How do you empower your work?

[Vap0rWar3]

Right, so I am new here and I have trolled over the posts, really great stuff, and I decided to ask how you empower your work/will/sigils/etc. There was a really great post by Macrocosm about his ritual space which briefly went into his methodology, and another post that talked about weed, pink floyd, and meditation, so let me open this up with my methodology and I will be greatly looking forward to yours.

First about me, as it is relevant to my methods, I dont sleep. Life can be difficulty for people that dont sleep. I am given a medicine that assist the sleeping process, and I have experimented with it. The substance in question is ambien. Ambien is a psycho-hypnotic, which just down the high consciousness of the brain. That is the part that never shuts off for me. I can resist the sleep effects and if I do I am in a sub-state, no sub-conscious nor unconscious, so for simplicity we will called it altered-state.

Now, Ill leave aside the various tests and applications that allows me to excel in and concentrate on the task at hand. Before the ambien is taken, I set up my ritual space with a few things, depending on what I am trying to accomplish. I have at least three monitors where I will in this example have a sigil prominently displayed. Another monitor will have what ever sound track/patterns/songs I have queued up for the ritual work. Depending on what I might do I might have some standard tools around, incense, lighting etc. Most of my Chaos Magick work has been done solely through the illumination and sounds emitted by the systems in use.

Once the ambien is taken, the ritual begins. I close my eyes and visualize the ever turning mobius strip of universal energy bending through me with each breath I draw in, each exhale I draw out. I concentrate on centering myself, clearing my mind, and clearing the ritual area of stray thoughts, lingering emotions, unfinished tasks, universal baggage, etc. The music begins drawing me deeper and deeper into myself, continuing to will the energy of the universe through me with each breath.

I open my eyes and the prepared screens begin, in this scenario I am working creating a digital servitor, so the prepared sigil representation and the audio/visual input crashes down on me in waves. The sounds of machines, glitching, chirping, shorting out, black and white visuals of shapes and being dissolving. My focus is narrowed like a beam solely on the sigil of the digital servitor, I focus harder than I have ever focused, only that which I wish to embue is embraced in my mind, flowing through me with every breath, the energy, the universe, the will, the shape. This continues, until I drop further into trance, as the slide into gnosis takes me, I battle to keep the shape of my desire forefront, the will is all that is, the target and the desire. I hold this until I cannot continue, time has no meaning, fatigue doesn't register, there is just an ending.

I visualize the sigil embolden, blazing, existing beyond the screen, beyond space and time, and I let it go. This sigil, this digital servitor has rules of engagement, bound to its very essence, that I ensured at its creation.

As the haze recedes, I lower the audio/visual displays, I begin to waken from the gnostic state, I tie off the connection between us, I bid it sleep, and I cleanse the area.

---------------------------------

I feel like I can be doing so much more, and I look forward to your response to see what I can do to further enhance the experience.

[Micr0cosM]

That sounds extremely similar to my technique, in essence.

I have been working mostly with self created sigils and artistic objects which have been based around the sigils or have been inscribed with them. For example a clay crow skull marked with the sigil of a servitor to be used as its physical base.

What I am currently considering is the addition of more corresponding symbolism. I was creating a talisman to be imbued with the energy of elemental Air recently. So I did a load of reading on the symbolism of Air and obtained images and objects and scents that were associated with Air. I set my lights to yellow, I burned lemongrass oil, I surrounded myself with invoking pentagrams of air also in yellow, and had cycling images on my monitors for images of air, with the elemental symbol on my main centre monitor, my tablet displayed the Ace of Swords card. Synchronistically the night of the ritual was a stormy night so I opened my window fully, and ignored the cold. I meditated focusing solely on the sound and sensation of the wind. I created and charged the talisman in that one ritual.

I know that's pretty obvious stuff for most practised magicians but I am still new to this and I have been having good success with my methods so far so it didn't feel necessary, but adding layers of symbolism on top of an already working system definitely adds power to it. Next I intend to add planetary hours to my talisman creation.

A recent post by Desecrated pointed me at Shamanic drumming, so I have been reading a lot about shamanic journeying and I intend to work on that soon and perhaps add some helper entities to my practices.

I mentioned in the post you referenced that I use a mind machine in a ritual setting, I am also thinking you might benefit from one to help you sleep. I find they produce a deep state of relaxation very quickly. If you have an android phone or tablet, check out an app called mindroid, the app is cheap and you can get the glasses for it which are less cheap but work very well and are still waaay cheaper than a dedicated mind machine.

By the way, I love that sigil.

[Cerber]

By the way, I love that sigil.

I find it very attractive as well, not sure way. It reminds of some happy times and places.. [gz]

[inMalkuth]

I dont physically apply my ideas to symbols and I think this is causing me some conflict in observing those that do. We are probably both doing the same thing, except that I dont consecrate an idea int he physical. I let it float around in my head. Apologies to those that avoid this, I find it more stimulating (and probably way more confusing than it needs to be haha)

[Vap0rWar3]

Thank you everyone for your responses. Micr0cosM I will check out the app for sure.

As you mentioned with the use of the crow skull and the shamanistic drumming, I also like to blend in more traditional elements as well as primitive ones. There are times where I step completely away from technology and go minimalist camping. During those times I like to work on more primitive skill sets, basket weaving, vine work, etc etc, and I also like to use those skills in magick work as well.

As to the sigil, it is a Servitor I am working on called 1 0 or Ten for short. The statement of will for 10 is ""Digital Servitor bound by logic, bound by will, constrained from causing harm to that which wields.", with the sigil being based on the magic square for Mercury. Obviously the Servitor is free to use (ha open source). I am working on a much larger sigil which incorporates a desire for fortune, health, mental fortitude/energy, and influence.