|
Post by Kai'zen on Sept 3, 2011 19:05:35 GMT -6
Can anyone with a knowledge of Chaos Magick explain what an egregore is to me? I googled it, but the answers I got weren't really very good.
|
|
|
Post by horrid on Sept 3, 2011 23:18:02 GMT -6
I'll try to explain it better than google. Lets say 100 people get together and in their imagination design a being, like a spirit or a demon maybe.Everyone gets their shit together as to what the various characteristics of this creature will be, what powers it will have,what it is called. Then the being is brought to life by everyone ritually pouring energy into it and supposedly it takes on a life and personality of it's own. I hope this explains it somewhat. For an example of a well known egregore, google the word fotamecus and perhaps you will find a description of one way the process is supposed to work.
|
|
|
Post by dudetyson on Sept 4, 2011 8:27:32 GMT -6
I think Cora'Sahn wrote a whole essay about it.
If you believe in the power of the human mind to create impressions in a realm other than this mundane one, then human minds can build a bridge to each other, or at least pool their power and focus to create a force bigger and stronger than any one of them could have created. (Of course this collective focus may be artificially created, or simply latching on to a being that was already fully conscious in its own right.)
However I personally don't think that egregores are their own separate thing...I think virtually everything with mass recognition acts as one, from gods to corporate/political logos. Of course some are given more serious mental and emotional focus than others. The "Google" logo is everywhere but I don't think too many people pray to it -- the Christian cross, on the other hand... or the swastika, or Santa Muerte, or the pentagram, whatever.
To me one of the main points of the CoC is to build up powerful egregores, mainly Kort'thalis and the Old Ones in varying degrees, and I'd even go so far to say that some PEOPLE in the Cult have intentionally or unintentionally become minor egregores.
By the way...I have no idea how to verbally pronounce "egregore." Are any of those g's soft? Or is it just egg-reg-gore?
|
|
|
Post by ophiuchus on Sept 4, 2011 9:09:09 GMT -6
An egregore could be thought of as the personification of a group. Any group where its members strongly identify as a part of that group, so that it can act as one, could create an egregore (which a magician could potentially treat like any other spirit). Examples: an angry mob, an army, the priesthood of the Catholic Church (maybe).
|
|
|
Post by Voraxith on Sept 4, 2011 11:01:59 GMT -6
All of the above are pretty good descriptions of an egregore, but typically an egregore is intentionally created, everyone involved (or the single person involved) knowing and directing the will of the energy into the entity to be the egregore.
However, there are certain cases in which an egregore is unintentionally created. Gods are a pretty big example. Be it Enki, Dionysos, Jesus, or -- our favorite -- Dread Cthulhu Himself, gods are egregores.
For more information, try looking here: www.chaosmatrix.org/library/chaos/texts/gegregor.html It'll give you a place to start.
[glow=red,2,300]Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn![/glow]
|
|
|
Post by Kai'zen on Sept 5, 2011 3:31:50 GMT -6
Thanks cultists, that helps me a lot more. Basically what I'd dug up before this was that they were "bigger than a servitor"
|
|
|
Post by sin on Sept 5, 2011 10:32:44 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by lokidreaming on Sept 6, 2011 1:34:50 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by nephrenka on Sept 9, 2011 14:29:03 GMT -6
Also, if you look up creating a ''tulpa'' as the Buddhists would call it, you will find information along the same lines.
|
|
|
Post by Timotheus Prophet of Darkness on Dec 21, 2011 10:25:27 GMT -6
I think Cora'Sahn wrote a whole essay about it. If you believe in the power of the human mind to create impressions in a realm other than this mundane one, then human minds can build a bridge to each other, or at least pool their power and focus to create a force bigger and stronger than any one of them could have created. (Of course this collective focus may be artificially created, or simply latching on to a being that was already fully conscious in its own right.) However I personally don't think that egregores are their own separate thing...I think virtually everything with mass recognition acts as one, from gods to corporate/political logos. Of course some are given more serious mental and emotional focus than others. The "Google" logo is everywhere but I don't think too many people pray to it -- the Christian cross, on the other hand... or the swastika, or Santa Muerte, or the pentagram, whatever. To me one of the main points of the CoC is to build up powerful egregores, mainly Kort'thalis and the Old Ones in varying degrees, and I'd even go so far to say that some PEOPLE in the Cult have intentionally or unintentionally become minor egregores. By the way...I have no idea how to verbally pronounce "egregore." Are any of those g's soft? Or is it just egg-reg-gore? Thats interesting so how would a person go about becomeing a minor egregore?? ;D
|
|