fixtheworldlove

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Chaote Tips #2:

-Keep a personal grimoire of all your magickal endeavors. Include things like the date, the weather, the moon phase, the time, your mood, etc.

-Read books on all types of magick. From folk magick to Enochian to Alchemy. Chaos magick is all about an eclectic approach, and the more techniques you study the more developed your practice will become.

-Draw sigils all the time and on everything. I have a sigil for protection hiding behind my phone case. I have a sigil for money in my wallet. Sigils don't have to be aesthetic or fancy, and they don't have to take a long time to make.

-Use deities, spirits, demons, and other entities. Do your research, and use them to empower your workings.

-Create your own entities! This goes beyond servitors. Create a personification of your anger so when you get mad you can banish it.

-Get creative! Don't be afraid to think outside the box and do new, original things. I recently did a Letter Spell where I mailed myself a spell designed to activate when opened.

-Practice visualization! It is an invaluable tool!

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Chaos Magick

Chaos Magick is a modern form of occultism that defies traditional structures and dogmas, embracing a pragmatic, results-oriented approach to magical practice. Unlike conventional magical systems that adhere to specific rituals, symbols, and deities, Chaos Magick emphasizes flexibility, personal belief, and the use of any technique or symbolism that achieves the desired outcome. Originating in the late 20th century, Chaos Magick has become a significant and influential movement within the broader landscape of contemporary occultism, attracting practitioners who value creativity, experimentation, and personal empowerment. This essay explores the history, principles, practices, and significance of Chaos Magick.

History of Chaos Magick

Chaos Magick emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a response to the rigid structures of traditional ceremonial magick and the occult revival movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. The origins of Chaos Magick can be traced to the writings of occultists such as Peter J. Carroll and Ray Sherwin, who were instrumental in developing and popularizing this new approach to magic.

The Influence of Austin Osman Spare:

A significant precursor to Chaos Magick was the work of artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956). Spare's ideas about the subconscious mind, sigils, and the power of belief were highly influential on later Chaos Magicians. He emphasized the use of personal symbols and the manipulation of belief as tools for magical success, laying the groundwork for many of the ideas central to Chaos Magick.

The Birth of the Movement:

In the late 1970s, Peter J. Carroll and Ray Sherwin co-founded the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT), a magical order dedicated to the practice and development of Chaos Magick. Carroll’s seminal works, "Liber Null" (1978) and "Psychonaut" (1982), became foundational texts for Chaos Magicians. These books outlined the core principles of Chaos Magick, including the emphasis on belief as a tool, the use of sigils, and the concept of "paradigm shifting," where practitioners adopt different belief systems as needed.

Spread and Evolution:

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Chaos Magick grew in popularity, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. The movement attracted individuals interested in a more personalized and experimental approach to magic, free from the dogmatic constraints of traditional systems. As Chaos Magick evolved, it incorporated influences from psychology, science fiction, pop culture, and postmodern philosophy, reflecting its eclectic and adaptive nature.

Principles of Chaos Magick

Chaos Magick is characterized by several key principles that distinguish it from other forms of magical practice. These principles emphasize flexibility, pragmatism, and the central role of belief in achieving magical outcomes.

Belief as a Tool:

One of the core tenets of Chaos Magick is the idea that belief itself is a powerful tool in magic. Unlike traditional magical systems that require adherence to specific beliefs or deities, Chaos Magick posits that the act of believing—regardless of what is believed—is what makes magic effective. Practitioners are encouraged to adopt and discard beliefs as needed to achieve their desired results, treating belief as a flexible and dynamic tool rather than a fixed truth.

Paradigm Shifting:

Closely related to the use of belief as a tool is the concept of "paradigm shifting." In Chaos Magick, a paradigm is a framework of beliefs, symbols, and practices that a magician temporarily adopts to work a particular spell or ritual. A Chaos Magician might shift between different paradigms���such as using Kabbalistic symbols in one ritual and invoking Lovecraftian deities in another—depending on what they find most effective for their goals. This fluid approach allows practitioners to draw from a wide range of magical and cultural traditions.

Pragmatism and Results-Oriented Practice:

Chaos Magick is inherently pragmatic, focusing on what works rather than adhering to tradition or doctrine. The effectiveness of a magical practice is judged solely by the results it produces. This results-oriented approach encourages experimentation and the development of new techniques, as well as the modification or abandonment of practices that do not yield desired outcomes.

Use of Sigils:

Sigilization, a technique popularized by Austin Osman Spare, is a central practice in Chaos Magick. A sigil is a symbol created by condensing a specific intention or desire into a visual form. The practitioner then uses various methods to "charge" the sigil with energy and launch it into the subconscious mind, where it works to manifest the desired outcome. Sigils are valued for their simplicity and adaptability, making them a popular tool among Chaos Magicians.

The Gnostic State:

Achieving a state of altered consciousness, often referred to as the "Gnostic State" or "gnosis," is a key component of Chaos Magick rituals. This state of mind, in which the practitioner is highly focused and free from distractions, is believed to be crucial for the successful performance of magic. Various methods, such as meditation, chanting, visualization, or sensory deprivation, are used to induce gnosis.

Practices of Chaos Magick

Chaos Magick is known for its eclectic and innovative practices, which can vary widely from one practitioner to another. The following are some of the most common practices associated with Chaos Magick:

Sigil Magic:

As mentioned, sigil magic is a cornerstone of Chaos Magick. The process typically involves creating a sigil by writing out a statement of intent, removing duplicate letters, and arranging the remaining letters into an abstract symbol. The practitioner then enters a Gnostic State, charges the sigil with intent, and either destroys or forgets the sigil to allow it to work subconsciously.

Magical Experimentation:

Chaos Magicians often experiment with a variety of techniques, drawing from different magical traditions, religions, and even pop culture. This might include invoking gods from different pantheons, working with fictional characters as if they were real entities, or incorporating elements of modern technology into rituals. The emphasis is always on what is effective for the individual practitioner.

Deconstructing and Reconstructing Beliefs:

Chaos Magicians regularly engage in the practice of deconstructing and reconstructing their beliefs. By deliberately adopting different belief systems, even those they do not inherently believe in, they explore the effects of belief on reality. This practice often leads to a deeper understanding of the fluid nature of reality and the power of the mind in shaping experience.

Use of Pop Culture and Modern Symbols:

One of the more unique aspects of Chaos Magick is its embrace of contemporary symbols and icons from pop culture. Practitioners might use characters from movies, comic books, or video games as symbols in their rituals, treating these figures as modern-day deities or archetypes. This reflects Chaos Magick's adaptability and its focus on personal relevance over tradition.

Psychological Techniques:

Many Chaos Magicians incorporate psychological techniques into their practice, drawing from fields such as cognitive psychology, NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), and hypnosis. These techniques are used to alter consciousness, influence perception, and reinforce the practitioner’s intent. The integration of psychological methods underscores Chaos Magick's pragmatic and results-driven approach.

Significance and Influence of Chaos Magick

Chaos Magick has had a profound impact on modern occultism, influencing both magical practice and the broader cultural understanding of magic. Its emphasis on flexibility, innovation, and personal empowerment has resonated with a new generation of practitioners who seek a more individualized and adaptive approach to magic.

Democratization of Magic:

One of the most significant contributions of Chaos Magick is the democratization of magical practice. By rejecting rigid hierarchies, dogmas, and the need for formal initiation, Chaos Magick has made occult practices more accessible to a wider audience. Anyone can become a Chaos Magician, regardless of background or experience, as long as they are willing to experiment and learn.

Cultural Impact:

Chaos Magick has also influenced popular culture, particularly in areas related to the occult, science fiction, and the countercultural movements of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Concepts from Chaos Magick, such as paradigm shifting and the use of pop culture symbols, have found their way into literature, movies, and art, reflecting the movement's broad cultural reach.

Challenges to Traditional Magic:

Chaos Magick challenges the conventional understanding of magic by questioning the necessity of belief in any particular system or deity. This has led to debates within the occult community about the nature of magic, the role of belief, and the effectiveness of traditional practices. Chaos Magick's focus on results over tradition has encouraged many practitioners to rethink their approach to magic.

Influence on Postmodern Thought:

Chaos Magick is often associated with postmodernism, particularly its skepticism of grand narratives and its emphasis on individual experience. The movement’s fluid approach to reality, belief, and identity aligns with postmodern ideas about the constructed nature of reality and the multiplicity of truths. This has made Chaos Magick particularly appealing to those who resonate with postmodern philosophy.

Conclusion

Chaos Magick represents a radical departure from traditional magical systems, offering a flexible, pragmatic, and highly individualized approach to occult practice. By emphasizing the power of belief, the importance of personal experience, and the value of experimentation, Chaos Magick has redefined what it means to practice magic in the modern world. Its influence extends beyond the occult community, challenging cultural and philosophical assumptions about reality, belief, and the nature of power. As a living, evolving tradition, Chaos Magick continues to inspire and empower those who seek to explore the mysteries of existence on their own terms.

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Sigils, Servitors, and Godforms

Sigils, Servitors, and Godforms Pt 1 Sigils, Servitors, and Godforms Sigils, servitors and god-forms are three magickal techniques that chaos magicians use to actualize magickal intentions. Sigils are magickal spells developed and activated to achieve a specific, fairly well defined and often limited end. Servitors are entities created by a magician and charged with certain functions. Godforms are complex belief structures, often held by a number of people, with which a magician interacts in order to actualize fairly broad magickal intentions. These three techniques are not quite as distinct as these definitions would suggest, they tend to blur into one another. The purpose of this essay is to explain these magickal tools, indicate their ppropriateness for different types of magickal intentions, and show how these tools relate to the general theories of chaos magick and of Dzog Chen, a form of Tibetan Buddhism. Part One: Sigils 1. A Universe neither of Man nor God The use of the techniques of the chaos magician presupposes a certain stance, or attitude, towards magick that is relatively new in the history of the occult. This stance may, for lack of a better word, be described as postmodern, since it is neither traditional nor modern. The differences between these three approaches to magick - traditional, modern or postmodern can be elucidated as three conceptions of the nature of the universe. The traditional approach is based in Judeo-Christian metaphysics and views the universe as anthropomorphic, in the image of the Christian God, or less rarely, some other anthropomorphic form. The traditional magician believes that the universe is understandable by human consciousness because human beings are made in the image of God. The modern view is essentially a reaction to this and humanist in the extreme. Here the universe may be perceived as Newtonian, as a machine that is ultimately understandable by human consciousness, although humans may have to evolve into a more powerful form to be able to do this. The postmodern view of the chaoist denies that the universe can ever be understood by the human mind. Influenced by modern physics, particularly quantum mechanics and chaos theory, the chaos magician tends to accept the universe as a series of phenomena that have little to do with human beings. In other words traditional magick can be said to be God centered, modern magick to be human centered while postmodern magick eschews the very idea of a center. A brief review of traditional and modern approaches to ceremonial magick may help to illuminate the postmodern stance of the freestyle chaoist. Ceremonial magicians use ritual magick to create effects in themselves or in the universe that they do not feel they can as efficiently bring about through normal means. All magicians agree that magick can cause change, but few would argue that the change is inevitable, completely predictable, or fully knowable by the magician. All magicians, to a greater or lesser extent, are engaged in an ongoing dynamic in which the issues of personal desire, personal control and personal belief are thrust against the strictures of the universal consensual belief structure, the concept of will as a universal force, and the ideas of fate, predestination, and karma. At the core of this confrontation is the question of the nature of the universe. The question is: is the universe human centered, designed, created and maintained by a god force, or is it, as modern science seems to indicate, just there? Until recently, magicians have tended to distinguish amongst themselves by hue, and the colors of the magician (white, gray or black) refer precisely to this dynamic, the confrontation between the personal wishes of the magician and a universal standard of morality or law. White, and to an extent, grey magicians, attempt to remove themselves from the debate by insisting that their magickal acts are inspired only by the highest motives of service and self-knowledge, that, indeed, they wish only to do the will of higher powers known as their Holy Guardian Angels. Perdition shall blast, so they say, those who use magick for self-centered or materialistic ends. Grey magicians may proclaim that the use of magickal powers for materialistic ends is valid sometimes, but rarely for selfish reasons, and in any event, is always problematical. Donald Michael Kraig, with the breezy superficiality of the traditional magus, in ‘Modern Magick’ terms white magick the use of magick'for the purpose of obtaining the Knowledge and Conversation of your Holy Guardian Angel’(1), grey magick as magick used 'for the purpose of causing either physical or non-physical good to yourself or to others (2) and black magick as magick used 'for the purpose of causing either physical or non-physical harm to yourself or others’(3). Kraig is influenced by Aleister Crowley and by modern Wicca, or Gardnerian witchcraft. Wiccans, ever concerned that their white magick might slide through some unconscious twitch of desire through grey into black, corrected Crowley’s axiom 'Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be the Whole of the Law’ with the enervating modifier 'An it Harm None’. Kraig, worried that readers of his treatise might fall 'into the pit of the black magician,’ encourages neophyte mages to practice only white magick. Fortunately, before he is two thirds of the way through his book Kraig is happily discoursing on talismans, grimoires, and the correct methods for disposing of recalcitrant demons. Few magicians can resist the lure of dark magick, despite protestations of innocence. This is because even Wiccan influenced magicians are not, as Wiccans are, devotees of a religion. That is to say magicians are interested in the dynamic of personal will versus (in Crowley’s term) True Will, while Wiccans have resolved this issue. While the occasional conflict may remain, Wiccans, like Christians, Jews, and Moslems understand that they have agreed to submit their wills to that which they construe to be the Will of their deities. Magicians, on the other hand, are not so sure. This, more than any other factor, accounts for the intense suspicion those of a religious cast view those who practice magick. The designation of black magician still tends to be a term that magicians use to vilify other magicians. Aleister Crowley, arguably the single greatest influence on the development of magick in this century, and, for the purposes of this essay, defined as a traditional magician, used the term in this way. In 'Magick’, for example, he asserted 'any will but that to give up the self to the Beloved is Black Magick,’(4). That is to say, any use of magick unlike his use of magick is black magick. Elsewhere Crowley muttered darkly about the existence of 'Black Lodges’ and 'Black Brothers’, magicians who chose to remain in the Abyss, the metaphysical gap between the first three sephiroth and the remainder of the Tree of Life. A magus of this hue, Crowley stated, secretes 'his elements around his Ego as if isolated from the Universe’(5), and turns his back on the true aim of magick, which according to Aleister, is the 'attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. It is the raising of the complete man in a vertical straight line. Any deviation from this line tends to become black magic. Any other operation is black magick’(6).As students of mysticism will recognize, this goal is identical with the mystic’s goal of the union of the self with God. Crowley, of course, wrote with his feet firmly planted in the Judeo-Christian paradigm, a paradigm in which the universe is visualized as AdamKadmon, the Great Man, and is thus wholly anthropomorphized. In 1969, Anton LaVey posited the argument of the modern black magician when in'The Satanic Bible’ he asserted 'No one on earth ever pursued occult studies, metaphysics, yoga, or any other 'white light’ concept without ego gratification or personal power as a goal ’(7). Moreover, LaVey claimed 'There is no difference between 'White’ and 'Black’ magic except in the smug hypocrisy, guilt ridden righteousness, and self-deceit of the 'White’ magician himself’(. Thus the term black magician began to be associated with a style of magick that did not distinguish between self-interest and self-knowledge. LaVey in his organization, The Church of Satan, and later MichaelAquino in his schismatic order, The Temple of Set, argued that the will of the individual magician was paramount. Both denied even the existence of a universal Will. LaVey stated 'The Satanist realizes that man, and the action and reaction of the universe, is responsible for everything and doesn’t mislead himself into thinking that someone cares.’ (9) MichaelAquino asserted 'The Black Magician, on the other hand, rejects both the desirability of union with the Universe and any self-deceptive tactics designed to create such an illusion’(10). Unfortunately the refusal of modern black magicians to deal with the possibility that man may not be at the center of the universe, or may just be one in a large series of interdependent phenomena leads to an error. Reluctant, it seems, even to adopt completely a materialistic or mechanistic view of the universe, LaVey and Aquino embrace the ghost in the machine and assert that the individual ego can continue after death. Thus LaVey stated 'If a person has been vital throughout his life and has fought to the end for his earthly existence, it is this ego which will refuse to die, even after the expiration of the flesh that housed it’(11). There is, of course, not a shred of evidence to prove that this has ever happened nor that it can happen, but magicians of all hues, together with the adherents of most of the world’s religions, continue to assert blandly the existence of a transpersonal, individuated spark that somehow is exempt from the normal process of birth, life, death, and corruption, a kind of eternal homunculus. Apparently the notion that the universe may not actually be human centered is too frightening for Satanists and modern black magicians to bear, and the old chestnut of the soul is dredged out of the Judeo-Christian quagmire, brushed off, and presented as the 'fully gratified’ ego of the modern immortal Satanist. Teetering on the edge of postmodern magick, PeterCarroll, the first contemporary popularizer of chaos magick, in 'Liber Null and Psychonaut’, accepted the idea that the universal force may not be a force that bears much relationship to humanity. He stated:'The force which initiates and moves the universe, and the force which lies at the center of consciousness, is whimsical and arbitrary, creating and destroying for no purpose beyond amusing Itself. There is nothing spiritual or moralistic about Chaos and Kia. We live in a universe where nothing is true…’(12). Carroll was aware of the true nature of the ego, and stated 'developing an ego is like building a castle against reality’(13). Moreover, he recognized that 'the real Holy Guardian Angel is just the force of consciousness, magic, and genius itself, nothing more. This cannot manifest in a vacuum: it is always expressed in some form, but its expressions are not the thing itself.’(14) In this statement Carroll aligned himself with the quantum mechanical view of the universe, a view that refuses to discriminate phenomena on the basis of dualistic concepts, but stresses the wave like nature of energy. This is also the viewpoint of sophisticated Buddhism. The key phrase of the “PrajnaParamita”, a critical sutra in the development of Buddhist metaphysics, states 'form is only emptiness and emptiness is only form.’ Ultimately Carroll, however, was as reluctant as a Satanist to let go of the comforting paradigm of the soul or spirit and despite paying lip service to a universe in quantum flux stated 'The adept magician however will have so strengthened his spirit by magick that it is possible to carry it over whole into a new body’(15). This turns out to be a crippling flaw in Carroll’s approach to magick and one that reinforces his belief in the efficacy of hierarchical magick, a contradiction of the fundamental principle of chaos magick, that it replicates the non-ordered flow of phenomena in the universe. The ego, after all, is an ordered construct that tolerates nothing so little as the inevitability of change. Perhaps the problem lay in Carroll’s assertion that 'physical processes alone will never completely explain the existence of the universe’(16), a statement that eventuates from the dualistic, epistemological mindset of Newtonian physics and Aristotelian western philosophy. Perhaps it comes from a fear of death. Yet concurrent with this discriminatory, black/white, dualistic approach of western occultism, there has always been another strain, the shamanistic, orgiastic approach that deliberately blurrs these definitions and seeks to confront the universe as a dynamic, and non human process. This approach, however, has usually been the domain of art and artists rather than occultists. Modern English poetry since MatthewArnold’s 'DoverBeach’ has been obsessed with reconciling the poetic imagination with a stark and inhuman universe. Arnold recognized the universe in 1867 as a place that: Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night By the time T.S. Eliot wrote 'The Wasteland’ in 1922, he saw the universe as 'a heap of broken mirrors’, an metaphor that aptly describes the shattering of the familiar concept of the universe as reflecting a human face. The year before, W.B.Yeats in 'The Second Coming’ concurred: Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; But the fullest expression of the awareness that the movement of energy through the universe is absolute, interpenetrating, and neither particularly humane nor human comes in 1934 with DylanThomas and: The force that through the green fuse drives the flower Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees Is my destroyer. And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose My youth is bent by the same wintry fever. This dawning consciousness infuses all the arts, from the movement of modern art, from Dada and Cubism, through Abstract Expressionism, to modern music, from the dissonance of Ravel’s 'La Valse’ to JohnCage to minimalism to industrial. Artists for one hundred and fifty years have struggled to depict the face of a chaotic universe, and man’s far from central place within it. In fact, the occult has been one of the last areas of human intellectual endeavour to avail itself of this perception of the universe. Not until the development of chaos magick can it truly be said that magick has finally started to deal with the insights of modern art and modern science. Chaos magick derives from a series of magical positions articulated by AustinOsmanSpare, a contemporary of Aleister Crowley. Spare’s vision, itself influenced by the work of WilliamBlake, is contained succinctly in 'The Book of Pleasure’. Spare’s approach to magick and the universe has been validated by the discoveries of the new physics, by quantum science, and by chaos mathematics. The metaphysical basis for Spare’s magick is similar to that of DzogChen, a form of Tibetan Buddhism, and, in fact, the reference and counter reference between Buddhism, art, science, and chaos magick is striking and continuous. Spare wrote 'The Book of Pleasure’ between 1909 and 1913, but most of Spare’s work was ignored until Carroll began writing about it. There are a number of reasons for this. Spare’s work was printed in small runs and he did not seek fame. His style is elliptical and obscure. His work is difficult to understand in the absence of his lush illustrations, and since the illustrations are spells, or more precisely, sigils, they affect a deep level of the mind and tend to distract one from the content of his writing. His style is declaratory, arrogant, and uses a special vocabulary, the definitions for which have to be teased out of the text. But perhaps of most importance, Spare’s view of the universe is non-human, and consequently the usual god centered or human centered context of magick is absent. Not until contemporary metaphysical thought had changed to allow a non anthropomorphic universe did Spare become accessible. Even now he, together with KennethGrant, is one of the least read and least understood among modern magickal writers. Spare begins with the idea of Kia, of which he says, in an echo of the Tao Te Ching, 'The Kia that can be expressed by conceivable ideas is not the eternal Kia, which burns up all belief.’(17) Thus he does not designate by name that which later chaos magicians would call Chaos, but concentrates on the immediate manifestation of the formless which he describes as 'the idea of self’. This is precisely the viewpoint of DzogChen. DzogChen, a sorcerous form of Buddhism developed by Padmasambhava in the eighth century a.c.e., posits the creation of the manifest universe as occurring at the instant that the conception of self develops. Spare said of Kia 'Anterior to Heaven and Earth, in its aspect that transcends these, but not intelligence, it may be regarded as the primordial sexual principle, the idea of pleasure in self-love.’(1 In DzogChen the initial impulse splits emptiness from form, nirvana from samsara and develops dualistic thinking. The multiplicity of the universe streams out of this split. One of the central symbols of DzogChen is the dorje. A form of magick wand, the dorje is composed of two stylized phalluses joined by a small central ball. The dorje is, according to DzogChen, a 'terma’, or hidden teaching. This teaching is a treasure hidden by Padmasambhava. The whole of the dorje refers to the unlimited potentiality of the universe, and thus, in modern terms, is an image of chaos, or the quantum flux of the universe that is before and beyond discriminatory thinking, inseparable, indissoluble. The two ends of the dorje refer, respectively, to form and emptiness, or samsara and sunyata. The small central bead that joins the two ends of this bilaterally symmetrical object is hollow to show the unknowable potentiality at the intersection between form and emptiness, and also to refer back to the chaos current. Thus the dorje is a three dimensional symbol for the way the universe manifests itself from unity through duality into its full, lush complexity. As Spare says 'As unity conceived duality, it begot trinity, begot tetragrammaton.’(19) In a statement that presages the modern understanding of the fractal universe as an event that is essentially a complex repetition and multiplication of a series of simple forms, Spare wrote: The dual principle is the quintessence of all experience, no ram-ification has enlarged its early simplicity, but is only its repetition, modification or complexity, never is its evolution complete. It cannot go further than the experience of self-so returns and unites again and again, ever an anti-climax. For ever retrogressing to its original simplicity by infinite complication is its evolution. No man shall understand 'Why’ by its workings. Know it as the illusion that embraces the learning of all existence.(19) Recognizing the recursive movement of the movement of energy, or consciousness, through the universe, that is to say, of Kia, is essential to the understanding of the form of magick that Spare developed because it indicates the structure of the spells, sigils, and magickal techniques of chaos magick. Refuting absolutely the notion that this flow of energy is ever understandable by dualistic minds, Spare stated unequivocally that the magickal energy of the universe, the force that interpenetrates all phenomena is non-human. Moreover Spare required the magician, in order to avail himself of this force, to renounce his human belief systems, his dualistic mind, to achieve a state of consciousness that, as much as possible, mimicked the primordial. How to do this is the subject of the next section of this essay.

Sigils, Servitors, and Godforms Pt 2 Servitors Servitors, Psychodynamics and Models of Magick Chaos Magick, at least if approached by through the internet and conversation with chaos magicians, can appear a sprawling, contradictory mess of techniques to the newcomer. The relativistic stance of Chaos Magick, and it’s apparent lack of a unifying template can appear both morally disturbing and intellectually frustrating, especially to occultists coming to it from more traditional paths. Frater U.D., in a small essay published in 1991, provided a clearer approach to chaos magick by declaring it to be a meta-model, a fifth approach to magick. The other four he defined as the Spirit Model (used by shamans and traditional ceremonial magicians, in which autonomous entities exist in a dimension accessible to ours through altered states of consciousness); the Energy Model (where the world is viewed as being 'vitalized’ by energy currents that the magician manipulates); the Psychological Model (in which the magician is seen as “a programmer of symbols and different states of consciousness,” manipulating the individual and the deep psyche); and the information model (where information is the code that programs the essentially neutral energy of the life force). Frater U.D. points out that writers on chaos magick generally subscribe to a great extent to the Psychological Model, but, their approach utilizes a Meta-Model, which is really a set of instructions on how to use the other models. One of the most salient facts about chaos magick, and one of the most difficult for many newcomers to grasp, is that it is not really a magickal philosophy at all, it is really a technology, an approach, or stance towards magickal systems. The path to this was a result of chaos magicians developing and then transcending the Psychological Model. This essay on servitors while discussing many of the practical issues in the creation and deployment of servitors also elucidates the relationship between chaos magickal theory and modern psychology.

Modern magicians, chaos magicians, contemporary sorcerers, and the other magickal users of servitors appear to have adopted a modified psychodynamic view of personality, and the way in which we identify ourselves. This view, first expounded by Freud and the other founders of psychoanalysis (Jung, Adler, etc.), suggests that the way in which we view ourselves develops over time, and motivational syndromes (what we want and how we go about getting it) are critical to this development. This is quite a different view than type or trait personality theories which were in favor throughout most of Western history (man is composed of a compound of four or five elements, for example). Chaos magicians tend to display more of a situationist stance to personality, that is to say they tend to act as though the situation in which one finds oneself is the dominant factor in observable behaviors. Chaos magicians also tend to suggest that this is a good thing, since it means the personality can be used opportunistically, as a tool to achieve desires. This stance also reflects Buddhist and Eastern views of the Self, which either repudiate its existence as a permanent construction, or state that its essential nature can only be discovered through profoundly altered states of consciousness (samadhi). Phil Hine, in his excellent pamphlet “Chaos Servitors, a User Guide” writes of the self: “I prefer the analogy of the self as an organic city-entity, where some portions are more prominent than others, where there are hidden tunnels and sewers, and where the under levels carry vital energies to buildings. The city-self is continually changing and growing - tear down a building of belief, and another grows back in its place.” Austin Osman Spare was clearly influenced by psychodynamic theories of the self, as well as Eastern ones, and the general magickal theory he passed on to us embody these ideas. Primarily concerned with motivation (desire), Spare wrote in “The Book of Pleasure”:

“The 'self’ is the 'Neither-Neither,’ nothing omitted, indissoluble, beyond prepossession; dissociation of conception by its own invincible love is the only true, safe, and free…This Self-Love is now declared by me the means of evolving millions of ideas for pleasure without love, or its synonyms-self-reproach, sickness, old age, and death. The Symposium of self and love. O! Wise Man, Please Thyself.” Note the combination of psychoanalytic vocabulary and Vedic metaphysics combined with an insistence on motivation as fundamental. Now a servitor is generally considered to be a part of the personality of the magician that has been severed from him. I would argue that this is a limited view of servitors, that they could be considered severed portions of the Deep Mind, and consequently not located in the psyche of any particular magician. In my view demons, angels, imaginary friends, poltergeists and perhaps even ghosts are servitors. Servitors can be called thought-forms (as opposed to godforms which may sometimes be servitors on steroids). Since contemporary magickal stances to personality are psychodynamic and motivational servitors tend to be viewed as functional entities, and rather easily operated. Contrast this with the type and trait theories that inform Traditional Ceremonial Magick. Magicians up until this century (and still some today) spend what seems to me ridiculous amounts of time and effort evoking demons, using grimoires, and engaging in a paraphernalia of magick that makes a great deal of sense if you believe in type and trait theories of personalities, but very little if your approach is situational and pyschodynamic. If you believe that a demon you summon is a wholly independent entity with a personality type all of its own you may have to resort to extreme measures to force it to do your bidding. If you believe that a demon is a servitor summoned as a manifestation of your desire then a simple bargain will suffice (I’ll give you energy, you get what I want, I’ll give you a nice place to live). What is a Servitor? Motivational syndromes (desire) are fundamental to Spare’s form of magick, hence the name of his most popular book, “The Book of Pleasure.” Spare and magicians, Chaos or otherwise, have adopted the Jungian expansion of Freud’s theory of the Unconscious. Jung theorized the existence of a collective unconscious, shared by all. He considered it to be transpersonal and the residue of the evolution of humankind. I personally prefer Jan Fries’ term, the Deep Mind, but it comes to much the same thing. Spare, who called the collective unconscious the sub-consciousness characterized it as follows: “Know the sub-consciousness to be an epitome of all experiences and wisdom, past incarnations as men, animals, birds, vegetable life, etc. , etc., everything that exists, has and ever will exist.” Both Spare and Peter Carroll attempted to develop a technical vocabulary to describe the phenomena and techniques of the type of magick posited by Spare. Carroll, both FireClown and I believe, was trying to construct a vocabulary that could be used by magicians of any type. FireClown calls this a “discussional template”, or a way in which, for example, thelemites could talk to wiccans without misunderstanding each other. Unfortunately Carroll’s use of the hierarchical gambit resulted in this vocabulary becoming exclusionary. A fine example of this is the term “servitor.” The time predates Chaos Magick and can be found to refer to bound spirits in the fiction of Clark Ashton Smith, who was writing for Weird Tales in the 1930s. Servitor is actually a word referring to entities that actualize through evocation, a magickal technique as old as magick itself. Carroll writes “These beings have a legion of names drawn from the demonology of many cultures: elementals, familiars, incubi, succubi, bud-wills, demons, atavisms, wraiths, spirits, and so on.” Spare seems to indicate that these entities are bound to obsessions, that is to say the magician, experiencing an obsession (a way the psyche tells the magician that it desires something), forms part of the sub-consciousness into a semi-independent phenomenon that will do the work needed to actualize the magician’s desire. Carroll disagrees somewhat, although he allows that such beings have their origin in the human mind. Phil Hine whose interest in his User’s Guide to Servitors is the creation of such beings writes: “By deliberately budding off portions of our psyche and identifying them by means of a name, trait, symbol, we can come to work with them (and understand how they affect us) at a conscious level.” So at least in the type of magick developed by Spare, Carroll, and Phil Hine, a servitor is a part of the magician’s psyche, or a part of the Deep Mind that the magician evokes to perform a task. Do these entities have an existence prior to their evocation? Perhaps. Magick is trans-temporal, trans-spatial. If the Deep Mind contains all experience that has been or ever will be then the question is meaningless, or as Blake wrote: “Everything that can be Believed is an Image of the Truth.”

I do think that the use of servitors is widespread among many people who would not dream of considering themselves magicians. People personalize their cars, have imaginary friends as children, or give personalities to their toys, carry objects they consider to be “lucky” with them or allow their obsessions to absorb their personalities so they turn into demons. Many movies deal with servitors, Natural Born Killers being an obvious example, Tetsudo, a fine Japanese flick being an even more obvious example. In NBK the demons are eventually reintegrated and the two killers stop killing. The fine film Seven is essentially a magickal ritual in which the murderer uses people as the material bases for servitors, in this case representing the demons of the Seven Deadly Sins. To my mind these are all examples of the use of servitors because they follow Hine’s simple definition of servitors as budded off portions of the psyche or personality developed for a simple or complex purpose which gain a semi-independent existence. Of course in the case of demons absorbing the personality the act is hardly adaptive, although it may have started out that way. I’ll tell you a story. I had a friend about 12 years ago, a charming, handsome young man, intelligent, athletic, and sober. He used to baby-sit another friend’s teenage daughter. It turned out that he was a serial rapist. He would stalk women, rape them, and beat them nearly to death. He got caught because he fell asleep in his car outside his last victim’s apartment and was found by the police covered with his victim’s blood. I have no doubt he would have ended up murdering his future victims. Fortunately he is unlikely to ever have that chance. Now what I think had happened with this man was that, perhaps as a result of some inability to integrate his rage towards women, he budded off a part of his personality, the violent, woman hating part, which became a demon, a semi-independent servitor. When his obsession was triggered it activated the demon which then completely possessed him and he became an utterly different person. For all I know he wasn’t even conscious of the demon himself. None of his friends ever saw this demon, didn’t even have a glimpse, but his victims surely did. Sigils, Servitors, and Godforms Pt 3 Creating Servitors

Modern magicians have expanded on Jungian ideas of the collective unconscious to assert that magick occurs within what Spare calls the sub-consciousness, and Fries the Deep Mind. Servitors are semi-autonomous beings that are summoned from the Deep Mind and charged with the per- formance of some magickal task. Stephen Mace, in his monograph Stealing the Fire from Heaven, calls this sorcery. He defines it: “Sorcery is the art of capturing spirits and training them to work in harness, of sorting out the powers in our minds so we might manipulate them and make them cause changes both within our minds and beyond them.” Most writers are unanimous in their opinion that the magician must develop a clear statement of intent before proceeding in acts of magick, which presupposes the magician understanding the nature of their original desire. In many cases there is simply no need to create a servitor. A simple spell might suffice, a desire sigilized and cast into the Deep Mind in a state of vacuity. Summoning servitors for the sake of psychic adventure might also be ill advised, although, judging from the grimoires of medieval literature in the absence of television it was a popular way to pass the tedium of an evening. Teenage satinists (so called in tribute to their innovative spelling) are also apparently fond of this sport. Chaos magicians, it is to be hoped, and the readers of this essay, would create servitors for more practical reasons. If the magician does not believe the desire can be actualized by sigilizing, either because of lack of success in the past, the inability of the sorcerer to forget the desire, or because the task is repetitive, or complex then a servitor may be appropriate. Servitors can be used for finding rare books, for developing sales in business, for aiding in gaining employment, for irritating an enemy, for protecting a house, for, really, any number of jobs. Servitors can also be used to aid in the deconstruction and reconstruction of a magician’s personality. On the zee-list servitors have been described that compress and expand time, that attack spam mailers, that assist in speedy passage through rush hour and that are soldiers in magickal wars. I suggested above that the use of servitors is widespread throughout humankind. Magicians and sorcerers, however, consciously create servitors, extruding them from their own psyches for specific magickal purposes. Most people create servitors unconsciously. Sometimes, as I recounted, this can have poisonous results both for the creator of the servitor and for society. Servitors that contain elements of personality that the sorcerer finds maladaptive are usually known as demons. Mace writes in regards to demons: “Demons: reflexes that generate uncontrollable moods, fantasies, and even actions. Demons are often acquired as a response to a twisted environment that had to be endured during the weakness and dependence of childhood. The adult, empowered wizard will realize they are inappropriate to his current situation, and make every effort to bind them so they will no longer bother him.” In fact bound demons can be quite useful. Since many servitors are available for use by the magician through grimoires, or the use of elementals, sylphs, incubi, and the like, it might be reasonably inquired why the sorcerer should go to the trouble of creating one. Mace answers this: “there’s a problem with using preexisting spirits. They invariably come equipped with enormous amounts of moral and theological baggage, bundles of belief and righteousness that you must carry with you as you make your way through the world.” I suggest readers who question this use a grimoire to evoke a lesser demon like Belphegor (not an archdemon like Belial), visit a channeller, or a medium for a seance. Apart from entertainment value I doubt that the reader will experience significant or lasting change from these experiences. Belphegor, I should note, has been credited with assuring regular bowel movements, so perhaps he might have a lasting effect on constipated mages. Apart from this possible exception, creating a servitor and charging it with a magickal task can have a profound effect on a sorcerer’s life. This is why a fairly rigorous intellectual analysis of the desire of the sorcerer should be undertaken before evocation. The magician can use any number of techniques to do this, but the discussion of the magickal intent with other sorcerers is probably the most helpful. This is especially true when the servitor to be created is to effect a change in the personality of the magician since it is very possible that excising an apparent vice may also remove an intertwined virtue leaving the sorcerer weaker and poorer than before. Once the magickal intent has been determined and the magician is fairly sure that no unwitting damage to the psyche will ensue, then the actual process of creating a servitor can begin. Servitors can be easily divided into two classes, those that come from identifiable areas of the magician’s psyche, and those that issue forth from the deeper levels of the subconsciousness ( and hence may not be recognizable to the magician as deriving from a property of the sorcerer’s psyche). If, for example I create a servitor to afflict an enemy this can be easily seen to originate in my own rage. On the other hand, if I summon an elemental because I want rain this spirit may have no apparent connection with my own psyche. Of course it does, but perhaps at such a deep level that it is held in common by many others. Ghosts are another example of beings that issue forth from deep levels of the subconsciousness and are often perceived in very similar ways by different people. Whether the sorcerer creates a servitor from scratch, as it were, or summons a preexistent spirit may depend on the task to which the servitor is put. Servitors may also be created which have components of both the individual magician’s psyche and of the Deep Mind. I’m in business for myself and my business depends on the timely receipt of payments. I’m in the process of creating a servitor to facilitate payments made to me through the mail. The servitor I imagine to look like Zippy the U.S.P.S. mascot but carrying a large hand gun - Zippy the psychotic Postal Worker. He will be charged with the specific job of speeding up my mail, particularly checks to me. Of course, part of Psycho Zippy is budded off from my own personality and includes my frustration with the mail, my anxiety over money, my dislike of bureaucrats, and my own violent tendencies. Part of Psycho Zippy, though, comes from the good work of the USPS’s advertising staff who imbedded this image in the American consciousness and the American media that publicized the mass murders of numerous postal workers by their coworkers over the last few years. Psycho Zippy is a hybrid servitor in this sense, and so will derive its energy from both sources. Psycho Zippy may also be considered a bound demon, since he derives from obsessive (and maladaptive) elements of my own psychology which have been extruded and harnessed to perform a particular role. The development of this servitor is useful therapy since it frees me from these maladaptive elements. So let’s review the process of creating a servitor like Psycho Zippy. First I become conscious of obsession, manifesting as a repeating pattern of anxious thoughts about payments which I know have been mailed but which for reasons quite beyond my ability to understand take a random number of days to reach me. This obsession clearly indicates a desire…I want my payments in a timely and consistent fashion. Now I could do a sigil to actualize this desire, but the problem is persistent and I doubt that a sigil done once will be enough to solve it. I could also use a godform, like Ganesh, or Hermes, or Legba or even Nyarlathotep, but I’ve tried this and the gods seem fairly fickle about it, and, in any case, I keep having to go back to them to bargain with them every time a payment gets lost. I have concluded that a servitor, charged by my own obsession, is the most appropriate magickal response. Now in my case the USPS’s admen have come up with a sigil that I only have to modify by adding a large hand gun. For many servitors, however, it may be necessary to develop them from scratch by first forming your magickal intention into a sigil and then using your imagination to turn this sigil into the shape of servitor (which can be anything you consider appropriate to the task at hand). This process is greatly facilitated if you have developed a magickal alphabet that contains in sigil form the properties of your personality and the powers of your mind. Automatic drawing, a common way to develop this type of alphabet, can also be used to develop the shape of the servitor. These alphabets are also known as alphabets of desire. On Alphabets of Desire Mace writes: “Each letter (actually an ideograph) represents a power…an unconscious structure or variety of energy that the sorcerer recognizes or wishes to recognize within his deep psyche.” In essence the sorcerer sigilizes a desire and then uses automatic drawing until an ideograph is created that is, as Mace says, “perfectly apropos.” Letters from this alphabet can be combined to form the shape of a servitor, again using techniques of automatic drawing. An alphabet of desire is a set of personal magickal symbols that describe or trigger certain powers of the mind or aspects of the sorcerer’s personality. Although the AoD is generally considered to be graphical there isn’t any reason it can’t be gestural, or a set of sounds, or a group of familiar emotional states or states of consciousness. The construction of an alphabet of desire also does not need to be nearly as formal as suggested by Spare, Carroll, Phil Hine, Jan Fries, Stephen Mace and others. It can develop organically as a result of, for example, repetitive gestures or sounds a sorcerer makes in rituals. Moreover, it is not necessary for the sorcerer to be able to define the elements of the AoD outside of the ritual space. The conscious mind does not have to know the meanings and attributions of the alphabet since the sorcerer uses it in an altered state of consciousness induced by ritual. FireClown and I, who have similar varieties of magick, actually don’t have much of a conscious understanding of our personal alphabets of desire, which are linked more to repetitive gestures, sounds, and subtle states of consciousness rather than graphic symbols. Although most sorcerers working in the tradition of AOSpare are indebted to the theoretical structure he developed, slavish adherence to Spare’s techniques would be quite contrary to what Spare himself would have wanted. Of course, if you want to create servitors from graphical sigils then an iconic alphabet of desire will certainly help. The impetus to begin writing this much postponed essay was prompted by a question from a member of the zee-list, a list for the use of the z(cluster), a loose international association of chaos magicians, ontological anarchists, and the like, primarily mediated through the internet. A listmember posted the following question: >In my work with sigilizing desire, I have frequently come >across strange beings which seem related to the sigils. Sometimes, >these beings have names and its gematrias are relevant to the object >of desire. What are these beings? Can I create servitors out of them? As the reader will have probably gathered, the original question that precipitated this essay has now been answered. In sigilizing desires the magician inadvertently encountered servitors that were in some way born from these sigils. The magician now needs to discover what these servitors are, what their relationship is to the Deep Mind and how they can be used. Other relevant questions relating to servitors concern servitor dependency and using a bound demon’s energy to reinforce personality elements that the magician wants to strengthen. I’ll deal with these questions as this essay continues. In creating servitors, once the magickal intention has been formulated an appropriate container for it can be developed. This can be a sigilized figure, an amulet or talisman, a fetish, a computer program or script, or even, possibly, an electronic pet. I advise against using living creatures as containers for servitors, partly because of their complexity, and partly because it is done all too often by parents wih their children, owners with their pets and bosses with their employees, to mention just a few cases where human beings extrude parts of their own psyches and attempt to ram them into other human beings. Manchurian candidates notwithstanding most attempts to do this are qualified failures. Animal familiars, such as cats, are arguably not servitors at all, but rather, associates of the magician or witch, voluntarily participating in magickal work. There is some argument that a material base for a servitor may not be necessary, but, as Phil Hine points out: “It does help to further construct the Servitor’s persona as an individual entity, and is also useful for focusing on when you are recalling the Servitor for reabsorption or reprogramming.” Let’s return to my Psycho-Zippy servitor. Zippy-with-a-gun is designed to speed checks written to me through the U.S.Postal Service. I do not need to time limit the existence of this servitor since the problem is evidently continuous. I have decided that Zippy-with-a- gun should have a specific aetheric shape, which will be attached to a material link. This link will be an envelope with Psycho-Zippy’s icon in the place of a stamp. The envelope will be addressed to me and will contain a check payable to me for as much money as I want and signed by the Universe. This envelope talisman will live on my altar and will also be a resting place for Psycho-Zippy when he’s not out terrorizing postal and U.P.S. employees into sending me my checks. I’ve also developed a list of instructions for Psycho-Zippy constraining him to this one task, of facilitating payments through the mail. I don’t, obviously, want Psycho-Zippy infecting a postal worker with the notion that murdering as many of his coworkers as possible before blowing his own brains out would be a fine way to spend the day. These are the preliminary tasks that need to be done before launching the servitor. Phil Hine suggests a servitor design checklist including deciding general and specific intents; sigilizing the initial desire; deciding whether time factor, material link, name, or a specific shape is needed; deciding what will happen when the task is completed; and, finally, making a list of instructions. Again this is a fairly formalistic approach to developing servitors, and I have to admit that most of the time I use servitors that are nameless, have no particular shape, no material link, and are created almost instantaneously for a specific purpose. Over a period of time these servitors have taken on personalities, or at least the shadows of such, if I use them repetitively. I have a few of them I send out to speed me through traffic jams. I have another that gets me tables in crowded restaurants before I walk through the door. I didn’t develop these beings, but as a result of repeating spells (through gesture and sound) to achieve these results the servitors just seemed to develop of their own accord. Since I don’t banish servitors but house them when their tasks are completed I think I have a pack of shiftless, and probably loutish servitors hanging around my aetheric environment who leap into action when I need them. My demons need work. Sigils, Servitors, and Godforms Pt 4 Launching Servitors - Banishing Rituals

Almost all modern authors strongly recommend the use of Banishing Rituals prior to engaging in any magickal ritual. The word “banishing” in this concept is something of a misnomer since the purpose of this technique is to center the magician within a sacred space, banishing negative influences being a secondary effect of a banishing ritual. Uncle Al (Aleister Crowley) writes: “The first task of the magician in every ceremony is therefore to render his circle absolutely impregnable…If you leave even a single spirit within the circle, the effect of the conjuration will be entirely absorbed by it.” Now that’s certainly definite enough. And a wonderful declamatory statement it is! Crowley’s banishing rituals include The Star Ruby (Liber XXV) and The Star Sapphire (Liber XXXVI), although he assumes that his readers have an understanding of the most famous banishing ritual, the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP). One of the clearest descriptions of this can be found in Donald Michael Kraig’s “Modern Magick.” The LBRP and its derivatives involve invoking godforms or angels at the corners of the compass as protective agents. Chaos Magicians, such as Peter Carroll, Phil Hine and Stephen Mace, also strongly suggest the use of banishing rituals, although their centering techniques are somewhat simpler. Phil Hine suggests that banishing rituals are necessary because they allow entry into altered states of consciousness, they dispel psychic debris, and the act to order the universe symbolically, allowing the magician to stand at the axis mundi. Peter Carroll writes that a well cosntructed banishing ritual enables the magician to: “resist obsession if problems are encountered with dream experiences or with sigils becoming conscious.” By the latter Carroll clearly is referring to the inadvertent creation of servitors through sigil techniques. It also has the advantage of having a basis in Spare’s theory of magick and the transformation of obsessional energy into organic energy. Carroll, Hine and Mace all suggest magicians develop a glowing magickal barrier around them when engaged in ritual. Carroll and the IOT used the Gnostic Pentagram Ritual(GPR), a deconstruction of the LBRP, in magickal work. Curiously I have not been able to discover if Austin Osman Spare used banishing rituals. The omission of such from his “Book of Pleasure” may quite likely be deliberate since he was certainly aware of them. I would suggest that Spare may have considered banishing rituals contrary to the free flow of magickal symbolism from the Deep Mind to the magician’s psyche, that is to say an artifact that may not be useful. But Spare’s magick, to this day, remains more radical, more controversial, and more audacious than most practiced by modern magicians. Is banishing actually necessary? I do it in an abbreviated form, singing the vowels (Eeh-Aye-Aah-Oh-Uuh-Uuh-Oh-Aah-Aye Eeh) in a scale down and up while following, generally, the chakras with hand movements. I do it because I feel better after I do. Other magicians I know don’t banish at all, while others won’t leave their house without doing an LBRP. My banishing ritual takes a few seconds, can be done with groups, and is a deconstruction of the GPR. I also tend to use drumming, incense, and the strange sound of a Nepali tiger thigh flute to set the scene and move myself into an altered, magickal state of consciousness. I also use the LBRP, but almost never for private ritual. In public rituals, especially before audiences who may never have seen Ceremonial Magick before, the LBRP has a comforting, a soothing effect. After all, it does contain the end of the Lord’s Prayer and it does call the Archangels. I don’t usually disturb such people with the fact that Demons are sometimes classified as Angels by another name. But if the aim of banishing is to create a sacred space and center the magician then perhaps this can be done just with a hand gesture, with a slight shift in consciousness, or perhaps a declaration like Jean Luc Picard’s “Make It So”! Modern magickal writers, to my mind, seem terribly concerned over the sanity and well being of new or neophyte magicians. I’m not sure if this is motivated by fear of litigation, higher primate hierarchical motives, or genuine concern that new magicians will actually go crazy. My suggestion is try it both ways. Do rituals without banishing and do rituals with banishing. Then do what you prefer. After all, if you get infected by some strange denizen of the Deep Mind because you didn’t bother to banish, you could always ask one of us to exorcise it. There’s always a hearty welcome at my house for demonic entities! I like them. I like to make them work for me, and I like to eat them. They always have a choice, and demon heart is a lot tastier than angel heart! Free Belief and Vacuity A technique explored by AO Spare and discussed at length by Stephen Mace but strangely absent from many other discussions of Chaos Magickal techniques is the state of mind called Free Belief by Mace, and generally referred to by Spare as the Neither-Neither principle. Spare wrote: “When the mind is nonplused capability to attempt the impossible becomes known.” Spare’s magickal approach is reductionist. He wrote: “Magic, the reduction of properties to simplicity, making them transmutable to utilize them afresh by direction, without capitalization, bearing fruit many times.” Spare believed that acts of magick were most likely to succeed when the mind had attained a state in which duality had been extinguished through a process in which dualistic notions were systematically eliminated by counterpoising them against each other. He called this the Neither-Neither principle. Students of Yogic techniques will recognize this as the Neti-Neti meditation, a meditation in which the seeker questions his or her self-identity by discounting all that he or she is not. For example: I am not my name. I am not my body. I am not my genetic structure. I am not my mind etc., etc. Mace gives a simple method for applying Spare’s technique: “To apply this principle to conjuring, wait until you are absolutely positive something is true, then search for its opposite. When you find it, oppose it to your 'truth” and let them annihilate one another as well they may. Any residue you should oppose to its opposite until your truth has been dismembered and the passion behind it converted into undirected energy-free belief.“ FireClown explains this in another way. According to his theory on the formation of entities, obsession naturally creates thought forms which soon achieve a form of independence and turn into demons. Now demons, and semi-detached parts of the magician’s psyche in general, do not wish to be re-assimilated, or destroyed. Consequently they will seek energy from any source in the magician’s psyche, but primarily from long running maladaptive sub-programs such as resentment towards one’s parents, one’s spouse, or ex-spouse, feelings of inferiority, or whatever tape loops are recurrent in the magician’s psyche. The generation of free belief presents the magician with a source of psychic energy, originating in obsession, that allows the actualization of magickal intentions. Without generating free belief the energy the magician summons is eaten by demons and used by them for their own self-perpetuation. Consequently the magickal act fails. Spare wrote: "When by the wish to believe-it is of necessity incompatible with an existing belief and is not realized through the inhibition of the organic belief-the negation of the wish, faith moves no mountains, not till it has removed itself.” Or, if wishes were horses beggars would ride. Mere wishing is rarely sufficient if obsessional energy is at play. Simple spells, such as those used to get a table at a crowded restaurant, can succeed because of their simplicity, and because obsessional energy has not created demonic entities. The bar against success in magick is the contradictory opinions the magician holds of his or her capacity to succeed. Spare suggests that this very process can be used by the magician to create a state of mind in which magick will work. Correct use of the Neither- Neither principle brings about the state Spare calls Vacuity, which is, as T.S.Eliot suggests, is “A state of complete simplicity Costing not less than everything.” To return to servitors, then, once the servitor has been developed, and a banishing ritual performed, the magician must achieve a state of vacuity, a state in which free belief exists. One way to achieve this is the Neither-Neither. As Mace writes: “By applying the Neither-Neither we can gut the meaningless convictions that obsess us every day and use the power released to cause the changes we desire.” Peter Carroll calls this state of vacuity Gnosis. He wrote “Methods of achieving gnosis can be divided into two types. In the inhibitory mode, the mind is progressively silenced until only a single object of concentration remains. In the excitatory mode, the mind is raised to a very high pitch of excitement while concentration on the objective is maintained. Strong stimulation eventually elicits a reflex inhibition and paralyzes all but the most central function-the object of concentration. Thus strong inhibition and strong excitation end up creating the same effect-the one-pointed consciousness, or gnosis.” The Neither-Neither technique is primarily inhibitory, although, through the artificial manipulation of emotional states attached to obsessive energy there is no reason why the method could not produce an excitatory effect. Achieving this state ensures that the servitor can be charged. Not achieving this state runs the risk that the care the magician has put into developing the servitor will come to nothing because the energy developed will end up feeding the magician’s unbound and perhaps unknown demons. To continue with the example of the Psycho Zippy servitor I am creating to facilitate payments through U.P.S. and the Postal Service, I can create free belief by choosing a recurring tape from my own psyche. I know, for example, I still resent my father for sending me away to school in England. I believe he did it because he was jealous of my mother’s affection for me. I can counterpoint this belief by reminding myself that sending me to boarding school was not only very expensive for him but that he believed he was affording me an education that he had been denied due to the poverty of his parents. On the other hand I truly hated the institutionalized cruelty of English boarding school. I can counterpoint this with the fact that when I was old enough to enumerate the problems with the type of school to which he had sent me he removed me at once and placed in a school that was actually enlightened. I can continue in this way counterpoising one belief with a contrary argument until finally I am left with nothing to which the obsessive resentment can attach. At this point I am ready to charge the servitor. I have moved myself to a calm and one-pointed state of mind that is nevertheless suffused with psychic energy. The Actual Launch To recapitulate: I have created a sacred space by means of a banishing ritual. I have created the appropriate energy to charge the servitor by using the method of Free Belief. I am in a state of vacuity. At this point I can bring the image of Psycho Zippy to my mind and create it as a living form. I can visualize it racing, wraithlike, through the information systems of UPS and the US Postal Service. I can visualize it making the hands of postal workers touching my mail move just a bit faster, see it increasing their concentration and visual acuity, revving up their hand-eye-body coordination for the apparently arduous task of getting my checks back to me on time. I can then dispatch the servitor into the aether with a stern admonition to do my will or suffer the consequence of psychic dissolution. In actual fact I did none of these things. Instead I hosted a ritual, an invocation of Baron Samedi, and before the invocation, but after the banishing, had the participants gaze at my rendering of Psycho Zippy. I then gave this rendering to a friend who was off to a Fire Performance Art that evening, but was unable to stay for the invocation. She had the rendering burned with a flame-thrower while a large group of onlookers chanted “Zippy, Zippy, Zippy.” A few days later I turned my rendering of Zippy into labels which I have since placed in every package I ship. Zippy has, by and large, worked very well since then, and I would estimate that the speed of return payments has increased by about 30 per cent. Zippy is a servitor with a material base, the laser printed image of him that sits on my alter and is reproduced on my labels. Although it is by no means necessary for servitors to have material bases, in this case, it seemed appropriate. Phil Hine in his User’s Guide gives as examples of material bases: “rings, bottles, crystals, or a small metal figurine” In a way Zippy can be termed a fetish servitor. I believe the image I have drawn of him to have magickal power, thus fulfilling the definition of fetish. To give you another example of a fetish servitor, FireClown, who was having difficulty during job interviews, developed a bear servitor, which he created with a material base made out of wood. It looked something like a wood carved zuni bear. FireClown wore this amulet within his shirt during job interviews. He visualized the bear as a large, somewhat comical, somewhat threatening, form dancing behind him as he sat before his interviewers. He reported that his prospective employers became quite confused during the interviews, ceasing to pay attention to him, and frequently glancing behind him. His interviews were concluded rapidly and cordially and he shortly found himself employed. Phil Hine also suggests that time is a factor to be considered in servitor design and creation, and suggests that the life cycle or periodicity of a servitor be included in its creation. I have not found this to be the case in my own work, but then this may just be because I tend to create servitors for perennial needs and use sigils or godforms for ad hoc situations where I must respond rapidly to a crisis or momentary desire. Hine suggests a technique that my local Chaos group -the TAZ, New Orleans node of the Z(cluster)-has used successfully. He calls it “The Airburst Exercise.” In this technique for launching spells, including group sigils and servitors the participants in the ritual first develop an altered state of consciousness through whatever means they choose - chanting, breathing, group groping…whatever. They then visualize energy flowing to and from each other and finally crystallizing in a sphere within their circle. They visualize the sigil or servitor within the sphere. This sphere is then launched into the aether (perhaps after a countdown). The TAZ, New Orleans group, in 1993, decided to celebrate Mardi Gras into perpetuity by launching a chaos satellite, which they named the Zerbat. This satellite was sent into geosynchronous orbit 30 miles above the spire of St. Louis Cathedral shortly before Mardi Gras of that year. The group visualized the satellite as a chaosphere with a top hat, smoking a cigar. On Mardi Gras Day since then members have distributed Reichian orgone collectors throughout the French Quarter, and, at 6 pm discharged these collectors to the Zerbat satellite through a group ritual performed in Jackson Square. The orgones are visualized as a stream of energy containing the revelry of Fat Tuesday in the Vieux Carre. The Zerbat send these streams of orgiastic energy to other satellites launched around the world by other groups. The energy is then received by magicians using satellite receivers (either images of such, old hubcaps, metal bowls or, for the brave, their computers) who use the orgones for their own magickal works. The Zerbat is, of course, a group servitor and was launched using a variation of Hine’s Airburst Exercise. Sigils, Servitors, and Godforms Pt 5 ther Methods to Launch Servitors Stephen Mace, in his “Stealing the Fire from Heaven”, refers to another form of servitor, known as “The Magickal Child”. This is a technique described at length by Crowley (and forms the central theme of his turgid work of fiction “Moonchild”) in which a couple of magicians have intercourse to produce “an astral being whose power is devoted to carrying out the purpose of the participants. It is empowered by the white heat of orgasm and embodied in the 'elixer’ generated by intercourse. The participants must give this child a name in advance and also agree on its astral appearance, for it must fill their imaginations throughout the rite, until climax sets it in their mingled fluids.” Mace continues with the usual thelemic caveat: “Any loss of concentration upon it or independent thinking during copulation can be deadly, for then their child will be monster. The two participants must therefore agree on the symbolism they will use, making this formula much more relevant to traditional magick, where common imagery is easy to come by.”

I can’t help but ask what, in these days of protected sex, one must actually do to “mingle fluids”, but perhaps we shouldn’t go there. It does occur to me that this ritual is not too far removed from normal intercourse between would be parents anxious to conceive. Mace states that this is a heterosexual ritual, but I can see no reason why it would not be quite as effective, and, in the long run, probably a great deal less stressful to society as a whole, if it were not a same sex rite. After all, if the heterosexual couple does not use protection and a child is the issue of the ritual, the result might be an actual monstrous child, rather than a servitor. Oh, the puzzles entrenched in thelemic logic! Possibly safer for all concerned by far is the ritual described by Mace that Austin Osman Spare used to create servitors, which he and Mace call, creating some confusion, “elementals”. Mace describes a technique he asserts that Spare used called “The Earthenware Virgin.” This is a clay vessel with an opening that fits snugly around the sorcerer’s erect penis and into which he masturbates. At the bottom of the vessel is a sigil incorporating the attributes of the servitor. Needless to say this is a technique for male magicians, although I am certain that inventive female magicians could develop effective variations. On orgasm the magician charges the sigil and then buries it, doing the whole operation during the quarter moon (ask Mrs. Patterson why!) Mace continues: “When the moon passes full, the wizard digs up this clay womb, replenishes the sperm and -'while repeating suitable incantations’- pours it out as a libation on the ground. Then he reburies the urn.” Sounds pretty raunchy to me, rather like a pornographic Clark Ashton Smith story. Does the sorcerer clean the vessel before ejaculating into it a second time, or does the grit add an ascetic tinge to the operation? In any event Mace states “Spare cautions that though this technique never fails, it is dangerous, and so he leaves much to be guessed.” Rather too much in my opinion. What if the sorcerer gets the dimensions a little wrong? What if the sorcerer has been using Viagra? Will he get stuck? Then what? Never mind. Back to Mace: “…one may suppose that the urn acts as a clay womb in which the wizard breeds a familiar spirit. Such help can be as risky as it is effective, however, for if the wizard is in any way unable to control himself, he will have an even harder time managing a semi-independent power such as this. He must always keep the initiative over it, never allow it any scope for independent action, and always maintain a strict separation between its form and his own. He must never invite it into himself.”

Mace underlines “never.” This curious tendency among magicians from all traditions to warn of the dangers of magickal operations may be no more than stagecraft (“Kids, don’t try this at home!”), or perhaps it is more of the strange conservatism that magicians sometimes manifest. Mace’s comments seem, from my perspective, to be quite contradictory. If the semi-independent power is not completely autonomous how may one maintain “a strict separation?” I’m afraid I’m puzzled. The Care and Feeding of Servitors Servitors feed from the obsessional energies of the magician that created them. In some cases, vampiric servitors, for example, the servitor may be charged with feeding from the energies of the individual or entity that is its target, but even here, the magician that created it both launches it and controls it with his or her own obsessional energies. A book-finding servitor, for example, can rest dormant until the magician’s desire for a certain book sends it on its way. Servitors that do not perform according to the magician’s desire need discipline. This can consist merely of a warning. On the other hand a servitor that consistently fails in its duties obviously needs to be recalled. Chaos magick is, after all, results oriented magick. Servitors can be dissipated by destroying their material base, by visualizing their dissolution, or by any other means the magician finds effective. Servitors may be domiciled on the magician’s alter. I tend to return mine to a number of crystals strewn about my alter, or to some other material base there residing. Since servitors are semi-independent most authors caution against allowing them to exist in an uncontrolled form, since, at least in theory, they will continue to subsist off the life energies of the magician, which may, over a period of time, debilitate the sorcerer. Jaq. D. Hawkins, in her book, “Spirits of the Earth” has the following, fairly typical admonition about thought-form elementals (her name for servitors): “these artificial entities have survival instincts. Once a thought form is created, it will generally continue to take spiritual energy from its creator until it is dissipated or reabsorbed, which is something which should be kept in mind when deciding to do this in the first place. The energy to sustain a single thought form may go unnoticed, but sending streams of thought forms off to do one’s bidding could sap one’s energy to depletion and lead to illness. It is always prudent to have a plan in place to reabsorb the entity, and therefore one’s own energy, once the purpose is accomplished.” Again, the validity of this admonition has more to do with the magickal model to which the magician subscribes rather than natural law. Certainly magicians using the Spirit Model, the Energy Model, and even the Psychological Model to an extent, might agree. Magicians using the Information Model, in which the servitor is essentially self-replicating code programming energy, might disagree, since this Model does not require the magician to use his or her own life force, except perhaps to launch the servitor. Readers of this essay are advised to determine which paradigm, or which combination of paradigms they are using in a particular operation, and act accordingly in determining whether to reabsorb or dissipate the servitor. Binding Demons, Elementals, and Other Entities As stated above, this essay is primarily concerned with creating semi-independent entities out of the mind of the magician. However, it is possible to use the vast variety of independent entities that populate the Spirit Model as servitors. As indicated earlier, these entities tend to be less manageable for a variety of reasons. They are products of the group consciousness of Planet Earth, tend to be more self-willed (and consequently require more energy to be controlled) and are often contaminated by conflicting instructions placed upon them by prior sorcerers. However they may be used, particularly if the magician has a personal bond with the entity, through memory, propinquity, or a recognition of psychological characteristics within the magician that the entity in question also possesses. Some of these entities, however, are really godforms, or extrusions of such, and need to be handled in a quite different manner, but that’s a topic for another essay. I would encourage magicians wishing to use these entities to use lesser demons, minor elementals. I do not intend to go into detail on the methods the magician can use to evoke and control these entities. The annals of magick are already full of extremely detailed instructions. However, the question posed earlier, whether one can use a bound demon’s energy to reinforce personality elements that the magician wants to strengthen, should be answered. Traditional ceremonial magicians, of course, habitually do this, summoning, for example, a demon of lust and charging it with the task of causing an object of his or her amorous attentions to fall in love with the sorcerer. In this case, from the viewpoint of the theory of servitor dynamics outlined in this essay, the magician has bound the demon of his own lust and converted it into a type of glamour attractive to the object of his infatuation. The question was asked, however, by someone who wanted to use a personality defect as the energy source for a personality asset. To give an example, resentment towards one’s parents, if fed frequently enough (and isn’t it usually) creates demonic energy that can crystallize into a thought form. Can this demon can be bound and its energy then used to charge a servitor whose function is to increase the personality asset of, say, self-confidence? The process this would occur would be whereby, every time the magician feels resentment towards his or her parents, the energy from this resentment is directed towards the servitor whose task is to increase the magician’s self-confidence. The answer is that the energy from the resentment must be clarified, or filtered, as it were, before it can be of use to the character enhancing servitor. An effective method for doing this would be the Free Belief technique outlined above. Thus the energy would not be contaminated by the emotional charge of resentment, but be pure psychic material, suitable for feeding a servitor. A final word about the therapeutic techniques of psychodynamic theory would be useful here since the above technique would be more properly classified as the use of servitors as a form of magickal psychotherapy. Magick and Psychotherapy Modern magick and psychotherapy share a number of commonalties. Both attempt to empower the individual, both attempt to discern the relationship of the individual to the universe, both attempt to make that relationship as functional, in terms of the individual’s goals, as possible. Although many magicians might disagree, magick is also an attempt by the magician to integrate disparate elements of his or her personality into a unified whole, which is, of course, a primary goal in psychotherapy. This is not to say that magick is psychotherapy. Magick is clearly a quite different field of human endeavor. Psychotherapy generally has a sociological goal, that is the development of personality assets that allow the individual to function within society in an easy and comfortable manner. Magicians generally could care less about social approval, although they might well seek the approval of their magickal peers. Psychodynamic approaches to psychotherapy (also known as psychoanalysis) seek to overcome defenses so that repressed materials can be uncovered, insight into personal motivation can be achieved, and unresolved childhood issues can be controlled. Psychoanalysis, probably because of its dismal success rate and enormous expense, has now pretty much given way to psychopharmacological interventions among psychiatrists. However, servitor creation and deployment certainly uses psychoanalytic techniques, to the extent that the magician attempts to discover obsessional thought patterns, tries to find out exactly what it is that he or she wants, and uses the material of his or her own psychological history as part of the material in the development of the servitor. The primary difference is that psychoanalysis seeks to bring repressed materials to the surface so that they can dissipate (if, in fact they do), while chaos magicians mine their own repressions and obsessions for energy to empower creations of their own imaginations, a goal that many psychiatrists might regard as being quite contrary to mental health. Rather than looking at chaos magick in terms of its therapeutic uses as a psychodynamic form of therapy it may be more accurate to define it as a modality that looks remarkably similar to that adopted by situationalist or contextual psychologists. Situationalism, a view of personality championed by Walter Mischel argues that whatever consistency of behavior that is observable is largely determined by the characteristics of the situation rather than any internal personality types or traits. From this somewhat radical perspective it is arguable that personality does not actually exist, but is a construct placed by an observer on responses that an individual has to his or her environment. In other words, personality is contained in those behavior patterns the observer chooses to regard. Similarities in patterns of behavior result from similarities in the situation the individual encounters rather than any underlying traits or characteristics the individual might contain. This fluid conception of personality is integral to Chaos Magic which argues that it is not so much any internal validity (or consistency!) of belief structures that a magician may adopt that are important, but rather the tenacity with which the a magician can hold a belief during the period contained by the magical rite. Chaos magicians tend to be results oriented, more concerned, that is, with whether a magical rite works than with its consistency with any encompassing belief structures. Consequently the Chaos magician is quite content with adopting radically different personality characteristic than those with which he or she may find comfortable outside the space and period of the magical rite. Phil Hine, for example, cites a magician, who, wishing to pass a test in mathematics at college adopted the personality (to the best of his ability) of Mr. Spock from Star Trek for three days before the exam, and then passed the test with no problems. The magical practice of invocation, in which the practitioner adopts the personality characteristics of the deity or entity he or she invokes, also suggests that possession rituals are primarily situationist in underlying theory. The situation here is the expectation that the invoked God, demon, or entity will act in certain ways. Jan Fries, one of the clearest writers on magic derived from A.O.Spare, writes of the nearly epileptic seizures of contemporary Japanese spirit mediums “Dramatic healings have much to do with play acting and giving the audience the entertainment it desires. The medium or shaman pretends the eternal 'as if’ which becomes the 'as is’ in the act of doing.” To summarize, then, Chaos Magick is distinguished by its empirical approach to magic (techniques that do not actualize the magician’s desires are discarded), by an assertion that personality is a construct comprised of belief structures the individual chooses to regard as containing consistent and constant elements, and by the idea that the primary obstacle to the actualization of a desire through a magical rite is the interference of the conscious mind. The underlying concept here is that there exists an unconscious, perhaps even a collective unconscious, termed by Jan Fries “the Deep Mind” and by A.O.Spare “Kia”, but an acceptance of this idea, because of the situationalist approach of Chaos magicians, not necessary to the successful fulfillment of desires through magical rituals. It is, rather, part of the argument, a method to persuade Chaos magicians that the techniques may actually work, but the primary function is rhetorical, not substantive. This is, of course, a radical approach to magic, not to mention psychology, but it can be substantiated as an effective approach among certain individuals. To be sure, chaos magicians routinely use chaos magickal techniques for personal psychotherapeutic goals. Phil Hine recognized this in his User’s Guide: “A purely psychodynamic model of Servitor operation would state that our psyche is made up of a very large cluster of forces which can be projected as intelligences, complexes, or subpersonalities (whether you’re into magick, NLP, Jungian Psychotherapy, etc). These mental forces enable us to do some things but prevent us from doing others. By consciously realigning and redirecting these energies we can create Servitors which will enable us to do things which we couldn’t do before, such as refrain from compulsive behaviors, thoughts, or emotions. In these terms, a Servitor is a conscious form of redirecting these largely unconscious entities so that they work for us.”

I believe that chaos magickal techniques would actually prove quite valuable to psychotherapists in the treatment of abnormal behavior, but that, I’m afraid, is a topic for an entirely different essay. By Marik (MarkDeFrates, marik[at]aol.com)

[fixtheworldlove]

Jasper's Guide To Energyforms

The various categories that any given energyform may fall under.

There are innumerable names and ideas for energyforms. This will merely go over my own categorizations and definitions of them. These are not universal, but they’ll hopefully provide a good starting point for your own understanding! Ultimately, this is all my own understanding, and all “sources” are meant to encourage you to look around and explore this subject on your own!

What Is An Energyform?

An energyform is any entity made of energy, often your own. I use the term as the catch-all category for servitors, thoughtforms, and so forth, because having a catch-all term for them is very helpful to me. The term is derived from “manaform” from Magic: The Gathering, which is a being that is made of pure mana. [1] I altered it to energyform for my own practice.

Types Of Energyforms

Egregore: An energyform created by an entire group of magical practitioners, typically more than 4. Three or fewer magical practitioners working together on an energyform will still produce a servitor. An example of an egregore is GOFLOWOLFOG. [2]

Pop Culture Entities: One theory for the validity of pop culture magic is that the pop culture entities – including deities, heroes, spirits, and more – are egregores. This is not a universal approach to pop culture magic.

Godform: The image or incarnation of a god. [3] Not quite an energyform of its own, but an energyform can be made to be a godform or to channel parts of a god’s power. [4] A godform energyform can fall under any other category.

Living Spell: An extremely basic energyform that is only a step above the basic spell by way of being given a form to deliver the said spell to its intended target. These typically fade away or are automatically destroyed once they accomplish their goal.

Servitor: A servitor is the “default” type of energyform, lacking in “sentience” and being focused on one or a handful of very specific goals. Extremely simple to make and often look more like “people” (humans, animals, demons/angels, et cetera) than a living spell. Most servitors are best described as magical computer programs.

Viral Servitors [5]: Servitors that have automatic ways built into them to copy themselves to continue doing their job so that there are many of them. One example of a viral servitor is Fotamecus. [6]

Sigil: Most sigils are symbols created for particular purposes and are more often connected to energyforms rather than being energyforms in and of themselves. However, certain animist approaches [7] may see sigils as spirits in and of themselves!

Chao-Mines [5], Energy Store-House Entities [4], Linking Sigils [8]: Functionally the same thing, these are particular sigils or energy points that you can use to draw energy from a place, another energyform, or a thing.

Hypersigils: The term was coined by Grant Morrison and elaborated upon by Aidan Wachter. It is a work of art, such as a novel, journal, or piece of art, that functions as an elaborate sigil. [9]

Sigil Shoals: A collection of sigils that are led by one that is guaranteed to happen, thus forcing the rest of them to come true as well. [10]

Thoughtform: A thoughtform is a “sentient” energyform, though the definition of “sentient” is up for debate. Typically, thoughtforms can think for themselves and do not need to be specifically directed around obstacles keeping them from accomplishing their goals. Thoughtforms are often compared to the type of “artificial intelligence” found in science fiction.

Citations, Resources, And Further Reading

[1] “Mana” on the MTG wiki, compiled by Fandom users, through a Breezewiki mirror: https://antifandom.com/mtg/wiki/Mana

[2] “GOFLOWOLFOG” on the Paranormal wiki, compiled by para.wiki users: https://para.wiki/w/GOFLOWOLFOG

[3] “Godform” on Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/godform

[4] Creating Magickal Entities: A Complete Guide to Entity Creation by David Michael Cunningham with contributions by Taylor Ellwood and T. Amanda R. Wagener “Servitors as Links” specifically can be found here: https://jasper-grimoire.tumblr.com/post/763362873038782464 “Energy Store-House Entities (ESHEs)” specifically can be found here: https://jasper-grimoire.tumblr.com/post/763362842589151232

[5] Condensed Chaos: an introduction to chaos magic by Phil Hine “Chao-Mines” specifically can be found here: https://jasper-grimoire.tumblr.com/post/763430369816182784

[6] “Fotamecus” by Fenwick Rysen: www.chaosmatrix.org/library/chaos/texts/fotamec1.html

[7] “Sigils: Scribbles to Forget or Spirits to Remember” by witchofsouthernlight on Tumblr: https://jasper-grimoire.tumblr.com/post/762793274388938752

[8] “Create Your Own Linking Sigil” by Jareth Tempest on The Shadow Binder: https://theshadowbinder.com/2019/02/22/create-your-own-linking-sigil/

[9] “Hypersigil” by writingdirty on Tumblr: https://jasper-grimoire.tumblr.com/post/710434325688123392 “Hypersigil” by windvexer on Tumblr: https://jasper-grimoire.tumblr.com/post/700376884034355200/hello-chicken-can-you-share-your-thoughts-on

[10] “Sigil Shoaling: A Chaos Magic Tool” by Cristina Farella on a personal website: https://www.cristinafarella.com/astrological-magic-tools/sigil-shoaling-a-chaos-magic-tool “Sigil Shoals and Robofish” by Mahigan on Kitchen Toad: https://www.kitchentoad.com/blog/sigil-shoals-and-robofish

“Jasper’s Servitor/Thoughtform Resource Post”, compiled on Tumblr by jasper-pagan-witch: https://jasper-pagan-witch.tumblr.com/post/762988504970100736/jaspers-servitorthoughtform-resource-post

[fixtheworldlove]

Jasper's Servitor/Thoughtform Resource Post

last updated: October 6, 2024

Please note: The biggest difference between a servitor and thoughtform is the level of sentience (or perceived sentience). A servitor is not sentient, while a thoughtform is. Determine it as you will.

Also, a disclaimer! Even if I don't find a source particularly helpful, you might get more out of it than I did! I just like to categorize and sub-categorize things.

Tumblr Posts I Find Helpful

How to Make a Servitor by viadescioism: A rather straightforward guide on servitor creation.

Creating a Thoughtform by windvexer: A decently lengthy guide on thoughtform creation.

When Creating Thoughtforms by witchesalleyway: A little reminder about picking the shapes of your thoughtforms.

Technowitchcraft - Thoughtforms by aceswitch: A post with the idea of using a USB drive as the "body" of a servitor/thoughtform to allow for future edits.

Egregore by trustmepink: An extremely short post defining what an egregore is. Great for being introduced to the word and concept, though there's not much meat in the post and the sources/helpful links are a bit questionable.

Sigils: Scribbles to Forget or Spirits to Remember by witchofsouthernlight: While not about servitor creation, this is about reusing sigils for specific goals and how those can be spirits in an animist perspective. A really neat post overall and useful here because of the way that servitors are often tied to sigils.

Entity Creation Worksheet by jasper-pagan-witch: Adapted from Creating Magickal Entities, but altered to a decent extent so it's more helpful to me personally.

Servitor Design Template by ritual-and-chaos: Adapted from Servitor Magick, extremely straightforward with an explanation. A great alternative to my adaptation of the template from Creating Magickal Entities.

Chaos Magic: Servitors, Thoughtforms, and Godforms by trollkunnig: Incredibly in-depth and detailed when it comes to servitor creation, but since OP deactivated, the links in reference to the godform parts are broken. Damn the loss of information on the Internet!!!

Destroying Your Thoughtforms: by viadescioism: A fairly detailed (if a little wall-of-text-y) post on the destruction of the thoughtform, with a guide in case you didn't build a kill switch/phrase into your thoughtform to begin with.

Thoughtforms: Theory & Ethics by spiritvexer: A good companion post to the thoughtform destruction one above, giving a few alternatives to total destruction for the thoughtforms when you no longer need them.

Thoughts on Thoughtforms by spellsandwoo-woostuff: An insightful read into another approach to thoughtforms as OCs or writing muses given life rather than spells given sentience.

Books And Websites I Find Helpful

Condensed Chaos: An Introduction To Chaos Magic by Phil Hine: While this is a chaos magic 101 type book, it has an incredibly robust chapter on servitor/thoughtform creation. It also has the benefit of talking about chaos magic more broadly to give you more context for servitor/thoughtform creation. You can find my initial thoughts on it here. APPLICABLE PAGES: 106 to 125, under the chapter name "Chaos Servitors"

The Forty Servants, The Four Devils, and The Grimoire of The Forty Servants by Tommie Kelly: Two pre-made servitor systems that are incredibly in-depth and, in my opinion, quite fun to use. There's a little bit of plug-and-play applicable here.

Magickal Servitors: Create Your Own Spirits to Attract Pleasure, Power and Prosperity by Damon Brand: It is effective, straight to the point, and actionable. But interestingly, it's incredibly combative towards chaos magic, which is where servitor/thoughtform creation sprung up to begin with. You can find my initial thoughts about it here.

Tumblr Posts I Find Less Helpful

Creating a Servitor and Creating a Thoughtform by witchy-oates: These guides aren't bad, but they really seem to focus on the fear that a servitor will spontaneously develop sentience, which I generally disagree with.

Is Your Spirit A Thoughtform? by elysiumconjures: A lengthy questionnaire and list of red flags that an entity you're interacting with might be a thoughtform. Personally I found it frustrating to read, but the list can at least guide beginners who are still learning discernment techniques to figure out what to look for.

On Telling The Difference Between A Thoughtform And A "Real" Spirit by creature-wizard: The counter-post to the above one, though you kind of need to see both perspectives to fully appreciate creature-wizard's wonderful counterpoints.

Distinguishing Imaginary Friends, Thoughtforms, and Spirits by spiritconnect: Another post about deciphering whether what you're talking to is a thoughtform or some other kind of entity.

A Short Guide to Thoughtforms by thewitchofbucktown: Longer than it promises, and I personally don't feel like referring to all deities as thoughtforms is something that works with my understanding of things at this time, but not a bad post considering it was written 11 years ago. Plus, OP hasn't deactivated, which is really hard to find in servitor/thoughtform resources.

Servitors: A Basic Guide to Artificial Entities by tinyrosemarysparrows: While this is a very detailed guide with some interesting and unique approaches to servitor creation, the author dropping back to "destroy if it even blinks wrong" (not that much of an exaggeration) makes me hesitant to recommend it fully, hence its placement down here. The post even says you can reprogram servitors but still recommends immediate destruction for every little thing, so…it's not really how I roll.

Books And Websites I Find Less Helpful

Creating Magickal Entities: A Complete Guide to Entity Creation by David Michael Cunningham, Taylor Ellwood, and T Amanda R Wagener: I hated this book so much. Out of everything in here, I found only four things that were actionable and that I could use. Every single author here was pretentious as fuck and took forever to make their damn point. This could have been an email. You can read more of my complaints here. The three parts that I found most interesting can be read in these Tumblr posts of mine: Servitors as Links; Energy Store-House Entities (ESHEs); and Servitor Biographies.

Protection & Reversal Magick: A Witch's Defense Manual by Jason Miller: I can't fucking believe I'm putting a Jason Miller book here. And look, I can't say this entire book is helpful because I haven't yet finished it, but the section on artificial spirits created for magical offense and defense? Probably one of the best sections on servitors/thoughtforms I've read in a non-dedicated book in a while. Just be aware that his tone of speech is deeply annoying, and this book of his leans more Hekatean. But because I have not finished reading this book, I cannot recommend this book fully. APPLICABLE PAGES: 119 to 146, under the chapter name "Spirit Guardians and Servitors"

Hands-On Chaos Magic: Reality Manipulation through the Ovayki Current by Andrieh Vitimus: I hated this book. I hate this book. I will hate this book. It's deeply frustrating and there's only so many times I can keep writing "stop citing a white woman on hoodoo" in the book itself before I just start eating the pages. That, and many similar problems, are why I do not find this book helpful on the whole despite how in-depth it goes in its three chapters on servitor creation. The author also refers heavily back to Condensed Chaos by Phil Hine, so that's required reading before you even pick this up. Personally, I'm just not impressed. APPLICABLE PAGES: 287 to 339, under the chapter names "Creating Entities with Energy and Information", "Giving Form to Concepts and Ideas", and "Advanced Practicum on Entity Creation"

Jasper's Miscellaneous Bullshit

Jasper's Guide To Energyforms by jasper-pagan-witch: A little glossary of how I, personally, use the terms you've seen speckled throughout this post.

The Modal Commander Servitor by jasper-pagan-witch: A Magic: The Gathering Commander format approach to creating a kickass servitor that can change and adapt as easily as swapping out cards.

Atronachs, Ash Guardians, and Quick Notes on the Less Common Atronachs on @the-college-of-whispers: Want a quick look at how Jasper from 3 years ago approached the idea of elemental Daedra as entities, both created and summoned? These three posts are for you.

@jasper-and-the-forty-servants: Remember how I was talking about the plug-and-play part of the Forty Servants above? Yeah, that's what I do over on this blog. My favorite two are, hands down, Falco Spara, Pactweaver as the Protector and Dina, Soul Steeper as the Healer.

GOFLOWOLFOG and Fotamecus: Two servitors/egregores that I and people close to me have had incredible experiences with. Hell yeah to both of them.

Mesperyian: Tumblr's very own Greek goddess egregore. An excellent study in the power of multiple people taking something and running with it. (Her original story can be found here, by the way!)

[fixtheworldlove]

This is a topic that can get very confusing for those starting out. There are lots of interchanging terminology, beliefs, and constructs that not everyone sees fit to agree on. This can often create misunderstandings and propagate the misuse of certian energies making navigation for newcomers more than just problematic. In this blog, I will attempt to systematize some of the complexities enough to deliver a more organized path for beginners to follow and build upon.

Keep in mind, however, that while there are some definite rules to thoughtforms there is also a well of UPG around this topic. The knowledge surrounding thoughtforms changes quite considerably with the beliefs of the individuals that practice it. So take from this blog what you will.

The Basics

So I bet some of you are asking, what exactly is a thoughtform? Well, that’s a being created from our beliefs and thoughts. They are made up of energy and can be utilized in magickal workings. Now there is some confusion among some members of the community here. Sometimes the term is not seen as the umbrella term it really is and instead becomes a varying type all on its own. However, to fully understand where this name fits we need only break it down in its simple meaning. "A being formed by the power of thought." This clearly describes a variety of different beings, not just a singular one, hence why it's more traditionally used as an umbrella term.

⚜️ Creation ⚜️

A thoughtform’s creation will ultimately depend on the witch but essentially most agree it starts with finding a purpose. From there you can build it up starting with a name. A name binds the thing into existence so this is most often agreed upon to be a very important step. From this most people use that name to create a sigil. Others make a symbol on their own and bind it to the name afterward. Either way, it’s often seen as an essential step in the process. A sigil gives the thoughtform a physical foundation to draw energy from and affect the real world. Some witches in turn will then place that sigil on a vessel for their thoughtform to connect to, while others draw it in the air with energy.

Finally comes the fun part, designing. You can skip this process altogether but many enjoy deciding how this being is going to look. This is also a great opportunity to build more symbolism around it. Tie its appearance to its purpose and allow this to strengthen it. Once that’s done it’s time to begin the actual ritual. Now, many like to write out everything on a petition and/or draw a picture of the being. In my experience, this isn’t really needed but it helps quite a bit if you’re doing a more complex being (this will be discussed later in another section). It’s also good to decide on the finer details. Not just what you want your thoughtform to do, but what type it is, and what it’s not allowed to do as well.

Once the written portion has been completed (and drawing if you choose to use that), set it up in a place of power. Most people use their altar but you can also create a sacred space specially for this part. The ritual itself will essentially involve you going into meditative gnosis and forming the energy with your mind. (Visualization helps with this. Some people choose to picture a light forming into the being or a large cosmic egg. But that too is based on a user's preference.) This part takes focus so make sure there aren’t any distractions nearby. Once you’re finished greet your thoughtform and continue with any other magick you wish.

As for how long this is going to take, nobody can truly say. We each are different and how our energy works will ultimately decide how long things will take. However, in my own experience, I would say that most thoughtform creations vary based on complexity. The simpler the being the shorter amount of time it will need. For longer amounts of time, you may need to visit your uncreated thoughtform once a day. giving it energy each time to ensure its continued gestation.

⚜️ Feeding ⚜️

Think of your thoughtform as a computer. It’s programmed to function a certain way by the user and to keep it going you need to give it a battery or plug it into a port. In short, it needs something to draw energy from to work properly. How you feed your thoughtform will depend on its type, but for most people, they set their thoughtform's ability to feed during its creation process. Either going to it regularly to meditatively give it energy, to offerings, or even to preprogrammed sustainability, a thoughtform needs something to ensure its success.

⚜️ Setting A Time Limit ⚜️

Certain thoughtforms will need a time limit of some sort. This is usually predetermined by the creator and set during the creation process or a kill switch is kept in place for whenever the practitioner deems it necessary. (Like burning or tearing up the paper vessel or petition with the thoughtforms sigil). Now depending on who you ask, What thoughtforms should get a time limit will inevitably change. Some believe that all thoughtforms need a limit and thus rarely venture past the simple variety. While others believe that there are many more varieties that don’t need such a limit. I will cover this in further detail in later sections.

⚜️ Involuntary Creation ⚜️

This can happen sometimes, especially if there are lots of emotions around a certain belief. Things can manifest against our will and they can be both negative or positive depending on what energy was used to create them.

Servitors

Also called simple thoughtforms and simple servitors, they are the most common form of thoughtform and by far the easiest to create. They have no sentience to speak of and are driven only to complete their task. The purpose for their creation. It is everything to a servitor which is why many believe it’s the type of thoughtform that MUST have an end after that task is finished. To allow a servitor to exist without a purpose would be like a living hell to such a creature. It would be cruel and compared to torture some believe.

Now let’s say you did decide to let it remain. What exactly would happen? Well, there’s a variety of things really. One, if left unfed the servitor could simply vanish one day, but it would be a slow death. However, if you’re unlucky enough, it may just evolve sentience. When this sort of thing happens in such a situation the servitor is often already driven to madness and will become something akin to a parasite. Recklessly feeding off their creator to sustain themselves. This can cause exhaustion, dizziness, clumsiness, and in some more severe cases illness to the practitioner. And those who suffer from other forms of mental illness like depression and anxiety have often reported their symptoms getting worse. The best course of action for these sorts of beings is to extinguish them completely. They have no hope of being reasoned with.

Now let’s say you do feed your servitor, but you never give it a purpose. Then what happens? Well, they can still go mad as the life without a purpose is demeaning and arduous for such a creature. This is why some people like to give them new purposes. The problem is, a simple servitor isn’t made to properly sustain things like this. It would be like uploading a new program onto an older computer that isn’t equipped to properly run it. So while it may work for a little while, it will never be up to par like it was before, and eventually, you’ll have to accept that. You’ll be forced to get a newer model anyway. Problem is, that even these beings can still grow in sentience. And while they may not be as crazed as the ones mentioned before, because they’re not in a state of starvation, they may still express the dislike of such an existence. Some people report that once sentient, some servitors have simply run away or completely withdrew in their own depressive state. Ultimately wasting away because they wouldn’t eat. This is why it’s generally agreed upon that a simple servitor works its best when a time limit is in place.

Sentient Servitors

Also called complex servitors or complex thoughtforms, consider these beings a step up from your average servitors. Most often they are created with sentience or at the very least created with the intent to obtain sentience by growing into it as they do their job and experience the world around them. This type seems to have become more popular in recent years and has garnered its own subcategories in turn. These generally tend to be something concerning their purpose and will vary by practitioner. Some of the most popular is a familiar, home guardians, or personal protectors.

For the most part these beings are created without the intent to destroy them. This is because what they are needed for what generally takes regular upkeep as well as a mind that can analyze and learn just like we do so it can grow alongside you and learn different ways to cope with its overall objective. But that isn’t to say people don’t exist that give them time limits. However, that can bring up more controversy depending on who you talk to because now you’re destroying something that may not actually want to be destroyed. Something that wants to continue on and experience existence. When a thoughtform reaches this stage and they realize you may want to destroy them, they often start looking for a way out. A way to feed without the help of the witch. That way they can simply go off on their own. In lots of cases, a witch may gift their thoughtform with this ability so that when their task is done they can go ahead and make the way out.

Poltergeists

Now some of you may be surprised to see this category on this list but it really is a thoughtform. Looking into how some paranormal experts define these entities reveals that they are entities created from the negative energy accumulated in a certain place or around a certain individual, and that’s exactly what a thoughtform is. A poltergeist is always an involuntary creation, however, and is almost always negative as well. It’s known for throwing objects and making strange noises. Hence why their name means “noisy ghost” in German.

Egregores

These thoughtforms are created by a group of individuals instead of just a single person. They can be voluntary or involuntary, sentient or otherwise, it all depends on the conditions for their creation. For instance, some covens create an egregore for their personal group typically of the non-sentient variety, while other individual people may believe in something so much that the beings form involuntarily from that belief. Many use this way of thinking to explain how deity came to be. Declaring that all gods and goddesses as we know them are simply egregores believed into existence. Not everyone agrees with this sentiment, however, nor does everyone utilize the egregore label exactly the same.

While some say egregores can be both sentient and non-sentient, others have strong beliefs that the egregore can only be non-sentient and that once it grows to sentience it will become something else entirely. The former seems to be the most popular way of looking at it on our modern age though, so you're bound to find that this way of utilizing the egregore to be more prevalent in the ways of information.

Godforms

Also known as God Heads, this is probably the most confusing of all the types of thoughtforms simply because there are so many varying beliefs around it. More traditionally, godforms are statues or pictures portraying the image of a particular god. Through ritual, the god embodies these pieces and they become an extent of that deity. Some believers even associate people as being a part of that godform, and during those sacred ceremonies, the chosen individual becomes a direct speaker for the god they are channeling. However, in more modern times, the term has taken a considerable divergence into thoughtform territory.

It is believed by some that the godform is a type of deity, either created to be a god from the beginning or grown into one by an egregore. In more recent years, however, a godform is often depicted as being a more personalized entity. An individual's own personal god if you will. In this instance, they are created using a specific part of the practitioner's energy. Usually some part of a magical circuit like the elements, or the 8 circuits of consiousness. This entity in turn becomes heavily connected to the individual and will affect whatever cuircut or energy center they were made from. Let's say you made a god that draws from your fire energy. Therefore, your fire energy will grow and everything it affects will also grow. This entices the person to continue giving the god energy, through meditations, offerings, even an altar. It's given praises and prayers as well, just like any other deity.

Tulpa

The tulpa is often confused in our modern times as being nothing more than a servitor, but that understanding couldn't be more false. Traditionally Tulpa's are a concept from Buddhist nirmāṇakāya. It was a translated in Tibetan as sprul-pa and was the practice of creating an autonomous entity made from the individual's mind. It was manifested by a Buddha to teach and guide those who hadn't yet attained nirvana. Some have likened it to seem much like a ghost or apparition, walking between the physical and metaphysical realms. They were said to obey their master for the most part but were entirely sentient with their own thoughts and emotions.

Today, tulpamancers, often equate a tulpa to something kind of like an imaginary friend, but one that can actually manifest things. Tulpas are said to have the ability to use their creator's body, or even dwell inside of it completely. They can even operate it on their own should their creator allow it. Many, state that the tulpa often helps them out during difficult situations. They are created with the qualities that the user doesn't have so that they can take over in times when those qualities are needed. As for life span, that will definitely depend on the individual. Like regular thoughtforms, some say that the user ultimately decides if they want their tulpa to remain or vanish after they themselves have learned to obtain whatever qualities they had placed in their tulpa. Others say that the tulpa stays with you for life. Whatever the case, this thoughtform is definitely the most unique of the bunch.

Conclusion

Thoughtforms are an interestingly diverse form of magick. And while they are very prevalent within the chaos magick community, many magickal practitioners from all pathways come to utilize them within their crafts. As stated above, there are many unique beliefs surrounding them, and finding out what way is best for you can seem somewhat daunting. The best thing to do is take it slow, and practice, practice, practice. Thoughtforms are one of those things you learn best by doing. Just remember that what works for someone else may not work entirely for you. Go at your own pace, and find your own rhythm. Best of luck!

Further Reading

• Types of Ghosts (Poltergeists)

• Servitors (Chaos Magick)

• Thoughtforms

• Psychonaut Field Manual: Egregores

• Psychonaut Field Manual: Godforms

• Tulpa’s

[fixtheworldlove]

Sigil Magick Masterlist

Basic of sigils, and types of sigils:

What Are Sigils

5 Types Of Sigils

Linking sigils

Mixed Sigils

Hypersigils

Sigil Construction, and sigil methods:

The construction, and application of a magickal squares

How to make Sigils

Word Sigil Method

Verbal sigils

Hand Tapping Sigils

Photograph Sigil Method

Automatic Writing Sigil Method

Eyes Closed Sigil Method

How to make Acoustic Sigils

Emoji Spells

Tribal Sigils, And How To Make Them

How I Make My Sigils 

Charging:

Ways to charge a sigil

Ways to charge a sigil. 2

Ways To Know If Your Sigil Is Charged

Activating:

Ways to activate a sigil 

Active, And Passive Sigil Activation

Walkthrough:

How to use sigils

How exactly do you use a sigil?

Sigil utility:

Body Sigils

Sigil Placement

Sigil Triggers

Inverted Sigils

Forgetting Sigils

Sigil surroundings

Tracing sigils into the air 

Advanced sigil magick:

Sigil Altars

Sigil Matrix

Sigil Matrices

Alphabet of Desire

Alphabet Of Binding

Magickal Circles

Runes:

Bind Runes

Bind Runes 2

[fixtheworldlove]

Chaos Magic: Servitors, Thoughtforms, and Godforms

A practice that many chaotes use is the creation of constructs. There are many levels to construct creation, some more complex than others, and each type serves as a wonderful tool for any practitioner. The three topics I am discussing today are energy extensions of ourselves, yet also have the possibility of being separate from ourselves. Their existence fully depends on what you put into them, and can become powerful tools if they are crafted carefully.

The definitions, explanations, and methods I will be discussing today in this article are my own. If you have a differing way of doing and seeing things: great! I respect that and encourage everyone to research and try methods that work for them individually. I am not claiming this article to be gospel on these topics.

Defining Terms

Servitor: A simple construct created to carry out a single task or a very limited amount of tasks. These constructs are not complex enough to act on their own, causing them to be very limited in what they can do. Servitors can be created in a short amount of time.

Thoughtform: A more advanced construct. These constructs are able to evolve and grow, allowing them to take on more tasks. They are more interactive and exist within our “space” more noticeably. With proper rules programmed into them, they will not stray from what they were created to do. However, they have the possibility of doing so if the practitioner was sloppy with the design and inner workings of this construct. Thoughtforms take much longer to properly create.

Godform: A concept in Chaos Magic where a practitioner allows the essence of a certain god in the form of a mental construct to overlap their energy. The practitioner then takes on the attributes of that god within ceremonial or ritual work. While they are not actually interacting or horsing a deity, they are using the essence of that deity or entity to influence their own abilities and work. This definition was lifted from a previous article of mine about shapeshifting that I will reference later in regards to the use of godforms.

Servitor Creation

The main parts of servitor creation rely on a clear idea of what their task is, a sigil representing them, a word representing them, an energy source for them, and a kill switch to destroy them. Optional aspects include an item to connect them to as well as a vivid description of what they will appear as. Regarding an item to connect them to, this is only needed if you wish to keep whatever you have created around for an extended period of time and would possibly like to push them into being a thoughtform. I will include an optional step regarding attaching them to an object below.

First, write out every detail about what you would like your servitor to look like as well as other attributes it will have. The more detailed you are, the better. How they physically look, how they sound, the feeling they stir in people, how they smell, and so on. Don’t be afraid to write down even the smallest things. The more you details that you include about them, the easier it will be for you to visualize and thus “birth” them into creation. While what they look like is not important for more simple servitors, it aids in their creation.

Give them a name. Along with a name, you will also write down their task very explicitly. Be concise about what their task is. In the same way sigils work, it is important to not be too broad but not be too limiting as well. For example, you may task them to serve as a ward for your home. Servitors typically only carry out what they are programmed to do, while thoughtforms grow and change since they are more complex constructs, allowing them more freedom in their tasks.

You may also give them “rules”. For example, you may give them the rule that they may not physically harm anyone, they may not do anything other than the task you’ve given them, and so on. For more advanced servitor creation falling into thoughtform creation rules are incredibly important. It never hurts to have rules.

Next, create a sigil that represents them derived from their name. Typically in regards to sigils, it is important to not only forget the original intent of what the sigil represents, but to also destroy the sigil and clear it from your mind upon activating it. However, when it concerns servitors, thoughtforms, and egregores it is important to keep the sigil or seal for future reference. Take your time on this part and make sure whatever sigil you create truly represents the servitor you wish to create.

Define an energy source that they will “feed” from. The most common source is simply from your thoughts. Every time you think of them, they receive energy and this keeps them alive. You can also choose sources such as electricity, the sun, energy you give them (make sure you clearly state it’s only energy you specifically put aside for them, or else they will constantly drain you) or anything else you see fit.

Lastly, create a kill switch to destroy them. Make sure this is something you won’t accidentally do, such as simply saying their name. For example, you can create a specific word to act as a kill switch that you couple with an action such as clapping. If you use the word alone as a kill switch you’ll accidentally destroy them the minute you say the word. You can also create a seal that, once activated, will destroy them.

When all this has been drafted, spend time visualizing your servitor. This step can take ten minutes or it can take many days. There is no rush, and the key is that you must visualize them with succinct detail. Visualize them stationary and moving. Visualize them within the same space you are in. Visualize every detail down to the color of their eyes, the energy they give off, the feeling of them being around you. Go back and look at every descriptive detail you gave them and see this clearly in your mind’s eye. This is the most important part of servitor creation, so do not rush it. If you did not give them a form, spend time thinking of how it will feel when they successfully carry out the task you have given them. Imagine those feelings as if it has already successfully happened.

It is now time to put everything together. On a fresh sheet of paper, write out all the information you’ve drafted above. Write it out as if you are addressing your servitor directly, knowing that it is alive. Tell your servitor or servitors the name(s) you’ve given them, describe them, write our their tasks and rules if you chose to make any, tell them their energy source, and write out their kill switch. At the end, draw their sigil.

Example:

“You are called Romulus. You have thick, brown fur and curved horns on your head. Your eyes are green, with yellow specks in them. You stand at 6’ tall at the shoulders and you have a long tail. When you are around me or others, you smell like sulphur. You appear as a yellow orb or flash of light when you are around me or others. Your task is to be a shield and ward for my house, deflecting and dissolving any negative or malicious energy that attempts to get through. You will never stray from what I tell you to do and you will always follow any task I give you. You will stay alive and be fed by any thought I create about you. When it is time to destroy you, I will say “Vesna” and clap my hands at the same time.“

Finally, you will summon your servitor to you by saying their name out loud in a commanding voice and you will read this while imagining your servitor near you. As you are doing so, put your hand on the sigil you have drawn on the sheet that you are reading from. When you have finished reading this, close your eyes and imagine your servitor in a stationary position with their eyes closed. Imagine that you are breathing life into them and when you are finished say "SERVITOR NAME HERE, you are alive!” As you say this, imagine their eyes opening and imagine them moving around. Your servitor has been activated and is ready to work.

If you have not given them a form, you do the same activation as above but visually you imagine a ball of light that is initially dim. As you breathe life into it, it slowly starts to get brighter. Then, right when you announce that they are alive, imagine the ball of light immediately glowing blindingly bright.

Optional Step:

If you wish to connect them to an object like I mentioned above, simply take the item and hold it as you “breathe” life into your servitor. Breathe the same life into the object and imagine a cord coming from your servitor connecting to the object you are holding. Include in the statement you wrote out above that they are connected to this item. For example, “you are attached to this obsidian stone.”

If you wish to stop your servitors from what they are currently doing, simply tell them to cease their current task. It is also possible to re-task servitors if you wish to keep them around but don’t want them to carry out their original task anymore. You simply write out everything you wrote out above, but with different tasks. Instead of “birthing” them, you will simply tell them they are to follow these new tasks. If you wish to destroy them completely when they are no longer of use to you, simply use the kill switch. Don’t forget to keep up their energy source as well if you did not give them a passive source of energy.

The most important part to keeping your servitors going is to interact with them often. Visualize them around you often and soon you will not even need to force yourself to visualize them; they’ll simply be around you and you’ll be able to feel them. When the interaction with them becomes constant, the potential for a thoughtform to be created becomes an option.

Thoughtforms

Thoughtforms can start out the same exact way a servitor can. In fact, you can create a servitor first, test its strength, and later “re-write” it into a thoughtform. That, or you can create a construct with the intention of it being a thoughtform immediately upon creation.

No matter how you do it, the important part is maintaining control and programming rules that will not allow your thoughtform to run amok. Along with careful planning, the amount of time spent and interaction you have with your thoughtform is key. As they grow, they will be able to take on tasks for themselves, such as gathering information for you. They are ever growing and ever changing, and can serve as an incredible resource for you. Instead of a sigil representing them, it is wise to create a seal given how complex they are.

I will not be giving any laid out methods on creating thoughtforms in this article, simply because the process is a long one. I will be more than happy to create an article in the future if people wish to see it, as well as discuss the concept of egregores.

Godforms

Again, in this article, I will not be discussing on how to create a godform. I have touched lightly on it in my article about shapeshifting, and a lot of what I described in that article applies to what it is to step into this type of construct. It is essentially a practice in shapeshifting where you allow yourself to take on more powerful attributes by manipulating your energy.

Godforms aren’t limited to constructs that overlap your energy derived from the essence of a god. These overlays can be derived from any powerful source you wish to take on. Again, you are not “stepping into” an actual deity, but rather the aspects that define a deity or being. A lot of people see the term and automatically assume you are becoming that deity or taking control of a deity. That is simply not possible and is, to me, a disrespectful concept to assume one could do that.

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In order to keep this article at a manageable length, I have simplified a lot as well as left out a lot. If the interest is there, I will absolutely write more regarding how to create thoughtforms and godforms.

Thank you for reading.

[fixtheworldlove]

Illuminating the Path: A Beginner's Guide to Candle Magick

🕯️✨🔮

Candle magick is a beautiful and accessible way to harness the power of fire and light in your magical practice. Whether you're new to witchcraft or looking to deepen your connection with this ancient art, candle magick offers a versatile and powerful tool for manifesting intentions, creating sacred space, and connecting with the divine. Let's explore the basics of candle magick, how to choose and prepare your candles, and discover simple spells and rituals to illuminate your path.

What is Candle Magick?

Candle magick involves using candles as a focal point for your intentions, prayers, and spells. The flame of the candle represents the element of fire, a symbol of transformation, energy, and purification. The act of lighting a candle and focusing on its flame helps concentrate your energy and send your intentions out into the universe.

Choosing Your Candles

The first step in candle magick is selecting the right candle for your purpose. Candles come in various shapes, sizes, and colors, each holding unique magical properties.

Colour Correspondences:

White: Purity, protection, healing, spiritual growth

Red: Passion, strength, courage, love

Pink: Love, friendship, compassion, emotional healing

Orange: Creativity, enthusiasm, success, joy

Yellow: Wisdom, communication, mental clarity, confidence

Green: Prosperity, abundance, health, growth

Blue: Peace, tranquility, protection, intuition

Purple: Spirituality, psychic abilities, wisdom, power

Black: Protection, banishing negativity, grounding

Brown: Stability, grounding, home protection, animal magic

Types of Candles:

🕯️Taper Candles: Tall and thin, ideal for longer rituals and spells.

🕯️Pillar Candles: Thick and sturdy, suitable for extended workings and larger spells.

🕯️Tea Light Candles: Small and convenient, perfect for simple spells and meditations.

🕯️Chime Candles: Short and fast-burning, great for quick spells and intention-setting.

Preparing Your Candles

Once you've chosen your candle, it's essential to prepare or "dress" it for your magical work. This involves cleansing, charging, and anointing the candle to align it with your intention.

Cleansing: Cleanse your candle to remove any unwanted energies. You can pass it through the smoke of incense, sprinkle it with salt water, or hold it under running water while focusing on purifying it.

Charging: Charge your candle by holding it in your hands and visualizing your intention. Imagine your goal or desire flowing from your heart into the candle, filling it with energy and purpose.

Anointing: Anoint your candle with a suitable oil to enhance its power. Use oils that correspond to your intention, such as lavender for peace, rosemary for protection, or cinnamon for prosperity. Apply the oil from the top of the candle to the middle, then from the bottom to the middle.

Simple Candle Magick Spells and Rituals

Basic Intention Setting Spell

This is a straightforward spell for beginners to focus on a specific goal or desire.

1. Choose a candle color that matches your intention.

2. Write your intention on a piece of paper.

3. Light the candle and visualize your intention coming to fruition.

4. Focus on the flame and chant your intention, such as "I am attracting abundance" or "I am protected and safe."

5. Burn the paper in the candle's flame and let the candle burn down safely.

Candle Meditation for Clarity

This ritual helps clear your mind and gain insight or guidance.

1. Choose a white or blue candle.

2. Light the candle and sit comfortably in front of it.

3. Focus on the flame and take deep breaths, allowing your mind to clear.

4. Ask a question or seek guidance, and watch the flame for any flickers or movements.

5. Meditate for as long as you feel necessary, then extinguish the candle.

Protection Candle Spell

This spell creates a shield of protection around you or your home.

1. Choose a black or white candle.

2. Anoint the candle with protection oil (e.g., rosemary or frankincense).

3. Light the candle and visualize a protective shield surrounding you or your space.

4. Chant, "By this flame, I am protected. Negative energies are deflected."

5. Let the candle burn down safely, reinforcing your protective barrier.

Love and Friendship Spell

This spell attracts love, compassion, and friendship into your life

1. Choose a pink candle.

2. Write your desire for love or friendship on a piece of paper

3. Anoint the candle with rose oil

4. Light the candle and visualize loving energy flowing towards you.

5. Chant, "Love and friendship come my way, with harm to none, this I say."

6. Burn the paper in the flame and let the candle burn down safely.

Tips for Safe and Effective Candle Magick

• Always practice fire safety. Never leave a burning candle unattended and place it on a heat-resistant surface.

• Use a snuffer or your fingers to extinguish candles. Blowing them out can disperse the energy.

• Be mindful of the candle's flame and wax. The way it burns can provide insights into your spell's effectiveness.

• Keep a journal of your candle magick experiences to track your progress and learn from each ritual.

Candle magick is a powerful and accessible way to work with the elemental energy of fire and manifest your desires. By choosing the right candles, preparing them with intention, and engaging in simple spells and rituals, you can harness the transformative power of candle magick to illuminate your path and achieve your goals. As you light your candles, may your intentions burn bright, your heart be full of magic, and your spirit be guided by the gentle glow of the flame.

Happy casting!

🕯️✨🔮

[fixtheworldlove]

Zeus the Father of Science - A Prayer to Zeus Mêchaneus

Zeus, the Father of Science, in your boundless might, Tallest one amongst the clouds, bearer of endless light, Hear our humble voices, raised in solemn verse, In your grand dominion, let our pleas disperse.

Mighty Zeus, who commands the lightning's fierce dance, Guide us through the unknown, give our minds a chance. From the heights of Olympus, with your gaze so wide, Shield us from the darkness, be our steadfast guide.

With your thunderous voice, break the chains of ignorance, Let your wisdom rain down, in its purest essence. As the eagle soars high, on winds unseen, Lift our thoughts above, to where knowledge has been.

In the forge of your will, let our curiosity blaze, Through the storms of doubt, guide our seeking gaze. Zeus, O sovereign ruler, in your hands hold the light, Dispel the shadows of unknowing, with your power so bright.

Grant us, O Zeus, the strength to seek and to find, The truths of the cosmos, the laws that bind. In your honor, we pledge, to pursue wisdom's flame, To honor your name, in science, in fame.

So, Zeus, Father of Gods, from your high throne above, Bless us with insight, with clarity and love. In the vast, starry sky, let our minds take flight, Under your watchful eye, in the pursuit of right.

[fixtheworldlove]

When you step into sunlight, you honor Apollo. When you admire the moon, you honor Artemis. When you admire cloud shapes, you honor Hera. When you smell petrichor, you honor Zeus. When you laugh at a joke, you honor Hermes. When your body twitches to dance at a particularly upbeat music, you honor Dinoysus. When you enjoy the first bite of your breakfast, you honor Demeter. When you choose your peace over any conflict, you honor Athena. When you warm yourself up by sheltering yourself in blanket, you honor Hestia. When you listen to Ocean sounds, you honor Poseidon. When you smell flowers, you honor Persephone. When you admire the coolness of first day of Autumn, you honor Hades. When you wear your favourite jewellery, you honor Hephaestus. When you smile, you honor Aphrodite. When you exercise, you honor Ares. When you light a torch in a dark room, you honor Hekate.

Your body is a shrine to Gods, your being an act of devotion for them. You, by yourself, are enough for them.

[fixtheworldlove]

La Danse Triomphale de Pallas Athénée

Statue of Athena in Paris. She is also supposed to be holding a spear in her hands

[fixtheworldlove]

“Stop trying to sanitize the gods, they’re flawed and human.”

Excuse me? You’re trying to tell me that my deities are somehow close to our level? That they are flawed and therefore lesser? My gods had the ancients inventing new ways of thinking, and forced us to consider our place in the universe under their tutelage. They survived thousands of years of intentional erasure. They could not be forced to bow to a new “supreme” god. They survived into the 21st century where we worship currency and technology. They moved through the winds and whispers of our ancestors that were under threat. But the gods kept us in their graces after their temples were disgraced and built over with churches. The held our bloodline in their hands from the cradle to the grave, over and over, from ancestor to descendent, all the way to us. They endure in a way we could never. And they give us the gift of their presence and indescribable vastness. They are not human. They are not of this world. We’ve been told that means all goodness and all perfection, and that standard is untouchable just as God is unreachable. These gods touch us, they have walked amongst us.

We have told their stories from the viewpoint of western, Christian, modern society and it has done them a disservice. Even so, even though we take their stories of divinity and water them down, they do not retaliate, they do not abandon us. They are the farthest thing from human. And if this lesson is that imperfection is beyond humanity, it makes the ideal of perfection we hold foolish and inhumane.

The gods have no need for our blessings, but I bless their names nonetheless.

[fixtheworldlove]

Hellenic Polytheism Masterpost

Hi everyone! I know there are a lot of these out there, but here are my personal favorite resources. I linked to the source on all the posts I could, but as some blogs have been deactivated, the links for those are just to my reblog. Also, the blogs whose posts I’ve linked here have many more resources, so check them out! Hope this helps!

Blogs, Websites, and Masterposts

Theoi.com An essential resource for myths, cults, and historical information on the Gods

Theoi.com’s library of classic texts

thegrapeandthefig’s Masterpost

List of Greek Gods & Goddesses

Delphic Maxims MasterpostModern insights into the Delphic Maxims

Offerings & Worship

Small Devotional Acts Masterpost

Things you could put in a devotional journal

Methods to Bond with Deities

Greek God Offerings

Worship for Chthonic deities

The Theoi in our Actions

Simple offerings to the Greek Gods

Offerings

How to Build Kharis

Respecting the Gods

Pillars of Hellenismos

Prayer

How to make a libation

Libations: Pouring One Out for Your (Godly) Homie

Easy Ways to Connect More Strongly with Your Dieties

Ways to Get Messages From Deities

Offerings for Deities

Tips & Advice

Advice for baby Hellenic Polytheists

Struggling Polythiest Tips

Advice to anyone who is just starting out on this path

Chthonic worship tip

Spoonie Devotional Tips

Worshipping the Pantheon

Before entering into a Contract with a Deity

Critical Thinking

Hubris

Signs You AREN’T Talking to Your Diety

Mythic Context is Everything

How NOT to act with the Gods

Things I have learned as a Hellenic Pagan

Basics of Ancient Greek

The Basic Basics of Ancient Greek

More Basic Basics of Ancient Greek: How to pray the ancient way

Who to Avoid

People to Watch Out For in Hellenic Polytheism

Hellenic Polytheist Groups to Avoid

Miscellaneous Posts

Former Christian Guilt

Connection with the Gods

Mentally Ill Worshippers

Reading outside the Myths

Hellenic Polytheism and Depression

Zeus and Hera in Myth vs. Cult

Introduction to The Underworld as Understood in Ancient Hellas

Xenia, and why it is our duty as Hellenic Polythiests/Pagans to be anti-racist and anti-fascist

[fixtheworldlove]

Aphrodite, the Prime Creatrix

A Theological Analysis (part 2/??)

Disclaimer: this post is made with pure theological observation with limited basis in historical documentation. I do not make this post with an intent to present a fact, but rather a possibility.

The "Birth" of Aphrodite

We generally consider this story as "canon" in the Hellenic Polytheist community: Kronos cuts off Ouranos' genitals which fall into the Mediterranean and voilà, Aphrodite. While I myself also consider this story, I also wonder what it means on a more philosophical and spiritual level. So I pose this notion: Aphrodite wasn't born out of the Sea, she created the Sea and emerged from it.

Aphrodite is eternal, she is the motherless Mother of All. Aphrodite fell into Chaos, the primordial void, and created the Sea.

Not just any Sea, the Eternal Sea. The Sea of Matter.

The Sea of Eternity

It's basic physics knowledge that matter cannot be created nor can it be destroyed. Matter is eternal. It's not exactly correct to say that Aphrodite created matter, but rather coaxed it into existence. She gave a pre-existing concept form. In the previous part of 'A Theological Analysis' I discussed how Michaelangelo's 'Creation of Adam' can be interpreted as Adam contemplating the concept of God and giving him an image. Aphrodite, I believe, did the same. She contemplated the concept of Matter, and gave it an image: The Cosmic Ocean.

Now, I'd like to mention. There's two layers to this: Matter is eternal, and matter occupies space. "Matter is Eternal" can be personified in the person of Aion, the personification of eternity and cyclical time. "Matter occupies Space" can be personified as Nyx, the personification of Night. Nyx and Aion emerged out of Chaos with the contemplation of Aphrodite.

Aphrodite is less a creatrix than a thinker thinking ideas. Which can mean the same thing, actually.

However, Aphrodite created the Cosmic Ocean. She conceived Eros, not made him. Similar to the Christian doctrine of Jesus being begotten by God, not made (My small detour in Christianity did give me some interesting ideas).

Eros, Conceived Uncreated

So, who's his father? Aphrodite. Aphrodite is his father, just as She is his mother. Aphrodite is self-sufficient and doesn't need a counterpart to create with. Eros along with being her Son, is also her complete dominion. Love is Aphrodite's dominion. Eros is the god and personification of pleasure, love and s-x. Aphrodite holds full authority over him. Eros is the archer, Aphrodite guides the arrow.

Eros is similar to Jesus, not the same. Jesus acts naught outside the will of the Father, Eros acts naught outside the will of the Mother.

Speaking of which, Eros is dual, so is Aphrodite. Plato knew of this, but Xenophon had a considerable idea about it.

Ourania and Pandemos

Xenophon believed that Aphrodite Pandemos was an extension of Aphrodite Ourania. Pandemos was the goddess of carnal desire, simple love, unity, political stability, civil order and family. Ourania on the other hand was a goddess of the 'purer' intellectual and soulful love. Plato believed these two to be different goddesses, but Xenophon believed them to be extensions of each other. You may fall in love with someone for their intellectual maturity and their kindness but then develop s-xual feelings towards them and vice versa. These two epithets merely describe two aspects of a multifaceted complex divinity. Aphrodite is, in essence, the eternal love the divine hold for their creation. She loved us enough to make us.

—

Grace be to the Gods. Euoi.

[fixtheworldlove]

10 Myths About Hellenismos

Today, let's address some popular myths (and the truths) about Hellenismos and its deities. Not very surprisingly, most of these things come from Wicca or Christian colonization. You can believe these things if you want, they just aren't from the religion.

Myth 1: Deity work is dangerous

Truth: Deity work, in Hellenismos, isn't any more dangerous than worshiping the Christian god is supposed to be. This notion didn't originate in Hellenismos, and is also a largely neopagan idea. Our theoi aren't monsters or aggressive. They won't kill you over tiny mistakes. Just respect them, do what you can, and you'll be fine.

Remember that even in the mythos, people aren't smited for the wrong offering. They're smited for blatant and deliberate disrespect, which by nature can't be done accidentally.

Our deities genuinely aren't easily angered. They wont be mad if you reach out to them, if you confuse them for something else, if you give them the wrong offering, etc.

Myth 2: You need to look out for entities impersonating deities

Truth: Again, this isn't remotely from Hellenismos. Our gods cannot be impersonated by evil entities. Frankly, we don't really have entities with that desire or power in the religion. If you're contacting a Hellenic deity, and you get an affirmative response, you contacted them. The idea you didn't, or that something else is lying to you, is from outside the religion. Our deities are more powerful than random ghosts, and our religion doesn't have that concept.

Myth 3: Hekate is a moon goddess/crone

Truth: Hekate is associated with the moon, but she is not a goddess of the moon. She is the goddess of one lunar phase--the dark moon, which is on the eve of Hekate's Deipnon. She is also not a crone goddess outside of neopaganism and Wicca. Historically, she was depicted as a maiden. Her triple form was also not maiden/mother/crone, simply a triple maiden-esque figure.

Myth 4: Hestia gave her seat to Dionysos/Apollon took Helios's chariot

Truth: Honestly, it's just a difference in counting. Some deities were and weren't Olympians depending on time, culture, and locations. No seats on Olympos were "given up," it's just that sometimes one is there and sometimes the other isn't.

As for the chariot, no. Apollon didn't replace Helios. They were synchronized, but Apollon didn't "take" the chariot, and Helios was never removed. Helios is still the sun--his name is literally "sun."

Myth 5: The myths are history/Hellenic Polytheists believe in the myths

Truth: The characters in myths are real to us, and some myths are literal, but in general, Hellenic mythology is not meant to be taken fully literally. Most of it is symbolic. Additionally, a lot of the r*pe in the mythos is translation errors. We believe in our heroes and our gods, and we believe there is truth in the myths, but no, our mythology isn't like Christian mythology--it's not expected or really encouraged to believe the myths are strictly true history. The myths aren't even consistent over time and location, so it's simply impossible to believe in all of them at once. But no, our gods do not act the way they do in mythology. Myths are by and for mortals, and do not capture the divine.

Myth 6: It's disrespectful to dress up as or write fiction about the gods

Truth: This is just ridiculous and ahistoric. The majority of Ancient Greek theater was deity cosplay and fanfiction. I said what I said.

This can definitely be done disrespectfully, but isn't inherently disrespectful. You also aren't required to represent the theoi fully accurately in this.

Myth 6: X god is Y orientation/gender

Truth: While you can certainly theorize our theoi's sexuality, and none of our gods are cishet by modern standards, none of the gods can only be interpreted as one gender or orientation. The terms we ascribe to them are based on mythos, portrayals, and modern interpretation of historic social roles.

The most common of these theories are maiden goddesses as aroace (ie. Hestia, Athena, Artemis), erastes (top) gods as bi men (ie. Zeus, Apollon, Patroklos), eromenos (bottom) gods as gay men (ie. Ganymedes, Hyakinthos, Akhilleus), and Artemis as a lesbian.

None of these are wrong, to be clear. It's just not as simple as using our modern labels for them. Erastes and eromenos were both considered straight in Ancient Greece; being a 'virgin' didn't always mean celibate; Artemis can be interpreted as bi, lesbian, and/or aroace based on her myths. You can interpret them however you like--I certainly interpret my gods as queer--but there is no single right answer.

Myth 7: You need a patron or to be devoted to someone, or can only have one patron/be devoted to one god, & devotion is an oath

Truth: Patron deities are more of a principle in neopaganism and Wicca than in Hellenismos. Worshiping the theoi does not require you to find a patron or devote to a deity, ever. Patronage is not particularly important or common, unless you are thinking of a patron god of a trade (ie. if you're a blacksmith your patron is Hephaistos).

Devotion is also not exclusive, and never requires an oath. Oaths in Hellenismos are extremely serious, and should never be taken without extreme caution. If you aren't willing to die if you break the oath, don't make it--find something else. You probably wont die, but that's the necessary level of certainty. Devotion, while serious, is not as serious as being oath-bound. You can be devoted to multiple deities, and devotion can be called off if needed. You can't really call off an oath.

Myth 8: X god is a r*pist!

Truth: Please stop it. Just stop it. No. Especially if you're basing that on Lore Olympus. The mythology isn't fact, weird inaccurate mythology fanfic written by someone who doesn't know anything about the myths isn't fact.

The mythology isn't straight up history. The myths were often mistranslated (the Greek word for r*pe didn't just mean r*pe) and they aren't facts. They were also products of their culture. So. No. They are not. And their worshipers aren't r*pe apologists.

Myth 9: Titans are evil and/or Olympians hate titans

Truth: Titans are fine. Really. They're not evil, they're not going to hurt you. They're just another kind of Theoi. Many of them were actually a large part of the historic religion. Hekate's Deipnon was a monthly festival, after all. And no, Olympians don't hate titans. Remember the point about myths not being literal.

Myth 10: The gods are jealous

Truth: No, the gods will not be jealous if you worship another god. They wont be jealous if you worship another pantheon, or if you need a break. If you're a god consort, they won't be jealous if you're interested in other mortals or deities. If you're a devotee, they won't be upset if you devote to other deities.

The most jealous a god gets is upset if you break an oath, promise, or agreement with them. If you promised them a daily libation but skipped it for another deity without permission, they may get upset. But even then, that's not really jealousy.

Myth 11: If you work with X deity, you can't work with Y

Truth: This is usually based on rivalry in mythology, and isn't true at all. Related to the above jealousy point, no deity in real life hates another deity, especially not enough that if you worship both they'll be upset. You can worship Aphrodite and Persephone. You can honor Hera and Leto.

Most of these gods are actually happy if you honor other theoi. Many of them are family, or share domains.

If enough people are interested, I might make a part two, because this is barely the tip of the iceberg. RBs welcome from pagans and non-pagans alike.

[fixtheworldlove]