Section VII
Painting With Energy
So far, you’ve learned that the astral plane of existence is a boundless vacuum. It is important to note, however, that it also works as a three-dimensional drawing board. Any energy that you project from yourself will spread out just like spraypaint; it’s up to you to catch and control the energy into a useful picture.
Shells and shields
In order to keep your energy from fading out like smoke in the air, you need to keep it contained. Generally, modern witches accomplish this by drawing a circle on the ground and sitting inside of it. The circle serves as the circumference of a cross-section of a sphere, both as protection and containment. To make the sphere real in an astral sense, you sketch out, in the air, the abstract concepts of what you want it to do; it’s painting with a consciousness. Just allow the energy to flow in a controlled manner from one hand, drawing out the walls, until you feel completely enclosed. Repeat the process when you feel it’s necessary, especially if the shield is meant to be long-term.
With a little practice, you can construct a shield such as this instantaneously. The circle is only a physical reminder — you can just as easily walk around the city and still have a shield in place around you.
Remember that your shield energy is programmed to do whatever you tell it to initially. If you tell it (in abstract concepts, of course) to keep Bad Things out, it should. If you tell it to push Bad Things away, it should (after all, energy’s got some magnetism, remember?). If you tell it to disperse itself when you’re finished casting your spell, it should. If you tell it to pull energy in during the ritual to fuel your spell, it should; but in this case you should also set up another shield around that one to keep innocent astral entities from being sucked in arbitrarily. (Always consider the consequences of your actions, and program your parameters accordingly). Make sure to tell the shield to fall after a ritual, or your spell will be trapped inside (and defeat the purpose).
The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, while thick with archaic phrases and ceremonial gestures, is a great script for constructing a shield. I felt it deserved some mention here, since it’s been used so often in occult literature that it’s almost become cliche. If you want to try your hand at it, see the Addendum/Reference chapter (Section XII).
Sigils and glyphs
A pool of energy is a lot like a neon light in the astral world. The more energy, the brighter the glow. You can use this to your advantage by creating astral signposts of a sort. A sigil or glyph, say, programmed to bring you favorable luck, will exude (glow) the abstract concept meaning “good luck,” while repelling the abstract concept meaning “bad luck.” The preferred astral energies will be attracted to the glow like moths to a flame.
In practice, sigils and glyphs are much more specialized than this. They were invented as a magical shortcut, so that the translation from words to abstract concepts will be entirely subconscious. Sigils and glyphs are generally programmed specifically; for example, a ward could be constructed with such words as “protection through fear” to make passerby too nervous to explore a private area of your property.
To create a glyph, you formulate the desired phrase; in this case, it was “protection through fear.” Then, you remove all of the repeating letters, to form “protecihugfa.” Use this as your intent word and follow the instructions for making a sigil (below).
To create a sigil, you use a word or short phrase that defines your intentions (as opposed to the alternate method of using cryptic glyph-letters). Try drawing a symbol using both methods and see which one feels more powerful for you.
How do you figure out what your sigil looks like? You can do this several ways. The number chart method involves picking the planet whose personality corresponds to your desire. (Feel the planets out if you don’t understand the charts and/or want to see for yourself.) Each planet has a “magic square” (so called because each row and column will have an equal sum) which was attributed to it by ancient mathematicians.
(Other planets were undiscovered at the time.)
Now to use your statement of intent. Using Western numerology, each letter has a numerical value as seen in the chart below. To draw the sigil, you find the placement of each letter in your word or phrase on the “magic square” and connect the dots, so to speak, in the order in which the word is spelled.
A second method of drawing sigils is much more personal. Use the letters of your statement of intent to draw a symbol. Be creative: overlap the lines, combine things like P and R, etc. Take the finished drawing and simplify it (make a figure-8 look like an X, or two circles, etc). Repeat this symbol redrawing process, making various changes, until the letters aren’t even close to readable and it feels “right.”
There are other methods of drawing sigils which are too numerous to mention. Search the web for symbols such as runes that may correspond to your desires, and piece them together to form a picture (for example, an “X” in your drawing might mean a meeting of crossroads). Advanced occultists can also use the Enochian numbering system to assign tables to words.
For future reference, (in case you’re reading up on magic and find a drawing of a sigil) the beginning of a sigil is represented as a circle. The end is represented as a short line. The crooked line in-between is the path your finger(s) would make in the air.
You paint the symbol in the air with energy to activate it. If the spell is long-term, as in our fear ward example, you may want to create a one-way link from something physical to the symbol… so that the ward can draw power to recharge itself if it grows weak. Creativity lends endless possibilities to the subject.
It is generally maintained that after you fire off a sigil or glyph, you should forget about it, as your subconscious is supposed to be making it work.
Talismans and seals
Talismans and seals work much the same way as sigils and glyphs do — drawn with energy, they are beacons in the dark. The difference is, the lines and curves used to draw them are so complex that, for one thing, you’ll probably need a physical drawing to trace the astral one from; and, for another, they exude a very specific set of abstract concepts. This is done, technically speaking, by using the angles of geometric shapes to influence specific harmonic frequencies of the astral plane — a lot like adjusting rabbit ears to fine-tune into a television station.
Every abstract concept has a corresponding seal, if only you could take the time to figure it out. But, just as every action of nature has a corresponding physics equation, it’s usually not necessary to personally work out the math. All sorts of seals are already available for a variety of entities. (Yes, entities. Personalities are merely a patchwork of abstract concepts).
What follows is a list of a few infamous entities and their corresponding seals. (You can easily find others in books or on the internet to fit your needs.) We’ll learn how to use them, later.
Angel of the Sun:
Uriel, whose name means “fire of God,” is one of the original seven archangels.
Angel of the Moon:
Ofaniel (Ophaniel), who was described by Longfellow in a later edition of his The Golden Legend.
Bael, or Baell, the First Spirit of the Goetia:
“A King ruling in the East. He ruleth over 66 Legions of Infernal Spirits… He speaketh hoarsely.” His Seal is this:
Vassago, the Third Spirit of the Goetia:
“A Mighty Prince of a Good Nature, and his office is to declare things Past and to Come, and to discover all things Hid or Lost. And he governeth 26 Legions of Spirits,” and this is his Seal:
Marduk, the Big Guy from the Necronomicon:
“He whose ways are glorious, whose deeds are likewise…. Creation, destruction, deliverance, grace —
Shall be by his command.” His first sign is this:
Here are a few well-known talismans from the Key of Solomon.
That’s it! You’ve learned the format of a ritual, and now you can apply your ingenuity to creating and casting any spells you need. For some popular ideas, see the next chapter.
Section VII Exercises
- Decide what you want most right now, and weigh the possible consequences of getting it. This is not a “monkey’s paw” sort of trick question, as magic is only dangerous if you expect it to be. I simply mean that, for example, while getting a promotion at work can earn you a raise, it also means you’ll have to deal with more responsibilities.
- If you’re still happy with your idea, then go through the ritual process and fire off a sigil for it.
Witchcraft from the Ground Up navigation
Preface | Section One | Section Two | Section Three | Section Four | Section Five | Section Six | Section Seven | Section Eight | Section Nine | Section Ten | Section Eleven | Section Twelve | Section Thirteen
The Book of T 