Stepping In

Godforms

The traditional magical practice of assumption of godforms can be a potent, yet extremely time-consuming practice. One of the more common methods, to be practiced over days, weeks, months, or years, goes something like this:

 

Find an image of the deity to be invoked. Sit or stand in the posture of the deity and imagine that you look, sound, and feel like the god—that you are the god.

 

Study the deity and the pantheon of which it is a part. Learn its story and all the things that the god does, says, owns, and believes.

 

Build a small image of the god in your heart. Expand the image until it is as large, or larger than, you.¹

 

This is a solid method, based upon a traditional idea that the best representations of the forces within us exist external to us in books of ancient lore and wisdom. Alternatively, some systems stress stepping into the godform, rather than building it up inside you. Variations exist in which god names are vibrated through the body and sigils for the entity are placed in the heart, but the basic idea of filling oneself with aspects of the god remains the same. The same processes can be applied to the personal entities that we create from our own memories, feelings, ideals, and stories.

We already have some of the components. In our system, the forms of entities are built upon the structure of our own mirror neurons, on the model of consciousness that we use to understand our own mind and that of others. The aspects, deeds, beliefs, behavior, and states of the entities can be found in our own perceptual tendencies and imagination, which may take some study and research, but rarely requires books of ancient lore. (There are excellent reasons for working with traditional entities, but that’s a different book. They can bring you woohoo, and you can bring woohoo to them, too.)

You may also note some similarity between the “building up” or “stepping in” methods and the swish pattern. In the first instance, even though the god-image is built inside you, it still qualifies as a dissociated image, which is then enlarged to replace the associated experience of yourself in the present. The “stepping in” version is much like the distance-based swish that we explored in the last chapter, except that we move ourselves rather than the images.

Some classical magicians have noted that these techniques can induce powerful physiological responses.² Remember that the mirror neurons are also part of the motor neuron system. By imagining the experience of being someone else, gods and goddesses included, we may expect some measure of change in obvious ways such as posture, gestures, quality of voice, and so on, which all may be conscious or unconscious forms of mimicry. More subtle responses can also be detected if we have the subtlety to detect them.

Ideomotor Response

One class of response that may assist us here is that of ideomotor response (IMR). An ideomotor response would be when a thought of some kind produces a possibly unconscious muscular response. In hypnosis, IMR is used to set up phenomena such as finger signaling and arm levitation, which can be used to communicate with a subject on an unconscious level. More commonly, IMR is responsible for the kinds of unconscious movement we might describe as facial expression and body language. For the most part, body language is fairly obvious: joy can make us smile or laugh; fear can cause shallow breathing or crying, among other things; love can cause smiling, sighing, or arousal. Some researchers have suggested that IMR is a mirror neuron phenomenon.³ Ideomotor movements in response to thoughts or to the words or actions of others may be part of a system of communication that we use that influences each others’ mirror neurons, outside of awareness.

We may notice IMR when our godform experiments induce it and, if we set it up in advance, we can use these movements as a means of testing and communication. The following exercises are simple and fairly well-known examples of IMR testing. Basic Energy Testing, under a variety of names, is used by a wide range of alternative health practitioners to test for food and substance sensitivities, various biological and metaphysical imbalances, and much more. For our purposes, we’ll use IMR testing to communicate with the parts of neurology and physiology that operate within the magical processes of invocation.

Exercise 6.1 Basic Energy Testing

(Requires two people)

 

Person A stands with one arm outstretched directly to one side, palm down, at the level of the shoulder, relaxed, but maintaining the position. Person B places one hand on A’s opposite shoulder, and then rests two fingers lightly just above the wrist of A’s outstretched hand.

 

B first calibrates, determining how strong A’s arm is in that position, by exerting a small amount of pressure with his or her two fingers on A’s arm. Note that this is not a test of strength or a contest, it is a means of simply testing how much force is necessary to move the arm.

 

A then makes a statement that is obviously true, for instance “My name is…” and his or her name. B then tests the arm.

 

A then makes a statement that is obviously false, for instance, “My name is…” someone else’s name. B then tests the arm.

 

Partners then switch roles and repeat the
exercise.

 

Both partners take a few moments to reflect and discuss their experiences.

Exercise 6.2 Body Pendulum

(This is a solo means of testing.)

 

Stand with feet about hip-width apart, toes facing forward, in a stable and balanced position.

 

Make a statement that is obviously true and notice how your balance is affected, whether you are leaning slightly forward or slightly back. These may be very subtle motions and may require you, at first, to wait a few seconds for the response or to repeat the statement until the response becomes noticeable.

 

Make a statement that is obviously false and notice how your balance is affected.

 

Take a few moments to reflect on what you have experienced.

As these methods may give varying results in different states of consciousness, it is advisable to recalibrate for each usage. This can be as simple as asking one yes and one no question to determine arm strength for the one method or balance directions for the second. We’re going to apply ideomotor response to our magical pursuits, and it’s worth at least a mention of how useful it can be to communicate with your neurology in a wide variety of contexts. Use your imagination and figure out all the different ways you can ask how to add more woohoo to your life.

Stepping In

To delve into the godform process a bit deeper, we can use ideomotor testing to evaluate some of the components, particularly those that might involve the mirror neuron system. Some of what we experience when exploring deities both personal and traditional may not actually depend on divinity; imaginary humans have woohoo, too. How do we respond to the human shape of our imagined entities? Step into the next two exercises and find out.

Exercise 6.3 Stepping In #1

 

Calibrate by making true/false statements about your name. Say “My name is…” and your name, then test using one of the above methods (if you use Energy Testing, have someone help you). Then say “My name is…” and someone else’s name and test.

 

Create an image of someone you admire, standing a couple paces away from you.

 

Step into that image and then test statements about names. “My name is…” and your own name. “My name is…” and the name of the person you admire.

 

Step back out of the image and test again.

Exercise 6.4 Stepping In #2

 

Calibrate by testing statements about names, as above.

 

Have someone else create an image of someone they admire.

 

Step into the place where he or she has made the image and test statements about your name and about the name of the person your partner imagined. There are various ways to attempt some measure of experimental control for both “stepping in” exercises, including not saying the names out loud and having your partner think the name of the person he or she admires when you say “My name is…”

 

Step back out of the image and test again.

In Stepping In #2, the quality of admiration can be substituted with many other qualities, as long as some emotional charge is present. Strong emotions can offer an easily observed range of ideomotor responses in addition to those that we make use of in the tests. Indeed, emotions with more noticeable physical responses, such as fear, joy, hate, love, and lust may serve even better than admiration.

Again, there are some interesting applications for these exercises that can provide woohoo, if you use your imagination. For now, though, the point is simply to note what connections we might find between our imaginings, mirror neurons, and physiology. As with all these experiments, please draw your own conclusions. What happens may be very different from one person to the next—the point is simply to notice what happens for you.

Embodied Metaphor

Mirror neurons appear to be directly connected with our motor functions—and they also appear to be an important part of whatever process allows us to use metaphor.⁴ Quite a bit of the metaphor commonly found in conversational and written language can be described as embodied.⁵ That is, the metaphor refers to the human body, or parts thereof. Thus, the idea transmitted by the metaphor can reach [its arm] directly to the mirror neurons where it can [extend a finger to] flip the switch on motor functions, which [use a foot, soccer-style to] kick the body into action. The body [uses its long, beautiful fingers and] spreads out an array of feelings and ideomotor responses, and the mind [suddenly grows a pair of hands and] engages in model-building activities, accessing states and memories that [put on their shoes and] depart before our conscious awareness can [run them down, grab them, and] intercept them. This allows us to make meaning of the metaphor and the communication.

From a magical perspective, it’s like there are a lot of little entities [with strong legs and clever hands] running around inside our language. Got it? Metaphor, mirror neurons, and motor functions are all having a party together, all the time. Our magical deities can be considered as macro-metaphors, as deliberately complete, embodied metaphors for aspects of mind and the universe around us.

So what happens when we now perform ideomotor testing with an imagined human figure pumped full of metaphor and woohoo to the point of godhood?

Exercise 6.5 Stepping Into Godforms/Having them Step Into You

 

Using one of the methods we have explored previously, create a god or goddess image.

 

Step into the god/dess image.

 

Use ideomotor testing to ask yes/no questions of your entity. Learn whatever you think might be appropriate to learn from this entity, based on the original qualities and intent used to create the god/dess image.

 

Absorb the entity into you in whatever way you find appropriate.

 

Create another god/dess image, of the same entity or a different entity.

 

This time, have the entity step into you.

 

Use ideomotor testing to ask yes/no questions and derive whatever information you deem appropriate.

 

Absorb the entity into you in whatever way you find appropriate.

 

Take a few moments to reflect on any differences you noted between stepping into an entity and having an entity step into you.

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