In the course of working with this orgone stuff, I’m planning on constructing a permanent Babalon Matrix in my room: a table specifically dedicated to charging or maintaining a field of force or magical energy for various purposes (charging, manifestation, and the like).  However, this is a really modern form of occultism, using various modern theories of force, energy, and methods of harnessing them.  As you may have noticed, dear reader, this is not my normal time period; I’m much more Renaissance or classical when it comes to magic and the occult.  Plus, ceremonial magicians are renowned (in)famously for making things more complicated and embellished than they have to be, because why else would someone do something if it didn’t look completely badass at the end?  Thus, after some experiments with orgone, I decided to try out something new.

To that end, I experimented with making a kind of magic circle for my orgone setup.  The setup creates a field of magical force or dweomer or somesuch (terms abound for this, but you know what I’m talking about) that radiates from a central core and is reflected or manipulated by perimeter objects, generally crystal bars that are ridged on one side and flat on the other.  Philosophers and occultists have long resorted to using symbolic diagrams to represent the cosmos, magical activity, and other immaterial things, so why not create a circle or pattern that can describe such a field?  At worst, the pattern would only be decorative, serving to make my orgone system look really really cool and arcane.  At best, the pattern would help amplify, guide, and empower the orgone system even more; using patterns or symbols on their own as potent magical tools has a long history in most magical traditions, so this could be fantastic tool.  Alternatively, the symbol could create a field that would interact and potentially interfere with the field generated by the orgone system, so I decided to experiment.

After lots of interesting, elaborate, and obtuse designs, I eventually came up with the following pattern:

The benefits to this pattern, as I see it, would include:

• The circular form reflects the spherical field projected onto a two-dimensional plane.  The circle helps keep unwanted influences out of the field without first going through the orgone generator to accumulate and distill the energy.
• The radial symmetry allows the field to be oriented towards any cardinal direction, pulling energy in equally from the different quarters of the world and cosmos.
• The center “starburst” radiates energy from the crystal ball, while the circles around the edges collect it.  The central starburst circle represents the field radiator, with the perimeter circles represent the field collectors.
• The field collectors define the radius of the field, which is represented by the circle passing through the field collector circles.  As the collectors define one set of points for the field to collect at, the midpoints between the crystals illustrate that the entire field is bounded by this same process.
• The lines between the central starburst and the field perimeter show the radiation of the field from the center outward, and the reflection from the perimeter inward.
• Lines intersect the field collector circles, showing their purpose to gather and reflect energy passing through them, but not the central starburst circle, showing it to be purely radiating.

So, I painted this pattern out onto a piece of posterboard.  I used a mixture of consecrated black acrylic paint (leftover from my Circle of Art project), dragon’s blood ink, and a Bardonian simple fluid condenser (chamomile extract, gold tincture/solution, grain alcohol).  Painting it alone made me dizzy, and the pattern definitely had a buzz of its own, so I must’ve been doing something right.  I took it over to Jarandhel‘s house later that night, and we started running some experiments with it.

What was interesting about this pattern is that, when we started putting it to use, it did not describe a spherical field at all.  Setting a Babalon Matrix system atop the posterboard and activating it, it felt more like a torch flame or cone in the center with energy being concentrated at the focus instead of being cycled about the entire field.  In fact, we noticed that this was still the case even after we removed the Babalon Matrix entirely, and just used the pattern itself as a field.  It felt like the posterboard was generating a field of its own; whether this was a result of the paint used to make it, the pattern itself, or some combination of the two was unknown to us at the time.  We concluded that the design didn’t describe a sphere, and on some reflection we figured out that it was due to the center circle in the pattern, which isn’t crossed through with field lines (meridians? ley lines?).  Because that circle isn’t connected to the rest of the pattern, we reasoned, it doesn’t and can’t actually radiate energy outward; instead, it gathers energy, and acts as a termination point for the rest of the pattern.  Thus, energy would flow along the lines and terminate into a single point at the center, resulting in a kind of energetic “spire” or cone.

To test out whether or not the center circle actually had something to do with it, I made another piece of posterboard with the same ink and dimensions, but with the meridians crossing through the innermost circle, resulting in the following pattern:

If the first version of the design created a spire of energy due to the central circle being empty, we reasoned that crossing it through would result in a different field shape.  We were correct, too: by having the lines cross through this central circle, we attained a stable spherical field.  It’s as if the central circle, now being crossed through, was now acting as a “top” rather than a “point”, which allowed energy to both radiate from and collect into the center.  This design more accurately described a spherical field, which is what the Babalon Matrix does.

What was interesting was comparing the first and second patterns, or the spire and sphere models, with a Babalon Matrix.  It felt like the field circle and Babalon matrix were each creating their own field that worked with each other, but in different ways:

• Sphere model with Babalon Matrix: A reinforced, stronger sphere of force than either the sphere model or Babalon Matrix alone provides.  It’s like using two clear, flat panes of glass against each other instead of just one: it’s stronger, firmer, more insulated, and still able to provide light and illumination.  Smoother with a simple, air-like flow.
• Spire model with Babalon Matrix: The spire model circle acts as an energy collection or concentration field, while the Babalon Matrix acts as a sphere.  The resulting effect was akin to using a telescope: one lens magnifies, the other focuses.  Very potent for concentrating force into a single point, for manifesting force or sensations, or for “bringing things through”.  Sharp and active, like a fire.

Using both models, we also experimented with different orientations and positions of the perimeter crystals.  Remember that the Babalon Matrix makes use of a set of perimeter crystals that define and reflect the field to from the center, when the flat side of the crystals faces inward, and outward into a omnidirectional field when the flat side of the crystals face outward.  Some experiments we ran on this:

• Flat side in, no circle: spherical field contained by the perimeter crystals.
• Flat side out, no circle: radiating field in all directions from the perimeter crystals.
• Flat side in, spire model, on perimeter circles: a spire of energy gathered at the center in a culminating point.
• Flat side in, spire model, on perimeter angles: (did not test)
• Flat side out, spire model, on perimeter circles: four distinct spheres of energy at each perimeter crystal, about the same size as the circle design itself.  Nothing between the crystals or inside the circle.
• Flat side out, spire model, on perimeter angles: (did not test)
• Flat side in, sphere model, on perimeter circles: spherical field contained by the perimeter crystals, stronger than the Babalon Matrix alone.
• Flat side in, sphere mode, on perimeter angles: a spherical field contained by the perimeter crystals, but it felt “off”, like it was a square peg in a round hole.  Jarring.
• Flat side out, sphere model, on perimeter circles:  Four beams of energy radiating from the crystals, one beam per crystal.  Not omnidirectional, but unidirectional for each crystal.  Nothing really between the crystals except very faint radiation.
• Flat side out, sphere model, on perimeter angles: Somewhat more even than before, but still felt “off” or blocky.  Like trying to make a smooth level out of chunky gravel.

Based on this and the experiments above, it would seem that the crystals and focus take their effect from what’s directly beneath them on the pattern.  The small circles are specific loci of power, as if they’re waiting for input, but objects placed elsewhere appear to throw the fields off or make them feel jarring or misshapen.  Making alternative forms of this using other numbers of loci might be an interesting experiment, especially considering Jarandhel’s and my experiments with changing the number of crystals used with the Babalon Matrix.  For instance, comparative spire and sphere circles making use of six crystals would look like the following:

Also, a small benefit to these designs is that they’re based on a unit circle (the innermost focus and the perimeter loci circles), and can be constructed with only a compass and straightedge.  If the small circle is one unit in diameter, the outermost perimeter circle is eight units in diameter, the circle passing through the perimeter loci is seven units in diameter, and the inside boundary circle is four units in diameter.  Since the square can be devised using only a compass and straightedge, the whole pattern can, as well.  Hexagons, too, though any pattern or polygon that can’t be made with a compass and straightedge also cannot here.  Then again, why would you want to use a design like that?  You silly thing.

It would seem that the circle itself is an interesting add-on to the Babalon Matrix orgone system, and even though not essential, it does have some useful applications.  Moreover, the circle designs themselves work as field generators, either for a concentrating spire or radiating sphere, and given their generic geometric form, can be applied in various other ways I can think of.  They’re original patterns, as far as I can tell, and rely only on their geometric proportions and layout, so they’re tradition-independent and can be used by anyone interested in this.  If you make use of these designs or make new variants of them, feel free to let me know and share what your own experiences with it are like.  For convenience, I’m uploading the designs to the Designs page.  What I’m really interested in figuring out is what to call these things; so far I’ve been calling them “charging circles”, but that’s both inaccurate and tacky.  Magic circuits, force circles, and the like are possibilities, but we’ll see.