Servitors

 While trying to update Magic and Mayhem (a previous writing on this same topic), I realized that there was too much that I wanted to say for just an article devoted to servitor creation. Because of the nature of this particular magical technique and the vast array of knowledge to be gained from it, I expect that drawing from previous experience will prove somewhat enlightening.

Now, in my previous article I cited a servitor I created that was anchored into a childhood toy. With the various natures of entity creation, I’ll attempt to reiterate how the process of using this sympathetic magical technique a little more clearly. From that essay, here’s a snippet of my hypothesis-

The key with servitors is to create something detailed and specific, focusing on everything from how it will look dormant, to how it will nourish itself and do it’s job at the same time. Focusing on the associations it has simply allows for you to feed into it’s [sic] energy pool every time a correspondence you’ve associated with it comes up. For example, you create a servitor to remind you to do the chores, and you associate it with the broom. Every time you see or handle the broom, that association is strengthened and the servitor feeds from the thoughts given to that correspondence. (Ezikiel, 2008)

Last time, I used this example of a Servitor to remind one to do house duties.  A simple being at first, something that was named and charged in less than a day. With the process of entity creation, planning is seen as a key aspect of the magical working. Picking the most appropriate associations of give your servitor the abilities it needs in order to “live,” and do your will. You must have a clear and precise understanding of what you want o accomplish with your entity, especially if you allow it to continue existing and “evolving” into something beyond your initial expectations. Having this goal allows you to not only manifest an entity to work with, but give your entity something to attach onto, a baseline idea. Their impetus, of done correctly, derives directly from your will.

It should be clearly noted that this particular skill takes years to develop entirely. I would always suggest that, while you are getting more experience with Servitors (or with and Entity, really), you do so in a controlled environment as much as possible. Several things about Servitors can be unstable at best, volatile, at it’s worse. Just remember the golden rule- Don’t be a dick.

Entity Evolution

It’s been explained by everything from “because it’s the will of god” to the vibration association and attraction of like frequencies through string theory. While all of that is well and good, none of it gets us any closer to understanding why when we do a ritual, an effect happens. From putting forth energy programmed with intent, or even sentience, we manifest our will upon the subjective and ultimately objective universe. How is it, that Magic will elevate our consciousness to manifest our true natures? Why, too, does this happen with the entities we manifest?

Though you might already be familiar with the progression of a thought-form into Godhead, I want to make a little distinction for the new comers to servitor workings. Creating a sigil, and indeed a servitor, is bound by only two things. The limitations you put on it, and the limitations of your own magical progression. Something that is created by just you will not surpass your own awareness. Unlike humans, who often have multiple teachers, and are able to process their understanding and progressive awareness from several sources of information, then compile all of that into a somewhat cohesive new idea, magical creations aren’t capable (at first) of this rational thought. Unless programmed specifically for that, but exceptions are well outside the scope of this article.

The first detail to look at, is how these traits of logic and rationality seep into our servitor. Many the chaos magician has experimented with sending forth a thought-form to explore the uncharted realms of the ethereal, and come back to serve as a guide for his own Journey to take the same steps. Indeed, it’s even theorized that the Gods of ancient pantheons were once shifting ideas in a primordial paradigm, and completed this mysterious transformation into immortality; given power and personification enough to manifest their own will through a similar progressive consciousness imposed on mankind.

Digressing ever so slightly into the symbolism of such a thought, would that mean that our Manifestation of the subjective universe under the will of the magician is as “simple” as harnessing that forward driven thought, and that self realization and personification? Food for thought, most definitely.

Perhaps because it is the natural tendency of every vital essence to move forward, the stagnation of repetition denies the very act of manifestation. In order to fulfill the willed awareness of the Self, the servitor will progress and build the energies needed to accomplish whatever tasks they are charged. While this does not mean that they will jump directly into being their own free-thinking ethereal embodiment, but it is possible they can become such a thing, given the right influences and sources of energy.

It is important to understand what effect your servitor is having in it’s environment, and vice versa. Just like any other creature, Servitores and the like are capable of incorporating new energy into their paradigm (“learning,” if you will), and changing behaviors based on this newest energy source interacting with the old. It’s a similar learning pattern that was discovered in flatworms, where by, flat worms were trained to react to light as if they had been electrocuted, then ground up, and fed to the next set of in-training worms. It was found that the worms who had eaten the corpses of the previously trained flatworms learned the same behaviors more quickly than their control group counterparts. Servitors have a similar way of incorporating symbiotic learning from their environment.

If you are concerned about the progression of the Servitor, there are several steps that you can take in order to retard the process significantly. First and foremost, make their fuel source manageable. Never allow them to feed off of emotion, people, or natural energy fields (leylines, elements, etc.), as this will provide far too much energy to the entity. Use something like honey, or wine that you leave out as an offering periodically. To quote myself a little- never use a nuclear generator to power a flashlight.

Secondly, be aware of how many people have access to your entity. The more people who know the name or function of your servitor, the more people are able to call on it, give it energy, and attach it to their own subconscious. This is where Egregores are created, when a group of people are all feeding the same entity. It develops a distinct amalgamated personality. Unless this is your goal, I suggest staying away from such an entity until you have a better understanding of it’s nature.

Thirdly, use your sparingly. I have found through my own experience, that the more often you use a servitor, or if it’s programming requires it to be active over 75% of it’s existence, that the servitor begins developing it’s own energy sources in order to fuel it’s purpose. This, I feel, is done out of a survival instinct of rudimentary ethereal forms. If it is not able to sustain itself on the energy it is given by it’s creator, than it searches out it’s own food sources to fuel it’s existence, and then we go back to issue two, all over again.

Let’s take a look at the different models of creating entities. There are several options to choose from, some more “traditional,” than others. The first documented version of entity creation that I could find was through the use of Sigils. These sigils would be fabricated and designed to fulfill a sympathetic purpose, and then charged with sexual energies (and fluids), so that it would be more potent. As time went on, this technique went into more complex sigils, eventually being used to create group charged archetypes. From what I can gather, this process evolved to include the creation of entities, whose name was constructed into a sigil, and then manifested through the housing the sigil was painted or engraved onto.

Chaos magicians were the ones to really run with this idea of entity creation, and then as the Left-hand path started involving more experimental magical techniques to fuel the Awakening of the Divine within, it was incorporated as part and parcel of the inherent skills required of a magus.

Creating Entities

Looking at the subliminal power of symbolism and Jungian psychology, mythology and our own modern texts of sympathetic magic, creating these entities is an amalgam of different templates. Of course, the Embodied are going to choose the system they feel comfortable working with in order to get the best desirable results. While detailing all of the different ways to create these useful entities would fill an entire book, I’ll focus on two of them.

Method A: This is the standard chaos magic format, or creating a sigil with your intent, and charging it with some form of sexual/emotional Gnosis. Though this method tends to be messy, it does draw on a lot of fairly basic primal understandings. For this method, I often use a cheat sheet, based off of “Creating Magical Entities,” and the authors outlined methods. I find it usefull to have a documentation of the intent of the Servitor, it’s process,m feeding habits, structure, and all of the personality details that go into it. If anyone is interested in it, I can post it as an edited appendix to this post.

This ritual is done to manifest changes, by impressing upon the universe our Will. Through whichever method of Gnosis one prefers, we attempt to enter into a trance like state and have our mind (subconscious et. all) carry the symbols and intent through the veil and manifest it within the objective reality. Pseudo-intellectualizing aside, Donald Tyson also has a similar theory on how sacred and divine magic works that is similar (Tyson, Llewellyn “The Magus”, 1984), and may prove an insightful read for anyone interested in philosophical understanding.

Method B: A somewhat less traditional method, employing the servitor to be constructed through a series of artistic endeavors, and using the energy given to it through the work put in as a form of bringing it to “life.” I’m sure we’ve all seen artwork that seems to have a life of its own, those paintings that evoke in us the raw emotional states, the sculptures that look like they are moving of their own accord.

This is the first step of the thought-form to Egregore progression. When we feel those fleeting moments of life coming from these inanimate objects, it feeds them and allows their own miniscule life force to flourish. Usually, we take our energy back from it right away with doubt. We don’t do this consciously to our own magical practices, of course, but that doesn’t change the fact that a month of ritual and preparation is wasted the second we diffuse the energy we’ve put into it. That’s one of the wonderful things about entity creation. They are often rooted into a physical anchor- something that you can see and interact with, reinforcing the energies that you’ve put aside to have your Will manifest.

The second method of entity work is often downplayed. Mostly because it is a much more organic process, and it takes time to develop the character and traits of an entity made this way.  

Back to the point, however; I’m not going to pretend that I understand or have proof of how this process works, nor should anybody, I feel. The Mystery of magic is what gives it that ability to manifest our will through these symbolic actions.

Bibliography:

Ezikiel. The Dusty grimoire – “Magic and Mayhem“, 04-18-08 www.dustygrimoire.com 13 July 2012

Cunningham, Ellwood, Wagener. Creating Magical Entities Ohio Egregore Publishing 2003

Tyson, Donald. The New Magus, Minnesota Llewellyn Publishing 1988

Bob Kentridge. “Investigations of the cellular bases of memory”. University of Durham. Retrieved 13 July 2012.

Fra. U.:D.: “High Magic” Lewwllyn Publications, MN, USA;2007 (as translated by Melinda Kumbalek, from the german edition:

Schule der hohen Magie © 2001 by Frater U.:D.:) pg 39-53;161-168; 221-229