Recently I was gifted with several pieces of orgonite from a friend of mine. I’ve been curious about orgonite and the assorted orgone tech for a while, but my experiences have been very slim with them.
To back track, if you’re wondering what orgone is, it is a term coined by Wilhelm Reich to more or less refer to a universal form of life energy. Reich was an early psychologist and student of Freud’s and he worked various ideas about energy and energy bodies into his models of psychology. His take on this universal life energy was more mechanistic than what most sorcererous folks are used to, it isn’t about will and belief, but a natural interplay of form and matter. He viewed it more in lines with electricity (in terms of how it operates) than some subtle energy controlled by people.
This led him and those following his ideas to theorize and create mechanical devices meant to manipulate orgone. He felt that organic material attracted orgone, while inorganic material repelled it, and by combining these materials in certain ways you could alter the flow of orgone. There are devices to shoot beams of focused orgone, or to reprogram it, and a variety of things. The simplest is a shooter, which is a hollow tube surrounded by alternating layers of organic and inorganic materials. Polyphanes has done some work with that side of the tech, which you can see here. He theorized that the attraction/repulsion worked somewhat like a maglev or rail gun, drawing in, repelling, attracting, repelling down the line.
Orgonite is one of the later pieces of orgone tech to enter the stage being invented by a couple in 2000. Their idea is that you don’t need the strict layers of organic/inorganic materials, but more a roughly 50/50 balance. Orgonite, rather than being ordered layers is a collection of mostly inorganic material suspended in an organic resin. Orgone is believed to have two main types, positive orgone (usually just called orgone) and dead/ly orgone. From an energy model you could see it as clear energy, and polluted energy. Deadly orgone is supposedly created by lots of things, but most commonly cited are things that disrupt orgone/energy as they understand it, so powerlines, power plants, radio towers, and the like.
Anyways orgonite supposedly gathers in the deadly orgone and transforms it back into positive orgone and releases it. Now since the 2000 creation of orgonite some people have expanded this idea. So rather than just making generic positive orgone, they would make specific frequencies of positive orgone, based upon what went into the orgonite. This is where it sounds like it crosses a bit back into the magickal realm. By using different metals and crystals as the inorganic compound in orgonite the energy released would be tuned to certain things. It might be more of a healing energy, a faster clearing energy, more resonant with the throat chakra, whatever.
So now I have three pieces of orgonite from my friend. Sadly this is a small sample size, but I’ll talk about what I noticed. First off I’ll admit outside of Reich’s armor theories, I don’t give him much credence, yeah, I believe in invisible life energies whirling around us, but his model of such doesn’t totally work for me. Then even looking into the orgon-tech the orgonite doesn’t seem to fit that theory. Reich’s orgone accumulating box was layers of material, shooters are layers of material, everything was about the alternating flow of organic/inorganic. Orgonite has both materials, but they are more haphazardly aligned, there isn’t layers, you have inorganic stuff floating loose in organic medium. It’s seems like mixing all the dough and filling ingredients for a pie in a bowl, rather than making dough, filling, and constructing a pie.
None the less, not buying his theories, and feeling orgonite doesn’t even match those, there is definitely something to the orgonite. I pick it up, and I can feel a buzzing coming from it. Even one of my woogity-accepting but not really perceptive friend was surprised at what he could feel from them.
The Dragon one has a sense of elevation, to use a standard model, it’s almost as if it is releasing energy that is more attuned to an astral level than a physical one. In fact while holding it it becomes easier to shift my awareness up out of the physical. When it’s “resting” is has a similar sense, but undirected. We all know places where the boundaries might be a touch thin, it feels like that, not majorly, but enough that if you knew what you were looking for, and how to use it, you’d see it.
The Triskelion feels the most like I’d expect orgonite to feel like. I can’t get a clear bead on if it is programmed a certain way, but what does come out of it seems like it’s been cleaned and stripped down, and is ready to go. I get the sense that it would be good to work with sensitive energy blockages. Sometimes you can tell a blockage is holding the channel open, and if you remove it it would collapse, or it’s holding back too much energy to safely release at once. I could see using this on the person to slowly over an hour or so breakdown and hopefully purify some of the blockage, but it would do it in a way a lot slower and gentler than a person could. Or more accurately, would. I would not want to spend hours slowly removing a blockage from someone, but having them hold/tie the orgonite to the area for that time, that’s not an issue.
Lastly is the Heart piece. This is my least favourite, and it’s not cause it’s a heart. There is something to this that by body disagrees with, everytime I keep it with me, I feel sick after a while, and I don’t mean a little off, I mean verging on violently ill. I get the sense it’s trying to cleanse me, but the trouble is I’m not the model it’s appropriate for. It’s a cleaner designed for PVC pipes, and I’m lead. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just my body and energy don’t work in a way that is compatible with it. That’s not uncommon for me, there are several energy systems that my body does not like, even after working with Reiki for a decade, when I get Reiki offered to me it bothers my system. Despite not working well for me, I’m really glad I was sent this piece, because it was the first one to give me a clear reaction, it really makes me realize something is going on.
Something very odd I noticed about all of them though, is that I can’t meditate when in contact with them. I’ve taken each of them to temple with me, a few times, and decided as a way of passively exploring what they do, I’d meditate with them, and see what happens. Every time I’m meditating with them touching me, I can’t meditate for the life of me, it is as if my monkey mind was given a PCP-laced banana. I was almost completely unable to bring my attention where it should, and it would run off faster, more violently, and farther than it does under any other circumstance. I have no idea and no good theories on why, it is just an observation.
My last observation, is that I suspect orgonite doesn’t work, at least not as the theory posits it. I’ve tried following the way the energy moves in them, what happens, I’ve tried looking at the whole, and at parts, and from a mechanical perspective I can’t see how or why it works. If I step out of the orgone model though, it seems rather simple: orgonite is a talisman. I know a lot of orgone-followers prefer to look at their stuff as more scientific/mechanical than magick, but it’s a blurry line at times. Here is the thing though, orgonite contains a quartz crystal to direct the energy, then is surrounded by other stones and metals which change the energy “frequency.” This is not dissimilar from any for more crystal/metal magick, save the suspension in organic resin. Most of our traditions have us use this metal because it does this, this crystal cause it connects to that, and I think the orgonite is doing the same. When the orgonite is completed, it’s charged, in this case my friend’s husband gives it some reiki to get it going. Also when my friend makes them she is guided by her intuition on what metals and stones to use, and my cursory reading on the subject shows that’s fairly common. Also this sounds like it is more or less making a basic talisman.
So as much as I respect my friend, I feel I have to disagree with her premise in believing in orgonite. I feel she’s actually making a magickal talisman. It’s not so much about the ratios of the materials and the way they interact, but more about their sympathies, and how she connects them, and gets them going. I suspect that orgonite would function just as well if it used an inorganic medium instead of organic, but that’s just a practical ingredient, the nuts and bolts are the metals, gems, and energy involved in their creation.
Now, again I’ll say, there is definitely something too the pieces. They work, they have a noticeable charge, they’re doing things. I just disagree on the mechanics on /how/ they work. That being said I think the idea of using the orgonite method would be fascinating to tap in terms of talisman creation. I could suspend crystals, metals, and herbs in specific simple patterns and seal them in resin to later consecrate. It’s definitely something I’ll be thinking more about.
I can’t say for sure, and will experiment more, but that’s my current standing on orgonite.
energy model
Hands of Holy Fire
Stage magicians take good care of their hands, it’s a habit I didn’t leave behind when I left the field. One thing I’ve started doing in the relatively recent period is using a salt scrub on my hands. Let me tell you they are marvellous. They scrub off dry/hard skin, they coat the fresh skin with moisturizing oil, and bring blood to the skin so it can repair itself. Sure your hands are a bit greasy for a while, but they’ll be so soft after a few repeated uses.
That’s not all though, I find they leave my hands positively buzzing with energy for a while. Maybe it’s because of the increased bloodflow and the links between blood and internal energies. Maybe it’s because it opens the pores a bit, allowing a greater flow to occur, if you subscribe to the model linking those ideas. Maybe it’s all in my head, but that’s fine, my head is an awesome place to be.
I decided to actively use this in some of my work, so I created my Hands of Holy Fire Scrub. It’s simple to make. 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of salt (“free running” or small granules), and six drops of Abramelin oil, mix and store in an airtight non-plastic container. This makes enough for a handful (harhar) of uses. I find when I scrub my hands with this I get more than the general energy buzz in my hands, but a very specific type of energy, a “flaming” sort that I associate with my HGA. To solidify this I usually say a prayer as I’m scrubbing my hands.
I find it useful to localize this energy in my hands for various reasons. While it’s not my typical “flavour” for healing I find using it for energetic healing work has produced some great results. Also a lot of my personal style of magick is based upon gestures relating to my internal vision projection. (I’ve been told many times it looks similar in motion to the tech in the movie Minority Report, which I’ve never seen, but from the trailer I can see the resemblance.) While I can use this style without the Hands of Holy Fire (in fact I don’t think my gestures do anything on an external scape but merely reflect an internal process) I do find with it I sometimes have greater bruteforce against somethings. Occasionally I’ll meet something I can’t manipulate, but with the HoHF I can continue to work in a lot of cases. Along with healing just having my hands this way when doing a cleansing seems to be a bit more effective. Consecrating, or handling, ritual items associated with the Cosmos flows a lot better when I’ve used the scrub.
Looking at the common three part self model this is a good way of linking body with spirit and mind, you’re physically rooting and connecting to the energy through the scrub (as the material and the action). I’m sure this could be adapted in other ways, as another mode of condition oil application, allowing more control/form as the energy pools around your hands. The same scrub can be made with sugar instead of salt, which might work better for attracting magick. Of course always make sure that the condition oil doesn’t contain anything that would react negatively if applied to skin, blah blah blah.
As always, toy, tweak, experiment.
More on the Magick of Malas
I’ve been getting more and more questions about malas. It started with my original post on malas but it has been increasing since I opened up my little shop on etsy (currently on sale until noon tomorrow, check out my previous post) and people have been asking more. Last time I spoke more on malas traditionally, now I’d like to talk a bit more about my personal adaptations with malas.
As mentioned before malas are like batteries, they store the energy of the work you do inside of them, and if they are consecrated and attuned with an energy they retain that. This is a technique I use primarily with my planetary, elemental, and chthonic malas, as they all connect and relate to a specific type of energy. But something similar could be worked out with any mala.
Now if I’m doing something simple, I just need a short answer, or just want to do a quick prayer, I pull the mala down over my head, so my head passes through that veil. I then find communicating and seeing spirits of that sort (so fire elementals if I’m using my fire mala, or shades of the dead if I’m using my chthonic mala) is a lot easier, it is as though I’ve encased my head in a bubble of their reality.
If I’m doing something a bit more lengthy and complex, like petitioning, or summoning it is a bit different. Once I have the mala charged in the same way I place it on the ground (or table, or tombstone, whatever) sometimes in the shape of a circle, sometimes the shape of a triangle. Instead of encasing myself in a bubble of their reality, I’ve created a limited space that joins our realities, a place where the elemental/planetary/spirit realm intersects our realm a little easier, or perhaps I’ve just created an area of specialized energy to their type that makes them manifesting here easier (similar to some theories about the use of appropriate incense in evocation). Then I call them into the mala-field and communicate with them that way. Without some extra work, this does not function like a Solomonic triangle, it won’t keep anything in that doesn’t want to stay in that space, though they’re weaker outside of it, so unless you have some form of backup, or don’t mind the fun/challenge I’d avoid summoning unfriendly spirits this way. This method can also be used to drape a mala around a skrying mirror to “tune” it into a specific place/energy/spirit. You can either put it directly on the mirror like in the picture, or put it in a circle around the mirror. I find results are largely the same.
I’ve been taught that the left hand is receptive and the right hand is projective (though I suspect that is more about dominant hands), and I find wearing a mala with that in mind takes on another facet. Granted a good 90% of the time I just put the mala on, and that’s it, but sometimes I want to do more. In that case I’ll animate the mala like I mentioned above, activating it, drawing out the forces placed inside of it. Then depending on what I want to do, I’ll put it on. If it is something I want to bring into my life or retain internally I wrap it around my left wrist (being receptive). I see that veil covering my hand and the energy washing up my arm into me. This can also be used to start the motion of an energy transfer, so if you want to draw from the Moon, either to use or to recharge a Lunar mala (as an example) when wearing it on the left, if you’ve started to draw it in from the mala it’s easy to switch to an external source of fire and the draw continues, like priming a siphon pump.
If it is something I want to project into the world, then I wrap it around my right wrist, gathering the energy around my hand. From there I can use this to passively embody traits that I pass into the world, or can use it to actively influence things. By connecting to the energy in my Venusian mala, I can project that into people I touch, or in close proximity to help influence them in my favour. Connecting to my Martial or Saturnian mala, depending on the situation, I can use that to create forms to help keep people I don’t want around from engaging me.
That’s only three of the different ways I use malas, but I thought I’d start with them as they’re simple and versatile. I’ll probably be writing more on malas later since there is more interest in them than initially expected, so if you have any questions or topics you want discussed toss them in the comments and I’ll try to include them next time.
Wednesday Webshare: Sigils, Synesthesia, and Psychic Murders
Robert made a good post on the Do’s and Don’ts for Teachers in pagan/magickal groups, also followed by one for students. Regardless of where you think you’re situated, they’re both worth reading.
Wildmind has a list of 10 Things Science and Buddhism say will make you happy. Really only the Buddhist side is sourced, but a list of ten things to consider.
Phil Hine tackles the Energy Model. Now I like the model, but he makes great points on the hypocrisy and poorly thought out way many people use it I think I should go cleanse my shoes, since they were made (unbeknownst to me) by a homophobic company, and I don’t want my feet becoming homophobes.
Before I linked the Buddhist bar. One step better is the Buddhist Strip Bar. Even the pimps are Buddhist there, you can hear them saying Om Mani Peme Hum…or maybe there were saying “Owe money, pay me ho.” (Bad joke, I know)
A Witchcraft-inspired murder in the UK has come to trial. A very disturbing case. The police believe this is an underreported crime, but give no reason for why they believe that.
Shivian Balaris wrote a good post on making a functional grimoire or Book of Shadows. I disagree with using it as a journal, cause I do a lot and have a complicated daily practice, so I go through journals far quicker than I’d want to with a grimoire or Book of Shadows. I have a few books that I’m trying to put into one, right now it seems like a three hole punched binder is my best choice. If you use a book like this it’s worth a read
Coming soon to a book store near you, a pre-teen/teen novel about a boy who discovers he’s quarter Angel. Nephilim tween fantasy is the new thing.
No, seriously, there is another.
This is really a case of an unbalanced individual taking advice the wrong way. Man murders family for his inheritance after a psychic told him riches were coming his way.
If you’re under a rock Gordon put up the Ultimate Sigil Magic Guide and it is seriously worth a read.
Synesthesia may explain how people see auras!
Or not…
An excellent look into elemental work and initiation into them. Really worth the read.
Lastly on a light note, this will be the problem I have with my children