Thoughtform Classification Reference

The #thelema magical entity classification project

The goal with this document is to create a basic and consistent set of definitions for various magical entities (specifically ones created by a magician) in order to, among other things, encourage clearer discussion, and save everyone time. It's worth noting that there will always be a certain amount of overlap. A magician can create a servitor and over time it may develop its own personality and sense of will, at which point it is reasonable to begin calling it a tulpa. Furthermore godforms generally begin as servitors/egregores, so there is some upward mobility within.

Servitor: A servitor lacks free will and is dependent upon its Magician/host's energy to survive. A servitor is essentially a robot, created and plugged in for the performance of a specific generally uncomplicated task. One might create a servitor for the purpose of helping one to astral project as this requires little initiative, personality or independence, simply the performing of a function.

Golem: A golem is an entity that has no self awareness but is energy independant from the magician. A golem might be made for similar purposes as a servitor, but done independent of the magician, so it has to be able to sustain itself, rather than being dependent upon the magician for energy. A golem might be used by a magician to perform a task in a far off location, such as healing or otherwise assisting a friend.

Tulpa: A tulpa is a self aware entity that depends on the magician for energy and/or will. One might make a tulpa for tasks that require independence but little autonomy beyond that. An example might be a tulpa created to protect one against various kinds of magical attack, or to participate in rituals on the astral.

Egregore: An egregore is autonomous in both energy and will, and self aware. Is often created/worked upon/fed by multiple people. A group might create an egregore to protect the group on the whole, or possibly the group's temple. Alternatively, egregores are often created through a more unconscious process, giving life to local legends, such as a nymph or 'lady of the lake' type entity. Furthermore, an egregore can be created by a single magician who requires an entity that is entirely independent of him.

Godform: Surpasses its creators and generally surpasses individual magicians greatly and is of course self aware. Traditionally godforms are a tulpa or egregore that has ascended beyond its original mandate, or has reached where it was intended for at the time of its creation. Godforms are not merely independent but often an object of worship by the magician(s) that created it.

The reason for classifying based primarily upon an entity's autonomy is simply that the difference between a regular car and a sports car is significantly less than the difference between a regular car and a horse. In essence, no matter how powerful a tulpa, for example, it is still dependent upon host energy and thus is still a tulpa.

Creation of a magical entity

There are many different ways to create the magical entities above. Some methods are better suited to the creation of one type or another, or result in different ends by definition. However, the basic thing to understand about the creation of a magical entity is that the underlying process is essentially the same. Will, belief, energy, time, and care. Whatever method you use, be it sigilization, energy body creation or any of the other many possible methods, these key ingredients must be present. Always put careful thought into what you wish of your entity, as well as how it will be fed, what personality (if any) it will have. Prior preparations prevents problems, and all that. This goes doubly so for the creation of autonomous/semi-autonomous magical beings. If you understand your end result and work towards it you will be far more successful than simply pushing ahead blind.

Non-magical split personalities and other things
Or: it's not a tulpa, its a split personality.

The original impetus for the creation of this document was a discussion regarding the use of the word Tulpa by people who create split personalities/semi autonomous entities in their own head using psychological methods. Tulpa comes from Tibetan mysticism as a means of creating thoughtforms. However, it has recently been co-opted by a group who uses it to mean the creation of split personalities/semi autonomous entities by psychological means.

However, while they are superficially like a magical entity (the method used to create them is similar to some methods for creation of an entity) they are generally created without the intent for them to do any of the magical operations that a magical entity would perform. Furthermore, in the above formula for the creation of a magical entity, belief plays an important role, and they seem to most often be created by people who don't believe in magic, so will be lacking in that aspect. Also, the split personalities are locked within the mind, they are not external beings, which true thoughtforms are. It is possible for them to become true thoughtforms over time, however as a base they are created internally. If they do take on an existence outside of their creator their classification changes.

A significant effort is generally put towards a psychological visual, auditory and touch hallucination, not to be confused with the magical manifestations of a thoughtform. It is important to clarify the difference between these psychological split-personalities and true thoughtforms.




Co-Written by:

OrthodoxxChaote
Forge
Surgo
Blueshoe