So I proved to myself magic is real (also, wtf does an entity clapping at me mean?)

Basically, yesterday I wrote out my intent to remember my dreams, created a sigil with the letters that I used to write that intent, drew the sigil on a piece of paper and tore it in half. (the entire process took about 40 minutes)

I don't usually remember many dreams, and if I do, I remember fragments. After doing this, I remembered two incredibly vivid mundane dreams about me walking a long distance(just walking and doing various things while walking for about 20 minutes each). a ridiculous improvement in recall.

As for the entity (I want to say demon, but I don't know for sure, it creeps me out slightly when I think about it.), I went to the kitchen to get something, and there's this particular window that when I walk by at night I get a creepy vibe from. Last night in particular I felt like something was getting in through it after the spell. This has happened before with the same entity I believe, I went back to my room, feeling followed the entire time, and did a quick and dirty banishment... invocation? spell? (what would be the correct terminology?) the feeling of being followed stopped right outside the door to my room and it seemed to just stand there, and it started clapping like it thought something was funny. after a minute or two it left the way it came.

Insights? recommendations? comments? I'm a bit confused as to what might have happened.

Don't know how invloved you are with magic, but I'd personally try to skip the intermediary on such occassions. Meaning, do whatever rituals, concetrate, intend your end goal, etc., but without involving any entities. What you need is a strong intent and you really don't need asking any entity doing this for you. Especially in a task like this. Working with a partner may backfire, especially if you don't know who that partner is. If it bothers you, intend it away. Be confident, don't give in to fear. If it persists, acknowledge it and say that you don't need its services right now.

I don't believe he did. It sounds like Robo did something pretty basic which doesn't even prove magic exists. In fact it's a very pragmatic way someone who's very skeptical could also use a sigil because everything he did is theoretically very helpful. Making a sigil is sort of like hypnosis, it bypasses the critical barrier to send commands directly to the unconscious. It only becomes magical when you agree that the unconscious creates your reality. But your ability to have a lucid dream is still in accordance with not-necessarily-magical phenomena

I have to agree, magic rituals are means to gain access to the unconscious, much like hypnosis. As long as you manage to reach your subconscious, it will do the work. With regards to this, using the sigil is similar to using a mantra. Trying to engage an entity if this is what robo was trying to do, to help you become lucid, is a bit over doing it ;)

Right but it sounded like he's talking about the dream regarding the entity and not necessarily trying to argue the magic worked in the dream, but more that the sigil worked to help him LD.

Entities can be helpful for ritual though. We're conditioned into believing on an unconscious level that we're powerless, or at least that our power to create the reality we want is very limited. We're also conditioned to associate words like God with immense power, as well as terms like Guardian Angel. The unconscious mind does not care whether or not you believe guardian angels or God exists, because it only see's through association and doesn't have a sense of true and false. It only has a sense of strong relationships and weak relationships, as our neural connections can be strong or weak. Therefore, using a totem such as a guardian angel, god, Satan or anything else which your cultural background gives power to, can be extremely helpful even if you consciously remember they don't actually exist outside yourself. They are totems with which the trick your unconscious into utilizing it's full potential despite the fact that it does not associate your individual self with that potential.

Could it be that the demon clapping in the dream is due to some strange guilt over using magic? If you believe that magic was real, and if you got a creepy demon clapping (congratulating you for job well done on magical front?), that demon could be a manifestation of your own conscience telling you that magic is demonic? Personally I think what you did was great and nothing to feel bad about, but just saying that it could be that you don't feel that way. As always, if this interpretation does not appear right to you, please disregard - I am a strong believer in dreamer being best interpreter of own dream and others help only useful if it appears right to dreamer.

I would interpret it differently. I wouldn't consider it a demon, I would consider it a sign that you've stopped giving up a piece of your power to phantoms and the phantom was acknowledging this, the clapping is like it was saying "touche."

Thanks everyone for responding, I agree with almost everything posted so far haha.

The funny thing is, I "Saw" this demon shortly after I performed the ritual, before I went to sleep. I say that I saw it, but it was more of a strong feeling of something there, so strong that It took shape in my minds eye. I have a bit of a history with magic being perceived as "Evil" for the past year or so of my life, so that would explain JoannaB's interpretation of the event, but Original Poster's interpretation also resonates with me a bit, as if it wanted to make sure I knew I wasn't scaring it away.

So, you spent 40 minutes before you went to sleep focusing on your intent to recall your dreams.

And then you recalled your dreams much better that night.

...and this proved to you that magic is real?

It isn't my only experience with "magic" as I have called it in this thread, it's just the one that has worked best so far. I admit at 9:00PM when I attempted this, the demon appearing in front of me when I went downstairs for a bit, and the recall, could have been a fluke and/or my imagination, but for now I prefer to believe otherwise until everything else I try fails to produce any results.

Thanks for your input though Xei.

Right magical philosophy is essentially that your outerverse will match your innerverse, and because dreams are part of your innerverse, it doesn't actually give evidence of magic but it was good practice anyways, and it's best to start off with things you are more likely to believe you can accomplish.