As Within, So Without

A human being can be said to inhabit two universes – the exterior physical universe which is experienced via the physical senses, and the interior universe which is experienced via the mind and imaginative faculties. The well-known phrase ‘As Within, So Without’ recognises this fact, and suggests that your external reality can best be viewed as a reflection of your inner reality. This being the case, the best way to create change in your external experience is often to focus on first creating that same desired change in your interior universe.

Your interior universe is your primary domain, and it provides the energetic pattern upon which your external experience is built. Furthermore, if your interior universe and the exterior universe are ever in conflict, it is always the interior state that will win out.

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For example, if you are perfectly at home in your interior universe and you enjoy a feeling of calm, tranquillity and being at cause over your life, those feelings will be part of your external experience even if the outer environment is full of challenges and deadlines.

Of course, the opposite is also true, and if you lack confidence and peace in your own interior universe then you will lack the experience of confidence and peace externally, even if the situations in the environment are conducive to confidence and peace.

When you recognise that your interior universe effectively shapes the experience that you have in the external world, it is immediately apparent that effectively working magick in your external reality demands that you first need work effective magick in your interior universe. In other words, if you want to achieve magickal mastery over your outer experience, you first need to work on developing greater levels of magickal mastery over yourself.

Many of the best-known magickal techniques (such as creative visualization and affirmation) work because they gradually bring about positive changes in your interior universe, thereby allowing you to experience similar changes externally. Unfortunately, most of the popularised versions of those techniques don’t create change in the interior universe as effectively as they would if interior creation were their primary purpose.

Whilst straightforward creative visualization, affirmation and so on are excellent tools, it can often be even more effective to take more direct and deliberate control of your interior universe and focus fully on making it exactly as you would want your external universe to be. By taking that approach, you get to experience immediate results in your interior universe and your outer-world experience will quite naturally fall into line in due course.

To start with, you could landscape your interior universe so that you really enjoy spending time there. In a previous tutorial you learned how to build an inner temple, and the process here is much the same. The big difference is that instead of creating a single temple you create the entire inner landscape of your interior universe. How large you make this interior landscape, and the form it takes, is up to you. The important thing is to make sure that it accurately reflects the kind of experience that you want to have in the exterior universe.

For example, if you want to live in a large house in the countryside and enjoy a high level of financial abundance, glowing health and complete peace of mind, you could create all of that in your interior universe. You could create your ideal home in great detail, create the specific amount of financial abundance that you want, give your body the health and vitality you want, and so on.

Or maybe you want to experience a greater level of self-confidence in the exterior universe, as well as more peace of mind. In that case you would create more self-confidence and peace of mind for yourself in your interior universe, in whatever way appeals to you.

Whatever your exterior universe goals, creating them first in your interior universe as already having been achieved will make it far easier for you to experience them externally.

Spend as much time landscaping your interior universe in whatever way you see fit, then get into the habit of enjoying it on a daily basis. You might like to set aside thirty minutes a day to close your eyes and enjoy the reality of your interior universe, or perhaps you would prefer to go there when you close your eyes to sleep at night. Your personal routine is not important – what is important is that you enjoy your interior universe, and create whatever experiences you desire there, on a daily basis.

As far as your interior universe is concerned, you are the sole Creator, and you have free reign to create what you will. You can create a brand new world or a continent almost as easily as you can create a modest garden sanctuary, so allow yourself to be as inventive as you like. Just remember, the experiences that you create in your interior universe serve as an energetic blueprint for the experiences that you will have in the exterior universe, so always be sure to create good things.