Black Obsidian Skrying Mirror.
Pure Black, on both sides.
Introduction.
'The word skry is derived from the old English word descry, meaning 'to see' or 'to observe'.
It refers to a form of clairvoyance that usually emplys mirrors, crystals, or other gazing devices to aid in a person's concentration, train their psychic abilities, and allow spritual visions to come through into normal waking consciousness.
It is the conscious act of perceiving events that lie outside the reach of the normal senses through subconscious means.
Skrying involves seeing not with the physical eyes but through the mind's eye, into the astral world - the invisible blueprint that lies beyond all physical manifestations.
A person who skrys is often referred to as seer or a skryer.'
-- Quoted from 'The Essential Golden Dawn. An Introduction to High Magic' book by Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero.
Principles of Skrying.
'One of the laws of magic revolves around Levi's idea of the astral light, an invisible and fluidic substance that permeates everything in cosmos. The subtle manipulation of this astral substance is one of the essential procedures of magic.
The Qabalah teaches that everything in the universe is created or 'prefabricated' in the astral world of Yetzirah before it manifests in the physical world.
The astral plane is a level of reality that is higher than the physical world, but lower than the divine or spiritual world. It is a place that is in between - a realm of reflections, images, and dreams. This realm is the invisible blueprint that lies behind all physical forms. All things manifest in the astral world before they manifest in the physical world.
The astral plane is sometimes called the Treasure House of Images and is said to encompass the Akashic Record or the Akashic Library. This is a part of the astral said to contain all the memories and experiences of humanity over the course of history - embedded within the substance of the ether.
The Akashic Record exists outside of our concept of time and space, thus it contains information about future events as well as past memories.
It is avialable to those seers who have achieved a certain level of psychic purity and skill at skrying, but sporadic occurences, less-developed psyches are afforded brief and sometimes distorted glances into the Record.
This astral 'stockpile' of images can be used by skilled seers to cull knowledge that is universal and timeless.
In spite of this, the seer must ever guard against astral illusions or self-deception.
A skryer must be able to learn the differencies between astral fact and astral fiction. This is why skrying is a skill that must be finely honed, carefully practiced, and constantly tested for veracity.
Astral work is a very important tool for learning how things operate in the nonphysical world. With it the magician learns to contact spiritual realms, examine the landscape, and bring back valuable information.
What we are talking about here is controlled astral visions - meaningful and intense experiences that are completely understandable. In these visions the skryer maintains complete control and all of his or her powers of choice, willpower, and judgment. Through these experiences, the magician is able to reach the deepest levels of what Carl Jung called the collective unconscious or what Hermetic philosphers called Anima Mundi - the soul of the world.
No matter what skrying device or clairvoyant aid is used, the seer perceives skryed data only through the mind. The mind then translates this information into a form that the normal consciousness can comprehend. The subconscious mind communicates to the conscious mind in symbols or sensations.
In a skrying, the mind translates skryed information into an image, a dynamic vision, a sense impression, or even an audible sensation.'
-- Paraphrased & Quted from 'The Essential Golden Dawn. An Introduction to High Magic' book by Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero.
Other Comments.
The media most commonly used in skrying are reflective, refractive, translucent, or luminescent surfaces or objects such as crystals, stones, or glass in various shapes such as crystal balls, mirrors, reflective black surfaces such as obsidian, water surfaces, fire, or smoke, but there is no special limitation on the preferences or prejudices of the skryer.
It's advised against looking at one's own reflection when gazing at a skrying device, so good idea is using a black mirror and gazing at it at an angle.
... but i use it for introspection as well, looking directly at my own reflection in my Black Obsidian Skrying Mirror.
... it's written that Obsidian has healing & purifying properties, so it perhaps helps to purify Karma as it emerges from Store Consciousness (Akashic Records) in the act of Skrying.
... i think Black is color of Protection, so it protects from Demons, from Bad Karma & it's consequences. It also protects from seeing reflection to a certain degree, but certainly not too much. One's reflection can still clearly be seen.
One class of methods of skrying involves a self-induced trance, with or without the aid of a medium such as a crystal ball or obsidian mirror. Some say that the sensation is drug-like, some that various drugs can potentiate the experience; others categorically exclude any connection with drug usage, claiming that it invalidates any images observed.
Many practitioners say that the skrying medium initially serves to focus attention, removing unwanted thoughts from the mind in much the same way as repetition of a mantra, concentration on a mandala, inducing the relaxation response, or possibly by hypnosis. Once this stage is achieved, the skryer may begin free association with the perceived images. The technique of deliberately looking for and declaring these initial images aloud, however trivial or irrelevant they may seem to the conscious mind, attempts to deepen the trance state. In this state some skryers hear their own disassociated voices affirming what they see, in a mental feedback loop.
It is written that the whole cosmos and the astral plane are reflected in the human mind. By looking into one's subconscious, skryer can perceive what's in astral - accessing memories, information from beyond sight (far-away), and glimpses of how the future can unfold. Buddhism teaches that only true reality is one's own nature of mind, that the external world is projection of our mind, that our own karma affects stream of consciousness that we live through.
-- Source: the Internet & books.
See also: Akashic Records - Store Consciousness.
