Florence Farr's Spirit Vision

Faithful to Farr’s procedure in Flying Roll IV:

1. Secure absolute freedom from interruption. Her words: “Secure for an hour or for longer absolute freedom from interruption. Then alone, or with one or two other Adepti, enter the vault, or private chamber.” A quiet, dim, undisturbed room.
2. Settle into silence. “Remain in silence and contemplation for several minutes.” Let the body still and the breath quiet.
3. Centre yourself with the opening rite. “Rise, and perform the Qabalistic Cross and prayer.” (A short Golden Dawn centring/protective gesture. A modern non-ceremonial user can substitute any brief, sincere act of grounding and stated intention; the function is to mark a threshold and steady the mind.)
4. Take one symbol and gaze into it. Choose a single symbol — Farr used a Tarot Trump. Gaze at it steadily until, in her words, you “seem to see into it” — until it stops being a flat picture and acquires depth.
5. Close the eyes and bring the symbol to the forehead. Then close the eyes — or place the card against the forehead with eyes closed — so that vision shifts from the physical card to the inner field. This is the key move: transferring sight from outer perception to inward “thought-seeing.”
6. Contemplate everything the symbol implies. “Consider all the symbolism of the Tarot Card, then all that is implied by its letters, number, and situation, and the paths connected therewith.” Let the mind range over the symbol’s full web of meaning — this primes the imagery.
7. Let concentration pass into reverie. “The vision may begin by the concentration passing into a state of reverie; or with a distinct sense of change, something allied in sensation to a faint.” Don’t fight the drift; this loosening is the doorway.
8. Do not resist — let the vision come. “If you are highly inspired, fear not, do not resist, let yourself go; and then the vision may pass over you.” Allow imagery to unfold of its own accord.
9. Keep the will to test and to close. Farr noted that adepts test visions for authenticity (challenging figures, checking that imagery is consonant with the symbol) and that “some can check it by will, at any stage, others can not, at first.” So: stay able to question what appears, and to bring yourself back. End deliberately — open the eyes, ground, close the session. (Sourcing note: the quoted instructions — secure freedom from interruption, silence, Qabalistic Cross and prayer, gazing until you “see into it,” forehead placement, considering letters/number/paths, passing into reverie or a faint-like change, “do not resist, let yourself go,” and checking by will — are from Farr & Simpson, Flying Roll No. IV.)

Florence Farr (1860–1917), Soror S.S.D.D., was the Golden Dawn’s Praemonstratrix and a leading practitioner of scrying and “travelling in the spirit vision.” → (Golden Dawn).

Flying Roll IV is her co-authored demonstration record (with Elaine Simpson / Fidelis). The technique is the Golden Dawn’s core skrying / spirit-vision method, related to Flying Roll XXXVI (“Of Skrying and Travelling in the Spirit Vision”).

Its raw material is older: tattva-card gazing, crystal/mirror scrying, and symbol meditation. Farr’s contribution is the clean, transferable sequence — gaze, transfer to the forehead, contemplate the full symbol, allow, test, close — and her insistence on keeping the will in command of the vision.

Scrying (crystal/mirror/ink) — fixation on a reflective surface until imagery arises; same fixation→reverie mechanism.

• Tattva / Tarot pathworking — gazing on a symbol card, then entering it with eyes closed; Farr’s method is a direct ancestor.
• Guided visualisation / active imagination (Jung) — entering and dialoguing with inner imagery while retaining the observing ego (Farr’s “test by will” parallels Jung’s keeping conscious footing).
• Hypnagogic / yoga-nidra imagery — deliberately working the threshold-of-sleep state where imagery flows freely.
• Ignatian composition of place — sustained imaginative immersion in a sacred scene.

Forcing the vision. Farr is explicit: don’t resist and don’t strain. After the contemplation, you allow. Effort here triggers reversed-effort and dryness.

• Skipping the symbol-loading step. The richness comes from first considering the symbol’s full meaning. Skip it and you get noise.
• Dropping the “test by will.” Without retaining the questioning, grounding faculty, the experience can become passive or overwhelming. Keep one foot on the bank.
• No clean close. Always come back deliberately — open eyes, ground, end. Don’t drift off mid-vision.
• Treating imagery as literal external fact. Receive it as meaningful inner symbol, not verified report from another plane.
• Too short a window. She prescribes an hour or more of guaranteed quiet; rushing defeats the reverie shift.