Magic 201: Astral Planes
A reminder: magic is not able to be learned solo. The spiritual or astral planes are not a safe place, even at their most positive. Positive does not mean that you can’t get hurt, nor does it mean that things will be ‘nice’ to you.
My godfather once told me that at certain points, magic takes a life of its own—the experience cannot be described, because it will be different for each person. The astral or spiritual planes are a fantastic example of this. What you see will very much be based on what you can see.
The astral or spiritual planes have some relatively consistent symbols, used to communicate the type and presence of certain entities or the character of specific places in those planes. There are lwa, for instance, which are associated with animals and will tend to appear in visions, dreams, or astral travel with characteristics of that animal (or for that matter, as that animal.) However, outside those symbols, there is a great deal of variation in what a magician will see based on both the capacity of the magician to see—that is, does the magician have sufficient force and clarity to see what is in front of them—and in the context of the magician. Vodou houses have minor differences in the associations they have with the lwa, for instance, or lineage secrets which allow them to identify certain spirits. Magicians will also have personal relationships with lwa which will influence how the lwa are expressed to them, and will have symbols from their own cultural and social background which they may see in that space.
The magician contributes to what they see as they travel.
It is not so much the thing you see itself, in the astral or spiritual planes. It is the message, the meaning, the communication which the symbol is intended to convey. Spiritual or astral travel is intimate, it contains things which are specific to the magician and their capacities, but it is not private. There is no privacy in the astral or spiritual realm.
The astral or spiritual planes have a truly enormous number of positive or negative spirits, and will be incredibly well occupied when a magician attempts to travel to them. It can be generally assumed that any spirit which attempts to communicate with a magician which does not belong to the magician’s court is unlikely to have a motivation which is not dangerous to the magician. While you can often speak to the spirits of those planes, extreme care should be taken to ensure that you make no agreements, accept no gifts, nor take anything back with you from any of the spirits you may encounter, except under the supervision of the spirits of a magician’s court.
As is generally true of learning about magic, you should have a teacher to help ensure that you don’t bring something nasty back by accident, and if you happen to pick something up, a teacher can help you dispose of it.
