I don't quite understand your last question, however.
In the IIH, you are instructed to recall the feelings of warmth, coldness, heaviness, lightness, thirst, and hunger - and yes, I could exercise these sensations within my body in a straightforward fashion without any extra imaginations.
But of any piece of advice I can give regarding the Elements now or ever, this here will be the most important -
you must correct this weakness in the tactile imagination.
The feeling-sense is the
most important tool for the practice of Elemental Magic in the direct form as presented in the IIH.
Visualization is useful in manipulating the Elements externally and trying to "shape" the Elements, but the feeling-sense is the tool which is most directly responsible for coalescing the Elements within yourself and building their power in the first place.
Bardon emphasizes this himself, and says this in regards to the Accumulations:
"Keep in mind that the main purpose of these exercises are strictly directed towards the sense of feeling".
The feeling-sense is an aspect of the faculties of the Water Element/Magnetic Fluid within the Spirit and Soul, and by no coincidence, the feeling-sense is also the
magnet that will pull the presence of the Elements into you during these exercises.
Without a good tactile sense, it may be impossible to get much of anywhere within the direct-magic form of Elemental Magic as you cannot effectively coalesce them and thus develop dynamide, meaning you may only see significant success with the help of Ceremonial methods.
A practitioner with an exceptional feeling-sense and nothing else is better off than a practitioner that doesn't have it but possesses a good degree of the other senses in combination, at least in regard to this method of practice.
With only a mediocre tactile sense, I was able to get as far as I did with the Elements that I have mentioned previously within a few years - but if I had taken the time to master the tactile sense to its limits like I should have, then I probably would have progressed more rapidly.
But I didn't quite grasp how important the tactile sense was or how it really worked back then, so I squandered it.
Ha - so conjuring up an associated emotion with an element. Such as the feeling of pure stubbornness for Earth. Infuse yourself in a state of stubbornness and use that energy as a magnet for said element. Very very curious. Makes a lot of sense as well. There is a lot of subtlety to this technique. Must make it a point of focus.
I can see the abuse that would come from this and the warning has been heeded.
If you did balance the books (soul-mirror), there is no reason that this can't be used to get strongly acquainted with an element.
The reason this may not be healthy from the Bardonian perspective is because the most obvious emotional vibrations that would be used for the Elements are often negative ones.
For the Fire Element, anger would be an obvious choice, with the Water Element, sadness would be an obvious choice, and so on. The stubbornness of the earth that you mention is also a negative quality.
Exerting the degree of emotions necessary to invoke such effects may also be seen as fundamentally unhealthy. Normal emotions usually aren't capable of this on their own, they need to be intensified with great potency to make it effective in this way, as emotions are quite subtle forces. And given that the Positive perspective of emotionality is all about moderation, harmony, and subtlety, this practice may be considered inherently negative, as the extremity of emotionality is a negative aspect.
More importantly, however, there is a great danger to tying your emotions to Elemental operation, especially as you advanced to higher levels of power.
You may easily do serious damage due to your emotions triggering unintentional Elemental activity.
What that may look like, can easily be left to the many possibilities of your imagination.
One more thing I would like to ask is, do you use (hand) gestures magic with elements?
Such as accumulation of element with a certain defined gesture while doing so?
It is a slow slow progress, but I hope that gesturing will come into its own, in due course.
I have not.
I didn't really think about it back at that time, though I do intend to use them now once I return to a certain degree of proficiency with the Elements.
It isn't a good idea to use them when you are still working to establish a basic degree of proficiency over the Elements, however, as it may just become a crutch that you rely on which may hinder your natural momentum of development.
