Servitors- a challenge to fellow guildmates

[erinnightwalker]

Introduction

this is most definitely a work in progress smile since i plan on making this rather large, please bear with me as i get my s**t straightened out.

hello my fellow guildies smile this is moi, erinnightwalker, and i decided to make a thread about servitors. the reason i did this, is that even though we do have one here, based on the responses i got about this one here, i figured i might as well pace things out a bit more, make it easier to read, and give at least one example of a ritual i have done with a servitor.

posts and responses are welcome.

all applicable ToS rules apply, and i reserve the right to add good anecdotes and theories, properly attributed, to future arguments and threads. feel free to do the same to me smile  

[erinnightwalker]

Table of Contents (in order of appearance)
first page-
Introduction
Table of Contents
Dictionary
Theory
Practice
Examples
Personal Rituals (done by me)
Particularly Good Q&A
New Projects
Other People's Projects
reserved spaces for future stuff  

[erinnightwalker]

Dictionary

feel free to pm me or leave a message inquiring about any word that you are unfamiliar with. most likely, it will end up here smile

servitor(s)- a servitor is a magical construct. they are similar to fetches, artificial elementals, and just about any human-created "spirit" that has a particular function. an example would be an astral dog/wolf/big nasty sharp-toothed thing that you visualized and created to protect you. the catch is, you create it. it is made of your own power (and/or that of whoever or whatever helps you). it is not a power animal or an independent being unless you make it so.-(jacked from my own thread and post in the giger thread) also, i decided for the sake of clarity to refer to servitors in this thread as servitors only, not elementals or fetches or anything else, unless i am directly quoting someone else's ideas. i personally class fetches, etc. as servitors, but i will definitely make sure i don't misquote anything. if anyone wants to contest this definition, pm me smile

focus- physical form/housing of a servitor. can also act as a battery and interface with your servitor. a servitor can be made without a focus, but it takes a lot of concentration and you have a greater risk of it getting out of control. a focus allows firmer control as well as a hypothetical "oh s**t" button. i have heard of non-corporeal foci, but i haven't found solid information yet, nor had the time to experiment.  

[erinnightwalker]

Theory
Disclaimer- this is my own personal theory on servitors, formed by research and experimentation. take it or leave it, its only what i believe. also, pending new information, it may change in the future.

humans create things all the time. we create music, art, war, bread, books, and all sorts of stuff. we even create new life by mixing the life we have with another. to create a servitor is a responsibility that can be light as a paper plane or as heavy as your child's college bill, depending on how you make it.

to quote myself (in the giger thread)- "really, i think thats a point of view thing. if you want to get the blessings of your chosen god when you make them, then in that way a god did have a hand in their making. if you take the point of view that they are really just little shards of yourself, temporarily isolated and split away so you can concentrate on more that just that one task, then that's what they are. if you think that they are just little automata, carrying out your orders then dissolving with nothing more than the semblance of life then that's what they are too. belief is truly the only factor.
the way that i look at making truly conscious servitors is the same way i look at having children. in both cases its a long term investment of time and energy. in both cases, though i may raise them and love them and shape them as much as a can, they will leave and grow beyond my full control. thats why i'm so careful about making a servitor like that, because its not so much a servitor anymore as a spirit with its own mind and method. some people may make fully conscious servitors like they make children- without full awareness of the responsibility involved in creating a conscious being. i view them in the same way- as anything from foolish to dangerous.

life will always create life, whether or not the creation is clothed in flesh."

there are two poles on the spectrum that is servitors- the "smart" end and the "not so smart" end.
smart servitors are often powerful, independent as far as energy, and very effective, but they can be hard to control. for example, which is easier to control, an eighteen year old or a puppy? but since they are smart, they can react to a situation much more easily than the not so smart ones and can solve things that stand in their way without needing to bother you.
not so mart servitors are focused, to the point, and easier to control. however, they are far more dependent upon their creator than the smart ones are. you must be their brains and their battery. on the plus side, depending on the function they perform they don't take nearly as much energy. its like if you had a laptop computer and a simple mp3 player. the laptop may do a hell of a lot more, but the battery life restricts it. but if all you want to do is listen to music, the mp3 player is going to last a lot longer on a smaller charge. there are always trade-offs.

how you create them is up to you. a common theme i have noticed is shaping a ball of energy. whether or not you put it in a focus is up to you, but the core of your servitor is that energy, no matter its shape or its level of intelligence. this makes sense to me, because you are making something that comes from you, but is not exactly you. you can't make a doll out of your hair or old skin and expect it to become anything else but a reflection of you. but our energy is different- it may come from us but its not us exactly. we can mold it, but without will being put upon it it loses shape. a hair wouldn't do that.

Theory from another

Ishtar Shakti

I don't think I called them servitors but I will use that name.

Uses are pretty much as varied as your creativity can make them. I usually use them as a means to get information. If you do them well enough people don't pick up on the fact that they are just a constructed thing. So I use them to talk to people in my stead because I have issues with talking to people energetically and I have funky sight but I'm really good at making things.

I usually don't use herbs or anythings... and I don't have a problem with other things tinging my energy and dirtying it up

I suggest creating a complex personality for the servitor. This allows the servitor more flexibility in how to interpret orders and allows it to be more interactive and take on more tasks. I spend a while going through simple logical proofs with it. I wouldn't mind showing one of my servitors but I would have to attach it to an object to do so. Their a pretty good imitation of a person. Since I constructed there personalities they are a bit more useful then relying on spirits to talk to people for you.

I tend to make a power source which mostly runs on purified ambient energy, the intake to the core of the servitor purifies the energy by both breaking it down and filtering it so that things can't influence it.

The personalities are my major achievement as they took a while to design. The form is pretty good as its self powered and I don't have to do that much maintenance.
I don't really deal with wings or anything because they seemed impractical and as long as it understood the basic laws of movement then because its an energy construct it shouldn't have any problems.
Soo brain heart and shell that can absorb energy that touches it and an inner shell which prevents unwanted energy to be able to get in.

Generally speaking I would also have an internal power supply that would build potential energy. It would collect energy and charge much like a battery and wouldn't be directly connected to the core... This is also part of the reason the maintenance is soo little. A small charge circulates and reaffirms the connections and associations that I created in my intent when I first made it and thus I don't have to continue to reaffirm it. It still needs a little maintenance though and is generally useless if someone completely cuts off its power sources for a long period of time

 

[erinnightwalker]

Practice

i highly recommend having a physical focus when making a servitor, both to give it a "home base" and to have a hold over it in case worst comes to worst (i also refer to it as the ohshit button, for obvious reasons).  

[erinnightwalker]

Examples

these are ones i have heard about. when possible i will post links or titles of books.

Mara- Janet and Stewart Farrar, A Witches Bible, second half. a thoughtform their coven created to protect seals on a certain beach area. not called a servitor, but acts in the same fashion. assumed to be smart, showed some behavior outside of beginning parameters. unknown if she is still in existence.

Fotamecus- Fenwick Rysen, here and here. a sigil turned into a viral servitor that expanded into an egregore. deals with expansion and compression of time. as of 2000, still in existence. smart, talked to creator.

the Magickal Child and the Earthenware Virgin- reference found here by Marik under Other Methods to Launch Servitors (about three quarters of the way down the page), though i have also heard of the magickal child from other sources. cited from crowley and a.o. spare respectively through stephen mace. both sexual in nature- the child requires a partner (assumed to be male/female, like conceiving a real child), the virgin a p***s.
-i can see how these would work, seeing as "firing" a sigil at the moment of sexual peak is an accepted method. it wouldn't take much effort to change from sigil to servitor. however, i do advise caution. these are more for historical interest than actual use unless a) you have a partner willing to have a "child" with you and b) you have a bottle you can use, bury, dig up, and use again.  

[erinnightwalker]

Personal Rituals (done by me)

The Face I- job hunting

1) 2) 3) 4)

1) this is basically the setup i used while creating this servitor. the cloth is gold and green, both prosperity colors. in addition to the three close-up items, i also used a ritual knife, candle snuffer, mortar and pestle, and incense burner burning cinnamon/orange cone incense (orange for energy, cinnamon for money/prosperity).

2) this is part of the focus of the servitor. i made this face in my ceramics class. the "eyes" are two pennies, stuck on with wax from the candle i used. a third penny is in the blue and white jar, also with a dab of wax on the back. i chose pennies for the prosperity attributes of the copper as well as the symbolism of the money itself. i stuck them on the eyes so the servitor will "see" what i want her to find- a job that i like with good pay. the paper underneath holds a detailed list of the requirements i want my job to have.

3) this is the candle i used during this spell. since i couldn't burn it all in one sitting, i re-lit it over the next few nights, burning more incense as i did so. the holder was chosen for the color (golden wealth)

4) this bowl holds the other part of the focus for this servitor. this is what activates her. it holds select herbs and stones to further reinforce what i want her to do as well as the penny to tie her to it. without this little pot, she would be weaker and possibly harder to control. it acts to activate her for this purpose, but it is the face itself that holds her. without anything on the face or in the pot, she is dormant.


since this was a personal ritual, i'm not going to post it in its entirety (however, feel free to ask if you want help creating your own ritual). however, i will tell the method i used to give her energy, and why i designed it this way.
i chose four colors to refract my energy into- gold, yellow, white, and green. i pulled ambient energy in through my left hand, purified and added my own power as i pulled it through my body, and pushed it out into my other hand in those four colors. i then ran a finger down between the eyes to the tip of the nose and laid down the energy as i did it. i had to do this every day. i designed it this way so she can't function unless i give her that energy, so if she had gotten out of control, all i had to do was stop giving her energy.
two days after i completed this ritual, i found the perfect job for the parameters i wanted. unfortunately, due to circumstances i couldn't control i was unable to take the job. however, she is still set up and only needs energy to continue to function.
it would be most easily described in computer terms, i think- right now, she is on standby. the programming is there and only needs energy to get cracking. during the ritual, i input the programming i wanted her to have. if i want to change that programming, all i have to do is wipe the hard-drive (in this case, the pot and the eye-coins) and start over.
she is not and was never meant to be a "spirit-like" servitor such as fotamecus turned into, just one that is good at finding things and bringing them back.


The Money Genie- a servitor in a bottle that draws prosperity, money, and good luck

1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)

1) this is the paper (sans activating symbols) that holds the core of this servitor. it was folded up and inserted last in the bottle after all the rest of the ingredients. (i've been drawing spells and servitors in this style for a while now XD)

2) this is the altar set up. i actually forgot to put the seeds in that i was planning on, but all the rest of it went in- the small stones, the five dollar bills, and incense smoke that you can't see in the picture, as well as the servitor paper. the three burning candles supplied the wax i used to seal the bottle, as well as further scent (vanilla- yummy!)

3) the gemstone chips that i put in the bottle, chosen for their specific properties (according to cunningham's encyclopedia- what can i say, i like it)

4) the bottle i put the servitor in. the raised glass pattern is of grapes.

5) the pentacle and plate i had my bottle on as i put it together. it only stayed on the pentacle until the moon came up; it stayed on the blackish plate until i was ready for it to start working.

6) the finished (grainy) product. bills went in first, then the stones, then the smoke, then the servitor paper. i then dipped the cork in molten wax, hammered it in as deep as i could, and sealed it the rest of the way with more wax. on the top, held on by (you guessed it) more wax, is a small apache tear stone.

the energy is stored in the gem chips. it can gather its own energy through the tear. as soon as it has matured, i plan on giving it another power boost, and renewing the power each full moon.
think of it like a fine wine- the servitor needs a chance to get settled before i stir it up and send it out to do its job. as long as the bottle remains sealed, the servitor will continue to function.  

[erinnightwalker]

Particularly Good Q&A

wherein i repost good Q&A's from the thread.  

[erinnightwalker]

New Projects

The Genie in a Bottle - complete
-using a small glass bottle and various items, i plan on making a servitor who will attract money and prosperity actively. i am adding the final details and fine-tuning my ritual so when the moon comes into the right phase, i'll be able to do the ritual and post some more pictures.  

[erinnightwalker]

Other People's Projects  

[erinnightwalker]

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[erinnightwalker]

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[erinnightwalker]

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[Magus Initi]

Very interesting!  

[erinnightwalker]

Magus Young

Very interesting!

thanks smile hopefully someone gets some good use out of this