And with the thunder of the professor's footsteps ringing in my ears as he made his way down the echoing hall, I had to agree that indeed it was.
RESOURCES
Stockists
Brownie Abatement (Fine Stationery)
Frank Smythson Ltd
40, New Bond Street
London W1Y 0DE
Brownie Abatement (Tailoring)
Gieves & Hawkes Ltd
1, Savile Row
London W1S 3JR
Flower-Fairy Collecting
Anglian Lepidopterist Supplies
Station Road
Hindolveston
Norfolk NR20 5DE
Flower-Fairy Management
National Vegetable Society
Bracklinn
14 Dronley Road
Birkhill
Dundee DD2 5QD
Gnoming Outfitters
Holland & Holland
33 Bruton Street
London W1J 6HH
J. Barbour & Sons Ltd
Simonside
South Shields
Tyne and Wear NE34 9PD
James Purdey & Sons Ltd
Audley House
57–58 South Audley Street
London W1K 2ED
The Sporting Lodge
Storth
Milnthorpe
Cumbria LA7 7JA
Pixie-Proof Rambling (Walking Sticks)
James Smith & Sons
53 New Oxford Street
London WC1A 1BL
Trolling Outfitters
Atkin Grant & Lang
Windmill Road
Markyate
St Albans
Hertfordshire AL3 8LP
Organisations
Druidry
The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids
Post Office Box 1333
Lewes
East Sussex BN7 1DX
Elf-Shot Gathering
Council for British Archaeology
St Mary's House
66 Bootham
York YO30 7BZ
Freemasonry
United Grand Lodge of England
Freemason's Hall
60 Great Queen Street
London WC2B 5AZ
Rambling
Ordnance Survey
Adanac Drive
Southampton SO16 0AS
Ramblers
2nd Floor Camelford House
87–90 Albert Embankment
London SE1 7TW
Further Reading
Allen, Darina. Forgotten Skills of Cooking. Kyle Cathie, 2009.
Brickell, Christopher. Royal Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers. Dorling Kindersley, 2010.
Collins. Letter Writing: How to Get Results. HarperCollins UK, 2004.
Fearnley-Whittingstall, Hugh. The River Cottage Cookbook. HarperCollins, 2001.
Hart-Davis, Duff. Fauna Britannica. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002.
Hendry, George. Midges in Scotland. Aberdeen University Press, 1989.
Miller, Judith. Miller's Antiques Handbook & Price Guide. Miller's Publications, 2012.
Phillips, Roger. Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Great Britain and Europe. Pan Books, 1981.
Russ, Mel. Sea Angling from Kent to Cornwall. Hutchinson, 1990.
Swan, Mike. Rough Shooting. Swan Hill Press, 2007.
Thear, Katie. Starting with Chickens. Broad Leys Publishing Company, 1999.
Watkins, Alfred. The Old Straight Track. Abacus, 1988.
ABOUT REGINALD BAKELEY
REGINALD BAKELEY is best known for his long-standing editorship of Phooka, The Journal of the Overland Mallet Club. An avid sportsman and defender of rural life, Bakeley has devoted himself to public awareness and management of fairy populations throughout Britain. He maintains a website at www.goblinproofing.com.
ABOUT CLINT MARSH
CLINT MARSH is a writer and publisher of practical esoterica. He has served as Reginald Bakeley's American editor since 1998, distributing Bakeley's conservation-minded pamphlets about the Fairy Kingdom through Wonderella Printed. Learn more about Marsh and his practical esoterica at his website, www.wonderella.org.
TO OUR READERS
CONARI PRESS, an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, publishes books on topics ranging from spirituality, personal growth, and relationships to women's issues, parenting, and social issues. Our mission is to publish quality books that will make a difference in people's lives—how we feel about ourselves and how we relate to one another. We value integrity, compassion, and receptivity, both in the books we publish and in the way we do business.
Our readers are our most important resource, and we appreciate your input, suggestions, and ideas about what you would like to see published.
Visit our website at www.redwheelweiser.com to learn about our upcoming books and free downloads, and be sure to go to www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter to sign up for newsletters and exclusive offers. You can also contact us at [email protected].
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an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
665 Third Street, Suite 400
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CHICKENS YES! GOBLINS NO!
If you believe your hen cottage may be infested with malicious, uncouth goblins, Reginald Bakeley would like to know about it. He requests your photographs of suspected goblin hens, roosters, chicks, and eggs.
For further instruction, visit www.goblinproofing.com
If you liked Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop, enjoy an excerpt from The Mentalist's Handbook, by Clint Marsh (c) 2008. Go to the next page to begin reading the sample.
LESSON ONE.
THE NATURE OF AETHER
The Basics of Meditation and Visualization—The Basics of Meditation—An Initial Meditation—The Basics of Visualization—A Simple Visualization—The Importance of Imagination—A Description of the Aetheric Plane—Imagining the Aetheric Plane—The Location of This Place—”What Good Is the Aetheric Plane?”—The Nature of Aether—Aether as a Substance—The Sculptor's Studio—Some Questions about the Sculptor's Studio—Aether and the Supernatural World—Two Bodies in One Person—Visualizing the Aetheric Body—Visualization and Memory—Observation and Memory—Memory of the Commonplace—The Mentalism Connection—Psychisms—Astral Projection—Spiritism—Mind Is Matter, Matter Is Mind—Letters from Aspirants
“Little brother, give me thy hand; for the first step is hard.”
—ALEISTER CROWLEY
ABOVE, BELOW, AND THROUGHOUT the world you and I c all home, the aetheric plane dwells also. Everything we see , hear, touch, think, and feel has a counter part in this place, and when you visit the aetheric plane, you will see how the material and mental qualities of these things begin to blur and inter mingle. “Aether” is the word used to signify the substance that makes up the aetheric plane.
In this lesson, the qualities of aether and the aetheric plane are set, to form a foundation for exploration into this vast and fascinating realm. You will learn much more than you thought you would and think more than you knew you could. Your curiosity will be set alight, and you will dare to pierce the veil between this world and the others.
Using the simple exercises described in this lesson, your faculty for mentalism will increase. Don't be discouraged if at first you are not as successful as you like with the lessons. All will be yours through practice and diligence.
And now, let us proceed with our worthy goal, informing the world of the facts surrounding the nature of aether.
THE BASICS OF MEDITATION AND VISUALIZATION
Meditation and visualization are two important practices used in the exercises in the rest of this book. They are the first skills anyone aspiring to mentalism must learn. These pages will introduce you to the concepts behind meditation and visualization and will lead you through preliminary trials of both.
The Basics of Meditation
Meditation is the root skill of the aspiring mentalist. By relaxing us and shifting our att
ention from the everyday, meditation is the tool that allows us to connect to the aetheric plane. In order for meditation to be effective, it must be practiced daily. These directions will help you with your first simple meditations. As your aetheric studies progress, you will learn much more about this skill.
If this were a book for bodybuilders, it would include exercises for you to repeat to strengthen your physical muscles. We are going to strengthen our “mental muscles” the same way weightlifters build their biceps—through practice! You will find that frequent meditation on a certain thing (in this exercise we'll focus on the breath) will help you concentrate your thoughts and relax your body. A calm mind and body are essential to mentalism.
Exercise 1:An Initial Meditation
Find a quiet space where you can go and not be disturbed by noise or others. Sit in a chair or on the floor, in a comfortable position but with your back straight. Meditation is about breathing, and with a straight back, you allow your lungs optimal expansion. If you are in a chair, you can resist the temptation to slouch by sitting on its front edge.
Relax. Concentrate on your breath. Breathe slowly and deliberately, letting yourself relax more and more. Try to think only of your breath as it enters, fills, and exits your body. It may help to close your eyes.
Although it is not necessary to time your meditation, you should concentrate on your breathing for about five minutes. This will grant you a deeper attention to your body and the physical act of breathing.
If you find your attention wavering from your breath, gently return your thoughts to the simple rhythm of the air flowing in and out of your body. Don't be frustrated if you get distracted again and again, especially if you are new to meditation. This takes practice. With time, meditation will come more and more naturally to you. Continue to breathe slowly—with your mind focused on your breath—for another five minutes, ten if you're enjoying it.
When you are through, stand up from your sitting position and stretch, letting your attention come back to the world around you. Repeat this type of meditation for fifteen minutes at least once every day. If you do, you will develop your ability to concentrate on something very intently (in this case your breath) while entering a relaxed state of being. Just as important, you will find yourself happier and more relaxed in general. All these traits are essential to mentalism.
The Basics of Visualization
Perhaps the most versatile skill of the mentalist is visualization, the ability to see with the mind's eye things not readily visible to the physical eye. Visualizations are used by mentalists to help them picture the aetheric plane. This is how you will use visualization at first, seeing the aetheric plane in your imagination. Later, it will be the tool you use to see aether for what it truly is.
Taken at face value , visualization is written off by many as pure imagination. At first this is true. Visualization, for beginners, is little more than concentration on certain thoughts to the point that those thoughts are integrated into the real scene before the mentalist. In mentalism and aetheric studies in general, visualization is an important skill to practice, because it is the first step on the road to true sensing and interaction with aether.
Exercise 2: A Simple Visualization
Here is an elementary visualization that you can perform even if you are new to the discipline. This exercise works in part because of certain physical principles that govern the eye. It is based on an optical illusion.
Sit in a room with a white or light-colored wall. Stare at the simple geometric figure of the hand while counting slowly to thirty, then quickly shift your gaze to the aforementioned wall. It may help if you blink rapidly when you do.
Do you see the afterimage of the figure upon the wall, the white parts black and the black parts white? The effect is caused by a physical afterimage left upon your eyes from staring so long at the image and is an example of your mind inter preting the afterimage as a picture that is really before your eyes. This is a shadowy start to your visualizations but a start nonetheless.
Do this a few more times, then take this little leap: Try to visualize the same image upon the wall. Can you see it without staring at the illustration first? Try it now. It's all right if you can't at first, but you should keep practicing this to develop your visualization abilities.
The difference between the first and second way of seeing the image is that the second time you are seeing without the aid of any physical stimulus. You are using your mind. Compare the two styles of seeing by practicing both, then see if you can play with your visualizations. Can you visualize the shape against different walls? Can you visualize it suspended out from the wall a bit? Can you add parts to the image, maybe extra fingers, for example, and then take them away? If so, good for you! You are well on your way to more complex visualizations.
The Importance of Imagination
As you practice the visualization exercises in this lesson, you will realize just how crucial imagination is to the work. Don't think of imagination as a crutch, something you have to overcome to get to “real” visualizations. Imagination is less like a roadblock to visualization and more like a map. You've been imagining things all your life, and visualization is an ability very akin to imagination.
A DESCRIPTION OF THE AETHERIC PLANE
To the question I am often asked—”What is the aetheric plane like?”—I respond with a question of my own: “How can one describe such a place?” The answer to the second question is, “Not nearly enough.”
The simplest way to put it is this: There is another world beyond, yet inside, the material world you and I know and inhabit. This place is at once different from and the same as ours. Everything in this other world looks as though it is made of light. In fact, all things on the aetheric plane are made of a superfine substance known as aether.
Given the newness of your interest and studies, were you to see the aetheric plane now, put plainly, you would go mad. It is best to start with a visualization of this place. As you progress through the exercises in this and further lessons, you will find that visualizations are second only to realizations, so heed this exercise carefully.
Exercise 3: Imagining the Aetheric Plane
Here is an exercise to help you envision the aetheric plane in relation to the material world we inhabit. It involves creating an aetheric scene that corresponds with the landscape you are already in. The first few times you perform this exercise, simply use your imagination to picture the scenes. Once you feel comfortable with your visualization skills, you should try this exercise again for a heightened sense of the omnipresence of the aetheric plane.
When you are an accomplished mentalist, you will be able to see and inter act with aetheric landscapes. The tools you will use will be those of the mentalist—visualization, clairvoyance, and astral projection. For now, however, you will be instructed in this exercise using a tool you already possess: imagination. It might be helpful for a friend to read the following text to you while you do this, as most of it is done with your eyes closed.
Take a look out your window or, if you are fortunate enough to be reading this outdoors, across the furthest landscape available to you. This place that you see before you exists in tandem on the aetheric plane. Examine it in detail. Note the dimensions of the scene before you—the height, breadth, and depth of the landscape. What are the main features of the scene? What are the little details that take some time to notice?
When you are satisfied that you have a good idea of the lay of the land, take a deep breath. Let it out slowly and close your eyes. Picture the scene that you just took in through your sense of vision. Think about the dimensions of height, breadth, and depth. Remember the features you noted and fit them into the landscape in your mind.
This mental landscape is not the same as the scene before you—it is a product of your imagination. Continue to breathe deeply. Keep your eyes closed and scrutinize your mental visualization, adding as many objects as you can remember from the “real” landscape into y
our imaginary one.
When you think your mental landscape is as complete as you can make it, you will need to make one final change to it. The scene you have built in your mind is a section of the aetheric plane, a world that mirrors our own. In this place, everything seems to be made of light. Color everything in your mental landscape a light blue, or a yellow, or whatever color you fancy, so that it looks as if the whole scene has a translucent glow to it.
Now, holding your glowing mental landscape at the forefront of your thoughts, open your eyes and superimpose it over the actual scene, as if it were a translucent shell that wraps around all you see. If you can do this, you have already begun to develop your capacity for visualization.
The “double vision” you have created is imaginary, but there is more to what you are seeing than pure imagination. In reality, beyond the gross material of our world exists another world of wonder and possibility—the aetheric plane. It is a place and a feeling, a thought and an emotion, and all of these things at once. It is the sum total of reality and of life itself. It is the purest—and at the same time the most practical and real—incarnation of the stuff we call imagination.
The Location of This Place
Another question I often field in regards to the aetheric plane concerns its precise location. “Where could this fantastic realm be?” aspirants wonder aloud. The answer at first seems overly enigmatic: “The aetheric plane exists in many places at once.”
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