What's in your toolbox

[Cerber]

I know it's not very common, nor it's encouraged to expose our selves that much. But there's so few of us here now, so just between us 3 or 4, what's the worst that can happen?


No obligation to answer all the questions, or to answer in detail, or to answer at all.

Do you use any "tools" in your practices? Own making or acquired? Have large collection and constantly looking to add new, or prefer to have fewer less specialised and more versatile set? Any of those are more exotic and/or unusual?

I don't have a lot, and usually prefer crafting my own, where possible. And personally try to keep it as light as I can. Generally I would add something new only if I'd feel I absolutely must.
I don't really have anything super exotic, except maybe perhaps instead of some "banishing wand" I have "sweeping fan"

While it's not all (not even counting oracle/tarot decks) this is probably all I ever work with, at least 80-90% of the time:
(I may or may not remove the picture in a day or two)

[Amor]

I thought I did not use tools but when I think about it there are a few:

- bottles of water stirred both ways (See Rudolf Steiner) to deal with adverse energies on earth lines
https://geopathology.com/geopathic-stress/
https://www.carlessuria.com/en/geobiolo ... rry-lines/

- pendulum, varying the length according the entity with which I am communicating

- various oriental statues to improve feng shui, e.g. a long flat surface

- carefully chosen crystals and volunteer stones to improve my RO water

- bronze bust of Kwan Yin, that when I visualise covering my head, allows me to see a quite different range of entities

- a Blushield device that increased my physical strength within 24 hours with the increase never lost.
https://www.blushield.com.au/product/te ... -portable/
After I had the device for a couple of years, one day while meditating I was out in the galaxy and met a couple of guys that I knew. I showed them the device and they asked if I wanted it upgraded. I agreed they put in a couple of stones that looked like champagne diamonds. When I finished meditation I measured the field (not inverse square) and it had doubled in size.
Much later the distributor of the device indicated that the circuitry in the device is photonic not electronic.

- I have a stuffed toy, black panther with crystal at throat. It glares at me on occasion. I once was offering a workshop and at the display day I had the panther on my table. As people showed interest in the workshop I asked each of them if the panther liked them. Not one said they could not tell. The panther liked about half.

The panther scans a 90 degree arc to the north of me. When its real owner moved south it did not want to go. She knew that and left it with me.

Inner tools

I have a bunch of energy tools that are stored in my spine - like a golf bag. I don't use those much these days but they include a trident, sword, spear, lighted mace, dagger. They are all warlike which is probably why they do not get much use. The trident holds three energies as you might expect - in this case: cosmic water, fire and earth.

Most of my inner work is done through right relationship - although on occasion I have to suck the energy out of various installations/groups in order to obtain their attention and eventually cooperation

[Cerber]

Wasn't really thinking of inner. But I do have some "artefacts", from distant places and times, but not exactly "tools" per se, more like "upgrades", integral parts of inner systems.
On the hand, there are number of "mythical items" (residing somewhere in higher, or lower, non-physical planes) which may or may not respond to my requests for assistance. But those "items", while not exactly a entities by common definitions, are very sentient and with character. And under no obligation to respond or assist. So doesn't exactly count as being "in my toolbox". It's very much depends on their mood on this or that specific day.

[Amor]

- bronze bust of Kwan Yin, that when I visualise covering my head, allows me to see a quite different range of entities

So I was meditating and thought: what are those beings that I see with the bust?

I put on the bust and there they were. I tested them against various kingdoms (nature spirits etc) and they showed up as human - more or less - and seemed to be engaged with management of time paths.

So they showed me 2 timelines touching - connecting a successful Nazi regime (with alien sponsors) with a successful King Arthur period (with alien sponsors). That seemed to me a most unhelpful connection and the guys were working to disconnect them.

So I wondered about this 3D timeline and saw it split into 2 lines about 2024 with the 2 lines only reconnecting about 2100. One of the lines had strong community/cooperative values and the other was rigidly authoritarian.

It seems that there is a pressing choice for Earth humans. To my sight the authoritarian timeline was a bit constrained as if there were some limit put on the energy that path might acquire. That might indicate that the choice is not entirely left to Earth humanity - perhaps a good thing given the current enthusiasm for lockdowns and border closures in many countries that currently have an excess death rate (compared to historical) of close to zero.

[borealis]

Implements I frequently or occasionally use in my practices include:

• A notebook containing various spells and rituals
• The First Pentacle of the Sun
• The First Pentacle of Jupiter
• A bell
• The Headband for use with the Stele of Jeu, made from Papyrus, Myrrh Ink, and Leather Cord
• Archangel Michael Oil
• Censer, charcoal, and Incenses, including Frankincense, Myrrh, and various blends
• A pair of funky purple shutter shades consecrated to neutralize visually-activated magic
• A wand
• A bag of colorful polished rocks
• The Linking Sigil
• A small bookshelf worth of books on magic
• A consecrated turkey feather quill
• Myrrh Ink
• Papyrus sheets
• Mortar and Pestle

[Kath]

Do you use any "tools" in your practices? Own making or acquired? Have large collection and constantly looking to add new, or prefer to have fewer less specialised and more versatile set? Any of those are more exotic and/or unusual?

I used to have "some" tools, I really got away from using them though.
It just got to where they just felt like cumbersome trappings which weren't particularly additive for me.
I also had some nonphysical tools, i guess they'd be considered constructs of sorts. Just some simple things, like a private place, a battery, a warding blueprint, etc. but again, they just felt just cumbersome and not additive after a while. can just make whatever is needed on the fly easy.

That's not to say i dislike tools.

I think the one tool i would find useful would be a journal. But... honestly the verbal-lingual part of my brain is the 'weakest link' so... writing everything down feels very tedious hehe But having a record of impressions and thoughts and experiences, to compare against years later, would be helpful.

[Cerber]

Do you use any "tools" in your practices? Own making or acquired? Have large collection and constantly looking to add new, or prefer to have fewer less specialised and more versatile set? Any of those are more exotic and/or unusual?

I used to have "some" tools, I really got away from using them though.
It just got to where they just felt like cumbersome trappings which weren't particularly additive for me.
I also had some nonphysical tools, i guess they'd be considered constructs of sorts. Just some simple things, like a private place, a battery, a warding blueprint, etc. but again, they just felt just cumbersome and not additive after a while. can just make whatever is needed on the fly easy.

That's not to say i dislike tools.

I think the one tool i would find useful would be a journal. But... honestly the verbal-lingual part of my brain is the 'weakest link' so... writing everything down feels very tedious hehe But having a record of impressions and thoughts and experiences, to compare against years later, would be helpful.

Ah yes - the journal. Some of the main tools I did leave out - pen and paper.
Over the years, I found some "things" does help out quite a bit, than just mind, will, words and thoughts alone. For me at least. But some of those "helpers" aren't really just "things", so it depends.

[Kath]

to quote you from a different thread:
"bothersome (what?) entities which (presumptuous stuff), and instead take on the most efficient form for their environment"

go go gadget screwdriver.

[OneOfFourth]

I don't use any tools. I probably never will, but who knows. I've only just started my esoteric journey.

The reason I'm not keen on using tools is because I'm convinced that everything you can do "magickally" comes from your own mind/subconscious or is interaction with spirits (again made possible by your mind alone). This includes spells, rituals, sigils, physical magick tools, etc. I like to always say to myself "everything is a sigil". To me sigil/magick tool/everything is just a way to activate your subconscious. In my opinion those tools are direct equivalent to quick access key combination / hotkey in computer software. I.e. you click CTRL-V on your keyboard and something gets pasted on screen. Sigils are the same in my opinion: you have created a trigger for your subconscious and the subconscious knows exactly what kind of complex action to perform when you activate that specific trigger.

So instead of creating a sigil, you would make it a physical body gesture + quick specific mental action (a word, phrase, anything goes). This is to ensure it won't happen accidentally. The point is you can do the physical gesture accidentally. You can also do the mental thing accidentally. It's super unlikely you do both at the same time accidentally, thus making it safe.

This in turn means that you can create unlimited amount of "mental sigils" for yourself, which allows you to create all kinds of effects on a whim, whenever you might need them. No more spending minutes/hours preparing a spell. Just embed the "mental sigil" into your subconsicous with visualization and repetition and you should be good to go.

The only reason I could see ever using tools and rituals of anykind, is to commune with spirits. And only if they for some weird reason demand that these rituals and tools must be used or the conjuration wont work. I have very little knowledge about spirits and conjuration in general, so I can't really comment on that much more.

Why beginners have hard time getting rituals to work and experienced occultists can get them to work after couple of tries? My guess is that they already have created such "mental sigils" (subconscious tools/associations) which most rituals are based on. The experienced occultist understands that "this part of the ritual is similar to X from the other rituals, etc." and thus the subconscious is already on its way doing the right thing in that new ritual he/she has never performed before. Thus the experienced occultist gets results and the newbie wont, even thought they seem to be performing the exact same ritual the same way.

[Cerber]

I did too believe it's all the mind, and everything can be achieved with just will and focus of the mind. To an extent I still do believe that.
But as I journeyed further, I start noticing some "strangeness" here and there (strangeness to the my old mindset) which wouldn't fit in to that mindset. I may have ignored or still insist on rationalising my this or that experience using my old mindset, for first, second and 10th time, but after 11th I just accepted the mystery of it.
And now it's kind of..
"Yes I can poke a whole in the wall with my finger or a fork (with some patience), and did do just that once or twice and I'm dedicated member of fingering club. But I tried once or twice that weird thing called electric drill, and it poked a hole like 10 times faster and 10 times deeper, I don't know what's inside it, nor how it works, it's just some weird and heavy thing that makes lots of noise, but I'm using that from now on.. Sorry not sorry"
Does that make sense? lol well kind of, hopefully

[OneOfFourth]

I'll see what I learn in the long run about different uses for tools. Who knows, maybe I also start using some of them.

[Amor]

>maybe I also start using some of them.

Imagine your spine to be like a golf bag. What clubs/tools do you find there?

[Cerber]

People of the physical realm have that strong conditioning of perception, of "tools" as just things to help perform certain task, better or faster. And they see spiritual reality to same prism, to greater or lesser extent. But that's not very accurate. Some "thing" on this side of the veil, might actually be some "one" on the other side.
In other words, what you may see in my or somebody else's "toolbox" - is often only "half of the story". And it's often not the half we share, which spins the wheels, but the half that we don't.

[Kath]

The reason I'm not keen on using tools is because I'm convinced that everything you can do "magickally" comes from your own mind/subconscious or is interaction with spirits (again made possible by your mind alone). This includes spells, rituals, sigils, physical magick tools, etc. I like to always say to myself "everything is a sigil". To me sigil/magick tool/everything is just a way to activate your subconscious. In my opinion those tools are direct equivalent to quick access key combination / hotkey in computer software. I.e. you click CTRL-V on your keyboard and something gets pasted on screen. Sigils are the same in my opinion: you have created a trigger for your subconscious and the subconscious knows exactly what kind of complex action to perform when you activate that specific trigger.
...

This in turn means that you can create unlimited amount of "mental sigils" for yourself, which allows you to create all kinds of effects on a whim, whenever you might need them. No more spending minutes/hours preparing a spell. Just embed the "mental sigil" into your subconsicous with visualization and repetition and you should be good to go.

I do find that I kinda keep a "mental library of 'frames of mind' or consciousness states". As well as a memory of uh, energy signatures would be one way to term it. Actually I keep a mental library of a lot of aspects to working with things.

That I don't use tools in magic isn't necessarily a slight against tools, I think I just lean that way in general with mental tasks. I rarely use a grocery list, and I got to calculus 1 before I "had" to write out my work to keep track of wtf I was doing. I even had an algebra teacher try to flunk me in HS because i didn't write out my work, so in his mind I must have copied my answers. But I pointed out that some of the questions I got right nobody else got right, and he backed off. In a video game called Kerbal Space Program, you design & build spacecraft, and then fly them on various missions in the solar system. It has the tools in the game to carefully calculate everything, so you can end up where you intend to. But I never use the calculations, I just "eyeball it", and it works remarkably well for me, even though it should by all rights be a total disaster doing it that way. Granted it's a video game, there's no millions of dollars or lives on the line. But if I was ever on a spacecraft with broken comms and no computer, i'd actually be in pretty good shape. I guess I don't play the game right, but I more approach it as exercise for my intuitive sense of physics, and enjoy the creative vehicle craftsmanship. Also I don't really understand how people become lost. Not knowing how to get to a desired location (given unknown terrain obstacles) is one thing, but how can someone not know where they are?
TL/DR: i habitually use the wrong tools or no tools, and file-13 the manual as soon as i open a box, not just with magical practice.

But I'm definitely keeping track of variables, states of mind, of consciousness, vibrations, relationships, experiences, ways & means, properties, the feel of things, methodology, models of concept, even multiple conflicting models of concept on the same topic, etc.
Meticulously so.
And often I'm carefully looking for the sort of point at which a series of ideas or facts sort of meld together into an intuitive feel for the larger subject matter, allowing for rapid and intuitively keen reaction times. Sort of the point at which knowledge coalesces into art. Sort of building Escher-like sensibilities up and into Expressionism. Something said by an artist once comes to mind "learn all the rules carefully, so you know how to break them elegantly"