The Imitation of Death
The yogic posture known as Shavasana (corpse pose) is a foundational element within the field of connatural magick. The versatility of the posture is reflected in its capacity to integrate comfortably into nearly any repertoire of occult practices.
It may serve as the postural basis for developmental practices such as meditative breath control, passive breath awareness, and Samyama applied to the physical body. The posture additionally allows for ease of entry into the hypnagogic state, the liminal corridor between waking and dreaming from which parapsychic operations such as mental scrying and assumptive manifestation can be effectively performed. Lucid dream induction methods such as WILD (Wake Induced Lucid Dreams) also rely on the psychophysiological processes that the posture initiates.
Furthermore, Shavasana is frequently assumed as the first step toward consciously separating the subtle body from its physical host, resulting in an ecsomatic experience or out-of-body travel. Lastly, it was notably employed by English occultist Austin Osman Spare as part of a complex psycho-magical technique that he referred to as “The Death Posture”, a practice he exclaimed would lead to the practitioner’s eventual “ascension from duality”[1].
Through this imitation of death, the psychist learns to employ the body as a gateway into those anomalous states that form the very media of magical expression.
[Related Posts]
Note:
Austin Osman Spare, The Book of Pleasure (Self-Love): The Psychology of Ecstasy, 1st ed. (London: Jerusalem Press Ltd., 2011), 18.
