I think it’s safe to say that I have a very complicated relationship with Catholicism. However, for as long as I can remember, the Virgin Mary’s image has always evoked feelings of a warm blanket.
Wrapped in this safety net of hers, I’m ready to dive a bit deeper into my process and vision.
When I was in fashion school, I came across this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA&t=601s
In that video it basically talks about taking the genius out of you and applying it externally. The idea here is that you give credit to an external thing/deity/GENIUS for the work so that the ego doesn’t get in the way.
So I started emulating this process, surrounding myself with movies, books, and tv shows on the subject I was working on. I would force myself to plug into the mind of whichever genius I was taking inspiration from and allow them to take over.
As I became more serious with magick, I started to embrace using invocations during my design process. Here I took direct inspiration from Peter Carroll, who’s widely acknowledged for kickstarting the modern chaos magick movement. He also invented the goddess Apophenia, which helps him with achieving scientific inspiration. As such, the goddess Apophenia can be thought of as a personification of scientific discovery itself, and Carroll invokes her as needed.
When I say, MAKING ART IS A RITUAL, I mean it! I approach creative work just like I approach rituals, so before both, I’ll do banishing and any other relevant preliminary rituals ahead of time. The type of invocations I do depends on the theme of the work.
Invocations really do take you to an altered state of mind. This reminds me of Bryan Lewis Saunder’s artwork, where he took different drugs and created self-portraits under their influence. I wouldn’t necessarily say that performing invocations feels exactly like being high-out-of-your-mind, but sometimes their effect is just as strong. This is why I’m so grateful for my mentor and meditation practice, because it keeps me grounded, regardless of how high I get from the invocation.
“Magicians use the most modern tools”
- Genesis Breyer P-orridge
As a Chaos Magician, I’m interested in pushing the boundaries on what can be used as a ritual tool. My medium is digital fashion and for months now I’ve been experimenting with implementing AI into the mix. Genesis Breyer P-orridge said that, “Magicians use the most modern tools”. Which I 100% agree with, but to take it one step further, we could say: A modern magician uses the most contemporary tools… A post-modern magician makes up new tools.
In this art piece, an AI Sigil is embedded in Mary’s Tiphareth (heart space). This sigil as a whole is made up of three separate sigils for Support, Courage, and Unconditional Love. I have had a high success rate with AI Sigils (I have a few theories on why, which I’ll post about later). Sigils seem to be the easiest entry point into exploring any new medium, and AI Amulets, Talismans, and their like, garner even more interesting results. However, magick and love seem to flourish in safe environments, which is why I wanted to give an introduction to my work with the safety net of VIRGIN M-AI-RY.
Special thanks to Virgin Mary, Genesis Breyer P-orridge, Dr Vanessa Sinclair, My Muse, my Mentor and everyone who has read this entire article.
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