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Selecting techniques for a particular task

  
 
trouser the trouserian
07:18 / 11.02.04
Here's a poser. What criteria do we appply when selecting a particular magical technique to accomplish something. For example, let's say I want to attract a particular rare volume into my orbit, so to aid my searches in secondhand bookshops, library sales, ebay and the like, I decide to perform a magical operation. There are several ways I could go about this:
(a) I could propitiate a particular deity who is associated with books (for example Thoth, or Ganesha).
(b) I could evoke a spirit from a grimoire such as the Lemegeton and charge it to carry out my demand
(c) I could create a servitor who's task would be to hunt down the book on my behalf.
(d) I could just do a sigil.

My question here is not 'how' to go about doing this, but on what basis does one select a particular method over another? Is it just a question of personal preference? Is time a factor (i.e. doing a full-scale invocation is going to take longer than just scribbling a sigil on the back of a bus ticket)? Or is one method deemed to be more efficacious than another? And if so, from what criteria?
 
 
agvvv
09:20 / 11.02.04
I think it comes down to personal preference, say you believe creating a servitor is the most efficent method for a specific task..well, then it is. I base this on the criteria that all magick is based on belief, atleast thats what I believe
 
 
illmatic
09:43 / 11.02.04
From where my head is at right now, I'd say that part of the selection procedure would be "glamour", something that creates "belief" in our working - so for instance, the reading of psalms, candles, a designated altar space and a hand drawn tailsman would perhaps be more effective thatn just doodling a sigil here - creating the "theatre of magick". The fact that you've made an effort, have thought about things and made some sort of commitment is to me, more likely to make your working resonant than doodling a sigil because you can't be bothered to do anything else. This also brings into play previous commitments or relationships with deities or spirits - if you've offered up worship every quarter of the moon regardless for the last few months regardless - that feeling of "this will work" is perhaps stronger.

I suppose I sound like a traditonalist here wich is not necessairly where I'm coming from. I think time is defintely a factor - I don't want to knock people who can work stuff "off the cuff" but I thought it was worth putting over that perspective.
 
 
trouser the trouserian
10:41 / 11.02.04
Interesting perspective, Illmatic - the idea that the more 'commitment' you apply to an operation, the more likely you will 'believe' it's going to be effective. Not sure I'd agree personally, as I feel that if I'm going to use magic (of whatever approach) to affect an outcome, then it's going to be effective, much in the same way that if I slip a letter into a postbox, it's going to go 'somewhere'.

It does make me think of another way of thinking about criteria, in terms of how 'personally important' the outcome of an operation is for me. I'm probably more likely to commit to doing a major working if the intended outcome is highly 'important' - such as speeding along the process of getting a new job or finding a new place to live. If I'm not so bothered about the outcome - to use the example above - finding a particular book - I'm more likely just to put my book-finding servitor on the case and leave it to do its stuff.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
10:44 / 11.02.04
For me, I think it’s a question of trying to tailor the sorcery as closely as possible to what I want to achieve, which is one of the reasons I find sigils a bit clumsy and imprecise. With the sigil method, all you can really do is bugger about with the statement of intent. The way in which you perform the magic doesn’t really change, and the only way you can vary the pressure or narrow the scope of the working is by changing the initial wording. I find this a bit limiting for a lot of stuff as it’s one step removed from the actual operation itself and doesn’t give you a lot of options for control. It feels a bit like trying to layout complex news pages on Word rather than Quark, if you know what I mean.

There’s also the whole issue of having to forget your sigils in order for them to be fully effective, which I think is only really appropriate in certain situations. If a particular intent is closely linked to what we might call genetic survival issues (home, job, sex, money) as a lot of them are, it can be very difficult to let go of the lust for result factor. It’s possible, but requires performing so many mental and emotional cartwheels that this supposedly simple and accessible technique becomes far more complicated and tricky to accomplish than it really should be. If I use sigils at all, I’ll use them on a fairly casual basis, maybe having one or two running in the background from time to time geared to bring favourable things into my life that I’m not overly attached to or likely to obsess over.

The first stage would be to decide how much I want to draw on to get the job done, for instance it might not be appropriate to pull everything that I have access to out of the bag in every instance, particularly as some options could be pretty high risk in terms of cutting deals and making obligations. I tend to have a sliding scale of operation, depending on how much I feel it’s appropriate to draw on and how much I’m prepared to invest in order to get something done. This has to be worked out on a case by-case-basis, and will be conditioned by factors like how audacious my intent is, what sort of connections and relationships I might already have with the relevant powers , and what possible implications there might be if I were to try and force the issue on something rather than just gently nudge it my way.

Often, certain intents might be well- suited to a particular form of working, for instance if someone came to me with a chronic condition such as ‘bad luck’ or lack of confidence, or if they were engaged with a long-term activity such as job hunting, then the best approach might be to construct a talisman or gris-gris bag that they can carry with them and draw from. If a working was closely tied to a physical location such as a house or workplace, then mixing up a sprinkling powder might be the most obvious recourse; if the problem concerned a family matter , it would make sense to get the ancestors involved; and so on.

I think that one of the most valuable aspects of hoodoo and root work is the vast vocabulary of possible magical responses that it makes available to the sorcerer. Each situation can be looked at on an individual basis, and a suitable magical response can be pretty much tailored to fit. Working sorcery might be best considered as a dialogue between yourself and the universe. I personally find that the extended vocabulary of hoodoo allows me to approach results magic with much more control and finesse than just shoehorning all the complexities and subtleties of this dialogue into the broad categories of ‘ sigils, servitors and godforms’ .
 
 
trouser the trouserian
11:10 / 11.02.04
Gypsy
I was reflecting on the complexity issue just as you posted. As you say, sigils are okay for relatively simplistic outcomes. The point you make about 'survival issues' is a good one - and for operations that fall into this category I have tended to seek out the help of a friendly god or three - and one outcome (or byproduct) of the ritual process is that tensions relating to that issue are (temporarily) discharged - or perhaps redirected into the working itself.

Each situation can be looked at on an individual basis, and a suitable magical response can be pretty much tailored to fit.

I do tend to prefer taking a case-by-case approach to sorcery, particularly when there is a complex issue at stake - usually something which requires a high degree of preparation: examining my motivations about intervening; building up a picture of the situation (using a variety of divination systems, for example) etc. Of course this becomes more complex if you are working on behalf of a client - occasionally I have found myself doing something a bit more 'dramatic' than perhaps is necessary (or that I would do if I were undertaking a particular operation for myself), in order to help the client 'believe' in the magic.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
11:40 / 11.02.04
Interesting perspective, Illmatic - the idea that the more 'commitment' you apply to an operation, the more likely you will 'believe' it's going to be effective. Not sure I'd agree personally, as I feel that if I'm going to use magic (of whatever approach) to affect an outcome, then it's going to be effective

From my perspective, I’d say it’s not so much the impact of ‘commitment’ upon your belief that it will work, but has more to do with emotional investment. I think that if you pour your heart and soul into something, be it an act of sorcery, a de-conditioning regime, a song, a painting or story, then the end result is likely to be more successful than if you didn’t fully engage with it at that level. A ‘rubbish in, rubbish out’ kind of principle.

Another reason why I go for the hoodoo stuff, is that it allows me to engage my creativity to a much larger extent than some of other more coldly functional methods of sorcery. Hoodoo allows me to approach each individual working as a unique creative act, with the various roots, herbs and materials functioning as paint and canvas. I think that magic is intimately connected to creativity, and if I find my sorcery is ever becoming this ‘one-size fits all’ programmed response - then all the clout and, well, ‘magic’ starts to disappear from it.
 
 
trouser the trouserian
12:09 / 11.02.04
Hmmn, we do seem to be 'in synch' today, Gypsy. "Creativity" in sorcery is very important for me too. I only tend to use the "one-size-fits-all" approach when I have a low emotional investment in the unfolding situation. When the emotional investment is 'higher', I tend to prefer a creative approach that often involves some element of doing something I've never tried before. Some years ago, after being asked to produce a talisman for a girlfriend, I ended up learning how to make ear-rings out of wire and beads so that she could have a reasonably 'stylish' talisman that did not look too obviously 'occult'. Here, learning a new skill was as much part of the enchantment as breaking the Statement of Intent down into a sigil-form - if not more so.

I feel you've make a good distinction between commitment & belief and emotional investment - pouring your heart and soul into something. In fact I'd go as far as to say that if you "pour your heart and soul" into doing something - be it sorcery, page layout, or art, then 'belief' doesn't really come into it that much.
 
 
trouser the trouserian
12:45 / 11.02.04
As a coda to the above there's that whole idea that "belief shapes reality" which has almost assumed the status of an axiomatic truth for some occultists. The more I reflect on it, the more I disagree. Belief can certainly influence perception, which is often a helluva lot more fuzzy than we often care to admit. A quote from Spare springs to mind:

Were I to crown myself King, should I be King? Rather should I be an object of disgust or pity."
The Book of Pleasure, 1913.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
12:52 / 11.02.04
and one outcome (or byproduct) of the ritual process is that tensions relating to that issue are (temporarily) discharged - or perhaps redirected into the working itself.

Yeah, I think that separate to the overtly magical results, sorcery can function as a form of therapy for processing whatever difficult emotions a situation might have stirred up. It gives you a facility to deal with the issue and then put it aside, which I think can sometimes be a pretty healthy way of responding to a problematic situation. If the ritual itself functions in such a way as to help you let go of the various tensions that have built up around the situation, then it’s also likely to be easier to let go of the whole ‘lust for result’ thing and allow whatever forces you’ve called into play to get on with it.

occasionally I have found myself doing something a bit more 'dramatic' than perhaps is necessary (or that I would do if I were undertaking a particular operation for myself), in order to help the client 'believe' in the magic

A hoodoo doc mate of mine calls this ‘wearing the fez’, putting on a convincing ‘mighty conjuror’ act that will help clients to invest their own belief in his capacity to get things done, because without that the whole procedure is undermined before it gets off the ground. I suppose it’s the whole showman / shaman thing. If I’m working with clients I often like to pass them something like a gris-gris bag as it’s a physical means of transmitting to them a portion of the power that they’ve invested in you – if that makes sense.

Also, I think that the whole showman / theatre of magic approach can be really useful for convincing yourself that you’re capable of effective sorcery – which I think is a pretty important component in this kind of work. The procedures and paraphernalia of hoodoo can help you access this ‘mighty sorcerer’ persona/fiction suit in a way that, say, crouching over a toilet bowl holding a post-it note, frankly can’t.
 
 
trouser the trouserian
14:19 / 11.02.04
Also, I think that the whole showman / theatre of magic approach can be really useful for convincing yourself that you’re capable of effective sorcery which I think is a pretty important component in this kind of work

It can be - at least in the early stages of one's practice - but surely the best way to show yourself that you're "capable of effective sorcery" is to get down and do some until you get a positive result. The problem with the whole "fake it 'til you make it" attitude to being a magician is that by acting from this attitude, you're not being authentic - it's the subtle difference between playing and play-acting - the latter's a lot more conscious and forced, whereas for me effective sorcery is very much akin to play (or any other activity for that matter) where you're absorbed in the process of what you're doing. And if you're working with other people, then "faking it" just looks stupid. Like you can tell the difference quite readily between someone who's genuinely possessed by Ghede, and someone who's just play-acting at being Ghede.

wearing the fez is an important aspect of client-related sorcery that has received relatively little attention - possibly because it's so much bound up with self-presentation directed to other people. I'd recommend three films with three persuasive sorcery personalities: Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka in Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (zany eccentric with dark undercurrents); the late Allan Bennett in The Shout (brooding obsessive) and possibly my all-time favourite - Charles Gray as Mercator in The Devil Rides Out - "I shall not return. But something will. Something will come." (the urbane sophisticate). For all of these characters, their "power" resides very much in how they present themselves to other people, and I'd argue that these movie characters can illustrate a great deal of how to go about presenting oneself as a person of power. The trick is to be able to develop a variety of 'personas' that one can slip in and out of at will, and the test of these is that they have to be persuasive to other people - not merely to oneself.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
14:50 / 11.02.04
but surely the best way to show yourself that you're "capable of effective sorcery" is to get down and do some until you get a positive result.

Yeah, but I think that even after you’ve clocked up a healthy catalogue of successful results, you can still have doubts about your ability to positively change stuff particularly if it appears pretty fixed or inevitable, or if you have a strong personal attachment or vested interest in the outcome. In this sort of situation I think it can be handy to step outside of your everyday self – that may have just had a stressful day at work or an annoying journey home – and take on a persona that can sort stuff out. I tend to use a variety of ritual steps to get me from whatever state of mind I might be in, to the place I need to be within myself to work effective sorcery. I’d relate this procedure to ‘wearing the fez’ even though there may be no client involved.
 
 
trouser the trouserian
15:07 / 11.02.04
Fair enough comment Gypsy - it's rather like the classical idea of the 'magical self' - the 'hat' you put on (as it were) whenever you do a ritual, meditate, or take a deep breath - a way of focusing/self-remembering. Some people associate this state with, say, putting on a magical robe or ring, or just making subtle changes to posture. It's kind of analogous to straightening your tie before going into an important meeting.

And of course having 'doubts' occasionally is not necessarily a bad thing. Being critical of both oneself and one's practice is very necessary occasionally in order to maintain a sense of perspective.
 
  
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