Attention & Focus · “You Become What You Hold”
Tattwa Gazing & Afterimage Projection
To train sustained single-pointed attention and the inner visualizing faculty by fixing on a simple coloured symbol, then projecting its complementary afterimage onto a blank field and holding it steadily in the mind’s eye.
Tattwa gazing in 5 lines: Pick one simple coloured symbol (blue circle = Air, etc.). Gaze at it, soft-eyed, until it’s fixed in your mind. Look at a blank space — the afterimage rises in the opposite colour. Now hold that floating image steady with your will; re-summon it when it fades. Build to summoning it with eyes open, no card. Short, daily.
What it is
DuQuette teaches a classic Golden Dawn drill, modernised and demystified, as the entry-level training for the inner sight every ceremonial practice depends on. You gaze steadily at a simple coloured geometric tattwa symbol (e.g. a blue circle for Air, a red triangle for Fire) until it is burned into your perception, then look at a blank surface and watch the complementary-coloured afterimage float up.
You then learn to hold and will that floating image — the bridge from passive afterimage to deliberate, sustained visualization. He folded these tattwa symbols into his Tarot of Ceremonial Magick deck precisely so the cards double as meditation targets.
The Method
- Sit comfortably with one tattwa card or symbol at a comfortable reading distance, in even light. Beginners start with a single element (Air = blue oval/circle; Fire = red triangle; Water = silver crescent; Earth = yellow square; Spirit = black/indigo egg).
- Settle and steady the breath for a few rounds so the body is still and the gaze can rest.
- Gaze intently at the symbol — DuQuette’s phrasing — fixing your attention on it “until you’ve memorialised it in your mind.” Keep the eyes soft but the attention pinned to the shape and colour. Blink normally; don’t strain into a hard stare.
- Look away to a blank space (a plain wall, sheet of paper, or closed eyelids). The afterimage rises in the complementary colour — the blue circle returns as orange, the red triangle as green, and so on. This colour-flip is the optical tell that you fixed long enough.
- Project and hold it. Visualize that same symbol “floating and suspended in air” in front of you, and hold it as steadily as you can. When it fades or drifts, gently re-summon it. This holding is the actual training.
- Progress to willed control. Once you can hold the afterimage, practise moving it, changing its size, and finally summoning the symbol with eyes open and no preceding gaze — pure visualization. Advanced traditional use then “enters” the symbol as an imagined doorway, but the attention/imagery drill stands on its own.
- Keep sessions short and regular. A few minutes daily beats one long strained sitting. (Sourcing note: the gaze → memorialise → look-away → project-and-hold sequence and the “floating, suspended in air” phrasing are DuQuette’s as he describes tattwa meditation with his deck. The complementary-afterimage mechanism and elemental colour assignments are standard Golden Dawn / optics. Faithful paraphrase; no long quotation.)
Source & Lineage
Lon Milo DuQuette (b. 1948), American occultist, lecturer and Outer Head adjunct of the O.T.O., is known for plain-spoken, humane instruction in Western magick.
He inherited tattwa work from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (via Crowley, whom he interprets extensively), and packaged the symbols into his Tarot of Ceremonial Magick (1995) as built-in meditation aids.
The afterimage-projection drill is the Golden Dawn’s standard preparation for “skrying in the spirit vision.”
The Traditions' versions
Golden Dawn tattwa skrying — the parent practice; same gaze-and-project mechanics.
- Trāṭaka (yogic candle/dot gazing) — single-point gazing to steady attention and provoke inner imagery; structurally near-identical.
- Mandala / yantra meditation — fixing on a geometric symbol as a concentration object.
- Visualization warm-ups (any magical system) — building a held mental image before ritual or pathworking.
- SATS / imaginal practice (Neville) — the held, vivid inner image as a working tool.
Common refinements
Hard, strained staring. Tension defeats it and tires the eyes. Keep the gaze soft, blink normally; “intent” means attention, not a glare.
- Quitting before the afterimage. If no complementary image appears, you looked away too soon — fixate a little longer next time.
- Expecting cinematic visions immediately. Early on you may hold only a faint, wobbling shape. That faint holding is the rep. Consistency builds vividness.
- Marathon sessions. Short daily sittings outperform rare long ones and avoid eye fatigue.
- Judging yourself against vivid imagers. Imagery ability varies enormously; progress is personal, not comparative.