Summoning experiment a great sucess!

About a week ago I decided to try an experiment by performing a summoning. My intention with this was to summon the Reclusive Extrovert. I conferred with the Reclusive extrovert about this and made clear my intention go summon him.
I thought about this for a good long time, I took the desire in my mind and stuffed it inside an image of us meeting. I laughed about it because it was absurd and then forgot about it. At around 2:50pm today I went to the shops. As I got to the Ormeau road I spied the Reclusive Extrovert sitting in a car in Traffic. He was trying to decide whether of not to pull out into a different lane. The Summoning worked I thought. But is it really him. As if to answer my question he hung about slightly longer than I thought he needed too in order to pull out. I sent him a text message to let him know the summoning had worked.
Fantastic!
On the down side though, this web site went down at around 2:40pm, just before I went out. I suspect this was the minor altercation in reality required to make this summoning work

An Experiment with sigils

Last night I finally got to do some work on my sigil. I have attached the finished version of it to this posting so you can have a look. A sigil is a kind of magickal symbol that a wizard magician may create in order to get or achieve something. It is essentially an abstract representation that codifies a specific personal desire. In Liber Null Carroll states that the reason sigils work is because they ‘stimulate the will to work subconsciously, bypassing the mind’ (P. J. Carroll, Libernull & Psychonaut, page 20). My desire in making a sigil is to meet interesting people in odd places in Belfast.

I made this sigil using some methods suggested by Peter Carroll in his book Liber Null. Carroll recommends three ways of creating a sigil. The first is through use of words, the second is by pictures and the third is by phonetics. U used the textual method. First I wrote down the statement ‘I want to meet interesting people here’. Then I went through this statement and scored out any repeating letters. So I was left with the letters:
I, W, A, N, T, O, M, E, N, R, S, G, P, H

I then tried to put all these things together in one simple line drawing to make a sigil. The image I produced first off was two complicated, so I refined it. I went through about several different drawings until I hade created a symbol suitably abstract yet still evocative of my desire. The sigil that I have attached to this document is the finished version. In it can be seen the beginning letters of each word in the sentence ‘I want to meet interesting people here’. Yet this is done in such a way as not to be obvious.
Carroll states that there are three phases to making a sigil:
1. It is creation
2. It is lost to the mind
3. It is charged

I have just completed the creation stage. The next stage is to loose it to the mind, which I feel has already happened. It is bouncing around in there somewhere but I’m not thinking about it. Loosing it is kind of easy for me because I don’t believe in magick. So I don’t attach any belief in the object of the sigil. Rather, I simply associate it with a desire.
Charging a sigil sounds a little more difficult. To charge a sigil one must either be in a charged emotional state or else in magickal trance. Essentially one must make the sigil into the object of the minds concentration at a time of intense emotional experience. The sigil is then filled with that emotional charge and the situation that evoked the feeling is sacrificed (forgotten) in order to charge the sigil. So, I will choose my moment wisely and then charge the sigil. Once it is changed I will hide it in specific places around Belfast and see if it works.

Tarot Reading for Jill McDermid

Not long after starting this project I got a request from American Performance Artist Jill McDermid asking me if I would do a Tarot reading fro her. I decided that I might as well make this my next Tarot reading. As Jill did not ask me to read on the subject of anything specific, I decided that I would just perform a general reading. For this reading I am going to use the Celtic cross spread. I used this spread for the last reading I did and posted here. Again, I have to say I do no several other spreads, but this one is a good one for general questions. Anyway, here goes with Jill’s reading:

Question: What are the general influences at work in Jill’s life at present and where might they lead her?

1. What covers Strength
2. What crosses The Sun
3. What crowns Six of Swords
4. What is beneath Ten of Swords
5. What is behind Cernunnos (the Devil)
6. What is before Ace of Swords
7. What is feared Nine of Swords
8. What others feel The World
9. What is wished Three of Swords
10. What may come Nine of Pentacles

My interpretation of the cards
On first looking at this spread, it seems quite odd to me. But then I don’t know Jill so well, so this reading could go either way.

1. What covers: The card in this position represents the inner state of the situation or individual about which I am enquiring. The card that has fallen in this position is Strength. Strength is represented by a woman in her late twenties/early thirties. Beside her stands a wild boar, which she has tamed and lying near her is a sword, which is unused. Keywords for this card are: unconditional love, courage, faith and compassion. This card resonates with the union of nature and civilisation. It suggests a deep sense of trust in this relationship. In terms of the question I would read this to suggest that Jill embodies these aspects within her being. It seems to make sense, as the card suggests a strong woman in control of her own energies involved in a deep relationship with both her natural and civilised aspects.
The other odd thing about this card, which I have to mention, is that it has a subtext of sexuality. It has a relationship to the card of Cernunnos (the Devil). Yet where one aspect of Cernunnos is a kind of wild sexuality, the card of Strength embodies this same wild sexuality, yet in a more mature personification: it is now controlled and channelled. It is for this reason that this card is sometimes associated with female energy. It is typical of men to attempt to master the life energy, but what is feminine is to learn instead how to direct its flow in a creative and life giving way. This is a quite a positive card to have as an indicator of Jill’s internal condition, although the sexual reference is quite odd, given some of the other card.
2. What Crosses: This card represents the external situation of the individual or condition I am enquiring about. It can also represent conditions of conflict within the person’s life. The card that has fallen in this position is the Sun. Key words associated with this card are: Happiness, contentment, success, energy, Wonder, Freedom, Joy, creative expression. This card is quite obvious in meaning; it suggests Jill inhabits a creative joyful exterior environment. Yet, also, on the basis of its placement in the reading, it also suggests that this creative environment could also be the source of some conflict. But this is only a very minor aspect of this card in this position.
3. What Crowns: The card in this position represents the prevailing goal, principle or ideal that guides Jill in her current situation. The Card in this position is the six of swords. The sixes are typically about harmonising. Aspects of the six of swords include journeying and healing. The card suggests that conditions of conflict are either ceasing OR are calming down so that possibilities are beginning to open up that allows one a path to solace, comfort and/or self-renewal. This card in this position in the reading would suggest that the desire to resolve conflicts (both inner and outer) is the cohesive ideal in Jill’s current life situation.
Within the context of spirituality the journeying aspect of this card is also significant. In traditions such as Shamanism, and also some of the Celtic traditions taking a journey through ones own mind, normally through some form of ritual, is a means employed for resolving inner conflicts. So the card in this position can also be an indication of the individuals desire for such self-reflexive practices.
4. What is Beneath: The card in this position represents the foundation or basis for the situation the individual now finds themselves in. The card that has fallen in this position is the ten of swords. This card has quite a dark image. On it is the representation of a man, lying face down with ten swords stuck in his back. The swords are the darkest of all the families, but they are not necessarily bad. Having said that the ten of swords is associated with betrayal and unmerited hatred. It represents a period of personal darkness, when our powers are at their weakest. It suggests that Jill may have been slandered or betrayed or that she is the subject of unwarranted hatred or acts.
This card in this position suggests that at the root of Jill’s current life situation is desire to either escape or recover from such as situation as has been described above. This card is in keeping with the ideals represented by the crowning card.
5. What is behind: This card represents influences or situations that have or are passing. The card in this position is Cernunnos (the devil). It must be stressed that this card does not represent evil, but rather the raw power of nature that is one aspect of our human nature. Keywords associated with this card are: Liberation, abundance, life-force, awakening of responsibility, obsession and materialism. The card represents a call to awaken to some form of responsibility. On a spiritual plane it would represent the call to awaken to the power and responsibility of the life-force that moves through us. Yet this is the challenge here, for the danger of such an awakening is that one may very easily become obsessed with this power. Such an obsession will necessarily lead to an imbalance and therefore some form of misdirection of energy such as the urge to personify this new found quest outwardly rather than dwell within it inwardly.
The other aspect of this is the cards link to sexuality, or at least to sexual energies. It possesses the aspect of hedonism. In the foreground of the image on the card lie the lovers. The are tied loosely to Cernunnos, suggesting that they are caught by him, but that their capture is of their own making: The are captured by the spell of their own illusions and attachments.
The card in this position is interesting because it is in the position of the past. It represents a situation that is leaving Jill. Given that this card has a strong relationship to the card of Strength, which fell in the position of ‘what covers’, it suggests that Jill is currently leaving a situation in which she has been ensnared by some incarnation of these energies. But that inwardly she has already started to be come and to some extent function outwardly as the person personified by the card of strength.
6. What is before: The card in this position represents events that may lie before the person I am enquiring about in the near future. The card in this position is the ace of swords. Keywords for this card are Clarity, success and a clean break. This card perhaps represents a clean break for Jill in the nature future form whatever situations are being suggested by the dynamics of the previous cards. This card is also associated with academic work. It can suggest the undertaking of academic of legal processes.
Given all these things, the card in this position represents a new resolute undertaking in the very near future.
7. What is feared: this card represents what the person I am enquiring about may fear. The card in this position is the Nine of swords and it represents mental anguish, suffering and emotional sorrow. This card represents not so much an event but rather out experience of it. It can be associated with the breakdown of a relationship that we had invested much emotion in. This may be with a person or with some form of social project that was very close to your heart. There is good news with this card. For just as all the nines represent some form of intensity, they also represent completion and closure.
So the card in this position would suggest that what is feared is some form of mental anguish or that, mental anguish is being caused by fears generated by the social conditions so far described earlier in this reading.
8. What others feel: the card in this position represents the opinions of those around us. It may shed some light on how the influences of others upon you in your life. The card in this position is The World. Keywords with this card are: Completion, fulfilment, success, abundance, achievement, ecstasy, and the union of inner and outer life. This card reflects the satisfaction and the personal enlightenment that comes with the ending of a project or phase in ones life, but it also denotes the beginning of a new cycle. The image of The World is presented by a hermaphrodite figure dancing with joy. S/he is surrounded by all the symbols of magick and has a halo of illumination around the head, suggesting not holiness or saintliness but clarity.
This card in this position would suggest that other around you view you to be moving into a new cycle in your life, having just completed one.
9. What is Wished: The card in this position may represent either what is desired or what is influencing your current desires and dreams. The card in this position is the three of swords. This card is associated with the feeling of heartache. It also represents gaining wisdom through suffering and again through this the potential for transformation. This card could be seen to depict either a love triangle and the suffering that is caused as it unravels or temporary separation in a relationship that eventually creates an improvement.
This card in this position would seem to suggest that some form of emotional suffering associated with love is influencing the current situation.
10. What may come: the card in this position represents the potential outcome of the current situation. It is not so much a prediction but an indicator the potential contained within the future. The card that has fallen in this position is the nine of pentacles. This card is typically associated with living out your ideals, pleasure and gain. This card represents a productive, active and settled life which although possesses material comfort also possesses some form of personal spiritual wealth. Another curious aspect of this card is its suggestion that the person I am enquiring about may have received some form of financial windfall or some other form of unearned income. It may also suggest that they are approaching a stage in their life where they will no longer need to work for money.
What is interesting about this card is that it is represented by a woman, who is holding an eagle in her hand. She looks like the young female depicted in the card of Strength, but she is older now, more mature and more relaxed in her demeanour.

Some other comments on this reading
As I said at the beginning I found this spread of cards quite odd. One reason was the presence of a suggestion of a situation emanating out of some kind of sexual abandon. The other was the continual presence of the suggestion of a breaking down, dysfunctional or ending relationship. The reason I found these things odd in this reading is because the whole spread is lacking in any representation of a male figure, who Jill may have had a relationship with. For this reason I have treated the presence of this sexual energy in the reading as a signal, not of sexual abandon, but of a very female energy seeking to realise itself in the world. I have treated the relationship that seems to be problematic and shifting in a similar way. It seems to me that this relationship is either work related, or else is concerned with some family relationship. The concept of a family relationship is hinted at by the presence of the child in the depiction of The Sun and also the metaphor of the journey, which is depicted as a woman in her early twenties in the company of an older man in the card of the six of swords. What is for certain in the cards is that what is being hinted it is a process of maturation.