If you can "visualize" it, you can get it! If you "imagine" it, you have it! If you "conceive" it, you achieve it!

So goes the Occult, Hermetic teaching of all ages and cultures, for not only is it a case of "As above so below," but even more pointedly "as within so without" and both axioms are subsumed in the Tantric proverb, "What is here is elsewhere and what is not here is nowhere!" (Visvasara Tantra)

I have spent twenty-five years researching and teaching students how to apply the Yogic-Tantric principle of gazing (Trataka) upon shape and color (Yantra) to form potent after-images, accelerating creative and visual abilities. The value of these shapes may be demonstrated with the following visualization techniques.

The five shapes are of the Elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ether. The colors are an ingenious blending known in the Western tradition as "Flashing Colors" and they are reconstructions from the twenty-five Card set accompanying my book Magical Tattwas.

Remember that when I ask you to gaze at the simulated Magical Tattwa patterns, you are looking at a reproduction that only approximates the original: nonetheless you will still experience the tremendous power inherent in these designs.

The Magical Tattwas are an ancient Indian system of representing the world using five specific shapes and five specific colors combined to form twenty-five combinations. This combination of geometry and color that was only once tried a hundred years ago in England—now produced as a dazzling kaleidoscope of Fluorescent inks that vividly "flash," "strobe," and "scintillate," impacting your unconscious with psychic bullets.

The operative phrase is "impacting your unconscious," because I am going to suggest to you that if you focus on just one of these five shape/color collages before going to bed, you will stimulate your unconscious to materialize, actualize and crystallize whatever you desire.

From the famous "Spotted calf" experiment in the Old Testament (surely the first attempt at putting into practice Lamarckian biological theory?) right up to the New York psychiatrist's (Epstein) statement that "imagination" is the catalyst between the mind and the body, all evidence points towards visualizing your goals as a preliminary to reaching them.

Here is probably the earliest recorded use of the power of visualization. King James version, probably based on Hebrew writings 1000 B.C.E:

• Genesis 30:36 "And he set three days' journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.
• Genesis 30:37 "And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree; and pilled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.
• Genesis 30:38 "And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.
• Genesis 30:39 "And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstreaked, speckled, and spotted.
• Genesis 30:40 "And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstreaked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's cattle.
• Genesis 30:41 "And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.
• Genesis 30:42 "But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's."

This dictum emerges everywhere, from the famous basketball experiments by the sport psychologists in the 1980s (imagining putting the ball through the net was nearly as effective as practicing it and combining practice with visualization was the best of all) right up to Australian Ian Gawler and his advocacy of Visualization-meditation for healing cancer. In Magical Tattwas I emphasize that: The power for change cannot be underestimated.

Let me show you one way to use just the first five elements for "Visualization Magic."The method may be summed up as:

1. Select the correct Elemental shape corresponding to your desire, or wish.
2. Focus visually upon the design until it changes color
3. Close your eyes and focus upon the potent afterimage.
4. While watching the afterimage you may silently repeat the Bija mantra, a special sound associated with each shape. These Bija Mantras are composed of special combinations from the Sanskrit language. The simplest way to understand what constitutes a Bija Mantra is to think of it this way: "Bija" means "a seed." Therefore a Bija Mantra is a "seed sound" that when chanted audibly or mentally will produce inner growth and evolution. Just as the acorn seed contains the tree, so the Bija Mantra contains compressed spiritual potential.

Bija Mantras have several characteristics:

• They are monosyllabic, e.g. Ram (the Bija for a psychic center associated with fire and the Solar Plexus), versus the Gayatri Mantra that consists of 24 syllables.
• Each Bija Mantra consists of a single "phoneme," ie. the smallest part of speech that differentiates one word from another by sound (e.g. "Lam" versus "Ram;" "L" and "R" represent phonemes as they are the only distinguishing sounds that distinguishes "Lam" from "Ram.")
• On the whole Bija Mantras may terminate in either "m" or "ng."

The five primal elemental shapes are part of a complete set of twenty-five cards representing the permutations of the original five:

1. The first element is Earth, represented by a yellow square: This element governs beginnings and firm foundations. The Bija mantra is"LUM."
2. The second element is Water, symbolized by a silver crescent moon. This is the sphere of the unconscious dream world, relationships, partnerships, networking, consulting, and consorting. The Bija Mantra is "VUM."
3. The third element is Fire, shown as a bright flame-red triangle, apex down. This element rules the domain of passion, creativity, promotions, enthusiasm. The Bija Mantra is "RUM."
4. The fourth element is Air, depicted as a sky-blue circle or globe. Air influences everything to do with surviving trial and test periods, emotional stability and attention to fine details—as well as creative imagination. The Bija Mantra is "YUM."
5. The final Element is Ether, controller of all things concerned with change, travel, growth, and promotions. The Bija Mantra is "HUM.”

Having decided upon the correct element for our purposes, we begin learning to gaze into the center of the geometrical shape. This is called "Trataka," and I will describe it as soft contemplation with the caveat that you gently inhibit blinking as much as possible. Trataka is definitely not "staring" aggressively (glaring) nor being "bug-eyed." Just gently gaze upon the element design and know that the first sign of success is when a "rim aura" appears: i.e. an "on-off" flashing around the outline of the shape—often quite spectacular! This phenomenon is a standard psycho-physiological effect due to mild retinal stimulation, and not psychic at all. However, the consequent effects upon your unconscious are psychic.

The next thing that you may notice is that the "Yantra" (geometric shape) becomes three-dimensional against the background color. Things are "cooking" at a physiological, psychological, and psychic level when this happens. The whole process may take from one to three minutes.

In the final phase, close your eyes and watch the afterimage in reverse colors manifest in the realm of the third eye. While quietly "witnessing" the after-image silently repeat the appropriate Bija Mantra. Continue this until the last vestige of the after-image is totally gone.

Open your eyes and go immediately about your business knowing you have given your unconscious a kick-start in realizing your aspirations. You can repeat this once a day until the desired results manifest.

Remember the trick is to select the correct element that resonates most closely with your current needs and problems and away you go. When you utilize the Magical Tattwas you are calling upon the Hindu equivalent of Austin Spare's Sigil magic and the whole European tradition of "Sigil Magic."