Embodiment · “Being Precedes Having”
The Magician's Daily Regimen
To establish the foundational daily discipline — poised posture, systematic relaxation, slow rhythmic breathing, and short structured meditation — that settles body and emotions and prepares the trained, integrated mind for all further work.
Sit poised on a hard chair, feet flat, hands on knees. Relax the body part by part to a poised “balance point.” Breathe slowly in rhythm — in 4, hold 2, out 4, rest 2, about six rounds; slow the breath and the emotions calm. Do a short focused meditation, then close down to the material world. At night, review the day backwards. Write it all in the diary. Daily.
What it is
Butler insisted that no “magical” work is possible on an untrained, agitated instrument. So the very first task he gives the student is a plain daily regimen: sit in a poised posture, relax the body systematically, breathe in a slow steady rhythm, and do a short structured meditation — every day, recorded in a diary.
It is the foundation that settles the nervous system and emotions (The Inner Creates the Outer stillness), steadies attention (The Inner Creates the Outer), and through daily repetition builds the habit on which everything else rests (The Inner Creates the Outer).
Stripped of its occult vocabulary, it is a sound, conventional relaxation-and-meditation routine.
The Method
From Butler’s stated instructions in The Magician and Apprenticed to Magic:
- Poised posture (the “god-form” seat). Sit upright on a hard wooden chair, spine in its natural curve (not “poker-backed”), feet flat and square, knees together, hands resting uncrossed on the knees. “The ideal chair to use is… a somewhat hard, wooden one.” Avoid the overstuffed armchair.
- Systematic relaxation, in three stages. (a) Pass attention from scalp down to the feet, locating tensions; (b) deliberately tense then release each muscle group in turn; (c) find the “balance point between” relaxation and readiness — relaxed but not slack, poised not rigid. Butler notes this poised balance “only after repeated efforts will the mental ‘trick’ be gained,” then becomes automatic like balancing a bicycle.
- Slow rhythmic breathing (four-count). Through the nose, inhale to a mental count of 4, hold gently for 2, exhale for 4, rest empty for 2, and repeat. Keep to about 6 cycles at first. The principle: “Slow down the breathing and the emotions calm at once.” Never strain to hold a full lungful — keep the throat relaxed.
- Short structured meditation. “Prepare the place” (mentally enclose yourself), let stray thoughts rise and quietly clear them, then do the day’s focused work (e.g. holding or building an image), and finally close down — return attention firmly to the material world.
- The evening reverse review. In bed, “go over the events of the day in reverse… start with the last thing you did or said, then go back to the last but one,” examining each impartially. This trains detachment and undercuts the “false ego.”
- Brief daily recollections. Short set pauses (Butler uses morning/noon/evening “salutes”) to break the day’s automatism and re-collect attention.
- Record everything in the magical diary — tensions found, breath comfort, meditation quality — building “an automatic habit of careful and logical thought and action.” (Sourcing: bracketed phrases are short verbatim quotations from Butler; the posture / relaxation / breathing / meditation / reverse-review structure is his stated teaching, faithfully ordered.)
Source & Lineage
The regimen appears as Butler’s foundational instructions and appendices (“Relaxation and Breathing Exercises”) in The Magician: His Training and Work (1959) and throughout the graded letters of Apprenticed to Magic.
It descends from the Golden Dawn / Dion Fortune training, with the relaxation-and-breathing groundwork adapted (Butler is careful to keep it Western and warns against mixing in Eastern yoga wholesale).
Common refinements
Forcing the breath-hold. Straining to clamp a full lungful strains lung tissue; keep retention gentle and the throat relaxed.
- Slumping or rigidity. The aim is poise — neither armchair slump nor stiff “poker-back.”
- Skipping the close-down. Drifting off without returning to the body invites “discoordination” and escapism.
- Sporadic practice. The value is in daily repetition; a little every day beats occasional long sessions.
- No record. Without the diary, progress is invisible and the “false ego” rewrites events.