Auric Manipulation

Manipulation of the aura is easy if you have mastered both visualization and energy manipulation. If you have not I suggest you go find lessons on those two and come back once you have. Expansion: Auric expansion can be used to intimidate, impress or otherwise make a statement. If you are looking to be noticed, this is the trick for you. Just be careful because you can easily frighten people with expanding your aura too much. A little goes a long way. Do this by Centering and Grounding yourself, then before you put up a Shield, visualize your aura. Once you have your own aura pictured in your mind, push it outward and expand it. You should add more energy to it otherwise it might become thin or weak in spots. Take this energy from a comfortable source if you feel weakened by this exercise. Retraction: The opposite of expansion, auric retraction is good for when you do NOT want to be noticed. Any time you are trying to blend in or meld with a group. Any time you want to fade into a crowd. This is great for those times when you've already screwed something up at a social gathering and you're trying to save face. Don't pretend you've never done that, we've all done it once or twice. Retraction is much harder than expansion. First, you Center and Ground, then again before Shielding you visualize your aura. This time instead of pushing it out and plumping it up with energy, pull the edges inward and closer to your body. Try to keep the shape even or it will just snap back in place. It will feel sort of like cocooning yourself in a blanket and trying to pull all the edges of the blanket under the blanket. Make sure to either find somewhere to put the extra energy from your aura (like Grounding again) or that you use it for some kind of energy working (as a simple spell). If you don't, you might find yourself feeling a little jittery. Masking: Ok this one is REALLY useful. Auric masking is to change the color of your aura. It can serve all kinds of purposes. You can use this at job interviews to come across as more friendly (yellow), more professional (blue) or more empathetic (green). You can use this for intimidation, it works especially well for frightening people when you combine auric expansion and a red mask. This basically makes you give people the "feeling" of the color you project. You can also use it to fool amateur aura readers into thinking your aura is some color other than what it is. This one is easy to accomplish but tricky to maintain. If you lose focus your aura will go back to its natural color. To do this you must perfect the concept of focusing on something subconsciously so that you can manage other tasks while still focusing on the mask in the back of your mind. Here's how it's done. Again, I suggest you Center and Ground yourself first. The mask is a layer on your normal Shield. Think of it like paint or enamel on the outside. Visualize your aura, then put up a shield (however you typically do it, whatever works for you). After you place your shield, paint it with the color of energy you want. That's all, it's simple to do but again it doesn't last long if you lose focus. Try it some time and you'll see what I mean. One tip I've found is that it's easier to put up a convincing mask of a color that is similar to your own dominant color. If the dominant color of your aura is violet, put up a blue or a silver mask, don't try something opposite like yellow until you've practiced a bit. If you have a red aura try masking it with violet or rose, don't try green unless you've gotten really good at it. Believe it or not, any color works well to mask a black aura. I think it's because of the nature of the void energy of a black aura. It's actually harder to mask white, as it tends to lighten and transform any color placed over it to a more pastel color. To intensify the pigment level of the mask, add more energy. This again can be taken from any comfortable source, though I don't find this exercise to be terribly draining. A final word on masking...many people do this naturally. Just because you see a mask on someone's aura does NOT automatically mean they are a magic user. Masking your aura is an important part of the disguises we put up every day as part of living as social creatures in a world where people judge others frequently on first impressions. Any time you've tried to act on your best behavior, you've probably put up a crude auric mask. Learning to do it with energy manipulation makes it easier to fine-tune the exact impression you want to make. I am not going to put up a full list of the impressions people get from all the different colors here because you should be able to reference my Aura Colors posts in order to figure out what each color does on your own. Any questions you can feel free to mail me. Auric True Sight: To see through to the true colors of someone's aura you must pierce their shield. This is considered rude by some people, but those are usually people who have something to hide. Personally, I think it's a sign of a good magic user who can pierce my shields, especially if I don't notice. First, you look at their aura and view the surface colors. Then you look through them. It's similar to how you look at one of those 3-d pictures, you know the ones where they look like random static dots on a page till you unfocus your eyes? Basically what you're trying to do is focus on a spot BEHIND the shield. It is easier for me if I project some of my own energy through my eyes and through the surface of the person's aura. I don't usually do this unless I have reason to think the person might be masking. Typically a weak unintentional mask will show up as a blending of colors. The only time I ever use the auric true sight technique listed here is when the colors I see do not make sense for the person I'm talking to. Reasonable suspicion so to speak. Good luck with this one. I've dodged many a foul personality with this technique.