Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard

50 Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard

ends creates a continuous

flow of energies and par-

ticles between them. These

flows follow lines of force

that can be traced in vari-

ous ways. For instance, if

you lay a bar magnet down

on a piece of paper and

sprinkle iron filings around it,

you will see the filings line up

along the magnetic lines of force to map out the

magnet’s entire field. Try this and then visualize this

same pattern regarding every other kind of field.

Other than with magnets, most fields are created

by rotational friction. The negative/positive poles oc-

cur at the axis of rotation. The Earth’s gravitational

field is aligned with its axis of rotation, which is the

North Pole in the middle of the Arctic Ocean and the

South Pole in the middle of Antarctica. But the inner

core of the Earth rotates at a slighted different angle

and speed, and its poles—called the magnetic poles—

are what a compass points to, as these are the nega-

tive/positive poles of Earth’s magnetic field.

Gravitational fields are infinite in extent, though

they lose strength over distance, but other fields have

very limited ranges. It is these limited fields that may

be “hardened” into shields. The Earth’s magnetic field

(called the magnetosphere) reaches out to about

15,800 miles, but it “hardens” into a compact layer

1,975 miles overhead to become the inner Van Allen

Belt. This ring-shaped belt is created by a portion of

the magnetosphere being driven back towards the

Earth by the Solar Wind—charged particles from the

Sun coming towards the Earth and interacting with

the magnetosphere. The radiation belts consist of such

particles moving through the magnetosphere and be-

ing deflected by the field (a charged particle moving

in a magnetic field undergoes an acceleration due to a

force generated by the object’s movement). This is

the Earth’s shield, and it protects us from cosmic radia-

tion by absorbing and disbursing the incoming particles:

Like the Earth Herself, each of us is a living field

generator. The fields that emanate from and surround

our bodies are called our Auras. Because we’re not

rotating on our axis like the Earth, our field poles are

more like those of a magnet. One pole, called the

Crown Chakra, is at the top of our heads, right at the

juncture of the three large skull bones (frontal and

parietals) that come together there (when we are

babies, this point is actually an open hole!). The

opposite pole—called the Root Chakra—is at the

base of our spine, right at the tip of our tailbone.

D. Morphogenic Fields

The concept of morphogenic (“shape-creating”)

fields was first proposed in the 1920s. It was revived

in 1968 by Rupert Sheldrake, a former Cambridge

University biologist. Sheldrake says that every living

thing contributes its experience to a collective

“memory pool.” The field acts as a template, shaping

behavior. Morphogenic fields are built up through the

accumulated behaviors of species’ members and act

as a template, shaping behavior.

When events happen, similar events are more

likely to happen because a morphogenic field has been

created. With morphogenic fields, the evolution of be-

havior becomes much easier to explain. Spiders of a

particular species are linked into a morphogenic field

for creating the appropriate kind of web. The mor-

phogenic field will change, based on the experiences

of individual spiders. Thus these experiences can be

passed down to future generations. Gradually, the best

fields become the strongest ones, and the animals fol-

low these guidelines automatically. This works like

evolution. However, unlike physical evolution, the or-

ganizing principle lies outside the animal. In addi-

tion, it can learn from experience and can pass on

much more complicated things, such as having a men-

tal model of a web. Because there is a link between

the structure of the animal and the structure of the

morphogenic field, spiders will automatically latch

onto fields appropriate to their own species.

Morphogenic fields explain the way Nature re-

members things. An overlap of creativity and routine

behavior shapes the way different life forms behave,

and this evolutionary learning process is essentially

retained as a collective, species-wide memory. Thus

every life form has some impact on the behavior of

every other life form, particularly those within its own

species. And there is a greater field (“The Force”) that

binds together all humans, and beyond that, all life forms.

Many of our magickal rituals are designed to “tap

into” the morphogenic field at various stages, such as

“getting in touch with” our ancestors or the Spirits of

Nature in order to draw upon their wisdom. This is

why some magickal groups jealously guard their ritual

secrets—they wish to keep the morphogenic field that

they have created very specific and concentrated in

order to have very specific and concentrated results.

If too many people get the “coven secrets” and make

modifications to the ritual structure, then the morpho-

genic field becomes diffuse and ill-defined, making

the thoughtform harder to focus on specific tasks; the

magick “loses its kick.”

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