Mind-Body Intervention

New article about Mind-Body Intervention available here:
http://forums.vsociety.net/index.php/topic,23557.msg224462.html#msg224462

Visualization explained

What is visualization
I think that not once somebody has questioned the importance of "imagining" in the occult, but as you will soon find out, visualization and day-dreaming are two different things. Specifically speaking the visualization is something that aids in your focus while day-dreaming shatters it. And yes, you can do Magick without visualization, just like you can fry eggs without pan and write on paper without hands.

To make a little bit better distinction, we could say that imagining is something that draw the attention away from your real perception while visualization actively participates within. Or to be less mysterious we could say that if you imagine apple, you can see it falling from the tree, if you visualize an apple, you can see it right before your very eyes.

More here: http://forums.vsociety.net/index.php/topic,23553.0.html

Defeating theory, part III

Third part of the Defeating Theory series is now available at http://forums.vsociety.net/index.php/topic,23552.0.html

Shinichi's notes on the seer work

A completely outstanding series of notes for the seer work as written by Shinichi can be found here: http://forums.vsociety.net/index.php/topic,23527.msg224369.html#msg224369

Quick notes

Yesterday we continued in the Zener cards experiment, but this time success rate was only 50%, still impressive but not as much as before. Thinking whether that could do something with correspondences (will probably check that later).

Anyway, today while meditating on the tattva for Air, I've got a very strange vision of an hourglass cracking open and a scorpion being released from there. Hourglasses are of the air element but scorpio is water element as far as I am concerned. Question is what can that mean. The scorpion also had a kinda silvery color. I will have to check both western and sidereal astrology to figure out what the meaning could be.

Anyway, the vision was very vivid and sooner I know the meaning probably better.

New Facebook account

So, after some problems I have had with people I have let on my personal FB account, I have decided to create a new account completely separate from my private life.

So, if you want to add me on FaceBook, you can do it here: https://www.facebook.com/frater.akenu

ZENER cards experiment

During the weekend I have made a series of experiments with my wife using ZENER cards (cross, square, circle, waves, star).

In this experiment I would shuffle the cards and then project one on the top to my wife. My wife had a 100% success rate receiving and calling out the correct card.

The interesting thing I have noticed in case of ZENER cards is the ease to keep each individual card in the plastic visualization. Hard to say whether this is caused by the superb design or the fact that these cards are used strictly for this type of use and got some egregores built for them.

Anyway the use is really simple.  For the selected card I have visualized a plastic image I held at the center of my wife's third chakra (sometimes also slightly above on the forehead). As I already said, it was fairly easy to keep the visualization strong and effects were amazing. I really recommend experimentation with ZENER cards.

Project for October

So, I originally wanted to work on the compact chaos magick ritual, but lately I am more inclined to this idea of mine.

Some of you who have read Astro Magick Essentials know that I have presented a new way to calculate different set of planetary squares (well, not new, more like refreshed) and also how to calculate gematric values for latin alphabet.

While looking through Agrippa's work a little bit deeper for some unrelated stuff, I have discovered a system of numerology being very similar (he just omitted some letters that I still used). This has shown me that I could be on the right track so this October I want to try to use this system of numerology to extract formulas and spirit names from both traditional and "new" squares to see where it can push me.

Interesting telepathy suggestion

So, yesterday on my way home I had a very sore throat so when I was about 5 minutes from home I have sent a suggestion to my wife to make a drink by mixing water and a form of a fruit syrup (usual drink in my country) and to bring it to the garage (we usually meet in the garage and have a cup of coffee before going home, the reason is that we don't smoke in the house).

So I came home and a glass of a "pre-ordered" beverage was there waiting for me, plus another glass of 7UP. So I have asked my wife about that and found out that about 5 minutes ago she thought I would need a drink and went upstairs to make one, completely forgetting there was already 7UP in the garage.

Recent black mirror experience

On Saturday I had few drinks with my former apprentice and suddenly an idea came to the mind to relive some of the past. I took my old black mirror, wiped away a notable amount of dust, quickly recharged the mirror and we started the work that consistent of focusing on the center of the mirror while trying to have no thoughts.

In some cases we were completely in sync, our eyes started watering at the same time, we got numb at the same time, but it was also interesting how our internal symbolism changed during a time. For example when I have seen a very thick and oily black fluid nearly overflowing from the rim of the mirror, my "co-worker" had seen a giant eye coming out of the mirror. Yet things like speed, direction and sometimes even a color of things like swirls, orbs and flashes were the same for both us.

After the session I had a very long abstract dream with a great deal of detail so I have decided to continue with experimentation on Sunday and even when I was interrupted just 5 minutes after the beginning, yet another beautiful detailed dream emerged that night.

About the energy paradigm

In the energy paradigm there is a belief that everything consists of an energy coming from one universal source and if you are able to control that energy you can control reality.

The whole idea of the energy manipulation is very interesting, especially if you consider that it is hard to predict what will happen if you move energy from A to B. For that purpose the energy paradigm has to borrow from other models For example when you use affirmations during energy work you have fused energy paradigm with either psychology or information paradigm, if you have ever done LBPR, you were using combination of energy and spirit work (divine names used as words of power).

A brand on its own
It would be unfair if we spoke about energy work only in comboination with other models as there is one nice addition, being purely energetic in nature. There are various correspondences splitting the energy into different shades. You can then work with the shade closest to your desire. These shades can be divided into elements (Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Akasha), planetary energies (Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn), alchemy principles (Mercury, Sulphur, Salt), or simply dark and light.

A mistaken theory
As I have said before, every occultist at least once tried some of the versions of LBPR as can be found on the internet and to all of them it worked, sometimes better and sometimes worse. Because I currently have no clue how to proceed further in this article, I will just spill some secrets as I used to do in the Oath Breaker series (sorry for honesty).

Lesser Pentagram Rituals are intended for learning to control and feel elemental energies. People like to use banishing pentagrams in these rituals to banish "evil" energies, but that's not really how that ritual works. Yeeees, you can use LBPR to banish, but at the same time you are bringing attention with "look, something is happening here". The LPR rituals are more a preparation for Greater Pentagram Rituals that allow you to charge/discharge talismans/amulets with elemental power, same as Greater Hexagram Rituals do with planetary energies (that being said, Lesser Hexagram Rituals are a preparation for Greater Hexagram Rituals).

To truly banish for protection you need to do the counterpart of the Middle Pillar Rite, you have to do the Rose Cross Ritual, which is hard as hell and I never managed to learn that ritual completely, so let me present here a simple IAO ritual used by Fraternitas Saturni:
1. Stand straight with your hands directed up.
2. Imagine an infinitely long vertical circle going through the axis of your body, color of this circle is white.
3. Vibrate "Ee"
4. Move your hands side ways to the cross position.
5. Visualize a red infinite circle going through your hands, vibrate "Ah"
6. Cross your arms on your chest and visualize yourself being in an infinitely big blue orb.
7. Vibrate "Oh".

Symbol based systems
There exist energy systems based on symbolism. This symbolism is needed in both understanding and using the system. For example in case of GD rituals, you need to know something about planets, elements, pentagrams, hexagrams, holy names. In case of Reiki you need to know symbols, healing positions and how to cup the hands correctly.

You can of course use your sigils or alphabet of desire to create your very own system, whether in conjunction with other systems or not. For example you can use elemental orbs and in your imagination draw desired sigils with them just like with a paintbrush. You can also use e.g. a white orb as an erase of the symbols drawn in such a manner.

Biggest advantage
The biggest advantage of the energy paradigm is that it's the fun. With energy work you train both your will AND your imagination, plus you can have a lot of fun with different energy work techniques. Whether you focus on visualization, breathing, body movement, eye movement, adjusting or dispersing different energies, or you go full Bardon to draw Fire into your head, Air into your lungs and heart, Water into your belly and Earth into your legs to go full tetrapolar is strictly on you and your responsibility. Achieving the equillibrium of elements this way isn't as significant or stable as with introspection and strict lifestyle, but it is more fun.

There are different advantages and disadvantages for every and each paradigm. Use what suits you the best and remember: "Nothing is true, everything is permitted".

Czech Choral "Svaty Vaclave"

New amazing website

Don't know what to read? Are you bored? Are you looking for some universal source of information regarding occultism?

Check this site: http://www.occultresource.net/

About objectivity, reality and dogma in Magick

Well, this is going to be one of those weird articles about dogma I am used to write on a regular basis, but stay with me, ok? :-)

About truth
I think the truth is what we all seek, digging deep into the core of mystery, avoiding the sharp edges of disinformation, fighting the shark of dogmatism with our harpoon of logic to finally find that treasure chest on the bottom of the ocean (too much analogy?). I think this is an important topic everywhere, after all none of us wants to get stuck in a malfunctioning system full of weird beliefs, silly practices and brainwashed hierarchy. We want to avoid all that and get to the sweet bottom where the chest is hidden.

Few years ago I was arguing with psions about existence/non-existence of chakras. They claimed chakras don't exist and I claimed they bloody do. My argument was that I had already seen them, their claim was that you cannot see a chakra of a person that was never in contact with some "guru" teaching about chakras and therefore they are just invented constructs rather than natural occurence of the energy body.

Reality versus experience
Sure I was dogmatic regarding chakras at the time (same as they were dogmatic of their non-existence, duh), but I was also dogmatic much later with my "avoid dogma at all costs" approach. Dogmatic system still has some useful value to it which you wouldn't experience without going through the dogma, which I think is the main point of Chaos Magick and its paradigm shift. To really become the monk, to really become the shaman, to really become the trickster. Only through experience you can move forward.

Let's now check our chakra story. Question shouldn't be whether chakras are real or not. The question should be more like "Can I miss something by avoiding them?" The answer might not be so obvious i case of chakras, but what about elements? Do we really want to miss the experience just because we don't believe everything in this universe consists of 4 primary substances that came from the fifth primordial substance? Same goes for spirits and same also goes for travelling. Whether you believe or not believe in Astral shouldn't block you from Astral projection, because the whole experience of the projection is so beautiful and scary that you really don't want to miss it :-). The whole idea of separating your subtle self from a material body and travel on its own is more than just scary, especially during the first separation, as it equals to the blind jump into the abyss, an unknown place where anything can happen and you don't even know if you can breathe there or protect yourself (or return back, that's usually the major concern during the separation). Yet once you are there you find yourself speechless with the beauty. That's definitely not something to miss because of the dogma "to avoid all dogmas".

New mandala template

I have created a new mandala template. This one has a way more useful center.

Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bcevwfh4704j83o/mandalaTemplateNew.pdf?dl=0

Strange synchronicity

Yesterday my ex apprentice has offered me to get me to the office today as he had a drive by. Thanks to that I got to work 2 hours earlier than usually, coincidentally right on the meeting I completely forgot I had :D.

Squares away

How sad is that? Well, I was about to create new planetary squares for Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, thinking it's an easy deal. Unfortunately I just read in J. Vesely's book about this problem.

I originally thought that these planets will just continue in the Chaldean sequence, giving number 10 to Uranus, 11 to Neptune and 12 to Pluto. Unfortunately J. Vesely is right that the Chaldean sequence shows the planets in the order from the further to the closer (or as Chaldeans believed). That means the numbers should be 2,1,0 and you cannot make Magick squares from these numbers. J. Vesely describes a method how different numbers could be extracted but I have to research that one more before I will finally get myself some sweet new planetary squares.

In the meantime I might post something about 3 philosophical principles, also known as the principles of alchemy (mercury, sulphur, salt) and their relation to the elements as it is something not so widely available on the internet.

Downfall of the psychology paradigm

What is the psychology paradigm
It is a concept in Magick that basically says everything in the occult is done via your own unconsciousness, but I have also met with other things like "telepathic fields" etc.

The psychology paradigm is generally dependent on the collective unconsciousness which is some mass form of unconsciousness independent of any individual mind. Users of this concept then believe that you can tap into the collective unconsciousness and via this action cause a change in the external reality. The thing is that such a modification is limited, you either unconsciously change your own behavior or a behavior of another person.

In this paradigm it is also possible to tap into the common behavioral patterns called archetypes (and forget anything you know about Jung's archetypes because this is simply a crazy way to say egregore).

Advantages of the psychology paradigm
This paradigm is great in explaining some simple concepts like how to limit your bad habits, what is a self-fulfilling prophecy or what are desires. Thanks to that the psychology paradigm is an amazing way how to explain what you do to a person not versed in the occult. You will be perceived as a weirdo, but not a complete nutjob...

Disadvantages
There are also disadvantages that become obvious once you try to explain things like telepathy for example. So, there is this independent collective unconsciousness we can tap into and therefore we can relay a message from one individual unconsciousness to another. That's sounds logical, reasonable and scientific, right? Except the thing that it doesn't actually explain anything.

Let me explain on the telepathy example. For us to be able to pass some information from point A to point B, we need a "route", in case of the psychology paradigm it should be the collective unconsciousness which would require us to have another route, route from us to the collective unconsciousness. Of course you could argue that our individual unconsciousnesses are already parts of the collective one, but I will explain why that is an unneeded overcomplication in a minute.

Back to the tradition
As we said, we need another routes between us and the collective unconsciousness (CU from now on) to work. What are these routes you ask? Well, let's take a look at the more traditional approach, Astral plane. Astral is our route from person A to person B, but how does the route work? Simply both person A and person B exist on both the physical (empirical) and astral (transempirical) planes. This gives us the ability to communicate on the astral plane while being physically distant to each other. Of course you could define CU in a similar manner which would then mean the same thing. But why to use a different version of definition of CU, therefore making a doubled meaning of the definition and troubles in communication when we can use a time-proven terminology we all know and understand?

CU also has another problem, unliving objects. In the case of Astral everything has its Astral representation and we can manipulate with it, but CU doesn't have such a thing as it requires a living organisms to communicate, therefore CU doesn't really explain the talismanic magick or weather control to give some examples.

Nothing is true
There is a million of different opinions about how Magick actually works, some better, some worse, but if you nitpick for a long enough, you will find some loophole. I think my long time readers already know that I am a big fan of the meta paradigm. The thing is that you can follow anything you want as long as you get results. What works for you, works for you. If you are okay with the psychology paradigm and sending "spells" to the CU, be my guest. What I see as a problem is when someone becomes a fanatic and starts pushing his way of thinking as the only possible truth. "Dude, psychology model is the real one, it makes so much sense". Well, if it makes sense to you and it works for you, I am happy for that, just keep in mind we are individuals and what works for one won't necessary work for another. That being said, keep it mind it is always better to inform other of various ways and let them choose what's best suited for them instead of trying to push your own ideal on them.

When it comes to the individual practice this includes the psychology model same as the meta model and just like any other thing you can imagine, including hermetic laws, including spirit work, including ancestor veneration. If it works for you, be happy, just don't get angry if someone questions you, it is only a natural outcome of being a bit too pushy. Just like you don't like when someone steps on your foot, others hate when you stomp on theirs.

"New" death posture

So, I recently finished reading a book by Kenneth Grant that I got from my mother-in-law last Christmas. I generally don't like Grant's writing style but I have to admit he certainly knew both Crowley and Spare. In the chapter about Spare I have actually found a description of one death posture that was used by Spare.

It was said that Spare used one hand to cover his mouth and nose (pinching the nose with the thumb) thus preventing the oxygen to come in or out while he was drawing the sigil with the other hand, focusing fully on each line of the sigil.

This find is very interesting, not only because usually during a posture you focus on a finished product, but also because my wife uses a similar method, she usually keeps redrawing the sigil over and over again (deepening those lines with each repetition) while chanting the sigil mantra prepared for that very sigil.

No Meat Report: Day 31

So, this is my last day of the vegetarian August. I have managed to spend the whole month wihout any meat (including sea food).

During this whole period I didn't have even one outburst of energy some people like to speak about while talking about vegetarianism. I also still remember the taste, the smell and texture of any type of meat I am used to eat so there also wasn't any forgetting period also mentioned in sync with vegetarianism. My left shoulder also started cracking back and fourth quite painfully during the movement which is why I had to restart the 5 Tibetan Rites to keep me from "falling apart" (it is not THAT bad, but it is annoying).

I am pretty sure that a lot of people will want to tell me "I was doing it wrong". To you, I would like to say: "not eating meat is not a rocket science, all you do is not eating meat". I think all those positive effects people list are simply caused by the fanatism effect and mass "hysteria", you are meant to feel something so you feel it.

I think it would be wrong to speak only about negatives. There of course was a possitive side, as well. I have become much less animalistic during this period, much less tempered. It is a fine change and I hope it will stick up. Anyway, I am looking forward to waking up tomorrow and saying those sweet words: "I have finished the act of will."

Pendulum experiment

So, I have executed a series of experiments to find out how pendulums actually work. Some of these experiments were run by me together with my wife, some were run by the former apprentice of mine and some by an old friend of mine.

Experiment #1
In this instance it was needed to check the accuracy of the pendulum itself, so a random 2 cards (one red and one black) were selected. These cards were shuffled and put face down on the table without anyone knowing which card was which. The process was to use the pendulum find the red card. This experiment was within the scope of statistical error.

Experiment #2
In this experiment the person shuffling cards took a peak at the cards before placing them face down on the table, this way the scryer didn't know which cards was which, but there was at least one person who knew. Thanks to this the scrying became accurate (about 80% success rate).

Experiment #3
This one was done together with my former apprentice. Cards were laid face down as before, but instead of using the pendulum, a simple "guessing" was utilized. Results were very similar to those in two previous experiments, that means when there was someone in the room knowing which card is which, the success rate raised dramatically.

Experiment #4
Experiment number 4 was done together with my apprentice. In this case a pendulum was used to showcase the chakra on the hand and its natural spin. My former apprentice had a completely different result as when he was holding the pendulum, it wasn't showing this chakra at all, instead a very strong repulsion or attraction (depending on which hand was being diagnosed) was shown, clearly representing the magnetic and electromagnetic forces of a receiving and transmitting hand.

Experiment #5
Like experiment #4, but with a friend of mine. This time a chakra was shown no matter which one of us did the scrying. More importantly, while I was diagnosing the hands of my friend, he got an idea to flip his hands over. This made the pendulum to go immediatelly in the other direction, thus proving the chakras really are spinning wheels. We have then checked different angles and distances. And this thesis was proven even further.

Conclusion
It is more or less publicly known for a long time that a pendulum is actually operated by the ideo-motoric movement instead of some invisible force and by these experiments it was actually proven.

In a nutshell it means that the pendulum is only as good as its operator. If you notice in our experiments, it was very hard to e.g. select the correct card when no one knew its location and it became fairly easy once someone knew where the card is. This is because telepathy is actually more natural and readily available ability than finding a card that is nearly indistinguishable from the other one on the astral level. Experimentation without the pendulum also further proves this because results with and without the pendulum were nearly the same, showing that pendulums are just tools instead of power objects on its own and what counts in the end is the ability of the scryer.

In case of the chakra diagnosis it was also apparent because my former apprentice was unable to focus on chakras with his analytical and cold-logic mind, instead being shown a very strong effect of attraction and repulsion of the pendulum by his hands. On the other hand, a friend of mind who is able to focus on chakras, had pretty much the same results as I did.

No Meat Report: Day 20

So, it seems my body finally got used to the new diet as I gained back few of the pounds I lost on the ninth day. Yet I still think that this could be a very good slimming diet if combined with heavy exercises and cardio. But that's about as much of the benefit I find there. Frankly, if this wasn't a willpower training, I would be already getting me some meat.

No Meat Report: Day 17

So, nothing much to report, there is nothing better and worse than my usual self would have, maybe except there was some slight malfunction in my left shoulder few days ago, when moving it back and forth there was something jumping off and on again, making a clicking sound and it was slightly painful (more annoying, really).

Maybe what I have noticed I am much more "mindful" person now in that I think about things and philosophy way more now, but that's simply because what I eat now is not as "heavy" and hard to digest, which might sound good but it also has a downfall, a heavy food is a great tool for the relaxation.

I have to say this whole experience made me thinking, maybe I usually eat too much meat? Consider that normally I eat a meat based product at least twice a day and it is recorded that our ancestors normally ate meat just once a week. It's true that this was more based on availability of meat at the time, yet I guess it shouldn't be overdone, but to check that thesis I will have to try me some paleolithic diet as well, but not in September, in September I want to get some normal food into my system.

Anyway, this is an occult blog, so as an occult related blog we should take a look into the spiritual part of the vegetarianism. Honestly, there is rather a gap now and I mean it negatively. I don't know if I am used to this new diet or not, but I simply don't get the "mojo" I used to when eating meat. Maybe this will still turn to better, after all my friend told me it usually takes 2 to 3 weeks to get used to the new diet (and it's still not 3 weeks).

No Meat Report: Day 10

Well, I pretty much stopped feeling any different now, I am not tired anymore and hunger also seems not to be an issue. What got definitely worse is my alcohol tolerance, I got pretty much "destroyed" this Saturday and was sick whole Sunday.

I also checked the scales yesterday and found out I lost 11 lbs of weight. I found it interesting as I eat still pretty much the same amount, just meat was omitted from the equation. It is even more interesting because if you remember that I had a no food fast quite recently which I was able to hold for 2 days and I didn't lose a single pound.

Spiritual poetry

Probably something that nobody knows is that I write poetry in my native language, a little poems with spiritual background that then go right into my drawer.

It's then of no surprise that I can enjoy a spiritual poetry quite a lot in all its forms. For example recently I found a following snippet online from a poem named Universal:
Everything belongs to one
We are universal
Hearts connected by love
Strange cosmic rehearsal
Life is flowing, like a dance
Loving, ever knowing
Hope and fear, lovely romance
Constantly reaping and sowing
...

This type of poetry is amazingly in sync with Kabbalistic teachings, and, actually, if you want to read more of it, you should visit a blog of its author: http://ninaintheair.blogspot.co.uk/

No Meat Report: Day 5

So, I am kinda tired, which might also be a result of my once again broken sleep cycle, and, I am also way more hungry. While I was eating meat, I was used to much longer breaks between meals, now it seems I get hungry more easily.

I also managed to slip out of the "I can't eat meat" mood yesterday and was able to operate normally without constantly thinking about meat. I know this might sound obsessive, but you should understand I normally eat meat at least twice a day.

This whole thing actually made be to respect vegetarians in a sense. There are so many types of meat and ways of preparing it and if you are lazy to do so yourself, you are free to visit any restaurant or fast food you want. In case of non-meat based meals, restaurants usually have a very limited options (usually fries and fried cheese), thinking about it now, I don't know where I will be going to lunches this whole month as the whole fried cheese thing is already getting ridiculous.

Well, I hope I will resolve the limited lunch problem soon and I will stop being so tired, which reminds me a friend of mine whom I asked about my new diet and he told me I am actually tired because by avoiding meat I reduced my standard fat intake and should add some nuts and oils to my diet. On the other hand my sexual desire decreased too, which is actually kinda relaxing as I spent less time being a creep.

Sophrology

I have recently discovered Sophrology. It is not as old as progressive muscular relaxation or autogenic training I was talking about earlier, but both of these were of a great influence to the sophrology, founder of this scientific field also spent a great deal of time in Tibet and India, analyzing yoga and various practices to figure out what is really that useful part letting us relax, get rid of stress, headaches, sleep disorders, in simplicity how to become healthier without all that religionism.

Result is sophrology. I have found a very nice "sample" here:

No Meat Report: Day 3

So, this is my 3rd day of eating no meat. I have to say I really hope there is some "getting used to" period, because else all those reports like "I imediately had more energy/was more active" etc sounds like placebo now as I am very tired at the moment.

It's coming

So, I have decided to try out vegetarianism (not veganism, I love eggs and I love milk), so for the full month of august I will eat no meat.

Mozart - Coronation Mass K 317

Food for the ears.

About death curses

Let's speak about inflicting death with curses and all the bad decisions behind it.

What is a death curse?
A death curse is a type of a spell that inflicts death to its victim. This can be anything from a car accident to instant heart failure, it can be also as bad as a cancer. There are few infamous death curses like Pulsa diNura.

Pulsa diNura is a very strong Jewish curse in which angels of death (if I remember correctly) are called to prevent any God's forgiveness to reach the target, the target then dies because of his/her own sins. If curses were considered weapons, Pulsa diNura would be a nuke. It could also be considered an act of terrorism because it is usually abused against political figures, often for different ideologies.

Why people choose to use death curses?
People who tend to use death curses are usually insecure and emotionally unstable, thinking they can kill people remotely gives them some inner security and sense of power, that's why death curses are often chosen by "satanic" emotional teenagers, generally speaking majority of so called LHP groups are children and real and experienced practitioners are actually in minority (and they wouldn't curse so lightly).

Why death curses often don't work?
A death curse is a very serious thing that requires a killing intent, you must hate someone so much that when he would be near you right now you would kill him with bare hands. Thankfully most people are unable of such hate, else this would be a very sad place to live. Anyway, this also means death curses are used where you really want to kill some person that cannot be reached normally (living far away, well secured political figure, unknown rapist in the neighborhood, etc). It certainly cannot be used on a classmate sitting right next to you just because he broke your pencil and laughed at you that you dress like a bat.

Correct alternatives
Death curses usually have a reason, whether someone bullies you, make fun of you, or anything else. Question is why you want to go through the trouble to curse the person when a simple spell can be used to nullify just what you don't like, e.g for a bully to stop picking on you, your boss to stop making you work overtime, your political nemesis to stop thinking through his wallet, etc. This way you will also more likely get the desired result as it stems from your need and no killing intention is needed (in other words, this approach is good for non-psychopathic people).

Death curse between Magicians
I think you have heard stories of duels of Magicians and how a stronger will can beat the weaker will, about shielding and waiting for a right moment to hit to incapacitate the other guy. This all is more or less true regarding thaumaturgists, but when it comes to a theurgy, this is a completely different story. We are more or less a property of spirits we work with on a regular basis (the rapport works both ways), and the spirit, as any owner, gets angry if you try to damage its property. Spirits are also conscious and they talk to each other. I know I don't speak about this much, but I actually stopped doing any client work as my spirits forbid me to do few exorcisms, I was told to care about my own family and don't poke into problems of others.

So, what does happen when one theurgist try to curse another theurgist? Seemingly nothing, spirits make a deal and maybe let a lighter curse to pass through to make a point, if that teaches you not to mess with others, fine with that. But if you try some stronger curse, or even a death curse, spirits get really angry at you for trying to push them into some tacky spirit war and they might punish you, as well. Worst thing that can happen is that you ignore any warnings and if nothing seemingly happened, you try again. Spirits then might abandon you for your ignorance and then you suddenly find yourself without any protection and open for a counter-attack that can hit you in a full scale.

It is true that a stronger spirit might screw with lesser spirits, but don't also forget that each spirit has its own "homeland", so locally they can be strong but remotely there are some problems. For example if you tried to use a Voodoo lwa on me, you are likely to fail as voodoo spirits are very far from home here, on the other side my spirits are locals here, so they are way more accustomed to this environment and protection here.

Summary
So, we have learned that death curses are not really so bright idea to begin with, there are also alternatives: bully can stop mocking you, rapist can be arrested... or castrated, etc. We have also learned that spirits like their comfort zone and hate messing with other spirits and can punish you if you try to mess with other spirits or their "property".

An interesting idea

This is an interesting idea regarding sigils I found on reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/occult/comments/3e13b2/i_set_my_phone_swipe_to_be_a_sigil/

Cigarette Magick

Warning: This is an article for those who already smoke. Smoking is harmful, expensive and not very socially acceptable either. If you don't smoke, don't even start.

Introduction
Ok, so from the warning I think this is obviously a smokers only article. The thing is that when you already has a packet in the pocket, there is a couple of things that cigarettes are actually good for, so let's say a thing or two about cigarettes and their use in Magick.

As we all know, cigarettes contain tobacco, a plant that was originally sacred and smoked by shamans and elders for celebration purposes, thanks to the western society it became a casual thing so many of us "celebrate" daily, some people can hold even 60 such celebrations a day :-D.

Stress oriented
If cigarettes are actually good in something, it's a stress relief. Cigarettes can get you in the right mood, get you rid of stress and help you concentrate. I think I am beating a dead horse now as all practicing smokers probably already know, but 1 cigarette before and after the ritual is a real lifesaver. Before the ritual to get ready for what is coming and after the ritual to ground and get back to the every day reality.

Smelling around
Cigarette smoke is very thick, both in appearance and in the scent, this and its spiritual neutrality makes it a perfect portable incense stick (some spirits like it more, some less, but I have yet to find one that would really hate it). This also makes it a great offering tool, one lit up cigarette put aside for whatever spirits you are working with. I think I have already described this one in the past. But what I didn't say in the past is that you can actually inscribe a seal and name of the specific spirit to offer it directly to that spirit, limiting problems with unwanted guests.

For that quick fix
Whether you want to improve your health, get rid of a headache, or maybe get some money, a sigil inscribed on the cigarette can do real wonders, just make sure you keep focused on your goal while something the aforementioned sigil enhanced cigarette. You can actually use one and the same symbol for all cigarettes in the package, making your goal more likely to come true after the whole packet was taken care of (not at once). You can use this method to e.g. help you to quit smoking.

In a very emergency cases not even a sigil is needed, just write what you need on the side of the cigarette and smoke it. I think it's needless to say that such a method is less foolproof than others aforementioned, but yeah, emergency situation often requires emergency solutions.

Forgotten inside the flames
If you have problems with forgetting about your desires, then a pack of cigarettes is a perfect solution for you (if you are a smoker), just inscribe different sigils with different meaning on all your cigarettes so you forget which is which and then smoke them in a random order, in that case you don't concentrate on the desire during smoking as you don't know it, but you rather concentrate on the sigil itself and how is it burning away, slowly directing to the vast universe to make your wishes come true.

Scott Adams about affirmations:

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, speaks about his experience with affirmations and also his troubles with skeptics:
http://www.cryan.com/pdf/Affirmations.pdf

I didn't find the original post on his blog yet, but I found one that is probably a follow-up on this:
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/102544366321/dilbert-2-0

Some updates

So, I am working on the planetary servitors project now, last week I managed to create 6 out of 7 servitors (I overslept on Sunday and didn't manage to create the Sun servitor).

I will keep charging the servitors this week (and fortunately create the last remaining one on Sunday), then I will vectorize their seals so I can print them and laminate them.

For now, the Moon servitor gives me quite a patronizing attitude, as an overprotective mother. Mars servitor is quite mean but can send the message across, Mercurial servitor gives me some sort of rush, very hard to stop thoughts in that mindset. Jupiterian servitor didn't show much yet and Venusian servitor brought quite a lot of unwanted attention in my direction (women seemed to be watching me a bit too much).

As for the Saturnian servitor, it is still undecided what his use might be, so far I managed to oversleep one day :D.

Interesting experience

So, I have already started working on planetary servitors I have mentioned here: http://akenu.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/planetary-servitors.html

Yesterday was my first day so I have started with Moon (generally the week here starts with Monday so I am just following the cultural convention). I've gotten some interesting visual imagery but nothing out of ordinary, that was supposed to change today.

Today I have worked on creating a servitor for Mars. I created a very decent seal right on the first try, derived the name from it and started with focal meditation while vibrating the name (silently, I was in the bus at the moment). A feeling of immense heat followed this process and I got a very good feeling about this.

Then, after I left the bus I lit a cigarette like usually, thinking about following days when some gypsy came to me, asking me for a cigarette. I have handed him a cigarette. He then took some perfume out of his bag trying to pursue me to buy it. I suddenly yelled back at him "I will light you the cigarette but fuck off with this" which obviously shocked him as he certainly was bigger than me and didn't expect such reaction. So, I lit him the cigarette and he immediately left, while I stood there with a feeling of victory. I would say this spirit will be very helpful for empowerment and argumentation.

Vacancy of mind

What is the vacancy of mind
Vacancy of mind is a state of awareness when no side thoughts are produced and the infinite mental chatter is stopped. It is also a form of gnosis and chaotes reference it as a gnostic state as the psychic censor is switched off together with the chatter.

Vacancy of mind is hard to enter and usually the early attempts can keep up just a couple of seconds. The process of entering this state is also often made harder by many mistakes people tend to do in the beginning of the practice, some of these mistakes will be mentioned later.

What is the vacancy of mind good for
As mentioned before, vacancy of mind is associated with deactivating the psychic censor. From this state you can either switch into the absolute awareness, which is a way how to shift your focus fully on a certain object and "charging" it this way (absolute awareness is good for sigil charging and I refer to it as the inhibitory gnosis in the book Liber Azag: The Book of Sigils or as Fragment #4 in Oath Breaker: Meditation).

Another use of the vacancy of mind once again lies in the deactivated psychic censor. Psychic censor is the filtering mechanism between your consciousness and your unconsciousness. If this filtering mechanism is deactivated and you are able to sit still with closed eyes in such a state, you will enter the state of high lucidity, granting you visions. The nature of visions is very similar to the nature of dreams. Not every vision is prophetic, prophecies are actually not so common. Your visions will often just be the reflection of your subconsciousness, affected by the food you ate, experience you had, movie you watched or book you just read. There are practices to make prophetic visions or dream more often, but more of that later.

How to enter the vacancy of mind
A good way how to enter this state of awareness is to progress into it from the focal meditation. A focal meditation is the type of meditation where you concentrate fully on one object. This object can be a symbol (trataka), your breathing pattern (pranayama), your posture (asana), gesture (mudra) or even a repetitive sequence of movement (like dancing). But gesture, symbol, posture and chanting (mantra) are the most common ones, usually in some combinations.

This method also includes the famous black egg meditation. Visualize a big empty room where everything is absolutely and completely white. In this room there is a black egg on a completely white table, and this egg is completely black and a little bit distorted as it emits the blackness to its surrounding, emitting the darkness as if it were a light.

Another good way was presented in the article Oath Breaker: Meditation, where the Vacancy of Mind is presented as the fragment #3 and is entered from the state of absolute relaxation. The relaxation is important in any case, as the mind affects the body just like body affects the mind, it's even harder to enter the vacancy of mind state when your mind is occupied with the inputs from your body and it's hard to relax and let go of your body when you feel something poking to your side or your nose is itchy. That's why you first need to find a comfortable position to relax fully (Fragment #1 in Oath Breaker: Meditation).

Common mistakes during the practice of the vacancy
First very common mistake is that people are unaware of their constant mental chatter. That's where thought observation and thought recollection comes handy. Be present at the moment and be aware of your thoughts, recollect them a couple of times during your day. This will help you to become fully aware of your mental chatter plus your memory will improve drastically.

Another mistake is ignoring the chatter. When a thought arrives, you should accept it and move on, recall this thought later and resolve it. Else this thought will reappear later, but stronger and with some consequences, you shouldn't ignore your thoughts same as you shouldn't ignore your problems else they can overgrow you. The void meditation is also associated with the reappearance of memories, especially the negative one. This process is natural and helps you to resolve your problems and better understand who you are. Same as with thoughts you shouldn't ignore these but accept them, else they will reappear later or worse, turn into phobias, nightmares and will make you emotionally lethargic or easy to get angry.

Another very common mistake is the self-trolling. I call it this way because during the void meditation you will tend to e.g. repeat the instructions of the meditation process, thinking about not thinking and few other cases. This actually isn't the psychic censor preventing you your progress, it's just your own mind making fun of itself. If you recognize it as your own doing and own responsibility, it's much easier to get rid of it.

Yet another mistake is to get frustrated when you are lacking results. Don't be strict on yourself, this isn't a race. Be fine with whatever progress you have and remember it works as a wave, sometimes it's naturally better and sometimes it's naturally worse, everyone has good and bad days. If thoughts are rushing too much and you need a little bit of rest, eat some heavy food (fast food works great in this great), when the body got hard time digesting food, less energy is spent on the higher functions of the brain).

Example of merging sigils

Here is an example how to combine two or more sigils together

Ouija troubles

So, many of you might have noticed the picture of a custom made ouija on my twitter account. I have created it for a entertainment purposes (for that is what Ouija really is). First day I have used it with my wife, an old "friend" reappeared, a spirit that was the reason I started with the occult to begin with, to get rid of it :-D.

My wife then had the usual nightmarish dream, next day our animals were agressive towards her, etc, usual stuff.

On the second night we were contacted by another spirit that seemed to be troubled by the same "friend" of ours and wanted to ask for help, we also get a date since when our "friend" should exist, 1879. I promised I will do my best but then something unexpected happened, I did the Sacred Chamber Ritual while my wife was hugging me. Next day the Ouija didn't work. I have originally thought it is because of the Hexennacht, but even a day after it didn't work. Question is what happened, maybe the ritual has some banishing quality I am unaware of, or maybe there is some strange astrological current that currently blocks the communication.

My little project

I think it's time for me to share a little project I am working on right now.

It's a geomancy tool written in Java called Geomancer. For now the tool is able to generate figures and even 3 full charts (Positive/Negative, Past/Present/Future and even the Shield chart). I am especially proud of the Shield chart as figures are not just randomly generated. After the generation of 4 mothers, the rest of figures is calculated as it should be.

So, if you are interested in the project, it is open source and all the sources are available at https://github.com/frater-akenu/geomancer

Sigil and Law of Attraction Contradiction?

I have recently found this amazing thread on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/occult/comments/33ms80/sigil_and_law_of_attraction_contradiction/

The OP was:

Hey guys,

I'm new to sigil's manifesting, and one thing that is confusing me a little is the final part of the sigil process, after energizing you are supposed to forget the sigil. Doesn't this contradict the Law of Attraction, where you are supposed to non-stop visualize your desire, non-stop until you have what you want? Am I missing something here? Any thoughts?

And of course, a totally amazing response from PsychopompPoet:

Law of Attraction says if you are a vibrational match to "I want", it's a close vibrational match to "I do not have". If you are 'forgetting' the sigil, detaching from lust of result, you are less of a vibrational match to "I want" i.e. "I do not have" (you cannot be a vibrational match to abundance and lack at the same time). So you burn it, forget it, and fill your time with focusing back on your True Will, and you sort of know in the back of your mind, "I did everything I can do. Now it's out there." and walk away without looking at the explosion

This reponse quite nicely summarizes why I stopped using THIS MY WILL, I WILL or I WANT as the beginning of my desire statements and started formulating my statements as if they were already true.

Scrying using hands instead of a black mirror

Today while browsing on Reddit I have found a following link that explains how to scry just with your hands:
http://www.angelfire.com/my/zelime/hand_scrying.html

The book officially released

So, I have finally released the book called Liber Azag: The Book of Sigils.
The book is available as always on Scribd at https://www.scribd.com/doc/261643751/Liber-Azag-The-Book-of-Sigils

It is not fully finished, yet, as I didn't manage to fix the problem with ToC I was talking about earlier on my blog, but I am working on it and it should be fully up and ready sometimes next week. So for now there is a book without table of contents.

Book of Sigils: Still in progress

Yeah, so I have somehow underestimated the amount of work needed to finish the book. One of the reasons is I somehow misplaced the original Astro Magick Essentials document so I have to rewrite all Magick squares from zero.

So far I have finished the book cver art and most of the illustrations including Nine Chambers sigilization methods. What I still have to do is to make an example of use of Nine Chambers, then example of the pictorial method and aforementioned Magick Squares. I have chosen to depict the traditional squares in the book, for my modern version check Astro Magick Essentials.

There is also a weird problem with the current release of LibreOffice where it cannot generate the Table of Contents properly. I have already found a workaround on this problem where you first export the document to Microsoft Word file format which should fix the internal XML and allow LibreOffice to generate the Table of Contents but I have yet to try this solution.

Progress on books

I know many of you are waiting for the new book being released, especially when the Book of Sigils need only editorial stuff to be finished, I just had bad luck with my schedule recently.

This weekend will be prolonged due to Easters so I should have time to complete the book.

Very simple meditation

Sometimes simple is better, this meditation will take you only a couple of minutes and there is no way you could forget any of the steps.

1. Sit in a comfortable position, relax a little.
2. Close your eyes and concentrate on your breath.
3. Visualize that with each of your inhale an energy is drawn into your body and stays there, this energy says: "I possess Magick abilities", say that in your mind during each inhale and feel as your body is getting filled with this statement.
4. Repeat step 3 for a couple of minutes or till you feel full with the statement.

This is a very simple exercise, in the long term it allows you to unlock new mystical abilities, in short term it helps you to reinforce your belief in Magick and as we already know, a belief is a very important asset in Magick.

Liber Azag: Book of Sigils, part 6

Spirit model
It's time to speak about the final of 4 basic paradigms in Magick, the spirit model. The basic belief in this model is that everything is inhabited and governed by spirits. When I say everything, I mean literally everything, the air we breathe, the ground we step on, the juice we drink or cigarettes we smoke, everything has its own spirits. The path of spirit model is the path of prayer and rituals, in this model we do our best to get the attention of spirits, to please them and to gain them for our cause. Because everything is governed by spirits, spirits are who do the work, all we can do here is to make requests. To please the spirits we have to make offerings and to have more probability of our requests being fulfilled and our expectations met, we have to possess a spiritual authority. Spiritual authority is the respect we get from spirits as practitioners, you could say this is the filtering mechanism, just like the psychic censor in psychology paradigm.

What is also interesting about the spirit model is the ritualism. Models we have described and practiced before are more direct based, in this model we need rituals as the means of communication with the divine, in this model we hand over our desires to the external power to handle it. To do so we need a set of key aspects. We need to cleanse our space, to call entities we wish to work with, we need to hand over our requests and we need to close the deal, to finish the communication. We also need to please these entities on a regular basis to gain their favour, that's where offerings come in handy. There are still practitioners performing blood sacrifices, whether using their own blood or blood of sacrificed animals, but this is out of scope of this book so we will focus more on different forms of sacrifices, different forms of offerings. We will also learn how to work with deities, angels, demons, any type of entity you might want to work with and how to create servitors in a purely ceremonial manner.

Offerings
During your time as a spirit worker you will meet a good deal of spirits that will join your cause. It is a good idea to have some form of a general offering for these spirits. Of course if specific spirits require specific offerings made in a specific manner, you should follow the instructions. For the rest it is enough to make a simple tobbacco offering once a week or when the situation asks for it. Speaking of tobbacco, a cigarette is a perfect incense stick and working with it is really simple. Just place the cigarette in your hand, say: "Spirits that are present here, please accept my offering to you", then put the cigarette in your mouth, light it and then place it somewhere, e.g. an edge of the table or an ashtray and let it burn. You can use the time when it is burning to sing some mantras for spirits. Note: Many cigarette brands has a safety measure so after a certain time the cigarette isn't used, it stops burning by itself. This is not a concern with offerings: when spirits want, the cigarette will keep burning, and just as fast as if you were smoking it.

Another general offering you can make is a glass of water, just leave it on the "meeting place" overnight and make sure no one touches it. Next morning just dispose of it. Same thing can be done with pieces of bread, fruits, milk, honey, eggs, etc. While getting rid of the offering, you don't want to touch it directly, so make sure you use some gloves or something like that. If you want to place the offering by burning it, you need a decent bonfire and enough flammable offerings (bread is fine).

We have already spoken about mantras, some entities have their own and some have generic ones. These can be sang during the offering or separately when you have some time to spare. I personally use a Sumerian incantation for it as spirits I usually work with are of Mesopotamean origin. The mantra is as follows:
ZI ANNA KANPA
ZI KIA KANPA
ZI DINGIR ANNA KANPA
ZI DINGIR KIA KANPA

It means:
Spirits of skies, remember
Spirits of earth, remember
Spirit, god of skies, remember
Spirit, god of earth, remember

This mantra is very easy to sing and drags the attention of some mighty spirits. This is something you want to happen in the spirit work. By repeating the mantra often, you will gain the relationship with many spirits and your spiritual authority will grow. As we have already said, spiritual authority is the filtering mechanism in the spirit paradigm.

Sigil charging
This is a book about Sigil Magick, so we should namely focus on sigils. There are various ways how to charge sigils via spirit model The simplest of them goes as follows:
Light 2 white candles and put a piece of paper between them. Say: "O, spirits of talismanic magick, I summon thee. Come to this place and do my will. Act to my bidding and breathe a life into this sigil".
Then exhale 3 times on the sigil, then say: "A sigil, an inanimate object, a lifeless piece of paper. Talismanic spirits are breathing life into you, be living and fulfill my desire."
Then exhale 3 times again at the sigil and close your eyes. Meditate for a couple of minutes, feel the power of the moment.
Open your eyes, exhale 3 times on the sigil and say: "O, Sigil, you are now living.".
Put the sigil aside and say: "O, Talismanic spirits, I thank you for your help, return to your places and come back here when I call you. Don't bring any harm to me or those close to my heart, but be at peace".
The last part is called a license to depart, it's a good practice to learn, not as harsh as banishing, you simply ask spirits to leave instead of forcing them with divine names and various other things.

The first method was to ask spirits to charge the sigil for you. Second method is using a spirit to aid you in sigil charging. A good spirit for this purpose is Agaku, one of 50 names of Marduk. You just place Agaku's seal under your sigil, place your palms above your sigil, and charge the sigil as you would do in energy model while chanting Agaku's name and also his word of power. His word of power is MASHGARZANNA. Do so for a couple of minutes, Agaku will aid you in transferring your own energy into the sigil, both in speed and accuracy. Both methods are obviously also good for the creation and charging of talismans, but generally sigil magick is a form of talismanic magick. All methods mentioned in this book can be used for creation of talismans and amulets.

Elemental spirits
Elemental spirits or spirits of elements are also useful in sigil magick. We have already made a simple summary of elements and their associations, to read more about them I recommend to read Condensed Magick 101. Now we should speak mainly of spirits of these elements. Spirits of Fire are called salamanders, they are quite friendly, but have a short attention span and tend to leave the scene quickly. Their domain is anything ranging from courage up to willpower. Spirits of Water are called undines, they are friendly. Their domain are emotions, but also a physical water and rain. Spirits of Air are Sylphs. These creatures are sometimes friendly but more often they are simply neutral. Their domain is the mental plane, they can do anything from improving memory up to boosting the intelligence of the individual. They also rule physical air and together with undines they control the weather, which means both sylphs and undines should be called if we want to manipulate the weather with their help. Last but not least are gnomes, spirits of Earth. They tend to be very friendly towards humans, their domain is wealth, well-being but also physical earth, really anything from dirt up to mountains. They also can be called to make long journeys less exhausting. They are also spirits of physical strength.

If we think a specific sigil is in the domain of specific spirits (e.g. salamanders) then we decorate the sigil with symbolism of their element and then simply take in their element, just like we did with the chaosphere in the energy model, just now we will use their physical element instead of the chaosphere. That means for element of Fire we will use e.g. a candle, for Water glass, etc. Once we have drawn the element into ourselves we can call the elementals and charge the sigil.

For our example let's say we have a desire compatible with Fire and we have used a candle to draw-in its energy. First of all light up 2 white candles, no matter what element we work with, this is the beginning of all of our rituals. Breathe on the sigil for 3 times. Now what we can do is to place our hands above the sigil and while letting the elemental energy to leak from our palms right into the sigil, we can say a following incantation: "Salamanders, spirits of Fire, I call you to this place by the power of your element. By power of Fire I call you here. Appear before me and make this sigil living. Take its desire as your own and fulfill it just like you would do for yourself." After that exhale on the sigil for 3 times again and say: "O Sigil, spirits of Fire breathe a life into you, become a living representation of my desire, become a gate to its fulfillment, a trigger to my happiness, and do my will!"
Then close your eyes and meditate for a couple of minutes. After that is done, exhale on the sigil 3 times again and say: "Spirits have made their deed, Sigil, you are alive".
Put the sigil aside and give a license to depart to the spirits. Then extinguish the candles, that's the end of the ritual.

As you can see in the ritual above, we have already stated a simple form for our rituals, lighting two candles for the beginning and license to depart and putting off the fire for the end. We can go even further and spice up our ritual a little more. Let's say that before you begin you say HEKAS, HEKAS, ESTE BEBELOI!, which means "away with all mundane", then you can sound a bell 3 times to all 4 cardinal directions to cleanse the space. If you don't have a bell, it's ok to use a cup and a spoon for simulating the bell sound. After you are done you can draw a circle around yourself with a chalk or you can lay around a piece of thread to represent the circle. The thread is usually good in-doors, on street you want to use a chalk and in nature you want some form of dagger to engrave the circle into the ground. You can off course be creative and build the circle from dead branches, stones, etc. Once that is done walk around the circle in a clockwise fashion for 3 times, during that you can repeat: "O, spirits of Chaos, come to this place and be present at my ritual". Then stand/sit at the center of the circle  and continue as usually, light up the candles, etc.

Regarding candles, if you use a long candles, you can anoint them with vegetable oil while repeating: "Power of Chaos comes with you" just to give a little more kick into our ritual. Just remember to do it beforehand, when the candles are still new. There are many ways how to modify the ritual and create the right atmosphere, don't be scared to make your research and experiment. Write down what you do and act according to the results.

What we have done with elemental spirits can be done with many more types of servitors. We can easily adapt this working for planetary spirits, primordial entities, pagan deities, spirits of a day or any other correspondence set one can think of. All you have to do is to modify the incantations a little bit so instead of spirits of elements it speak e.g. about planetary spirits and you are good to go. Just before we continue further it is good to mention that spirits can be greedy. A rule of a thumb is to choose 10 or so entities and work mainly with them instead of always choosing a different entity for same type of work. You will be considered as a more loyal "costumer" and treated accordingly, needless to say that such practice truly helps to synchronize with chosen spirits and make the communication easier. Being treated as a loyal spirit worker will make the spirits to work more closely with you. Results will be faster, more frequent and more apparent. Spirits will also very likely grant you familiars for protection and other reasons. Familiars are also very likely to independently help you with your everyday lives, moving obstacles from your path. In a summary, loyalty truly does pay off.

Banishing
Spirit model contains both helping spirits and malevolent ones and time by time we attract the malevolent kind and then we need to banish. Signs of malevolent spirits are usually obvious, we will start having troubles sleeping, we will be waking up tired, items will start falling from tables or shelves or getting transported to other locations (that is usually more obvious when you are living alone and there is no sign of another person entering your home) and your life situation will turn to worse. There are many available banishing methods, the most well known being the Lesser Banishing Pentagram Ritual. What I like during my workings is a simplicity, for that reason I will share a very simple Sumerian banishing ritual. For that purpose we will be calling Asaruludu, the weilder of the flaming sword. Asaruludu is an amazing deity when it comes to protection, it is also one of 50 names of Marduk and mentions about him can be found in Enua Elish, Babylonian version of "Genesis". The ritual goes as follows:
Vibrate a formula:
ZI ANNA KANPA
ZI KIA KANPA
ZI DINGIR ANNA KANPA
ZI DINGIR KIA KANPA

Then vibrate BANMASKIM to all 4 cardinal directions, it is common to start at north and then turn clockwise, but whatever suits you more. BANMASKIM is the word of power of Asaruludu. You can also improve this ritual a little bit and after each vibration of the word of power sound a bell 3 times just like you do in the cleansing ritual.

Servitor creation in spirit model
It's time to speak about how to create your very own servitor in the spirit model. This method resembles the one outlined in the psychology model, that means we will need a name, sigil, description, mantra and a form of our servitor ready. We will need one paper where there is everything, the name, the seal, description, everything. Then we will need a separate pieces for each part.

Start your ritual as usually, then say: "O, mighty spirit Agaku, I call you with your word of power MASHGARZANNA, accept my request and appear before me, aid me in the creation of the serving spirit". Close your eyes and feel power of the moment. Then open your eyes again and place a piece of paper with the name of your new servitor right in the front of you and say: "By the powers of Agaku, I give you the name (name of the servitor)". Then place another piece of paper with servitor's mantra on the top of the previous one and say: "By the powers of Agaku, this is your activation mantra". Continue with the separate pieces, stacking them one by one on each other. Then bind these pieces together by wrapping them around with a piece of thread, during that say: "O, mighty Agaku, bind these together with your power, aid me in the creation by the word MASHGARZANNA". After that burn these bound pieces on a clean ashtray. Close your eyes and meditate till the whole thing burns into ashes and ashes are cold. Now comes the last part, flip over the paper containing all the information and "sprinkle" the backside of the paper with the ash, while saying: "(spirit name), by the power of Agaku, you are now living. By the power of MASHGARZANNA you now breathe, by the power of mighty spirits you now do my will. (Spirit's sigil mantra) is now your calling. (Spirit's description) is now your doing. This is now your new home". With that being said and done, your ritual is finished and you can close it as usually. Don't forget to thank to Agaku and give him the license to depart.

As for the rest, follow instructions from the psychology model, visualize your servitor by your side during the day, et, use his/her mantra on the regulae basis to "feed" him, give him tasks, etc. As for giving your servitor some tasks, you can choose whatever format you wish, whether you do a ritual or not is strictly up to you and your tastes. Once servitor's deed is done and you want to get rid of him, simply do another ritual with Agaku. Start your ritual as usually, call Agaku with his name and word of power, say: "O, mighty Agaku, by the power of your word listen to my request and appear before me, aid me in deconstruction of my servitor (spirit's name). Then close your eyes for a minute and feel the power of the moment. After take the paper with all the information, bind it to another paper with your name and while burning it in the ashtray say: "(Spirit's name), I release you by the power of Agaku and MASHGARZANNA, return back to my own life force. (Spirit's name), you are being called, return to your creator". After that being said and done, your ritual is complete, thank Agaku and give him the license to depart.

Conclusion of this chapter
So, we have done our best to explain the mentality needed for the spirit work. We have learned what is the filtering mechanism in the spirit paradigm, we have described rituals for sigil charging, servitor creation and disposal and we have also described the basic mechanics of banishings. We have also explained the differences between the banishing and the license to depart and we also learned about how to cast a very basic circle in an easy and effective manner. Now, if you decide that the spirit work is your chosen path, it is up to you to come up with your own rituals, to expand the Magick circle and to create a decent list of serving spirits for your very own grimoire, for your personal spellbook. Study, make your research, practice, try, fail and learn from your mistakes. That is the path of Magick in all its paradigms. Is is also the path of life in general. Practise safely and have fun.

Meta model
We have already described 4 basic models of Magick, the psychology model, information model, energetic model and spirit model. All we now have to do is to describe the final fifth paradigm in Magick, the Meta model. Meta means beyond and as we have already said earlier, in the Meta paradigm the source or mechanics of Magick are unknown. The meta model came to the existence after comparison of 4 basic paradigms. The reason for this comparison was to find the similarities between the system, something that could help us to understand what Magick really is and how it really works, but results were shocking. There is always some filtering mechanism, something to make a distinct border between us and the divine, but except that? These models are mutually exclusive, they differ both in philosophy and in approaches, a beliefs needed to operate with these are also very different. And even when these models were completely different, they all yielded results. So there was some interesting outcome after all, the Meta paradigm.

Meta paradigm basically says there is another layer we don't see, the internal mechanics and the source we cannot directly comprehend as a species, a layer that governs the real Magick, a layer that is beyond our reach in terms of understanding. Yet, practitioners of different paradigms were still able to do the work that yields the results, which means they still had to tap into this unknown layer, simply through their own practice. That being said the Meta model has become the uniting paradigm of all previous models, not through similarities, but as the gate between these models and Magick, as the final crossroad where all paths lead to the Rome.

Advantages of the Meta model
We have already said there is a great disadvantage of the Meta model in that we cannot understand the real mechanics. But is there any advantage? Yes, there is, we know for sure that all 4 systems work, therefore we are not tied to a specific mindset and choose any of the paradigms knowing that it will work. We also know that we can switch between the paradigms (paradigm shifting) as we see fit because we will always use the same internal mechanics. It also means that by practicing one paradigm, we will get better in others, too. It basically means that a person being able to quickly get into the inhibitory gnosis will be good with spirits, too or it also means that a very skilled energy worker will be much more lucky with the psychology paradigm than the person freshly starting with the same paradigm. The reason is the real improvement lies in the internal mechanics and the way of operating them rather than in paradigms themselves.

Paradigm shifting is the heart and blood of the Meta model. There are times when we are out of time to do ceremonies with spirits or we feel that an excitatory gnosis won't do the trick for us today. During these times we don't need to horribly alter our schedule to do the ritual or we don't need to talk us into drawing sigils for hours trying to find that one design that really clicks in. We can simply shift the paradigm, we can simply use one that feels appropriate at the time. It happens with time that the Magick will become a routine, something we have to force us into doing instead of enjoying what we do. This is when the paradigm shift comes in handy. By substituing our practices and playing around a little bit we can gather back our joy of doing Magick, or more importantly, we are even able to never lose it again as we can switch our routine whenever we need or want to do so. The great thing is that we won't lose our spiritual authority or ability of controlling the energy by doing so, we will simply convert one into other and then freely back as we shift the models we work with. This conversion isn't very obvious at first, as it is usually not so easy to convert at first, meaning by shifting the paradigm we will feel naked, as we have started from zero. But by following the other paradigm for some time, we will be able to achieve something a dedicated newcomer to that very path would need much more time to achieve, and as we continue to switch between these models, easier the switch will get, which takes me to the final part of this chapter, the combined routine.

Combined routine
We have already said that by working in one paradigm we improve in other paradigms, too and by learning to shift the paradigms we manage to shift faster each time and more easy for us is to become pro-efficient on this or that path. What we have yet to mention is there is a simple method to learn how to shift between the paradigms with ease and how to improve at all of them at the same time. This super simple method is a combined routine.

During the course of this book I have outlined various practices in different models. We have spoken about gnosis and avoiding the Psychic censor in the psychology model. We have also described exercises to gather, store and control energy in the energy model. In information model we have spoken about the channels and means of using just one main channel and how to reduce the noise that pollutes the final information we wish to transfer. In the spirit model we have spoken about offerings. These all are healthy practices allowing us to get better within the paradigm we are working at, and despite the fact that these cannot be combined into one giant exercises, these still can be practiced as a separate exercises during the day. You could e.g. start your day with a simple energy exercises to start your body, then you could take a meditation from the information paradigm to clear your focus and get ready for your day. In the afternoon you could take a moment aside for some meditation from the Psychology model and before going to sleep a nice little offering to the nearby and familiar spirits just to keep them interested. You can of course split and distribute this routine throughout the day as needed. Other method you could do is to start with an offering during the morning coffee, then focus fully on your present moment during brushing your teeth (information paradigm method), then during the lunch break do some energy work and in the evening use the exercises from the Psychology method to clean your mind and gain a much better sleep.

Once you create your combined routine, you should of course stick with a specific timeline to build some habit. Sticking to the schedule also helps to build some willpower. But if you get annoyed by the repetitiveness of the routine, simply change. Either modify the times or turn the whole routine completely upside down, avoid one paradigm for some time or focus strictly on one paradigm, do what pleases you. Time by the time when I am bored, I stick e.g. with Franz Bardon's IIH, I always gain some new insight from such "retreats", plus I keep my Magick alive and kicking, this is one of the advantages of the Meta model, it is much harder to get bored and slip down into the mood where you just have to force yourself and you rather do million other things than practicing the occult. It is also good to mention that this doesn't apply only to the occultism but to the life in general, switch between your hobbies and also ways of doing things, this way you will always keep yourself interested, but you will also learn a lot of new things during the process. Bored playing guitar? Learn how to cook. Annoyed by the endless study of philosophy, buy some wood and tools and learn to craft statues. Carving figures out of wood being too annoying now? Switch wood with clay. Keep the Magick within alive and rocking, whether through occult or other means, and learn a lot of new things in the process. Also, if you are not careful enough, there is a big chance of having some fun in the process. Practice safely and remember, Nothing is true, Everything is permitted, with these words I conclude this book.

Liber Azag: Book of Sigils, part 5

Energy model

So far we have described mainly a psychology model of Magick with just a slight tap into the spirit model with our description of servitors, but still more from a perspective of our unconsciousness. We also described one energy model method, charging sigils with Akasha. But for the book of sigil magick to be truly complete, we have to explain different models, too. There are actually many reasons why to do that. First of all not everyone is psychology based, we are unique individuals with different tastes and beliefs. Secondly we don't want to be stuck to one paradigm forever, sometimes we just need to spice things up to keep it going. Third reason is that different models have different sets of qualities, some models are better for something and worse for something else, being able to shift the paradigm equals to being able to adapt to the needs of any given situation. And I know I am now diving a little bit deeper to the Chaos Magick, but still with Sigil Magick point of view in mind.

First new paradigm we are going to talk about is the energy model. In this model everything is consisted of an energy and manipulating this energy is what Magick is about. This universal energy is usually split into outer (external) and inner (of the body) and has many different names across different cultures. It is prana in India, Chi in China, Ki in Japan, animal magnetism, fluidum or vital energy for mesmerists, od or orgone for various different folks and psi for parapsychologists. In this chapter I want to describe the differences between this model and other models, how to use the universal energy source and how to bottle the energy for later use.

Before we start doing anything with energy, we should learn to feel it first. For that reason we will introduce a set of exercises to feel the energy within our body and to shift it around a little bit. First exercise is a simple meditation technique. You should sit in a comfortable position in a nice and calm surroundings. First of all think about your hands getting warmer and heavier, say in your mind or out loud: "My hands are very hot and very heavy". Feel your hands getting hot and heavy. Once you achieve this feeling, you then continue with your whole arms (you can also split it to forearms, elbow and rest, it depends only on you). Then shoulders, then feet, ankles, whole legs. Then chest, stomach, back. And finally neck and head. Once you are finished it is also good to invoke the feeling of coldness to your forehead so you won't feel like overheating. Once this relaxation is done, focus on your body. Concentrate on all feeling in your whole body for at least 5 minutes. Just concentrate and enjoy those little swirls of energy. This exercise is great from both the energetic and psychological point of view. In energy model this exercise removes energy blockages and let the energy flow freely in your whole body and in psychology model this helps from stress and also in long-term this strengthens your immunity.

In the next exercise we will learn how to shift energy in our body and how to feel this shift. For this to work, we must be relaxed first, so this exercise is best done right after the aforementioned relaxation technique. So, while we are still relaxed and our hands are preferably rested on our lap with some space between them, we now concentrate our whole mind on the right index finger for about 15 seconds. Next we will switch our concentration to the left index finger for another 15 seconds. Keep switching the concentration, soon you will notice there is a distinct feeling between these two fingers as you are switching the attention between them. On energetic level the flow of energy is associated with your will and the energy flows as you see fit. On physical level you slightly change the blood flow and few other things. Now, by doing this exercise on regular basis you improve your ability to control and distribute energy in your body. As you train you also want to prolong the time between switching the focus. The reason is there is a practical application of this exercise. Focusing on the wound will help it to regenerate a slightly faster and focusing on the place that hurts will help to reduce the pain. It can look counter-productive as focusing on pain make it feel worse, but if you keep at it, it really will diminish. The pain itself also is a very interesting thing. It has the double function. First function is to warn us that a body is taking a damage and we should withdraw from the damaging factor. Second function is to bring our attention to the damaged area to activate and boost the regeneration process. So without pain our wound wouldn't heal as fast, it would heal, but at a bit slower pace.

Before we learn to draw-in the external energy, we should learn how to avoid energy blockages because else we could exhaust our energetic "plumbing" and get sick.  In simple terms to avoid energy blockages we have to get our bodies free of a waste. The easiest way is to do so together with a material waste. In other words if you are going pee-pee or poo-poo, focus on all negative energy in your whole body, mind, spirit and soul. Visualize as this all negativity attached to you leaves with your waste. Same goes to blowing your nose, too, simply let all negativity to go with it. As a nice side effect you will be much healthier, your time needed to get out of the sickness will be reduced and you will have much more quality sleep. Another way is to stick your hands in a running water and let it attract all your negativity to itself, a tap water is a good enough for this exercise as well. And of course, bathing and showering can be used the same way, just in case of a bath, make sure no one touches the water after you are finished bathing and letting the water drawing in your negativity, always better dispose of the water right after the bath.

Now it's time to learn how to gain energy from the external source. We have already described working with Akasha before, so now let's talk about a more modern method. We will use a chaosphere for means of gaining energy. To do so we need a chaosphere either printed or drawn on a piece of paper. Sit on a chair in a comfortable position and relax your whole body. Chaosphere can be either placed on the table or attached to the wall at your eyes' level. Gaze at the chaosphere and concentrate all your will on it. If any side thoughts appear, simply dismiss them and re-focus on the symbol. Do so for about 20 minutes. Then reach with your hands, placing your palms about 2 inches above the chaosphere. Visualize how the energy is soaking from the chaosphere and entering your body through your arms, feel this process happening. You can also synchronize this process with your breath, for each inhale you draw the energy in and for each exhale you store it in your body, either in your third eye (between your eyebrows) or in the place called hara, about 2 inches below your belly button.

Speaking of hara, there is another useful exercise to remove blockages, strengthen the flow of energy and improve your health. During each inhale expand your stomach instead of your chest and visualize it like you are breathing directly into your hara, feel breathing into your hara. During each exhale let it all go back out. This exercise is a bit harder in the beginning, to make it easier, use your finger to push against hara while breathing to help pinpoint the location and learn this method correctly. Once you learn this method correctly, you can also use it to draw in external energy Simply inhale into hara and while exhaling, when the breath reaches solar plexus, swallow and feel how the energy goes back down into hara, then finish the exhale This method comes from Chi Kung, where there is a belief that the air we breathe contains the energy and via this process you can separate it from the air and store it.

Once we have learned some basic methods  to store energy, we should learn how to use it to charge our sigils. In case of visual sigils it is really simple. All you have to do is to place your hands above your sigil and imagine the energy radiating from your palms and into the sigil while staring at the very same sigil as in focal meditation. Keep doing so for 20 minutes or till you stop feeling the energy radiating from your palms. For a sigil mudra it is a good practice to visualize the energy leaving your body through the hand doing the gesture, being "converted" or programmed with our intention in the process. Same process works for asanas too, but you will most probably want the energy to leave through the top of your head instead. Some people also like to use the third eye chakra for that purpose. When you are using sigil mantras you want to lead the energy from hara to the throat, where it gets programmed with your intention and leaves your body together with the sound, aside that everything is exactly as in the previous description of mantra chanting, your mind should be one syllable ahead your tongue.

It's time to speak a little bit more about the energy model. You could notice that as opposed to the psychology model there is no mention of the psychic censor. The thing is that there is always some filtering mechanism, just now it isn't called the psychic censor. Energy model is, as the name suggests, dependant on the energy work, in how much energy you can gather, program and control, anything in this process being too limited means the result will fail. People usually say that these paradigms are separate and we shouldn't compare them, their differences are the main reason for their distinction. But because I want to teach you about the meta model, too, I think it's good to pinpoint the similarities right in the beginning of our journey.

When we are still within the energy paradigm, it is also good to mention another useful practice: conscious eating. This basically means that any income of food or liquids should be fully conscious and not a mindless task you just do while watching TV. The reason is that the food brings in energy, same goes to water. While eating or drinking we can focus on correct use of the energy. We can focus on storing it, sending it right to the circulation, or we can also concentrate on using the energy from that specific meal to use for a very specific task. This task can be something you normally don't like to do, like washing dishes, housework in general, exercising, or it can be e.g. a sigil charging. To work with energy this way you can e.g. use a simple prayer before eating/drinking or you can touch each bite with the bit of your tongue while  concentrating on your desired goal. Same way it works with water, just remember it usually works better when the water is cold. Another method you can use with water is to place your hands on the water container and concentrate on your goal while visualizing the energy being emitted from your palms right to the water.

Information model

We should speak about the information model now. In this paradigm we work with symbols and their meanings. It is believed that literally everything is consisted of symbols and by manipulating the definition of these symbols we can manipulate the reality. Generally speaking in this paradigm all we have to do is to make a sigil and correctly associate it with its new meaning. Information model partially works with unconsciousness like the psychology model but doesn't consider the energy at all because in this model energy itself is just another set of symbols, another packet of information. There is of course yet another filtering mechanism that makes the association of symbol and its definition hard, but in this case it is quite easy to figure it out. If you observe your mind, you will notice how it works, you have one general thought train that usually gets swayed away in a direction of random thoughts, fantasies, day-dreaming, memory recall, etc. Sometimes you have to do multiple work at the same time and then your thinking patterns change chaotically. This means that in the case of using the information paradigm we need a clean and strong communication channel. In other words we need to get rid of the noise in the channel (side thoughts) and keep using just one main channel (no chaotic thinking patterns).

To reduce the noise we can use a simple zazen meditation practice. Relax your whole body and then start counting your exhales from 1 to 20. There shouldn't be any thinking in the process, only counting. If a side thought appears, simply reset the counting and start all over, if you reach 20 then reset the counting and start all over. Remember that there is no rush, if a side thought appears, it's not failure, there is no reason you should be angry about yourself, just keep counting and resetting the count as needed and the problem will eventually sort itself out, there is no rush in this. After all, if you reach 20 you would reset the counting anyway.

We have described how to get rid of the noise in communication, now we should speak about using just one channel. To practice this choose a simple thought or a field of thoughts, set timer to 10 minutes and during that time think just within this thought pattern. If a side tracking thought appears simply re-focus on the original pattern. For this method it is also a good idea to have some sort of prayer beads so you can use it to count a number of "failures" by moving your fingers on the beads. A string with knots is a good enough tool for this exercise.

I know these exercises can get frustrating from time to time, especially during periods where there is no apparent progress. Just remember there is no rush and even while it seems that you are not moving anywhere, believe me that even then these exercises have some effect, from both occult and mundane perspective. Occult based these exercises will improve your ability to work within the information, energy and spirit models. Mundane wise, you will be much more focused, productive, task oriented and resistant to stress.

Once you have done the basics, it is time to learn about how to associate the symbol with its meaning, how to create this connection between the two. First thing we need for the practice is a symbol for the association. Let's say we create a sigil for happiness. Place the sigil on your mirror or somewhere you will always see it. A mirror in the bathroom is quite usual place as we use it every day for brushing our teeth, shaving, etc. Each time you see the sigil, invoke a feeling of happiness within yourself, what is happiness and how does it feel like? Do this every day for some time and soon it will become automatic, soon each time you see the sigil you will feel happy without any explanation, then you will know you associated the symbol with its definition correctly. If you are done with one emotioin, start with another, it can be fear, anger, lust, love, continue as long as you wish. Btw, if you didn't have any luck with AoD before, this is a good way how to charge it.

Once you get experienced in associating emotions to sigils, you can move to desires. Create your desire statement, sigilize it and just like before, place it on the mirror or somewhere you will see it every day. Each time you see it, invoke the feeling that you've already got what you desire for so much, that you already got what was the purpose of the sigil. Notice that so far in the information paradigm we have spoken only about visual sigils. It is a very good beginning for information model, as it is something we just draw and then focus on it. Once you've got enough efficient with visual sigils, you can go for other types, same rules apply for visual sigils as for sigil mantras, mudras and asanas.