Evolution Fist,
It's not so much a regression or a step backward or whatever. This is a lost, for the most part, part of human conciousness that served us in the past, and many believe that it should not be lost. Have you ever heard the phrase "backwards down the path"? It's not going back forever, just retracing one's steps (up the evolutionary ladder) to familiarize oneself with who and what one is, and where one comes from. Such knowledge is necessary to evolve to one's full potential.
The Internal arts aid us in personal evolution, helping us to achieve our full potential, and that is why mental and analytical facilities seem enhanced...because they are. Generally, people who reach the internal are people with a higher conciousness, who have evolved a bit further than others. (This is on a personal scale.) People who have evolved further can allow themselves to regress at certain times with no fear that they will not come back. People who are not that evolved or are not that "civilized" need not regress at all, though if they do, they are the ones who seem to actually "downgrade."
Resorting to the reptilian impulse is not a 24/7 thing. It is something we condition ourselves to do to give us a higher chance of survival. It is base, it is ugly, it is savage, brutal and violent...but it is a part of ourselves we cannot deny. You can wear colored contact lenses, but you cannot deny the true color of your eyes. No matter how many different pairs of contacts you wear, they will still be the same color beneath. Some people like to use the mask analogy, saying that if you wear a mask for long enough, it becomes your face. That is true, but beneath the mask, you are still the same, and beneath the human skin you are still an animal.
The reptilian part of our conciousness is a link to instincts and knowledge that have long been disused. As an example of what I mean, let's say that far in the future industrialization has destroyed much of the landscape and rainfall is harmful to humans, sometimes deadly if they cannot get in out of it. So humans develop enclosures in which they spend almost their entire lives. Eventually, they forget about the poison rain, having spent entire generations inside. Now let's say that four people venture outside on an overcast day, and it begins raining. One person, having not evolved very far, still possesses the instinct to jump back into the enclosure, and promptly does so. Two of the people just stand there like idiots until they realize that the rain is melting their flesh off, and run around not knowing what to do. They die. The fourth person simply pulls out an umbrella as he sees the first drops of rain fall, goes about his business whistling a tune perhaps, and when the rain stops he looks around to see two puddles of ex-humans and one cowering primitive as he furls his umbrella back up. The cowering primitive, though he hasn't lost the life saving instinct, hasn't evolved far beyond it, and never might. The two puddles who were once humans, evolved beyond the instinct and lost contact with it, so much so that they could not draw upon it in a time of need. The fourth, who drew an umbrella, had not lost the instinct, but had evolved beyond it, and yet maintained contact with it so that he could utilize it in time of need without remaining a primitive.
Phoenix,
Have you ever explored the levels of human conciousness through the medium of the Enochian Keys, as in guided meditation? Have you ever played recordings of the Enochian Keys in the background during your practice? If not, might I recommend no's 1, 3, and 8? They are the ones for gathering power. Anyway, sounds like you are headed in a productive direction, and I would suggest definitely researching the Owl more. Sounds like a definite power animal for you. Also, do you use natural incenses, like tobacco, in your rites, or do you use specific scents? Have you tried combining your ritual exploration of the animals with more animalistic scents like musk, patchouli, etc?
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I'll give you one example of an experience that I was told was good even though some people said my method of achieving the result was dangerous. I got hold of an obsidian mirror when I first began my qigong training, which I practiced for about a year before learning any Taiji. I was fond of practicing an exercise that was supposed to balance out tin and yang in the body. It always made me feel great. During one part of this exercise, we gather qi, moving the arms in circles. It is a motion that kind of looks like you are scooping water up with both hands and taking it to your mouth. I usually coupled this with some visualization, imagining actually drawing in qi and filling my dantien with it on the exhale, and then drawing more in and packing it on top of what I had gathered just before. Well, one day I set the mirror up on my altar as one of the centerpieces, and as I was faced the altar during my qigong practice every day anyway, I ended up facing this mirror. The correct way of "gazing" (for lack of a better term here) had me looking right into the mirror. Having used the mirror before for gazing (in which I had seen only a few different faces, but always the same ones) and projection, I decided to experiment as I was facing it anyway. I began my qigong that day with my three circle standing zen exercies, and instead of simply zoning out or visualizing the upper heavenly circulation, I began to draw in energy from the mirror on the i breath and send it out through the mirror on the out breath. I began to see a different face than the ones I had seen previously. And then several at once. After I finished this exercise, I continued on with my qi balancing exercise. But instead of simply imagining the qi I was drawing in coming from the aethyr in general, I visualized it as coming in from this mirror. I was taking in now, but not releasing it. When I finished the exercise, and used a fa-jing movement to close the energy gates of my body back up, I felt really wierd. I could barely walk, I could barely see, breathing was way too EASY.... So I went to my bed and layed down for a moment, trying to close my eyes and regain some normalcy. But it wouldn't go away, and when I opened my eyes, I looked out the window, and I saw the Earth breathing. Huge deep breaths. Everything was moving with Her breaths, and everything was breathing on its own as well. I had a realization that I just can't put into words in its totality, and to say that I saw the Earth that day as a single living sentient organism, with many parts, also alive and sentient, does not do it justice. But from that day on, the way I practice magic and the way I practice qigong both altered. And from that day on, I have had experiences with the internal, that I was later told by my teacher were glimpses into the infinite. I was also told later by my vampiric mentor that what I had done was a kind of cmmunion with the other side, and my sending in and taking out of the mirror of energy had attracted... well, They are another subject entirely. My journey into the internal began that day, and a great many areas of sensitivity, experimentation and exploration opened up before me.
