Basically, a thoughtform is an astral machine that a mage creates themselves. “Servitor” is another name for this and with the focus that the Servitor does work for you. It’s possible to give thoughtforms so much ability and an energy source that is self–sustaining, so that they can gain an incarnated spirit, become sovereign and go off by themselves.
I created a thoughtform once and they did this. When I asked Azazel about it, he explained I “made it too much like me” - which was true, I’d made a servitor to take care of my cat as she passed through the 2nd death. I made a copy of me in as much detail as possible, gave her instructions to take care of the cat and then left her to it. As the cat moved on she went her own way.
So, an Egregore is the exact same idea, but a thoughtform made or sustained by multiple people. An example of this is most gods, particularly those that are the personifications of nature, fictional gods like the Elder Scrolls Daedra, the Lovecraftian entities (give or take debate about it, I think they’re egregores of the echoes of nightmares, others thing they’re real) and the many many versions of yahweh and deified kings, leaders and heroes passed down through aural traditions, even the facades of celebrities, oh, and the spirits of corporations.
As you can see, often egregores arise organically out of human society. But they can also be deliberately created in an intentional way by a coven or other group of mages working together.
My egregore “Amos”, and I think, all published servitors that are open to the knowledge of more than one person become egregores as soon as more than one person has contributed to their existence, in the simplest case just by accepting that they exist. Working with them and posting about experiences with them builds and strengthens them more and more. In this case they tend to still retain the label “Servitor” because they are servants.
I didn’t see that, but one of you is mistaken, it’s the other way around and I’m pretty sure E.A. knows what an egregore is. Look it up: Wikipedia isn’t lying on this one.
They way I see it, an egregore or servitor that has gained a spirit (or you could say, possessed by a spirit) is no longer an egregor but has evolved spiritually into a sovereign entity in it’s own right with free will.
If you try the search at top right for “free servitor” and the like, you’ll find examples of shared thoughtforms that may or may not be egregoric yet on here.