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quote:Originally posted by Temple Goddess:
I couldn't possibly offend any further.
I can't tell if that was your way of saying, "...cause you've definitely offended the hell out of me--I'm gone." I'll assume it isn't, since "liberation from convention" sounds like it's positively meant...
(Before I say anything further, a big disclaimer: I am quite the amateur when it comes to both Chaos Magic and Wicca. I'm an armchair magician hoping to stand up any day now. The views expressed herein are based mostly on reading way too much, and are not necessarily the views of etc. etc. etc. But I believe newcomers are one another's best resources, so I'm going to mouth off anyway.)
As for "anti-devotional": Often, but not always. Here is an article about mysticism and devotional practices with a chaotic slant. (Of note is the fact that the author gets moderately silly about things--a common trait of chaos magic is trying to combine a bit of light-heartedness with the serious stuff.) While the author uses a "conventional" goddess in his example, another chaos magician might prefer to perform Puja to a god s/he's invented from whole cloth, or to a pop-culture icon.
Why? I think that approach is best explained by a moment in the comic book series that this whole shebang of a site was originally centered around, oh so many years ago. A character uses magic to invoke (evoke? I forget) John Lennon. "I figure he's got all the attributes of a god by now," he says. If it looks like a god and quacks like a god, why not assume it's a god? As I was typing this, I thought of Norse mythology (which I also know roughly nothing about). Thor's hammer falls into the hands of a giant; to get it back, he dresses up as Freya and presents himself as a blushing bride. If a member of a respected pantheon can get up to Monty Python-esque hijinx, for some reason, to me, it becomes a more reasonable idea to try to chat with, say, Spider-Man. I know more about Spider-Man than I know about Thor; he is recognized by a great many people; he embodies certain qualities of intelligence, perception, and doggedness that I admire; he has flaws which I can recognize in myself; and after coming across spiders all over the place, a spider landed on my face last week.
As a Wiccan of many years' study, you likely are working with a pantheon that you are comfortable with. But, perhaps not. Perhaps there is a quality of godness which you feel Wicca hasn't allowed for. In that case--like the guy in the comic above--you might want to use the methods that you are comfortable with in attempt to contact something new.
quote:The delicate traditions of wicca are redundant here, stripping down the ritual only to whatever means are necessary.
Well, yes and no. If there were some element or elements in the Wiccan tradition that you have always felt were unnecessary, you might want to snip it out and see how things change. I like when Solitaire Rose compares the chaos magician to a mad scientist; you have rituals that you are familiar with, and that get you certain results that you find favorable... how do the results change if you mess with the parameters of your ritual?
On the other hand, if you are absolutely thrilled with the rich traditions, you could take those ritual mechanics and use them for other "chaotic" purposes, like servitors and sigils and invented/appropriated gods. If you use the Wiccan traditions as written because they work for you, you don't have to eviscerate them because some chaote thinks they're frou-frou and unnecessary.
On a third hand, you could take Mordant Carnival's advice and split practices into religious, devotional work (pure Wiccan) and nuts-and-bolts mundane work (on-the-fly chaos, stealing what you like out of Wicca or trying something completely different).
I am writing way too much for a confessed ignoramus, so I will stop here. I implore the rest of y'all to rip apart into little pieces whatever I've said that doesn't sit right, 'cause getting shredded is how I learn. =D
[off-topic]This, my friends, is what having to write 4000 words a day does to a man.[/off-topic]
[ 25-11-2001: Message edited by: doubting thomas ] |
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