The Power Of Gazes
The gaze of a sorcerer or witch is a powerful thing. Many of the fabled magicians of old were said to be able to peer into the spirit world at a glance, or to curse someone with just their gaze alone. Regardless, gazing is a valuable skill to have.
The Wide Gaze
The wide gaze is a very simple technique where you relax your eyes and take in as much of the periphery as you can without actually changing your focus. Try for a full 180 degrees. The trick is to pay attention to everything that is happening, especially at the edges of the periphery, as it is here that you will begin to see spirits and astral forms. You must not refocus your eyes to observe what appears on the edge of your vision; simply pay attention and allow the information to be processed without looking directly at it.
The Empty Gaze
The empty gaze is a slightly more radical version of the wide gaze. In the wide gaze, though you are paying attention to the 180 degrees of vision before you, your eyes will naturally focus on an object in front of you. This is just like the 180 degree gaze except that you will be focusing your eyes on empty space rather than letting your vision rest on a physical object.
To accomplish this, hold your finger an arm's length in front of you abd focus your eyes upon it. Now, withdraw your finger, but keep your eyes focused on the space where your finger was. Your eyes will want to focus on whatever objects were directly behind your finger, but you must keep your vision focused on empty space. Now, start to pay attention to the whole of your gaze as you did previously and you will see that your perception shifts even easier than it did before. Because your eyes are not focused on a physical object, you will find that astral and psychic perceptions will move closer to the center of your vision and not be as difficult to perceive.
It will take a bit of work to be able to perform this gaze, because the muscles in your eyes have the habit of focusing on physical objects. It may even hurt a bit, but with practice it will become second nature. In time you will be able to shift your gaze easily, whenever you want to, a very useful skill.
Dimensional Gazing
This gaze is more of a mental trick than an actual manipulation of the eyes. It is performed by taking in as much scenery in front of you as you did in the wide gaze. You don't have to worry about where your eyes are focused, just allow them to relax and take in the scene before you. Imagine that everything you are seeing in front of you is happening on a two-dimensional surface, then reach out with your mind and contemplate what might be happening on the other side of that surface. You can even try to mentally "peel back" the two-dimensional surface, folding down a corner so that you can perceive what lies beyond it.
The mind is used to perceiving space in three dimensions only. By using this gaze you are forcing the mind to perceive its usual input in only teo dimensions, leaving the third dimension a vacuum yo be filled by that which normally is not perceived. Practice this method often and you may find that it pays off fairly quickly in an increased perception of astral and spiritual phenomenon. If you use this gaze while looking at a scrying device like a mirror, you can consider that the mirror is a hole in the two-dimensional surface, which will allow images to surface all the more readily.
Overlooking
Just as the breath can be used to effect the mind and body of the practioner of be projected outward to effect the world, so too can the gaze. The most famous example of this is of course the Molocchio, the Evil Eye. Belief in the Evil Eye is as widespread as it is ancient, existing in cultures all over the world, and extending back all the way to ancient Sumeria. Generally speaking, the Evil Eye is given involuntarily by someone who is especially furious or envious and has the gift for malifica. The overwhelming spite actually overflows the channels of the subtle body and flows out through the gaze to the target.
Of course, the Evil Eye isn't always involuntary. In England, the practice of delivering a cursed gaze was called overlooking, eye-biting, or owl-blinking. The mode of delivery is essentially the same: one allows oneself to become overwhelmed with emotional force and delivers this through the gaze. The real trick is contained in the phrase "overlooking" itself. You are looking over or through the normal physical appearance of the and into their soul, where the intent of your gaze is translated as surely as a laser reading a compact disk. It is literally a piercing gaze.
But the basic technique of overlooking need not be contained to malicious intent. Love and lust can also be projected in one's gaze. As long as the emotion is strong and primal it can be projected by overlooking.
The Fascination Gaze
The fascination gaze is somewhat like overlooking except that you are not looking to pierce a person, but draw them into you. This is what happens when people describe being 'lost' in someone's eyes. Like a fly in a spider's web, they have been surrounded by the emotion of the person with whom they locked eyes.
In general, you want to fascinate yourself with your subject. Take in every detail and allow your mind to become obsessed with the target. You actually must fascinate yourself in order to use this gaze. Once you are sufficiently transfixed just mentally draw the target in with your eyes. Lock eyes for a moment and really feel their gaze. Pull it in with yours. Do not think, feel what you want to project. Gazes project emotion, not thought. You may be able to open someone up to telepathic suggestion using this gaze, but for the most part, it will convey emotion.
Directional Gazing
Lastly, we will cover directional gazes. Both occult tradition and modern psychology attribute certain qualities to looking in different directions. For instance, the gaze for overthrowing a person is to look straight at their Third Eye in an angry gaze, while you focus the eyes toward the left, while your target or their image, is also to the left. To attract the gaze should be upward to the right, with the person on the right as well.
Other teachings say that to project wrath, you should look upward with your head slightly bowed. To project calm, look slightly downward. To favor analytical qualities gaze to the left, to favor wisdom abd emotion gaze to the right. Play with the directions of your gaze to see what qualities it will evoke.
