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Mordants Magickal Books

  
 
agvvv
10:44 / 02.05.05
From
Useful Techniques for a Well Rounded Sorceror

First get your book. Pick one that's appropriate for the task at hand--a book to create a glamor might be pink and sparkly, a book to improve health might be blue, ect. You can also decorate the cover to suit your needs; acrylic paints are good for this. If you feel the pages need to be a particular colour you can paint them with ink.

Next, cleanse the book. You can do this using any of your favourite ritual cleansing techniques. I like to brush salt over mine and then pass them through smoke from incense or similar.

Dedicate the book to your purpose and bind it to you. I usually make up a little verse which I read aloud over the book and also write on the inside cover. I sign the verse, then drop a blob of wax underneath and make a thumb-print. (There's always the whole body-fluid thing if you play that way.)

Now you've got your book, what do you put in it? Well, anything you want, really. I draw sigils, write affirmations or mantras, doodle, write fantasy scenarios connected with the intended outcome, write random words or sentences or little poems. One could also add other items, like articles clipped from newspapers or pressed flowers and leaves. The important thing is to add a little to the book every day until you fill it up. Then you can either dispose of it or use it as a way to refocus on your goal, thumb through it when you need a boost or whatever.

Now this really sparked my interest. Tell us more Mordant. How does it work? Hypersigil-ish? Also, anyone else had any experience with this kinda thing? I feel the need to evolve a little further from the endless sigil casting, and maybe this is a good place to start.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
11:19 / 02.05.05
How does it work? Hypersigil-ish?

Jeeze, I dunno. It just does. I'm wary of the word "hypersigil" because... it sort of doesn't mean anything. You know?

I started doing this about 3 1/2 years ago, mostly for little stuff, personality overhauling, that kind of thing. I was getting some okay results (getting better jobs and things like that) but I kind of stopped when I began travelling.

My biggest project is a book consecrated for major personal change and magical advancement. I started it about 3 years ago.

This thing is fairly wild, sort of a quest item. It looks totally innocuous, just this girly excercise book, until you open it up... See, I was consecrating it with a short mirror-written passage outlining the kind of changes I was after (revelation, advancement, knowledge, power) and being at that time a bit of a twinkie, I was planning on binding it to me with ash from a sigil and a bit of saliva. But the magic had other ideas and I'd no sooner finished the mirror-writing than I had one of my most spectacular nosebleeds evah, all over the title page.

Anyway I was duly filling this thing up with scraps of narrative, random thoughts, dreams, notes, metaphors, ect., when I moved country.

And I lost it.

Now, this is around the time, I'm pretty sure, that someone decided I was getting a bit too big for their boots and slapped a binding on me. Funny thing: it wasn't two weeks after my New Year's uncrossing spell that the book mysteriously re-appeared amidst some unrelated papers.

So since that time I've been re-engaging with this artifact to some effect. It's not the nicest little volume, to be sure; it's more of a space to big myself up, explore the darker stuff, to go wild, without worrying about restraints or limitations. It includes scenes of bitter defeat as well as of victory because I need to be ready for both, to know that I can get up from defeat. As well as the text, it contains several iterations of a transformatory sigil which I sometimes trace, taste, use as a mediation focus, whatever. I try to either write in it or read from it every night.

I've recently developed a practice of taking scraps of paper from the book, adorning them with this sigil and some keywords ("Strength," "Power," "Courage," "Passion," that kind of thing), ritually burning them and drinking the ashes mixed with wine. I'm part of the Book. The Book is part of me.
 
 
agvvv
17:54 / 02.05.05
Jeeze, I dunno. It just does. I'm wary of the word "hypersigil" because... it sort of doesn't mean anything. You know?

Yeah, I know. Quite wary of it myself, just couldnt come up with anything to replace it with. What I was getting at was; if you write a short story in there - or a dream etc.,does it manifest itself in reality in some way or another? Or is it the general purpose behind the book that "counts"?

I guess I just have to try it myself. This is exactly the sort of thing I need at the moment. Thanks for sharing Mordant. And good luck on your quest!
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
00:03 / 03.05.05
What I was getting at was; if you write a short story in there - or a dream etc.,does it manifest itself in reality in some way or another?

I've never actually tried writing down any narrative as coherent as a short story, preferring to feed my books on snippets of stream-of-consciousness. But yeah, some of these things have manifested themselves--not necessarily in Reality, as such, because that's not where they were pointed when I pulled the trigger; but in my magical practice and other such nebulous zones.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
00:07 / 03.05.05
And yes, do go for it.

Um, listen, I don't know why but I'm getting a serious pressed-flowers vibe here. Brush up on your herb-lore, magical significance of certain plants, ect. Use them in your book. Don't negelct mushroom spore prints.

And don't ask me what I meant by all that. I haven't a clue, I'm just taking dictation here.
 
 
agvvv
00:11 / 03.05.05
Always loved pressed flowers. Sounds jolly good, thanks again
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
00:32 / 03.05.05
One other clarification:

When I say I write my dreams in the magic books, it's not the same as when I write up my dream dictionary.

For a start, it's a more selective effort: All dreams go in my dream journal, but I also write up dreams in the books where they seem relevant. Like if I dream about winning a big ol' swordfight, that goes in my Hero book. If I dream about making a beautiful necklace, that goes in my Craft book.

For another thing, it's a more skewed take on the dream. In the dream journal I appraise the whole experience as cooly and objectively as I can, including my emotional reactions. In my dream journal, the big ol' swordfight might be described thusly:

"I meet my adversary on an empty field. I don't see any people, houses, or other buildings but I am aware of being watched. I feel afraid. My adversary approaches. He or she is taller and more muscular that I; yet in the dream I feel unthreatened. We compete; I decapitate my foe. In the dream I feel a sense of acheivement, almost euphoric. (NB: Gawain + green knight? Google soonest. PS--why chocolate? Also ink-cap mushrooms.)"

Whereas in the Hero book the same dream might be reported thus:

"Okay so I'm in this place, right, with no mates or ANYTHING! And I feel like people are watching me and stuff, but then the Bad Guy turns up with a big ol' sword, and we FIGHT! And he's all like Haha, you're short and fat and you suck, and them I'M like, well fuck you, I've just had your head off with a BIG SWORD! Fucking ROCK! And then I..." ect ect.
 
 
Katherine
05:51 / 05.05.05
Sounds a bit like my books, have one's for herbal stuff (I'm not actively looking at the magical uses for them but general stuff and seeing where it takes me) and one of thoughts on things mixed with quotes from books which have sparked an interest, add some pictures;hand drawen and not then with a dash of ideas and things I'm working on.

Strangely I don't tend to read what I have written once I've finished writing it, but wait until I have started another book then read back, it's interesting to see how in the life of that book you change and evolve your views and practices. Until I started doing this I wouldn't have believed just how much, sure I knew I would have changed my mind of some stuff but just how much?

The one thing I would say, after picking out your book and customising it and stuff....is don't be afraid to write in it. Sounds daft but if you have spent a bit of time on things you can develop a bit of fear that what ever you write will be daft and wreak the book you have spent that much time on.
I have one book where I have covered up mistakes with drawings or pictures and another where it's actually now useful to see writings I have crossed out.

Anyways sorry to hijack the thread.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
07:12 / 05.05.05
you can develop a bit of fear that what ever you write will be daft and wreak the book you have spent that much time on.

Oh, man, tell me about it! Yes, absolutely, you can't let fear get in the way. It's important to write in them regularly, I reckon. Daily, more if poss.
 
 
Katherine
19:24 / 05.05.05
Once you start it gets easier. Although I do remember the first book I had to write in, it had a pretty handmade cover and to start with things when very well writing in it. But once I got a few pages done that I really liked and thought were brilliant (I know, I know, a tad vain but I was young) then I worried about what I was going to write next and would it match the rest. Still have the book but I haven't written in it since.

After that I started to write but not read until I have finished writing in the whole book. One thing I have started to do is when I'm reading back on what I have written is to add some drawings and page decorations to stuff which is still the way I work and highly important. I don't transfer stuff from book to book but by doing this kind of re-visiting I feel I have a better link to it.

Although the whole burning and drinking the pages in wne is an interesting idea, I'm interested in how that would pan out.
 
  
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