OCTARINE You open your inner eyes… you are standing on the broad expanse of the earth, a flat plain, and it is night. You look up to the sky, where storm-clouds obscure the stars, their purples and greys churning, little arcs of lightning flickering between them. The firmament is bruised with electricity. As you watch, a bolt of lightning strikes down, then another and another, tendrils of energy marching towards you across the flat ground, until a bolt strikes right in front of where you stand. The ground shakes, you close your eyes The image of the lightning bolt burns through your eyelids. When you open your eyes again the lightning bolt is still there, a tree of electric blue fire standing on the earth, miniature lightnings playing around it like tiny branches whipping around in an unseen wind. You look up the trunk of the lightning tree. It reaches right to the clouds. Your feeling is of awe – how can this be? You step forward, curious, and feel the prickle of electric charge on your skin. But the stationary lightning does not hurt you. You get closer still, you reach out your hand and touch the solid electricity. A thrill of weirdness runs through your body – is this safe? You touch the lightning bolt again, and it feels solid. A step appears at the base of it, lined in blue fire. You step onto it and it holds your weight. Now the lightning bolt is a staircase of blue energy, which you climb, up and up. The earth is falling away. You are climbing into the clouds. And then, inside the clouds, there is a platform of grey metal glinting in the stormglow. You step off the staircase of lightning and onto the platform. You gaze around you in the electric-lit mist. Before you is a towering door engraved with the planetary sigil of Uranus. The sign and the door flicker, alternating between figure and ground. Which colour is which? Your Octarine is coming into focus. The Uranus sigil blazes Octarine and the vast door swings open. Facing you is a rearing serpent, an enormous hooded cobra, its scales shimmering gold and Octarine. You salute it with a fierce ecstasy, not unmixed with a little fear. The serpent seems to notice you, its black eyes shimmer and flash. As you gaze at it, your sense of identity vis a vis the serpent flickers, switching between figure and ground – what are you? Are you this immense, timeless power? For when the serpent stirs in us, we are not ourselves. But truly we are ourselves, channeling celestial lightning through our hands and eyes and minds, spanning the bondless sky in our ecstasy of sorcerous wonder, alive to the pulse of the blood of the stars. Let us now call the pure power of Octarine, the very colour of magic itself. I call the Uraeus-serpent crowned Ouranus Uranus, god of the vault of the heavens, firstborn of the primal Chaos, Lord of Electricity. You gaze at the luminous space around you. Where is the God? Where is Ouranos? You look again at the glowing mist and realize that its alive. You are inside the body of the sky-god, whose serpent coils around his form. You are in the streams of celestial energy. You feel the power surging in you like an electric current. The words of the call form in your mind… XIQAL UNGASCABA XIQAL UDINBAK XIQAL ONGOTHAWAS UNGASCABA OCTARINE FLOWS THROUGH ME! Breathe this power in and let it flow through your body. Breathe it round and into the vessel in your lower belly. Breathe it in so you can keep it for when you will want to release it into an enchantment.

BLACK When you’ve been everywhere, where do you end up? When the cards are all on the table, when we can see exactly what the situation is, when there is no more concealment or prevarication. It seems as though you have been everywhere else, and now you come to this place, the place of endings. The Black. You stand in dust, dark grey and gritty. Before you is a simple door, gigantic and featureless, dull and black. Is this it? Is this all there is to the Black? You feel disappointed. This is not good enough. Your disappointment seems to fit this place. You bang on the door. It is made of lead, the sound is faint and low, a dull reverberation. Nothing happens. You bang again. And again. Then the door moves, scraping and scratching across the grit. It swings inwards, creaking like the door to a vampire’s castle in a horror film. Beyond the doorway is a vast, furrowed field, set with the stubs of harvested grain. The sky is cloudy and the land is a dusty brown. At the other side of the field is a dark, imposing building, maybe a mausoleum. You step onto the dry soil and walk towards it. Dust rises around your footfalls. The palace of the Black looms before you. You step up three narrow, high steps of dull black stone and pass through the portico. You are standing in a vast, silent room. The distant walls are lined with statues and tombs of forgotten gods. The whole place reeks of inconceivable gulfs of time. The very dust looks ancient, the first dust that ever settled, way back at the beginning of everything. At each quarter is a timepiece, ticking, or dripping, or burning. In the centre, before you is a square obsidian table. You have come here to end something. This is the place where endings are made, calmly and completely. But first, you must pay your respects to the deities of the Black. Their Names are legion, and most of those Names have long since been forgotten, ground down into the dust of time. So we will honour the principle of the Black in one name: SATURNUS Lord of agriculture, steward of the fruitful earth, Lord of Time and wielder of the sickle that cuts and ends; the Terminus. Bareheaded, we come before you and salute you in your Temple. Hail Saturnus! Let the silence fill you; open yourself to the Presence that stands behind it. Now you may place upon the table whatever it is you must leave behind forever.

BLUE
 Your vision is filled to overflowing with blue. The colour is so intense, you cannot see anything else. You take a deep breath, filling yourself with this glorious light, this lovely colour. You feel it tingle through your body, down your arms to your fingers, down your legs to your toes, spiralling round into your belly. You thrill with its bright power. As you exhale, you realise what this blue is: a clear sky, reflected in the most beautiful lake you have ever seen, filling your whole gaze. You look down. Beneath you, a gentle slope, a path of ochre-coloured stone leading to the water. You step onto the path. As your eyes adjust, you see an island on the lake, with a giant structure that seems to be made of blue light. As it comes into focus you see that it is a pyramid. You reach the shore of the lake. The water sparkles, light at play, and on the island, the pyramid glows like a segment of solid sky. To one side, you see a boat, a wooden dinghy, painted with the planetary sigil of Jupiter. You step into the little boat and sit on the bench. The boat moves out from the beach and heads towards the island. You gaze down into the blue water and reflect on all the things that make life special. This brief voyage gives you the time to review the desires you have for your life. As you picture each desired outcome, you see the image of it bathed in this magical blue light. As you cross the water you see your desires arrange themselves in their natural order of importance. You are filled with a serene and potent clarity. The boat reaches the island's sandy beach. You step out. The pyramid towers before you. You approach it, until it fills your gaze, till you stand at its base. Reach out and touch the solid light… It yields, it is soft, like cool air on your hand. You step forward. You walk into the interior of the pyramid, which is a vast temple, extending as far below you as it does above. You are in the centre, in the core of the Blue force! Here, you can cast your spell or make your prayer to the Gods and Goddesses of Blue Magick. Maybe you will choose Zeus Auxetes, Giver of Growth, or some other Goddess or God. And further, you might find yourself swept up into the ecstasy of the deity.

GREEN You are in a wood, surrounded by the slender white trunks of birch trees. Birdsong, complex and sweet, drifts through the still air. You look around you, at this scene of peace. A rich, fresh forest scent rises from the soft ground. Slowly, you begin to walk, treading the springy bark underfoot. Dappled light plays on your skin. The path leads to what might be a clearing. The forest ends, and you are standing between two tall trees, one on each side of you, looking out over a beautiful garden. You step forward; a rich scent of summer flowers fills your nostrils. You are in the most peaceful garden imaginable. The colours, the butterflies flitting from one hanging bell-flower to another, the birdsong. Moving slowly, as befits this lovely relaxing place, you walk to the centre of the garden. You sit down on a bench of warm wood. Somewhere, you can hear the plashing of a waterfall. You let go of your burdens. You feel your body relax. You are perfectly secure here. You look around you, over the lush flower beds. The garden is bordered on all four sides by the birch woods, it has an enclosed, intimate feeling. On the far side you make out a great doorway. You close your eyes. When you open them again your vision is filled with the beauty of the Goddess, who is standing, framed by a great, ornate doorway. Which form and aspect of the Goddess you will encounter is personal to you. Make your own greeting to the Lady, She who makes the whole world of love, attachment, pleasure, delight, beauty and art. It may be that what you desire and need will be addressed right here and now. Or, if she invites you, you may enter into her hall. She may give you counsel on love or beauty, their creation or their maintenance. Or maybe she will advice you on healing, the kind of healing that comes from calming and balancing. Or maybe she will be as an artistic muse to your creative work. Stay in her garden, in her hall, for as long as you will.

YELLOW The sun is low in the sky as you look out across a rocky mountainous slope. A little way up the slope is a Grecian portico, the entrance to a temple of some kind. Over that doorway is a solar disk. You step up to the entrance to the temple. You walk under the arch. In here, it is cooler, it is silent. You have come here for the deepest kind of healing, which you will find by going deep inside, where you will discover the Midnight Sun of Apollo. In this cave temple you will practice a form of dream incubation. Two figures stand before you dressed in simple yellow robes that hide their shape. They could be men, but are probably women. One of them plucks a lamp from a niche in the wall and moves forward. You follow her. The walls are cool and glisten with quartz crystals in the light of the lamp. The Priestesses lead you down shallow steps, deep into the earth. You emerge into a chamber with a low ceiling. There are a number of recesses in the stone walls. One of the priestesses directs you to one of these stone beds. You lie down on a fur that might be a wolf. The priestess looks at you with paradoxical eyes. You may speak to her if you wish. The priestesses leaves. Your eyes fall closed… It is warm and comfortable and silent... Your breathing is slowing down, slowing down, slowing down… Your thoughts are slipping away into silence as this sleep-like contemplation deepens… Your mind is dark, and in the darkness you notice a faint glow… you feel like you are sinking, sinking into the rock… Your senses are not really there any more, your consciousness is entirely internal... you are sinking in this faint soft light... And then you see a light within that light… a bright light, like the light of a blazing sun… You now have a feeling of rising…You are rising in this blazing solar light, rising up and up and up… until you sense you are hovering motionless in space, in a field of infinite and boundless consciousness... Then even that sense gives way to something deeper… an incredible starlight, that is you, that is everything… everything is the star, you are the very source of consciousness, and the starlight fills everywhere. This is the source, this is what you truly are. This is Hyperborea, the land of Apollo, hidden behind the North Wind. From this level of consciousness, all will be healed. Abide here for a while, in the source of your being… Know that all your thoughts and feelings are shells, echoes, that nothing can affect this core, this source. There is no need for any elaborate sequence for you to return, because this source-consciousness is forever you. All you have to do is open your eyes… the blazing sun of midnight is within you, forever.

PURPLE Your inner eyes are closed. You are enwrapped in a feeling, a feeling which makes you shudder, but with pleasure. Currents of pleasure run through you, organic rivers of energy. You do not have any idea who you are, and it feels completely unimportant. You are at ease in this silent, anonymous flux of pleasurable feeling. This is the energy of your physical being. You feel your breath moving in and out, the rhythm of energy, of athm, of qi, pulses beneath that breath cycle, expanding and contracting like the lips of some underwater mollusc. Yes, it is like you are immersed in tingly, lukewarm fluid. It feels good. You feel bubbles streaming through your lips, and a sensation of your body rising in the liquid. Gradually, light begins to appear through your closed eyelids, a purple-pink dawn. You break the surface, gently buoyed up by the dense fluid. As the liquid drains from your ears you catch a series of sounds… You open your eyes, and see a glittering blue sea, a beach of gold and behind it, lush tropical vegetation. You are walking now, treading through the shallows and their gentle waves, on a floor of soft sand. You emerge from the water. You are naked. Your body feels strong, relaxed. Your steps are firm and easy, your body moving with the accustomed grace of a healthy animal. You walk on, up the beach, towards the line of forest, emerald in the soft sunshine. You step into the forest, onto a path of sand and fallen leaves. It is warm here, the air is still. The trees thin out, and you find yourself on the edge of a clearing. There is a kind of raised structure, a platform, across from you in the clearing, and there are curtains around it, gauzy curtains shivering, trembling… Behind the curtains is the focus of your desire, your ideal sexual partner. The gauzy veil dissolves and the form of the person is there, in purple light. You approach them. Your eyes meet, in a long deep gaze. You bring your faces close to theirs. You feel their breath on your face as you kiss. You feel as if you are flowing together, merging and blending, You are becoming a new kind of being, maybe male, maybe female, or androgyne or gynander. This androgyne form is totally alive and functioning but yet closed up in itself, not needing a sexual partner. Abide in this lovely feeling of sexual completeness. Now enable the separation from your lover, let your faces pull apart, open your eyes again, this beautiful, desirable person stands before you. Now you are separate again, you are once more in the realm of dynamic sexual attraction. Now you have identified your ideal sexual partner, you can see that this being is the other half of your sexuality than yourself. You can merge with this being, to make that androgyne-gynander form suspending sexual desire, keeping that vast energy inside, or you can separate, project out that desire onto your beloved in the world. Step back and gaze at your magic lover, and know that this working is a switch you can employ to change the way your sexuality works, from active and outward to inward, and back again. 


RED You wake up in a desert, before the dawn. Something woke you, but now it is dark and silent. You see the ashes of the fire you built last night. There is no fuel left, and it is cold. You cannot stay where you are, resting and keeping warm. You stand and flap your arms and stamp your feet. You need to get moving. As you wake up and look around you, you feel a massive sensation of energy rising, in the earth, in the heavens, in your feet, in your body. The sound that woke you was saying NOW! This is the beginning. This is the origin. This is where the energy of creation comes from, the drive to initiate a project and see it through to the end. What do you need? What will drive you today? Maybe something as raw as survival... for which you make your way through the world of working for money… Or status... Or Belonging… Or beauty... Or service… Or love… Or spirit… What will drive you today? Are you in conflict with anyone? Then this is the time to consider what outcome you will from that conflict. Do you have any decisions to make? This is the time to make them. Your needs are ranged before you. As you consider them, one or more of them comes to prominence – this is the need that will fuel you today! As you acknowledge it, a great surge of enthusiasm fills you. A soft, red dawn light is rising. Through your feet, you feel a throb, a pulse. It rises up through you, filling you with energy and focus. It becomes a drumming, and you stamp your feet, joining in with its affirmation of life and energy. You raise your arms to the sky. You praise the red light. You praise any gods and goddesses of the Red force that you can relate to. Now it is time to move off, into the red dawn of your day…

ORANGE I seek your attention To tell a tale It’s up to me which way it goes But wherever I take that story Will be somewhere that Orange knows Let’s start off in a workshop, mixing Drafting, testing, forging, fixing This is the Orange of craft and skill Making and changing for good. And ill. Or we may take the silicon trail Into the Web, in cyberspace, With data streams and hanging Cloud That flat, bright dream, that mind-forged place The Orange language of machines Gives slaving drones behind the scenes But closer still to Orange heart Is how we talk our social part The slick-tongued dealer now you see His product flashes, Buy from me! He has the gab, they cry for more But this is not the vital core,  Of Orange power; Oh yes, there’s more And it’s your tale, it’s what you say Your slick rehearsal every day Of name, of gender, of precious views All tangled up with lies called news This is the heart of story’s power You make this world up, hour by hour All its parts, for better, for worse
 You tell yourself your universe So seize that power and take command Learn its language, hack its core! Praise the gods who make the world: Divine Hermes Kosmokrator Whose word’s creation; Tehuti call Cosmic scribe who scripts it all
 And Allfather, who wrought this world Who got the runes, our Woden high Who gave himself to greater Self Who plumbed the Well and left his eye Now I, the storyteller, call To every god of Orange skill This web you weave, this spell you cast, This world you craft – this is my Will!