(a2a) There are several strategies which I would use: I suggest you learn all of them so that you can choose which is most appropriate when the need arises. You can:
Form a protective barrier around yourself;
Bind the spirit within something which acts as a “spirit trap”;
Go “invisible” – so that they completely ignore you;
Command their respect by invoking a superior power which they recognise;
Call upon a Spirit guide to protect you and deal with them on your behalf;
Ask them to leave of their own accord;
Forcibly banish them if they don’t leave peacefully.
You could try to burn them, but if you did succeed, it would probably only prove that you’re not on the astral plane at all, but rather still inside your mind.
Always try to find out why the spirit is behaving the way it is, before you get heavy-handed. I did hear about one incident where some witches claimed they were attacked by an evil entity – except that it turned out they had trespassed on a sacred site, and the entity was a perfectly reasonable guardian spirit just doing its job. The correct approach would have been for the witches to withdraw from the confrontation themselves.
But by far the best advice I could give is to prepare for astral projection by practicing this lot whilst you are still in your physical body. All of these strategies have their analogue in ceremonial magic, for example by calling upon angels or upon your Holy Guardian Angel, or assuming god-forms, or using rituals such as the lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram, etc. Practice them now so that you can deploy them at will when you are out of the body.
And always set your intention for what you want to do with your astral projection, and keep this firmly in your mind, before you leave the body: this will make sure you don’t turn up somewhere random and get surprised by something unpleasant.
This is an edited version of a post which first appeared on this website on 29th October 2020, where I attributed a quote about “laddering back” to Carl Jung. However, on researching the origin of the said quote, I realise that it was not Jung’s idea at all, but that of Edward Maitland, the Theosophical writer.
Edward Maitland (1824-1897)
Maitland must probably be the unluckiest man in Occultism, as history appears to remember him as playing Boswell to Anna Kingsford’s Johnson. This despite the fact that he himself had no mean talent as a mystic and psychic quite independently of the latter, such that they ought to be considered as an equal partnership.
In any case: Jung seized upon a passage from Maitland’s biography of Kingsford, in which Maitland described an incident in which he himself attained a state of Intuition or noumenal consciousness. I found this quote, especially the sentiment which I have emboldened, of great help to my Abramelin operation last year and which remains relevant now.
Jung was primarily interested in this quote as he saw it as the key to Active Imagination, and by extension to psychotherapy. However I believe that in Maitland’s ideas of retaining his outer/circumferential consciousness at the same time as accessing the inner/central consciousness, he (Maitland) had actually hit on the method for becoming aware of the astral plane whilst retaining awareness of the physical counterpart at the same time. The concept of “laddering back” may also be likened to “rising on the planes.”
The reflecting on an idea, related ideas became visible, so to speak, in a long series apparently reaching back to their source, which to him was the divine spirit. By concentrating on this series, he tried to penetrate to their origin. He [i.e. Maitland] writes:
I was absolutely without knowledge or expectation when I yielded to the impulse to make the attempt. I simply experimented on a faculty. . . being seated at my writing-table the while in order to record the results as they came, and resolved to retain my hold on my outer and circumferential consciousness, no matter how far towards my inner and central consciousness I might go. For I knew not whether I should be able to regain the former if I once quitted my hold of it, or to recollect the facts of the experience. At length I achieved my object, though only by a strong effort, the tension occasioned by the endeavour to keep both extremes of the consciousness in view at once being very great.
Once well started on my quest, I found myself traversing a succession of spheres or belts . . . the impression produced being that of mounting a vast ladder stretching from the circumference towards the centre of a system, which was at once my own system, the solar system, the universal system, the three systems being at once diverse and identical.. . . . Presently, by a supreme, and what I felt must be a final effort . . . I succeeded in polarizing the whole of the convergent rays of my consciousness into the desired focus. And at the same instant, as if through the sudden ignition of the rays thus fused into a unity, I found myself confronted with a glory of unspeakable whiteness and brightness ,and of a lustre so intense as well-nigh to beat me back. . . . But though feeling that I had to explore further, I resolved to make assurance doubly sure by piercing if I could the almost blinding lustre, and seeing what it enshrined. With a great effort I succeeded, and the glance revealed to me that which I had felt must be there. . . . It was the dual form of the Son . . . the unmanifest made manifest, the unformulate formulate, the unindividuate individuate, God as the Lord, proving through His duality that God is Substance as well as Force, Love as well as Will, Feminine as well as Masculine, Mother as well as Father.
Lord of the Universe, blessed be Thy name unto the Eternal Ages. Look with favour upon this Order, and grant that its members may attain unto the Summum Bonum, the Perfect Wisdom, the Universal Light, to the Glory of Thy Ineffable Name. AMEN.
Unknown, but presumably S L MacGregor Mathers, 1892 From the original Equinox ceremony of the Golden Dawn.
The message boldly blazoned across the heavens at the moment of birth was not meant to emphasize fate, the result of past good and evil, but to arouse your will to escape from this universal bondage. What you have done, you can undo. You can overcome whatever effects are now prevalent in your life because you created them by your own actions in the first place, and because you have inner spiritual resources which are not subject to planetary pressure.
Sov: Excellent and Perfect Prelate, what is the hour?
Prel, with 3rd sign: It is the first hour of the third day, being the first day of the week; the hour of a Perfect Mason.
Sov: What is the hour of a Perfect Mason?
Prel, with 3rd sign: It is the hour when the Word is found and the Cubic Stone is changed into the Mystic Rose. The Blazing Star has reappeared in all its splendour; our altars are renewed; the true Light restored to our eyes, the clouds of darkness dispersed; and the New Commandment is given to love one another.
Sov: Let us then observe this New Commandment to love one another, the result and perfection of all preceding Masonry, which will enable us to erect an edifice in our hearts to the glory of the Lamb; to whom belongeth might, majesty, dominion and power, Who liveth and reigneth world without end.
As Greenberg describes it: “Torah doesn’t say that God waved a magic wand and everything appeared; according to Kabbalah, He created a complex evolutionary system through which infinite Divine energy evolves into finite forms.”
The moral test was a more serious one. Suddenly, without the least preparation, the would-be disciple would one fine morning find himself imprisoned in an empty, dismal-looking cell. A slate was given him and he was coldly ordered to discover the meaning of one of the Pythagorean symbols, as, for instance: What is the signification of the triangle inscribed in a circle? or: Why is the dodecahedron, confined within the sphere, the symbol of the universe? He spent a dozen hours in his cell with his slate and the problem, and no other companion than a vase of water and a piece of dry bread. Then he was taken into a room to face the assembled novices. Under these circumstances the order had been passed round that they should ridicule without pity the wretched youth, who, hungry and sullen, stood before them like a culprit. “So this is the new philosopher,” they would say. “How inspired he looks! He will now tell us of his meditations. Do not conceal from us what you have discovered. You will in the same way go through all the symbols in turn. A month of this régime and you will have become a great sage!”
At this point the master would attentively observe the young man’s attitude and expression. Irritated by his fast, overwhelmed with these sarcastic words, and humiliated at not being able to solve an incomprehensible problem, no small effort was needed to control himself. Some would weep with rage, others gave sarcastic replies, whilst others again, unable to control themselves, dashed their slate madly to the ground and burst out in imprecations against school, master, and disciples alike. Then Pythagoras came forward and calmly said that, as they had failed in the test of self-respect, they were begged not to return to a school of which they had so bad an opinion, in which friendship and respect for the masters should be the most elementary of virtues. The rejected candidate would shamefacedly retire and sometimes become a redoubtable enemy of the order, like the well-known Cylon who, later on, excited the people against the Pythagoreans and brought about their downfall. On the other hand, those who bore everything with firmness, and gave just and witty replies to the provoking words they listened to, declaring they were ready to repeat the test a hundred times if only they could attain to the least degree of wisdom, were solemnly welcomed into the novitiate and received the enthusiastic congratulations of their new companions.
Sol Ascendans - The Website of Alex Sumner 
“Laddering Back.”
This is an edited version of a post which first appeared on this website on 29th October 2020, where I attributed a quote about “laddering back” to Carl Jung. However, on researching the origin of the said quote, I realise that it was not Jung’s idea at all, but that of Edward Maitland, the Theosophical writer.
Edward Maitland (1824-1897)
Maitland must probably be the unluckiest man in Occultism, as history appears to remember him as playing Boswell to Anna Kingsford’s Johnson. This despite the fact that he himself had no mean talent as a mystic and psychic quite independently of the latter, such that they ought to be considered as an equal partnership.
In any case: Jung seized upon a passage from Maitland’s biography of Kingsford, in which Maitland described an incident in which he himself attained a state of Intuition or noumenal consciousness. I found this quote, especially the sentiment which I have emboldened, of great help to my Abramelin operation last year and which remains relevant now.
Jung was primarily interested in this quote as he saw it as the key to Active Imagination, and by extension to psychotherapy. However I believe that in Maitland’s ideas of retaining his outer/circumferential consciousness at the same time as accessing the inner/central consciousness, he (Maitland) had actually hit on the method for becoming aware of the astral plane whilst retaining awareness of the physical counterpart at the same time. The concept of “laddering back” may also be likened to “rising on the planes.”
From: The Collected Works of C G Jung, volume 13: Alchemical Studies, quoting Anna Kingsford, her life, letters, diary and work.
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October 5, 2021 · 3:05 pm