Yes, I know - I made that word up.
An intriguing looking blog, Subrealism, which I will have to go and investigate more fully later, quotes the Aurum Solis:
"EGREGORE: An energized astral form produced consciously or unconsciously by human agency. In particular, (a) a strongly characterized form, usually an archetypal image, produced by the imaginative and emotional energies of a religious or magical group collectively, or (b) an astral shape of any kind, deliberately formulated by a magician to carry a specific force.
Jehovah/Yahweh/Allah is a good example of an egregore of type a).
Unlike my pre-incarnated Atheist self, I realise that he's real, and I now believe he's insane, to boot.
The definition b) is what I started out wanting to talk about, though, not good old YAJ, bless him.
I create and work with egregores. Every day. They arise from the ground where I live and have been gaining in existence for five years now - that makes them damn near visible to passers-by.
You can certainly feel them if you walk past my home.
The energy of the closer-to-home guardian , Hecate Propylaia has a fire and steel and deep dark earth feel to it, unsurprisingly.
The perimeter and garden guardian egregore , Anpu is unmistakeably canine, male and alert. He's also fairly vicious, also unsurprisingly. Hey -I created them, what do you expect?
I interact with this pair every single evening after sundown, raising their existential traits a little each time.
In five years living on this property, we've had absolutely no unwanted incursions, violence or trouble. Once past that front gate, you're in our space-that means you play by our rules.
I'm coming to a point now where I should be expanding my definition of my family: the land now supports two humans, four dogs, and two egregores.
Sweet.
PS Talking about my pre-incarnated Atheist self, someone just nailed it down:
I've noticed this rather curious characteristic before in militant sceptics, that they are very free with their own criticisms - which are often uninformed, uninsightful, and couched in derisive terms - yet deeply hurt to find themselves coming under counter-attack. It's as though they think their own point of view is so unanswerable it's not open to serious debate
That's spot on, at least as far as I was concerned as a ranting skeptic. Well said, Robert.
Pic: Spirit of Ayahuasca
As I've noted on my blog before, egregores are one way of thinking about the Christian concepts of angels and demons, and the one that inhabited the Nats in the old South Africa has now migrated to the Labour Party in Britain.
ReplyDeletePS Good to see you on Amatomu.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYou and THE Wife would get along famously....she sees shit to!
ReplyDeletegrin........
Hi Steve,
ReplyDeleteI see I came in at no.20 on the Hit Parade!
I'd better be careful or I'll get addicted.
Hi Michael,
In these days, it seems to be more women who practise shamanically - it wasn't always so as you know.
Love,
Terri
I get egregores and spirit guides confused. Maybe there a little of the same thing?
ReplyDeleteHi Livia,
ReplyDeleteI don't know.Both are non physical, except of course where they're physical (duh) and manifesting in, say, the Pied Crow (spirit guide) or a chill in the brain (my guardian egregores).
Your bats seem to be spirit guides, but you didn't create them consciously (or maybe there's an argument that you did on some level), while the demonic being which inhabited the Nats during apartheid, as Steve says above was surely created by humans.
It may be a fine line!
Love,
Terri
Aquila,
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see you there. It's a good place to see what is going on in the South African blogosphere, and I hope to see all the different religions represented there in the religion section.
Livia,
It may be just me, or because I'm coming at it from a different angle, but I see little in common between egregores and spirit guides. I've written about it in more detail on my blog Notes from underground: Of egregores and angels, in case you're interested in following it up.