The Caretaker

(WIP) REVIEW: The Psychic Self Defense Manual (v2)

Added 2021-08-01 17:55:33 +0000 UTC

The Psychic Self Defense Personal Training Manual by Maricia L Pickands

Chapter 1: Why Learn to Defend Yourself Psychically?

“Like it or not, you must recognize the world you live in is not always safe, physically or spiritually.”

Tread carefully dear reader, the cloak of Lady Night hides all manor of danger. We cannot know the extent of the world beyond, but fear not! For every sword, there is a shield, for every Goliath, there is a David, for every monster, there is a hunter. In this case, that hunter is a mom from Maine named Maricia.

The Psychic Self Defense Personal Training Manual is a humble little thing.. Maricia L. Pickands is not here to waste our time with rambling essays on higher mysteries. Her prose is terse, effective, purposeful. She is here to teach us how to stay safe.

The preface of the text begins by laying out the metaphysics we are working with. Credit where credit is due: this section is a strong start.. Maricia begins by laying a foundation upon which the text shall be laid. We’ve got all our standard new-age building blocks: The Aura, The Third Eye, and The Platonic Elements.

We open the door to chapter 1, immediately faced with an “Aura Stretching Exercise.” Delightful. Why not? From an occult perspective, this is actually a solid opening. Magic is a skill like anything else, it must be practiced for a proper understanding, so why not ground the ideas in the language of, say, a martial arts class? The exercise itself is, surprisingly enough, consistent with the metaphysics laid out earlier. It involves a pair of partners using gestures and mental chanting to practice forming and severing a connection between auras. A second form of the exercise practices a sort of basic blocking technique with similar gestures and chanting.

“But C.T!” I hear you cry, “Why would I need to block psychic attacks? Who will be raining blows upon my supple aura, intent on stealing my precious life energy?”

Why gentle reader, who else but psychic vampires? “Im sure you know someone who can make you tired simply by being around and talking at you for more than five minutes. We all have this type of acquaintance or relative in our lives. Knowingly or not, this variety of individual is a psychic vampire!”

Now dear reader, you may be surprised to learn, but annoying people are not actively sapping your life energy and you do not need to learn how to psychic Street Fighter parry them.

Chapter 2: The Basics of Self Defense begins with a description of how one's psychic abilities develop. The author draws a portrait of an initiate six months into daily practice. Minor shifts in their mental state cause noticeable differences in physical strength, auras are more apparent and easy to manipulate due to constant visualization, they have increased ability to manipulate others, but due to a raw and untrained psychic ability, can also be more easily manipulated by others. This marks the point where the initiate is ready for additional exercises. Now, I am calling them exercises, because that is what the author calls them, but lets not kid ourselves here. These are spells.

We add some new spells to the initiates kit:

Aura Siphon: Temporarily steal a chunk of an opponent's aura to use the energy against them.
Grounding: Stationary breathing meditation to regenerate and repair the aura.
Heavy Aura Shield: A strong but slow spell to defend against serious attacks
Instant Aura Shield: A fast but low-energy spell-parry.
Dispel: Cleanse the aura of negative energy it may have accumulated.

Finally, we have a spell invented by the occultist Israel Regardie. Regardie was born to an Orthodox Jewish family, but did not share his family's religious devotion. He was an odd addition to the ranks of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and perhaps the worst possible choice to serve as personal secretary to Aliester Crowley. He became disillusioned with occultism after being forced to deal with Crowley for a decade, later calling him a “contemptible bitch.”

On a more serious note, there is a deeper conversation to be had here about the appropriateness of Hermetic “Qabalah,” but as a non-Jewish occultist, it is not a conversation I can lead. From my understanding of the history, this is not a practice I can recommend, and I would encourage anyone interested in the topic to speak to a Jewish practitioner.

Chapter 3: Survival Training vs Psychic Self Defense begins as follows: “As I have mentioned before, human beings have both physical and spiritual bodies. Both types of bodies must be cared for, since they obviously affect each other.”

Credit where credit is due, this is a clear and concise description of the metaphysics at hand, many authors get lost trying to describe the relationship between body, mind, and soul, but this lays out a solid foundation. There is you, your meat body, and your spirit body.

This is the point in which Pickands introduces the concept of divinity. “Psychic self-defense does not insure the spiritual survival of your true self. It may, in fact, be dangerous even to study the more advanced technical aspects of the discipline before a meaningful working relationship with Divinity has been established.”

While it is always nice to see an occult author urging caution, this quote exposes what I would call a critical flaw in the work. A “relationship with Divinity,” as Pickands writes, is not necessary for understanding the occult. Her reasoning becomes clear as she elaborates an all-too-familiar view of “Divinity.”

“Most Spiritual Traditions have two things in common. The first is a belief in some Supreme Being(s) who is (are) the source of our existence. The second is a stern warning to anyone who would dare establish a true relationship with that Divinity. I have listed a few of these warnings below.

“Narrow and rough is the road that leads to life (Jesus).”
“The way is narrow, as narrow as a razor’s edge (Hindu Scripture).”
“No mere mortal may behold the greatest glory of the Holy Countenance and live (Western Inner Tradition).””

To start, Buddhism has no Supreme Being, and no creation myth. Greco-Roman mythology has a creation myth, but I am unsure if Chaos could be considered a Supreme Being in the sense that Pickands intends.

The first quote is Matthew 7:14. The footnote for the second citation reads “I cannot remember where this comes from.” I will say I admire the author’s honesty. The quote is originally from the Katha Upanshiad, an important and influential Hindu text. The third quote comes from William G. Gray’s The Rite of Light, another Golden Dawn contemporary of Crowley.

From here, the author stresses the importance of “walking the razors edge” which she essentially defines as “maintaining a balance between ones ordinary and spiritual lives.” Which isn’t quite what those earlier quotes were trying to say, but hey, balance is good. There is absolutely a history of people becoming interested in the occult, only to descend into woo and snake oil. If this can keep people from doing that, more power to them.

Chapter 4: Signs of Psychic Disturbance and Psychic First Aid

A feeling of weight pressing down on your chest while you're asleep or dreaming.
A continuous and intensifying sense of oppression or fear. (Note: Those who are sensitive will feel this sensation before anything actually goes wrong. Consider it as part of your intuitive “Early Warning System.”)
Nervous exhaustion or wasting away to “skin and bone” when there is no observable physical cause or disease process.
Being terrified of going to sleep.
Dreaming of fighting with something and waking up with bruises in all the “right” places. (This is known as the Phenomenon of Repercussion.)
Obnoxious odors that come and go with no apparent physical cause. (These odors will be noticed by anyone who is around when they are present. These are not the phantom odors associated with some kinds of psychosis.)
Seeing odd footprints that come from no particular place and stop with no destination.
Inexplicable outbreaks of fire. (This is often associated with Elemental activity.)
Poltergeist Activity.
Inexplicable precipitation of slime or powdery substances.

If you’ve experienced any of these symptoms in the last 24 hours, you may be experiencing the effects of Psychic Attack, according to the author. According to me, you should talk to a medical professional.

Anxiety is not a “Magical Early Warning System,” nervous exhaustion and weight loss are symptoms of extreme stress, fear of sleeping (Somnophobia) is a common symptom of PTSD, waking up with bruises is something to talk to a doctor about, phantom smells are associated with psychosis but sometimes things just smell weird, if shit keeps catching fire its probably due to an OSHA fire code violation, poltergeist activity can have numerous ordinary explanations, and please make sure that inexplicable showers of slime are not toxic mold.

But this only covers the anatomy of psychic injury, what about Psychic first aid?

According to Pickand, the psychic first-aid kit should contain several things. Allow me to paraphrase:

Agate (banded) - Charges recover health
Adventurine - Charges heal perception debuffs
Bloodstone - Charges temporarily buff STR and max HP
Carnelian - Charges heal the Depression debuff
Basil - Consumption temporarily gives advantage on speech skill checks.
Blueberry - Consumption temporarily increases physical and magical DEF.
Carnations - AoE Health and Magic regen when equipped.

Chapter 5: The Best Defense is a Good Offense

“Those of us who are called to serve as Guardians of the Light within this world need to know how to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and those who come to us in need of help. Because of our vocation, we must seek training beyond what is necessary for the average person who has just begun to deal with the invisible forces and forms which affect their lives.”

“Normally a Cause of sufficient worth to warrant the development of a Warrior Tradition has a recognizable Spiritual Presence and/or Power behind it.”

This chapter unlocks a new spell! The “Modified Lesser banishing Ritual of the Pentagram” Another of Regardie’s hermetic constructions that uses some of the Jewish names for god. Again, this is not a practice I can encourage, and something I would have to defer to a Jewsh occultist on for a more nuanced take.

Chapter 6: Applied Psychic Self-Defense in Everyday Situations

“Thus far you have been 1) Educated as to why psychic self-defense could be important to you. 2) Introduced to basic exercises which, if practiced faithfully, will make it much more difficult for someone to affect your visible and/or invisible bodies without your knowledge and consent; 3) Instructed on the difference between psychic self-defense and spiritual survival. 4) Shown how to recognize the symptoms of psychic disturbance; and 5) Given knowledge of and access to the realms of the Spiritual Warrior.”

Left off at page 22

Preface

Basic Metaphysics

Chapter 1: An Aura Stretching Exercise

Psychic Vampires

Chapter 2: The Basics of Self Defense

Aura Displacement
Tanith’s Exercise
Centering: Basic meditation
Grounding:
Developing Your Psychic Shield
Instant Psychic Shield
Cleansing
Israel Regardie and Alan Richardson
Middle Pillar

Chapter 3: Spiritual Survival Training vs Phsychic Self Defense

Basically, dont try hard shit until you’ve practiced the easy shit
“Most Spiritual traditions have two things in common: The First is a belief in a supreme being who is the source of creation, and the second is a stern warning to anyone who would dare establish a true relationship with that divinity.”
“Western Inner Tradition” G. Grey, the Rite of Light
P 27
Positing a direct relationship with god
Separating the secular and religious aspects of your life “The Razors Edge”
Two Dangers: Lack of Preparation, Distraction
How to Humbly prepare for the Sacred Journey - This is actually pretty solid

Chapter 4: Signs of Psychic Disturbance and Psychic First Aid

Dion Fortune, Signs of psychic injury that are just stress reactions
Sign of the Cosmic Cross
Some Basic Cleansing Recipies
Actually, Solid and responsible tactic here
Garnets do not neutralize the effects of tobacco
Basic Gastroalchemy

Chapter 5: The Best Defense is a good Offense

Annoyingly Binary
Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram: Its Kabbalah Knock that Shit Off - Samuel Weiser The Tree of Evil
Gaining the Sword W.M. Grey

Chapter 6: Applied Self Defense in Everyday Situations