Servitors

[Placid Dingo]

This does use some 'magical' ideas, so feel free to discuss, BUT, if you already know your only desire will be to shit on my head, please just move on. I'm already aware that I'm feeding myself to the lions...

Servitors are aspects of a magician's personality, bound and set aside as seperate entities.

The work 'Sigils, Servitors and Godforms' by Marik is referenced in the great work 'Art of Memetics'. The original work focusses on a fairly traditional view of magick and occult. I want to focus for a while on the more AoM approach, of using magical concepts in largely pragmatic, and possibly in some sense 'skeptical' ways.

Servitors, using that top definition, are in many ways an observible phenomonom. When I go to school I adopt a very specific persona designed to be appropriate and effective at teaching Japanese to young students. Sales people, retail workers, politicians etc often do this. Essentially the process I'd like to describe is of the development of a particular persona, made of parts of the self, and released and retracted as useful, though concious processes. The Batman/Playboy Bruce Wayne/ Bruce Wayne set of personalities we see in the Batman films is a good example of the kind of thing we're discussing.

These personas can be made of both positive and negative elements of one's personality, working off the original article by Marik. A good example to think of here is when we 'switch modes' when frustrated. A frustrated person may be more efficient at getting certain things done quickly because they may channel that 'negative' emotion into a kind of new, more direct and assertive personality. This personality would be loathed in public, but is useful for seeing fast results. The concept here with servitors is to do this conciously.

Marik also deals with the idea of Demons as a servitor that has gained possession of the magician (in this context a magician is anyone using this technique). The most obvious is an individual controlled by obsession or negative emotions. Dr Jeckyl/Mr Hyde is the classic example, along with Moby Dick's obsession driven Captain Ahab.

Servitors, and all other tools of Chaos Magic are used to serve a specific purpose; without purpose there is no power in the technology. Batman exists because Bruce Wayne can't intimidade the scum of Gotham. Batman, however, would be fairly awkward at cocktail parties. 

I'm interested in this as a technology as, so far as I can tell, this concept is relatively unexplored, at least outside of occult/magick circles. There are so many issues to be considered in relation to an individual 'hacking' their own personality, not least of all the possibilty of losing the self to a 'demon', difficulty identifying one's 'true' identity, or the period of uncomfortableness, uncertainty reffered to by magicians as 'the long dark nighttime of the soul'.

One technique I'm curious about is for use of the Myers-Briggs personality test for constructing useful identities. Is it possible for example to develop an ENFJ personality to help one socialise, while also holding an ISTJ servitor to help study?

Also, Marik touches on the use of objects in creating servitors. He seems to discuss this as a literal 'hodling place' for the servitor. However, I'm thinking more along the lines of objects that signify to the possessor that a particular persona is in play. Professional uniforms, or ties can play this roll. So can symbolic items such as necklaces, lucky charms etc. Is there a system to tying a persona into an object, so that it doesn't 'leak' into the base persona?

Again, these questions aren't answered, or so far that I've seen, even asked. What interests me about this is that it seems a useful set of personal development techniques that have generally been ignored outside occult communities.

[Sexecutioner Chao Tight]

Alrighty then, I'll take a whack at this...

Not being a magician and only having a rudimentary understanding of Chaos Magic, the gist that I get of the Servitors concept is something that I think many of us do (although to differing degrees) already.

Ex.  I get the privilege of wearing scrubs to work, so we look more 'clinical' and less possibly woo-woo potential massage therapists.  That means that my scrubs are my uniform (for now, diff story) of being politically correct.  So... I keep the woo to a minimum, refrain from stirring shit up when I see people being stooopid at work (ie practice patience and tolerance) and generally just let the person that is concerned about the health and well-being of others out to play for the duration.  It's not 100%, but...

Another example that I think of is from my mom.  Working in human resources she was the one that got to give lay-off notices, fire peeps etc.  There was one red suit dress that she would choose to wear for those days.  My interpretation of it was her 'don't fuck with me' suit.  Also, red being a danger color, might have been a warning of sorts.  For her it seemed to help her stay focused and properly distanced from folks she was giving the axe to, avoiding showing outward feeling, other than was necessary in a professionally compassionate sort of way.

As far as the M-B test... I always have a bitch of a time answering those damn questions, because it depends on the context I'm in.  I can choose to be an extrovert - although it takes more energy/thought/alcohol for me.  The others just depend on where I am at, what I need and what's happening.

I guess my questions back to you are... am I way off base with understanding the basic concept? ...wtf do you need magic for to do any of this shit anyhow?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I have nothing constructive to add.

[Placid Dingo]

I guess my questions back to you are... am I way off base with understanding the basic concept? ...wtf do you need magic for to do any of this shit anyhow?

You really really don't need magic at all. Because I found this idea through art of memetics, I kept with their practice of using the kind of 'magical' jargon set. Also the guy whose article they recommended is a magician and discusses the idea in magical terms. So it's not so much to do with magic at all; you could just as easily call it personality hacking and use a computer/scientific jargon set. I just wanted to remain consistent with the terms in which I was introduced to the idea.

The red dress thing is exactly an example of what I'm talking about. The reason this has sparked my interest is that it seems to be a process every knows and participates in but there seems to be very little conversation or info about the ways in which to consciously do this.

Also I'm going to revise that part on mbpt in a while, to try to address the ideas of personality as a construct vs the personality as a solid or consistent attribute.

[Sexecutioner Chao Tight]

The red dress thing is exactly an example of what I'm talking about. The reason this has sparked my interest is that it seems to be a process every knows and participates in but there seems to be very little conversation or info about the ways in which to consciously do this.

because if we talk about it we are breaking the taboo that we are all supposed to be free to be ourselves... and then we start understanding how repressed we really are.  Remember all the hippy shit of the 60s and 70s about love and honesty and how the world will be better, sweeter, kinder, gentler, more loving and sexy place if we are honest?    "Help! Help! I'm being repressed" comes to mind.  As does Bureaucracy.

Also I'm going to revise that part on mbpt in a while, to try to address the ideas of personality as a construct vs the personality as a solid or consistent attribute.

Again, brings us up against that taboo... and possibly a few others.  Should be fun. 

[Placid Dingo]

Heres the part i forgot to add.

This (use of the mbpt) depends upon another idea; is our personality the product of who we are, our biology, our psychology as formed in our earliest years? Or is it the product of conscious construction? I assume there's a spectrum at play here but to what extent do either of these things impact on who we are. Is it possible for an introverted person to develop an extraverted persona. Marik and AoM emphasize visualization and focussing on the emotions of an experience to try to encode a message into ones own mind. Can I for instance use the feeling of loneliness when I'm on my own for long periods, and the excitement of seeing a friendly face at the end of this period, to construct a servitor who is more efficient at socializing?

[Sexecutioner Chao Tight]

This (use of the mbpt) depends upon another idea; is our personality the product of who we are, our biology, our psychology as formed in our earliest years? Or is it the product of conscious construction? I assume there's a spectrum at play here but to what extent do either of these things impact on who we are. Is it possible for an introverted person to develop an extraverted persona. Marik and AoM emphasize visualization and focussing on the emotions of an experience to try to encode a message into ones own mind. Can I for instance use the feeling of loneliness when I'm on my own for long periods, and the excitement of seeing a friendly face at the end of this period, to construct a servitor who is more efficient at socializing?

yes.

[Telarus]

Essentially, yes. I have a few visualization gimmicks that I use.

Most involve visualization of Light in various shapes/position, because that's hacking your own optical processing.

For example, visualizing a "crescent moon" of white light protruding from the temples, like a pair of horns, actually causes the facial muscles to tighten slightly, the eyes to open, and a hint of a smile to float on the face (due to the tightening of muscles around the eyes). It also brings conscious attention to the face, so that you can more readily project intent via facial expressions.

Yes, I got this from some BS mahdjiique book (which even called it "Yellow Magick"), which claimed certain social-based effects. It fell into the "Smokey look from across the room" glamours.

Yes, I actually practiced it in front of a mirror while regulating my breath (pranayama) until I could tell what the fuck effect it was having. Then I practiced it on my girlfriend, and random people in sushi bars, school, etc, etc. Seemed to work better than constantly chanting "remember to smile, look in her eyes, etc, etc" in my head all the time.

And that's the whole point of these types of techniques, to have a non-verbal way of accessing these internal functions (because trying to internally verbalize while doing something else splits attention at a very fundamental level, and multi-tasking is a myth).

Now, the Art of Memetics proposes that our internal personalities are not monolithic, single structures but are cybernetic networks of nodes that rise and fall out of our subconscious. So, in order to address/interact/observe individual nodes (or even a group of nodes), it helps us to Name it. It's what we do to external objects/processes all the time. It's simply more efficient to use existing symbolic links and claim in the moment that you are talking to "Hermes" than it is to use "Arbitrary Subpersonality #7".

Grant Morrison style Chaos Magick just says to ditch Hermes if somebody or something else would have more personal symbolic meaning for you. Go with the Green Lantern, Nyarlathotep, or an amalgamation of every memory of yourself interacting with a blood relative that you can summon... which you have named "Bob".


Please, please stay away from Beiber, tho. Dude's got to many illuminati handlers not to be a memetic trap. Just look at how many young male celebs are wearing high-top sneakers at events now.

[Placid Dingo]

That light idea is fascinating, I've never heard of it before.

Also I need to reread the relevant chapter of AoM.