The Mechanics of Sorcery
[An excerpt from my upcoming book, The Complete Conjuring Spirits.]
A General Theory of Sorcery
Two planes of existence make up the Universe, the Material plane and the Etheric plane. On the Material plane, the Universe manifests primarily as matter, the world perceived by the five senses, described as natural, solid, and objective. On the Etheric plane, the Universe manifests primarily as energy, usually beyond the normal perception of the five senses and described as supernatural, fluid, and subjective. These two planes coexist, with matter on the Material plane linked to energy on the Etheric plane.
Because of this link, changes in one plane of existence lead to changes in the other plane. However, sometimes you can change the fluid and subjective energy of the Etheric plane easier than you can change the solid and objective matter of the Material plane. Magick causes changes on the Material plane by manipulating and reshaping energy on the Etheric plane in conformity with your will. Ritual magick on the Material plane transforms your will into energy and launches it into the Etheric plane to do its work. Sorcery involves contacting spirits that live on the Etheric plane and asking them to do work for you in exchange for energy. Both ritual magick and sorcery require a transaction of energy; you give energy to get what you desire.
The Spiritual Continuum
An infinite number of spiritual entities live on the Etheric plane, but we don’t work with all of them. To understand why, we must examine the fundamental differences between spirits on the Etheric plane. Our Judeo-Christian culture conditions us to look at the Universe in terms of dualities such as black/white, light/dark, and good/evil, and this bias also colors the way we think about the spirit world. We may more accurately express the differences between spiritual entities inhabiting the Etheric plane within a continuum based on their complexity:
ComplexSimple
(Deities) (Sentient spirits) (Animist spirits)
The most complex spirits manifest as deities, goddesses and gods of myth with divine powers. For example, the god Poseidon has many myths that define him and describe his great power over water on both planes of existence. Animism gives all Material parts a corresponding spirit. The smallest bits of matter such as grains of sand and drops of water also have spirits attached to them, entities called animist spirits. The spirit of a drop of water has no real identity, its actions primarily determined by forces on the Material plane. Sentient spirits inhabit the vast realm between the two extremes, and include elementals, angels, planetary spirits, demonic spirits, and many others.
Active Belief Passive Belief
Another characteristic to consider concerns the nature of belief in the spirits, for belief provides them with energy. Deities receive power from the active belief of people on the Material plane and the lesser spirits of the Etheric plane. Animist spirits get their power primarily from passive belief in their Material characteristics. We actively believe in Poseidon by building temples, performing rituals, and offering prayers in his name. We passively believe in water, its properties and uses, and in its vital ability to sustain life.
The sentient spirits that sorcerers work with reside in the middle of these continuums, but special rules apply to the spirits near each end, so we’ll talk about them first.
Deities inhabit the complex end of the continuum. They have well-developed, multifaceted personalities and possess extraordinary abilities. We have complex myths and legends that describe how they interact with the rest of the world. Deities have a great deal of control over the energies and entities on the Etheric plane, and have the potential to cause large changes on the Material plane by orchestrating them on the Etheric plane.
As mentioned before, deities receive much of their power from their believers and servants, corporeal or otherwise. Belief equals energy, so the more people that believe in a deity, the more power it has at its disposal. Because of their powerful nature, we cannot evoke deities using the methods of sorcery; interaction with deities requires some form of theurgy.
The smallest animist spirits amass on the simple end of the continuum, the spirits of grains, whispers, drops, sparks, rays, and thoughts that form the building blocks of every spirit. Individually, they have little power; but when collected and combined into more cognizant, cohesive entities, they develop into sentient spirits, the spirits of elements, the spirits of everything. Many smaller spirits can also combine to form a larger spirit, much like millions of individual cells combine to form our bodies. Animist spirits may even combine to form deities; modern examples include James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis and Peter Carroll’s conception of Baphomet.[1]
Beyond a certain scale, spirits lack the cohesion and coherency required to interact with them. Thus the Ancient Greeks didn’t invent spirits for drops of water, but when water collected in pools, springs, and streams, they discovered Nereids, Naiads, and Undines.
Objective Identity
Everything on the Etheric plane has a Material counterpart, and sentient spirits all have a Material basis. Sentient spirits have an objective identity based on their manifestation on the Material plane in books, myths, and other common resources and experiences we share. The objective identity of a sentient spirit determines the general nature of the spirit; the subjective identity develops with personal experience.
A practically infinite number of sentient spirits inhabit the Etheric plane. However, three particular types of spirits have received the most attention in Western Esotericism: angelic spirits, demonic spirits, and Enochian entities. The basis of our relationship with these spirits depends on the strength of their objective identity.
Angelic spirits have a strong objective identity. They have played a prominent role in Judeo-Christian culture as messengers, protectors, punishers, and healers. Most people in Western culture know what angels look like, even those who do not believe in them, as we find angels not only in Biblical and apocryphal texts, but also in art and literature.
Archangels administrate the rest of the angelic spirits. Of all angels, only the Archangels possess names, well-defined characteristics, and specific abilities. Hermetic Qabalists assigned the most popular Archangels to the sephiroth of the Tree of Life and also gave them Elemental, Planetary and Zodiacal attributions.
Our extensive knowledge and lore concerning Archangels gives them a very strong objective identity. They generally appear as beautiful, fair-skinned, androgynous people who radiate divine light. They possess great wisdom and kindness, and have an innate desire to help humanity heal and perfect itself. You know what to expect when working with Archangels.
Goetic and other so called demonic spirits have a weaker objective identity than the Archangels.[2] The Goetia describes what the spirits look like and then lists the services they perform. However, experience shows that the actual appearance of Goetic spirits varies considerably from the descriptions, and the spirits have many abilities beyond those described in the Goetia.
Furthermore, sorcerers have very different experiences and relationships with the same Goetic spirit as they discover its subjective identity. One sorcerer may find a spirit friendly, while another may struggle to get the same spirit to do anything more than make condescending remarks. Not all will find Orobas agreeable, and Bael does not always act like the nasty demon of Christian mythology.
The challenge of working with Enochian spirits comes from the fact that they have almost no objective identity. They have an elemental nature, but no well-defined abilities or powers. As a result, sorcerers’ accounts of their subjective experiences with Enochian spirits often have little in common.
Enochian entities may appear and act in a strange or even alien manner. They often have difficulty understanding how the Material plane works, especially when you talk to entities further down in the Enochian hierarchy. It appears that their lack of objective identity also limits their understanding of concepts on the Material plane.
The Power of Names and Sigils
Naming something gives you power over it. The names of spirits form the basis of their objective identity; by identifying a spirit, you can interact with it.
Sometimes you may need to use additional names and titles to fully define the spirit you want to evoke. Run around a crowded public place yelling “Michael! Michael!” and more than a couple of heads will likely turn your way; yet none of them will answer to my full name. Likewise, when a sorcerer I once seered for called out, “I do invoke thee, Michael! Come forth and speak with me!” the Archangel Michael did not show up. The entity that appeared looked like an angel taken from the cover art of a 60′s psychedelic rock album. The conjurer quickly banished “Michael”—who didn’t have much to say anyway—and then specifically called forth the desired Archangel Michael.
The name of a spirit serves as a tool to verify its identity. Vibrating the name of a spirit strengthens and empowers it. If you demand that spirits state and sign their true names, they usually comply.
You can also use names to establish authority over a spirit. In the Enochian and Qabalistic hierarchies, naming spiritual superiors in the conjuration compels the spirit to appear and obey. The Judeo-Christian paradigm demonized many of the spirits of ancient cultures, so many grimoires often use names of Jehovah and his minions to compel spirits. If the names of Jehovah do not move you, do not use these pre-packaged conjurations. I suggest you write your own script instead, as conjurations energized by the power of personal beliefs have much more power.
Sigils create patterns of force on the Etheric plane that constrain and harness specific energies. Sigils represent a non-verbal Material link to Etheric inhabitants. However, simply drawing a sigil does not make it work; otherwise just even opening a book like the Goetia to the wrong page could have disastrous results. Activating a sigil on the Etheric plane through formal consecration or use in evocation makes the sigil function. Consecration involves performing a short ritual to magically link the spirit with its sigil. Using the sigil in a successful evocation also links the spirit with its sigil.
Others who gaze upon your activated sigils may accidentally and unconsciously form a link with the spirits they belong to, so you must keep your sigils away from prying eyes. The risk of accidental linkage increases with the sigils of demonic entities, which seem to enjoy finding new avenues of exploration and experience, often to the detriment of those who cannot readily perceive or control them.
Names and sigils form the core of practical grimoires, which function as phone books for inhabitants of the Etheric plane. If you can’t find a sigil to copy out of a book, you can always make your own. I use Word method given in Peter Carroll’s Liber Null to sigilize spirit names.[3] You can also create your own spirits (servitors) if so desired. This involves creating a name and sigil on the Material plane and then charging it with Etheric energy, launching the servitor into the Etheric plane to do its work.
Names have more power when spoken and written in their original languages; thus sigils will have more power when created from the letters or characters of their native languages. With this idea in mind, we can address a curious omission in the Enochian system, where only the Elemental Kings possess sigils. Using the Word method in conjunction with the Enochian alphabet, we can create strange but effective sigils for the rest of the entities in the Enochian system.
Motives for Evocation
Most sorcerers work with spirits to get assistance with personal and spiritual development. Archangels and Angelic spirits devote themselves to helping people develop and evolve. Enochian entities and other elemental spirits show interest in helping magicians achieve elemental balance. Working with demonic spirits often involves taking control of disruptive spirits working against you and convincing them to work with you for mutual benefit instead.
Spirits also benefit from sorcerous relationships. When we work with spirits, it strengthens their objective identities, helping them to grow and evolve. Many demonic spirits seem to have an objective identity crisis, which explains why they often demand so much attention and usually crave material rewards.
Other magicians get involved in sorcery to satisfy an innate curiosity, a desire for exploration, and a thirst for knowledge. Humanity has always possessed a keen interest in the Etheric plane and its inhabitants. Sorcery allows us to experience and interact with the normally hidden Etheric world that we live in. It also helps us understand how the Etheric plane functions and affects our lives.
This instinct for Etheric exploration has led many people to work with the Enochian system. In the twentieth century, the published rituals of the Golden Dawn revealed the great power of Enochian entities to a much broader audience. Experiences with the most accessible rituals (like the Opening by Watchtower) compelled many magicians to investigate the Enochian system in greater depth. The fact that they have almost no objective identity only seems to increase our interest in them.
Magicians also have practical reasons for using evocation instead of other forms of magick. The primary benefit comes from the fact that we can engage in complex interactions with spirits. Spirits can follow detailed instructions and complete complicated tasks that prove more difficult to accomplish using other methods of ceremonial magick. Spirits adapt better than spells to the unpredictable and chaotic situations encountered in modern urban life.
Sorcery also gives you a greater deal of control over your magical operations. If you change your mind about an operation and wish to end it, call up the spirit, tell it to stop, and give it something else to do. If an operation fails, call up the spirit to find out what went wrong and determine what needs to change to get things right. You may then instruct the spirit to work on its task until completed, or summon up another spirit to do the job.
[1] James Lovelock, The Ages of Gaia. rev.ed (New York: W.W. Norton, 1995); Peter J. Carroll, Liber Null & Psychonaut. (York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1987), 156-161.
[2] Note that in the Judeo-Christian paradigm, “demonic” often means “not Christian.” Not all spirits labeled demons appear and act like mythical demons.
[3] Carroll, Liber Null & Psychonaut, 20-22.
