Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Temple >

Keen but Clueless

15:04 / 05.06.03

Hello.

I am new to Barbelith.
I'm fascinated by the Magick bit of this site, and reading the threads has reawakened my desire to experiment/explore something.
The problem is I'm not sure where to start - what something should I try?

My experience in this area is limited. I've had an interest in Tarot, yet beyond buying some cards years ago I've done little else. I once had a vivid dream, around the age of 12, wherein I was told "Do not touch the Tarot". This freaked me out.
Yet I'd recently read an issue of Wonder Woman which featured Madam Zanadu doing some scarey things with The Fool, and I suspect my crazy mixed up adolescent mind was having some fun.

My sister has dabbled in Tarot and regression and more besides, the details of which I do not have. She once told me that a friend of hers, known apparently for his psychic ability, had perked up at the sound of my name, and said "I can see him healing, particularly children and small animals".
This just sounds vaguely creepy to me.

I've experienced healing twice, both times the healers remarked, unprompted that they felt an energizing feeling from me throughout the healing.

Years have passed, and I'm longing to explore more.
Writing this, I'm noticing that I'm feeling slightly silly. And maybe this is why I've never got further- the idea that its all hooey. I'm stopping myself because I'm scared of appearing stupid to others. Even here in this community, where strangeness is generally embraced, I feel it.

Considering that I can change this attitude. And I will be trying. I'm wondering what comments any of you may have?
Anything. Please.

Perhaps this thread could then be used for novices. A place where questions/general opinions could be asked, knowledge and experience shared. etc.

15:14 / 05.06.03

Ideally, this whole forum should be like that.

Anyway, silliness is part of it, yes. If you can't hack the silliness, you're probably not ready for it. The whole thing - very silly.

I like the Tarot, never received any warnings against it in my dreams.

What've you read? What do you want to get out of this?

15:38 / 05.06.03

Definetly ready for the silliness. Yes, indeed.

I read Prime Chaos a few years back, but can't remember much at all.

Ummmm, I really have to go to work now, but will be back later. Not avoiding anything honest.

16:38 / 05.06.03

It certainly takes a degree of courage along with the levity. You will be willingly stepping out of concensus reality (a good thing, in my book).

I'd recommend reading Cosmic Trigger by Robert Anton Wilson; buying a Tarot deck (Crowley's Thoth deck is my fave) and beginning to work with the cards and doing divinations; I-Ching is great as well; Pretty much start reading around and figure which path seems to resonate with you: Wicca, Crowley, Voudon, western esoterica, eastern esoterica, etc... Chaos Magick is a good place to start also - check out Liber Null by Peter Carrol (though it comes on a bit strong and a bit dark, ther're some great ideas). Start keeping a jopurnal of you life with particular attention to the magickal aspects you experience - e.g. "Today the number 23 kept popping up while I was trying to get to the bookstore to find a copy of the Principia Discordia". Also starts writing down your dreams and noting any correlations between the waking and sleeping worlds.

Magick is part study and research on the canon of esoterica that has evolved over the ages, part practical work with the symbols and concepts and dieties, and part willful belief in the notion that you wish to live a more magickal and mysterious life.

20:41 / 05.06.03

Thanks LVX23. Those pointers are much appreciated. I agree about the thing taking courage too. I work in the NHS, and within a profession where respectibility and rigidity are considered essential. We are all expected to be paragons of virtue, and templates for our clients.

As for what I want to get out of this. Well, a lot of my life has been about control. I didn't have a lot of freedom throughout childhood, and now that I'm grown its taken me this long to realise that I don't need to live within all of these expectations anymore. It will take me a lot of courage to try and move away and discover what I want.

I'm leaving work and the country in 3 months, to travel for a year, maybe longer. I guess this is all part of my wish to step out of the mundane.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

20:55 / 05.06.03

The irony is that your clients, as a broad spectrum of the general population, include a vast number of UFO-nuts, UFO-nauts, Witches, Evangelists, Psychic Cartographers, Branch Fluoridians, Curry Diviners, Sex Magickians, Sexual Magicians, Astral Travellers, Zombies, and members of the Conservative Party.

By and large, if you're too straight, you're never going to understand them.

If you're intersted but nervy, start small. Appreciate the insanity, chaos, and magicality (is there such a word) of your environment. Your project for the next month: look for instances of people called 'Karl', 'Charles' or any similar name who are curiously fond of the colour red.

23:03 / 05.06.03

Psst, click on the image

08:02 / 06.06.03

Nick your point makes a lot of sense, but i don't think I have many problems in accepting the vast majority of my clients. I'm a lot harder on myself. Always have been.

I think its the profession, not the people I actually work with thats the problem. A few years back I was almost ejected from the profession for having once been prosecuted for having sex in the bushes. The only stupid and unprofessional thing I think I did was getting caught, but not in their eyes. Its stifling here and its time to get out.

08:22 / 06.06.03

Yup, time to get out.

My advice- read a lot. Read everything even vaguely interesting and soon you'll find some things feel more right than others. Maybe you'll be a Tarot reader, maybe you'll become a chaote, but until you know what's out there you won't know what's for you- become informed.

Check out old threads on this forum, there are plenty of magical recommendations (e.g. a Magickal Bibliography)

08:34 / 06.06.03

Bginnings of a bibolgraphy here here

Can anyone remember the name of the thread which lists all the other "advice to beginners" type threads? had a quick shuftie but couldn't find it.

08:59 / 06.06.03

The tarot is actually an extremely good place to start - it just depends how comfortable you feel with it after the dream you had. Why not keep a diary of each spread and your interpretation? You'll probably be surprised when you look back over it and see how closely it correlates with your life. That should build some confidence to begin with.

If you have vivid dreams then write them down in the same journal. Keeping a record of my dreams has been an essential facet of my practise for a long time. Don't beat yourself up if you miss a day or can't remember details - several dreams over the course of time will often fill in the gaps that you might miss through one night's lack of recall. As you make this a habit your recall will improve.

If you get into this and feel it's beneficial, start researching both the tarot and dreams. My limited knowledge of the former suggests that it can lead into a study of Qabalah (I'm not a tarot user, but I know a lot of people who love it). I've looked extensively into the latter, though, and it's been the springboard into learning about lucid dreaming, Jung, shamanism and astral projection, amongst other stuff.

From these starting points it's possible to go as far as you feel comfortable (although personal comfort has never been a goal of my practise, it's worth not overstretching yourself if you're just starting off).

09:02 / 06.06.03

This is great.
I'm going shopping tonight.
Thanks.

09:04 / 06.06.03

So I guess my advice is to start practising with what you already know (in a nutshell). It's the active practise that contextualises research and makes it come alive. Reading by itself can be kinda dry, and it'd be a shame to become an expert in comparative religion and the occult without having a rich spiritual life (which is your real goal, I imagine).

10:09 / 06.06.03

Yeah, what Reflect said- I forgot to say PracticePracticePractice ~

also check out Magick FAQs
I have somewhere a proposed Magick 101 syllabus somebody drew up, I'll see if I can find it... includes symbology, alchemy, astronomy, gematria, divination, qabalah, herbalism, shamanism etc. It's purely theoretical but I think it included a bibliography and advice on practice and meeting other like minded peeps.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

11:18 / 06.06.03

At the risk of sounding like a hoary old fart, I've just glanced at the FAQ, and I'm a little bit stunned. I think calling a banishing ritual 'just a piece of housekeeping' is a little casual. Depending on who you talk to, it could also be an exorcism and blessing of a piece of sacred space intended to protect the user from malign influences during the work to follow - whether you think those influences are boogeymen from your head or spirits of darkness bound to the Earth is irrelevant.

Think of it as a safety belt. You don't expect to need it, but you use it because you're not a moron.

Any chance of a small addendum?

14:15 / 06.06.03

Dude, it's a wiki.

Make the addendum.

If you need to know how, click on the big red B.

16:13 / 06.06.03

As for the healing stuff, ask around hippy types about Reiki, and you'll get what you need there. If you're lucky, you can find someone to actually work with you to help you learn it rather than just charging you a fee for an attumenent and sending you on your way. But failing that, read up on chackra work, qi-qong, Taoist stuff, and practice giving backrubs. Seriously. You'll learn more about the energy stuff hands on than anyone can explain to you otherwise. There's also some good narratives about it in Starhawks "The Fifth Sacred Thing". Its fancyful, but based on techniques people actually work with. If you can get someone to "work" on you, all the better. Pay attention and you'll learn volumes that way.

17:56 / 06.06.03

For some onsite threads and discussions:

This thread might be useful to get a feel for the approach of others around here (I’ve got to get back to it myself).

Here is a short thread on Qabalah for beginners.

Useful techniques for the well-rounded sorcerer.

Tarot decks for beginners.

And yes, it is important to be able to invoke a sense of humour—sometimes even in the face of the most horrible manifestations of experience.