In Liber Null, Peter Carroll talks about the "Alphabet of Desire".
The basis of the Alphabet of Desire (which was originally a concept from the work of A. O. Spare), is that every emotion (apart from Laughter, which is it's own opposite), follows a dual pattern. Learning to ride these emotions, by exploring the Alphabet Of Desire allows the magician to be in control of these emotions, rather than at their mercy.
The main forms of duality (which are then expanded into principles) being: Sex/Death, Love/Hate, Desire/Fear, Pleasure/Pain, Elation/Depression.
Peter Carroll gives for each of these twenty one principles, a picture (glyph) and a brief textual description, along with some correspondences (planetary, alchemical etc).
I have started creating my own Alphabet of Desire, allowing my unconscious mind to bring fourth a picture for each principle, and then picking a Tarot card that represents that particular emotion for me. I believe it's important for every magician to create their own Alphabet of Desire, as ultimately we are dealing here with our own unconscious mind and emotions, and it could become a powerful magical tool for emotional engineering. I hope to publish a more detailed write up on my website at a later date.
Be at Peace. Be at War.
Frater Therion
Dweller of the Abyss
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Practical Sigil Magick
This post is based on the answer to a question I received about sigil magic. Whether you always must forget the sigil. This is just my honest and humble opinion, and I'm sure some will disagree, but I guess sigil magick is a highly personal form of magick anyway.
The principle behind sigils is very simple, and was originally a system developed and used by A. O. Spare, and later became one of they key techniques of Chaos Magic.
Basically, sigils work by avoiding the normal "lust of result" problem that is inherent in other forms of magick, where you do a working/ritual, and then there is a battle between the conscious and unconscious mind, where your conscious mind is coming up with things like "is it working yet", "I hope it works". The statement of intent is encoded into the sigil in such a way that the key elements (such as the basic shapes of letters) are still present, but in a form only the unconscious mind recognises, which bypasses the conscious mind and avoids this battle between the conscious mind and it's doubts, and allows the unconscious mind to act on the desire.
The sigil is created, charged during an altered state of consciousness - or gnosis (this may be a ritual, sex, a strong emotion, there are many ways of charging sigils), then it is normally lost, forgotten, destroyed, burned, etc. Now, you don't need to actually forget the sigil, just what the sigil is meant to do, so you avoid the lust of result that I mentioned above. A sigil may well be kept, until you no longer remember what it's for. For example, I have a "Hypersigil" that I turned into a painting, and it is on my wall, I see it everyday. but I no longer remember the actual statement of intent. You can also create lots of sigils, then charge them randomly when you have forgotten what each one is for. One of the things I tried was creating lots of sigils, shuffle them like a deck of cards, then randomly charge them.
Of course, there are also times when the sigil is kept, and is associated with the magical working, such as when creating a servitor, and because you know or at least have an idea of what the servitor is meant to do, does this mean that the sigil has lost some of it's potency (except maybe when you use it to activate the servitor via someone who doesn't know what it is)? That's an interesting question to explore I think.
Do The Great Work!
Frater Therion
The principle behind sigils is very simple, and was originally a system developed and used by A. O. Spare, and later became one of they key techniques of Chaos Magic.
Basically, sigils work by avoiding the normal "lust of result" problem that is inherent in other forms of magick, where you do a working/ritual, and then there is a battle between the conscious and unconscious mind, where your conscious mind is coming up with things like "is it working yet", "I hope it works". The statement of intent is encoded into the sigil in such a way that the key elements (such as the basic shapes of letters) are still present, but in a form only the unconscious mind recognises, which bypasses the conscious mind and avoids this battle between the conscious mind and it's doubts, and allows the unconscious mind to act on the desire.
The sigil is created, charged during an altered state of consciousness - or gnosis (this may be a ritual, sex, a strong emotion, there are many ways of charging sigils), then it is normally lost, forgotten, destroyed, burned, etc. Now, you don't need to actually forget the sigil, just what the sigil is meant to do, so you avoid the lust of result that I mentioned above. A sigil may well be kept, until you no longer remember what it's for. For example, I have a "Hypersigil" that I turned into a painting, and it is on my wall, I see it everyday. but I no longer remember the actual statement of intent. You can also create lots of sigils, then charge them randomly when you have forgotten what each one is for. One of the things I tried was creating lots of sigils, shuffle them like a deck of cards, then randomly charge them.
Of course, there are also times when the sigil is kept, and is associated with the magical working, such as when creating a servitor, and because you know or at least have an idea of what the servitor is meant to do, does this mean that the sigil has lost some of it's potency (except maybe when you use it to activate the servitor via someone who doesn't know what it is)? That's an interesting question to explore I think.
Do The Great Work!
Frater Therion
Thursday, 19 May 2011
Enochian Scrying - Part 7 - NIA
Part 7 of my series on scrying the Enochian Aethyrs - in this one I scry NIA the 24th Aethyr.
Monday, 9 May 2011
Demonology? I'll have a double Jinn please!
I've been doing some considerable research and experimentation with the Goetia (Lesser Key Of Solomon).
There are, many views on exactly what the Goetic Demons are. Some say they are actually demons in the traditional Judeo-Christian sense of the word. Others, that they are mainly pagan Gods, gone, but not forgotten that got labelled as "demons" by the monotheistic religions that displaced them. Another, interesting idea I will explore, if only briefly in my next book, is the idea that they are "Jinn", creatures that were created by God from smokeless fire (rather than fallen angels), this is an Islamic idea that can be found in the Koran, where Solomon is seen to cause these Jinn to work for him.
Here is some interesting reading, based around this idea:
The demons of the Goetia aren’t what you think
Explore
Command
Relate
Don't be scared!
Frater Therion
The Infernal Toxic One
There are, many views on exactly what the Goetic Demons are. Some say they are actually demons in the traditional Judeo-Christian sense of the word. Others, that they are mainly pagan Gods, gone, but not forgotten that got labelled as "demons" by the monotheistic religions that displaced them. Another, interesting idea I will explore, if only briefly in my next book, is the idea that they are "Jinn", creatures that were created by God from smokeless fire (rather than fallen angels), this is an Islamic idea that can be found in the Koran, where Solomon is seen to cause these Jinn to work for him.
Here is some interesting reading, based around this idea:
The demons of the Goetia aren’t what you think
Explore
Command
Relate
Don't be scared!
Frater Therion
The Infernal Toxic One
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Don't forget the main website!
I'm always pleased to find comments posted on my blog here, and even more pleased and slightly honoured when people subscribe to this blog. It's great to know some people actually find what I have to say interesting, and find the magical workings I do also interesting.
If you haven't already seen it, I have a main website at ritualchaosmagic.co.uk which has full details of some of my workings and some useful resources. If you have already been there, but a while ago, take another look, as I'm now trying to add more useful content to improve the site, and build a more valuable resource.
As always, comments and suggestions are always gratefully received.
Frater Therion
If you haven't already seen it, I have a main website at ritualchaosmagic.co.uk which has full details of some of my workings and some useful resources. If you have already been there, but a while ago, take another look, as I'm now trying to add more useful content to improve the site, and build a more valuable resource.
As always, comments and suggestions are always gratefully received.
Frater Therion
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