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My evil twin

18:09 / 25.02.03

This user name of mine is also the name of a character I regularly use in short stories - a sort of alter ego on whom I can dump all the shit things that occasionally happen. I've been using him for years. Problem is, recently, in the past couple of years, I can feel the aspects of this character beginning to seep into my every day life. If I do anything stupid or drunken or cruel, it feels like he's taking over. Any magical suggestions on how to banish this alter ego from my subconscious would be more than appreciated!

18:29 / 25.02.03

Well...perhaps if you stop writing about this character, that will cut off the flow of energy somewhat...

Also, it will help tremendously if you accept and take responsibility for your stupid, drunken or cruel aspects. They are as much "you" as your other bits, and you are the only one who can really do anything about the destruction they may be causing in your life.

Siphoning them off into another 'alter-ego' does more harm than good, and keeps you from really connecting with yourself (which is crucial for creative types).

Good luck.

19:36 / 25.02.03

Why not really, really give in to the character? Seriously. Invoke your dark alter ego as you would a god. Bait it with some heinous desire. Really, really go all-out for the 'evil you' vibe - for me, that involved creating little Nazi-style banners with a logo representing my dark side on 'em: appealing to my nastiness by associating it with one of the ultimate symbols of evil in history (it also appealed because, of course, on some level, my evil side really did want to take over the world and tell everybody what to do).

Then, before you achieve gnosis completely, destroy the sigil representing your evil desire, and banish the invoked badguy persona into some pre-arranged soul trap - a mirror works well, for example. Slap some wards on it PDQ, too. And then banish with laughter - evil personas are notoriously humourless.

Once you've had time to adjust, you can undo the spell and let the darkness - which, as Babooshka points out, is better integrated than rejected - back in, but this time as a properly managed part of your self, and not some Mr Hyde persona.

It worked for me, anyway.

19:51 / 25.02.03

Genius idea Velvetvandal! I think you're right about reconciling evil aspects on the whole, and the idea of a temporary soul trap appeals. Something that's going to take me some time to work on, but the general ritual sounds good. It's the unhealthiness of siphoning off evil aspects into an alter ego that caused the problem in the first place, so finding some kind of balance is obviously the way of preventing it happening again.

Thanks!