Affirmation · “The Subconscious Says Yes”
The Mantric Word of Power
Turn a positively-phrased sentence of desire into a single pronounceable, meaningless ‘Word of Power’ by phonetic reduction, then drive it into the unconscious by chanting it monotonously until conscious meaning dissolves — an acoustic sigil that bypasses the ‘psychic censor.
Mantric Word of Power (Frater U∴D∴): Write your desire positively, then rewrite it phonetically (as it sounds). Delete repeated letters/syllables and rearrange the survivors into one euphonic, meaningless word — your Word of Power. Chant it monotonously until meaning dissolves and the mind quiets (a “mantra-stupor”), peaking in a shout or kept silent. Then let it go and forget it fast. Read honestly: a self-induced light trance carrying an autosuggestion.
What it is
This is Frater U∴D∴’s acoustic / mantrical sigil method from Practical Sigil Magic (1990): instead of a drawn glyph, you compress your desire into a single pronounceable but meaningless word — a personal “Word of Power” — and charge it by chanting it monotonously until its meaning falls away and it slips past the conscious “psychic censor” into the unconscious.
It is the spoken-word cousin of his Word Method: same logic of abstract → charge → forget, but the carrier is sound rather than shape. U∴D∴ adds it precisely because some people impress the unconscious more readily through rhythm and vibration than through vision, and because a mantra can be repeated anywhere, hands-free, without paper.
Read honestly, it is a self-administered autosuggestion delivered in a self-induced light trance.
The Method
U∴D∴’s mantrical method, faithfully described (short quotes only):
- Write the sentence of desire — positively. One concrete aim, e.g. I WANT TO MEET A SUCCUBUS IN DREAM. Keep it positive: the unconscious ignores “not,” so frame what you want, not what you want to avoid.
- Rewrite it phonetically — as it actually sounds. Spell it the way it is spoken, not the way it is spelled: I WAH NAR MEDAR SUKU BUSIN DREEM. This is the move that distinguishes the acoustic method — you work from the sound, not the orthography.
- Delete repeated letters/syllables and keep the survivors. Strike the repeats so you are left with a short, unique store of sounds.
- Rearrange the survivors into one euphonic, unrecognisable word or short mantra. Shuffle the leftover syllables into something that sounds magical yet no longer betrays the original meaning — e.g. HAWI EMNER KUSAD. Optionally squeeze it further into a single “Word of Power.”
- Charge it by monotonous repetition. Chant the word over and over in a flat, repetitive tone until ordinary thought thins out and you reach what U∴D∴ calls a “mantra-stupor” — a light trance in which the conscious censor is softened and the unconscious is open. He notes a mantra “tends to tranquilize the conscious mind when monotonously repeated,” opening direct access to the unconscious. You may build to a single loud shout at the peak, or keep it whispered/internal.
- Release and forget. At the peak, let the word go; afterwards drop it deliberately — “the faster you forget the sigil, the more effective it is.” Don’t analyse it or chant it longingly later. (Sourcing note: a faithful step-summary of the mantrical/acoustic method from Practical Sigil Magic; the phonetic-rewrite example, “mantra-stupor,” the tranquilizing-the-conscious-mind line, and the forget-fast rule are attributed quotation/close paraphrase, not full reproduction.)
Source & Lineage
Frater U∴D∴ (Ralph Tegtmeier, b. 1952), German occultist and founder of the continental pragmatic/chaos-magic current, set out three sigil-construction routes in Practical Sigil Magic — the Word (pictorial-glyph) Method, the mantrical method described here, and Spare’s “Alphabet of Desire.” The acoustic route draws on the long mantra tradition (where repeated sound induces trance) and on Austin Osman Spare‘s underlying premise that a desire must be passed below conscious awareness. → originator node.
The Traditions' versions
The deep move — repeat a condensed, semantically-emptied sound until the analytic mind quiets and an intention sinks in — recurs across traditions; U∴D∴’s contribution is fusing it with sigil construction (deriving the mantra from a deleted-letter reduction of a specific desire):
- His own Word (glyph) Method — the visual sibling of this technique.
- Carroll’s gnosis — mantra is one inhibitory road to the no-mind charging peak.
- Coué-style autosuggestion — a short positive formula repeated in a receptive state; the Word of Power abstracts the formula to dodge the censor.
- Kabbalistic letter-permutation / divine-name vibration — chanting recombined sacred letters to alter consciousness.,
- Kūkai’s A-syllable (ajikan) and seed-mantra meditation — resting on a single resonant syllable.
Common refinements
A word that still says the wish. If “HAWI EMNER KUSAD” obviously decodes back to the sentence, scramble it further — meaning must be alienated.
- Negative phrasing. Frame the aim positively; the unconscious drops the “not.”
- Stopping before the stupor. A few half-hearted repetitions don’t reach the receptive state; the method needs sustained monotony.
- Over-dramatising. Straining for ecstasy is unnecessary; flat, patient repetition does the work.
- Forgetting to forget. Don’t keep chanting it wistfully afterward — that reinstates craving. Charge, release, drop it.
- Treating it as a substitute for action. It sets direction and state; it doesn’t do the practical steps.