The Art and Practice of Astral Projection

«The wall and the towers symbolize the boundary between the physical plane and the Astral plane» — lee el arcano del Tarot como mapa: los dos planos y la frontera entre ellos

«This is the path of progress for man. If man follows the ordinary progress of advancement he should, in course of time, enter these inner planes freely, and that while still livin» — y qué adjudica a ese paso; el corte de página trunca la frase

«Anne Besant and C. W. Leadbeater are full of information about the inner planes and man’s inner bodies» — declara su fuente: la literatura teosófica. *Anne* por *Annie* es del original

«The books by Col. Powell – “The Etheric Body”, “The Astral Body” “The Mental Body”, “The Causal Body”» — y enumera los cuatro cuerpos de Powell, que es de donde toma la nomenclatura

«Most all the books published by the branch of the Theosophical Society whose headquarters is in Adyar, Madras, India and whose American Headquarters is in Wheaton Illinois – contain valuable information about the inner plane» — remite a la rama de Adyar por su nombre y sedes

«1. Little System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 2. Dream Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 3. Body of Light Method» — el índice declara sus tres métodos, que es la arquitectura del libro

«For practical work in Astral projection I offer the following courses – 1. The “Little” method. 2. The “Dream” method. 3. The “Body of Light” method. 4. The Symbol System method» — son CUATRO métodos, no tres: el índice de la p. 8 omite el del Símbolo

«Again I am not going to claim that I am the sole repository of Occult Knowledge on these things as other teachers do» — declina la pretensión de exclusividad, y se la adjudica a otros maestros

«With the exception of the» — y acota qué es suyo: solo el *little system*

«it was because of the information and knowledge that I secured of the Inner planes, by means of this system, that I was enabled to» — cómo describe la génesis de sus métodos, unos a partir de otros

«If you do not grasp the information fully I am again asking you to take my word for these things until you are able to do your own studies and research on them and experience them yourself» — lo que pide al lector mientras tanto: crédito provisional hasta la experiencia propia

«This book is lovingly dedicated to Ophiel’s mean, violent, and stubborn disposition!» — dedica el libro a su propio carácter, y se refiere a sí mismo en tercera persona a lo largo de toda la dedicatoria.

«If it had not been for this stubborness, however, Ophiel would have laid down and died from sheer mortification and disappointment many years ago.» — sostiene que sin esa terquedad habría abandonado años atrás.

«Ophiel was assigned a job in this world before he was born. His job was to bring Occult knowledge thru and to give PRACTICAL TEACHINGS AND INSTRUCTIONS IN ITS USE FOR THE BENEFIT OF OCCULT STUDENTS.» — adjudica a su tarea un origen anterior a su nacimiento, y la define como traer conocimiento oculto y darlo en forma de enseñanza e instrucción prácticas.

«Ophiel was not allowed this knowledge before hand and to force him into the path, and to keep him in the path, all material things were taken away from him as one takes a baby’s toys away when it comes time for it to do things other than play. In addition everybody and everything, were forced to let him down; and let him down violently and in a particularly stupid manner. All plans, all dreams, all desires, all projects, were made to fail in a very silly looking way so that it appeared very funny to strangers, his friends and relatives. He was not even allowed alcohol or nicotine (and just barely coffee and tea) to alleviate these painful mental blows but had to take it-sweating it out without any help.» — describe la privación como método deliberado: se le retiraron los bienes materiales, se hicieron fracasar sus planes y se le negaron el alcohol y la nicotina.

«However the object of all this was to force him to turn to his Inner resources and to conquer all with nothing but his own Inner.» — y el propósito que adjudica a esa privación: obligarlo a valerse solo de sus recursos internos.

«This was done and the Inner resources are now working.» — da la operación por cumplida, sin más prueba que su afirmación.

«In the major Arcana of the pack of the Tarot Cards there is a card, number 18, called “The Moon”» — abre el libro con un arcano mayor del Tarot, el 18, al que llama *The Moon*: el mapa del que saca su teoría de los dos planos.

«This Tarot card portrays, starting at the bottom of the card and proceeding upward, first, a pool of water, then a shore lined with some rocks and plants. A path starts at the edge of the pool and winds up thru the middle of the card and ends off to the left upper top side of the card. At the start of the path and just coming out of the water is a crayfish. In the foreground of the scene are two animals, one, a wolf, is on the right side of the path and the other, a dog, is on the left side of the path. In the middle of the card-scene is a wall with a gap in the middle thru which the path passes. On each side of the gap is a high tower.» — y describe la iconografía pieza por pieza —estanque, orilla, sendero, cangrejo, lobo, perro, muro con brecha y dos torres— antes de leerla.

«As you can see the path leads from the physical plane on thru the gap between the two towers and into the Astral plane.» — lee el sendero de la carta como la ruta que atraviesa la brecha del muro y entra al plano astral.

«Most all books in the world deal with the land before the wall. A few occult books deal with the land beyond the wall.» — reparte la literatura en dos: casi toda trata la tierra de este lado del muro y unos pocos libros ocultos la de más allá.

«And hardly any at all, as far as the author has been able to find out, after a long search, deals with how to enter, and travel thru the Astral plane, in safety, and return to the physical plane, at will.» — y acota lo que declara faltar tras una larga búsqueda: cómo entrar, viajar con seguridad y volver a voluntad. La reserva —hasta donde el autor pudo averiguar— va dentro de la cita.

«Strangely enough, in all inner plane matters, it apears, from the material standpoint, that it is the preparation that counts most and not the doing, after the preparation, that counts.» — sostiene que en materia de planos internos pesa más la preparación que la ejecución, y lo enuncia con una reserva —al parecer, desde el punto de vista material— que va dentro de la cita.

«hopefully, all sorts of good things will happen to replace the dastardly goings on of the Piscean Age, which rules, among other undesirable things, prisons, restrictions, and such like.» — adjudica a la Era Pisciana las prisiones y las restricciones y espera su relevo; la frase arranca en la plana anterior, donde la enlaza con la llegada de la Era de Acuario.

«Their natural projections were accompanied by definite physical symptoms which symptoms looked very strange to others and even took on the appearance of insanity!! So much so, that the student was afraid to consult a doctor or psychologist for fear of being thought going insane.» — sostiene que la proyección espontánea trae síntomas físicos que otros leen como locura, hasta el punto de que el estudiante no se atreve a consultar a un médico.

«Ophiel receives a constantly increasing number of letters from young persons, sixteen, fourteen, and even twelve years old who seem to be projecting quite naturally.» — declara una correspondencia creciente de adolescentes que proyectan sin método; el dato es suyo y no lo documenta.

«It would seem that the next coming generation once removed will be projecting as a matter of course, a fact of daily life living and probably manifesting all kinds of other psychic faculties which are not usual y apparent.» — pronostica que la generación siguiente proyectará como cosa de todos los días y desplegará otras facultades psíquicas; el original imprime *usual y* por usually.

«Many changes have taken place in the last few years, not the least of which are changes in social attitudes towards old taboos.» — y sitúa ese pronóstico en un cambio de actitudes sociales frente a los tabúes antiguos.

«It is a peculiar characteristic of monotheistic religions that they desire to FORCE their ONE GOOD IDEA onto others – all the way down from Akhenaton to Puritans.» — objeta a las religiones monoteístas el querer imponer su idea única, y tiende la línea de Akenatón a los puritanos.

«The old religions of multiple Gods and Goddesses were tolerant of each other and persecutions for religious ideas were unknown.» — y les contrapone las religiones politeístas antiguas, a las que adjudica tolerancia mutua y ausencia de persecución.

«When you “see” these colors you will know you are making progress. The first thing to appear is the solid back. Then the colors begin to appear thru the black as is shown where the colors are lined inbetween with black. The black then thins out and away and the colors become more brilliant and finally burst out into the blinding pure white Astral Light.» — prescribe una secuencia de progreso leída en el color: primero el negro compacto, luego colores que asoman entre él, y al final el estallido de luz astral blanca. El original imprime *solid back* por black.

«There is no subject, of the Occult, that has attracted more attention from Occult students than the subject of Astral Projection.» — sitúa la proyección astral como el tema que más atención atrae entre los estudiantes de lo oculto.

«No greater achievement, in Occult arts, seems more desirable than that achievement of being able to leave the physical body – in full consciousness – “travel out” in the material, and the immaterial world, invisible, undetectable, able to go anywhere and everywhere without let or hinderance, observing persons, actions, events, freely – then returning to the physical body with full memory of the “trip-projection”.» — y enumera lo que el concepto corriente promete: salir del cuerpo en plena conciencia, ir a cualquier parte sin ser visto ni estorbado, y volver con memoria entera del viaje.

«In addition, to this generally accepted concept of Astral Projection, Occult novels and semi-serious-occult literature are full of wonderful stories of students, who had mastered this Art, and their adventures as they roamed around the earth and even went to other planets!!!» — separa de ese concepto la literatura de aventuras ocultistas, con sus viajes a otros planetas, y la nombra como novela y ocultismo semiserio.

«But what drives the poor ordinary occult student mad with frustration is that when he looks in the same occult books to find out HOW TO LEARN TO PROJECT he finds nothing about that part of the subject.» — y ahí pone su queja de partida: los mismos libros que celebran el arte no dicen cómo aprenderlo.

«All that the occult books generally have to say is that when he is “ready” he will find out how to do it or they might say that when he finds his “master” the master will teach him how to do it.» — objeta las dos respuestas usuales de la literatura oculta, que aplazan la instrucción a que el estudiante esté listo o a que aparezca su maestro.

«To the real earnest occult student, anxious to make true progress in this Art, this kind of talk is for the birds.» — y las descarta sin ceremonia.

«So I will tell you now that knowledge on any Occult subject, that you are seeking, is available now somewhere in an Occult book; and not necessarily out-of-print or high priced either. There seems to be some kind of an Occult law about this.» — sostiene que todo conocimiento oculto buscado ya está impreso en algún libro asequible, y lo eleva a una suerte de ley oculta que no fundamenta.

«I am telling you this so that you will understand that I am not claiming to be the sole giver-out-of-occult-knowledge that so many other teachers claim to be.» — declina la pretensión de ser el único dispensador de conocimiento oculto, y se la adjudica a otros maestros.

«Therefore to get accurate Occult knowledge and practices you must search for them. There are three factors that govern this search however. One factor is that you have to look for the right books and put out some money to buy them. Two factor is that you must have a minimum amount of Occult experience and knowledge to be able to recognize true Occult knowledge when you see it printed. And factor three is that you must have a minimum amount of Occult experience to be able to apply this knowledge to make the best use of it.» — y pone tres condiciones a esa búsqueda: dar con los libros correctos y pagarlos, tener experiencia bastante para reconocer el conocimiento verdadero al leerlo, y tenerla para aplicarlo.

«By OPHIEL Author of ART AND PRACTICE OF ASTRAL PROJECTION ART AND PRACTICE OF GETTING MATERIAL THINGS THROUGH CREATIVE VISUALIZATION ART AND PRACTICE OF THE OCCULT» — la portada lo firma solo con el seudónimo y lo presenta como autor de una serie *Art and Practice of*, de la que este volumen es una pieza.

«This book is the first fruits of the Inner Workings. Ophiel hopes you will value it if only for what it cost him to produce it.» — presenta el libro como primer fruto de ese trabajo interior y pide al lector que lo valore por lo que le costó producirlo.

«ART AND PRACTICE OF CLAIRVOYANCE VIGNETTE LESSONS IN OCCULT POWER CORRESPONDENCE COURSE IN THE FOUNDATIONS OF OCCULT KNOWLEDGE CORRESPONDENCE COURSE IN ASTRAL PROJECTION ORACLE OF FORTUNA» — la plana de créditos imprime el resto de su catálogo, con dos cursos por correspondencia entre ellos.

«This book, an occult book, deals with the subject of how to enter this Astral plane, function there, and then return to the physical plane, with a great deal of memory-knowledge of the “trip” retained in the memory and available for study and research.» — ahí sitúa su libro, y añade una condición que lo distingue: que el viaje quede retenido en la memoria y disponible para estudio.

«This book is a practical Occult book in that it gives all the theory» — se declara libro oculto práctico; la frase queda cortada por el fin de plana y sigue en la siguiente.

«necessary to understand the subject AND THE DEFINITE DIRECTION PRACTICES AS HOW TO DO IT.» — continúa en la plana siguiente la frase cortada, y ahí completa lo que reclama tener: teoría y práctica de dirección definida, en versalitas del original.

«Not only does it give positive directions but it gives FOUR different methods of dealing with the Inner Planes.» — declara cuatro métodos, no tres: el índice de la p. 8 se queda corto respecto de lo que el libro anuncia aquí.

«This book contains all you need to make a definite start in the working of the Art of Astral Projection.» — acota su promesa a un comienzo definido, no a la maestría.

«This book places a great deal of emphasis on the preparations, as you will notice, and if you will follow these directions for the preliminary work you will have a very good chance of succeeding in learning how to make a definite inner plane projection that will delight and satisfy you.» — de ahí el peso que el libro pone en los preliminares, y el resultado que promete si se siguen: una buena probabilidad, no una garantía.

«Then when you have mastered the techniques as given in this book and you feel that you are ready for more advanced work, contact Ophiel; and it is planned that by that time more advanced work will be available for students.» — remite al lector adelantado a contactarlo, y anuncia material avanzado todavía en proyecto.

«I was originally going to include some work of an advanced nature in this book but it was pointed out to me that this might confuse the new student and he might try something before he had sufficient experience to carry out the operation and the resulting failure would discourage him.» — explica por qué dejó fuera lo avanzado, y atribuye la decisión a un consejo ajeno que no identifica.

«Therefore this book deals with beginning work only and, as said before, when you are ready contact Ophiel and indicate your interest in advanced work along these lines.» — y cierra el prólogo fijando el alcance del volumen: trabajo de principiante.

«A number of years have passed since the first edition of Art and Practice of Astral Projection appeared.» — el prólogo añadido fecha esta versión respecto de la primera edición, sin dar el número de años.

«In spite of the limitations of Ophiel’s ability to distribute and promote this book, the book has been as well received as can be expected under the circumstances.» — y evalúa la recepción de la primera edición, achacando el límite a su propia capacidad de distribuirla y promoverla.

«One good use the book seemed to have was to assist many people, who were in advance of the Age, and were already projecting naturally.» — el uso que dice haberle encontrado la primera edición: servir a quienes ya proyectaban por su cuenta.

«When the student, however, read in the Art and Practice of Astral Projection about the symptoms of first projections efforts he could recognize and identify those effects in himself, and be reasonably assured he was on the right path.» — y le adjudica a su propio libro esa función de tranquilizar por reconocimiento del síntoma.

«The colors on the cover of this book are the colors you will “see” just before you “break thru” into the Astral Plane with your newly developed clairvoyant Inner sight gained thru the work given in this book.» — adjudica a los colores de su propia cubierta el valor de señal: son los que dice que el practicante verá justo antes de romper al plano astral.

«In this little book I am going to give you al the necessary information about the Art of Astral Projection, as well as simple and concise directions, on how to practice the Art in a safe and sane manner. I am going to give you not just one method but four methods.» — promete la información completa y las instrucciones, y otra vez cuatro métodos; el original imprime *al* por all.

«Everyone will need some personal instructions and you will find, in the last section of this book, directions how to contact me personally for this personal instruction.» — y remite al lector a la última sección del libro para contactarlo, porque da por hecho que hará falta instrucción personal.

«I respectfully suggest that you stick to me for the teacher and the book for the master until you have finished it and achieved some degree of success in this Art.» — pide al lector que lo tome a él por maestro y al libro por guía hasta terminarlo y obtener algún resultado.

«along and it will be necessary for you to contact me personally (1960) to get this advanced work as I will have to be satisfied that you are ready for it but only that you do not undertake something that you are not prepared to handle, and not that I want to withhold information from you or sell it to you for a high price. In case that this book lasts for many years, as I hope it will, I will try to arrange for a successor to carry on after me.» — condiciona el material avanzado a un juicio suyo sobre la preparación del lector, niega que sea por retenerlo o venderlo caro, y prevé un sucesor si el libro le sobrevive; la fecha entre paréntesis es del original.

«I am going to divide the instructions into two parts – The Basic Theory Part and the Basic-Practical-Working part.» — divide la enseñanza en dos partes, teoría básica y trabajo práctico básico, que es la arquitectura de lo que sigue.

«I am assuming that, as you have bought this book, you have some knowledge of the Occult already.» — da por supuesto un lector con formación ocultista previa, y funda ese supuesto en el mero hecho de haber comprado el libro.

«As Soul and Spirit are wrongly used and as they have no bearing on the Art of Astral Projection, which is what we are studying here, these two words will not be used in this book any further. I would also suggest that you be very careful as to how you use them in the future as if you are going to learn Occult Knowledge you have to say exactly what you mean at all times.» — retira las dos palabras del vocabulario del libro por inservibles para su asunto, y pide al lector el mismo cuidado.

«As most projectors end up projecting to the Astral plane and as Etheric projections require special work for limited objectives, and is really on the borderline between the Etheric and the Astral anyhow, we will, after this, in refering to projections mean only Astral projections and discard all other kinds, except when specially stated.» — fija la convención de vocabulario del libro: de ahí en adelante, proyección querrá decir proyección astral.

«As I felt that this subject was new to my readers, even those who know something about the occult, I decided to confine myself to four strong courses which I shall describe below. I will name them at this time and describe them more fully later. These four do not exhaust all possible work along these lines. When you finish these courses and master them and still want more I will be available to give still more advanced work by personal contact.» — explica por qué se limita a cuatro cursos, admite que no agotan la materia y remite lo demás al contacto personal.

«I did, however, work them over and rearrange them, in modern terms, and I give supervisory directions upon personal contact as to how best study them and I watch the student to see that it is done as near correct as possible as every person is slightly different in their reactions. It does require a degree of experience and plenty of occult knowledge and theory for me to steer a student thru these courses. To know when to tell him to do more and to tell him to do less. To encourage him when he runs into one of those spells when no Occult work can be done successfully and to tell him why.» — acota qué reclama como aportación suya: haberlos reordenado en términos modernos y supervisar al estudiante uno por uno, porque cada quien reacciona distinto.

«If you want to make the points stick still better you can make, or buy from me, some symbols which have occult significance and place those symbols at these points too. (Contact me about these symbols).» — y ofrece vender él mismo símbolos de significación oculta para reforzar esos puntos.

«There are still more things that you can do to reinforce your memory but I feel that you should have enough for now. If you run into a situation in which your projections do not succeed for heaven’s sake contact me about it as in a big subject like this I cannot give positive fool proof directions in advance. I can help you if I know what is wrong so contact me fast» — admite que su libro no puede dar instrucciones a prueba de fallos en un asunto tan grande, y por eso remite el fracaso a la consulta personal.

«At first I used to allow the student to go along by himself on his own power as it were. I told him to report to me at stated intervals and also report any trouble he ran into and I trusted him to do this naturally. In actual practice it has turned out that many people got easily discouraged when something went wrong or it didn’t work fast or they ran into something of a holdup. They just dropped the work and said nothing about it and I was lucky if they didn’t get mad at me to boot.» — refiere el fracaso de su método anterior de seguimiento, con estudiantes que abandonaban sin avisar al primer tropiezo.

«Therefore in order to help you succeed in this work (and not for the money involved) I want you to keep a diary of your projection work. Put down each day what you did, the time spent on it, and the results obtained, even if you did nothing that day.» — de ahí su exigencia de un diario de práctica, con la declaración de desinterés económico puesta entre paréntesis.

«The first six weeks of your work you are to send me this diary every 2 weeks. If I find that you are doing all right then once a month. If I find you need more instructions I will give them to you. This is very important so if you want to succeed in this ART please start your diary and keep it up.» — y fija la cadencia con que quiere recibirlo: cada dos semanas las primeras seis, después una vez al mes.

«I was going to include, originally, the following in this book – How to extend travel with this system – To go to other houses. – In the same town – In other towns and places. I was also going to include directions as to how to enter the Etheric plane (because this system is an etheric one) and to handle forces therein and available for use on the physical plane. I was also going to include exercises and other things for» — enumera lo que dejó fuera del libro —extender la ruta a otras casas y otros pueblos, entrar al plano etérico y manejar sus fuerzas—; la lista queda cortada por el fin de plana.

«Now, as I consider the preliminary work that the student has to do up to now, I feel that including this advanced material would only confuse the student as this work is definitely advanced work and should come only after he has achieved a large degree of perfection in the beginning work. He might try some of his advanced work before he is ready and be disappointed. (None of this work is dangerous). I have decided to defer any further instructions on advanced work on this system until I hear from you personal y as to your progress in the beginning work and how deep your interest in this subject is.» — y explica la omisión por riesgo de confundir al principiante, con la salvedad de que nada de ese trabajo sería peligroso.

«(In the future I hope to get together ALL the reliable Occult knowledge AND PRACTICES that are available now and get them to you in a modern form and without any restrictions, of any kind, as to their use.)» — y anuncia el programa que se pone: reunir todo el conocimiento y la práctica fiables y darlos en forma moderna y sin restricciones de uso.

«It is obvious that before you can explore the tantalizing possibilities of this “second” life over there you must learn, and practice, all the 29 preliminary work as given in this book; supplemented with the other lessons and practices as given out by the Gnostic Society of Self-Development; which lessons and practices are at your disposal and service.» — condiciona el acceso a esa segunda vida al trabajo preliminar del libro, y lo complementa con las lecciones de una sociedad que dirige él mismo.

«The following instructions are divided into several parts – In the first part you are to learn how to remember your dreams. In the second part you are to learn how to recognise that you are dreaming. – In the third part you are to learn what you have to develop in order to know that you are dreaming. And in the last part you are to learn how to “wake” up in a dream and start a projection.» — divide el método del sueño en cuatro pasos: recordar los sueños, reconocer que se sueña, desarrollar lo que hace falta para reconocerlo, y despertar dentro del sueño.

«While it is true that the material originally given out about this system took up a whole book I have given you the gist of it in this section. All you need to know to practice it is given here.» — declara haber condensado en una sección el libro entero de donde tomó el método, y sostiene que lo dado basta para practicarlo.

«This section contains all the knowledge you need in the way of theorypractice to enable you to conduct a magical operation, for your benefit, called “The Creation of a Body of Light”.» — presenta la sección siguiente como una operación mágica con nombre propio, la creación del Body of Light.

«You must have noticed, by now, that this is no ordinary Occult book of the usual run of the mill stuff consisting of endless chatter about the dangers of using Occult powers for your benefit etc. etc. No, this is a book that tells you what is what and then tells you how to go and DO IT.» — opone su libro al resto del género, al que imputa charla interminable sobre los peligros de usar los poderes ocultos en beneficio propio.