When do we want it? We want it now! Instantaneous gratification is the key to bargaining power and shopper fulfillment. Why should magick be different?
The past month some of my magick spells have born fruit: two old flames from years ago (literally years) contacted me out of the blue. The one I eventually had to reject, guilt-ridden because I wanted him so much, but this love's demise told me how to handle the second.
I became interested today in tying up other loose ends, lovers that I never really pursued to a satisfying end. Of course, sifting through the ashes of the past never works and only ends up with heartache, but unconsummated lustful misery is the artist's muse.
I contacted an old lover who popped into my head just to see how he was doing and right now, I'm still waiting to hear back from him. It's only been a few hours and my heart is breaking. I want to hear from him NOW!
Magick works best when the magician casts his spell and then forgets about the results. Lingering over a spell is excrutiating and counter-productive like watching water boil or a garden grow. Let the magick do its job. Don't interrupt its job by looking over its shoulder.
The minute you forget about something, the more likely it is to happen, but the reality is that when you want something badly, it's next to impossible to forget about it.
This is called lust for results.
How do we deal with lust for results and let the magick work?
My first negative kvetching is to give a middle finger to all of the magicians out there that tell us not to lust for results but never tell us how not to do that.
The first advice that I was given was simply to be involved in multiple projects at once. When creating sigils, create a lot at once so that after creating one sigil, you create another to distract you from the lust for results.
This doesn't always work for me because I often find myself just stuck in a mental loop trying to figure things out about a particular topic. I know I have other thoughts to think, more important thoughts, but I just need to figure this out before I can move on.
I've also seen references to quantum probability shit. When casting spells, increasing the probability of the results working is important. I've worked with probability management with great effect but also find myself in tired moments, too exhausted to manipulate probability. Trained as a teacher, I know the value of a lesson plan but I also know the value of spontaneity. I must ask, when results occur, do they occur because they were going to occur anyhow or do they occur because of probability management? Putting hours into a lesson plan is often inefficient because of the probability of changing variables and static thinking. Do I have to plan for three months every time I want something?
I think often of Schrodinger's Cat on bad days. Some days I won't open an e-mail just because it's a bad day. If I check my e-mail tomorrow, any bad messages will suddenly be good ones.
Lust for results is greatly created by the limitation of options. One thing has to happen and if it doesn't, then the entire foundation of your plans comes crumbling down. What other options are involved? Lust for results can be managed by immediately instituting back up plans, both to relieve anxiety or to keep the momentum moving.
Neuro-linguistic programming also gives advice on how to reframe experiences from negative anxiety to positive movement. With Reframing, the magician makes the best of a situation, looking at the positive results rather than focusing on the negatives. If a relationship doesn't happen, it was for the best. But I hate that shit: how about, I want it even if it destroys me. Rationalization is a hollow life.
I've been advised that lust for results is also a corruption of a magician's ethos. Magician's should work on some type of spiritual level and lust for results is the result of selfish application of magick. This selfish desire corrupts the intent. If you use magick for sex, you risk running into psychic vampirism.
The one flame I rejected I rejected because of the negative energy he was projecting into my life. It made a relationship impossible because I had to control his controling behavior. With my second flame, instead of controling, I simply fed his ego and then let him go, praised the poetry he wanted to show me instead of critiquing it (and it wasn't very good poetry) and then let go of the relationship rather than bringing the moment to a crisis crossroad.
I've been told not to rescue people but that doesn't mean not re-vitalize their faltering energy (as long as it doesn't lead to vampirism).
Lust for results is lust, one of the seven deadly sins. I don't believe in that Catholic gult trip shit but I do acknowledge how people can go astray.
By lusting for results, we end of projecting our own mental states onto external objects. Even positive projections are dangerous: projecting a virginal illusion on a whore is just as clouding as secretly fearing and despising someone as an enemy who has no ill intentions towards you. Lust for results becomes a form of fixation in which we become attached to objects for thir value but this attachment becomes a ball and chain.
How then can the results be reframed to give energy rather than taking it? Once the lust is reframed, the results become less vital because you are giving something rather than taking.
The magician must practice at every opportunity, at times indiscriminately spreading his energy instead of focusing on the final outcome of one focused task. I'm not saying not have any focused tasks but rather to maintain your lifestyle in a way that random and focused tasks are one and the same. Improve the quality of other people's lives rather than selfishly magicking for a quick lay. Develop a stable and constant energy source rather than lust in flux.
In lusting for results, we often miss the magic that is happening around us and set up our own downfalls.
Four years it took to get a hot guy to e-mail me. Of those four years, our interaction was only for a few months, but it set up a seed that bore fruit years later. And of course, I threw it away.
It happens.
Cast your magick.
Don't test the waters.
Don't worry about what will happen. I mean, you're using magick which is pretty stupid: do you think that wishing will give you what you want? So why are you disappointed when wishing doesn't work? Magick is just an x-factor: don't put your faith in witch doctors, just learn to believe in magick and then see a real doctor.
Don't feel like a failure if it didn't work. We learn by failure and often we may surprise ourselves by counting our successes as failures. We succeed when we think we fail. That's why I always say, don't burn bridges. I had this one guy call me a slut and then months later come back and tell me what a positive influence I had on his life.
My midnight deadline is almost here so I'm going to check my e-mail to see if that guy has e-mailed me back yet and then plan for tomorrow.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Quit's Taxonomy of Magical Training
A friend of mine asked my recommendation on getting started with practicing magic. The first thought that came to mind was in recollection of an educational tool known as Bloom’s taxonomy.
Bloom’s taxonomy structuralizes learning into eight levels, the highest of the levels the most difficult level of competent thought. This taxonomy isn’t rigid and more or less just a general overview of the difficulty of certain types of thought processes.
My own taxonomy isn’t meant to be anything spectacular but rather a general overview of how to initiate one’s self into a study of magic.
Knowledge: A magician should
a) first learn about basic system of magic, at least the existence of these basic systems. The general level of study should be to learn what magical beliefs are out there, so that if someone mentions Discordianism, you can say, oh, yeah, I’ve heard of that. The goal here isn’t to know everything about all magic but to be exposed to a basic acknowledgment of what is out there. You want breadth over depth.
Make a list of at least two dozen magical concepts to help develop your basic knowledge. Take your list and summarize each magical concept on you’re a) list into one sentence like you were pitching a movie concept.
b) After acknowledgement should be introspection and decisions on different magical paradigms. This is pretty much Wikipedia research, browsing through the breadth of magical topics to get a better understanding of them. At this point you are looking for familiarity, not necessarily depth, but a deeper understanding of important magical principles. You are also looking for what interests you to focus on deeper knowledge.
Take your a) list and develop each summary with greater detail, at least 100 – 300 words per list item.
c) Penultimately, you want to focus on particular areas of knowledge. This is the second to last level of knowledge because at this level there are certain areas of magical theory that you should at least develop a deep understanding. My recommendations would be Western Astrology, Tarot, Chaos magick, and possibly Shamanism and Kabbalah, along with an understanding of the Hero’s myth and important mythologies. You can add in your own interests as well. You should take the time to read important magical texts, including the works of Joseph Campbell, Aleister Crowley, William Frazier, and others as selected by your research.
d) Generally, the ultimate step of the knowledge level would be the equivalent of dissertation work: an extensive in-depth study of a particular area of magic. I don’t agree with this. As Robert Anton Wilson commented, specialization is for insects. Magical paradigms are useful only in their ability to be effective, so your chosen path of magical pursuit should be malleable and fluid, changing as necessary to fit your needs. You use a screwdriver for a screw, a hammer for a nail.
Knowledge should be constantly updating and will snowball and adapt as your improve your Knowledge. In making my lists, I dropped some concepts, changed others (affirmation magick into Neuro-Linguistic Programming), and added new concepts (Thanatology).
Reception and Perception: The magician must be willing to open herself up to the universal phenomena of magic. Part of this experience is belief but part of this is also non-belief. Too much belief creates a naïve fool; too little belief creates a hopeless dreamer.
The active steps of the reception stage must be practiced because they are not inherent in many individuals. A magician must learn to listen to others with respect even if initially disagreeing with the speaker’s statements. This active listening also means paying respect to others, remembering important details as if they were a lover. How can one know the universe if he can’t even remember his mother-in-law’s birthday?
Part of reception also means being open to communication from non-human means. Dreams, synchronicities, and symbols are all messages from the universe that the magician must learn to pay attention to. The devil is in the details.
A magician should keep an active log of any synchronicities or unusual events.
This log should also include artistic sensory details that impress the magician.
Lastly, this log should function as a dream diary.
Working back to knowledge, the magician is responsible for understanding basic semiotics and dream interpretation. Dream interpretation, psychological archetypes, mystic symbols and the like should be intimately known.
Similarly, human communication involves a variety of often ignored values. Communication is typically associated with the air signs of Libra, Aquarius, and Gemini. These signs focus on socialization, verbal expression, artifactual communication (clothing-based), and storytelling. However, water signs rule non-verbal communication, particularly body language, while fire signs master anti-social forms of communication (force and politics). Both of these elements communicate in alternate ways. Technically, although water signs are non-verbal communicators known for their secrecy and passive-aggression, 70% of communication is non-verbal. Considering differences in communication styles, understanding the taxonomy of communication is important.
Consider creating a section of your magical journal specifically for communication skills, including research on non-verbal communication, political theory, and “social skills.” The Sixth Sense and the works of HP Lovecraft are good sources on magical communication.
Comprehension: Similar to Knowledge, Comprehension involves not only an understanding of magic but rather a personal understanding and relationship with magic.
My goals in studying magic are partly intellectual, me wanting to have a greater understanding of my role in the universe or how to conduct my life. Magic is part philosophy and part practice. The philosophical parts are designed to set up the magician with a proper mindset in order to work the magic. Magic is not for everyone.
When you c) above, you are looking for magical paradigms that help you understand yourself existentially. We often call these epiphanies, sudden insights into who you are and what you are supposed to do. For example, I got into astrology after a horribly traumatic relationship which I could not explain or come to terms with through any mundane means. Looking at his sign (Aries/Taurus cusp) and my sign (Cancer/Leo cusp), I immediately saw reflections of both him and me. I understood what happened in our relationship! On my third reading of Joseph Campbell’s Hero of 1000 Faces, I finally understood the hero’s journey and mythology as a psychological metaphor for the individual’s journey in life. There’s a psychology behind mythology that I could apply to my personal life. Studying Chaos magick showed me how my sense of self is an illusion, fragmented and mutable; my beliefs, my identity are tools to be changed according to circumstances and my desires. You use a screwdriver for a screw, a hammer for a nail. Aleister Crowley’s metaphor of the imaginary mongoose in itself was an indescribable epiphany which I am still trying to reconcile.
At the Comprehension level, take the time to make connection between what you have studied in the Knowledge level to your own personal life. Too many religions and belief systems force beliefs on the individual that are not compatible with the individual’s life, or human existence at all. Magic is about your life.
Write down any epiphanies that you might have during your lower level exploration of magic. Seek out epiphanies by writing about any connection between your magical Knowledge and your personal life. Consider this an autobiography of the magical you. For example, in Knowledge c) you explored Astrology, Tarot, Chaos magick, mythology, and other systems. Consider, for example, writing about your personal experience with different zodiac sign personalities and specific people in your life and the psychology of their signs. Ask yourself, how exactly does tarot play a role in your life. Do you use it just to tell the future or does the archetype semiotics have any greater meaning? What gods are important in your life, present or missing? How might you connect yourself better with the divine? If you’re interested in Shamanism, do you live near the wilderness or are you stuck in the city? Is there such thing as urban Shamanism? Etc…
As part of Comprehension, you might also want to balance personal and professional knowledge. Ask yourself: is the information you put together in earlier research actually researched information or simply philosophical musings? If you are contemplating black magic, are you simply rambling self-centered philosophies or embarking upon a valid authoritative authentic Thanatological study? BS or knowledge?
Response, Adjustment, and Set: I grouped these three ideas together because of their similarity. At the response stage, the magician begins to respond to received and perceived stimulus.
Instead of passively taking in information, the magician interacts with external stimuli making changes in the environment. Part of the RAS stage is to begin anticipating reception and perception. For example, a magician who is engaging in reception of synchronicities should begin noting patterns and scheduling of synchronicities; RAS anticipates these opportunities by noticing patterns even in chaotic events.
Part of RAS, however, is to anticipate and respond to events.
For example, the duration of my sigils rarely extends beyond three days. If I cast a spell on a Sunday, by Wednesday, the magic begins to wear off. In response, I had to re-organize my sigils into three day patterns, for example, sigiling for success in a new work out plan focused on a three day work out plan anticipating the wearing down of the sigil and instituting a “recovery sigil” afterwards.
I have also noticed a particular pattern in my occupations: I generally change jobs every 18 months or at least a threatening presence occurs within a predictable period. Last year, when I had become settled into a job, I felt the 18 month threat approaching and was able to nip it in the bud, i.e., lie through my teeth and get someone else fired in my place.
Similarly, if you are studying astrology, a predictive understanding of zodiac psychology is important. A magician can spend a lifetime studying the behavioral patterns of a particular sign but these behavioral patterns must eventually be applied. For example, if you are dating a Cancer, you need to be on guard for the Cancer shit test (especially the second and third rounds); if you are dating an Aries, you need to predict and manage the Arian temper tantrum.
Perception is a call to action that requires participation on the part of the magician. When a synchronicity occurs, what is the universe communicating and how is the magician to respond/act? What plans do you make when the chaos of the universe aligns in your favor? Will you be prepared?
A life diary is important, even if it simply means making a record of your daily experiences. Writing in reverse chronological order the days events before going to bed will help develop your self-reflection as well as give your material for any artistic endeavors. Take notice of patterns, magical and otherwise and begin projects on dealing with noticeable events. Create magic files: for example, when I go on a job interview, I have my resume, my background info, a void check, phone numbers, a multi-media CD presentation, mints, deodorant, and a whole bunch of stuff prepared from my bad and good interview experiences. This is my interview file. Create project files for synchronicities, zodiac dating secrets, etc…
Organization: Once the magician begins delving into various systems of magic, he or she will find him or herself with just a whole shit load of information, useless facts and trivia and all-important transcendental knowledge; however, what the hell does the magician do with all of this information?
Sorting through learned information to ascertain the quality of ideas is important before a magician more deeply analyzes and applies her magic. The magician is creating a value system, eliminating the useless, recycling the still usable, and keeping what works. But it is possible for a magician to get stuck in hordes of useless items. I was that way, having amassed over a dozen boxes of comic books, literally thousands of CDs, and hundreds of DVDs all in some self-indulgent collection. My computer files had hundreds of pages of notes with which I never did anything.
Magic can quickly lead to obsession and even ritualistic lust for results can turn magic in madness. Many an orgasmic sigil can lead to a sex addiction ,or lust for results turn into frustrated impotence, or magical consciousness into paranoia.
The magician must get organized. Organization will typically follow into three suits:
a) Balance: balancing the freedom of the magical world versus the responsibility a magician should have in using magic. A magician shouldn’t have an Enron scandal. A magician should develop an ethical system and abide by these rules. Also, a magician should learn to balance the magical world versus the real world. Banishing rituals should be emphasized and practiced.
b) Systematic planning: A magician should set magical goals and routines to implement and use learned knowledge. What are you using your magic for, whether it is developing artistic ability, financial gain, social gain, etc. Color magic is good for guiding a magician into different routines. One color, at a time, however, is recommended to avoid dilution of effect. Make a list of 8-10 goals, starting generally and moving into more specifics with time tables and break downs of plans and methods. Systematic planning is a whole new ball park in itself so I will outline it in more detail at another time.
c) Taxonomy and philosophy: At some point, every magician has to put together a philosophical text on her experiences. This is an explanation of how the world works according to the magician.
Analysis: This is the heavy shit. Part if not all of magic is about placing doubt in the minds of people about reality itself. The magician must initiate her own musings and analysis of what reality means.
The Analysis stage partially incorporates lower levels in the taxonomy. The magician must make an orderly or rather organized system of reality around her. This involves looking at the basic components of reality and understanding their form and function. How does the universe function is as important question as why it functions the way it does.
The important first step in Analysis is for the magician to understand what is true and what is fiction and how to set up boundaries between the two. While nothing may be true, that doesn’t mean that everything may be permitted and that every function will perform.
The magician must look for cracks and flaws in any system important to her. For example, the educational system is important to me, as are mating and marriage rituals. This could likewise apply to any magical concept that you have studied. The purpose is to create cracks to seal them up, like breaking a bone for it to heal stronger. A magician who creates too many cracks will find herself drowning when the dam bursts.
Analysis is part of Application below and Comprehension. The magician tests her theories and in amending her theories to reality, formulates new theories. Analysis comes from experimenting and gathering the results into old theorems or a new postulation. With each experiment, new tasks and applications are put together.
Consider your focus: Education, government, sociology, psychology, relationships, art, etc. Create a list of bugs within the system. Consider yourself as the primary target and study your own flaws. Consider the flaws within your magical studies and muse on your failings. Implement new plans of action to fix these bugs. Do your analysis on paper or in some tangible form, whether a poem, a blog, or a sigil you bury in your garden.
Application: This is the level that people always want to skip straight to. The results will always be more disastrous than fascinating.
In my early experiments with magic, I went crazy. I was entering another world sink or swim with no real understanding of how to swim at all nor of the rules involved in navigating the other world.
In the Application stage, the time has come to first look over your knowledge gained from the previous levels and to plot out how to use and apply that knowledge. How is the knowledge gained applicable or useful? All too often philosophy is impractical with no real world applications.
You might think Application should be the first step, but no. In some ways, you have already applied your knowledge in smaller does of Comprehension and Response. Now you are going back to the original desires and intents that brought you into magic and asking yourself, how will the knowledge learned help you implement your goals and desires. You may need to re-evaluate the knowledge you learned. The Organization stage is important for developing Application.
As part of Application, you pick your tools and study them. You analyze the need for rituals and test what rituals work the best effect. You learn the capability of your medium and what mediums have the best capabilities for your intent. Are you a poet, a film-maker, a teacher, a dancer, etc. Experimentation is important: some tools like Tarot or wands and athame are standard (I don’t use the later two) while learning new tools may help develop repressed parts of your personality. I’ve recently taken up charcoal drawing just to help visualize my goals better and created a new bedtime ritual to focus my creative writing.
As part of Application, you construct your tools but also modify the tools or philosophies of other in connection to the practice you conduct.
For example, I use sigils as a total health overhaul where I am working on a step-by-step process of binding my demons – working on my emotional flaws – as well as focusing on other detrimental parts of myself. I use summoning to enhance my creative writing skills. I use astrology particularly as a platform for my dating adventures.
Magic should not be useless.
How should you plan your Application stage? Look back at your Organization stage and your systematic planning. As mentioned there, systematic planning is too big to summarize in this blog and tangential to the purpose here, but in quick steps:
I have had a couple people ask me what my religious denomination – Syncretic – means. Syncretic means that one religion doesn’t work for me. My religious beliefs are a hodgepodge of beliefs from different religions all blended together to fill in those cracks in any one particular belief. My religion takes in beliefs from Catholicism, Chaotes, paganism and wiccan, Taoism, Buddhism, and others I have picked up along the way.
The magician has a responsibility to create a blend of beliefs systems; otherwise the overuse of any one tool will wear down that system and render it inapplicable. Catholicism simply cannot provide all of the answers or fulfill the necessary emotional needs but neither can Chaos magick or Discordianism ever be a widely accepted belief system because they are too inherently ludicrous.
Thus a magician must select multiple systems of beliefs, multiple magical paradigms. These systems could be blended into one syncretic belief or be used as appropriately to circumstances. There are never any contradictions in beliefs, any more than a hammer contradicts a screwdriver.
Origination: The most advanced form of synthesis, Origination occurs when the magician creates a new system that is recognizable as more than the sum of its parts. Most magical and religious systems have origins in earlier systems but evolve beyond their roots. Christianity in general is an Origination, as are its various sub-sects like Protestantism. Chaos magick and Discordianism are their own Originations and all the other Transmetropolitan religions that pop up. Name it, brand it, sell it, worship it, in some type of order. Origination most often occurs as an adaptation in order to fit pre-existing systems into new cultures.
Bloom’s taxonomy structuralizes learning into eight levels, the highest of the levels the most difficult level of competent thought. This taxonomy isn’t rigid and more or less just a general overview of the difficulty of certain types of thought processes.
My own taxonomy isn’t meant to be anything spectacular but rather a general overview of how to initiate one’s self into a study of magic.
Knowledge: A magician should
a) first learn about basic system of magic, at least the existence of these basic systems. The general level of study should be to learn what magical beliefs are out there, so that if someone mentions Discordianism, you can say, oh, yeah, I’ve heard of that. The goal here isn’t to know everything about all magic but to be exposed to a basic acknowledgment of what is out there. You want breadth over depth.
Make a list of at least two dozen magical concepts to help develop your basic knowledge. Take your list and summarize each magical concept on you’re a) list into one sentence like you were pitching a movie concept.
b) After acknowledgement should be introspection and decisions on different magical paradigms. This is pretty much Wikipedia research, browsing through the breadth of magical topics to get a better understanding of them. At this point you are looking for familiarity, not necessarily depth, but a deeper understanding of important magical principles. You are also looking for what interests you to focus on deeper knowledge.
Take your a) list and develop each summary with greater detail, at least 100 – 300 words per list item.
c) Penultimately, you want to focus on particular areas of knowledge. This is the second to last level of knowledge because at this level there are certain areas of magical theory that you should at least develop a deep understanding. My recommendations would be Western Astrology, Tarot, Chaos magick, and possibly Shamanism and Kabbalah, along with an understanding of the Hero’s myth and important mythologies. You can add in your own interests as well. You should take the time to read important magical texts, including the works of Joseph Campbell, Aleister Crowley, William Frazier, and others as selected by your research.
d) Generally, the ultimate step of the knowledge level would be the equivalent of dissertation work: an extensive in-depth study of a particular area of magic. I don’t agree with this. As Robert Anton Wilson commented, specialization is for insects. Magical paradigms are useful only in their ability to be effective, so your chosen path of magical pursuit should be malleable and fluid, changing as necessary to fit your needs. You use a screwdriver for a screw, a hammer for a nail.
Knowledge should be constantly updating and will snowball and adapt as your improve your Knowledge. In making my lists, I dropped some concepts, changed others (affirmation magick into Neuro-Linguistic Programming), and added new concepts (Thanatology).
Reception and Perception: The magician must be willing to open herself up to the universal phenomena of magic. Part of this experience is belief but part of this is also non-belief. Too much belief creates a naïve fool; too little belief creates a hopeless dreamer.
The active steps of the reception stage must be practiced because they are not inherent in many individuals. A magician must learn to listen to others with respect even if initially disagreeing with the speaker’s statements. This active listening also means paying respect to others, remembering important details as if they were a lover. How can one know the universe if he can’t even remember his mother-in-law’s birthday?
Part of reception also means being open to communication from non-human means. Dreams, synchronicities, and symbols are all messages from the universe that the magician must learn to pay attention to. The devil is in the details.
A magician should keep an active log of any synchronicities or unusual events.
This log should also include artistic sensory details that impress the magician.
Lastly, this log should function as a dream diary.
Working back to knowledge, the magician is responsible for understanding basic semiotics and dream interpretation. Dream interpretation, psychological archetypes, mystic symbols and the like should be intimately known.
Similarly, human communication involves a variety of often ignored values. Communication is typically associated with the air signs of Libra, Aquarius, and Gemini. These signs focus on socialization, verbal expression, artifactual communication (clothing-based), and storytelling. However, water signs rule non-verbal communication, particularly body language, while fire signs master anti-social forms of communication (force and politics). Both of these elements communicate in alternate ways. Technically, although water signs are non-verbal communicators known for their secrecy and passive-aggression, 70% of communication is non-verbal. Considering differences in communication styles, understanding the taxonomy of communication is important.
Consider creating a section of your magical journal specifically for communication skills, including research on non-verbal communication, political theory, and “social skills.” The Sixth Sense and the works of HP Lovecraft are good sources on magical communication.
Comprehension: Similar to Knowledge, Comprehension involves not only an understanding of magic but rather a personal understanding and relationship with magic.
My goals in studying magic are partly intellectual, me wanting to have a greater understanding of my role in the universe or how to conduct my life. Magic is part philosophy and part practice. The philosophical parts are designed to set up the magician with a proper mindset in order to work the magic. Magic is not for everyone.
When you c) above, you are looking for magical paradigms that help you understand yourself existentially. We often call these epiphanies, sudden insights into who you are and what you are supposed to do. For example, I got into astrology after a horribly traumatic relationship which I could not explain or come to terms with through any mundane means. Looking at his sign (Aries/Taurus cusp) and my sign (Cancer/Leo cusp), I immediately saw reflections of both him and me. I understood what happened in our relationship! On my third reading of Joseph Campbell’s Hero of 1000 Faces, I finally understood the hero’s journey and mythology as a psychological metaphor for the individual’s journey in life. There’s a psychology behind mythology that I could apply to my personal life. Studying Chaos magick showed me how my sense of self is an illusion, fragmented and mutable; my beliefs, my identity are tools to be changed according to circumstances and my desires. You use a screwdriver for a screw, a hammer for a nail. Aleister Crowley’s metaphor of the imaginary mongoose in itself was an indescribable epiphany which I am still trying to reconcile.
At the Comprehension level, take the time to make connection between what you have studied in the Knowledge level to your own personal life. Too many religions and belief systems force beliefs on the individual that are not compatible with the individual’s life, or human existence at all. Magic is about your life.
Write down any epiphanies that you might have during your lower level exploration of magic. Seek out epiphanies by writing about any connection between your magical Knowledge and your personal life. Consider this an autobiography of the magical you. For example, in Knowledge c) you explored Astrology, Tarot, Chaos magick, mythology, and other systems. Consider, for example, writing about your personal experience with different zodiac sign personalities and specific people in your life and the psychology of their signs. Ask yourself, how exactly does tarot play a role in your life. Do you use it just to tell the future or does the archetype semiotics have any greater meaning? What gods are important in your life, present or missing? How might you connect yourself better with the divine? If you’re interested in Shamanism, do you live near the wilderness or are you stuck in the city? Is there such thing as urban Shamanism? Etc…
As part of Comprehension, you might also want to balance personal and professional knowledge. Ask yourself: is the information you put together in earlier research actually researched information or simply philosophical musings? If you are contemplating black magic, are you simply rambling self-centered philosophies or embarking upon a valid authoritative authentic Thanatological study? BS or knowledge?
Response, Adjustment, and Set: I grouped these three ideas together because of their similarity. At the response stage, the magician begins to respond to received and perceived stimulus.
Instead of passively taking in information, the magician interacts with external stimuli making changes in the environment. Part of the RAS stage is to begin anticipating reception and perception. For example, a magician who is engaging in reception of synchronicities should begin noting patterns and scheduling of synchronicities; RAS anticipates these opportunities by noticing patterns even in chaotic events.
Part of RAS, however, is to anticipate and respond to events.
For example, the duration of my sigils rarely extends beyond three days. If I cast a spell on a Sunday, by Wednesday, the magic begins to wear off. In response, I had to re-organize my sigils into three day patterns, for example, sigiling for success in a new work out plan focused on a three day work out plan anticipating the wearing down of the sigil and instituting a “recovery sigil” afterwards.
I have also noticed a particular pattern in my occupations: I generally change jobs every 18 months or at least a threatening presence occurs within a predictable period. Last year, when I had become settled into a job, I felt the 18 month threat approaching and was able to nip it in the bud, i.e., lie through my teeth and get someone else fired in my place.
Similarly, if you are studying astrology, a predictive understanding of zodiac psychology is important. A magician can spend a lifetime studying the behavioral patterns of a particular sign but these behavioral patterns must eventually be applied. For example, if you are dating a Cancer, you need to be on guard for the Cancer shit test (especially the second and third rounds); if you are dating an Aries, you need to predict and manage the Arian temper tantrum.
Perception is a call to action that requires participation on the part of the magician. When a synchronicity occurs, what is the universe communicating and how is the magician to respond/act? What plans do you make when the chaos of the universe aligns in your favor? Will you be prepared?
A life diary is important, even if it simply means making a record of your daily experiences. Writing in reverse chronological order the days events before going to bed will help develop your self-reflection as well as give your material for any artistic endeavors. Take notice of patterns, magical and otherwise and begin projects on dealing with noticeable events. Create magic files: for example, when I go on a job interview, I have my resume, my background info, a void check, phone numbers, a multi-media CD presentation, mints, deodorant, and a whole bunch of stuff prepared from my bad and good interview experiences. This is my interview file. Create project files for synchronicities, zodiac dating secrets, etc…
Organization: Once the magician begins delving into various systems of magic, he or she will find him or herself with just a whole shit load of information, useless facts and trivia and all-important transcendental knowledge; however, what the hell does the magician do with all of this information?
Sorting through learned information to ascertain the quality of ideas is important before a magician more deeply analyzes and applies her magic. The magician is creating a value system, eliminating the useless, recycling the still usable, and keeping what works. But it is possible for a magician to get stuck in hordes of useless items. I was that way, having amassed over a dozen boxes of comic books, literally thousands of CDs, and hundreds of DVDs all in some self-indulgent collection. My computer files had hundreds of pages of notes with which I never did anything.
Magic can quickly lead to obsession and even ritualistic lust for results can turn magic in madness. Many an orgasmic sigil can lead to a sex addiction ,or lust for results turn into frustrated impotence, or magical consciousness into paranoia.
The magician must get organized. Organization will typically follow into three suits:
a) Balance: balancing the freedom of the magical world versus the responsibility a magician should have in using magic. A magician shouldn’t have an Enron scandal. A magician should develop an ethical system and abide by these rules. Also, a magician should learn to balance the magical world versus the real world. Banishing rituals should be emphasized and practiced.
b) Systematic planning: A magician should set magical goals and routines to implement and use learned knowledge. What are you using your magic for, whether it is developing artistic ability, financial gain, social gain, etc. Color magic is good for guiding a magician into different routines. One color, at a time, however, is recommended to avoid dilution of effect. Make a list of 8-10 goals, starting generally and moving into more specifics with time tables and break downs of plans and methods. Systematic planning is a whole new ball park in itself so I will outline it in more detail at another time.
c) Taxonomy and philosophy: At some point, every magician has to put together a philosophical text on her experiences. This is an explanation of how the world works according to the magician.
Analysis: This is the heavy shit. Part if not all of magic is about placing doubt in the minds of people about reality itself. The magician must initiate her own musings and analysis of what reality means.
The Analysis stage partially incorporates lower levels in the taxonomy. The magician must make an orderly or rather organized system of reality around her. This involves looking at the basic components of reality and understanding their form and function. How does the universe function is as important question as why it functions the way it does.
The important first step in Analysis is for the magician to understand what is true and what is fiction and how to set up boundaries between the two. While nothing may be true, that doesn’t mean that everything may be permitted and that every function will perform.
The magician must look for cracks and flaws in any system important to her. For example, the educational system is important to me, as are mating and marriage rituals. This could likewise apply to any magical concept that you have studied. The purpose is to create cracks to seal them up, like breaking a bone for it to heal stronger. A magician who creates too many cracks will find herself drowning when the dam bursts.
Analysis is part of Application below and Comprehension. The magician tests her theories and in amending her theories to reality, formulates new theories. Analysis comes from experimenting and gathering the results into old theorems or a new postulation. With each experiment, new tasks and applications are put together.
Consider your focus: Education, government, sociology, psychology, relationships, art, etc. Create a list of bugs within the system. Consider yourself as the primary target and study your own flaws. Consider the flaws within your magical studies and muse on your failings. Implement new plans of action to fix these bugs. Do your analysis on paper or in some tangible form, whether a poem, a blog, or a sigil you bury in your garden.
Application: This is the level that people always want to skip straight to. The results will always be more disastrous than fascinating.
In my early experiments with magic, I went crazy. I was entering another world sink or swim with no real understanding of how to swim at all nor of the rules involved in navigating the other world.
In the Application stage, the time has come to first look over your knowledge gained from the previous levels and to plot out how to use and apply that knowledge. How is the knowledge gained applicable or useful? All too often philosophy is impractical with no real world applications.
You might think Application should be the first step, but no. In some ways, you have already applied your knowledge in smaller does of Comprehension and Response. Now you are going back to the original desires and intents that brought you into magic and asking yourself, how will the knowledge learned help you implement your goals and desires. You may need to re-evaluate the knowledge you learned. The Organization stage is important for developing Application.
As part of Application, you pick your tools and study them. You analyze the need for rituals and test what rituals work the best effect. You learn the capability of your medium and what mediums have the best capabilities for your intent. Are you a poet, a film-maker, a teacher, a dancer, etc. Experimentation is important: some tools like Tarot or wands and athame are standard (I don’t use the later two) while learning new tools may help develop repressed parts of your personality. I’ve recently taken up charcoal drawing just to help visualize my goals better and created a new bedtime ritual to focus my creative writing.
As part of Application, you construct your tools but also modify the tools or philosophies of other in connection to the practice you conduct.
For example, I use sigils as a total health overhaul where I am working on a step-by-step process of binding my demons – working on my emotional flaws – as well as focusing on other detrimental parts of myself. I use summoning to enhance my creative writing skills. I use astrology particularly as a platform for my dating adventures.
Magic should not be useless.
How should you plan your Application stage? Look back at your Organization stage and your systematic planning. As mentioned there, systematic planning is too big to summarize in this blog and tangential to the purpose here, but in quick steps:
- Figure out your intent and put it into writing
- Research your purpose
- Make a realistic plan, broken down into manageable steps
- Set a time limit
- Gather your resources
- Develop your skills
- Do something, no matter how small, each day to implement your plans
- Succeed or fail
- Reflect
- Repeat
I have had a couple people ask me what my religious denomination – Syncretic – means. Syncretic means that one religion doesn’t work for me. My religious beliefs are a hodgepodge of beliefs from different religions all blended together to fill in those cracks in any one particular belief. My religion takes in beliefs from Catholicism, Chaotes, paganism and wiccan, Taoism, Buddhism, and others I have picked up along the way.
The magician has a responsibility to create a blend of beliefs systems; otherwise the overuse of any one tool will wear down that system and render it inapplicable. Catholicism simply cannot provide all of the answers or fulfill the necessary emotional needs but neither can Chaos magick or Discordianism ever be a widely accepted belief system because they are too inherently ludicrous.
Thus a magician must select multiple systems of beliefs, multiple magical paradigms. These systems could be blended into one syncretic belief or be used as appropriately to circumstances. There are never any contradictions in beliefs, any more than a hammer contradicts a screwdriver.
Origination: The most advanced form of synthesis, Origination occurs when the magician creates a new system that is recognizable as more than the sum of its parts. Most magical and religious systems have origins in earlier systems but evolve beyond their roots. Christianity in general is an Origination, as are its various sub-sects like Protestantism. Chaos magick and Discordianism are their own Originations and all the other Transmetropolitan religions that pop up. Name it, brand it, sell it, worship it, in some type of order. Origination most often occurs as an adaptation in order to fit pre-existing systems into new cultures.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
The Living Seed
The joke is on me. As I’ve been studying sigils, I was under the impression that the term sigil had some connection to the word seed; after all they both start with the letter S. Ha ha!
Actually sigil comes from the Latin meaning seal. There’s three years of Latin and toga parties down the drain.
But for the sake of metaphor, imagine a sigil as a seed, either semen (hey, we’re adults here) or as the type of seed you would plant in a garden. The difference is biological.
I was watching an episode of Family Guy to receive my daily intellectual molestation and Peter Griffen makes a comment that theater is a living thing. The synchronicity is interesting because that was the idea in my head about magic and art.
The seed is planted, tended to, and allowed to grow on its own. This is a basic attitude towards life. Plant want you want to reap, tend to it, and reap what you have sown. The pessimist in me wonders at times what I have sown.
Is art alive? For the sake of argument and philosophy, yes.
Your sigil, your poem, your song, your film, your dance -- they're all living growing things.
Art is alive and I haven’t a clue what that means!
I’ve heard Simon and Garfunkel ask, is the theater really dead? That makes sense to me at a poetic level. The hopes and investment and interest and belief in the power of art has worn off. We no longer give our attention to the theater and have replaced it with the consumer culture of the movie theater, but isn’t film just the theaters latest incarnation?
If something dies, then was it alive, and how?
I’ve heard of stories where characters take over the story; the writer loses control over the plot because the characterization takes over. Spider-Man would never do that!
I once found myself wondering if Harry Potter minded all of the ridiculous fan ficton being written about him, the bad fan fiction having him do stupid things or the badly written cross-overs. Harry Potter leads a busy life, never has time to rest with all of the adventures he goes on inside people's heads and on their websites.
At times I’ve developed a certain reverence for characters I’ve created, a feeling of love or attachment to them. I’ve heard of authors who have cried because they killed a character or ended a septology.
But characters we love personally don’t always attract a faithful audience. Is there any writer here who hasn’t had a character or concept justly killed by a critic? The character may seem alive inside our imagination but can’t carry over to someone else’s head.
Back to sigils as living things, let me make a slight tangent. I’m exploring this living seed concept rather than just writing an expository essay.
As a little girl I was particularly fond of the Frankenstein story, of the obsessed scientist who creates life by sewing together dead body parts. The Frankenstein myth has other forms. Pygmalion and Galatea are the more artistic aesthetic pair, the enamored artist who sculpts the perfect woman, only to fall in love with her. The goddess of love and beauty Venus Aphrodite turns Galatea into a real woman in the same way the Blue Fairy turns Pinocchio into a real boy. The Jews have their golems, created from clay and breathed life with a single word written on their forehead. Alchemists have their homunculi, little men originally thought to be the substance of sperm, a model of a human in miniature.
When we create characters, we create golems, galateas, homunculi. Traditionally these creations in magic served to attract success, protect the magician, and act as a conduit and reservoir for magical power. The Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game had various types of homunculi and golems made of all types of substances and functions: homunculi made of circuitry, golems of wood or glass or car gears, etc.
You need to give body to your emotions and ideas, both the horrors and pleasures, so that you may heal your hurt and be inspired by your pleasure.
One of the magician’s initial responsibilities is to create such an entity, a voodoo doll through whatever medium is preferred. I would ask though how a dancer or musician might create their golems. Perhaps a song or dance titled with a name or an album of phonic names.
This artistic homunculus – I should come up with a name – homo artis – needs to be as real as possible. Should it be confined to one dimension? Should a musician limit her homunculi to just a collection of songs? The magician should strive to add new dimensions constantly: create a MySpace music profile to the homunculus, add artwork or album covers, let the identity of the homunculus take over as a stage name.
Writing homunculi is similar to creating and using fiction suits. Create a character and explore the dream worlds through that character.
Over the past few years, my Galatea has been a character I named Bradbury, originally a male character based upon a reoccurring male figure in my life, but I’ve since recreated Bradbury into my own image, an androgynous female character. Only recently have I realized how flat she was. I’ve had to focus my energies on drawing her, fleshing out how she would respond in certain situations, giving her a lover to interact with and a mission in life.
The homunculi starts out as a sigil. My initial experiments with sigils have them in abstract typographical form but the more I look into a concept, a sigil simply needs to be a sensory image symbolizing a desire: this could be a picture or sound or heck, why not, a taste. The ultrasigil adds in multi-media (sound, visuals, modeling, intertextuality) while the hypersigil develops the sigil across the four dimensions, providing personality, plot, and time span. How much needs to be added to make the homunculi real?
What we are creating is our own godform in a different form (perhaps). I need to write more about godforms at some point (another blog, perhaps) but to summarize the casual touching comments I’ve made about them, godforms are living stories, sigils in divine personification. Zeus is the lightning sigil, Mercury a communication sigil, Athena a war sigil. We worship these godform sigils to gain access to the power of the lightning, of communication, of military strategy. A magician should choose his pantheon (collection of godforms) and study them, study the art devoted to these godforms and the stories devoted to them.
Your homo artis then needs his or her own artwork and stories.
What then is the purpose of creating these homunculi? Success, protection, power? These old school concepts don’t really translate practically in today’s magic sphere.
The homunculi is often used (or was) as a model of consciousness. Imagine that inside your head was this little man who was driving you around like a robot. The Eddie Murphy movie Meet Dave uses this plot. This homunculus is you but if we remold the concept, imagine that like the Pink Floyd song goes, there’s someone in your head who isn’t you, a secondary self.
You are your conscious mind while this homunculi is a subconscious self. Some psycho-historians have speculated that our interior monologue thoughts were once separate from us, so that muses and gods were whispers in our heads rather than our thoughts. This would explain schizophrenia.
The homo artis represents your artistic self, your magical self, that may be in conflict with your conscious self. Your goal should be to bring harmony with your conscious and subconscious selves.
Perhaps you’ve heard of right brain/left brain theories. The left side of the brain is supposedly responsible for logical orderly processing while the right side is for creative pursuits. I’ve seen this because many people who I know as artists are highly disorganized while highly organized people tend to be artistically stunted. A general observation with many holes in it.
Often our conscious and subconscious selves are in conflict with each other. It’s our fault. We try to tell our subconscious what to do like we were in a doctor’s office telling the doctor the diagnosis.
The orderly brain is critical of the artistic side and then we wonder why the artistic side doesn’t want to talk to us anymore. How about we let our brains do what they’re supposed to?
The artistic side needs daydreaming, fantasy, chaos, lack of restriction, and party time to thrive. It produces but creativity also needs organization. I’ve noticed that with the soft copy scans of my comic books I download that the files are done by partners, one scanning and the other editing. Your subconscious mind creates the art, your conscious mind organizes it.
Your homo artis should be the first person to talk to in any artistic endeavors. The simplest way is to either talk outloud to yourself. With today’s cell phone craze, do we really pay attention to people talking to themselves? (When I was in middle school, one of the popular girls made fun of me because I was always talking to myself!)
This Question and Answer session can dig through ideas. The creative process needs verbalization, the expression of ideas to stew. Part of creativity is expressing ideas, often crappy ideas, to build into better ideas.
Talk to your gods. Talk to your homunculi.
Or write your conversations down:
K: what do we want to write about today, Bradbury?
B: I don’t know. Give me a second to think. I think you need to write more pornography, or at least a good love story. You’ve been heartbroken and never really had a chance to express what it’s like to be in love. You just stare at pictures of your old boyfriends and feel hurt. You also want a buffalo chicken pizza but remember your diet.
K: OK, then, how do I get this love story started?
B: From the beginning. Two lovers meet. Think about that fish tank scene in Romeo and Juliet, Claire Danes is hot, er, I mean Leonardo DiCaprio is hot in that scene.
K: How do you want to be seduced, B?
Your homunculi is your Oracle.
Back to my original question, how is art alive? You create something that takes on a life of it’s own.
But I keep thinking back to Alan Moore’s Promethea, whom Moore refers to as a living story.
How can a story be alive, my left brain asks? A character I can see, but a story?
Tangent: when I set up my MySpace profile (back before I moved to Facebook), the profile had this sense of uncontrollable growth. My first couple days were just entering in information about myself, posting pictures, uploading music, and doing design work. Suddenly I had thirty friends within one day and comments posted all over the place.
A story in itself, the more memetic it is, can become alive by being passed down through generation to generation, from author to fan, from book to film. The art lives beyond the artist. Promethea is not one person but rather a series of characters appearing through different authors: more ontologically unsound, Promethea is a story rather than a character. The fictional character of Promethea actualizes in the real world through the writing of stories. G’ah, I need to dissect the ontology of Promethea more. (As I'm putting titles in their proper italics, I keep wondering if I should put Promethea in italics. Is Promethea the book or the character?)
I’m also thinking about Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles and the comics letter column which like with any fan interaction gets a life of its own.
I read one commentary on e-mail correspondence between lovers which commented that the e-mails are the relationship. Traditionally our sense of self, our identity is shaped by verbal/social communication but in the digital age, we are investing ourselves into soft copy transcripts of our identities. Our IMs and txts become representations of ourselves. So do our stories.
Like with MySpace or the Promethea meme or the Invisibles forum or any fan fiction, there’s life and energy.
I haven't completed my thought or found resolution to my idea of the sigil as a living thing, but I need to Banish, take a bath, and prepare for a midnight preview of The Incredible Hulk.
Actually sigil comes from the Latin meaning seal. There’s three years of Latin and toga parties down the drain.
But for the sake of metaphor, imagine a sigil as a seed, either semen (hey, we’re adults here) or as the type of seed you would plant in a garden. The difference is biological.
I was watching an episode of Family Guy to receive my daily intellectual molestation and Peter Griffen makes a comment that theater is a living thing. The synchronicity is interesting because that was the idea in my head about magic and art.
The seed is planted, tended to, and allowed to grow on its own. This is a basic attitude towards life. Plant want you want to reap, tend to it, and reap what you have sown. The pessimist in me wonders at times what I have sown.
Is art alive? For the sake of argument and philosophy, yes.
Your sigil, your poem, your song, your film, your dance -- they're all living growing things.
Art is alive and I haven’t a clue what that means!
I’ve heard Simon and Garfunkel ask, is the theater really dead? That makes sense to me at a poetic level. The hopes and investment and interest and belief in the power of art has worn off. We no longer give our attention to the theater and have replaced it with the consumer culture of the movie theater, but isn’t film just the theaters latest incarnation?
If something dies, then was it alive, and how?
I’ve heard of stories where characters take over the story; the writer loses control over the plot because the characterization takes over. Spider-Man would never do that!
I once found myself wondering if Harry Potter minded all of the ridiculous fan ficton being written about him, the bad fan fiction having him do stupid things or the badly written cross-overs. Harry Potter leads a busy life, never has time to rest with all of the adventures he goes on inside people's heads and on their websites.
At times I’ve developed a certain reverence for characters I’ve created, a feeling of love or attachment to them. I’ve heard of authors who have cried because they killed a character or ended a septology.
But characters we love personally don’t always attract a faithful audience. Is there any writer here who hasn’t had a character or concept justly killed by a critic? The character may seem alive inside our imagination but can’t carry over to someone else’s head.
Back to sigils as living things, let me make a slight tangent. I’m exploring this living seed concept rather than just writing an expository essay.
As a little girl I was particularly fond of the Frankenstein story, of the obsessed scientist who creates life by sewing together dead body parts. The Frankenstein myth has other forms. Pygmalion and Galatea are the more artistic aesthetic pair, the enamored artist who sculpts the perfect woman, only to fall in love with her. The goddess of love and beauty Venus Aphrodite turns Galatea into a real woman in the same way the Blue Fairy turns Pinocchio into a real boy. The Jews have their golems, created from clay and breathed life with a single word written on their forehead. Alchemists have their homunculi, little men originally thought to be the substance of sperm, a model of a human in miniature.
When we create characters, we create golems, galateas, homunculi. Traditionally these creations in magic served to attract success, protect the magician, and act as a conduit and reservoir for magical power. The Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game had various types of homunculi and golems made of all types of substances and functions: homunculi made of circuitry, golems of wood or glass or car gears, etc.
You need to give body to your emotions and ideas, both the horrors and pleasures, so that you may heal your hurt and be inspired by your pleasure.
One of the magician’s initial responsibilities is to create such an entity, a voodoo doll through whatever medium is preferred. I would ask though how a dancer or musician might create their golems. Perhaps a song or dance titled with a name or an album of phonic names.
This artistic homunculus – I should come up with a name – homo artis – needs to be as real as possible. Should it be confined to one dimension? Should a musician limit her homunculi to just a collection of songs? The magician should strive to add new dimensions constantly: create a MySpace music profile to the homunculus, add artwork or album covers, let the identity of the homunculus take over as a stage name.
Writing homunculi is similar to creating and using fiction suits. Create a character and explore the dream worlds through that character.
Over the past few years, my Galatea has been a character I named Bradbury, originally a male character based upon a reoccurring male figure in my life, but I’ve since recreated Bradbury into my own image, an androgynous female character. Only recently have I realized how flat she was. I’ve had to focus my energies on drawing her, fleshing out how she would respond in certain situations, giving her a lover to interact with and a mission in life.
The homunculi starts out as a sigil. My initial experiments with sigils have them in abstract typographical form but the more I look into a concept, a sigil simply needs to be a sensory image symbolizing a desire: this could be a picture or sound or heck, why not, a taste. The ultrasigil adds in multi-media (sound, visuals, modeling, intertextuality) while the hypersigil develops the sigil across the four dimensions, providing personality, plot, and time span. How much needs to be added to make the homunculi real?
What we are creating is our own godform in a different form (perhaps). I need to write more about godforms at some point (another blog, perhaps) but to summarize the casual touching comments I’ve made about them, godforms are living stories, sigils in divine personification. Zeus is the lightning sigil, Mercury a communication sigil, Athena a war sigil. We worship these godform sigils to gain access to the power of the lightning, of communication, of military strategy. A magician should choose his pantheon (collection of godforms) and study them, study the art devoted to these godforms and the stories devoted to them.
Your homo artis then needs his or her own artwork and stories.
What then is the purpose of creating these homunculi? Success, protection, power? These old school concepts don’t really translate practically in today’s magic sphere.
The homunculi is often used (or was) as a model of consciousness. Imagine that inside your head was this little man who was driving you around like a robot. The Eddie Murphy movie Meet Dave uses this plot. This homunculus is you but if we remold the concept, imagine that like the Pink Floyd song goes, there’s someone in your head who isn’t you, a secondary self.
You are your conscious mind while this homunculi is a subconscious self. Some psycho-historians have speculated that our interior monologue thoughts were once separate from us, so that muses and gods were whispers in our heads rather than our thoughts. This would explain schizophrenia.
The homo artis represents your artistic self, your magical self, that may be in conflict with your conscious self. Your goal should be to bring harmony with your conscious and subconscious selves.
Perhaps you’ve heard of right brain/left brain theories. The left side of the brain is supposedly responsible for logical orderly processing while the right side is for creative pursuits. I’ve seen this because many people who I know as artists are highly disorganized while highly organized people tend to be artistically stunted. A general observation with many holes in it.
Often our conscious and subconscious selves are in conflict with each other. It’s our fault. We try to tell our subconscious what to do like we were in a doctor’s office telling the doctor the diagnosis.
The orderly brain is critical of the artistic side and then we wonder why the artistic side doesn’t want to talk to us anymore. How about we let our brains do what they’re supposed to?
The artistic side needs daydreaming, fantasy, chaos, lack of restriction, and party time to thrive. It produces but creativity also needs organization. I’ve noticed that with the soft copy scans of my comic books I download that the files are done by partners, one scanning and the other editing. Your subconscious mind creates the art, your conscious mind organizes it.
Your homo artis should be the first person to talk to in any artistic endeavors. The simplest way is to either talk outloud to yourself. With today’s cell phone craze, do we really pay attention to people talking to themselves? (When I was in middle school, one of the popular girls made fun of me because I was always talking to myself!)
This Question and Answer session can dig through ideas. The creative process needs verbalization, the expression of ideas to stew. Part of creativity is expressing ideas, often crappy ideas, to build into better ideas.
Talk to your gods. Talk to your homunculi.
Or write your conversations down:
K: what do we want to write about today, Bradbury?
B: I don’t know. Give me a second to think. I think you need to write more pornography, or at least a good love story. You’ve been heartbroken and never really had a chance to express what it’s like to be in love. You just stare at pictures of your old boyfriends and feel hurt. You also want a buffalo chicken pizza but remember your diet.
K: OK, then, how do I get this love story started?
B: From the beginning. Two lovers meet. Think about that fish tank scene in Romeo and Juliet, Claire Danes is hot, er, I mean Leonardo DiCaprio is hot in that scene.
K: How do you want to be seduced, B?
Your homunculi is your Oracle.
Back to my original question, how is art alive? You create something that takes on a life of it’s own.
But I keep thinking back to Alan Moore’s Promethea, whom Moore refers to as a living story.
How can a story be alive, my left brain asks? A character I can see, but a story?
Tangent: when I set up my MySpace profile (back before I moved to Facebook), the profile had this sense of uncontrollable growth. My first couple days were just entering in information about myself, posting pictures, uploading music, and doing design work. Suddenly I had thirty friends within one day and comments posted all over the place.
A story in itself, the more memetic it is, can become alive by being passed down through generation to generation, from author to fan, from book to film. The art lives beyond the artist. Promethea is not one person but rather a series of characters appearing through different authors: more ontologically unsound, Promethea is a story rather than a character. The fictional character of Promethea actualizes in the real world through the writing of stories. G’ah, I need to dissect the ontology of Promethea more. (As I'm putting titles in their proper italics, I keep wondering if I should put Promethea in italics. Is Promethea the book or the character?)
I’m also thinking about Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles and the comics letter column which like with any fan interaction gets a life of its own.
I read one commentary on e-mail correspondence between lovers which commented that the e-mails are the relationship. Traditionally our sense of self, our identity is shaped by verbal/social communication but in the digital age, we are investing ourselves into soft copy transcripts of our identities. Our IMs and txts become representations of ourselves. So do our stories.
Like with MySpace or the Promethea meme or the Invisibles forum or any fan fiction, there’s life and energy.
I haven't completed my thought or found resolution to my idea of the sigil as a living thing, but I need to Banish, take a bath, and prepare for a midnight preview of The Incredible Hulk.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Summoning
Summoning, also known as Invocation, is using objects or the environment as inspiration to enhance magical rituals.
Okay, that's a really shitty definition but it's the best laymen's description for what has some complicated history behind it.
One of the more well-known types of magic is sympathetic magic (which is essential to the workings of voodoo dolls). The magician sets up a magical connection between two un-connected objects (for example, a doll and a person). Manipulation of one object produces changes in the other.
Scientists have found sympathy between atomic particles whereby scientists divided an atomic particle in half and separated the two halves, only to find that changes made in one half affected the other despite large distances.
More pseudo-scientific theories have abounded, from morphic fields to Odic force, that claim there is a physical or energy interconnection between the life force of all living creatures, and to take the idea a step forward, an interconnection between EVERYTHING, including man and natural forces.
I don't know how far I would go in believing these pseudo-scientific hippie claims but I have seen more valid models related to the Summoning concept.
First, I know from pure experience that art has an effect on the consumer if the consumer is able to make a connection with the art. After watching a movie (or actually usually during the movie), I often find myself having brainstorms of creative ideas. Similarly, while listening to a particular genre of music, I am also emotionally affected, so heavy metal might increase my anger and adrenaline while New Age relaxes me and lets me focus better.
Second, I've also seen in neuro-linguistic programming a ritual called modeling which I have seen to be effective. With modeling, the nlp-er or magician imitates the body language of a person for the purpose of creating some type of cognitive change in the nlp-er. The theory is that body language affects thought and emotional processes. Walk, talk, move, or act like a person and you begin to assume that person's personality. For example, I dated a guy who was just morbidly depressed. One day out of boredom and curiosity, I modeled his physical posture, in particularly his way of sitting. He sat stiffly and tightly with his arms tucked to his stomach like he had a stomach ache, leaning forward. Try this posture and tell me how you feel after a minute or two.
Theoretically, then, art, modeling, sympathetic magic, etc, can be used to bring about changes within the magician's behavior, personality, or life in general.
To engage in Summoning, the magician needs first to consider what results he or she is looking for. Recently, I was undergoing therapeutic magic to help deal with my constant brooding, sulky behavior. Currently, I am developing some anti-depression magic rituals.
Once a statement of intent is formulated, the magician gathers together materials that best symbolically capture the intent or final goal. These objects or materials should represent a variety of senses.
For my brooding ritual, I gathered together the following materials:
Photos and paintings are used for visual appeal. Comic books combining words and pictures provide both visual and linguistic reinforcement. A video clip is audio visual while the MP3's are audio. Poetry and expository writing provide different forms of textual representation. Additional sensory information involving touch, smell, or taste could also be provided.
The purpose of the collected items is to build an immersive multi-sensory abstract persona or mood. With Summoning, we are summoning the essence of an abstract idea to possess us like a demon.
Each of the items provides a modeling ritual. For example, pages from The Crow provide body language clues to imitate, as well as a general pattern of behavior to model. Likewise with The Sandman and BtVS. The music of the Cure, the Doors, Nine Inch Nails, and Nirvana also channels audio mood-makers and psychophonic influences: listen to the Doors for a short while and notice the changes in mood. Our heads are filled with a particular language that takes over our normal style of thinking. I find that just a moment or two with someone with an accent, I begin imitating the person's accent.
Typically, these moods and models were once the gods of ancient cultures. The magicians of old created godforms that represented aspects of nature that the magician wanted to understand and control. Through ritual worship of these gods, the magicians attuned themselves with the nature of the god's symbols. Similarly, Norse Berserkers would dress in animal skins to gain the power of animals like bears or wolves in battle. Totems are a type of summoning.
Listening to Nine Inch Nails while reading The Crow is a modern type of ritualistic worship of contemporary godforms.
Grant Morrison in his “How To Chat Up Gods” section of Pop magic explains
The Summoning doesn't last forever and rituals are meant to temporarily harness the godforms to accomplish a specific task, like a mother's adrenaline pumping to lift up a car. Summon and worship your gods but don't forget to take a lunch break and come back to the real world.
Okay, that's a really shitty definition but it's the best laymen's description for what has some complicated history behind it.
One of the more well-known types of magic is sympathetic magic (which is essential to the workings of voodoo dolls). The magician sets up a magical connection between two un-connected objects (for example, a doll and a person). Manipulation of one object produces changes in the other.
Scientists have found sympathy between atomic particles whereby scientists divided an atomic particle in half and separated the two halves, only to find that changes made in one half affected the other despite large distances.
More pseudo-scientific theories have abounded, from morphic fields to Odic force, that claim there is a physical or energy interconnection between the life force of all living creatures, and to take the idea a step forward, an interconnection between EVERYTHING, including man and natural forces.
I don't know how far I would go in believing these pseudo-scientific hippie claims but I have seen more valid models related to the Summoning concept.
First, I know from pure experience that art has an effect on the consumer if the consumer is able to make a connection with the art. After watching a movie (or actually usually during the movie), I often find myself having brainstorms of creative ideas. Similarly, while listening to a particular genre of music, I am also emotionally affected, so heavy metal might increase my anger and adrenaline while New Age relaxes me and lets me focus better.
Second, I've also seen in neuro-linguistic programming a ritual called modeling which I have seen to be effective. With modeling, the nlp-er or magician imitates the body language of a person for the purpose of creating some type of cognitive change in the nlp-er. The theory is that body language affects thought and emotional processes. Walk, talk, move, or act like a person and you begin to assume that person's personality. For example, I dated a guy who was just morbidly depressed. One day out of boredom and curiosity, I modeled his physical posture, in particularly his way of sitting. He sat stiffly and tightly with his arms tucked to his stomach like he had a stomach ache, leaning forward. Try this posture and tell me how you feel after a minute or two.
Theoretically, then, art, modeling, sympathetic magic, etc, can be used to bring about changes within the magician's behavior, personality, or life in general.
To engage in Summoning, the magician needs first to consider what results he or she is looking for. Recently, I was undergoing therapeutic magic to help deal with my constant brooding, sulky behavior. Currently, I am developing some anti-depression magic rituals.
Once a statement of intent is formulated, the magician gathers together materials that best symbolically capture the intent or final goal. These objects or materials should represent a variety of senses.
For my brooding ritual, I gathered together the following materials:
- A video clip of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series titled "Innocence" when Buffy's vampire boyfriend Angel turns into a bad guy after they have sex.
- A photo of Lord Byron
- A painting depicting a scene from Lord Byron's poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage."
- A copy of the poem "Childe Harolde's Pilgrimage"
- The wikipedia entry describing traits of the Byronic hero
- A page from James O'Barr's comic book The Crow
- MP3 clips from Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, the Cure, and the Doors
- A copy of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman issue 42
Photos and paintings are used for visual appeal. Comic books combining words and pictures provide both visual and linguistic reinforcement. A video clip is audio visual while the MP3's are audio. Poetry and expository writing provide different forms of textual representation. Additional sensory information involving touch, smell, or taste could also be provided.
The purpose of the collected items is to build an immersive multi-sensory abstract persona or mood. With Summoning, we are summoning the essence of an abstract idea to possess us like a demon.
Each of the items provides a modeling ritual. For example, pages from The Crow provide body language clues to imitate, as well as a general pattern of behavior to model. Likewise with The Sandman and BtVS. The music of the Cure, the Doors, Nine Inch Nails, and Nirvana also channels audio mood-makers and psychophonic influences: listen to the Doors for a short while and notice the changes in mood. Our heads are filled with a particular language that takes over our normal style of thinking. I find that just a moment or two with someone with an accent, I begin imitating the person's accent.
Typically, these moods and models were once the gods of ancient cultures. The magicians of old created godforms that represented aspects of nature that the magician wanted to understand and control. Through ritual worship of these gods, the magicians attuned themselves with the nature of the god's symbols. Similarly, Norse Berserkers would dress in animal skins to gain the power of animals like bears or wolves in battle. Totems are a type of summoning.
Listening to Nine Inch Nails while reading The Crow is a modern type of ritualistic worship of contemporary godforms.
Grant Morrison in his “How To Chat Up Gods” section of Pop magic explains
People tend to become possessed by gods arbitrarily because they do not recognize them as such; a man can be overwhelmed with anger (the Greek god Ares), we can all be "beside ourselves" with passion (Aphrodite) or grief (Hades). In life we encounter these Big Ideas every day but we no longer use the word "god" to describe them. The magician consciously evokes these states and renames them gods in order to separate them from his or her Self, in order to study them and learn.
To summon a god, one has only to concentrate on that god to the exclusion of all other thought. Let's just say you wish to summon the Big Idea COMMUNICATION in the form of the god Hermes, so that he will grant you a silver-tongue. Hermes is the Greek personification of quick wit, art and spelling and the qualities he represents were embodied by Classical artists in the symbol of an eternally swift and naked youth, fledged with tiny wings and dressed only in streamers of air. Hermes is a condensation into pictorial form—a sigil, in fact—of an easily recognizable default state of human consciousness. When our words and minds are nimble, when we conjure laughter from others, when we make poetry, we are in the real presence of Hermes. We are, in fact, possessed by the god.
You may wish to connect with Hermes if you're beginning a novel or giving a speech or simply want to entertain a new beau with your incredible repartee.
The form the Big Idea takes depends upon your tradition or desire. The beautiful electric youth of the Greeks is a well-known image in Western cultures, having been appropriated for everything from Golden Age FLASH comics to the logo of the INTERFLORA chain of florists.
Call fervently upon Hermes. Luxuriate in his attributes. Drink coffee or Red Bull in his name or take a line of speed, depending on your levels of drug abuse. Fill your head with speedy images of jet planes, jet cars and bullet trains. Play "Ray of Light" by Madonna and call down Hermes. Surround yourself with FLASH comics and call down Hermes. Tell him how very wonderful he is in your own words, and then call him into yourself, building a bridge between your own ever-growing feelings of brilliance and the descending energies of the Big Idea.
I am mentioning Summoning during my focus on sigils because in the concept of the ultrasigil that I introduced a couple weeks back, I've found Summoning to help increase the magician's focus on a sigil. I create file folders on my computer and then load them up with paraphernalia related to my statement of intent: I fill the file folder with pictures, movie clips, music, artwork, and such so as to have these instant mood makers. I change the icon of the file folder to an appropriate sigil and work my magic from there.
The Summoning doesn't last forever and rituals are meant to temporarily harness the godforms to accomplish a specific task, like a mother's adrenaline pumping to lift up a car. Summon and worship your gods but don't forget to take a lunch break and come back to the real world.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Color Magic, at last
As I've been working with sigils, color magic became more important not only because of the importance of adding color to a sigil but also because the organization of color magic can also provide a magician focus for a sigil program.
Color magic is primarily associated with Terry Prachett’s book The Colour of Magic. The inside joke of the title and concept is that there is no color of magic, so whenever something doesn’t exist, it needs to be invented. Because Prachett is primarily a parodist, I am skeptical of the widespread incorporation of his creative writing into magical theory but one must use what looks useful.
There are eight colors to magic, each representing a particular group of concepts.
1. Octarine: No, octarine isn’t a normal color but rather invented by Prachett to be the eighth color, the color of magic itself. It is generally described as hot pink/purple but octarine will vary depending upon the magician’s ethos. Octarine is used as a symbol for magical study itself. This whole blog is octarine magic (what I might re-dubbed, meta-magic). Octarine represents the magician’s interest in magic, creativity, imagination, art, and otherworldly interests such as astrology or mythology. Godforms include Odin, Loki, Thoth, Hermes/Mercury, the bearded wizard, Veles, Isis, Oghma, and Hecate. I would call a sigil program using Octarine magic, the binding of magic. Ha, ha, really original, but the magician's purpose is to immerse him or herself into study and experimentation in magic lore and creative development.
2. Black: Black magic is a semantic drift. Black magic was originally referred to as necromancy, necro meaning dead and mancy meaning magic or divination. Eventually, necromancy became negromancy, black magic. Black magic is magic involving death. It is not necessarily evil except in the philosophy of the user or the superstitious. Black magic is used to study the aging process, entropy, and of course, death and dying, 1) in order to prevent death and/or 2) to kill people. Godforms include Thanos, Yama, Arawn, Kali, the Grim Reaper, and Jack Kavorkian. A binding of death should be similar to a death studies course -- I took one in college -- and involve an understand of the psychology and necrology of death, both the magician's on bodily health but also attitude on death and the views of his culture.
3. Blue: Blue magic is money magic, or more correctly, wealth magic. The goal of wealth magic is not to earn a lot of money, per se, but to create an energy flow of money. Money needs to be saved and invested, spent on living, but also used for personal enjoyment and charity. Wealth magic creates a surplus of money to produce an enjoyable and balanced experience. A pennypincher is not using wealth magic because nothing is spent. A credit card debter binge-spender is not using wealth magic. A corporate executive who works 18 hours a day is not using wealth magic. Wealth magic is about examining one’s negative beliefs about money and learning how money works (as if money was an intelligent being, its own godform). Godforms include Plutus, Saturn, Daikoko, Lakshmi, Tsi Shen Yeh, Vasudhera, Pecunia, Aesculanus, Abundantia, Copia (yes, those are actual deities) and Midas, as well as the dead presidents. Wealth magic is typically associated with earth astrology (which confounds me as to why blue is the color of wealth). Blue magic sigil programs are often called the binding of necessity: the magician engages in money magic spells but also an intense financial education.
4. Red: Red magic is war magic, but not necessarily death magic. The goal of war is not death but winning. Red magic involves bodily health, aggression, energy, morale, and competitive skills (either physically or strategically). Common godforms include Ares/Mars, Orion, Achilles, Beowulf, Gilgamesh, Heracles, Perseus, Athena, Thor, Horus, and modern weapons like guns and bombs. Fire is a primary tool, so the use of fire and flammable materials is important. I would refer to a sigil program of red magic as a binding of the body, focusing on physical health and exercise and competitive strategy.
5. Yellow: Yellow magic is more difficult to explain conceptually. Yellow magic involves illumination. It involves analyzing and changing aspects of the self that include self-image, humor, creativity, charisma, and social control. Yellow magic requires firstly introspection, a detailed analysis of the self in order to make retroactive changes in self-image; the past is not a series of traumas but rather of amoral events subject to either negative or positive reinterpretation. The yellow magician reinterprets his or her past to make changes in self-image. Non-verbal communication is a second tool: clothing, hygiene, body language, and etiquette are studied and manipulated to develop maximum attraction. Social control is a related concept. Lastly, laughter and good humor are important tools. Godforms include Ra, Helios, Apollo, Balder, the Three Stooges, the Simpsons, and Family Guy. A binding of illumination whereby the magician develops insight into his self-image and a projection of a positive self-image should be a primary focus in the beginning of magical study.
6. Green: Green magic is love magic. The most important part of green magic is self-love and insight into the positive beauty of life. Green magic also involves friendship, appreciating the value of people and showing interest in what interests them. Godforms include Venus, Ishtar, Freya, Hathor, Cupid, and Narcissus. The binding of the heart relates to the binding of illumination: introspect on what it is you want in a lover, what you value in a friendship, and how you can better relate to people.
7. Orange: Orange magic is the magic of deception and trickery. This type of magic involves quick wit and conniving and most in particularly the introduction of skill into gambling odds. Godforms include Hermes/Mercury, Loki, the Looney Tunes, and Coyote. (Interestingly, the first two are also gods of magic). I'll admit that I never considered dabbling in orange magic so I wouldn't even know what to call a sigil program based upon it. I would guess that the magician learns the rules and how to break them, studies games of chance and how people cheat, an ddevelops his own counter-program. Orange magic could be an educational tool on the ways of the world.
8. Purple: Purple magic is sex magic (not to be confused with green magic). The general goal of purple magic is not to achieve sexual harmony or seductive power but rather to transform sexual turmoil into art; the emotion behind art isn’t created by sexual stability. The object of desire, whether it be an actual significant other or just someone you’re stalking becomes a poetic Muse similar to Alan Moore’s Promethea. Related to green magic, the Musing is circular, where the magician in turn has to model the interests and personality of the Muse to seduce him or her properly. Androgyny is also an important factor. Godforms here depend upon your own images of sexuality, either the opposite sex (George Clooney, Bruce Willis, Chow Yun Fat, for me) or the same sex to identify with (Milla Jovovich, Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Connelly) or with whomever your love obsession is. Other godforms might include Pan, Dionysus, Priapus, and Adonis. The binding of the muse, well, I'll leave that one alone.
Color magic introduces a new element into sigils and gives the magician a sense of focus inthe use of sigils. Each color program should be developed as its own individual brand, but more sequentially. Experimenting with eight branches of magic at once will dilute your intensity. Prioritize and proceed.
Color magic is primarily associated with Terry Prachett’s book The Colour of Magic. The inside joke of the title and concept is that there is no color of magic, so whenever something doesn’t exist, it needs to be invented. Because Prachett is primarily a parodist, I am skeptical of the widespread incorporation of his creative writing into magical theory but one must use what looks useful.
There are eight colors to magic, each representing a particular group of concepts.
1. Octarine: No, octarine isn’t a normal color but rather invented by Prachett to be the eighth color, the color of magic itself. It is generally described as hot pink/purple but octarine will vary depending upon the magician’s ethos. Octarine is used as a symbol for magical study itself. This whole blog is octarine magic (what I might re-dubbed, meta-magic). Octarine represents the magician’s interest in magic, creativity, imagination, art, and otherworldly interests such as astrology or mythology. Godforms include Odin, Loki, Thoth, Hermes/Mercury, the bearded wizard, Veles, Isis, Oghma, and Hecate. I would call a sigil program using Octarine magic, the binding of magic. Ha, ha, really original, but the magician's purpose is to immerse him or herself into study and experimentation in magic lore and creative development.
2. Black: Black magic is a semantic drift. Black magic was originally referred to as necromancy, necro meaning dead and mancy meaning magic or divination. Eventually, necromancy became negromancy, black magic. Black magic is magic involving death. It is not necessarily evil except in the philosophy of the user or the superstitious. Black magic is used to study the aging process, entropy, and of course, death and dying, 1) in order to prevent death and/or 2) to kill people. Godforms include Thanos, Yama, Arawn, Kali, the Grim Reaper, and Jack Kavorkian. A binding of death should be similar to a death studies course -- I took one in college -- and involve an understand of the psychology and necrology of death, both the magician's on bodily health but also attitude on death and the views of his culture.
3. Blue: Blue magic is money magic, or more correctly, wealth magic. The goal of wealth magic is not to earn a lot of money, per se, but to create an energy flow of money. Money needs to be saved and invested, spent on living, but also used for personal enjoyment and charity. Wealth magic creates a surplus of money to produce an enjoyable and balanced experience. A pennypincher is not using wealth magic because nothing is spent. A credit card debter binge-spender is not using wealth magic. A corporate executive who works 18 hours a day is not using wealth magic. Wealth magic is about examining one’s negative beliefs about money and learning how money works (as if money was an intelligent being, its own godform). Godforms include Plutus, Saturn, Daikoko, Lakshmi, Tsi Shen Yeh, Vasudhera, Pecunia, Aesculanus, Abundantia, Copia (yes, those are actual deities) and Midas, as well as the dead presidents. Wealth magic is typically associated with earth astrology (which confounds me as to why blue is the color of wealth). Blue magic sigil programs are often called the binding of necessity: the magician engages in money magic spells but also an intense financial education.
4. Red: Red magic is war magic, but not necessarily death magic. The goal of war is not death but winning. Red magic involves bodily health, aggression, energy, morale, and competitive skills (either physically or strategically). Common godforms include Ares/Mars, Orion, Achilles, Beowulf, Gilgamesh, Heracles, Perseus, Athena, Thor, Horus, and modern weapons like guns and bombs. Fire is a primary tool, so the use of fire and flammable materials is important. I would refer to a sigil program of red magic as a binding of the body, focusing on physical health and exercise and competitive strategy.
5. Yellow: Yellow magic is more difficult to explain conceptually. Yellow magic involves illumination. It involves analyzing and changing aspects of the self that include self-image, humor, creativity, charisma, and social control. Yellow magic requires firstly introspection, a detailed analysis of the self in order to make retroactive changes in self-image; the past is not a series of traumas but rather of amoral events subject to either negative or positive reinterpretation. The yellow magician reinterprets his or her past to make changes in self-image. Non-verbal communication is a second tool: clothing, hygiene, body language, and etiquette are studied and manipulated to develop maximum attraction. Social control is a related concept. Lastly, laughter and good humor are important tools. Godforms include Ra, Helios, Apollo, Balder, the Three Stooges, the Simpsons, and Family Guy. A binding of illumination whereby the magician develops insight into his self-image and a projection of a positive self-image should be a primary focus in the beginning of magical study.
6. Green: Green magic is love magic. The most important part of green magic is self-love and insight into the positive beauty of life. Green magic also involves friendship, appreciating the value of people and showing interest in what interests them. Godforms include Venus, Ishtar, Freya, Hathor, Cupid, and Narcissus. The binding of the heart relates to the binding of illumination: introspect on what it is you want in a lover, what you value in a friendship, and how you can better relate to people.
7. Orange: Orange magic is the magic of deception and trickery. This type of magic involves quick wit and conniving and most in particularly the introduction of skill into gambling odds. Godforms include Hermes/Mercury, Loki, the Looney Tunes, and Coyote. (Interestingly, the first two are also gods of magic). I'll admit that I never considered dabbling in orange magic so I wouldn't even know what to call a sigil program based upon it. I would guess that the magician learns the rules and how to break them, studies games of chance and how people cheat, an ddevelops his own counter-program. Orange magic could be an educational tool on the ways of the world.
8. Purple: Purple magic is sex magic (not to be confused with green magic). The general goal of purple magic is not to achieve sexual harmony or seductive power but rather to transform sexual turmoil into art; the emotion behind art isn’t created by sexual stability. The object of desire, whether it be an actual significant other or just someone you’re stalking becomes a poetic Muse similar to Alan Moore’s Promethea. Related to green magic, the Musing is circular, where the magician in turn has to model the interests and personality of the Muse to seduce him or her properly. Androgyny is also an important factor. Godforms here depend upon your own images of sexuality, either the opposite sex (George Clooney, Bruce Willis, Chow Yun Fat, for me) or the same sex to identify with (Milla Jovovich, Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Connelly) or with whomever your love obsession is. Other godforms might include Pan, Dionysus, Priapus, and Adonis. The binding of the muse, well, I'll leave that one alone.
Color magic introduces a new element into sigils and gives the magician a sense of focus inthe use of sigils. Each color program should be developed as its own individual brand, but more sequentially. Experimenting with eight branches of magic at once will dilute your intensity. Prioritize and proceed.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
ULTRAsigils
As I began experimenting with sigils more, in particularly in response to this blog, I started realizing the inadequacy of the traditional sigil methodology to work for me.
Over the past week, I have been experimenting in particularly with dealing with my sulkiness.
Research on sulking behavior and brooding didn’t give me much insight other than to characterize me as an abusive personality.
I finally found some sort of illumination in a literary archetype known as a Byronic hero (or the female version, la belle dame sans merci). The Byronic hero is the typical anti-hero, larger than life, antidisestablishmentarian, rebellious, moody and abusive but also intellectual and poetic. This bad boy (or girl) archetype has been extensively portrayed throughout the works of Lord Byron (after whom the archetype is named), Wuthering Heights, and vampire mythos, as well as the general love triangle of girl-nice guy-bad boy.
Instead of viewing my sulkiness as a dysfunction, it was more important for me to come to terms with my behavior and submit to it to use it better. I didn’t say control it but rather acknowledge it and integrate it into my personality rather than allowing it to dominate me. Cooperate with it.
In constructing my sulky sigil, I realized a limitation in sigil magic: statements of intent cannot be expressed in negative terms. You cannot sigil for something not to happen because the subconscious only works in terms of positives, like distance – distance can never be negative because moving backwards is still movement. Inaction is still action. I could not sigil to not sulk (it is also splitting an infinitive). This problem was pointed out to me also in a re-reading of Philip Cooper’s Basic Sigil Magic.
But the statement of intent became more problematic. If I didn’t want to be sulking or brooding anymore, how would I phrase the statement of intent in a positive manner? What is the conceptual opposite of brooding? There is no simple term or the term escapes me. We are seeing a limitation of the conscious linguistic statement of intent to capture desire.
The statement of intent best functions as a guide to isolating smaller steps of behavior. For example, a weight loss sigil should lead the magician to focus first on sigiling for healthy eating habits before attempting a forward “I want to lose 10 lbs” sigil.
Ultimately, though, statements of intent should be abandoned for more subconscious plotting. There is no way for me to create a linguistic construction of my desire to be un-sulky. Instead I should focus on creating direct subconscious forms.
What then would be the effect of working directly with the subconscious instead of creating a bridge between the conscious and subconscious? I don’t know yet but I don’t anticipate a problem.
Also, creating this new sigil lead me one step closer to creating a hypersigil.
When I did my comparison and contrast between sigils and logos, in a statement I made about sigils representing a statement of intent while logos represented a specific semiotic, I may have been more pedantic than practical.
Stripping away the statement of indent may be an improvement to better tie in associations to the sigil for better realization of the sigil. A sigil for weight loss no longer needs to represent “I desire to eat healthy for one week” but rather can represent a simple “eat healthy” intent.
In creating this sigilogo, I found computer literacy to be handy, as well as knowledge of summoning rituals.
What follows is a possible alternate means of creating sigils:
I am going to use computer metaphors to describe the process. If you don’t have the computer savvy to actually do what I am recommending, then simply use visualization techniques instead (but I would recommend learning computer savvy because a magician should use whatever technology is available and up-to-date).
Imagine creating four new folders on your computer desktop. Each of these folders represents the four basic elements: fire, earth, air, water. What I did was change the icon to these folders to represent their element, which, for example, can be a fire symbol for fire or perhaps a wand. If you don’t know how to make or change icons, try the user friendly RealWorld Icon Editor.
Once these folders were made, I returned to my previous organizational strategy and created sub-folders based upon my sigil desires. For example, within my water folder I created sub-folders labeled sulky, whore, depressed, moody, passive-aggressive, negative, insecure, control freak, fear of success, self-centered, self-absorbed, and non-verbally in-astute. Naturally, as my training continues, I would refine and condense these sigils as necessary. For example, what is the difference between self-centered and self-absorbed – likewise, these are also fire traits and I wouldn’t want to overlap or repeat sigils.
Having organized my desires, the next step would be to begin the sigiling process. I created a sigil for my sulky brooding desire and changed the icon to the sigil.
Next, I began loading my sulky brooding icon with content chosen to best exemplify the nature of the sigil. For example, since a lot of my sulky brooding desires were based upon an image of Byronic heroism, I loaded a Wikipedia shortcut to the Byronic hero entry, a copy of Lord Byron’s “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” a photograph of Byron, a painting by JMW Turner on "Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage," a copy of the brooding issue of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (Brief Lives, issue 42), scans from The Crow graphic novel, a clip from Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Angel turns evil, and what I might consider Byronic music, in particularly the Doors, the Cure, Nine Inch Nails, and Nirvana.
(As a side note, the question of androgyny popped up while I was putting together this sigil. What happens when a female magician deals with what may be perceived as masculine archetypes? My responses are: 1) I am using water as my element for this sigil, water being a feminine emotional sign as compared to using fire, a masculine active sign; 2) androgyny is prevalent in the artistic Byronic archetype, for example, Jim Morrison and vampires are androgynous figures; 3) I prefer Byronic masculinity over la belle dame sans merci femme fatale archetype because these images are unappealing – the typical femme fatale is a black widow who uses sex as a weapon through passive aggressive manipulation and that is not what I am looking for; 4) substitute associations may be used to summon a belle dame sans merci archetype.)
The effect of incorporating multi-media is to hyper-charge the sigil. The sigil takes a step closer to hypersigil as these new dimensions are being added. The act of creation is further enhanced as numerous additional steps were involved: creating the sigil, creating the icons (and learning how to do that), researching the Byronic hero, collecting pictures and music, actually making the video clips since youtube sucks, and more.
I will call this type of sigil an ultrasigil, not quite as dynamic as a hypersigil but incorporating the illusion of multi-dimensions.
The creation of this more advanced sigil is similar to Summoning magic.
These ultra-sigils can be repeated for each sub-sigil in each element. The process is exhausting so take your time.
Once you feel you have created a sigil portfolio, the next step is to pocket this portfolio into either a thumb drive to take with you or into a visualization routine. If you’re using a thumb drive, I’d recommend investing in a major gigabyte customized drive.
I do a lot of walking meditation, controlled breathing and body movement when I am out and about, and part of this routine is practicing my visualization. Cooper refers to this routine as the Sun/Moon Cleansing or the Four Gateways to Power. I can’t remember the exact names. I copied the basic ritual into my note book and then lost the Basic Sigil Magic book so I only have my notes to work from. Anywho, I’m actually using a modified version of Cooper’s idea because traditional ritual magic is just too fagly for me.
Begin by imaging a ball of light above your head. Yes, just like in Fight Club. Visualize this light moving down through you and into the ground. I practice this first step on its own, in particularly when I am being tested on my flaws, like waiting in a line at Wal-Mart knowing that I’m gonna flip out on somebody.
Spread your arms. Body movement is important to help focus. Visualize your elemental icons –fire to your left, earth to your right, air in front of you, water behind you.
The flow of the light from crown to ground joined with the four elements creates a sphere. I imagine it more like a hula-hoop: when I desire a certain state of performance, I swing the proper sigil to the front of me. For example, when I need some order in my life to get my work done, I visualize the hoop of elemental icon/sigils and rearrange them so that earth is now in front of me, sweeping my right hand to the left in front of me. Again, body movement is important, at least moving your hands in a martial arts style.
Next week, I will talk about color magic and the organization of sigils into a more ambitious routine (that is, one that the typical n00b magician experiments with magic for). In two weeks, I’ll detail Summoning rituals more.
Over the past week, I have been experimenting in particularly with dealing with my sulkiness.
Research on sulking behavior and brooding didn’t give me much insight other than to characterize me as an abusive personality.
I finally found some sort of illumination in a literary archetype known as a Byronic hero (or the female version, la belle dame sans merci). The Byronic hero is the typical anti-hero, larger than life, antidisestablishmentarian, rebellious, moody and abusive but also intellectual and poetic. This bad boy (or girl) archetype has been extensively portrayed throughout the works of Lord Byron (after whom the archetype is named), Wuthering Heights, and vampire mythos, as well as the general love triangle of girl-nice guy-bad boy.
Instead of viewing my sulkiness as a dysfunction, it was more important for me to come to terms with my behavior and submit to it to use it better. I didn’t say control it but rather acknowledge it and integrate it into my personality rather than allowing it to dominate me. Cooperate with it.
In constructing my sulky sigil, I realized a limitation in sigil magic: statements of intent cannot be expressed in negative terms. You cannot sigil for something not to happen because the subconscious only works in terms of positives, like distance – distance can never be negative because moving backwards is still movement. Inaction is still action. I could not sigil to not sulk (it is also splitting an infinitive). This problem was pointed out to me also in a re-reading of Philip Cooper’s Basic Sigil Magic.
But the statement of intent became more problematic. If I didn’t want to be sulking or brooding anymore, how would I phrase the statement of intent in a positive manner? What is the conceptual opposite of brooding? There is no simple term or the term escapes me. We are seeing a limitation of the conscious linguistic statement of intent to capture desire.
The statement of intent best functions as a guide to isolating smaller steps of behavior. For example, a weight loss sigil should lead the magician to focus first on sigiling for healthy eating habits before attempting a forward “I want to lose 10 lbs” sigil.
Ultimately, though, statements of intent should be abandoned for more subconscious plotting. There is no way for me to create a linguistic construction of my desire to be un-sulky. Instead I should focus on creating direct subconscious forms.
What then would be the effect of working directly with the subconscious instead of creating a bridge between the conscious and subconscious? I don’t know yet but I don’t anticipate a problem.
Also, creating this new sigil lead me one step closer to creating a hypersigil.
When I did my comparison and contrast between sigils and logos, in a statement I made about sigils representing a statement of intent while logos represented a specific semiotic, I may have been more pedantic than practical.
Stripping away the statement of indent may be an improvement to better tie in associations to the sigil for better realization of the sigil. A sigil for weight loss no longer needs to represent “I desire to eat healthy for one week” but rather can represent a simple “eat healthy” intent.
In creating this sigilogo, I found computer literacy to be handy, as well as knowledge of summoning rituals.
What follows is a possible alternate means of creating sigils:
I am going to use computer metaphors to describe the process. If you don’t have the computer savvy to actually do what I am recommending, then simply use visualization techniques instead (but I would recommend learning computer savvy because a magician should use whatever technology is available and up-to-date).
Imagine creating four new folders on your computer desktop. Each of these folders represents the four basic elements: fire, earth, air, water. What I did was change the icon to these folders to represent their element, which, for example, can be a fire symbol for fire or perhaps a wand. If you don’t know how to make or change icons, try the user friendly RealWorld Icon Editor.
Once these folders were made, I returned to my previous organizational strategy and created sub-folders based upon my sigil desires. For example, within my water folder I created sub-folders labeled sulky, whore, depressed, moody, passive-aggressive, negative, insecure, control freak, fear of success, self-centered, self-absorbed, and non-verbally in-astute. Naturally, as my training continues, I would refine and condense these sigils as necessary. For example, what is the difference between self-centered and self-absorbed – likewise, these are also fire traits and I wouldn’t want to overlap or repeat sigils.
Having organized my desires, the next step would be to begin the sigiling process. I created a sigil for my sulky brooding desire and changed the icon to the sigil.
Next, I began loading my sulky brooding icon with content chosen to best exemplify the nature of the sigil. For example, since a lot of my sulky brooding desires were based upon an image of Byronic heroism, I loaded a Wikipedia shortcut to the Byronic hero entry, a copy of Lord Byron’s “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” a photograph of Byron, a painting by JMW Turner on "Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage," a copy of the brooding issue of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (Brief Lives, issue 42), scans from The Crow graphic novel, a clip from Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Angel turns evil, and what I might consider Byronic music, in particularly the Doors, the Cure, Nine Inch Nails, and Nirvana.
(As a side note, the question of androgyny popped up while I was putting together this sigil. What happens when a female magician deals with what may be perceived as masculine archetypes? My responses are: 1) I am using water as my element for this sigil, water being a feminine emotional sign as compared to using fire, a masculine active sign; 2) androgyny is prevalent in the artistic Byronic archetype, for example, Jim Morrison and vampires are androgynous figures; 3) I prefer Byronic masculinity over la belle dame sans merci femme fatale archetype because these images are unappealing – the typical femme fatale is a black widow who uses sex as a weapon through passive aggressive manipulation and that is not what I am looking for; 4) substitute associations may be used to summon a belle dame sans merci archetype.)
The effect of incorporating multi-media is to hyper-charge the sigil. The sigil takes a step closer to hypersigil as these new dimensions are being added. The act of creation is further enhanced as numerous additional steps were involved: creating the sigil, creating the icons (and learning how to do that), researching the Byronic hero, collecting pictures and music, actually making the video clips since youtube sucks, and more.
I will call this type of sigil an ultrasigil, not quite as dynamic as a hypersigil but incorporating the illusion of multi-dimensions.
The creation of this more advanced sigil is similar to Summoning magic.
These ultra-sigils can be repeated for each sub-sigil in each element. The process is exhausting so take your time.
Once you feel you have created a sigil portfolio, the next step is to pocket this portfolio into either a thumb drive to take with you or into a visualization routine. If you’re using a thumb drive, I’d recommend investing in a major gigabyte customized drive.
I do a lot of walking meditation, controlled breathing and body movement when I am out and about, and part of this routine is practicing my visualization. Cooper refers to this routine as the Sun/Moon Cleansing or the Four Gateways to Power. I can’t remember the exact names. I copied the basic ritual into my note book and then lost the Basic Sigil Magic book so I only have my notes to work from. Anywho, I’m actually using a modified version of Cooper’s idea because traditional ritual magic is just too fagly for me.
Begin by imaging a ball of light above your head. Yes, just like in Fight Club. Visualize this light moving down through you and into the ground. I practice this first step on its own, in particularly when I am being tested on my flaws, like waiting in a line at Wal-Mart knowing that I’m gonna flip out on somebody.
Spread your arms. Body movement is important to help focus. Visualize your elemental icons –fire to your left, earth to your right, air in front of you, water behind you.
The flow of the light from crown to ground joined with the four elements creates a sphere. I imagine it more like a hula-hoop: when I desire a certain state of performance, I swing the proper sigil to the front of me. For example, when I need some order in my life to get my work done, I visualize the hoop of elemental icon/sigils and rearrange them so that earth is now in front of me, sweeping my right hand to the left in front of me. Again, body movement is important, at least moving your hands in a martial arts style.
Next week, I will talk about color magic and the organization of sigils into a more ambitious routine (that is, one that the typical n00b magician experiments with magic for). In two weeks, I’ll detail Summoning rituals more.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Generic Title about Using Sigils
I have seen at least two theories on the way to use sigils. As with any tool, naturally, there would be different uses, benefits and drawbacks to each.
The most common use for sigils can be described in either the metaphor of a firecracker or maybe a machine gun. The magician lights the firecracker, throws it, and then runs away waiting for the firecracker to go off. Or the magician sprays a wild rain of bullets and hopes that he hits his target.
Sigils are often used with hope rather than skill. The magician creates a sigil, charges it, launches it, and then boom! is done with it. The magician’s HOPE is that the magic will work.
I don’t like this approach but I will admit that I am still contemplating it.
When you throw your firecracker or spray your machine gun bullets, you are pretty assured that you will hit something, but you assurance is not based upon skill but rather the design of the tool. A good sniper can kill with a single bullet from a dozen yards away; someone with a machine gun is hoping for a kill by spraying randomly in high volume.
Throwing out your desires to the universe is chaotic mathematics. When I first started working in real estate, my cold calls were horrible. I sounded like a little girl pleading with people to come to my open houses. Do you want to cold call the universe and sound like a whiny little girl? Please, Mr. Universe, help me out here. Also considering the general loathing towards telemarketing, how many prayers do you think God gets? My responses were minimal but I did get the occasional response. Telemarketing is based upon quantity rather than efficiency; if you make a hundred calls then statistically you are guaranteed to get an appointment. But how then can we make it so that we only have to make one call or fewer calls?
Magic may get you want you want but can you handle it? This is a basic Machiavellian principle: people will generally prosper through a combination of skill and luck. For example, I send out resumes every couple years or so just to keep myself in practice and up-to-date. What factors determine whether a company responds to a resume? Most of the time companies respond when there is a need and the job hunter is qualified. There is a difference between applying to a company just checking out if they have any opening versus applying in response to a job listing in the newspaper. Similarly, you can send out a hundred resumes but if you are not qualified, you won’t get any response. Skill is important. However, at times luck may play a factor from the view of the magician. I have had the situation numerous times in which I sent out resumes, forgot about them, and had responses that were beyond what I was expecting. I had a job offer where they said, hey, instead of us hiring you when this position opens in three months, we want to hire you now. I recently had a job application from a resume that was two years old – the company hired me for double the traditional wages.
Luck is often a crucial factor in opportunity. A magician, however, needs skill to either make his own luck or to take advantage of a situation. Studies have shown that people who win lotteries – which is magic at its purest, most wildest – return to their original poverty within a couple years because it isn’t the money but rather the way in which the person handles money. My first hypersigil was a disastrous success. It was a love spell that got me someone who I consider to be the most important lover I have ever had. It was an impossible love affair with a rich doctor from a rich family; he was ten years older than I with a twin brother! What a passionate impossible affair it was and it turned out ridiculously self-destructive. He became a doctor because he had a serious psychiatric illness; that fantasy of a twin sandwich went out the window when I found out his brother had an interesting birth defect. His money didn’t come from success but rather penny-pinching so he wouldn’t spend a dime on a wish. But I digress…
But still, these hopeful sigils are a way of testing the limits and capabilities of life. My most surprising results come from enterprises I never expected to happen or succeed – hopeful sigils greatly reduce lust for results because there isn’t any real investment in them. They make good passive supplementary income – you sow the seeds and reap the benefits, but don’t make a living on hope and luck.
A different type of sigil requires more investment and introspection.
Imagine this metaphor. You write a letter and place it in a sealed envelope that is blank. If you just throw the envelope out, the chances of it getting to its destination is unlikely. You have to add proper postage and then an address and maybe a name. It is possible for a letter with a name to have the wrong address and still get to the right house but you reduce your chances with inadequate labeling. A return address is also a safety feature in case of failure or to let the sender know of any problems.
These components are necessary for the letter to get delivered properly.
What a sigil is, is FedEx where you have overnight delivery with package insurance and tracking and the receiver has to sign a confirmation slip to receive the letter. You still need to pay for delivery (and you pay a lot more) and you still need name, address, and a return address, but the service is hypercharged with something extra. Sigils provide that extra service, enhancing a typical ritual with an X factor that improves the odds of success.
Sigils do not always work. Each sigil will need its own particular stamp and address. A love sigil might require patience and good conversational skills, while a money sigil might require a good resume and a reason to send it out. Otherwise, sigils will fail without the stamp and address and in that failure you need to reflect upon what particular conditions are absent to prevent the sigil from working. Typically three factors are involved:
1. Subconscious resistance – some fatal flaw that is sabotaging your mojo
2. What is called lust for results – a watched pot never boils
3. Probability – if the probability of an event occuring is low or impossible then the chances of the magic working is low or impossible – it becomes necessary then to enact rituals to increase probability and decrease likelihood of failure.
Failure of a sigil requires some type of readjustment in the sigil process. You have some type of problem that is preventing your message from being delivered. What is it? What is sabotaging your results?
Mastering sigils require introspection. A magician should start by considering his or her problems first, what subconscious resistance is occuring to block the magic from working. If you do a love sigil but you have no patience for shit testing or flirting then the sigil will fail. You should then do a patience sigil instead and reconsider the above factors…the solution isn’t always obvious. If a sigil fails, it will not automatically return to sender with an explanation why. Sometimes the failure is for obvious reasons, other times those reasons need to be divined.
Grant Morrison writes in Pop Magic,
The most common use for sigils can be described in either the metaphor of a firecracker or maybe a machine gun. The magician lights the firecracker, throws it, and then runs away waiting for the firecracker to go off. Or the magician sprays a wild rain of bullets and hopes that he hits his target.
Sigils are often used with hope rather than skill. The magician creates a sigil, charges it, launches it, and then boom! is done with it. The magician’s HOPE is that the magic will work.
I don’t like this approach but I will admit that I am still contemplating it.
When you throw your firecracker or spray your machine gun bullets, you are pretty assured that you will hit something, but you assurance is not based upon skill but rather the design of the tool. A good sniper can kill with a single bullet from a dozen yards away; someone with a machine gun is hoping for a kill by spraying randomly in high volume.
Throwing out your desires to the universe is chaotic mathematics. When I first started working in real estate, my cold calls were horrible. I sounded like a little girl pleading with people to come to my open houses. Do you want to cold call the universe and sound like a whiny little girl? Please, Mr. Universe, help me out here. Also considering the general loathing towards telemarketing, how many prayers do you think God gets? My responses were minimal but I did get the occasional response. Telemarketing is based upon quantity rather than efficiency; if you make a hundred calls then statistically you are guaranteed to get an appointment. But how then can we make it so that we only have to make one call or fewer calls?
Magic may get you want you want but can you handle it? This is a basic Machiavellian principle: people will generally prosper through a combination of skill and luck. For example, I send out resumes every couple years or so just to keep myself in practice and up-to-date. What factors determine whether a company responds to a resume? Most of the time companies respond when there is a need and the job hunter is qualified. There is a difference between applying to a company just checking out if they have any opening versus applying in response to a job listing in the newspaper. Similarly, you can send out a hundred resumes but if you are not qualified, you won’t get any response. Skill is important. However, at times luck may play a factor from the view of the magician. I have had the situation numerous times in which I sent out resumes, forgot about them, and had responses that were beyond what I was expecting. I had a job offer where they said, hey, instead of us hiring you when this position opens in three months, we want to hire you now. I recently had a job application from a resume that was two years old – the company hired me for double the traditional wages.
Luck is often a crucial factor in opportunity. A magician, however, needs skill to either make his own luck or to take advantage of a situation. Studies have shown that people who win lotteries – which is magic at its purest, most wildest – return to their original poverty within a couple years because it isn’t the money but rather the way in which the person handles money. My first hypersigil was a disastrous success. It was a love spell that got me someone who I consider to be the most important lover I have ever had. It was an impossible love affair with a rich doctor from a rich family; he was ten years older than I with a twin brother! What a passionate impossible affair it was and it turned out ridiculously self-destructive. He became a doctor because he had a serious psychiatric illness; that fantasy of a twin sandwich went out the window when I found out his brother had an interesting birth defect. His money didn’t come from success but rather penny-pinching so he wouldn’t spend a dime on a wish. But I digress…
But still, these hopeful sigils are a way of testing the limits and capabilities of life. My most surprising results come from enterprises I never expected to happen or succeed – hopeful sigils greatly reduce lust for results because there isn’t any real investment in them. They make good passive supplementary income – you sow the seeds and reap the benefits, but don’t make a living on hope and luck.
A different type of sigil requires more investment and introspection.
Imagine this metaphor. You write a letter and place it in a sealed envelope that is blank. If you just throw the envelope out, the chances of it getting to its destination is unlikely. You have to add proper postage and then an address and maybe a name. It is possible for a letter with a name to have the wrong address and still get to the right house but you reduce your chances with inadequate labeling. A return address is also a safety feature in case of failure or to let the sender know of any problems.
These components are necessary for the letter to get delivered properly.
What a sigil is, is FedEx where you have overnight delivery with package insurance and tracking and the receiver has to sign a confirmation slip to receive the letter. You still need to pay for delivery (and you pay a lot more) and you still need name, address, and a return address, but the service is hypercharged with something extra. Sigils provide that extra service, enhancing a typical ritual with an X factor that improves the odds of success.
Sigils do not always work. Each sigil will need its own particular stamp and address. A love sigil might require patience and good conversational skills, while a money sigil might require a good resume and a reason to send it out. Otherwise, sigils will fail without the stamp and address and in that failure you need to reflect upon what particular conditions are absent to prevent the sigil from working. Typically three factors are involved:
1. Subconscious resistance – some fatal flaw that is sabotaging your mojo
2. What is called lust for results – a watched pot never boils
3. Probability – if the probability of an event occuring is low or impossible then the chances of the magic working is low or impossible – it becomes necessary then to enact rituals to increase probability and decrease likelihood of failure.
Failure of a sigil requires some type of readjustment in the sigil process. You have some type of problem that is preventing your message from being delivered. What is it? What is sabotaging your results?
Mastering sigils require introspection. A magician should start by considering his or her problems first, what subconscious resistance is occuring to block the magic from working. If you do a love sigil but you have no patience for shit testing or flirting then the sigil will fail. You should then do a patience sigil instead and reconsider the above factors…the solution isn’t always obvious. If a sigil fails, it will not automatically return to sender with an explanation why. Sometimes the failure is for obvious reasons, other times those reasons need to be divined.
Grant Morrison writes in Pop Magic,
Study YOURSELF the way a hunter studies prey. Exploit your own weaknesses to create desired changes within yourself.This is an important principle of magic: know thyself.
A magician’s first use of sigils should be to deal with subconscious blocks that are limiting the magician’s use of magic.
Philip Cooper in Basic Sigil Magic refers to this process as washing the ego clean.
In mythology and folklore, we see constant tales of rampant demons who are captured and imprisoned by powerful magicians who force the demon to grant wishes. This folklore theme is a symbolic representation of washing the ego – what I will call binding the demons. The demons are symbols of subconscious blocks and flaws while the binding rituals represent the sigiling process of dealing with these flaws to attain higher levels of magic.
My recommendation is to keep a diary of critical self-analysis. Whenever the urge strikes your fancy, write down an unrestrained overly harsh list of your flaws, even if you are being over-critical. When I started doing this, it was difficult at first but once the flood gate was opened, I could easily sit down and brainstorm these massive critical lists.
My results?:
- Anger
- Lack of motivation
- Hate inconvenience
- Sulky
- Over-stimulation
- Whore
- Depressed
- Moody
- Passive-aggressive
- Over-aggressive
- Bad conversationalist
- Cocky
- Unfocused
- Hasty, impatient
- No maintenance ability
- Mechanically disinclined
- Binge spender
- Negative
- Over-critical
- Insecure
- Control freak
- Fear of success
- Naïve
- Never finish anything
- Self-centered
- Self-absorbed
- Out of shape
- Ambiguously gay
I could keep going.
Cooper suggests that a critical self-analysis be organized according to the basic elemental pattern.
The four elements are fire, earth, air, and water. If you watch Avatar: the Last Airbender, they have them out of order.
Each element has its own particular association, both negative and positive:
Fire: Fire mainly represents creative and active pursuits. These are all the adventures and plans that you want to plot and enjoy. Fire wants power. Descriptions include creative, enthusiastic, unrestrained, sexual, spontaneous, volatile, temperamental, inspirational, (anti)social, controlling, blunt, honest, direct, forceful, active, energetic, insensitive, intense, high-maintenance, vengeful, etc.
Earth: Earth represents materialism and practical. They deal mainly with money magic and earthly pleasures (financial comfort, indulgence, sensuality). Earth wants material gains. Descriptions include stable, practical, hard-working, dependable, materialistic, narrow-minded, inhibited, in control, isolated, easy-going, down-to-earth, passionate, loyal, stubborn, responsible, dutiful, concrete, sensual, conservative, etc.
Air: Air represents intelligence or at least communication. Air talks and talks and talks but not necessarily intelligently. Air is for people looking for social graces or analytical abilities. Air wants information. Descriptions include talkative, analytical, graceful, elegant, superficial, social, impractical, unrealistic, attention-deficit, abstract, charming, experimental, shallow, opinionated, deceitful, curious, perceptive, etc.
Water: Water represents unadulterated emotion. Water feels with no logical ability whatsoever. Water is for those looking to deal with emotional problems. Water wants personal security most of all. Descriptions include self-destructive, manipulative, passive-aggressive, moody, artistic, intuitive, (over)sensitive, nurturing, romantic, delusional, sulky, imaginative, nonverbal, secretive, possessive, judgmental, etc.
Organization of flaws might not be an exacting science and may be a little bit awkward at first, but part of the purpose is not only to be aware of these flaws but also to connect them with deper magical principles.
My organization chart might look something like this:
Fire: Anger, lack of motivation, hate inconvenience, whore, over-aggressive, cocky, hasty, impatient, no maintenance ability, binge spender, over-critical, control freak, never finish anything, naïve, self-centered, self-absorbed, out of shape
Earth: Mechanically disinclined, binge spender, control freak, fear of success, general financial and stability issues
Air: Over-stimulation, bad conversationalist, unfocused, ambiguously gay
Water: Sulky, whore, depressed, moody, passive-aggressive, negative, insecure, control freak, fear of success, self-centered, self-absorbed, non-verbally in-astute.
If you notice my elemental balance, you can guess what sign I am. I am a Leo (fire sign) born towards the cusp of Cancer (water sign).
In some instances, I placed traits in two (or more categories). In some instances, I put traits in categories that they are the opposite of, for example, bad conversationalist goes in air because air deals with conversational abilities while I put binge-spender in fire and earth because binge spending is a fire trait but earth deals with material and financial issues. I also added a couple new flaws that came to mind as I was organizing.
I’m going to stop here and continue with this sigil program next week.
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