Oh wow thank you so much on the book magic resource list! Quick question I've always wanted to Astral travel and using a book as a portal sounds AWESOME but...how do I do this?? I mean Astral travel that is
Astral travel is a really general phrase in most usage these days, it’s basically spirit travel focused on traveling to a different plane of existence, whether fictional or spiritual lore based or your own sandbox space or other worlds or alternate realities or… it gets big and complex. There are a lot of recommended methods out there that basically amount to: alter your consciousness in some way, then use that as a means to stretch your consciousness so you can travel via your mind.
This can be an out of body experience where your spirit leaves your body (or you leave in a separate spirit body while your core soul rests in your physical body) and you only experience that and not your physical body, or you can dream travel (which might be the same as OBE in some cases!) and cross over from malleable dream space to other planes of existence. You can also use imagination/visualization to start perceiving your spirit traveling elsewhere while also being aware you are physically on Earth, and you can do this easier in liminal places such as doorways, forests, the ocean, airplanes, basically any place that’s transitional. I often pace around while my mind takes off, similar to brainstorming but I’m getting input from other places in existence. (Which is how a lot of authors get their book plots, so writing itself is also a potential form of travel.)
BUT. Books pose another form of travel which is that you experience a different reality while you’re reading. I feel that if you are sucked into a story you are in altered consciousness and reaching that state means from there it would be quite easy to stretch your mind a bit and fully make the jump into that reality. Maybe read the passage that covers the place you want to be, especially if it’s a descriptive introduction. I find people’s favorite scenes in a book are often enough of an anchor that they would find it easier to walk through via that as well. Basically, your mind is in the book world if the story’s written well, so from there it’s just a matter of, well, moving a little further.
Is it imaginary fanfiction or is it real? Sometimes it’s both. I don’t think it matters if the experience is rewarding, because so much of magic and p much all of astral travel happens in our heads anyway.
You can also sing the age-old mantra of the ancient libriomancers:
Butterfly in the skyI can go twice as highTake a lookIt’s in a bookA Reading RainbowI can go anywhereFriends to knowAnd ways to growA Reading RainbowI can be anythingTake a lookIt’s in a bookA Reading RainbowA Reading Rainbow
