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- Hey friend, I really appreciate the advice you're giving me, and the effort you're putting into your posts. I think it was a bit of a mistake to put ChatGPT in my original post, because it gives the wrong impression, I guess as a software developer it's sort of a muscle memory reflex.
- I never use ChatGPT images for anything except illustrations that have nothing to do with anything (I sometimes make random pug pictures for my pug loving friend for instance), but my few attempts at using it for anything that required certain imagery or placements showed me that it's completely useless for this, and I just don't do it.
- I use it as a learning tool, as you say. For instance, the answer I got regarding invocations mentioned "Shem HaMephorash Angels". This was new to me, and a topic of exploration. It provided me with some tentative demons, who I looked up. It often mentions concepts that are new to me that I can then g and look up.
- Your example is great by the way, I could not get it, however I tried, to get an answer that said to use parchment. In fact, even when I asked it to provide direct references, it gave this:
- 1. MATERIALS — What is the Hexagram of Solomon made from?
- The Goetia (in the version edited by S.L. MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley) gives this explicit instruction:
- “You must make a Vessel of Brass for to put the spirits in, the which must be covered with a plate of the same metal, and be well fastened with a chain. And you must make this Vessel before you begin your operations, and when it is finished you must write upon the cover thereof the names and characters as shown later in this book.”
- — (Goetia, Mathers/Crowley edition, Introduction)
- In the illustration that follows (in most editions and in MS 2731), the Hexagram of Solomon is inscribed on the lid of this vessel.
- So the Hexagram of Solomon, when used in this context, is engraved on the brass cover of the vessel.
- There is no textual support in the Goetia for making it out of parchment, wax, or paper in this context. Those materials are used for lamens, pentacles, or seals, but not the Hexagram on the brass vessel.
- So yeah, this is total crap, in the sense that it completely misses the direct reference you provide. But again, I know not to take it at its word. I use it as a useful research tool, and there is something interesting here. For instance, I've never heard of this "vessel of brass" before, so I'm interested in what it's on about. It gives me a bunch of references to the Goetia, which I suspect you are familiar with. I'm curious, because I have not read the Goetia in full (I used a different book for the ritual, but I did use a book, not ChatGPT!). So it tells me about the vessel of brass and trapping spirits. I know about triangles and circles but not this vessel. I ask ChatGPT to tell me how these two things relate. It tells me, in summary, that the triangle and circle are the primary tools, and the brass vessel is a fallback. This then, is an interesting point that I'm interested in. So I ask it to provide some references to modern authors who have some commentary on the use of the brass vessel. It gives me, amongst others, some references, with page numbers, from books by Stephen Skinner and Jake Stratton-Kent. Unlike ChatGPT's answer, which I skim, I read these properly, and I consider checking out these books, since I know very little of this topic.
- Incidentally, Stephen Skinner and Jake Stratton-Kent are, of course, big names, but since I have only started my serious magickal journey recently, I only know of them through ChatGPT. Prior to using this tool, the only names I was familiar with were Regardie, the Ciceros, Crowley and DuQuette.
- I hope this sounds sensible to you!
- Friend, I really respect and appreciate your advice. I appreciate you taking time out to guide someone who you think might be reading random machine generated crap on the internet in a way that fucks up his work. But I do think I use these tools correctly. When I look up tarot or qabalistic information for instance, it's usually for a quick reminder of something basic I already know. When I ask for something I don't know, I take it as probably being "mostly correct" for knowledge, but not practice based topics. So I use that to get a broad overview, and also to discover new names I have never heard of (it might reference some astrological concept or angel or practice I have never heard of, that I can research at will). Then when I decide what topics to seriously study, I ask for authors and books, which I then check in the communities to see what the reputation of these people are. Though again, I can get a "sense" of this from ChatGPT.
- I might be a beginner magician, but I use LLM's daily as a tool for learning new topics, and I have spent plenty of time in academia and I know how to research new topics, sort bullshit from truth, and figure out who the important names and books are, and I am a voracious reader. On a daily basis I deal with people who just copy and paste crap from ChatGPT too, and it's irritating, and I talk to people professionally who are very skeptical about the value of this tool. But I simply think knowing how to use it is a skill. And that means knowing what to ask, knowing what to trust, and knowing how to get an authoritative answer.
- I have used it for example, to give me overviews of, say, the magic of W.B. Yeats, Kenneth Grant, or A.E. Spare, and those overviews are perhaps not 100% correct, but characteristic. And then, I ask for a book. I read the book.
- Again, I appreciate your guidance, and advice. If you still think I'm misguided or arrogant, please tell me, and I won't argue, but reconsider my point of view :)
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