QUOTE(Goibniu @ Sep 28 2007, 12:30 AM)
That's interesting. I had been wondering recently whether or not sigils or servitors could create changes outside of the human mind. For instance, could a protective sigil protect one from a falling brick. Or could it alter how a roulette wheel fell. When I've used this sort of thing it has been things like improving my health or getting a better job. Even though the employer chooses who to hire, the servitor might influence their actions to hire me. But a brick falls according to laws of physics. While palindroem and mezu disagree somewhat, they outline the possibilities. Perhaps I should go to the Niagra Casino and try the roulette wheel and make limited experiments within a budget. Either that or I can wait for a rock to fall on me.
My motto: "Everything is real." Will is governed by application of imagination, force, and utter and total belief in the outcome. If all of those are in place, all things are possible, regardless of method or path. You mentioned law of physics. Phyics define forces we understand ad more or less fully comprehend (in truth, we do not). Magick works with forces we do not yet comprehend, but can identify. But the variables, as in a physics experiment are conditions. If I try to replicate a lab experiment, even with rigorous controls, I may get slightly different results each time. This is a principle of Chaos Science, not Chaos magick (although Chaos Magick is based largely on principles of Chaos Science and Chaos Mathematics). The butterfly effect is the most often quoted metaphor for Chaos science. A butterfly flaps wings in South America and through a cascade of inter-related events causes a typhoon in India. Of course the causation chain is very, very long.
Back to the Casino and the brick. These are 'manifested moments" in time continuums. They seem to happen in the instant. How can magick stop a falling brick? Physics, time, all seems to line up on the side of improbable intervention by magick. Yet, if I create a sigil of protection or luck, and I plant the "seed" in my subconscious, which connects to the super concious there are multiple ways the "magick" can in fact alter the outcome of the falling brick. My subconscious, which accepted the visual sigil as intention, and WITHOUT the intervention of conscious mind (this is why it's important to FORGET the ritual actual), may prompt me to stop and look in a shop window just before the brick falls. It didn't stop the brick. It stopped me from stepping under the brick. Magick works outside of direct time continuums.
In the casino, if the practitioner is skilled, the servitor created is working to an intention. Since I am "placing" my bet, if I'm not consciousless thinking "My magick will make me win" but have long ago forgotten the sigil or servitor, then the sigil or servitor working with the more "influenced" subconcious mind can guide the hand to the appropriate number on the roulette bet. But if you're analyzing or expecting it, the conscious mind intervenes and the subconscious mind is not even heard. You lose. Of course, it takes great skills in both of these scenarios and a willingness to let the subconcious mind guide the actions. Intuition is an aspect of this mind, which is in touch with the Super Conscious (MIND). This is why in Chaos methods, we believe FORGETTING the ritual, sigil or servitor is the greatest secret of success. Magickians who come to it for the first time, from other paths, where the opposite is true (we're taught in many ritualistic methods to not only achieve gnosis and perfection in ritual action but to forcefully and consciously create... well, conscious creation is often times less powerful than subconscious to superconscious for areas of work where intuition is needed (I'd argue, that I'd rather have intuition on my side in the case of a falling brick, than a manifesting psychic force that actually can "move" the brick... Magick always follows the path of least resistance... manifesting psychic force requires incredible force of MIND. Those are the theories, and in practice it works for me. Best,