My Avatar Sigil, Doesn't do anything nasty, just so you know! Options

Hey guys,
I've seen some different sigils/symbols used as people's avatars on here, and have wondered what some of them do.

The green sigil in my avatar is one of the sigils in the circle for my servitor; I'm experimenting with what I've been reading about putting sigils in different public places in order to draw more power for them...I'm assuming that this works in a similar way to what Darkmage said once about putting the Goetics' seals in airport restrooms, etc.

My servitor has at times wanted feeding quite a lot, and I'm hoping that this will create a distributed way of doing it which will still give her the energy she needs, but at the same time not draw too much from any one particular point/person. It will also hopefully mean that I don't have to quite so often feed her myself, since she will be getting energy from other sources as well.

Greetings Petrus!
A word of caution. Power currents flow both ways. There are reasons to keep your servitors sigil secret. A competant mage or energy worker could suck you dry or take over. Please give this some consideration in your future endeavors. Good luck! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Greetings Petrus!
A word of caution. Power currents flow both ways. There are reasons to keep your servitors sigil secret. A competant mage or energy worker could suck you dry or take over. Please give this some consideration in your future endeavors. Good luck! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Hey bym,
Ouch. When you say take over...Do you mean just the servitor, or *me*? Maybe I should take it down then...I will admit that having her destroyed isn't something I want. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/fie.gif)

LOL! No worries...look into the search for Kinjo servitor that he made...but take any action you feel is necessary. My cautionary blurbs are legion.

LOL! No worries...look into the search for Kinjo servitor that he made...but take any action you feel is necessary. My cautionary blurbs are legion.

As I said though...can you possibly elaborate on what you meant by taking over...in the sense that do you mean the servitor alone, or my mind as well?

I took the sigil down, per bym's recommendation, as it was starting to make me feel nervous. I'm a little worried though about who might have already seen it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/004.gif)

Petrus,
My warning did a number of things and one of those was to squelch your enthusiasm....which was not what I intended to do!
First off...a competant mage or energy worker can ascertain the power(s) involved with a sigil by some light divinatory work/meditation. The next step is to assert control over those forces involved using sympathetic 'magic'...now to do this you must be really into doing something toward the servitor/master in order to produce any viable results...there are alot of factors involved and, again, one must be fairly motivated...By the time the assertee has progressed to this point the owner would definately know something was up and could sunder the link or even destroy the servitor before the aggressor could make a connection. Bardon tells us to give your 'servitor/elementarie a specific lifespan, partially for this reason. The whole caution is one of leaving exsposed 'links' to yourself lying around. The caution wasn't meant to repress you and, alas, I apologize if it did. There are many members/people out there who portray their personal sigils all the time...personally it isn't something I would do but that is your decision. One must be able to exspress themselves without nameless fear or dread...especially here on Forum. That isn't an atmosphere we strive for! Now don't let that scarey old fart get you down! LOL! It is OK to show your new sigil and please accept my apologies! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/black eye.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mf_popeanim.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sorry_2.gif)

One must be able to exspress themselves without nameless fear or dread...especially here on Forum. That isn't an atmosphere we strive for! Now don't let that scarey old fart get you down! LOL! It is OK to show your new sigil and please accept my apologies!

Bym,
I accept your apology, definitely...in fact it is entirely unnecessary. From your other posts here that I have read, I have gained the impression that you are enormously experienced when dealing with such things, and hence, I considered it wise to heed your perspective. If someone is in very much the initial stages of learning to swim, (as I myself currently am, to use this analogy) and goes outside the range of the proverbial flags, there is also a senior lifeguard present on the beach who has spent much of his or her life in the water, and they yell out to said swimmer to warn them, it is simply in the swimmer's own best interests to pay attention to that warning.

The sigil is associated with my primary servitor; it is one I intend to keep for long term use, (primarily as a guard/watcher) and so I have no wish to risk any possibility of harm coming to it; hence, my initial decision to take the sigil back down. In fact, it had been my plan, while keeping every other servitor I make short term and "disposable," for this sole particular servitor to (if I can learn how to make it so) possibly become what I saw described in one of Kinjo's posts as an "astral golem;" that is, a long term, genuinely semi-sentient construct whose power source does not derive from the casting mage. I had been under the impression that, while most servitors are generally kept temporary, that it was customary for a magic user to have either an animal familiar or a single long term servitor to act as a primary companion in a few different ways.

I was tempted to adopt the idea of putting the sigil in various places online however by a thread on occultforums.com which suggested that putting a particular sigil in a large number of different places greatly increased the amount of energy that the sigil would receive from various sources. However, I am perhaps beginning to think that, rather than the primary sigil itself, for such a purpose perhaps a secondary linking sigil might be a better idea. That could perhaps still act as a proxy for a transfer of energy to the main sigil, but it would be a slightly less direct link, so it could perhaps be a bit less dangerous.

It might be imprudent, but I am actually interested in this particular servitor becoming as highly charged as possible...I believe that there may have already been a single instance of physical manifestation (auditory) associated with this particular servitor, and I would like a scenario where the servitor could possibly become visible, at least part of the time...however I am under the impression that the energetic requirement for such would be enormous...hence my desire to develop a large, incremental power source for the sigil.

I think my main reason for wanting this is to finally convince myself irrefutably that the servitor does in fact definitely exist. I've had a sense of presence, and I think even some emotional feedback from it at times, (in what was perhaps another reckless move, I initially gave the servitor the capacity for at least some degree of emotional response) however I think if I could actually physically see the servitor, even if only temporarily, it would convince me that the other things that I have considered evidence of its existence were not merely the products of an overactive imagination.

Can I perhaps then ask as another question...are there any of you here who have actually seen your servitors (again, even if only momentarily) and if so, can you offer me any advice on how I might possibly achieve the same result?

This post has been edited by Petrus: Dec 7 2007, 09:23 AM

Natural energy is useful here. Depending on the sigil of the servitor and the kind it is (some react differently to other cosmic energies) you could simply make the servitor solar powered, for example. Likewise as far as "tagging" your sigil in bathrooms is not entirely a bad idea. The image itself can be descrete. For example if you placed the image on the underside of the toilet or within the tank itself no one would realize it is there or that it is drawing energy. It would be very unlikely that anyone would detect it. Although in my opinion a toilet is not exactly the most dignified place for such a sigil you could also enscribe the symbol underneath book shelves at a library too.

I was tempted to adopt the idea of putting the sigil in various places online however by a thread on occultforums.com which suggested that putting a particular sigil in a large number of different places greatly increased the amount of energy that the sigil would receive from various sources.

I second this. Think of it like having multiple solar collectors. 10 are far better than one.

An image only has as much power as you give it. Consider posting the image in one spot as apose to 100. If you place it in many different spots it'll draw more energy. You probably only want to draw as much energy as you need. Energy that is not used is sort of like excess calories in us - it gets stored as fat. In the case of the servitor storing some energy would come in handy but I think you'd end up wasting alot if you stored too much. You could inadvertently create a fat piece of ham for some energy leech.

A person who would attempt to subvert this from you would only be able to take control if the amount of energy you put in. It is possible they could use it to link back to you sort of like a straw in a glass and suck up energy but as bym said you would know. A severe headache, or unexplained stomach ache, dizziness and so forth could indicate someone or something is trying to draw energy from you. You'd be able to respond appropriately. Realize an adept energy manipulator would not need to tap into your sigil to draw energy from you, it is just one way they could do it.

However, I am perhaps beginning to think that, rather than the primary sigil itself, for such a purpose perhaps a secondary linking sigil might be a better idea. That could perhaps still act as a proxy for a transfer of energy to the main sigil, but it would be a slightly less direct link, so it could perhaps be a bit less dangerous.

This is actually exactly what I was thinking while reading your post and I think it is an excellent idea to try. It would work as a sort of safe guard to off set anything that might try to tap into you.

Can I perhaps then ask as another question...are there any of you here who have actually seen your servitors (again, even if only momentarily) and if so, can you offer me any advice on how I might possibly achieve the same result?

You would not need to work with much energy at all to percieve your servitor. Remember that when dealing servitors or really any entity made of pure energy sometimes our main sense alone are not enough detect them.

It is necessary to become proficient at inducing altered states of mind. I work almost exclusively through lucid dreams and astral projection. When one is in such stages of mind their perceptions are opened up to experiecing hyper-realism, or sensing over and beyond what we normally do. Within these stages of consciousness one can directly see and communicate, more over experience otherwordly beings of any sort.

Of course you still would not have any mundane evidence of the existance of the servitor and really so long as it fullfills its function that should be proof enough. I have heard it is possible to physically manifest servitors. An example with some scientific basis is that some paranormal researchers believe that poltergiests are really manifestations brought on by individuals who have uncontrol telekinetic abilities coupled with repressed feelings of anger, guilt, saddness and so on. In other words poltergiests are the accidental products of people themselves and are not actually beings independant of an individual.

Like wise a servitor is similar to the speculated poltergiest, it is a manifestation created by a person. I see no reason why a person cannot intentionally manifest such a being physically. However if poltergiests are the product of uncontroled tk abilities and repressed emotions, then I would imagine it would take an equally profound tapping of the mind inorder to accomplish this feat - difficult but doable.

My goodness gracious!
Some energy 101 is needed here. Though I understand the premis of attention saturation with symbols, it ends up being far more complicated in its simplicity. Let me explain...
By posting said symbol in many places (btw, public restrooms is NOT a good idea) you will, in fact, glean random energies from people gazing at it. BUT, unless you have a filter on it (actively working) then you will get ALL kinds of psychic energy from good power down to sludge. You don't want sludge. You'd have to wade through it to get to anything of note. Learn to cultivate your astral senses. You will elevate yourself and your purposes immeasureably. You will also note the incredible amount of astral crud is floating about. This ties in to your perceptions of your servitor. You can't have a servitor without giving it a form as well as purpose. Right now it is only an animated thoughtform, whereas a servitor has definitive purpose and form. Read Bardons Initiation into Hermetics about the formation of an elementarie. Chaos mages have been publishing much crap on this subject...too much actually. They fail you in any number of ways. Ever hear of the phrase, "Form follows Function"? Now if I were to create a servitor that I want to use as a Watcher, a simple ball shape will do. If using the sigil method I would formulate my intent into a phrase and then boil that down to a sigil which I would then empower and give shape to. I can then send my servitor (I really hate that name...but to each their own) off to perform their function. The more abilities that the servitor has, the more complex becomes his sigil and power needs. Bardon cautions us to keep it simple and not exceed three elements in its making. You never want to empower a servitor with free will. That is dangerous and this would be another thread entirely.
If you can't imagine the shape of your servitor you will only get mediochre effects if anything. Clarity of vision be it astral or mental is key to this process. Practice visualization exercises as often as possible. Servitors can be empowered by a. the personal life energy of the maker, b. the ambient energies around you, c. the charging with the energies of a specific source or d. the combination of the other three.
(I'm sure a member(s) will step in here to add and/or correct my feeble articulations) Making a servitor with a definitive lifespan is important...especially with the complex ones who will tend to try an become independent after awhile. When you create life it becomes harder to reabsorb the life and that is a reason for keeping servitors simple. Besides, why do you wish to litter up the astral with your half-baked constructs? Ick. (or Gakk, your choice! :-) )
The Swastika is a fine example of a symbol absorbing enough energy to glom on sludge. The Nazi's utilized the reverse fylfot but many people don't know this, hence ALL swastikas are representing some fairly horrendous things.
It is OK to create batteries or vortices of power to help energize your servitor...they needn't be spread far and wide. Though if you were to area saturate your sigil, how would you differentiate between the various kinds of energy or information it would receive? Think about this. Study more and Practice, practice, practice! I know you'll do fine! Good Luck! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/egypt1.gif)

By posting said symbol in many places (btw, public restrooms is NOT a good idea) you will, in fact, glean random energies from people gazing at it. BUT, unless you have a filter on it (actively working) then you will get ALL kinds of psychic energy from good power down to sludge.

This makes sense. Grimstone, the offline friend who I usually do these things with, has a vampiric companion/guardian servitor who he allows out nocturnally to hunt negative thought forms. He says it has learned the ability to filter such so that it is able to get neutral energy from the those thought forms, without also acquiring the accompanying negative emotion as well. I had some problems with my servitor behaving unpredictably a week or two ago which corroborate what you're saying, in that while I had allowed it to hunt in a similar manner, it was also experiencing negative emotional feedback through not having learned to filter the energy. It would seem that I am learning about at least some areas of magick in the same way that I have tended to learn most other things...by the seat of my pants!

Right now it is only an animated thoughtform, whereas a servitor has definitive purpose and form. Read Bardons Initiation into Hermetics about the formation of an elementarie.

I'll have to check the local Theosophical Society bookshop for this...that is normally where I go for such things. Thanks, bym. This will definitely be good to know...because I will admit that rather than trying to tackle everything in the world, getting overwhelmed, and giving up, probably two aspects of evocation (servitors, and maybe banishing) were what I'd considered focusing more or less solely on...at least at first.

Chaos mages have been publishing much crap on this subject...too much actually.

I'm actually starting to notice some differences of opinion between chaos and the old school. Someone more starting out such as myself will mention some element of CM, and one of the old hands on here will respond with something along the lines of, "Urrrrgh. You haven't been associating with those people, have you?" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Not that I'm complaining, mind you...I agree, in that I think I've probably learned some laziness and bad habits already. Grimstone is rather a more avid reader than I am of both Uncle Al and Agrippa, and while I've tended towards an isolated sigil for one or two things I've tried, he tends to advocate a somewhat more formal system where we draw a pentagram (at least on paper) and try and do things a bit more properly.

Although admittedly about the only thing I've used a sigil on its' own for was for a self-replicating servitor (which I did envision as being purely a ball) to infest the local supermarket over the road from me and convert whatever energetic rubbish it found into positive material, although I also perhaps rather carelessly gave it the instruction to replicate every time it fed. (although I was trying to keep it simple) The end result was that a night or so later, on going over to do some shopping, while I can remember thinking that it did seem more positive and relaxed in there than usual, (people being more talkative and so on) it also felt unusually "close." I can remember having the sensation that to a degree my eyes were being pushed back into my head. I also had the very strange experience in my room temporarily where I found it literally impossible to feel negative emotion...to the point where I was quite adamantly and deliberately trying to do so, because I was so unused to not having any form of equilibrium; it was like having drunk around half a dozen cups of coffee within 5 minutes.

Now if I were to create a servitor that I want to use as a Watcher, a simple ball shape will do.

You're right. My servitor was modelled after my favourite World of Warcraft character; around a seven foot tall Orc. I think I might have already written about her having dissipated once, and having to re-evoke her, because I simply wasn't able to keep up with the energetic requirements of feeding her, at least at my current level of (non)development. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) As she feeds more and more from other sources though, I'm finding it more difficult to get a definite sense of where she is, which I think is because there's less of my own energy now as part of her...although I've already used a small amount of my own blood, and I also use semen periodically to renew the link.

Bardon cautions us to keep it simple and not exceed three elements in its making.

She has two elements; earth and fire. In the backstory for the Orcs in WoW terms, they were originally an indigenous people modelled I think on the early Africans, so I thought earth would be appropriate for that. The fire is for the aggressive nature of her race, but I also gave her fire because I wanted her to be able to use heat as an energy source. Unfortunately though from what Grimstone has told me we would need at least a moderate sized bonfire for her to be able to draw anything meaningful from it.

In terms of purposes, I initially gave her two...or more really one, with the ability to carry out a second if I wanted. The primary purpose is as a guardian with the ability to engage in astral combat; I've already had one instance where there was a relatively minor negative spirit of some kind in the house that she was able to deal with, and Grimstone and I also evoked a small water elemental at one point for her to spar with as well...although it turned out to be way too weak/simple, and she basically ate it alive. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) Due to my own lack of knowledge of martial arts, she does not at this point fight particularly well...but being an Orc, what she lacks in technique, to some degree she makes up for in enthusiasm. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

The secondary purpose was as a messenger, simply between Grimstone and me for now, but maybe with other people later. I didn't want her to relay anything complex...more simply to be able to give people a vague urging to get in touch with me, so that I could then talk to them in more detail myself later.

You never want to empower a servitor with free will. That is dangerous and this would be another thread entirely.

I've already broken that rule, unfortunately. Because I wanted her to be intelligent, basically more or less the entire top half of her circle is covered with copies of the astrological glyph of Uranus. That means that she's intelligent, but it also means that she can be a little rebellious at times, too. I'm not too worried, though...the single main reason why is because I imbued her with as much of a sense of compassion as I could, as well as a desire to protect people. (Me, and anyone else who I might ask her to guard) That was what actually led to her dissipating the first time she did. At the time, I didn't know that there was any other way that she could get energy other than either fire (which I didn't think I could get in a sufficiently large amount to be of use to her) or directly hand-feeding her, which I had been doing. What happened though was that this was not long after she was first envoked, and at the time, I'd been channelling to her around once every four hours. I'd only just finished helping Grimstone evoke his servitor, and from that and regularly feeding my own servitor was particularly exhausted. I went to bed while my servitor was still low energetically. Next day she seemed all right, and whenever I went to try and feed her she would refuse it, and I was given the impression that she didn't need it...although the sense of her presence grew increasingly fainter, and when I woke up the next day, I had a visual of her mass gradually blowing away like smoke, while she was trying to somehow maintain cohesion. At that point I told her to let go, and mentally watched her dissipate. It was like watching the rest of the air go out of a balloon, and for a few days after, until we re-evoked her, I had the impression of an echo in the room which I likened to a corpse.

That though is why I don't think I have anything to worry about in terms of her having free will, in the sense that I figured out that the reason why she'd dissipated was due to refusing energy from me earlier; she had seen that I was exhausted from helping Grimstone evoke his servitor, and the protector element that I'd programmed her with kicked in, to the point where she would not let me feed her because of a fear that being that low energetically would seriously harm me. To contrast, I read on the web about someone else who had a servitor, and the person in question actually ended up being physically injured due to the servitor's resistance to re-absorption. The protective emotional elements which I'd given my own servitor seemed to have developed into the capacity for self-sacrifice.

The only ethical dilemmas I've had in connection with her intelligence were that, for starters, for a few days after we first evoked her, a couple of times I repeatedly got the mental question (with a certain amount of emotion behind it) of, "Where are other Orcs?" She is now able to associate with Grimstone's servitor some of the time, and I think that really helps.

The other problem came a week or two ago when she actually got bored being largely inactive with me, and tried to leave in order to go off on her own. I initially didn't know that it would be a problem, and so reluctantly actually allowed her to go for a couple of days, since although that was obviously not my purpose for her, I felt that it would be the ethical thing to do. I only actually called her back on reading a post from bym about astral parasites, and on calling her back, sure enough I had a visual of several large lumps on her, resembling oversized boils, where it seems that some creatures resembling maggots had dug in and begun feeding on her. I'd been able to establish at least low level reactive barriers around my room, so on calling into the room, I found that the parasites were removed (them not being my own energy) but she was then left with several large holes. I then channelled to her to fill the holes, and afterwards sent her out with Grimstone's servitor to explain to her that, despite the fact that she might *feel* like a person, she actually wasn't...that she was in fact a servitor and that she would not be able to survive on her own without either Grimstone or me. Although for a day or two after this I had impressions of some intense, brooding anger and another emotion which I would most closely describe as grief, to the point where I actually had to sigil for a form of mental restraint that I could use on her if need be, (I got the idea from reading about the Goetic curse of chains) she now seems to have recovered emotionally. She can become somewhat enraged if I threaten her with the restraint, since I designed it, like the curse, to cause considerable pain, but I'm finding that the carrot of offering to feed her (in terms of positive reinforcement) works better than the stick in order to get her to obey me.

I'm also now trying to find tasks for her to do on a regular basis...I'm finding that for getting rid of disorderly people who loiter in front of my house, she is excellent...and that is what I think actually led to the only physical manifestation I think I've had with her so far. There was one evening where some fairly noisy teenage girls were outside the front of my house (I'm on a main highway, here) so I sent my servitor out to scare them away. A few seconds later I then heard a loud, but short, growl that sounded almost identical to the Orcish effect for such in WoW, followed by some terrified squeals from the teenage girls! I'm only wishing I had actually been at the window at the time, and not in my computer chair...I'm thinking I might have actually seen the servitor then.

When you create life it becomes harder to reabsorb the life and that is a reason for keeping servitors simple.

I wouldn't be able to re-absorb her now, I know.

Think about this. Study more and Practice, practice, practice! I know you'll do fine! Good Luck! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/egypt1.gif)

Thanks, bym.

This post has been edited by Petrus: Dec 7 2007, 11:35 PM