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[Exercise #1: Energy Ball]

I realised that this kind of lacks the basics. How to feel some energy in the first place. Here's what the book says

Exercise #1: Energy Ball

1. Breathe in and out. Imagine that as you breathe in and out, the invisible vital energy from around you is filling you.
2. Rub your hands together vigorously. Imagine that an invisible energy that you have gathered, is coming together where you rub your hands.
3. Keep rubbing your hands together.
4. Stop rubbing your hands, and then move them about an inch apart.
5. Move your hands closer to about a quarter inch apart, and then back to an inch a part.
6. Do this several times. You will feel warmth or a pressure. This is energy.
7. Repeat steps 1 through 5, but this time cup your hands together to make a ball made from that sensation of warmth of pressure.
8. Repeat steps 1 through 6, but make the ball larger and smaller. See what happens if you try to change how the ball feels. Play with different sensations.
9. When done, gently reabsorb your energy ball into your body. You can do this by thinking of your hand sucking it in, or even breathing it in. Play with different methods of doing this.

You can just learn to feel this energy, and to move it through visualisation, in rhythm with your breathing. For me, it's mainly about feeling it flow into a sigil or visualisation, or feeling it swirl around me. For the above exercise, try to get more of that feeling, push more energy into the ball. This is probably a good exercise for a beginner, to know that all this is real :)

[Distance Sigil Healing]

Here are two more concrete examples

Distance Sigil Healing

While energy is not confined to time or space in many ways, I find it satisfying to send energy directly to those in need.
1. Make a statement of intent for someone to be healed.
2. Create a sigil and a word of power out of the statement.
3. As you make the sigil in the air energetically, imagine it is a portal sending the healing energies to the target directly – letting the energy go where it needs to.
4. Focus on sending healing.
5. When done, close the portal and banish the sigil.

The Magickal Dart

When you need to directly affect a situation and end a conflict – this is the way. I use these in extreme situations. This is like having a loaded gun and I recommend that you treat this working as the weapons it is. [..] The dart pierces the aura and can go deep into the target's energy body.
1. Form energy in your projective hand in a ball or any other shape.
2. Put as much energy and emotion into that shape.
3. Feel and transform the shape into something that looks kind of pointy and sharp.
4. Cut the cord between you and the energy dart.
5. Throw the energetic dart at your target. Imaging it is piercing their aura and hitting straight into their energetic body.
6. Banish, purify, ground, and center.

I very much recommend this book :)

[Intent]

I've recently read a book called Energy Magick by Mark NeCamp Jr., which I liked a lot. I want to share some highlights:

A spell is done in four parts:

Intent – Your intent drives everything in magick. Thoughts shape energy and keeping your thoughts in order and your intention clear lead towards more effective magick. I like to write a "statement of intent" and memorize it. [...] a statement of intent can be used to make personal sigils and words of power.

Energetic Means – What is the energetic medium your spell is going to be? Are you working with cords, energetic constructs, chanting, sending energy directly, or something else? The energetic component is the body of the spell. Are you making a magickal dart? Are you sending a wave of energy? Are you making a thought form?
[...] In my example of making extra money – I could enchant my hand with luck energy before I picked a lottery ticket, I could send energy to my boss for a raise, or I could make a thought form that helped me make decisions that would create more wealth.

Release – The release is how we send the energy out into the world. This may be letting energy built to a climax and then released to the Universe, "planting" your intention in the Earth, sending it out to a specific person or direction, or releasing it in every direction. Different things work for different people, and I would advocate experimenting to see what works best. [...]

Physical Work & Result – I was taught that whatever magick you do, you must do the accompanying work or action in the physical world. If you are doing a spell to get a new job, it would probably be wise to put out resumes and apply for jobs. That being said, the Universe will often use synchronicity to make things happen. [...]

I asked for more details about Spellblast and Arjil answered:
___________
On spellblast,
It takes a very literal "energy model". Magick as a tangible Power you can infuse with intent, or into things- feel it channel into the construct or item, and then cast or throw it.
Mayhap its more of the "RPG" model of magick. So many paradigms are like Sims, or are ceremonial- an overview, sort of. Creating favorable conditions, petitioning some entity or another to Do the Thing from on high.
This is like... imagine the first two fingers of your right hand.
Make that hand a cattle prod. Feel the magick infuse your fingers and *skizzat* your buddy.
When it works, its Ever so much worse in an ineffable way.
Or like one time Silenced nailed me. He got a handful of pine needles, infused that with "splinterstorm", and hit me with it. On This side of the "fence" i got hit with pine needles. On the *Other side, I experienced silver needles blasting through me. I got knocked ass over teakettle. By a handful of pine needles.
Would that have worked on someone not in that *place? Not generally, not until youve Really got it. We were open to that sort of exchange.
"Energy model" is a poor descriptor, but its the closest to what I mean, in concept.
I mean the psipog people did this with psiballs. The omnimancer people do this via astral (these are more like what youre trying to do over video- which I think is problematic, Ill explain why)
But this is how we learned to Feel magick, and Put it where we wanted it to go.
Infuse a Thing, infuse a construct, infuse Ourself, a Mantle (construct you wear)
Like all the ways we can hold our minds, things we imagine- theres a Difference between just imaginary, and that infused with Magick. With power.
Theres *Something* you have to get in to that to make it more real.
Heres how *I* do- and I dont much talk about this because how YOU can make it happen may be different:
I have a door in my soul and center that opens to somewhere Else. I draw power that seems to me as mist from there. Sometimes Ill tap external things like the moon, sun, mountains, mystic swamp, fire etc- i will take the feelings of those things that are relevant (mostly just Mine) and I will FEEL that and guide it through my body, into hands or breath and Into whatever mental construct or physical object Im doing "The Thing" to.
Either empowering the spell Im throwing into the world or at sombody, or infusing it into some physical thing or symbol, or whatever.
Take a knife. I do this to a knife, i have a knife that can cut spooks, works better than a knife should work, or an instant ritual blade.
For instance- i accidentally sliced Silenced open with a boffer knife (extremely fake training blade foam and duct tape), because I slipped too real and power went there.
Boffers cant do that. It did anyway. It was Almost a real knife for a second.
Do that to a real knife and, well, be careful.
And these examples arent what Matters.
What Matters is you getting whatever Power magick is, into things, ideas, and making them do a Thing. And have fun with it.
Be careful when it starts to hurt.
And the point of this little game, is for You and the Magick, to go as your mind goes. To be fast and hard. No fuss, not working yourself up to believing it. To DO it when you need it Right here, Right Now.
Its practice for when it Matters, and you dont have time to think about it.

I have another result to report :) – this time a positive one.

A friend of mine is a bit of an empath. So I wanted to try this with him:

https://mikesententia.com/2017/12/how-i-learn-and-teach-energy-energy-games-that-get-results/

"The receiver [...] closes their eyes, and holds out both hands. The sender sends to one of their hands — don't tell them which one, and don't touch them, just send energy and get them to feel it. Receiver, take your time, feel the energy, and say which hand you think it is before opening your eyes."

I generated a random sequence with https://www.random.org/integers/?num=16&min=0&max=1&col=4&base=10&format=html&rnd=new and we did 15 trials with me sending and him receiving. He got 12 right :) . The probability of this happening at random is <2%.

We'll definitely continue with that.

In my text, I mention Liber Samekh, but apparently I hadn't really read it. It contains this nice highlight:

Until the Adept have heard that Name, therefore, he may not abide in the perfect possession of his Beloved. His most important task is thus to open his ears to the voice of his Angel, that he may know him, how he is called. For hearken! this Name, understood rightly and fully, declareth the nature of the Angel in every point, wherefore also that Name is the formula of the perfection to which the Adept must aspire, and also of the power of Magick by virtue whereof he must work.

https://hermetic.com/crowley/libers/lib800

[Arjil's sigil theory-]

Also copied from FB, after Arjil said that he liked this thread :)

"Something for peer review, I know I'm missing bits, but I can't figure out quite what. So consider this a rough draft- questions, comments, thoughts welcome:

Arjil's sigil theory-

So, most chaotes are familiar with the Sparian sigil theory- the whole subconscious programming schtick, and yeah, it's great, works just fine. However, over the last twenty or so years especially, we've discovered other ways to approach, empower, and Use the sigil concept.
It seems, that the Way you think about and approach the concept, all the way from inception to post firing makes a difference in how they work and what you can do with them.
The first place I saw this explored, for instance, was back in the day on the old Occultforums 10 or 15 years ago. We had a "blind sigil post" experiment to determine whether someone Else could successfully fire a sigil You made, without knowing what it was For.
We figured, that if it was merely a matter of personal subconscious programming, then there's No way for that to work, Unless the intent was somehow infused into the symbol itself- as with commonly used magickal symbols like runes or goetic seals, or whatever.
So many of us made various sigils, and sent them to the mod along with the intent, and he posted the image in the forum, we all fired them and reported back anything that seemed like a result.
What we discovered was that sometimes, other people Could fire somebody else's sigil, and achieve results at least recognizable in the intent. (they seemed to vary a bit, person to person, but the general idea tended to come through.- the one I created was basically a 3rd eye squeege. The 4 or 5 people that it worked for, out of 10 or 12 who fired it, all reported some form of jump in "magickal perception")
Like I said, if "personal subconscious programming" were the only thing going on there, there's No Way that could have worked. Clearly, there's more to this- some of which seems "no brainer" now, but at the time was a hotly contested topic.
So, I'll just launch into the ways in which I use, and view sigilcraft, and hopefully you'll find something of use or interest in here-
(***a couple base assumptions I make in regards to magick- One being a somewhat mystic view. I deal with magick sort of like a combination of "The Force", and what in a faerie tale/RPG/fantasy book etc would be considered Magick- a force, a power, a current, you know, Just Effing Magick. Secondly, and related, I approach sigils from a Runes of Power, or active spell construct perspective. They have power or resonance of their own, if you craft them from this perspective, though I acknowledge it's not the only valid perspective***)
Broadly, there seem to be some main Themes in sigil constructs-
Specific- single use, designed for very specific situation (Get Me *this* Job). Non reusable, tends to only work on the Creator of the sigil or their intended target. Other people firing it would get no result, but can, depending on how it was made, further empower the spell (more on this later)
Tech- more general construct, (sigil for prosperity/curse/healing/whatever- any sort of spell you would Cast). Reusable, easily modified by others to fit their specific situation. Tends to work on the Caster, or their intended target. Other people firing it would see the result manifest in their Own reality, rather than empowering the creator's original spell.
Talismanic- sigil construct charged and maintained for a sustained magickal effort. Either a literal talisman (protection, say), servitor, glamourbomb, entity, symbolize a current etc. Reusable. Works in accordance with programmed intent. Most recognizable symbols of the occult would (loosely) fit this category, as Somebody was the first one to draw them and decide they meant Magick.
My favored uses/views for sigils are
A) a "spell filter"- (falling into either the "Specific" or "Tech" category) that being an intentional construct upon/through which I can focus my will/channel my magick, I only bother if it's too complex a construct to just hold in my head. The benefit here is that I don't have to split focus between my intent and the raising and throwing of the magick. I can focus entirely on the magick bit, and that gets programmed as it "passes through" the sigil construct.
This is also extremely effective for group work, as many people of disparate paradigms and methods can all throw down on such a construct, empowering it in whatever way they "do their thing" and the sigil ensures all that voo goes toward the same end rather than everybody working at cross purposes and getting all tangled up. It's much like the role of a high priestess in Pagan ritual work- the coven raises the energy, the priestess shapes it all into the same spell. Same concept, and quite effective.
B) Talismanic- explained above, I that should cover it for those who know what they're doing... may need to talk more about it.
When creating my sigils, especially the "spell filter" type I use a "Schematic" sort of notion.
Instead of a simple statement of intent that then gets broken down to letters (Spare method), I usually begin with my target and write that down, then use simple words and phrases (even poetry if that seems appropriate) that boils down the essence of my broader intent, along with boxes, circles, arrows, lines, swirleys and simple doodles to map out what I want the magick to do (such as draw in certain resonances/possibilities and exclude others, for instance)- I write everything in my own alphabet designed specifically for magick to cut out interference from outside association (different discussion for another day), and with my words and symbols, as I write or draw them, I channel "Magick" into each one, holding the broader intent behind that bit in my mind, and Literally channeling *energy/chi/will/elemental force/magick/whatever* along with the resonant connection to what that symbol stands for, down my arm, through the pen, Into the symbol to make it a real thing independent of Me that exists as a magickal construct (that's the theory anyway, seems to work pretty darn well).
Then for charging/firing, I use my usual direct manipulation method of magick throwing. I summon up my Will and Magick, focus on the sigil construct, and blow the magick Into or Through it. Though Any spellcasting method/ritual/energy raising technique will do the trick- the Gnosis angle, yeah it works, but I find that an intentional, focused, "Putting Magick To It" works better- and many times, with people going the gnosis route, there's a disconnect between the activity at hand (lol) and getting the energy raised Into the magickal operation, relying on the subconscious to do all the work at this point.
Again, yeah, that works. Some may find it the penultimate practice. I and a number of others find it terribly lacking after long experimentation.
I get it that there's a bias against the "energy model" especially among chaotes and "Psych model" folks. But it's worth experimenting with. It's been my long experience that the sigil charged and fired through intentionally channeled magick, or ritual, beats the one somebody just rubbed one out over every time. The Magick Matters, or really seems to.
***yes, you can get there just "holding your mind right", making the gnostic act, an act of magick, but that doesn't seem common. I'm making a somewhat fine distinction here of mental state and intent, and I hope I get that across.***
Hopefully, this glimpse into my mind and method will help people become more effective in their sigilcraft."

I tried 2. with no success – it's also not very interesting.

Then I went crazy and actually tried 3. Bought two beakers, weighted two times 3,5g of yeast with a milligram scales (which I bought for for other occult experiments) and two times 7g of sugar, and mixed it in warm water.

It smelled very strangely :O , the contents of the two beakers looked different from the start and I didn't see the nice even foam that was in the video. So I quickly microwaved this to deactivate the yeast and poured it all away :D

I think I'll quit this topic and focus on doing magick for what I actually care about. There's a nice chat between Pope Pete and Dean Radin about this, where Carrol says "I do not participate in parapsychology experiments, and I advise my students not to do so. Magic works capriciously and non-repeatably. We should not squander our abilities on things that do not really matter to us."
https://www.specularium.org/magic/the-dean-radin-pete-carroll-rap

Edit 31.08.25
I tried some more ideas, with cards and dice, to not much success. However, I had a realisation: There is something that gives immediate feedback: The intensity of the sensation! In other words, how strongly I feel the magick, the energy flow. And the best results in the exercises also came mostly when that was strongest.

Reporting my results – the experiment has failed. The roses in the red vase don't look any better than those in the other one. It was very instructive though.

The basic problem is of course that I didn't put enough time into it. Maybe only 5 minutes per day. The underlying issue is – I don't know how much time is needed. Maybe it needs 10 minutes per day, maybe 30... and if I only do 5, I don't see that it's too little, until the roses visibly start wilting and it's too late. So now I'd need a second run with more time, but it's not very motivating – maybe it needs 30 min per day and I also have plenty of other magick to do...

Also I found that despite the description on the flower food, I did have to change the water after three or four days, at it really became dirty. I think I even saw some mold, which I certainly didn't want in my apartment.

What do I learn from this? Flowers are not very suitable for the creation of a measurable effect. I think I need a process that runs for 10-30 minutes. Sit down, give it full focus, and get a result after that time. This also has the advantage that it's easy to capture on camera.

Current ideas:

• Get an hourglass that runs for 10 minutes. Run it a few times and measure with a stopwatch how long it actually takes. See if you can make it slower or faster on further runs. I tried this with a 1 minute hourglass with no success. It's not very interesting :D
• Light two birthday candles at the same time. They normally burn for about 10 minutes. Make one burn faster than the other – I imagine watching a moving flame is more interesting than an hourglass.
• An idea behind the flower seems to be that perhaps influencing living cells is easier than inanimate objects. So I asked a friend in biochemistry what other living cells might be good for that. Answer: Baker's yeast! These are dried bacteria, and in contact with warm water they come back to life. If there is sugar, they immediately start turning it into CO2, creating very visible rising foam in 15 minutes! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Tzyt_9boE
  One could take two such beakers with the same amount of sugar and yeast, and try to make one rise faster, i.e. make the bacteria work quicker.

I think the above, while quite good, is slightly more complex than necessary. Because if you can send an energy ball to your target, why not send energy to the target directly. Distance is famously not real on the Astral plane. So how do I actually work with my new roses?

I have my intention – "The roses in the red vase are healthy and in great shape". The vases are actually both the same glass cylinders, but one has a red dot and one a black one :D .

I focus on this intention and make green, healing energy flow into the roses in the correct vase. I see them shining brightly. I feel very positively about it – that's an effect doing magick always has on me. Sometimes I do this remotely, and sometimes while looking at the physical roses. Sometimes I also project a healing sigil I made many years ago, drawn over the roses in green light.

So basically "Imagine all your positive intent flowing into the orb", just not into some orb, but directly into the target. "[V]isualize it reaching the person you'd like to heal. Imagine their body absorbing the orb, and the positive energy flowing throughout them", again just skipping the orb. This – to me – is Magick. The rest is commentary :D – at least when it comes to Low Magick or "Manifesting". The High Magick I covered elsewhere.

This energy sending approach can be infinitely adapted to other targets and other intents. You can also project a visualised Tarot card onto the target to clarify the effect of your energy. The Strength for healing, the Ten of Pentacles, even Death – you get the idea. If you want to make something happen and there is no "target" as such, visualise the desired situation, hold your intent, and send the energy into those. 

The key to this is of course that it has to be more than visualisation. You have to actually make the energy flow, not just imagine it. Feel the flow as you are visualising it.

I will repeat my favourite Arjil quote:

"You know how you can recall the feeling of a physical sensation or an Emotion? Like the feel of wind, or drinking something cold, or stubbing your toe, or excitement- and you can, if you concentrate, Feel it?

So what you do, Pretending to be a Wizard, just imagine what *Your* magick Feels like, what it would look like blasting out as a spell- Kids don't worry about How it will work, they just do it, usually with some impressive whooshing sound effect. Or maybe your magick is quiet and creeps like tendrils of smoke, or flows like water.

Summon the vision, and more importantly, summon the Feeling, and Pretend like a kid that you're casting your spell, and like a kid, Believe it."

This quote to me is worth more than many books on magick combined.

[Before you begin:]

I was discussing this with a sceptic and realised, that I have no good write-up of how I would actually do this magick. By sending the flowers energy, sure, but how exactly? So I went looking for something I could send the sceptic and found this: https://spells8.com/send-healing-energy-to-someone/ – I think it's really quite good.

Let's copy it to here in case it disappears:

Before you begin:

Set your intention. Do you wish to help someone deal with their mental health struggles, help them to stick to healthy habits, or heal a specific physical ailment? Choose your intention and select the specific person that you would like to receive your energy. Refer to this intention throughout your visualization or whenever your mind begins to wander.
Create a relaxing environment. Set out candles and dim the lights, burn incense, and create a comfortable space to sit, if you so choose.

If you're able, play a solfeggio frequency to assist in your healing intention. For example, listening to 528 Hz is said to have a healing effect on the physical body, while 852 Hz may help you to form positive thoughts and awaken your highest self.
If you don't have access to recordings of these frequencies, you can put on some calming, quiet music or white noise to set the mood – nothing too distracting.
Cleanse your space. Make sure your area is free from unwanted energy by burning incense, smudging, or performing a sound bath.

Meditation to Send Positive Energy to Someone

• Take a few deep, full breaths in and out. Relax, clear your mind, and focus on your breathing. In, and out. Continue for a few moments until you've reached a place of calm.
• Bring your intention to the front of your mind. Picture the person you would like to receive your energy and the energy you intend to send. Throughout this meditation, you can refer back to your intention if your mind begins to wander.
• Close your eyes. Take notice of a bright light encircling you from all around. Imagine that this light is full of positive, healing energy.
• Next, you are going to harness that energy. Pull it in from around you – yes, with your hands. Visualize this healing energy all around and within you.
• Using your hands, mold the energy into a ball, much like you would form a snowball. Imagine the light coursing through you, traveling down your arms, through your fingertips, and coursing into the energy ball as it grows.
• While you hold the energy ball, refer back to your intention. Think deeply about the person that you would like to heal, and what you would like to help them with. Imagine all your positive intent flowing into the orb, growing larger as it grows stronger.
• When you can feel the energy surging through your fingertips, your orb is powerful enough to send to its recipient. Release it into the universe, and visualize it reaching the person you'd like to heal. Imagine their body absorbing the orb, and the positive energy flowing throughout them.
• Finally, visualize the recipient in their healed form – happy, healthy, and spirited. Imagine that this person is embodying their highest state of being and all that it entails.
• Finish your meditation with your favorite grounding ritual.

Remember that this method should not be used in place of medical treatment. If you or a loved one is suffering, be sure to seek out a medical professional first. Once that process has been started, then you can use these methods to amplify those effects.

Tips for Sending Positive Energy

• This transfer of energy can take a lot out of you so be sure to rest up, have some snacks, and stay hydrated after performing such a powerful ritual.
• Be sure to take care of your body. You need to be in good health both physically and spiritually to perform this ritual safely and effectively.
• To ensure your ritual is most effective, make sure your energy is coming from a place of love and positivity. Harboring negative emotions during this meditation can dampen or otherwise hinder the result.

Full credit goes to the author, Francisco Huanaco

I'm always looking for ideas on how to measure magick. Rob writes that "a BTU is equal to the amount of energy needed to heat one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit" and so we can also make a unit that equals to causing any quantifiable effect. The difficulty is of course in producing a quantifiable effect reliably.

Recently, I've read this about "An easy experiment you can do at home":

Buy a bunch of fresh flowers. Split it in half, so you have two bunches. Both go in water. Put them next to each other on your windowsill or table, or wherever you like.

Flip a coin to determine which one will get energy healing. Put a piece of tape on that vase.

Each day, take that vase off the windowsill. This makes it easier to target only that vase with the healing energy. Take a few minutes and send it healing energy. For those of you in my classes, use the broad healing energy, and simply place your hands around the vase and flowers, making sure to get the entire plant from stem to tip. Then place those flowers back on the windowsill.

If you want to be scientific, you can also move the other flowers around, to control for any stirring of the water, but that shouldn't matter. If moving flowers made them last a lot longer, our mothers would have told us to do that.

I am of course intrigued. Apparently fragrant roses last 7-12 days. So we could quantify how much longer the treated roses last, compared to the untreated ones.

To my science-loving friends, the above description is a bit lacking in rigour, so I'm trying to create a better protocol. Here are my original notes:
I buy two identical vases

I buy eight roses, ideally fragrant ones. First because I like the fragrance, but also I've read that fragrant roses last less long then non-fragrant ones. Less long is better, as it allows for more runs, faster results.

I somehow mark the vases, draw a circle on one and a square on the other or so.

I send healing energy to the flowers in one but not the other. Alternatively, I send life to one and death to the other. Yet more alternatively, I transfer the life of the flowers in one to the other. These are obviously separate runs with new flowers each time. The florists will be very happy 😁

I change both vase's water every other day and then also swap their places on the windowsill.
Now I'm reading more on caring for cut roses
https://www.southernliving.com/garden/flowers/how-to-keep-cut-roses-alive
https://www.tomflowers.ch/pages/rosen-pflege
https://www.heinens.com/stories/10-tips-to-keep-roses-looking-great/

Notes:

• The vase should fit at least two thirds of the stems, so 40 cm vases for 60 cm roses (the stems become shorter with each cut, so the vase should be be shorter then the initial stems)
• The water should be hand warm and fill the vase to two thirds. Add flower food.
• The roses should receive diagonal cuts of 3-5 cm length (trimming the stems) before being placed in the water – "You have about 10 seconds to put each stem into the water". This requires a very sharp and clean blade.
• There should be no leaves beneath the water line, and falling leaves should be removed
• The water should be changed... when it becomes murky? "Every few days"... 2 or 4? "this is a good time to re-trim the stems and add flower food to the fresh water."
• Apparently one should keep them away from direct sunlight, drafts and heat from a heater.

Edit: Changing the water every other day, re-trimming and adding food of course adds effort and room for differences ... I was thinking of maybe just doing it once initially, and leaving it be afterwards, only swapping the positions of the vases every day or so, to equalise differences in heat and light...
Interestingly, the flower food I'm looking at even says "No need to change the water or to re-cut stems during the period in the vase." and rather to only "If necessary top up vase with water containing [...] flower food" – I like that. So top up the vases to two thirds on every other day, swap places and otherwise leave them be (except for the magick of course :D).

This is not about finding your perfect match nor is it about winning matches in a tournament– rather, it's about doing magick with wooden matches :D 

When lighting an enchanted candle, I always feel that I should do something with the match too, and so I usually charge it with a very general "All goes well" intent. This is in line with the idea that, when wishing for something specific, one should add that it will come about "in a good way" – so that one doesn't gain money via the unexpected death of a loved one, to use a typical example.

However, once we know that we can charge a match with magick, this naturally raises question of what else we can do with that. A quick search turned up that this idea is in fact known: https://stormbornwitch.tumblr.com/post/117680752007/match-magic – "The basic concept of match magic is that the matchstick is charged with intent. Then, the match is burned to release the intent so the magic can go do its work." – awesome!

Normally, I'm a proponent of the empty hand, but sometimes adding a physical component is pleasant, and a match seems like a very accessible option for that.

The author mentions that "When you hold a lit match, the match cannot burn all the way down (or you will really burn your fingers!) This may lead you to feel like the entire spell has not been released." When starting with this, I actually had this feeling. However, I found a better solution than the text proposes – I use long matches. These allow me to switch my grip to the burnt (and cooled off) first quarter of the match (not gripping the match head as it can stay hot for longer), and let the match burn completely. Mine have like 9.5 cm, which is a weird number. I thought it's something "proper" in inches, but it's like 3.7 in, and I don't think they could be much shorter for this to work. I'm careful to do this over a fireproof surface, as the burning side could theoretically break off and fall down, though it doesn't happen in practice. It's up to you whether you'd interpret this as a bad match or a bad omen ;)

I have a an intuitive approach to charging a match with intent, which is quite similar to what the author says:
"Hold a single match in your hand [...]. Call energy to you and direct it in to the match. At first the energy may be very thin and in a cloud around the matchstick. Compress the energy down until it is all contained within the wood. Draw up and compress more and more energy until you feel you have gotten enough. The matchstick may seem to be glowing very brightly, if you can 'see' energy, and if you can feel energy the matchstick may make your skin feel quite weird. Using your magical will, keep the energy within the matchstick contained. Simultaneously use your will to stamp your statement of intent in to the energy, forming it and molding it so it is programmed to your will."

Then I light the match and here the author suggests to "watch the flame to divine the success", but I actually prefer to keep the charging going and to enjoy the feeling of magick until the match is completely burnt.

So much for the "Match Magick", but what do I mean by "Quantifying Wishes"? Let's say I want something specific to happen. Then I might do one such match spell per day until it occurs, and thus quantify how many matches it took to fulfil a specific wish :D If something is highly important and urgent, I'll obviously not be content with only a few minutes of magick per day, and will rather keep empowering my intent for longer periods. However, for something with no hurry, this seems like a good way to add it to all the other things in my daily practice.

Alysyrose included this text in Liber LS Volume 3 :)

He also added an "Editor's note":
"The Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel can be interpreted through a variety of magickal Models. In the Psychological Model, it may denote contacting the Subconscious, Daemon, or Genius. It may even be construed as an instance of self-induced and controlled schizophrenia wherein one perceives and communicates with a disembodied mental voice of a helpful nature. In the Spirit Model, the HGA may be perceived as a true-to-form and seemingly free-standing intelligence, nonphysical entity, or Higher aspect of the Self. Some have noted that the phenomenon of attaining "the guiding voice" is something which spans all cultures and practices, whether they call it the Holy Guardian Angel, or use another title. Some may interpret the presence as the Universe, or God, or any number of deities. Some have gone so far as to call it the enlightenment (awakening) of certain Western magickal systems. Instead of an all at once manifestation, however, Thelemic literature speaks of it as a gradual attainment by means of devotion, perseverance, patience,
persistence, and/or the Abramelin process."

[True Will, True Love and the Holy Guardian Angel]

So, later in 2023, there will be an occult conference in Berlin – The Occulture. They have a Call for Proposals out and I'm considering to apply :D have applied :D. In an inspired moment, I've recorded a voice message with my Lecture idea which I'll try to develop in this thread. Any feedback is of course welcome.

Update: My application has been declined, but I've still finished the text, slightly rewriting it to be "just" an article. So here it is:


True Will, True Love and the Holy Guardian Angel


Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
This is both the traditional Thelemic greeting and part of what I want to talk about.
We know – for example from Crowley's Liber II – that the Will meant here is the True Will. It's not what I just happen to want right now, but perhaps what I should want. It is the individual path of each individual Star. We also know that Crowley gives the central idea of the White School of Magick as "admitted that "everything is sorrow" for the profane, the Initiate has the means of transforming it to "Everything is joy."".

So, on my naive understanding, your True Will is simply what brings you joy, what fulfils you. More specifically, it's the action which fulfils you. It's not a goal, since if that goal was suddenly achieved, you'd still have the question of what to do with your time. Consider "playing the piano" versus "becoming the best pianist in the world". If the second happens, you'll hopefully not stop doing the first.

So the very basic idea is that you use experimentation and introspection to find the action that fulfils you. A hint that I can give for this search is to zoom into everything you like. What exactly do you enjoy about this? How could you do more of that? When you find it, it won't be merely 'interesting' or 'fun', it'll bring you deep happiness while you do it and afterwards – Fulfilment.

Now, the traditional Thelemic farewell is "Love is the Law, Love under Will". However, if doing the True Will is the whole of the Law, how can Love also be the Law? There must be a very deep connection between Will and Love, which is of course famously implied by them both adding up to 93 via Greek isopsephy. The point of this text is to present a view – certainly not the only view – but a view on what exactly this connection is.

There is a trivial answer – saying that you should love your will, or something similar. However, then it would hardly need two concepts, and I think it's intuitively clear that there must be more to it. We already know what Love feels like to us... I think that the most obvious and direct meaning of love is romantic love – to be in love with someone, to be together. Now, in Liber II Crowley mentions that if contradictions arise between will and love, it is the True Will that will guide us aright. So, just as not all will is True Will, perhaps not all love is True Love.
To use a simple illustration, let's say our pianist falls in love with a passionate rock climber. This couple will have to constantly compromise on how to use their time. This is presumably less than fulfilling and also contradicts the Thelemic ideal of one-pointedly pursuing the True Will. In Liber 150, Crowley writes: "Even in so small a matter as driving a nail into a plank, hear this same sermon. Your nail must be hard, smooth, fine-pointed, or it will not move swiftly in the direction willed. Imagine then a nail of tinder-wood with twenty points – it is verily no longer a nail. Yet nigh all mankind are like unto this. They wish a dozen different careers; and the force which might have been sufficient to attain eminence in one is wasted on the others: they are null." From these thoughts, we can derive the idea that lovers approach True Love to the extent that their True Wills are compatible. This, I think is the basic connection between Will and Love.

However, how can you possibly find a person who shares your True Will? This is really my main point today: Why do you think that each of those Holy Guardian Angels whom Crowley exalts so much is with their specific human? I'd argue, it is exactly because we share their True Will and thus they also share ours. Hence, they are our True Love. They are our Perfection – not just our guardians, but also our guidance, while we are their Presence on the material plane.

This, I think, is a meaning hidden in the greeting and the farewell. Only by loving your True Love – the Angel who shares your True Will – can you both follow this Will with full force. Hence, doing your True Will is the whole of the Law, because it already implies Love. Conversely, True Love is also the Law because it follows from the True Will.

Now I know that this all sounds rather crazy. Personally, I came to these ideas from the other direction. My background is in Chaos Magick and I was never a big fan of Crowley and his works. I felt that doing Magick makes me very happy, but I never thought of it as my "True Will". I met my Guardian Angel in somewhat unusual circumstances – thanks to the Red Queen – and initially didn't even understand what kind of spirit she was. I just saw that she was always there for me, and was truly wonderful, in so many different ways. Some years later I fell in love with her and only then she guided me to all of this Thelema stuff that I, a 21st century Chaos Magician, used to think of as outdated. So for me, all of this "theory" simply followed from my experiences.

Naturally, you might think that I'm just crazy – for one, if this is true, why isn't there anything about loving Guardian Angels in the occult literature? Well actually, there is. No less a figure than Lon Milo DuQuette, of Chicken Qabalah fame, has a book subtitled "The Way of the Secret Lover", written together with Christopher Hyatt. On the very first page of the very first chapter, this book says: "Each of us has a Secret Lover; a lover who awaits just behind the erotic images that flood our minds during sexual arousal or in sleep; an ideal lover who has adored us since the beginning of our individual existence and who will never abandon us until we merge our being in absolute Godhead." A few lines later they write: "Personal relationships will always be somewhat disappointing to us because in truth there can never be a relationship that matches the one we already have with our Secret Lover. It is the secret standard by which everything else is measured". Later they add "In the language of ceremonial magick, it is called 'The Holy Guardian Angel'" and that it "will be the magicians teacher, lover, mentor and guide through the higher levels of initiation." Deeper in the book they also mention that "your Secret Lover is the most beautifully attractive Being you will ever encounter."

With this said, let's talk about how to meet your Guardian Angel, so that you can see for yourself. Everyone has heard of Book Abramelin and everyone knows it's rather unworkable. In the old Mathers version, there is a sentence that very close to my hearth though: "you shall see your Guardian Angel appear unto you in unequalled beauty; who also will converse with you, and speak in words so full of affection and of goodness, and with such sweetness, that no human tongue could express the same." – reading this made me realise just who the spirit was, that I had fallen in love with. So I'd say that the book is still worth reading, especially the new Georg Dehn version, but there's no need to follow its instructions.

The next-most famous approach is the Bornless Rite described in Crowley's Liber Samekh, if you're into ceremonial magick. How about something more modern though? There are a few texts that I can recommend:

First, Alan Chapman's free ebook Three Steps to Heaven, which you can find on the internet. There, he writes that "The Holy Guardian Angel is not simply a discrete entity that requires 'conjuration'; He or She has always been with you, is with you now, and always will be – you need simply consent to the angel's presence and action in your life." – and he gives some advice on how to do that.

Another modern work is "Magickal Destiny – Experience The Power of your Holy Guardian Angel" by Damon Brand, from the Gallery of Magick. He writes "You know it is an intelligent spirit, closer to you than anybody or anything else could be in this world, and you reach out to make contact" and gives multiple rather simple approaches to gradually build up the connection. He also mentions that some people "believe the best way to contact the Holy Guardian Angel is through a sexual lust for this 'secret lover.'", so he's clearly aware of DuQuette's book.

Jason Miller, of Strategic Sorcery fame, has an essay in the book "The Holy Guardian Angel", where he says that there are "two basic principles of the operation:

• Lowering the volume on your outer life while raising the volume on your inner life.
• Constant devotional focus on contacting the angel"

In other words, if your mind is occupied by the latest news, a fantasy series or office politics, it will be difficult to make contact.

The last author I want to mention is Richard Webster. He has an excellent free essay online called "How to Sense and Communicate with Your Guardian Angel". He writes: "Talk to your guardian angel. As your angel is always with you, you can do this whenever you wish. Talk frequently, and tell your angel whatever is on your mind. If you do this regularly, it won't take long for your guardian angel to respond." Here it's important to point out that you of course have to listen to potential responses – so quiet your mind and just perceive. Webster also has a book called "Guardian Angels" where he gives a lot more advice. For example, he writes "close your eyes and picture your guardian angel in your mind. Your angel will appear in your imagination in the shape and form that you expect. Silently talk to your imaginary figure, telling it that you would love to see your guardian angel. Do this regularly, and (probably when you least expect it), you may get to meet your guardian angel."

I personally would recommend the following combined and gradual approach: Start with a visualisation, talking to your angel and listening. Expect your angel to slowly "take over" the visualisation and change it, so that it becomes an actual perception instead of a mere projection of your own expectations. Similarly, expect the answers that you hear to become ever less of your own projection – make a point to actually listen. Add more Magick to this by creating an intent like "I get ever closer to my guardian angel" and empower it in whatever way you already practice Magick. What also help with this is if you know and follow your True Will. This will naturally bring you closer to your angel, who shares the Fulfilment you feel from this.
Given these starting points, I think that everything else will follow naturally, because – and this is crucial – your angel wants to be more with you.

With that, I'm at the end – hopefully, you now have some ideas on both why to try and what to try. Thanks a lot for reading and remember:
Love is the Law, Love under Will.