How To Develop Yourself

Passing to the actual practice, we desire to inform our students that

the faculty of Psychomancy lies dormant in every person--that is the

Astral Senses are present in everyone, and the possibility of their

being awakened into activity is always present. The different degrees

of power observable in different persons depend chiefly upon the degree

of development, or unfoldment, rather than upon the comparative

strength f the faculties. In some persons, of certain temperaments,

the Astral Senses are very near the manifesting point at all times.

Flashes of what are considered to be "intuition," premonitions, etc.,

are really manifestations of Psychomancy in some phase. In the case of

other persons, on the other hand, the Astral Senses are almost

atrophied, so merged in materialistic thought and life are these

people. The element of Faith also plays an important point in this

phenomena, as it does in all Occult phenomena, for that matter. That is

to say, that one's ~belief~ tends to open up the latent powers and

faculty in man, while a corresponding ~disbelief~ tends to prevent

the unfoldment or manifestation. There is a very good psychological

reason for this as all students of the subject well know. Belief and

Disbelief are two potent psychological factors on all planes of action.



Occultists know, and teach, that the Astral Senses and faculties of the

human race will unfold as the race progresses, at which time that which

we now call Psychomantic Power will be a common possession of all

persons, just as the use of the Physical Senses are to the race at the

present time. In the meantime, there are persons who, not waiting for

the evolution of the race, are beginning to manifest this power in a

greater or lesser degree, depending much upon favorable circumstances,

etc. There are many more persons in this stage of development than is

generally realized. In fact many persons manifesting Psychomantic

power, occasionally, are apt to pass by the phenomena as "imagination,"

and "foolishness," refusing to recognize its reality. Then, again, many

persons manifest the power during sleeping hours, and dismiss the

matter as "merely a dream," etc.



Regarding this matter of the dawning of Psychomancy, a well-known

authority writes as follows: "Students often ask how this psychic

faculty will first be manifested in themselves--how they may know when

they have reached the stage at which its first faint foreshadowings are

beginning to be visible. Cases differ so widely that it is impossible

to give to this question an answer that will be universally applicable.

Some people begin by a plunge, as it were, and under some unusual

stimulus become able just for once to see some striking vision; and

very often in such a case, because the experience does not repeat

itself, the seer comes in time to believe that on that occasion he must

have been the victim of hallucination. Others begin by becoming

intermittently conscious of the brilliant colors and vibrations of the

human aura; others find themselves with increasing frequency seeing and

hearing something to which those around them are blind and deaf; others

again see faces, landscapes, or colored clouds floating before their

eyes in the dark, before they sink to rest; while perhaps the commonest

experience of all is that of those who begin to recollect with greater

and greater clearness what they have seen and heard on other planes

during sleep."



Very many persons possess respectable degrees of Simple Psychomancy,

varying from vague impressions to the full manifestation of the

faculty, as described in these lessons. Such a person has "intuitions";

"notions"; "presentiments," and the faculty of getting ideas regarding

other persons and things, other than by the usual mental processes.

Others manifest certain degrees of Psychometric powers, which develop

rapidly by practice. Others find themselves possessing certain degrees

of power of "scrying" through Crystals, which power, also, may be

developed by practice. The phases of Time Psychomancy, Past and Future;

and that of Space Psychomancy, in its higher degrees, are far more

rare, and few persons possess them, and still fewer persist in the

practice until they develop it, they lacking the patience, persistence,

and application necessary.



While it is very difficult to lay down a set method of instruction in

the Development of Psychomantic Power, owing to reasons already given,

and because of the varying temperaments, etc., of students, yet there

is possible a plan of giving general information, which if followed

will put the student upon the right path toward future development. And

this plan we shall now proceed to give the students of this little

book.