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Beloved friend, mentor, and initiator of mine, Cliff Pollick, once
told me that each of us has our own Magick system that we develop
over the years, and that the best thing that each of us can do is
to become initiates into one another�s mysteries. Continuing in
that vein I would like to talk a little about artificial spirits
and their use in Magick.
The use of artificial spirits has become more popular of late due
to the influence of Chaos Magick. Those familiar with the works of
Pete Carroll and Phil Hine know these sorts of spirits by the name
�servitors,� and they are written about extensively in their
books. Hine indeed has devoted an entire book to the subject.
Typically they are created by the magician using a variety of
techniques to visualize a form for the spirit, which is fed energy
and given sentience through sigil magick and gnosis-inducing
strategms such as orgasm.
Servitors are created for both short and long term purposes. A
short-term servitor might be fashioned to serve a single purpose
and equipped with a built-in command to self-destruct upon
completion of its task. Long-term servitors must be fed energy
regularly and can be kept around as familiars. Pete Caroll wisely
recommends only keeping four long-term servitors at one time.
While servitors are most often talked about in relation to Chaos
Magick, they have been in use long before that. I myself first
learned about artificial spirits under the term �Artificial
Elementals,� a term that came in vogue during the heyday of the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Franz Bardon has perhaps the
most extensive treatment of them in his book Initiation into
Hermetics. Here, a form is visualized as in the Chaos Magick but
is filled with pure Elemental energy channeled from the magician
or the environment. The Elemental is than given sentience and
purpose by the Will of the magician. The element used is based on
what you wish your Elemental to do. A Fire Elemental could liven
up your sex life, attack a victim, cause discord, or motivate
positive change. A Water Elemental would be able to smooth out
tense relationships, relax someone, or bring a lover to you. You�d
create an Air Elemental to haunt someone, help the memory, or
increase intellect. An Earth Elemental could stabilize a shaky
situation, bring in money, or defend your home.
A German Order known as the �Fraternitas Saturnai� used artificial
spirits quite heavily in their work; they refer to them as
�egregores.� In fact one of the heads of their order is understood
to be both a pre-existing entity and an egregore known as �GOTOS�
(an acronym for �Gradus Ordinis Templi Orientis Saturnai�) in one.
Many of their sex magickal rites are devoted to creating
egregores. In fact the Kaula Tantric �ganapuja� feast, known
commonly in the west as �The Five M�s,� has been adapted
specifically with this purpose in mind. The Five M�s stand for
Mansa, Matsya, Mudra, Madya, and Maithuna, that is: meat, fish,
grain, wine and women respectively. To see how this group
customized the rite for creating egregores, I refer you to Steven
Flower�s book Fire and Ice. To see how the rite was done in
Tantric circles I recommend reading the Mahanirvana Tantra
translated by �Arthur Avalon� (nee: Sir John Woodruff). The
influence of Avalon�s translations of Tantric on everything from
German Magick to the Gardenarian Witchcraft cannot be overstated.
Artificial spirits are also used in some Wiccan covens and
Neo-pagan groups where they are commonly known as �Fetches,� or
�Thought-forms.� In this case the manner of their creation is very
simple and direct. The creature is visualized, fed energy
directly, and given direction by means of a charge. Paul Huson
deals with these spirits in his excellent book Mastering
Witchcraft. Andrew Chumbley gives their use in the craft an even
deeper treatment in his grimoire The Azoetia.
When I first began studying Buddhist Tantra, I ran across a book
by the French explorer Alexandria David-Neel called Magicians and
Mystics in Tibet. In it she describes her creation of an
artificial spirit that she refers to as a �tulpa,� which roughly
translates to �mind emanation� in Tibetan. In the story she seals
herself up in a cave and concentrates on creating short
good-natured monk. After a few weeks, she feels that her monk has
become manifest and she leaves the cave. The tulpa follows her on
her subsequent travels and is even seen by other members of her
party. However he all too quickly takes on a sinister aspect and
grows out of her control. She decides to dismantle the monk but
accomplishes this only at great effort and risk over the course of
several months.
I have been studying Tibetan Tantra and Magick for five years both
in the states and in Nepal and have never heard the term �tulpa�
used in this manner. In my studies it usually refers to beings in
the retinue of Tantric deities that are visualized/invoked in
�Generation Stage� Tantra. Whether this worthy woman understood
the term correctly or not, we can learn a valuable lesson from her
experience. When you leave an artificial spirit to run amok with
no defined task, it can get away from you and turn nasty. What to
do when this happens will be dealt with later in this article.
Prior to the late 19th century you don�t find much mention of
artificial spirits. The old grimoires deal a lot with spirits, but
these are all understood to be pre-existing entities. Whether they
are or are simple mental manifestations that are evoked is a
debate amongst modern magicians, but for the purposes of this
article we will assume that when an angel is invoked in the
Arbatel of Magick or other such tome, it is actually an angel that
responds, not the magician�s psyche. I believe that the creation
of artificial spirits has practiced for quite some time just not
written about. If summoning and communing with spirits was
considered an offence against God by the Christian Churches how
much greater an offense would it be to presume to be able to
create them!
The only reference I can think of regarding artificial spirits
prior to the 19th century is the story of the Golem. In the year
1580, a Kabbalist named Rabbi Loeb is rumored to have created a
Golem, an artificial being that worked much the same way as the
various artificial spirits discussed above, except that the Golem
was physical being. A Christian priest, Taddeush, was planning to
accuse the Jews of Prague of ritual murder. Rabbi Loeb heard about
this, and to avert disaster, directed a dream question to heaven
to help him save his people. He received the following command
that happens to be alphabetical (as per the Hebrew alphabet): �Ata
Bra Golem Devuk Hakhomer Ve-Tigzar Zedim Chevel Torfe Yisroel.�
The literal meaning was: �Make a Golem of clay and you will
destroy the entire anti-Semitic community.� Through the Gematric
interpretation of this phrase the Rabbi was able to decipher the
formula for actual accomplishing that. The Golem was given life by
writing one of the names of God, �EMETH� on its head. Stories vary
about how the Golem did in its task: some say it went berserk and
had to be destroyed;, some say that it killed the priest and was
then put to rest. The Golem was de-activated by wiping off the �E�
from the name of God, making the word �METH,� which means �dead�
in Hebrew. Its body was sealed in a synagogue where it is said to
remain to this day. This story became the basis for Mary Shelly�s
classic work Frankenstein.
The books mentioned above all contain formulas for creating
various types of Artificial Elementals and rather than regurgitate
readily available information I refer you to those books. However
there is one more type of artificial spirit that has not been
discussed so far and that�s one that�s proved to be the most
valuable to me over time. It is referred to briefly by Dion
Fortune and is called a �Watcher.�
I first began using this type of servitor when I was a just a
teenager and experimenting with Astral projection. Denning and
Philips recommended the technique as a means of working with the
astral body before actually doing astral projection. Rather than
using an Elemental energy or other type of magickal fluid to
create the basis for the servitor we use our own �astral essence.�
The benefit of this is that the servitor can be sent to a specific
location or to follow a specific person and record the events.
When the servitor is re-absorbed, you receive images, sounds and
other sensory input from the servitor�s expedition. In the
beginning, I just sent it to random places and experimented with
it in jest, for instance having it go to a friend�s house and
watch him get ready for school; when it returned I compared the
visions I received with what he really had done (drinking milk
from the carton? Matt, shame on you!) I would send it home while I
was away and see what was going on with what turned out to be
surprising accuracy.
In this method, one starts by opening up a temple space via
whatever means your tradition calls for, banish heavily. Once
positioned in your preferred asana and sufficiently settled into
an appropriate state of mind, focus on a point about four finger
widths directly below your navel. Focus your attention there as if
threading a needle; this will draw the energies of the body to
that point. You should than eject a stream of your astral essence
from that spot to a point three or four feet in front of you. I
usually use place or draw a triangle, such as that used in Goetic
workings, under the spot where the servitor is going to manifest.
To accomplish the ejection, simply will it to be so. If you are a
visually oriented this can be accompanied by visualizing a gray
stream of astral matter leaving your body and gathering in the
designated area. Contriving visualization however is not the goal
here, it is to will it to be done and feel that it is so (when
done successfully this should be accompanied by a feeling of
lightness; you may also feel slightly drained).
You only eject a small amount of this astral essence and make the
servitor small. After gathering the essence in front of you, see
the stream or cord that has been feeding it disappear -- it is
important not to see it being cut or severed, simply let it fade
you�re your attention. Will the mass in front of you into a shape
you find suitable. I often make an imp about two feet high with
exaggerated sensory apparatus such as big ears, nose and eyes.
Address the �Mini-Me� as if it were a separate being and give it a
�charge� such as, �It is my will that you enter the girls� locker
room and sneak a peak at Linda. Return to this spot in four hours.
So mote it be.�
When the servitor returns, will its form back into an amorphous
mass of astral stuff and suck it back into you through the
connection under your navel, which was never severed. Then, clear
your mind and allow impressions to arise. This is where the real
trick is: the degree of success directly relates to the degree to
which you can make your mind a blank slate for the servitor�s
input to arise. If you normally do some kind of meditation like �shamatha,�
where you actively focus the thought on breath or deliberately
still the mind, this is NOT the time for it. Instead, just relax
into a blank state of mind and passively let thoughts arise and
dissolve on their own. Avoid lust of result and any emotional
attachment to the idea of the experiment�s success; this will only
cause contrived images of what you expect the servitor might have
seen to appear.
I encourage testing the servitor�s accuracy by comparing its
findings with hard evidence, but only after you have attained some
proficiency in the technique; to immediately submit yourself to
difficult tests may undermine the self-confidence needed to fully
develop the practice. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt for a
while and before testing your experiments.
I would like to warn you not to make a servitor in your own image,
or for that matter experiment with astral projection techniques
where you create simulacra to house your consciousness such as
described in the aforementioned Denning and Phillips manual. I
have gathered evidence that your consciousness can be trapped in
such images or simulacra at the time of death, preventing you from
reincarnating or going wherever you may have been going. I don�t
really have the space here to discuss the phenomenon at length,
but I felt that I should give the warning.
If you are creating artificial spirits I assume that you have the
good sense to give them a date when they become inactive or
self-destruct, or if they are long-term that you maintain them in
such a manner that they don�t run amok as with Alexandria David-Neel's
runaway tulpa! However, it may happen that one gets away from you
or a colleague. Or a shared servitor begins to be corrupted and
used maliciously by one of its creators. Or one is sent by an
opponent to attack you. In case of such instances it�s essential
to know how to combat and destroy artificial spirits. Much of the
information given below can be found in Dion Fortune�s Psychic
Self-Defense. But since older books like this seem to have fallen
out of favor lately, replaced newer material � much of it largely
inferior in my opinion, but easier to read � I�ll repeat some of
her most important techniques and throw in some of my own.
* Simple thought-forms can be destroyed them by just thinking them
away; imagine them being obliterated. From mind they came and by
mind they go. It�s that simple. If you visualize them dissolving
and banish, yet they persist, you have got another problem.
* You can fight an Artificial Elemental off or destroy it by
trapping it in a triangle and attacking it with the opposing
Element through the proper magickal tool. One can also begin to
feed it the Element that it is made out of, thus making it
stronger but infusing it with your will enabling you to usurp
control from its creator. This is slightly more dangerous but has
certain advantages such as forming a powerful Magickal Link to
your unknown attacker. It�s somewhat difficult, but may prove to
be easier than getting hair and fingernail clippings!
* Similarly if the Servitor isn�t composed of any one particular
Element but instead is made up of pure energy, you can attack with
your Elemental Weapons just the same. In both cases however such
drastic measures are not normally called for, the simple exorcisms
found any grimoire usually do the trick.
* If all the above fails, you may be dealing with a servitor that
is being driven directly by the life-force of its creator. If this
is the case you can absorb it into yourself and thereby the
life-force of the being itself. To do this extreme type of
operation you must have completely identified your own spirit and
Will with that of the Universe itself; any trace of ego will
disrupt the operation. Samekh is one form of this identification,
Anutara Tantra is another, �calling down the moon is another� (if
you are not already familiar with these techniques, you are not
ready to use them!) Once in one of these states, summon the
troublesome spirit before you and draw it into yourself,
enveloping it and assimilating it into your own divine nature.
Follow up by destroying any trace of it left with standard
banishings.
Artificial spirits have been of great benefit to me in the past.
One was created to find an apartment in Philadelphia and it
brought me to one that fit my every specification within an hour!
Another member of Thelesis Camp used servitors to haunt a noisy
neighbors like ghosts to get them to move; they were out in less
than two months. I once used a Water Elemental to bring me a mate
that fit a particular description, and she turned up in amazingly
short order. I bring up these examples not to brag but to inspire
others to experiment and use this magick to improve themselves and
their world.
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