The Working

Awakening the fire snake

The C’thulu Sadhana is a ritual exercise intended to stimulate the awakening of the fire snake within. Its aims include vivid dreams, out-of-body experiences, gnosis, and other forms of personal manifestation.

There is no limit to what lies dormant, waiting to be unleashed from within.

The practice combines chanting with focused attention on a sequence of energy centers. At each point, visualize something rising. A common image is a flame beginning at the base of the spine and moving upward through the crown of the head. Another is a serpent rising—perhaps with an oval, jeweled, or otherwise ornamented head.

Within this working, C’thulu becomes another image of the dormant fire snake. As in H. P. Lovecraft’s fiction, what rises may not always be pleasant. Sometimes the poison must be drawn from psychological or experiential wounds before they can be understood.

Mantra & Frequency

The ascending sequence

Each vocalization is paired with a note, a rhythmic frequency, and a point of concentration. The sequence travels upward from the base of the spine to the crown.

The seven mantra words grew from work with the Yew Working, the Lam Sadhana—which contains traditional yogic mantra sounds—and other vowel-based vocalizations. The closing Yuggothic phrase may be understood as “Up and down goes C’thulu.”

Words that appear nonsensical can help interrupt ordinary verbal thought. Individual practitioners may find that different vowels, syllables, or tones better support their concentration. Within the ritual, intention gives the sounds their direction.

Sound Structure

A ladder between earth and stars

The recording is built around D Dorian. Its symmetry and historical associations made it an appropriate musical foundation for a working concerned with ascent, descent, and balance.

Each of the first seven sounds lasts approximately thirty seconds. The underlying pulse moves through ranges associated in the original design with delta, theta, and alpha states, creating the sensation of gradual ascent. The seventh sound is followed by thirty seconds centered on 40 Hz without chanting, then two minutes of the closing phrase over a theta-range pulse in D.

The recording combines sustained tones, chanting, and binaural elements as compositional devices. The subjective effects of these sounds vary considerably from listener to listener.

Preparation

Approach it as a working

Some people may notice an effect during the first listening; others may not. Immediate results are not the point. As with any exercise, repetition gives the listener time to learn the structure and develop a personal relationship with it.

Correspondences

The symbolic map

The following table gathers the additional correspondences used in the original working. They are presented as symbolic associations rather than physiological claims.

Source Material

References