Does a conjurer summon a spirit from dimensions unknown, or are they created like a potter works clay?
Recognised east to west is the creation of spirits. Not all spirits are necessarily dead people, nature, or deities. Some spirits are believed to be made as spirits.
You might think this is a single idea from one tradition, but in the far east in Japan the Shinto religion recognises that often objects or tools used for over 100 years by humans will develop a kami or spirit from their use and cruel sorcery can create a dog demon. At the other end of the map, Native American medicine bags are imbued with a spirit which needs regular feeding. But let’s focus on the techniques known to us in Europe:
- The Egregores of Eliphas Levi and Ceremonial Magic
- Created Elementals and Elementaries of Franz Bardon
- Though forms of Theosophy and the New Age Movement
- Tulpas (or Sprulpas) of Tibetan Buddhism
- Servitors of Chaos Magic
- Constructs in the practice of Psionics
There are many more words for these concepts and I don’t want to invalidate any terms, but it is my experience that you will be able to communicate with pretty much any practitioner in the English speaking world with the above terms.
The fascinating subject of Thought-forms and Egregores is that they are formed by belief. So they allow us to truly question the pre-existence of any religious entity or doctrine. We never know whether it existed before or after it was first observed by a human being. Some spirits even spring into existence from a misunderstanding or inaccurate hypothesis. It makes us question if any spiritual doctrine is universally true, or does the universe begin to act as if it were true, when human belief creates it as an egregore. What came first the Egregore or the belief, the thought or its form, the construct or the energy, the entity or belief in said entity?
Egregores are a large of unintentionally created idea, spirit or rule which have such an interesting history that they demanded their own article (click here).
In Psionics, the definition of a construct is the least specific. Psionics is a system based around experimentation rather than doctrine. If there were specifics to be found then anyone experimenting should be able to learn the same specifics through practice. Many people will tell you that an energy ball is the simplest and most basic form of a construct. So the term construct extends to this simple gathering of energy into one space and putting it into a shape. Other definitions follow more strict creation rituals, but the overlap between these concepts makes it hard to distinguish. Giving them names and appearances which fulfil the function is a common addition to make it more interesting.
In Theosophy and the New Age Community, the process of making a thought form is very similar to the above construct. It involves gathering astral or ethereal energy, but the authors in this tradition focus more on pure thought. Giving shape and colour to the created object, is a lower priority for them. It is here we find a clear description of the thought-from. It can take the characteristics of an animated creature, but within the astral or etheric plane. Warnings are added here to prevent people from creating thought-forms that exist beyond their intended use. This mirrors the tales of rogue golems that surrounded Judaism and and the alleged “Tulpas” of Tibetan Buddhists. You often read thought-forms described as “created elementals”, which encourages me to explore the works of Franz Bardon next.
Franz Bardon is unique in drawing a distinction between “elementals” and “elementaries”, which doesn’t seem to exist anywhere else. Elementals, he says, exist on the “mental plane” and consist of one element. They do not have an ego, but act with an instinct for self-preservation. Bardon informs us that often a reaction to a trauma or paranoia can accidentally create this elemental relatively easily and in fact human being are always popping them temporarily into being. Some nasty forms called “schemata”, born out of paranoia or fantasies of victimhood, can become embedded in host and draining other people through them. This makes their host appear as a psychic vampire and slowly killing the people around them, perpetuating the paranoia and victimhood that sustains them.
Franz Bardon is unique in this definition for an elemental. For other authors, an elemental is a very physical being often existing in the etheric plane or within the energies that give rise to physical phenomena, such as wind or fire. The Grimoirum Verum features an elemental which is not to be a creation of the magical practitioner, but an pre-existing force of nature. It might not have a body we can physically see, but its presence could be seen in the impact it has on the world around it. It might be considered no different from a daemon.
For Franz Baron an elementary is a more complicated being. The elementary exists on the astral plane, not mental or physical, and it consists of multiple elements. It has a sense of identity, animation and emotion. The practitioner grants it its own will and consciousness. Elementaries are a consciously created entity, which lives separately from its creator on the astral plane, but in a space in the physical world.
Bardon has three techniques for the creation of elementaries. The first seems exactly the same as a construct above, but he specifically instructs his readers to give it a name, preferably a unique one so it isn’t accidentally called upon in idle conversation. His warnings share a consistency with those around thought-forms and he advises the practitioner to plan its ultimate demise, so it doesn’t leave the control of its creator and run amok.
In his second technique, he instructs the practitioner to give it a 4-fold body. A mental body, an astral body flooded with energy and emotions, its own will (aligned with the practitioner’s of course), grounded in its own consciousness (the earth energy body). When creating these, the elementary is often placed in a model made of clay and beeswax with a focal agent inside called “fluid condenser“. Occasionally, blood or semen is added to formalise the connection between practitioner and elementary.
Franz Bardon’s third method is a simplified ritual for the creation of a “Tulpa”-style elementary. This ritual involves a piece of paper with a circle, symbolising akasha, two overlapping squares such that they form an octogram, representing the 4 elements in active and passive aspects and a symbol unique to the spirit, in the centre of the piece of paper. A small metal disk or coin 1cm in diameter is placed on top. This is then charged with fire elemental energy to build an elemental body.
Let’s dash forward to the 1980s. The Occult world is being turned on its head to figure out if it works just as well topsy turvy. Chaos magicians are creating entities called Servitors with symbols called sigils. Interesting, their technique bears a striking similarity with Bardon’s third method for elementaries. The main fathers of Chaos Magic saw little distinction between the act of summoning spirits and the act of creating them. They seemed to prefer a paradigm where both acts were simply an interaction with the universe, where the universe is modelled as a programmable computer simulation, and the servitor or summoned spirit was simply a hack.
The act of creating a servitor according to Hine and Carroll begins with a general idea of the purpose; this is often expressed through symbol. This is similar to the circle and the octagram in Bardon’s method for “Tulpas”. You also put a very specific symbol in the centre, like Bardon’s technique. Often this symbol is constructed from the letters that express the statement of intent in its simplest form. The letters are rearranged until the intent is hidden in a mass of symbol which is heavily simplified. Chaos magicians focus more on the existence of the servitor as a thought or idea, so there is less focus on the need for a form or energy within their practice. Phil Hine gives a basic energy technique and naming as optional actions.
Conclusion
Thought-forms exist across many different traditions with many different names: thought-form, construct, servitor, sprulpa (often rendered tulpa in English), elementary and so on. Surprisingly, there is a lot in common between these different practices.
Most notable about the existence of a thought-form is the question that they leave in our mind… Since these are created so easily and sometimes unintentionally through mere belief, we must ask ourself what is the true nature of many of beings we interact with? Did I summon a spirit or did I create one? Did the gods create us or did we create them?
And that is thought-forms in modern Occult practice.
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