Emil Stejnar

Magical exercises - they are not a game

(translated by Richard Tschudi)

In the year 1958 I had the following experience. It happened in Vetlanda, a smal
l city in Sweden. I had just welcomed a visitor from Vienna, a good friend of mi
ne to whom I felt a strong connection, because of the many years we did research
es together. There were plenty of news to share and in the evening we did an exp
eriment with a magical wand which I constructed according to special instruction
s. Then we went to bed and had long discussions before we fell asleep.
The foot-ends of our beds were facing each other and they fitted exactly between
the walls and there was no gap at all between the beds.
Suddenly I had a feeling that I was turning and swirling madly in a whirlpool of
red and black flames. I was full of fear like never before and I believed to be
lifted up into the air. Then from somewhere I heard my name called and I woke u
p. I found my self sitting at the farthest end of the bed and only very slowly g
ained full consciousness. In the other bed my friend was as well sitting on his
bed and he was still calling my name.
As I now noticed, my bed was now slopped on the wall. The head of the bed was st
uck on the wall with its feet 40 centimeters above the ground and in the morning
we noticed scratches on the wall-paper indicating that the bed must have been l
ifted at one time up to1 meter from the ground. The room was in a state of great
disorder. Books and music records were scattered on the floor. The table was st
anding on some of the books.
After we calmed down my friend reported the following: He was woken up by a cold
draft of air and wanted to get up to close the window, however the window was a
lready closed. Then he noticed that I was sitting in the middle of the bed and w
as staring with my eyes filled with fear ahead of me. Around my head was a stran
ge green light which seemed to emanate from my eyes. Then the head of the bed st
arted to lift up. My friend said that I was screaming terribly and that I moved
to the end of the bed. He called my name a few times, turned on the light and th
en I came to me (woke up).
At that time I assumed that the cause of that spook was the experiment with the
magical wand. It was a nine-time coiled spiral made of a wire of fine-gold and f
ine-silver and a magnetic iron top. The whole was stuck on a staff of elder wood
and was meant to be especially appropriate for invocations.
Today I know that the magic wand was very innocent. The real cause was the one-s
ided magical exercises which I practiced for a few months prior to the incident.
Like any beginner I focused on those exercises which appealed to me particularl
y and neglected others. I overdid asceticism and I tried to strengthen my will-p
ower by all kinds of methods.
In this manner I created a reservoir of power which had to discharge itself even
tually because I did not assign a task to that power-reservoir. Any power which
is transformed by will-power exercises has to be consciously associated with a q
uality, a name or a meaning if you want to have control over this power. Otherwi
se this power or energy will automatically connect with a part of the so called
unconscious and then works independently, mostly against us, or it can also be m
isused by entities.
This is an important law in practical magic. From this can be deduced: Every qua
lity, idea or goal towards which we are striving will soon join up with a force
so that it can manifest itself. This force will be extracted from us unless we d
o not consciously control this force by will-power exercises or do not have cont
rol over the idea.
Most beginners are disregarding this fact or are not aware of it yet. However, m
agical exercises are not a game. It wouldn’t occur to anybody to play around with
the bare fingers with a high voltage power-line. But when it comes to magic, man
y believe they can visualize and meditate on what ever they like although very d
angerous powers can be contacted.
This is also the reason why many students give up practicing after a few months
or they are forced to do so by tragic fate. The divine providence, in this manne
r prevents damages that sooner or later can occur to spirit and soul.
The right way therefore is to practice and strive with spirit, soul and body equ
ally, and create an elemental equilibrium on each level. The best instructions a
re given in the book: “Initiation into Hermetics” by Franz Bardon. Whoever works on
his or her occult perfection has to observe the law of the interaction between f
orce (power) and might (quality). He or she should these might’s (qualities) and f
orces (quantities), which are automatically created and are released by the magi
cal exercises and then ban and capture them consciously with a gesture (mudra),
a ritual, or a seal. Or he or she should bind these might’s and forces (quantitie
s and qualities) with a clearly outlined quality or attribute. He or she then cr
eates magical aids without any special effort, which will serve him or her well
on the path. The usual side effects which every practitioner experiences during
his or her apprenticeship will eventually wear off.
(note by the translator: This part of this article first appeared in the German
esoteric magazine “Anubis – Zeitschrift fuer praktische Magie und Psychonautik) # 10
, December 1988.
The last paragraph that follows was added by Emil Stejnar when he republished th
is article in his book: “Die vier Elemente – Der geheime Schluessel zur geistigen Ma
cht. (Ibera Publisher-Vienna)
* * *
Today, I don’t need anything else to add to my conclusions of the time when I wrot
e this article. However in the mean time I discovered where the phantom, which h
ad tried to pull me out of my body, came from. When my friend and I did the prep
aration for the experiment (with the magic wand), we went to the “gallows-hill”. It
was a place of execution in the 18th century. The land on which house where we l
ived in was build was also on a place of execution, where in 1543 sixty people w
ere beheaded after a peasant uprising. This information I found out much later.
It is understandable that the elementaries which we absorbed at the “gallows-hill” a
nd then brought to our house, where they animated the schemes of mortal agony of
the place and as a result the phantom could manifest with the help of my unused
energies which I created with my magical exercises.
Bardon also refers in step XI of his third book of instructions: “The Key to the t
rue Kabbalah” to the important difference between a might and a power (quality and
quantity). I urgently recommend that every Hermetic Practitioner studies that c
hapter in depth and takes it to heart.
(this article was translated by permission from Emil Stejnar)