-A.k.a.: The angel of the red lanterns, the raging angel, red angel, red-wing, The Red Lantern
-Publisher: DC Comics
-Type: Alien
-Afilliations: Red Lantern Corps, Emerald Warriors, New Guardians
-Powers: Expels acid, animating, caustic effect, power suit, energy projection, energy constructs, flight,heart replacement, mirages creation, ring duplication, temperature control, electro magnetic scanning, wormhole creation, high resistance to telepathy, spacial awareness, wings.
Energy constructs are cool. And fun. And extremely versatile, like holy shit. You'll use them for so many things. Here's a list, although uses are not limited to the list:
Shields
Creating Armor
Creating little guards or sentinels
Magical attacks
Arming yourself with weapons
Goofing around
Fun pranks for any magically-inclined friends :D
Rituals
Creating things Over There
So, how do you actually make one of these things? There are different methods, but the method that works best for me is starting with a sort of framework. I create something between a concept and a blueprint and a frame - the bare bones of an item. An outline. This can be done different ways, depending on how your mind works - you can visualize, feel, smell, or whatever. Recall emotions or even memories about a specific object. If you don't visualize anything with your brain, you might want to work with words or concepts. You know your brain best when it comes to creating objects.
After you have your outline, you fill it with energy. Charge that outline and keep charging it until it feels real. During this step, you can also specify the kind of energy you are using to charge - I do this by imbuing my item with emotion so it can better serve its purpose. You should be able to tell its there, in whatever way you interperate energy. For me, I can almost feel the item's weight is there by the time I'm done. .
Once you have it more real, then what I do is sort of… Set it? It's hard for me to put this into words - I complete the constructing phase and make it so it is done so the energy I put in doesn't leak out.
After this, you now have an energy construct! During the charging phase you can also give it instructions - like if you want a sentinel to alert you of intruders on your territory, or if it has some other specific task.
Now, for an example. I'm a nerd, and I actually made myself an energetic Master Sword to use in cases where I need to kick something out of my space. Step by step on how I did it:
1. I started with the outline - I recalled everything I could about it while forming the outline in my hands so it could be to scale. Its hilt, the texture of the grip, the sheen of the blade, how it is the Blade of Evil's Bane. What it is capable of doing.
2. Once my outline was done, I just poured energy into it. While doing this, I concentrated more of the Blade of Evil's Bane concept - it is a blade that destroyed that which is foul, its cleansing and burning light, how it is super effective on the dark and malicious. I made sure to super concentrate on the sharpness of the blade - I wanted to be able to cut anything.
3. After that, and when I could feel it in my hands, I felt it click into place. And it was done! Afterwards, I made a sheathe because my friend was scolding me for swinging it around recklessly. I now keep it in my sort of "magical inventory" - a place in my mind where I store different shields and constructs to pull out when needed.
So that's it. You can pretty much make anything as a construct. Little moving robots, food to give as offerings or gifts, weapons, armor, just random little items because why the fuck not. I have a friend who can do full-on elaborate ceremonial magic using only magical constructs, which is pretty cool.
Again, let me know if you have any input or questions
Hi, sorry to anon but not on tumblr. I'm wondering if you know of similar examples to the anomalous dream series I had during an unsettled, transitional episode of my life. There were very brief meetings with someone, always different (blokes from metal bands I liked) but recognisable from the dream's after-effects (feelings of peace/happiness/being loved all next morning). Hypothesis: subconcious-made mental construct?
Dear Anon,If it was not just a, more or less, normal dream that incorporated subconscious needs to try to comfort and stabilize yourself during this period, it could be a construct. Some people are very adept at making them without realizing what they’re doing.Constructs usually aren’t permanent and don’t turn into anything more sentient and stable unless particular actions are taking over a period of time. Without maintenance and extra work, they fulfill the function they were built for and decompose until they are gone.Given that constructs are generally rather weak as well as being non-physical, they’re most useful for simple and non-physical tasks - finding objects, standing guard, relaying messages, or sometimes bringing emotional or psychological comfort because of the feeling that one has company. They can get damaging if they’re not built in a well-rounded way, in the same sense that one sees in AI/robots-gone-wrong sci-fi movies, which is generally why you see so many people being jumpy and insisting that servitors have built-in destruction dates or get dissolved before they gain intelligence and sentience.
Question: Could you point us towards more information on egregores?
Anonymous asked grumpylokeanelder:
Could you point us towards more information on egregores? Its a concept I've been struggling with understanding for sometime, despite having interacted with one belonging to a magical partner. Something about the way he's been explaining it hasn't been clicking and I haven't been able to find anything I grok in my own research. Thank in advance for any assistance!
Dear Anon,
It's very difficult to find good, solid information about egregori and thoughtforms out there. I'll be answering based upon my own knowledge and experience, for the most part, so... UPG warning and all that.
The word Egregore was first used by the French poet Victor Hugo, and the meaning of the word (as he used it) was extremely vague. The word first started to be applied to thoughtforms/energy constructs by Ceremonial Magicians (particularly the membership of the Golden Dawn).
Egregore is often used by other people to refer to a powerful thoughtform that has been constructed by a group of people. Said group has poured an amount of energy and emotion into a particular thoughtform or idea and it starts to take on a life of its own, perhaps have a certain amount of awareness and sentience, and some limited abilities. (So, to use some simple non-occult examples: one could argue for the existance of Uncle Sam as an egregore of the USA, Mickey Mouse potentially being the egregore of the Disney Corporation, etc. You have a bunch of people pouring focus into the same idea and image, which helps "power" and "solidify" the egregore's existance.)
My personal definition of the term is a bit different. I use it to refer to a particular level of sentience and power with these types of beings. For me, energy constructs are the lowest level (a bit like a computer program or a robot, non-sentient and only capable of simple tasks, and usually of very limited "life span"). Thoughtforms are the next level up - capable of more complicated tasks and some amount of smart interaction. They have flickers of sentience but are still highly dependent on their creator(s) to feed and maintain them and propagate their existence. Egregori are the highest level, where they have started to take on a life of their own, can maintain their own existence (more or less), can hold intelligent conversations, and have a great deal more power than created beings of the lower levels. If energy constructs are like simple, mindless robots, egregori are like human ghosts or poltergeists, with all of their complexity and their own distinct personality.
The being that you get at the egregore level, whether group created or created by an individual, is about the same. It's "easier" for groups to pour sufficient energy, emotion, and focus into a created being and make one at that level faster, but I feel like there are certain problems that pop up with that type of creation. Because you have a bunch of people collaborating on the creation (whether intentionally or if creating such a being by complete accident), everyone is going to have a different vision and perspective. The pieces may not fit together very well. The ideas may be very two-dimensional, which could result in a disturbed and unhappy spirit. I tend to regard these constructs as being similar to, say, the creation and development of a child. Just like you can screw up during a child's development and cause them all sorts of problems during their adult life, you can screw up an egregore during their formative stages. And if you do, they are your responsibility.
There are a bunch of scare-posts out there instructing people that constructs/thoughtforms/egregori are dangerous and that their creators need to keep them stupid, restricted, and dissolve/kill them within a set short time period or else "terrible things will happen". I've had mine for years, most of them made by accident while writing fiction. My life is just fine. None of my egregori have tried to kill me or drive me insane or possess my body or any of the other horror stories you see spread around. My personal suspicion is that the horror stories come from thoughtforms that gain sentience, realize the horrible things and restrictions their creators have hard-coded into them, and they get fucking angry. And honestly, if that's the case, I really don't blame them for being pissed off at their creator. Thoughtforms aren't something to make for shits and giggles. You end up with a being that's like a human ghost. My opinion, but if it would be a shitty thing to do to another human, you shouldn't program it or do it to an egregore. Just like you wouldn't get a puppy for a couple of weeks, get bored, and get rid of the animal, you should not make an egregore to see if you can, play around with hir, and then destroy hir or let hir die because you're no longer invested.
Also, don't treat them like pets or robots once they get smart and independent. They'll get resentful. Treat them with respect and you'll have a much better experience.
At low levels, thoughtforms can be given simple jobs - helping you by acting as lookouts, being messengers, etc. At higher levels, you may start to have difficulty telling them from a human ghost or a vaettir - they may be a companion, have complex conversations with you, make purchase requests of you, make noises or move objects (moving objects is rare because it takes a lot of energy, but it's happened with one of mine), etc. If you are working on creating an egregore by yourself, how long it takes will depend in part on whether you have a natural knack for it or not, but it will take awhile. My first took a little less than a year to really gain sentience, and that was with throwing energy and emotion and focus at him every day for a few hours a day, and I have enough of a natural knack that I created him by accident (while writing a story).
If you have more questions, please feel free to ask. I don't mind talking about this subject.
Further Reading of Possible Interest (I cannot vouch for how good these are, as I just skimmed them and found them to be less full-of-shit than most of the web materials you can find on thoughtforms and egregori):
Egregores and Astral Constructs
The Egregore of a School
Wikipedia: Egregore
On The Magical Egregore (using the definition of "group thoughtform", mentions working with thoughtforms for doing "shadowwork" and fixing ego problems)
Sidenote: I don't use the word tulpa to refer to thoughtforms, as this is a term specific to Tibetan Buddhism and Bon. As I am not an expert in either of those paths or how tulpas fit into that framework, I am uncomfortable with using that word. Just because the concepts may appear similar does not mean that they are the same, and besides, the words construct, thoughtform, and egregore work perfectly fine for having discussions about these sorts of spirits. Don't ask me about tulpas. I am not the right person to ask.
