Magic Circle

Rituals, spells, prayer, meditation and magical acts.
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LunaticSun
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Re: Magic Circle

Post by LunaticSun »

From viewpoint of LaVey, who was trying to oppose church and Wicca anywhere he could, magical circles are cheating x).
For thats basically like photoshooting a shark when you or shark or even both of you are in cages.
And according to all of the books you can find about demons on the net, these circles are not eternal, and you might need several of them to hold the danger at bay.... To me all this idea of measurement of demons' power and hierarchy, and the circles is like a fantasy fanfiction, but all of these precautions may influence you subconsciously, diminish your confidence and put whole rite at risk. Because what if the invisible barrier that a visible circle represents is already broken by the invisible forces?? :shock: AAA, abandon the temple! We just unlocked a hell gaaate!
So that is the second reason i abstain from circles, no matter how cool they might look. Cos why bother and worry, just perform a rite, be honest and presumably nothing should hurt you.
Yet, one can make up circles for other purposes except protection or concealing. And the destruction of circle could be a symbolic part of the ceremony.

Also, I tried visualizing a cube with runes once. My imagination abilities were at lowest tho, but it seems like both - a cool practise on its own, and a nice alternative to physical figures that can span all over the walls and wherever you want. Who knows, why not build your own virtual temple or chamber? Or an imaginary representation of your mind?
PS: ooh no it's 3 am
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Nefastos
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Re: Magic Circle

Post by Nefastos »

LunaticSun wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 3:07 amFrom viewpoint of LaVey, who was trying to oppose church and Wicca anywhere he could, magical circles are cheating x).
For thats basically like photoshooting a shark when you or shark or even both of you are in cages.

Ah! The problem here is that demonic presences are not like sharks after all. They do not move in physical spaces, nor will they devour people instantly, but instead they merge with the minds summoning them. People who are very adversely "touched by demons" are usually completely ignorant of the fact (and might preach ardently against many supposed demonisms).

"Forming a circle" means that one focuses his or her mind into a unificated fortress that denies entry from possessing & mesmerizing entities. It is a great help to create that circle physically (the most important reason is the one of correspondences), but the actual magic circle is inside one's mind. In case that is not intact, the entity summoned will drive one more or less insane, or the summoning did not function. For, let me repeat, demons are not outer, spatial beings: they are psychic (~psychological) beings, and function in an energetical sphere of mind.

Instead of "photoshooting the sharks" example (are we photoshooting the spirits? Hopefully that's not our reason to summon them!) I'd say that working with spirits is like working with radiactive materials. One is perfectly capable of juggling with radioactive items and laughing: "Haha, you feared these little sticks for nothing!" Yet he will suffer horribly later, because the danger that juggling presented was in a different, invisible level. In case one is careless in summoning entities & still manages to contact them, resulting things will take of shape of, say, alcoholism, disabling depression, schizophrenia, mania, drug-addiction, pangs of violence, phobias. It is not that the spirits will literally tear apart his physical body: that folkloric presentation means that the demons will tear apart one's precious inner coherence, and he will end up in the path of descension, that will destroy and/or pervert the magician's auric integrity.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Polyhymnia
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Re: Magic Circle

Post by Polyhymnia »

Nefastos wrote: Thu Jan 14, 2021 5:53 pm Yet he will suffer horribly later, because the danger that juggling presented was in a different, invisible level. In case one is careless in summoning entities & still manages to contact them, resulting things will take of shape of, say, alcoholism, disabling depression, schizophrenia, mania, drug-addiction, pangs of violence, phobias. It is not that the spirits will literally tear apart his physical body: that folkloric presentation means that the demons will tear apart one's precious inner coherence, and he will end up in the path of descension, that will destroy and/or pervert the magician's auric integrity.
Is this where exorcism would come into play?
"Limited love asks for possession of the beloved, but the unlimited asks only for itself." -Kahlil Gibran
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Nefastos
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Re: Magic Circle

Post by Nefastos »

It might. I believe that the possibility of exorcism depends on the factors of several wills: the will of the patient, of the exorcist, and of the indwelling entities (or, we can say, in order to make this a little less loaded: "the direction & intensity of mental disorders").

In case the patient himself is not truly interested in spiritual healing (though he might claim to be), and yet retains a great part of his own mind left, that individual even though latent part of his egoic mind will almost automatically make the exorcism fail: it is like an auto-immunity system that will take in only the things he sees as positive. And if his mind is still in the state that he sees his demonic guest positive and its banishing negative, all attempts for the latter will fail. Which is good: for this is what gives us sad human beings even a portion of individual will; our auric coherence that keeps out those astral currents that we do not choose – consciously or, more often, subconsciously – to let in. If we could be forced out of our self-chosen astral waters, we would only be slaves for the stronger wills all around us. Now we have at least to be manipulated into accepting these "vessels of iniquity" as positive things in our life.

As it comes to the person of exorcist, we know the drill from the books & movies, presented there symbolically. Unless one is not balanced in his own faith, he will fail. And even if he is certain in a healthy, uplifting way, he will most likely receive a shock from the contact, because some negative things will most likely leak out & strike his personal vitality. Just like a doctor who is unhealthy will most likely make his close patients even less healthy, and even if he is healthy himself, he might catch the disease he tries to cure. On the other hand, it is just the acknowledging of this possibility that makes possible for himself to actually fight with empathy & positive zeal. For he is never an omnipotent figure who comes to save the patient, but a co-sufferer, who must face the equal danger in order to help his fellow man with love.

Thirdly, about the demonic entities themselves – those shattered foci of mental disorders –: they are hard to exorcize unless they are polarized differently than the patient (and the exorcist!) himself. I do not mean that the act of exorcism should necessarily be a "fight": it can also be an intense wrestle done in love. (One can sometimes be able to feel sorry even for the demonic remnants and their pain, which naturally also has its origin in some long past tragedy.) But if the problem has dynamism that is shared by the one who is trying to cast it out, or if the exorcism would end up banishing most of the patient's own entangled soul as well, there is little hope that any lasting good will come from the attempt.

Summa summarum, the succesful exorcism has many demands. The patient himself must see it necessary in the subconscious level, in order to let his own auric immunity system to help rather than hinder the exorcist. The patient must have tried very hard to cast the indwelling entity out by himself, or his own energy is so fused with it, that the exorcism will be impossible. The entity itself must present a vice or failing of a different temperament than the exorcist himself presents, or any smallest shortcoming the latter has connected to it will make his attempt short-circuit, unless rare special help is received.

* * *

When speaking of exorcisms, we naturally think first the W.P. Blatty type flashy rituals. But actually there is an exorcism process for every human principle, and many of these are preferable to that banishing by pure will:

Linga sharîra: The patient's energetical flux is repeatedly injected with the healthier fluid of the exorcist (by laying on hands, or other forms of mesmeric contact)
Kâma rupa: One's positive astral independency is encouraged with constant and demanding practices, in order to grow muscles that will expell the unwanted entity
Kâma manas: The forms of the classic psychoanalysis, reaching gradually the healing inner catharsis
Prâna: The patient is thoroughly suffused with essences that are contrary by nature (of "correspondences") to that of his inner tormentor
Manas: Like kâma manas, but instead of "classic", more esoteric i.e. holistic approach to psychoanalysis is used instead
Buddhi: The patient receives (and accepts, by becoming worthy of) the love of the exorcist, and its auric substance lets him build himself anew
Âtma: "Classic" exorcism that struggles with the forces of entities in a direct fashion

Some of these processed would need very special kind of knowledge almost lost to man (e.g. prânic banishment, which is applied by medical treatments today, but will mostly fail with our present kind of knowledge on the subject). Some do not need as much special knowledge than an outstanding character and the health and vitality of the soul from the exorcist. But in every case – less so in some techniques and more so in some others – we must remember that the exorcist is pressing his own personal dynamism on the subject, and because of that there must be a tremendous trust to ask for that kind of help & being actually able to receive it.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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LunaticSun
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Re: Magic Circle

Post by LunaticSun »

Thank you, that's a very valuable knowledge
Mars
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Re: Magic Circle

Post by Mars »

Nefastos wrote: Tue May 26, 2020 2:11 pm Considering how little this kind of discussions draw participants, it seems that our writers either are not much into ceremonial magic
I'm not into ceremonial magic, because of these reasons:
Nefastos wrote: Thu Jan 14, 2021 5:53 pm the actual magic circle is inside one's mind. In case that is not intact, the entity summoned will drive one more or less insane
Nefastos wrote: Thu Jan 14, 2021 5:53 pm In case one is careless in summoning entities & still manages to contact them, resulting things will take of shape of, say, alcoholism, disabling depression, schizophrenia, mania, drug-addiction, pangs of violence, phobias. It is not that the spirits will literally tear apart his physical body: that folkloric presentation means that the demons will tear apart one's precious inner coherence, and he will end up in the path of descension
So the lure of ceremonial magic hasn't been great enough that I'd decided to take these risks. All my ritual work has been "theurgic" in nature, or at least in intent, so I haven't felt magical circles to be necessary.

Couple of questions (for everyone): Where do you draw the line in when to use a magical circle and when not? In theurgic work do you feel that there's a possibility of attracting wrong types of energies?
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Nefastos
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Re: Magic Circle

Post by Nefastos »

Mars wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 11:25 pmSo the lure of ceremonial magic hasn't been great enough that I'd decided to take these risks.

In all magic and in much religion, there seems to be a dividing line of deep intuitional feeling that one belongs to some work and it cannot be changed.

Mars wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 11:25 pmCouple of questions (for everyone): Where do you draw the line in when to use a magical circle and when not?

When I feel confident that what I am trying is well into my level of personal purity, so to say, I use no circle. When there is some tension or the slightest doubt in this, I use an undrawn circle. And only in cases where I am contacting some unfamiliar form, I make the circle physical.

But since it takes long to be able to figure out which is which, I'd suggest being more neurotic for some time. Not only because of one's own and other people's safety, but also because putting effort into the ceremony helps it energetically, and the karcist himself to build those inner psychic muscles that demand effort and consistency.

Mars wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 11:25 pmIn theurgic work do you feel that there's a possibility of attracting wrong types of energies?

I'd rather say that in oneself there are residual impurities which surface when the theurgic working is done and fails to contact the highest entities, but resulting in different semitypes.

Like Ervast said concerning the commandments of the Sermon on the Mount: that he has never broken them, but neither does he feel that he has been able to fully carry them out. The upward spiral of ascending with divine (monotheists would say angelic) beings.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Mantus
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Re: Magic Circle

Post by Mantus »

I use a circle made of stones I constructed to perform my rituals outdoor and a black tissue where I painted a double circle and Enochian names of Divinities I'm devoted to for indoor rituals. I call the demonic beings inside the circle to have a place of communion instead of "protection". Possession is the norm using this technic.
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Polyhymnia
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Re: Magic Circle

Post by Polyhymnia »

Mantus wrote: Thu Oct 07, 2021 5:37 pm I use a circle made of stones I constructed to perform my rituals outdoor and a black tissue where I painted a double circle . . .
Sounds like great techniques. Is your outside circle always there or do you construct it anew every ritual? The paint on tissue is cool too. Some people are so creative. I haven't drawn a circle in some time, but I think chalk is still my go-to
"Limited love asks for possession of the beloved, but the unlimited asks only for itself." -Kahlil Gibran
Seferoth
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Re: Magic Circle

Post by Seferoth »

I don't use magic circles, salt circles, protective amulets or any other means of protection, and no lesser banishing rituals of the pentagram. If you need protection while doing magical work you are not doing it right, or you are not at the right place mentally and spiritually. I have my faith and devotion as my protection, it is all that occultist/demonologist needs in my opinion. Of course if you are not devoted to the forces beyond you might as well cover behind magic circles and lines of salt, not that it will do you any good in the long run.
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