A lot of Bardon practitioners think that they must get perfect magical equilibrium by doing the second step with the soul mirror. However, I believe that the soul mirror doesn’t need to be perfect in order to move forward in the steps. The soul mirror remains ongoing work. And, in fact, magical equilibrium doesn’t come completely until after working all ten steps of Initiation Into Hermetics.
So it is good and well to begin the pore breathing of the elements that begins in Step 3 as soon as possible. Charging with all the elements will move one much closer to equilibrium than the previous steps. Of course, accessing and being comfortable with the Akasha is the ultimate purpose, as all the elements come from the Akasha. Getting in touch with the Akasha can occur, too, starting at the very beginning of the steps, simply by praying a lot.
But back to the pore breathing. With fire, imagine yourself in the middle of a fire in your house or your apartment. Imagine that the entire place is burning tremendously. This fire that first begins in the imagination will eventually move into manifestation. Indeed, the fire is always inside your soul, even if you haven’t accessed it. Bardon work is about the consious mind accessing what is already there. So, the house is burning; the fire is burning through you, all of your body. And your hands, feet, torso, and every body parts has lungs. This is pore breathing. So, breathe in that fire all around you, and make sure that it spreads equally across your body, so that too much won’t be accumulated in one area. Bardon speaks of not accumulating too much fire in the head, and this can be avoided if the fire is spread evently, as you breathe with your whole body.
While I do have clients that are strong in fire from the start, the majority of my clients start with a weakness in fire, more sensitive to the water element. So often, fire can be the hardest to accumulate.
Air can be imagined as being in a desert or a mountain top, where a clear sky is endless. it can also accumulate with the Buddhist principles of emptiness and impermanence. Indeed, the vacancy of mind with accumulate more air, not to mention it can accumulate the Akasha, too. You can also use holotropic breathing to accumulate air. Taking very deep breaths quickly. This exercise came about in the mid-twentieth century by psychologists. Holotropic breathing can loosen energy blocks as well. It’s worth a try.
Water can be imagined as being submerged in an ocean or a lake, even being completely under water. In my experience, it doesn’t have to be cold necessarily, it can be a warm bath. With both fire and water, there are ways to jumpstart the process. With fire, one can go to a sauna regularly. Then, back at home in the room you use for magical work, you can envision yourself in that sauna, burning up. With water, swimming is good, but even baths are good. You can take baths regularly, and then when it comes time to do the breathing with water, imagine yourself in that bath. These hacks can be done to give you a head start in accumulating the elements.
Some talk of earth being dense and thick. And, indeed, imagining yourself as clay or rocky earth may give you this feeling, or it could just give you a feeling of groundedness. But, in my experience, earth is what brings one to the more conscious mind, and all elements are downloaded into earth. Of course, returning to the magic mirror, gaining more earth can involve the positive qualities of earth – responsibility, conscientiousness, etc. The earth can be your default state, and if all the other three elements are charged and balanced, earth can develop automatically, as the result of fire, air, and water all being strong.
Alas, though, pore breathing with the elements takes time. Believe it or not, I spent four years just charging with the elements. I was having fun, enjoying the process, and I had no need to hurry. It became one of my favorite exercises in IIH. Granted, after living in a silent Benedictine monastery at age 30, where we met in chapel six times a day, chanting prayers, gave me a jumpstart into the Akasha. However, my elemental balance needed some work. It’s often possible to get ahead in Bardon work without trying to get ahead. I have clients who have astral travelled but are only on steps 1 and 2 in IIH. Sometimes, this just happens. But I wouldn’t encourage people to try to get ahead; this is only saying that it is possible to get ahead without trying to go to the higher steps yet. This was the case with me, as I developed clairsentience and clairvoyance before I got to them in the steps. But I wasn’t trying to do this. Granted, I had a spontaneous Kundalini awakening at age 21, so I did jump into higher abilities. But I still needed to get the elements sufficiently charged and balanced, which in a sense, remains somewhat of a mystery that they weren’t balance with Akasha alone. This best explanation is that pore breathing with the elements occurs in the soul, while the Akasha happens in the spirit. One can develop a strong spirit while still having an unbalanced and uncharged soul and body. All three aspects are necessary in my experience. In a sense, the soul is the psyche, and it overlaps some with Western psychology, especially with the humanistic and existential psychologists from the 1960s. It’s possible to get ahead in the spirit realm and still not have a sufficient container to integrate it all. This is often called a spiritual emergency, that Integral Theorist Ken Wilber and psychologist Stanislav Grof write a speak about. Simply put, is more state and less structure. There needs to be a sufficient psychological container to integrate the strength of the all-power Akasha.
I have a class on Perseus Arcane Academy about steps 4, 5, and 6, that deals a lot with charging with the elements. I also have a class on emotional release, which can help in getting the emotions of soul balanced. These are not expensive classes, and I believe that all levels of Bardon practitioners can benefit from them.
