Practice of Tuning Preliminaries 1

It is time to set our intention that we are going to practice our tuning process. We’re going to do the tuning right from the very beginning. Then we’re going to go down into the workroom. We’ll light up the screen and invite our guidance to join us.

Are we doing our own tuning?

You’re doing your own tuning. I don’t want to influence you beyond what I gave you before. You have the menu choices. You can invoke the archangels, you can pray. The only way that you could sing or chant is if we either did it together or if we all went to separate places and practiced separately.

Could we do an om before we start?

We could all do that, we sure could. Are there any aspects of this tuning that you’d like me to lead? I guess I should ask you that rather than assuming that my way is too pushy and that you don’t want it pushed on you.

You gave us a possible outline.

Yes.

If we heard it through once, in my opinion it would just help us to seat that. Then we’d have a better idea of what options we might want to take, I think.

All right.

We could visualize it then.

All right.

I think it is always good to start with setting your intentions. State to yourself, “I am now tuning to channel.” It doesn’t have to be formal. It’s just that it’s good to state these things clearly to your inner self so that it knows what’s going on.

There’s this period of time where you are taking your everyday consciousness and you’re tuning it. You’re tuning it up to the station that you want, just as you would a radio dial. You are asking yourself to tune your own instrument. So you have choices of various inspirational words that you know already, in the form of the words of songs, or the words of prayers. I do think it would be a little odd if were all doing our own private intoning! It would sound pretty weird if we were all doing that at the same time and everybody was chanting something different. I encourage you to experiment with doing things out loud. But as long as we are in the circle we’ll have to do things quietly.

What words inspire you? What prayers would help you to focus? There’s that whole area there where you’re going to have to be your own arbiter.

Then, when you get to the point where you feel that you are well tuned, through prayer, chanting, intoning, singing or whatever, the next thing is to state your intention to the infinite Creator. Now that you are tuned up, then you address the Creator and you say, “I wish to serve as an instrument. I wish for you to help me.” And then you state what you want to, for instance, “I wish to receive the highest and best channel I can carry in a conscious and stable manner.”

Or you can say, “I wish to contact …” And name the contact that you wish. I myself do the “highest and best” thing because I don’t know what the highest and best contact is for me today, but I know that’s what I want.

Once you’ve stated that, you can state other things, for instance, “I want all the words to be yours and none of my own.” And you can decide if you want to invite all of the energies that are between incarnations that are similar to your tuning or are congruent with your tuning. I invite everyone in the unseen realms that comes in the name of Jesus the Christ because of the fact that that weight of unseen energy helps to deepen the contact.

Then once you’ve stated your intention and arranged for the formation of the circle of inner planes support from discarnate entities that believe as you do, you check your colours. You check your energy body to see if there are any blockages. I ask to see my colours. You can, instead, just feel into the energy of each chakra through the rainbow, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. You can experiment with all these things to see what the best way is for you.

Once you have seen your energies I advise that you do the equivalent of going to safe mode on the computer. Ask that your helpers adjust your energy body settings so that the energy body is totally balanced with the weakest chakra that you’ve got. This makes it the most stable.

I added that in probably ten years ago, as I found that sometimes I vacillated a bit in my tuning and I wanted to get rid of that. And that got rid of it for me. So I ask to adjust that and then I set that for the period of the contact only, so that it’s crystallized. And then I ask my energy body to open to channel.

After I’ve asked my energy body to open to channel I go through the protection routines of being dipped in the violet ray and red ray mixed together, which seals the body, and then being dipped in the limitless white light, which seals the spirit.

And then as the last part of it I count down from my age. All of you will take less time doing that than me except for G and L, who I believe are contemporary with me. That’s going to take us a long time.

[Laughter]

It does take some time to do that. And at that point you are ready to dive into the experience of moving down into the roots of mind, entering your workplace, having talked to your gatekeeper, getting yourself settled and asking for your guidance.

Now would you like me to go through that again so that you can make notes and refer to them?

That would be best. Are we going to go down and accept the gatekeeper we have? We’re not going through getting a gatekeeper.

We got our gatekeepers, didn’t we?

Whatever gatekeeper you’ve got is fine. If you will refer to what I gave you last night, that’s of course a specific from which you need to draw the general function for yourself if you want to do something different than I did. But that’s the general structure of the tuning process.

I have a question. When you ask to see your colours, who are you asking?

Well, you know, that’s a good question and I’ve never really gone into that. But there does seem to be something there that will help you to visualize if you ask to see the colours.

And you are not in any specific place when you do this?

No. I’m just sitting there, getting myself together to channel. I haven’t gone anywhere yet. No I start out really totally low-power. And I’m not forcing myself to do anything, I’m just working. It’s a chore that must be done if you’re going to channel well, so I set myself to it. I don’t leap with joy because I get to channel. I’m very prosaic when I start to channel. “Okay, let’s go.”

[Laughter]

I want to do the best job in the world. I want to do my absolute best every time. I request that of myself. But as far as being in an altered state at the beginning of it I am definitely just hanging in there.

And then when you tune, do the angels protect you from going on? Is that in your room that you create, or is that separate?

You mean when you invite your guidance?

No, when the archangels come around.

Oh, the archangels. Well did you see the way Jim drew his sigils 1 and made a subjective “house”? I go back to that ritual 2 which has usually been done in the morning. 3 I basically reacquaint myself with the archangels whom I’ve just seen that morning. They’re standing around me in my imagination in my visualization.

Is this in your room that you created?

No, no we’re not in the room yet, we’re just wherever we’re sitting. But we are working in time/space rather than space/time.

I don’t see the archangels standing on the floor, precisely. I see them more in the sense that in that Banishing Ritual of the Lesser Pentagram I create myself as a figure that stands with the unconditional love represented by the cross. I’m standing in that place when I tune to channel. I am moving from the open heart, making sure that everything is coming through my open heart, standing from the open heart and spring boarding from there. I ask the gateway to intelligent infinity to open and help to be given to me so I can do the channelling.

So you’re your physical chair or whatever, but you’re also in a metaphysical time/space place. But it’s not your workroom yet. So it’s not like you envision them, full size, standing around you. You can envision them at whatever size appeals to you.

And I recommend to you, if you want to summon the archangels, to get either the book that I recommended or to go on the net and read about the archangels and see what information about the archangels really resonates with you.

The visualizations of the archangels are much enriched by knowing that for instance that Rafael’s robe has red and some citrine and some grey in it and that Gabriel’s robe is blue with yellow in it and Michael’s robe has olive and russet and red and some yellow and sort of an olive green and then Ariel’s robe is all the colours of autumn. It helps in the sense of enriching your visualization and making it more your own; making it more real to you.

But you’re just starting out. So it’s not like you have to know all of this going in.

In terms of the archangels, they’re envisioned in the same way that you would envision drawing a line in the air with your finger until you have created a five-pointed star. It’s that kind of visualization, not life-size but visualization-size; whatever works for you?

That makes sense.

[The audience discusses drawing a star.]

The Star of David is the roof [of the metaphysical house], but you’re not drawing the roof then. You’re drawing the walls when you’re drawing the five pointed stars or pentacles 4, as they call them, in the four directions.

Any other questions before we begin?

[A silent pause.]

Okay. Well then, let’s do three oms. And would you like to do the Lord’s Prayer? That’s the most universal prayer I know. There’s nothing of the Christian in it or any other religion. It’s just a very clean prayer. We ask for the Creator to come among us and for things to be done here as they are done in heaven. We ask for our needs to be met for today. We ask for forgiveness for what we’ve done just as we forgive others. We ask to be removed from evil and kept safe and we offer all praise and glory to the Father. This is, to my mind, the most general prayer I know. And almost everybody knows it so that’s handy too. R didn’t know it when he came to America because he grew up communist. He’s like, “What’s that?”

[Chuckle]

Okay, so we’ll do three oms and then we’ll say the Lord’s Prayer together. And then I will be visualizing along with you. But if you get in trouble, come over and tap me on the hand, because I’m not going to have my eyes open.

[Intoning together.]

Om.

Om.

Om.

Let us pray together:

[Everyone:] Our father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

[There is a 15-minute silence on the recording as the circle participants go through their tuning processes.]

All right. Gradually, I want to ask you to come back to your everyday state of consciousness. While you are still very focussed, if you wish to make notes on what has happened for your own benefit, please take the time to do that before you start talking.

[There is another silent pause.]

All right. Do you have any questions before we break for dinner? Or would you prefer to mull your questions over in advance and discuss them over during dinner?

[The group decides to address questions now.]

Okay.

I have one question. It shouldn’t take very long.

Sure. By all means.

When we make contact, will we just say, “’Bye”?

Well that’s how A Book of Days was developed. Once I made contact with the Holy Spirit, then I felt like an idiot if I didn’t offer her a chance to say something. But hopefully you haven’t gone ahead and challenged anybody and gotten a contact yet. You’ve just practiced the tuning. Right? You went ahead? You’re not supposed to do that.

I wasn’t zipping along! It just kind of happened.

Well, did you challenge?

No.

Okay then. We are going to have to work on that. It’s a crowded universe out there.

I couldn’t find my workroom. I kept diving and going and going. I didn’t really feel that I was getting closer. So I willed myself to be there and then I became a little more focused.

That is a good technique. Just say, “Okay. Apparently I’ve gone far enough and I’m getting bored.”

[Laughter]

Falling out of the road of the conscious mind onto the other side?

That would put you in heaven, since the roots of consciousness move upwards. As above so below is the cabalistic rule. We’re down here. The roots are up there. The roots of the mind are up there through the gateway.

So my question was, is this visual key that you spoke of just something that you develop and then it works for you?

Right. This was a very organic process for me and it developed over a period of time. I would suspect that it will be so for you. You can’t just mimic somebody else and have a satisfactory feeling of it’s being your own. You need to own this and make it your own.

It’s not important whatsoever to me that you do the same thing I do, as long as you grasp the reasons for each part of the tuning and are okay with those. Then you can adjust the actual doing of each of those things to suit yourself.

When you form the circle, what is the main purpose of that? Do you ask the entity to join you

The reason that I do that is because there are many people that come in the name of Jesus the Christ who are between incarnations. So if you’re working with the energy of unconditional love and you want to have a really strong contact, then you add all the energies that are in between incarnations; all the entities that respond to that unconditional love vibration. They are, like, “I’d love to come to your party!” And so you get a whole bunch of energy of Christ-consciousness seeking this contact and being part of the circle of seeking rather than just yourself.

It’s a magical technique that’s been used forever and ever. It’s the reason that people are loath in the Episcopalian or Catholic churches to change the Prayer Book. Because it’s been done that same way for so long. And I don’t think that even the priests realize that this is one of the reasons why you want to keep the language of the rituals as much as possible the way they have been. It is so that you will be able to alert the intelligence of discarnate entities that can help you in your ritual.

So, once again, walk through that part where you form a circle. What are you asking?

Well, at the point at which you’re stating your intention, you ask for the highest and best contact that you can carry in a conscious and stable manner of the energy unconditional love, or however you have decided to set your intention. And then you say what energy you’re tuning to. I say Jesus the Christ.

Then you may say that you ask that all the words be the source’s and not your own. This is a cue to your own subconscious as well as a request to the universe. And then you may also say that you invite those who come in the name of Jesus the Christ from the unseen realms to join this circle of seeking.

Now when I channel, the circle of seeking is downstairs while I’m upstairs tuning. So I’m not being local about it. I’m just saying, “There’s a circle of seeking coming up. I’d love to have you join us.” It helps to protect the group to have a lot of Christ-consciousness around the group.

You ask them to come to the circle downstairs?

Well, no, I’m in my room tuning. I’m asking for help with the session that’s coming up. I’m asking them to join us, not me in particular but the whole circle.

Then you also said something about, “Negative entities can watch, but they may not join the circle.”

Yes. Those that don’t come in the name of Jesus the Christ may listen but they may not join the circle. It’s just for the protection of the circle of seeking.

When you say, “Energy up, “ I remember, you said that when we channel we imagine the higher energy coming down through the gateway and we imagine the earth energy coming up to our blue-ray chakra as well. Is that when you say, Energy up?” What are you doing there?

Well, what I am really asking for is for my energy body to open up. And when I say, Energy up,“ what I’m looking for is that feeling of the energy being able to pour through my chakras. I am making sure that I am ready to channel. Because obviously we don’t go around ready to channel and we may have some blockages. So it’s my way of making sure that I am free of blockages.

When I ask for energy up open the channel open the channel I start getting the yarmulke 5 effect on the top of my head. And then I know that its working. It’s just a cue to me. These are all cues to the subconscious to form a particular kind of channel; a particular configuration in which we are able to receive this information.

It’s interesting because, like you said, you have to own the process. I don’t know if you all feel the same but when you like do it for the first time, even though Carla has this process refined over the years, it still seems so new that it literally seems almost like a game. It seems like you take a run at it. You are trying to get into it and feel it, but it’s hard because it’s new. And so please offer any tips on how to get into it. Is it just the repetition, and through analyzing it, that we’ll become more intimate with the words and the process? Is that how it works?

Just remember what it is you’re trying to do. You’re not trying to learn a ritual to please me. You’re not trying to learn a series of things by rote. You’re trying to tune yourself to protect yourself and open yourself to contact. I’ve given you the various stages that I go through and I’ve encouraged you to create your own version of each of these stages; the tuning, the protection, asking for unseen help. That’s the whole thing. Make it your own.

It’s a process that I think you have to feel your way into. And that was why I was encouraging everybody, if they had some insight that had come from that practice, to try to take notes on it. So that you can begin building your own intelligence about how your own mind/body/spirit complex is going to do the best job of tuning.

I’m sorry that there isn’t this clear-cut list of instructions. I think some teachers would probably go that route, feeling strongly that they’ve done all this research and they’ve found the best way. But I know from the depths of my being that I have found the best way only for myself.

I think a lot of us would agree that the way you have found is definitely very effective. Because it’s so comprehensive and all-encompassing. It’s just that when we’re so new at channeling, it’s hard to say we’re going to come up with our own until we truly can get into it and understand the true meaning behind what’s going on with the tuning process.

I think we have a great model to follow. But to say, “Let’s come up with our own stuff,” I think that will be over time that we’ll have to do that. And we are grateful that there’s this process laid out, because it is instructional and it is very helpful. I would never have come up with this on my own.

No, no, that’s for sure.

I feel that what Carla is trying to say is that we have a particular song that fills us with love and inspiration or a particular poem or prayer or just whatever puts us there, fills us with that love and opens us up and makes us strong. Is that what you’re saying?

That’s what I’m saying. You got it exactly.

So just whatever gives you that wonderful feeling like the song you sang. I just love the words to that. I might incorporate that into my process.

Okay, I see what you mean.

I’m having a hard time remembering all of it.

The work sheet I gave you is single-spaced and it still goes to a second page! And I didn’t even have one little line in between the instructions to make it easier to look at on the page. I was doing it too fast to think about aesthetics.

I think that’s all right. It’s practice. After we do it multiple times we will start picking it up on doing it our own way.

My male aspect of spirit changed. This time he was this great big hairy jolly guy with like fruit hanging off

[Laughter]

How neat. A male energy with a lot of female energy. Which would be good for you. I like that. That’s great. That lifts my heart. This is so super. Already we see progress.

You say to clap and to make it an action by putting the intention into a manifested action. I noticed when Jim did the banishing ritual of the lesser pentagram he stamped his foot at the end.

It’s the same thing.

So you can do any physical action just to show that that’s an affirmation of your intent?

Yes. It’s a completion. The clapping is easier for most people to do. The idea is that the percussion of it creates a psychic ending. It’s a seal.

Okay.

You’ll see a lot of Wicca people doing that, if you ever go to a Wicca ritual or healing circle. You’ll see they’ll say, “So mote it be,” and then they’ll do a clap. And it’s a sealing of the intention.

  1. sigil: a sign or an image considered magical. ↩

  2. The Banishing Ritual of the Lesser Pentagram. This ritual is described in W. E. Butler’s excellent book, The Magician, His Training and His Work. ↩

  3. Jim McCarty and Carla L. Rueckert usually do the Banishing Ritual after Morning Offering each morning. ↩

  4. pentacle: a five-pointed star, often held to have magical or mystical significance, formed by five straight lines connecting the vertices of a pentagon and enclosing another pentagon in the completed figure. Also called pentagram. ↩

  5. yarmulke: a skullcap worn, esp. during prayer and religious study, by Jewish males, esp. those adhering to Orthodox or Conservative tradition. ↩