“I am going to show you a few sorcery passes that you must perform every day of your life, from now on,” she announced.
I let out a reluctant sigh. There were so many things she had ordered me to do every day of my life: breathing, recapitulation, kung fu exercises, long walks. If I made a list of everything she had told me, the day wouldn’t have enough hours for half the tasks.
“For God’s sake, don’t take my words so literally,” Clara said, noticing the annoyance on my face. “I am stuffing everything I can into your tiny brain because I want you to know all these things. Knowledge concentrates energy, therefore knowledge is power. For sorcery to work, we must know what we are doing when we intend an outcome—not the purpose, mind you, but the outcome of the act of sorcery. If we were to intend the purpose of our sorcery, we would be creating sorcery, and you and I don’t have that much power.”
“I don’t think I understand, Clara,” I said, pulling my chair closer. “We don’t have that much power for what?”
“I mean that, even between the two of us, we cannot concentrate the enormous energy that would be needed to create a new purpose. But individually, we can certainly concentrate enough energy to intend the outcome of these sorcery passes: no wrinkles for us. This is all we can do, as its purpose, to keep us young and looking young, is already established.”
“Is it like the recapitulation, whose final outcome was intended beforehand by the sorcerers of old?” I asked.
“Exactly,” Clara said. “The intent of every act of sorcery is already set. All we need to do is link our awareness to it.”
She placed her chair in front of mine, so that our knees were almost touching. Then, she vigorously rubbed each thumb on the opposite palm and placed them on the bridge of her nose. She moved them upward with light, even strokes to her eyebrows and temples.
“This pass prevents the development of furrows between the eyebrows,” she explained.
After quickly rubbing her index fingers together, like two small sticks being rubbed to make fire, she positioned them vertically on each side of her nose and moved them gently to the sides, sweeping across her cheeks several times.
“This is to clear the nasal cavities,” she said, deliberately obstructing her nasal passages. “Instead of putting your finger in your nose, do this movement.”
I didn’t like the allusion to cleaning one’s nose, but I tried the movement and indeed my sinuses opened up as she had said.
“The next movement is to prevent [the cheeks from] sagging,” she said.
Clara quickly rubbed her palms together and, with firm, prolonged strokes, slid them over each cheek up to her temples. She repeated this movement six or seven times, always with slow, even, upward strokes.
I noticed her face was flushed, but it was not yet time to stop. She placed the inner edge of her hand, her thumb folded over her palm, above her upper lip and rubbed it from side to side with a vigorous, saw-like motion.
She explained that the junction point between the nose and the upper lip, when rubbed vigorously, stimulates the flow of energy in even, gentle spurts. However, if larger spurts of energy are needed, they can be obtained with a small pinch in the center of the upper gum, just below the upper lip and the nasal septum.
“If you get sleepy in the cave during the recapitulation, rub this point vigorously and it will temporarily revive you,” she said.
I rubbed my upper lip and felt my nose and ears clear. I also experienced a slight sensation of numbness on my palate, which lasted a few seconds but left me breathless. I had the feeling I was about to discover something that had been veiled.
Next, Clara slid her index fingers laterally under her chin, again with a quick side-to-side, saw-like motion. She explained that stimulating the point under the chin produces a quiet attention. She added that we can also activate this point by resting the chin on a low table while sitting on the floor.
I followed her suggestion. I placed my cushion on the floor and sat on it, resting my chin on a wooden crate that was exactly at the height of my face. Leaning forward, I lightly pressed that point on my chin that Clara had indicated. A few moments later, I felt my body quiet down; a tingling sensation ran up my back and into my head; my breathing became deeper and more rhythmic.
“Another way to awaken the center under the chin,” Clara continued, “is to lie face down with your fists closed, one on top of the other, under your chin.”
She recommended that, when doing the exercise with the fists, I should tense them to create pressure under the chin, and then relax to release the pressure. Tensing and relaxing the fists, she said, produces a pulsing motion that sends small flows of energy to a vital center directly connected to the base of the tongue. She stressed that this exercise must be done with care, otherwise, it is possible to develop an inflammation in the throat.
I sat back down on the straw chair.
“This set of sorcery passes I have shown you,” Clara went on, “must be practiced daily, until they stop being massage movements and become what they really are: sorcery passes. Watch me,” she ordered.
I saw her repeat the movements she had shown me, only this time she was making her fingers and hands dance. Her hands seemed to penetrate deep into the skin of her face; at other times, they swept over her face gently, as if gliding over the skin’s surface, moving with a speed that made them almost disappear. Watching her delicate movements left me mesmerized.
“These movements have never been in your inventory,” she said, letting out a laugh when she finished. “This is sorcery. It demands a different intent from the intent of everyday life. With all the tensions that show up on the face, we certainly need a different intent if we want to relax the muscles and harmonize the centers located there.”
Clara stated that all our emotions leave traces on our face, more than on any other part of the body. We must, therefore, release the accumulated tension, using the sorcery passes and their concomitant intent.
She looked at me for an instant and observed.
“I see by the tension in your face that you have been thinking about your recapitulation. Be sure to do your passes before bed tonight, to remove those wrinkles from your forehead.”
(Taisha Abelar, The Sorcerers’ Crossing)
