Vizionar wrote:I don't know what are you people talking about, but these examples are not magick... not even close... As a representative of wicca and 10y practitioner of witchcraft I must say that:
1. Sigils are nonsense, and especially the way way of creating them that is described above;
2. Magick can't be used for your own greed;
3. Magick can't harm anyone or temper with free will;
4. Magickal requisites are charged with your own life force, you can't create something out of nothing. so that means that items of such power simply can't exist, and if you accidentally charge the item too much, the life force from your body is depleted and... well... you know the rest.
5. I think you're just showing off Dazino... So... you've read somewhere that magick can be done and now you're all like... Whoo... I'm an uber neophyte... Not gonna happen...
Magick is a big umbrella. while you may not agree with what others have written in the thread... you, nor I, represent the totality of Magick.
"1. sigils are nonsense..."
I'll agree that the method described in the thread was "odd" to me as well, however - to say sigils are nonsense from a Magick perspective, is in itself nonsense. If you're a Hindu and practicing the Eastern Mysteries, then sure sigils wouldn't play a part in your system and would be nonsense to the Eastern Mysteries perhaps. But in the Western Mysteries of Magick - coming through the Emerald Tablet of Hermes, into Qabbalah, and forming into the systems of Magick seen in Goetic work, Abramelin's work, Agrippa, MacGregor Mathers, Dion Fortune, Aleister Crowley, Franz Bardon, Waite, Yeats, etc. it's far from nonsense. It's in fact integral with the system. the sigil contains the visual of the being. Magick is a system of 'atunement' - the practiioner is atuning themselves in an invocation or evocation to an energy (whether you believe the energy to be an aspect of the subconscious or a self exitent being) - to reach this harmony the magickian uses the proper items to said being. if it's a mercurial being, then the correpondences of air are used. yellow candles, incense attributed to mercury or air... and of course the sigil of the being that is called. In the 1500's the magickian often stood upon the sigil to show dominance over the being (such as in John Dee's case) but in modern times magickians typically hold the sigil or burn it into their mind... and /or cast it mentally into the scrying device or evocation triangle of art. To say sigils are nonsense is a great diservice to magick. I agree that what was given in this thread on how to create a sigil isn't what i'd do... but sigils themselves are core to Western Magick. In the Golden Dawn, inner order, sigils are formed from the Rose Cross. The name/phrase translated to hebrew and then traced upon the Rose Cross to form the sigil. There's nothing abberant about sigils in magick practice at all. in fact it's one of the most standard things there is in Ceremonial Magick. Sure you may be on some kick that feels sigils are too "old" but that is arrogance to assume all other magickians are fools for using sigils.
"2. Magick can't be used for your own greed."
According to Aliester Crowley - a black magickian was one whom did not cross the abyss - due to self cherishing (one could say greed.) a desire to profit the self, rather than loose the identity and become one with the divine. The Black Magickian was still a magickian... he just wasn't able to cross above the abyss into the Qabalistic Ketter.
Many old magick systems have no problem with greed. Read the ancient grimories... half the stuff attributed to beings in the Goetia and the like, are born of greed (I.e "I am spirit XYZ, I know of all hidden treasure - i open doors to secrets and provide gold to me..."). While your system, or you personal may have an issue with it - there isn't some universal law that says it "can't" be done. Your system isn't "The Magick" system... it's "a magick" system, just like mine and every other occultist. what works for some may not work for you or me... vice vesa. there's no written account of 'what is and isn't in the scope of magick.'
"3. Magick can't harm anyone or temper with free will; "
AMORC shares this idea. But AMORC isn't a magick society. Whether it is or isn't, isn't really the point. You are speaking for "magick" in general, and this is again an over generalization that isn't true for many people.
While a controversial magickian, Aliester Crowley believed that magick could in deed harm and temper with free will of others. He didn't perform such magick - but he believed it was possible... well actually he did perform magick attacks against MacGregor Mathers. he taught how to remove the will out of the mind of an animal and assume control (magick book 4.)
Stepping outside ceremonial ciricles of magick, you could pick up the magick systems of Vaudou which directly works with the use of energy for and against another.
logically (if you accept magick is real) it's the change of energy in conformity with one's will. or so i believe. energy is harmful or helpful depending on one's perspective. so harm/benefit is relative.
"4. Magickal requisites are charged with your own life force..."
Again, this is your system of belief. it's not the *whole* of magick. Ceremonial systems, such as the Golden Dawn, NEVER use their own energy to charge something. They utilize ritual to build up energy of (from their view) a Divine source, and channel that said energy into something.
If I were charging a talisman of Mars, ceremonial magick systems (such as the Golden Dawn, Thelema, Aurum Solis, BOTA, etc.) do NOT charge it with their own energy. Your energy isn't mars energy necessarily. So the magickian invokes the energy of mars based no their magick system. if a Golden Dawn magickian, the magickian would perform Invoking Hexagram rituals of Mars and have the appropriate incense, oils and candles lit... they would give a specificly themed recitiation to the energy attributed to Mars... this energy would come from "outside" the magickian and be channeled into the talisman/object.
The only way I agree with you here, is that Crowley felt that a magickian only has so much energy and it's lost in each act of magick... His reference though was to the magick practice in general (not to charging objects/talismans), however I don't agree with that assumption. Some magickians agree with Crowley do, some don't. either way, what you're doing here is telling people what "all of magickians" agree with, when they dont.
Either way, if you believe in magick... and you believe you can charge a talsiman with Mercury energy... that energy is drawn from the Macrocosmic universe, not the Microcosmic.