Breathing is very important in every aspect of our lives, without it we would not be here. It is such a natural act that most people do not even put a conscious thought towards it unless they are having problems doing it. In this article I will discuss why it is an important part of occult workings. Since ancient times anyone who used occult workings of any kind realized that the way you breathed effected your state of mind and included this in the most basic teachings of the occult. Today most religions that use magic have a tendency to pass up this very important step. I will share a couple of techniques of deep breathing and of altering your breath to enhance your working.

The first and most important step in the breath process is to recognize how you breathe normally, most of us automatically breath deeper when we start thinking of breathing. You need to get past that to see just how shallow you do breath. The deeper the breath the better since it causes more oxygen to flow and may cause you to be come light headed at first if you breath extremely shallow normally. I will start with a basic yet very effective method of deep breathing.

Find a place where you will not be disturbed at first, you will need to do this since most people have a hard time concentrating if there are too many distractions. Keep your spine straight by either laying on a hard flat surface or sitting in a straight backed chair, this is important because slouching or lying with a curve will impede the flow of air through the lung passageways. Next take a couple of deep breaths and relax, then begin with breathing in for a count of three, holding for a count of three, releasing for a count of three and holding for a count of three and then repeating. Do this until you can do it naturally, in the beginning it will be hard to keep the rhythm, rest for a few minutes and start again. Once you can do this easily work your way up until you can hold it for a full count of ten.

This next step involves the same technique listed above but requires you note how you feel depending on how long the count is. You will note that some counts will make you feel relaxed while others will fill you with energy. The one that is most important is the count where just by breathing you can actually put yourself into a light trance. This method is the best for other techniques such as the Death Posture or meditation. For most people this count is usually ten and if you don't note this trance state under the ten counts try moving up to 15 or 20 but do not go any higher since you can cause yourself to pass out.

This next technique is exactly as the one above but with one difference. When holding for a count of three exhale for a count of 5 and so forth until you can do a count of ten on the inhale and a count of twelve on the exhale. Once you are able to do this slowly work the exhale up to 15 while inhaling for a count of ten. This method allows air into passages that are not used in normal breathing and therefore contain stale air, which the longer exhale causes to flush out. It is a good way to cleanse the air passageways and to cause a relaxed feeling when done.

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