Magic practitioners use black mirrors for meditation, training magical senses, clairvoyance, divination and conversing with supernatural beings. Online retailers sell black mirrors pre-made or you can make one yourself by pouring 1 ounce of water-soluble black ink into a shallow bowl of water. You can also use a small picture frame and spray paint the back of the glass flat-black.
Meditation
Begin all uses of the mirror with meditation. By candlelight, sit comfortably and stare into the mirror. Breathe deeply and slowly, allowing thoughts to empty from your mind. Let each one go peacefully, like releasing a balloon. Allow your vision to unfocus, letting the black of the mirror expand as you sense yourself floating in a welcoming dark.
Once you have achieved this still point, continue meditating or use the mirror for scrying or summoning.
After you finish working with your mirror, come out of the meditation gradually. Allow your breathing to return to normal and your surroundings to come back into focus.
Training Your Sight
Most practitioners sense magical energies, but few are natural clairvoyants. You can train sight with a black mirror by visualizing places you already know. Go anywhere you can pick up a small item, such as a pebble or flower. Look around and fix that place in your mind. At home, holding the item in your hands, look into your mirror. Feel the item connecting you as you visualize your place, at the present time of day. Be as detailed as possible. Unfocus your eyes and sense the mirror as your window. Don't see with your eyes---see with your mind.
Practice with different places. Your sight will develop gradually, enabling you to see people and places without these aids. The keys are feeling the connection, envisioning the mirror as your portal and practice.
Advanced Practices
Divination, viewing other planes and invoking spirits all require trained magical sight and the skill to maintain a still point while working. For divination, you must have a link with whom you want to see. If you don't have her with you or know her well, a personal item or picture is good. Proceed as if for clairvoyance. See her now, then hold the mental feel of her in your mind as you envision a forward time. Practice is essential.
Viewing other planes is also an extension of clairvoyance. Get a description of the alternate plane. Try thinking of it as overlapping our own, above or below our own, or at a right angle from conventional reality. Use the mirror to help you maintain your still point.
To invoke spirits, you must prepare and be in a proper magical space, according to your school of practice. For an independent practitioner, a salt circle is the minimum. You can draw minor spirits or the dead with a simple but heartfelt invocation. Invoke and visualize the spirit entering the mirror itself. Keep the mental feeling of it in the mirror as you work. Banish the summoned spirit before opening or leaving your magical space.
