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Kickstart the Magick

  
 
slinkyvagabond
19:48 / 02.03.04
I haven't been in this forum for a while. I was really swept away by the ideas here when I first came to Barbelith and it used to be the forum where I most often went lurking. I guess I was put off by eventually coming to see that compared to y'all I really know nothing much and don't have much to contribute to discussions, especially when things go all enochian and "higher magic". But the thing is I'd like to get back into it - when I first was excited by Magick (the forum and the, uh, practice) I started seeing things a bit different. Synchronicities and so on, sometimes I got followed by little animals and I started tarot. Then I just lost it. So called real life got in the way. I remember other posters talking about this loss of ability and/or motivation - just would like to know if anyone has any tips that worked to get them out of their magical rut. I write and paint and keep a diary thing filled with randomness but none of this is linking me into what I had before. I don't feel charged in the same way that I did for about a year after I first found Barbelith.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
19:53 / 02.03.04
don't have much to contribute to discussions, especially when things go all enochian and "higher magic"

me neither! I took a break from the whole shebang last time I felt like this, I find at the moment I don't have the space to go with the type of ritual magic that I'd like to. Life does get in the way, try waiting it out or changing your environment to make the space.
 
 
Tamayyurt
21:15 / 02.03.04
I remember other posters talking about this loss of ability and/or motivation - just would like to know if anyone has any tips that worked to get them out of their magical rut. I write and paint and keep a diary thing filled with randomness but none of this is linking me into what I had before. I don't feel charged in the same way that I did for about a year after I first found Barbelith.

I'm totally feeling you on that. I used to *only* hang out in the Magick section of this board and now I hardly come over here. Spend most of my time in the Film, Comic, and Creation sections now.

I was thinking about gathering up all the magick types on this board and coming up with a Keep Bush Out of the Whitehouse in '04 sigil. Everyone who feels the same charges it. Get our magickal juices flowing and change the world for the better. Or maybe a servitor, which we charge at key moments until the election. I don't know, I've been in the mood for big proactive collevtive chaos magick of the sort Barbelith hasn't seen in at least two years.
 
 
Olulabelle
21:35 / 02.03.04
when things go all enochian and "higher magic".

But that's my point! Not getting 'it' is entirely the point.

This forum (for all it's intricacies and relevant intellectual answers) is so far, far past the average everyday magicko that for everyone else it is sadly, embarrassingly funny.

But that's the point.

We - you, me, they - we DON'T get it. We have to quantify and qualify and ask and ask again. And all we do from people like LVX, and Absence, and The Folk King, is get just a very 'little' bit. The basic jist.

But they? They're SO happy that we grasped just ONE small point that they probably breathe a sigh of relief because there is one less thing to explain, one less thing to educate on, there is one less thing for them to have to go over...and over...and over...

And you know?

I WISH I got it like them.

I wish I was the sort of person that posted excellent theory, and explained in paragraphs and with reference marks the correct interpretation especially for the people who cared, the people who mattered. I wish I was the sort of person that could actually, eruditely explain what it was that had them up all night, rather than be like me and say, 'Well, I 'thought" about it, but...'

...But I am not.

LVX and Absence and The Folk King, well they all just have SO MUCH knowledge that it feels kind of even scary just to ask a question.

But the point (and this is what I am slowly realising) is that they DON'T MIND if you ask a thick question, just so long as they are able to answer the proper answer.

And if they can't give you the proper answer, they also don't mind as long as it makes them THINK about what the proper answer might actually be.

And they like to think about it:

A.

Real.

Lot!

  
 
MorbidMike
22:30 / 02.03.04
I've been lurking this board for a while myslef.

I think that a lot of the topics here are unnecessarily clouded by jargon, even when the concepts could be said in a simple and straightforward manner people choose to use archaic and anachronistic language todiscuss it. It's irksome.

If you've been away from practicing for a while try to come back to it by trying something new, a new type of Art, method, etc. This might spark the motivation you originally had when you first came to Barbelith.

I think that it is pretty common to fall into and out of practicing magick throughout our lives. It's all about balance after all- life needs to be lived!

$.02 and whatnot.
 
 
gravitybitch
00:16 / 03.03.04
This sort of thing does happen... My ambitions come and go and come back again; and some of it is seasonal and some depends on my stress level and general mood, and some seems to be downright random.

However, the one thing that never fails to get me excited again about magick and the practice thereof is spending time with like-minded folk. Physically, rather than online, that is - it may be something like a contact high.

If hanging out at a local metaphysical bookstore just doesn't do it for you, I'd recommend finding or picking up a new toy - something new for your altar, or a pendulum or a deck of cards, or maybe a book... Look for cheap used books on Tarot; they can be fabulous for showing cards from different decks (even if the how-to and interpretations of the cards don't sit well with you). I'm such a sucker for pretty pictures....

This is spring (sort of, anyway, depending on where you live) - you might want to spend some time appreciating the lengthening days and burgeoning new life and rising of the sap and all that, and drawing/writing/visualizing parallels with your sense of magick and your connection to that vital energy.
 
 
illmatic
07:32 / 03.03.04
Hi Slinkyvagabond, nice to see you in here again.

First of all, I'd say I totally agree with Iz, contact with other magickal people is really inspirational - actually, not always, a lot of people into magick are just using it as a bit of a mask to avoid dealing with their shit, but I have frequently met fantastic, inspiring people through my forays into the magick scene. The people you click with make up for the wallies.A magickal colleague has been visiting from New Zealand and I've been really inspired by our chats. Hopefully, he will squirm with embarssment if he reads this. I wrote this somewhere else yesterday, but I may as well write it again here, I think you learn more from conversations with people than anything else. Besides practise, that is. The internet, or books, are a poor substitute for face time, or just getting on and doing it.

I've had really drops in my levels of enthusiasm and inspiration but I guess this would be true of anything that you study for a long time. I keep on coming back to it though. Getting my head round different systems helped with me - reading on a deeper level about Reich's stuff, say, of the I Ching and trying to figure out how to adapt this to my life and experience.

One thing I did was commited to long term practice - a year of daily (well, almost) practice, under the guidance of a mentor. Wouldn't recommend this to everybody though, but it did mean their was a space in my life where I was regularly practising and discussing my results with someone. "Direct personal experience and good company are the two clear eyes of the seeker" (Kulanrva Tantra).

It's probably more difficult to generate this enthusiasm if you're working on your own but sticking at a practice for a while might help,perhaps a daily meditation for a couple of months on a diety who attracts you? Keep a dream diary and see if s/he turns up? I liked Izabelle's points about noting the changing seasons - anything that reconnects with the body, senses or environment gets the thumbs up from me.
 
 
illmatic
07:48 / 03.03.04
I'd add that I think the whole low/high magick divide thing is spurious - the best magick is that which grabs you by the balls, needing an advanced intellectual understanding of it doesn't mean it's better - but that's another thread.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
11:50 / 03.03.04
I remember other posters talking about this loss of ability and/or motivation - just would like to know if anyone has any tips that worked to get them out of their magical rut.

I think that connected to this is the issue of 'how much magic is enough?', when exactly do you begin to consider yourself a magician rather than a dabbler? How do you move from the edges of magic into its centre? How do you get from weekend occultist to 24 hour party magus? One thing I found useful was to make a list of all the things that I'd like to explore in magic, all of the aspects of 'the occult' that click with my imagination and I'd like to find out more about. This could include stuff like rune shamanism, tantra, conjure sorcery, remote viewing, speaking to ducks, dimensional travel, scrying into ludicrous cocktails, etc...

Try and build a picture of everything that would constitute your own speculative personal magical system. Imagine yourself as an accomplished magician - what sort of knowledge and skills would you have? Try to put that list in order of things that are closest to your heart, prioritising the stuff that really grabs you and gets you excited about magic. Start working through that list and slowly turning yourself into something vaguely resembling the 'magician' archetypal self in your imagination.

don't have much to contribute to discussions, especially when things go all enochian and "higher magic".

I shouldn't worry about it. All that stuff is best considered as a language, and there are several different languages within the feild of magic. You don't necessarily have to learn them all, it's fine to specialise in the areas you feel comfortable with, at the moment I'd just concentrate on getting a feel for what those areas are.
 
 
trouser the trouserian
11:50 / 03.03.04
Slinkyvagabond

re: loss of motivation - this happens to me from time to time - and I do find that reconnecting to other people helps me a lot in recovering "enthusiasm" for doing stuff. The board, whilst it plays a part in this kickstarting process, is not as effective as having a good old facetime conversation with other magical folk. This is why I tend to be an advocate for joining groups - not only magical 'working' groups but going along to pagan moots and the like too. And sometimes just 'taking time off' can be healthy too, particularly if it gives you time to reflect and reassess what you've done so far.

olulabelle
I WISH I got it like them

You will - just give yourself TIME. Such "knowledge" as I have, I only acquired by asking questions, doing stuff, reading books, trial and error, going back and asking more questions, 'dumping' concepts that I didn't feel were appropriate to me, and going round and round again.

MorbidMike
people choose to use archaic and anachronistic language to discuss it. It's irksome.

I dunno, I think the 'lith is way ahead of most of the online forums that I've been on in giving 'explanations' in a clear, comprehensive, way. But sometimes it's difficult to avoid using 'jargon' - particularly if one is discussing concepts brought in from magical traditions where a particular term has a precise meaning (as say in Qabalah or Buddhism). This is no different from any other 'technical' subject though, and in a way we are constrained by the medium of expression - writing. I was explaining how the company firewall worked this morning to a non-techy person and did it in about 2 minutes, if that. If I'd had to sit down and write out an explanation, it'd have taken far longer. Where magic differs from, say, internet security protocols is that when I get into a discussion with other techies, we don't tend to get into discussions about what TCP/IP 'means' to each other, whereas when magical folk meet, we tend to get into long discussions about what a concept 'means' to us. Which can be tedious at times, but in general, I feel, is very useful in itself.
 
 
agvvv
13:51 / 03.03.04
impulsivelad, really like that idea of yours, keen on putting it to life? My magickal juice(now that didn`t come out right) is running kinda short these days, just like Slinkyvagabond.. I think this could really "kickstart the magick"..
 
 
FinderWolf
14:51 / 03.03.04
I'd also like to do the Keep Bush out of the White House mass sigil charging. Maybe we should start a new thread for this purpose...? I think it's a great idea, imp.
 
 
Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown
20:01 / 03.03.04
[ First of all, I'd say I totally agree with Iz, contact with other magickal people is really inspirational...]

I agree with you there. While solitary magic has its own aspects and benefits, I think that magic by its very nature is something of a unifying force. I don't mean unifying in the New Age/Wiccan sense, I more mean unifying in that it provides a universal concept for people to discuss, as well as having a way of bringing poeple together. You can get a chef, a cab driver, a computer programmer, and a punk rocker together in the same room and, if magic is the only connecting interest, still get, in theory, some pretty amazing conversations. Magic crosses cultural boundaries, racial boundaries, linguistic boundaries...hell it crosses frickin dimensional boundaries.

Re: High magick and getting "it"

Bah. Whatever. High magic, low magic, magic with a "k", "earth" magic, chaos magic...whatever. It's all just different dialects of the same language. Some may be more effective in their own way, or may be classier (ok...I love the imagery of some aspects of high ritual magic and the like), but in the end the key to magic is the imagination, the intellect, and the Will. If you have the imagination to conceptualize what you wish to occur, the will to make it happen, and the intelligence to direct it, then it doesn't matter whether you're performing an ancient ritual, shouting random gibberish thrown together by flipping through a Russian dictionary, or meditating on the effect.

I think that what happens in magic is the same thing that happens in the arts. No one form of art is nessecarily the "best", but people will often look to one specific style as a pinnacle that they don't "get". ::shrugs:: Work with your strong points, I say.

Re: Motivation and "reconnecting"

I think everyone goes through this. I advise that the best way to "reconnect" yourself to magic is to go find some other magicians, and sit down with them and just theorize for a while. Or go immerse yourself into something that you find particularly inspiring. I find that when I'm run down, I go for a walk in the city, watch a rainstorm/blizzard, or whatever (but then again, I'm somewhat of a Romantic and I get really jazzed off watching the abject fury and power of nature).

Re: Sigiling Bush

I'm always wary of using magic to hijack political change. No matter what sort of threat a politician is, usurping free will is pretty bad juju, as least as far as I understand things. Besides...America was sort of mystically built on democracy, wasn't it? The founding fathers were Masons, and theoretically involved in some ritual magic there, and the country has had some major symbolic sacrafices for the freedom of its people in the past (War of Independence, Civil War, theoretically the World Wars). Not entirley sure that a small cabal of magicians could overwhelm that level of power.
 
 
Olulabelle
20:57 / 03.03.04
...but in the end the key to magic is the imagination, the intellect, and the Will. If you have the imagination to conceptualize what you wish to occur, the will to make it happen, and the intelligence to direct it, then it doesn't matter whether you're performing an ancient ritual, shouting random gibberish thrown together by flipping through a Russian dictionary, or meditating on the effect.


Bard, that's excellent. I am going to adopt this as my motto from now on. I shall say it to myself whenever I feel stupidly unintellectual and intimidated by theory.

Absense, you are completely right, my problem is impatience. I wish I could just high-speed download information into my head. For various reasons it's taken me a long time to get to the point where I understand what it is that I've been doing and wanting, and now I have found out, I just want to get all the information I need in focus and clear right now so I can get on with it!

Gypsy Lantern, I like your list idea. It would strike some order into my chaotic mind and stop me from wandering off on interesting but random tangents all the time. I read about something, and that triggers off a thought about something else so I go and read about that, and then 5 hours down the line I find I am thinking about something completely different to the initial topic I was supposed to be studying.

But then I suppose questioning yourself and possibly over-judging yourself is very much part of being a 'creative' sort of person, and magick is a creative sort of thing I guess.

Until recently my only contact with people interested in the same things as me was via the internet, but I totally agree that actually being with people who understand what you are talking about and want to discuss it is a wonderful thing. The first time it happened to me I couldn't believe how inspirational it felt, I just sat there going, 'Oh my God, I'm not completely weird after all!'

I still sit in awe of people though. It's very hard not to when you come across someone who knows sooooo much. I end up thinking, 'How will I ever accumulate this much knowledge in just the one lifetime?!'
 
 
LVX23
22:34 / 03.03.04
olulabelle wrote:
LVX and Absence and The Folk King, well they all just have SO MUCH knowledge that it feels kind of even scary just to ask a question.

But the point (and this is what I am slowly realising) is that they DON'T MIND if you ask a thick question, just so long as they are able to answer the proper answer.

And if they can't give you the proper answer, they also don't mind as long as it makes them THINK about what the proper answer might actually be.

First of all, thanks for the generous compliment. I can only say that the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. I have put a lot of my life in to this stuff... but don't think that all of my posts are just right off the top of my head. Often I will turn to the books and the web to research various points. Sometimes its a refresher and sometimes I'm learning with you all. Always ask questions. I'll always be happy to try to help sort out an answer or at least an opinion.

Ultimately, try not to feel like there's any difference between any of us here. I may be versed in some things while lacking in others. You shouldn't judge your magickal capabilities against others. And you certainly don't need to be versed in esoteric studies in order to live a magickal life. The studies can give you more options and more rigorous models for interpreting your results, but they can also limit the scope of your experience.

----------------------------------
Nothing informs magick like experience. Just get out and do things. Go to new places, meet new people, read, watch, absorb novel media. Be in nature in all its forms. Magick will appear if you willit to.
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impulsivelad, I'm definitely into the anti-bush sigil/servitor. Been thinking about one of my own recently... As noted, there are some concerns to address first.

MorbidMike wrote:
I think that a lot of the topics here are unnecessarily clouded by jargon, even when the concepts could be said in a simple and straightforward manner people choose to use archaic and anachronistic language todiscuss it. It's irksome.

Well it's not always about concepts or making them comprehensible to everyone. Many of us are into very technical jargon-laden systems. We really enjoy them and resonate with them. Nobody's trying to sound elitist or intellectual. To extend A of G's analogy of discussing TCP/IP, it can be helpful to be able to simplify it to a non-techie, but it can also be really fun to get into the nitty-gritty details with another IT geek.
 
 
slinkyvagabond
17:28 / 10.03.04
Firstly: Illmatic - thank you for the welcome back. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy. On the inside, people, on the inside.

Thanks to everyone for the various advice.

Gypsy Lantern: the list idea is great. I work well with lists and writing things down. I shall do it, I never really thought about it before. It's strange that I never nailed down precisely what kind of workings I am into - perhaps because it all interests me on an intellectual level. However, on a practical level I feel that certain practices and certain styles of practice would work best for me personally, not denigrating the interest that I hold for other styles and practices.

izsabelle: I did go for a solitary seaside walk - I very much agree with the idea of noting the burgeoning Spring. It so happens that I'm in the Northern Hemisphere and so it's gone all coming-of-the-light, resurrectory and so on. New beginnings. I love it.

impulsivelad: oh yes. Perhaps in the face of the Masonic resonances of the USA a small raggle-taggle band of sigil makers are useless but I would like to feel as though I were doing something. It's like the anti-war protests. OK, so none of our supposed servants-of-the-people listened to us, but we had to express ourselves somehow. I don't believe it was for nothing - a sigil, whether or not ostensibly successful, would not be for nothing either. As above....
 
  
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