The majority of people are not fully aware of how truly difficult and confusing a spiritual awakening can be. It is not beautiful in the beginning.. As with all transformations, the first steps deal with endings and destruction. We are constantly lead to experience challenges, changes, and forces of nature that completely strip apart our attachments to the material world without even realizing it is happening. Every time our ego fights back, we are met with karmic patterns of the lesson the universe, or higher power, is attempting to teach us. It is important to remember that we are souls inhabiting human bodies.
Our energy is ever lasting but this material world we know is not promised a forever. We are constantly working towards spiritual growth and evolution. A spiritual awakening occurs when you realize there is more to life than earthly desires. There is more to us than our attachments, our ego, and our material possessions. Once you realize this, things begin to change, as you will perceive the world in an entirely different way than you did before. At first, you will feel overwhelmed and confused. A lot of people remain in the beginning phases of a spiritual awakening out of fear. Listed below are the major signs you are experiencing an awakening of the soul. The first sign listed is typically the first experience you will have but everything else will not necessarily come to you in any particular order.
1. Karmic Patterns, Meaningful Coincidences, Number Sequences, Repetitive Dreams, Symbols or Signs ✨
The very first thing a person experiences is some form of cosmic pattern or sequence. You will “feel” as though you are being targeted for some sort of message. Whatever repetitive situation you are experiencing serves as your main lesson at the time and you must pay attention to what is happening to you while you witness the signs. This can come in the form of similar toxic relationships or engaging with the same negative people one after another, seeing the same numbers on a clock or other object often (1:11, 1:23, etc), having the same dream frequently, seeing animals, objects, or hearing the same phrases or words over and over again.
2. Realization of the Ego, Acknowledging Mistakes, Confronting Your Personal Demons, Toxic Habits, and Wrongdoings ✨
This is likely one of the most challenging phases to overcome – the ego itself. Often, when we know we have done something wrong, we will strive to ignore it or refuse to take accountability altogether. When going through an awakening, you will feel the urge to fix your mistakes and grant closure to those you have harmed in any way. You will feel genuine remorse for your wrongdoings and look to confront the people you have hurt in order to provide them with closure and to provide yourself with growth. You will feel called to apologize, make amends, and move along. Doing this will allow you to let go of the burdens and toxic habits holding you down. Whether or not these people choose to forgive you is up to them and them alone, but it is the fact that you owned up to your toxicity that matters. This is you letting go of your ego and allowing your spirit to take over you. Your “true” self is taking form now.
3. New Perspective, Epiphanies, Altered Outlook ✨
As you begin to see the world, and yourself, in a different light, everything becomes brand new to you. Everything will seem much more vivid, lively, and detailed. You will find yourself paying attention to things you never would have given a second glance before your awakening. You will find interests in new topics, projects, people, and places you never thought to engage in. Those around you will be shocked at your change in character – with some people encouraging and congratulating your transition, while others will be envious and spiteful of you. Let the behavior of others serve as a message to you about who they are.
4. Relationship Changes, Disconnection With Society, Endings ✨
One of the very first experiences you will through in a spiritual awakening is the realization that the personified ego projected from each individual is not a true reflection of who they are.. Once you realize this for yourself, you will begin to see the toxicity and the attachments other people possess – influencing you to disconnect from them if you feel they do not carry the same vibration as you. How they react to your distance and your separation from them shows you who they truly are inside and you will often find that your assumptions about them were correct. You will realize just how wrong certain people were for you and what lessons they were called to teach you through their behaviors. This is your intuition and your soul opening up and expanding. Your soul is no longer being weighed down by human egotism – instead it is moving along.
5. Enhanced Intuition, Empathy, and Compassion ✨
Your dreams will begin to present you with predictions and future happenings. Your heart and mind will start to tell you about certain people, places, and situations as though your heart and mind know things before they should. You will be able to “feel” or sense the emotions of others before you even see them or speak a word to them. You will feel much more connected to nature, to earth, and to humanity. Its need for healing and light becomes your focus. There is no longer a separation between you and others, as your ego is now fading or completely gone – you will feel as though you are one with every living thing.
6. Decreased / Lacking Fear of Death ✨
As you go through the transition of your awakening, you will not see death as the end for you. You will have come to realize that death is just the beginning, as energy can neither be created nor destroyed. You know your soul will stand the tests of Father Time and cycle through the universe again and again in different forms. You will realize that everyone you have lost is not truly gone – they are with you forever and you are forever with them.. floating through this universe and its energies for eternity.
7. Increased Self-Care, Routines, and Lifestyle Changes, Appreciation for the Physical Body ✨
Though your attachment to your human form will decrease, you know it is still important to take care of the body you are holding. You will go through diet changes, improved skin care and health care routines, and you will appreciate and cherish the body you inhabit for all that it is. The flaws you once saw will rarely hold importance to you now. You know that what truly matters is what is on the inside and that anyone who truly cares for you will not pay attention to your physical appearance. You will be grateful to experience a new perception of life.
8. Positive Relationship with Self and Others ✨
As you grow and prosper, you will engage with like-minded individuals who serve to continue expanding and evolving with you instead of working against you. This does not mean you will be completely free from toxic people; being empathetic and spiritually involved, you will constantly attract individuals who want to suck out your energy and light. The positive relationships in your life will help protect you from negative people and keep you from straying away from your spiritual journey.
9. Tests, Challenges, Delays ✨
To ensure you are on the correct path, the universe, or the higher power, will constantly produce tests for you to ace. These tests can come in the form of ex friends or lovers resurfacing, sudden disappointments or setbacks, as well as losses, separations, or mental / emotional attacks that challenge your body and soul. As you overcome these issues, you will grow stronger, wiser, and more resilient to the negativity and evil of the world.
10. Creativity, Attraction to Art, Metaphysics, and Ancient Practices
✨
You will feel inclined to express the energies, emotions, and lessons you are receiving through creative outlets such as drawing, painting, writing, crafting, singing, dancing, etc. Creativity is one of the most unique and expressive ways to share your voice and your passions with the world, after all. You will also feel drawn to the energies that earth has to offer – through its plants, flowers, crystals, fossils, celestial bodies, and elements. This may lead you to indulge in divination tools, astrology, meditation, and spiritual healing through metaphysical means. These methods are only useful to your spiritual body – be sure to continue relying on the proper medicine and healing needed for your physical body, as well.
Shielding is a practice entirely built on your intention–if you want an eternal shield, you can have it. If you believe in your shield, it will be there. There are many ways that are incredibly powerful with just the slightest trust and a little bit of practice. As soon as possible, start to practice shielding and methods of spiritual protection, since practice, along with your intention, will create the most powerful shields.
Also, you can never shield to much. It’s amazing and very empowering to have layer upon layer of shielding, and the energy and time you put into shielding will really save you a lot of energy and time in the future. Even just walking around, through crowds, cities, etc, drains your energy–negative energy is everywhere, and consciously seeking only the energy for your best and highest good will really, truly, and completely empower you.
You can shield from anything and everything, just make sure to allow in things for your “best and highest interest/good.” ShCast every shield with this affirmation. This allows what people would consider “negative” emotions to still come through, so you can live a balanced life, since not all emotions that are considered negative actually are. This affirmation effectively only allows things that raise or balance your vibration, and help you to spiritually evolve. It won’t cut you off from anything necessary. Shields themselves will never overwhelm or smother you, since they are meant solely for your needs and will always let in positive energy. Here are some simple methods to begin shielding, but you can always adopt them with your own needs and intentions! Do what works for you, just make sure to shield when practicing spirit or energy work of any sort.
Robe of White Light:
Focus for a moment on calming yourself, and once you have a clear mind, imagine a nice fluffy robe around you (I always imagine one like in the game Journey) made of white and protective light. This is the universe’s energy, and nothing ill can penetrate it once it is surrounding you.
It is recommended to repeat once or twice a day to maintain the shielding.
You can also use the affirmation of “I call upon a robe of loving and protective white light, knowing that it will protect me from all energy not in my highest interest. This robe protects me with the power of the Universe/Source/God.”
Guardian Protection:
Ask your guardian spirits (either aloud or through your mind) to protect you.
Always command that the guardians who help that they “come in light.” And if not, say they must leave. You don’t even have to know their name, but if they aren’t here to help, then they shouldn’t be around you. So just command this and all with ill intentions will be forced to leave.
Call on them for a need by need basis.
Auric Hardening:
Imagine your aura (trust whatever color you see in your mind’s eye), and then imagine it hardening, like it’s calcifying around you. It can get as hard as a rock, or like armor.
This can sometimes push away any energy exchanges, so you could feel more distant from positive interactions too. So, it’s best used when a threat is around
Usually lasts between 4 hours-2 days, depending on the strength of your intention.
Sigil warding:
Draw with a pen, marker, or with the tip of your finger (if you don’t need visible lines) a sigil with the intention of protecting yourself. A sigil is most basically an energetic line (or series of them) with an intention. The lines hold the energy and magnify the intention.
Calm yourself with a short breathing meditation, then focus on what you intend to shield-yourself, another, or a place.
Imagine casting a ball of light towards the designated target, with the intention of allowing the Universe/Source to channel through you and shield whatever you intend to.
Just watch and observe as the shield is built, knowing that it is fully fueled by the energy of the Universe and will stay there, and stay strong, until the shield is released consciously by you.
You can specify this shield for certain purposes, like to only keep a spirit out, or to keep all negative spirits out.
Reiki Shielding and Protection:
In Usui Reiki, there is a technique your Reiki Masters should have taught you about warding and cleansing the room in white light. Channel Reiki energy to do this.
If you are attuned to Reiki II, you should know the 1st symbol and that it can be used to stop all energy that is not in your highest good from coming towards you, working as an effective shield when the symbol is called on.
You need to be properly attuned to Reiki for this.
Bubble shielding:
Similar to the white light or shielding with intention, but focusing on making and empowering a bubble around you.
Replenish this as often as possible, since this is dependent on your own care.
Can be in an oval or a sphere shape. If this is hard to get a hang of, then try just fitting it a couple inches away from your body, similar to auric hardening.
Waterfall shielding:
A bubble shield with the intention of existing on top of an underneath bubble shield.
Focus on this shield and set the intention of having it move around like a waterfall. This way, someone sending negative energy has a very small chance of hitting the same place twice.
Elemental shielding:
All of these are built with a specific intention and visualization of the shield. Time around such element used will strengthen the shield, or a conscious meditation to draw the energy towards you and the shield.
Fire shield: Envision burning fire, that will destroy all negative energy/energy not for your highest good, when it tries to enter your energetic space.
Water shield: Similar to the waterfall shield, but with the visual of actual water flowing that can wash away all negative debris or toxicity clinging to any form of bubble shield underneath it.
Earth shielding: This one can block off positive energy too, since it works more like a layer of earth around the person. Though, it can also be envisioned to only grow/manifest around you in times of need or when you’re being attacked or faced with negative energy. It can also block your third eye from seeing outside. Earth shielding can also work as a means of grounding you, which doesn’t have negative effects (as long as you don’t neglect your upper chakras). If you ground yourself to the earth, and your are harmed or shaken by negative energy, you can replenish your energy from the earth.
Air shielding: Envision a fast current of air around you that sweeps away all negative energy or malevolent beings.
Light shielding: A bright white light that totally purifies all energy that contacts it, similar to the robe of white light. Different colored lights can work too, but they all have specific purposes that you should research first.
Ether shielding: Sometimes this works like a portal, transporting all malevolent energy to another place in the universe. Just make sure to set the intention that things in your best and highest interest aren’t affected, and that the travel won’t severely harm anyone who is transported by the portal (since sometimes negative energy can come from just someone in a bad mood).
Chaos shielding: Not always considered an element, but with the idea of scattering any negative energy–the sudden increase in entropy raises the vibration to something more positive.
Shadow and smoke shielding: Imagining either element around you, mostly for cloaking and making your energy less obvious. This is great for astral projection and spiritual travel when you don’t want to be noticed. You can infuse the energy with an intention of how you want to be perceived, like if a threat comes, then you can suddenly raise this shield and make the smoke cause you to seem dangerous, scaring off the opponent.
Halo shielding:
Imagine a series of halos that spin quickly around you, moving to knock away negative energy if it approaches your space. This can be inside or outside of a bubble or light based shield.
Protection charms and enchanted objects:
Work made by you, when you have a lot of experience, in creating a sigil charm or enchanted object meant for protection. This can also be from someone who has passed down a family protection amulet (just research it and bathe it in light to clear any possible negative energy on it), or from an experienced energy worker making protection amulets, charms, or objects.
Some are religiously charged, like crosses, pentagrams, etc. If this matches your belief, your belief will empower it.
This includes so-called “high” magick techniques, ritual and lore descending from the European grimoire traditions, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and Thelema. Witches, consider reading some of these; I’ve noticed a lot of us don’t get much exposure to these systems!
Modern Magick, by Donald Michael Kraig. I received this as a gift several years ago. It is essentially a workbook meant to be completed slowly, step by step, and while the format will not appeal to everyone, it’s a good easy-to-read introduction to ceremonial magick.
Familiar Spirits, by Donald Tyson. Though geared towards ceremonialists, any practitioner can likely learn a thing or two from Tyson’s interesting stroll through the whys and wherefores of spirit work and thoughtform creation. This is by far the best book I’ve seen on the topic of familiar spirits.
Secrets of High Magick, by Francis Melville. The most recent edition of this (the one I own) is lavishly-illustrated and full of rudimentary, yet useful information. He stresses the basics of ceremonial practice, and his writing style is very accessible. Highly recommended for absolute beginners.
My Life With The Spirits, by Lon Milo DuQuette. This is a memoir of a ceremonial magician, but it gives a good look at the magickal mindset in a highly developed form from someone who’s experienced quite a lot. I have major issues with DuQuette’s approach to Qabalah, but his memoirs are worth a read.
The Essential Enochian Grimoire, by Aaron Leitch. If you are interested in the Enochian system of Angelic magick, but don’t know where to start, this book is a good bet. Heavy on history, it provides a lot of content for the goings-on that led to the Enochian system, as well as practical advice for beginning Enochian scrying.
Ascension Magick, by Christopher Penczak.This is a good book for those who’re already familiar with witchcraft, but want to jump into ritual magick, as well. It has a very broad scope and not as much detail as one might want, but is good for beginners.
Portable Magick, by Donald Tyson. No tools? No problem! In this book, Tyson describes a method of working Golden Dawn-style ceremonial magick using only Tarot, thus making it excellent for mages on the go or those who practice in secret.
Please note that the Amazon links above are affiliate, meaning I actually get a bit of pocket money if you buy the books via the links! This is desirable, of course, because it allows me to purchase more Red Bull to fuel my writing.
What is it? These books cover that, the history of this approach to magic, and more! Check them out!
I’ve also included a few books that aren’t necessarily chaos in description, but have a wholly postmodern bent. I hope you find something you like!
Liber Null and Psychonaut, by Peter Carroll. Classic book of chaos magick. I consider it required reading for almost anyone interested in the occult. Even if you have no love for chaos magick, do give it a read, just to understand how influential Carroll is, and why.
Liber Kaos, by Peter Carroll. Another Carroll classic! Written primarily for students of Carroll’s magical order, the Illuminates of Thanateros, this book gives a full curriculum that might be followed by the budding chaos magician. If you’re interested in the philosophical underpinnings of chaos magic, this is a good book for you, too.
Practical Sigil Magic, by Frater UD. This unusual book focuses entirely on sigilization techniques. It borrows a lot from Carroll, and quick googling will tell you that the author’s relationship with him and his order was quite colorful. Offers many innovative ideas for sigilization. Worth a read!
Hands-On Chaos Magic, by Andrieh Vitimus. Knowing some of the people involved in the creation of this book, I’m a bit biased towards it. That said, even if I didn’t know them, I would still recommend it. It’s especially interesting to read alongside Liber Null and Psychonautin order to see how the chaos “current” has developed over the years.
Pop Culture Magic 2.0 by Taylor Ellwood. There aren’t a lot of books on using pop culture symbolism in magick, but this one is nearly perfect. The author writes in a highly erudite, literate fashion, while still being accessible to newbies. Many useful resources cited, as well, so prepare to branch off a bit while reading it.
Pop Culture Magic Systems, by Taylor Ellwood. Another work from @teriel, this one covers the do-it-yourself aspect of pop culture occult techniques, and building your own system. Definitely recommended for the chaos-minded, and anyone intersecting magick and pop culture.
Instant Magick, by Christopher Penczak. This book covers simple, quick magick without tools, and goes in-depth about the theory behind a results-oriented magical practice. Beginners will like this book, but it is best read slowly and while completing the exercises in it.
City Magick, by Christopher Penczak. While some long for agrarian times past, many witches inhabit urban landscapes. This book takes an innovative and very results-oriented approach to urban spirit interaction and magick. Recommended even for beginners, and obviously, any urban witches.
I hope you found something that interests you on this list! I’ll be posting more installments in this series of book recommendations, organized by topic. You can find all the ones so far here, under my #annobib tag. Also, if you buy the books via the links above, I get some pocket money which I will not spend on Red Bull energy drinks.
So, if you’ve been practicing as a chaos magician for a little while now, good work! If not, and this stuff sounds cool enough that you would like to get started, check out Chaos Magic 101 [here]!
After a bit of practice, you should now be well versed in things like firing sigils using the SPLIFF method (Remember, from [Oven Ready Chaos]), meditating, learning a divination system or two.
By now you may have also branched out and tested tech from other systems of magick like candle spells (If you’re unfamiliar, Aidan Wachter has a super straightforward method of doing this, which can be found [here]) or Jan Fries’ (author of the criminally underrated book Visual Magick, which you should definitely read and can be found [here]) Cup Meditation / Invocation. Not strictly necessary as of yet to have branched out a bit, but nice work if you’ve found something cool to do.
Either way, the notion that practice doing these things, not the theory behind them, is the best teacher still applies! So be sure to get out there and try some stuff!
After having done this whole chaos magick thing for a bit, you may be wondering where to go from here, or encountered some sort of problem that requires a solution little more finesse or a little more longevity than a sigil can provide. If this is the case, a viable solution may be constructing a servitor to complete the task at hand.
“But Key, What the Hell is a Servitor?”
I’m glad you asked! An easy way to think of a servitor when you’re still a beginner is as a sigil that has come alive; some small creature that’s reason for being is solving a problem, completing a task, manipulating the probability of an outcome, or something along those lines. There’s a bit more nuance to it than that (if you’re really curious, and willing to be more than a little confused, there are some good theory discussions found [here]) but for now this operative explanation should hold up just fine.
“Okay, so how do I make a servitor?”
So here’s where things can get a little weird. From what I’ve seen, there isn’t one super uniform and universally accepted way to do this. Also, there are a few examples [here] [here] of sigils somehow evolving into Servitors all on their own. That said, there are a number of internally consistent methods and ideas that chaos magicians utilize regardless of procedure.
From this, I propose the following general model, which has been pieced together through a combination of my own experience, the experiences of extremely good chaos magicians, resources available in print, and resources available on chaosmatrix for use here:
1. Decide on a goal and state it out loud with as much conviction and certainty as you can. Classically this is just called the statement of intent, which was and still can be a big deal for old chaos magick rites.
2. Decide on a name for the servitor. Make this something a bit uncommon, such that a friend won’t bop in to your room and accidentally call the name of a thought ghost and ask it to bring them a coke.The necessity of names is a mildly warm take with a lot of discourse surrounding it but I find this to be an important step for a lot of reasons:
names have power, the act of naming someone or something has a ton of weight behind it
it’s an easy way to address and call up the servitor
in the event something goes wrong, names are a classic (some of the oldest “western” magick we know of, seen [here], does this way to gain magical leverage and increase the efficacy of what you’re doing.
3. Make 2 sigils as you learned to do in Oven Ready Chaos. The first one will be just like a normal sigil that you’d make to solve this problem. For example, let’s say you’re making a servitor to draw money. You can use a phrase like “it is my will to more frequently find and acquire usable currency” and turn it into a sigil. The second sigil will be the name of your Servitor. Draw these together at the top of a sheet of paper or make some digital art and put it at the top of a document. Draw a circle around them or superimpose these sigils to link them together graphically.
4. Write what’s called the Contract for your Servitor. This is an actual written document that you create that goes through a few super important things:
a.) The linked sigils of the servitor up at the top (as seen in the last bit of step 3)
b.) A phrase linking the sigils and animating the servitor with a goal. This can read something like “I name you (name): in doing so I give you life. I shape you in the image of (what you want the Servitor to look like, which I’ll get to later): in doing so I give you form”
c.) A specific and detailed description of what you want the Servitor to do
d.) A clause along the lines of “in accomplishing your goals you will not bring harm to any being that I care about” if that’s a thing that matters to you
e.) A “Self destruct procedure” That allows you to destroy the Servitor in a very straightforward way. I’ve heard methods of doing this ranging from putting the contract into a fire to saying a nonsense phrase like “your ship has sailed, and that ship is the banana boat to flavor town. May you deep fry in peace” (I shit you not- if there’s one thing us crusty old chaos magicians have it’s a sense of humor). Whatever you do for this, ensure that the procedure won’t just happen accidentally and leaves no room for ambiguity. Also, quick note, THIS STEP IS VERY IMPORTANT DO NOT FORGET TO DO THIS
f.) Some way to link the Servitor to you, if that’s a thing that’s important to the goal.
g.) a method of “feeding” or some way that the Servitor can gain ~energy~ after the fact. This will generally take the form of standard offerings to spirits, such as waiving the contract through incense a few times a month, burning a candle down over the contract every so often, stuff like that.
5. Astute readers may now realize that we’ve kinda gone through the SPL of SPLIFF, so now naturally we move to the I and the first F (hopefully by now you see that there is a huge amount of cross-over between sigils and servitors, which will be discussed at great length along with egregores and godforms in a later post), Intense Gnosis and Fire. For servitor creation, I have found that you need to much deeper into the gnostic state than for anything you would normally do, which takes a lot of practice and experience (and often, although not strictly necessary, in conjunction with a large quantity of psychoactive or otherwise mind-altering substances… quick disclaimer, don’t be dumb. I’m just some dude on the internet so don’t be an idiot with what you choose to do here).
6. While in this deep gnostic state, you will strongly visualize the form of the servitor along with the sigils, as mentioned in steps 3 and 4b. Things will generally get weird by now, but just roll with it. along with this visualization, you will “fire” the linked sigils of the servitor.
7. Perform a beefy preliminary feeding in order to further empower the servitor via whatever method you decided upon in step 4g
8. Set then servitor on its merry way and banish super hard.
Now you may notice that I left out the second F in SPLIFF, and this is entirely intentional. It is important that you do not forget about your servitors, or else they may “go rogue”, meaning they may try to subvert your goals in addition to gaining pseudo-sentience which is usually problematic. This can cause a lot of problems later on down the road (astral parasite anyone?), so it’s advised that at the early signs of a servitor going rogue (such as problems with functionality, mild poltergeist activity, problems with feeding, divination telling you something is wrong relation to function or work, etc) to evaluate the contact and the methods of feeding. At this point, if a workable, fast solution does not become apparent, deletion is recommended.
Servitors going rogue is a problem faced by many people when they are beginners, including me back in the day (my former roommate still thinks that the dorm is haunted, sorry bud), but it’s a nice experience to have at some point in terms of learning what to do when magick inevitably explodes in your face and addressing it in an intelligent, workable manor. Plus, how will you ever learn if you don’t try? As always, practice over theory.
So that’s about it for the method, so let’s see what the practice may actually look like.
Let’s say you, a budding chaote, decide that you could use a bit more love in your life. Although you’ve found that sigils are nice for some one-off scenarios like finding a hookup at a club or a bar, you want something a bit longer lasting.
As such, you decide that a servitor is the right solution for you.
You decide upon the statement of intent, “It is my will to encounter a compassionate romantic partner” and turn it into a glyph. You also decide on the name FlimFlamZimZam for the servitor and make this into a glyph as well, combining it with the first. You run through the GPR twice to fully banish before the rest of the process. You write up a contract, stating that you want the servitor to function until you enter into a romantic relationship with a caring partner, after which the servitor will cease to exist. You ensure the inclusion of a destruct code, and add your spit atop the combined glyphs to link the servitor to you alone. You also include that you’ll burn a stick of musk incense atop the contract once a week until the task is complete. You then enter a state of intense excitatory gnosis by downing a few caffeine pills and listening to [this] on loop at max volume for an hour or so. You enter the deep, trance-like gnosis, and visualize the servitor atop the seal, shaping it into what you want it to be. After the state winds down, you light some musk as per the contract and banish with the GPR once more.
Afterwards, you pull a tarot card, asking about the state of the servitor. You draw The World upright, indicating that the servitor is up and at ‘em finding you a partner already. You decide that this is good enough, so you put on your favorite sweater and black skinny jeans, head to your favorite coffee shop, only to have the cute guy from your linguistics seminar sit down next to you, offer to get you a cappuccino, and awkwardly ask you to see a New Primals show later that night. You go to the show and have a complete blast, and enter into a fun little relationship for the rest of the semester.
Hope that this helps out and provides some clarity in the murky world of creating servitors. If you got any questions or just want to talk magick, feel free to drop me an ask or shoot me a DM.
This has been Chaos Magick 102 of the Chaos Magic for Beginners series, where there will be more posts on a variety of subjects coming soon.
How to Get Started as a Chaos Magician, with Links and PDFs
Step 1: start to meditate daily. This is not particularly complicated and will do you a world of good both in your magickal and mundane life. [here] is a no-nonsense video in which some breath control and meditation techniques are explained by some navy seals.
Step 2: Go out and get 2 notebooks, they can even be google docs or word documents. Doesn’t matter what they are so long as you have 2 distinct places to write shit down. Use notebook 1 as a dream journal and stick with it daily. Write down as much detail as you can, and even if you don’t remember dreaming write down “I do not remember any dreams I had yesterday night”. Notebook 2 is your magic notebook. In this you will take very detailed notes about any operation you do, the results, analysis of any failure that may occur, etc. Treat this thing like a lab notebook from a science class: to get anything out of this in the future you’ll not want to slack off when something works.
Step 3: It is often recommended in posts like these to begin the process of learning 2 divination systems. Yes, 2. One of these should be some esoteric shit like Tarot (I recommend the classic Rider-Waite-Smith for beginners) or I Ching, and a yes/no or more straightforward system like Pendulum or Geomancy (which is super cool to learn because it can become unto itself a system of magick as you become more advanced, for example this). Learning 2 systems in this way has a few advantages, such as having a reliable system to determine if your magick is working as you expect (and if it is not, why), as a gauge of events to come, and potentially communication with entities that arise throughout the course of your work.
Step 4: Read Oven Ready Chaos [PDF] by Phil Hine. It’s super short, pretty funny, and to the point. The key takeaways from this text are methods of attaining gnosis and the SPLIFF technique of sigilization, which is in theory the most basic discreet unit of magick.
Step 4.5: While you’re downloading Oven Ready Chaos, Dig around on Chaosmatrix [here]. Some of the articles can be a bit silly (bonus points if you can find the story about a dancing bear helping you get a job), but if you use your best judgement and treat everything on there as though a strange old man were yelling it to you across a busy street, there are some real gems.
Step 5: Begin to apply the above tips and tricks alongside the methods contained within Oven Ready Chaos to shape reality around you. In your explorations, you may find other systems of magick from which chaos magick “technology” [referred to as tech, these are the spells and techniques adapted from other systems or developed within the chaos magick paradigm for use by the magician], which you are encouraged to explore. The emphasis in this step is application- practice is so much more useful than theory at almost all levels of experience in chaos magick.
Step 6: You’ll eventually want to learn a method of “Banishing”, which is the fancy name for a ritual act that helps protect you from any magickal dust, grime, wear, and tear that you may pick up along the way. The best banishing procedure for beginners is likely the Gnostic Pentagram Ritual, which can be found [here]. It’s Great for beginnersand experienced magicians alikebecause it’s surprisingly effective and pretty fun- who doesn’t like to spin in circles and say IEAOU while drawing pentagrams in the air?
So what does this all look like in practice?
Lets say you wake up one morning and remember a distinctly vivid dream. You roll over in bed, grab your notebook, and write down the gist of the dream and any important personal symbolism that may have appeared. After this, you go and put on a pot of coffee. While you wait for it to brew you sit quietly in the kitchen and practice box breathing technique until the coffee is done. Over coffee and a bowl of cereal, you grab your shiny new tarot deck and draw a card, both to familiarize yourself with the meanings of the cards and to get a general overview of how the day may go. Let’s say you draw the 3 of Pentacles Reversed, indicating that there may be some problems at work today. Seeing this, you decide that you should do some quick magick to make yourself more agreeable to your coworkers, and decide on making a sigil using the hot new SPLIFF method you just read about. You decide on the phrase “I will have positive interactions with my coworkers today” and turn it into a glyph, use a breath control technique to induce gnosis, and fire away. You ditch the sigil and get the process out of your mind, then go about the rest of your day. You avoid any conflict at work, and have a surprisingly pleasant day, even with those coworkers that you aren’t super fond of. Once you get home, you write down in your magick journal what card you drew, how you interpreted the card, what you did about it, and if what you did worked. Before bed, something in your gut feels slightly off, so you decide to perform the Gnostic Pentagram Ritual before getting into bed. You run through the script and feel much better after the fact, making a quick note of this in your magick journal for the day. You go to bed, satisfied that you’re on your way to becoming a competent chaos magician.
This has been Part 1 in what will hopefully be a long series of posts about doing practical magick and how to actually approach systems of magick in an effective way. Feel free to drop asks with any questions.
Occult Aspects 