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A new genre...

gingerbop

20:33 / 17.03.03

Iv been feeling more than a little pants recently, and my friend Craig bought me a book to cheer me up. It is in the genre:
Magick/Self help.
O dear.
But its pink and shiny so it must be good

ciarconn

22:57 / 17.03.03

You raise an interesting point, you know? In a metaphorical sense: does magick help yourself? Does magic make you a better person? Or is it a better way to fulfill the diesires of your ego?

Nietzsch E. Coyote

08:15 / 18.03.03

I think it can go either way.

If you want to help better yourself as a person it can be used that way. However, regardless of consequences, it can also be used for ill. It can be used to gratify harmful ego desires or it can be used to tame the ego and expand opportunities for personal growth.

Quantum

13:09 / 18.03.03

Like many things magick is a tool and can be used for good or ill. Self help or self delude, it depends what you do with it.
Maybe a tool in the same way a dog is a tool. A tool with volition and teeth.
On the other hand, anything in the pink self help genre is unlikely to contain anything dangerous except delusions

Papess

14:06 / 18.03.03

"...anything in the pink self help genre is unlikely to contain anything dangerous except delusions " ~Quantum

Actually, that is quite funny considering...

Of course, think of how delusional plain old self-help books are. Really, it can't be simply self-help if one derives it from book, can it?

Sometimes magick is used for self-help but maybe not in a constructive manner. Sometimes what constitutes self-help for a magician hinges more on the de-constructive, ie: the tearing down of the ego, the removal of veils or layers...etc. Unlike most self-help books, magick tends to deal more with self-awareness than self-esteem.

gravitybitch

15:00 / 18.03.03

I kind of like the idea of "pink and shiny" as a genre. If my favorite bookstore was arranged that way, I could avoid that aisle the way I steer well clear of Pink Barbie Hell in toy stores!

There do seem to be a whole lot of pink and shiny books in the magickal category these days...

8===>Q: alyn

15:17 / 18.03.03

What's pink and shiny and makes women squeal?

arcboi

15:47 / 18.03.03

A 'Hello Kitty' vibrator

As for the earlier question on magick, for me it's a little from column A and a little from column B....

Snarling Spirit

21:54 / 20.03.03

I was under the impression that magic is 'set up' in such a way, so that it's the most effective when you help someone else. Otherwise your self-help balances out and you find a fifty in the street and get hit by a car...extreme example.

Of course, I could be wrong.

"Pink Barbie Hell" that's perfect.

Salamander

00:38 / 24.03.03

Cot death babies, as far as self-help goes, if you use it as a security blanket so that you can continue to avoid your problems, it will only make things worse. However if you use this pink tome of ancient wisdom to empower yourself and resolve the complexes in your life, then ta hell with it, ride the snake baby!

John Adlin

19:30 / 24.03.03

On a side issue. I was perusing the Mind Body and Spirit section in Borders today and there was a book on Using Text and Email to curse someone (I wish I'd brought it now).I accept magic can be dangerous-The Dog analogy is a excellet one. There is a healthy respect when reading books by people such as Crowley and Anton Lavey. And while the internet/mobile phones are a extremey usefull tool trivailsing tings as curses to make them acseseble to the TXT generation is a dangerous thing.

cusm

20:14 / 24.03.03

Naturally, the effects are the same if you read the message, or if it is Pronounced To You verbally. Communication of language is all that is required to work magick on another. Unless of course, the text is in pink, in which case you are still cursed, but the effects are largely taken out on your barbies.

Salamander

05:32 / 25.03.03

naturally, you could also just send a sigil.

illmatic

06:36 / 25.03.03

I know that book - I thought it was one of most fatuous hack jobs I've ever seen - less depth than most newspaper astrology. Having said that I'm sure crappy little pamphlets giving details of cursing, how to get a lover and so on have been around forever.

gravitybitch

14:38 / 25.03.03

Oh, yes... I bought one when I was growing up - it was a little square booklet (printed on cheap paper that yellowed about as fast as newspapers do, held together with one staple in the center fold) in one of the racks by the cash registers in the local supermarket. It would cost about a dollar today, don't remember what I paid for it back then...

The cover was all glossy white, with a nice fluffy white cat, maybe a piece of velvet and a goblet on it. All nice and innocuous... and inside was an odd mix of folklore, common sense, really cheesy rhyming spells, and passive-aggressive behavior. I was fascinated and kind of appalled to think that people might actually be doing this sort of stuff.

gingerbop

19:38 / 31.03.03

Illmatik... yeah thats the one.

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