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The feats thread

  
 
Glenn Close But No Cigar
20:08 / 23.05.07
I'm interested in people's magical feats - the things that they have accomplished through magic which they can point to and say 'hey, I did that, using my magic'. Doesn't matter if the feat is small, or huge, it has a home here.

So, this isn't a thread about magical experiences, but rather results. C'mon, show me the money...
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
20:44 / 23.05.07
What exactly are you looking for, 'beef? You might try Talk to the Cynic, which is fairly meaty, and also Why did you get into magic?

We've had several threads like this over the years, though all before your time IIRC. Although they can be entertaining, I'm dubious as to their utility. A big juicy pile of anecdotes may make for fun reading if you're into your mage-porn, but it's not evidence.

To take an example: this one time I was really broke so I trained up some hunting money and the next day I found a wallet with €65 in it and no ID. What of it? There's nothing to say that it was the hunting-money spell *properly* and not random chance. And I can go on to tell you that when I perform a hunting money spell it's always been effective (although these days the outcome is more likely to manifest as a new client rather than found money), but I could be deluding myself--or making it all up, of course. And that's with a fairly concrete result in mind; much of my work is centred on goals that are far more nebulous, subjective and difficult to evaluate.

If you're looking explore magic's effectiveness or otherwise, the only real course is to get your hands dirty. Try a few different techniques--not just charjin teh 5igil--and see how they pan out for you.
 
 
Glenn Close But No Cigar
21:11 / 23.05.07
Thanks for the links to those earlier threads, TTS.

I'd like to think I'm not looking for mage-porn, but something rather more useful, both to me and to the wider Temple / Barbelith community. It's pretty clear that any feats claimed here will not provide evidence of magic's effectiveness or otherwise (how could they?), but there's much, I think, to be gained by opening up a space where people can claim them, not least a picture of what person X considers they've accomplished through their magical practice. This could be especially useful for non-magic practitioners, who might reasonably ask of any practitioner what magic might achieve in causal terms.

Take your point about the only real way to test the effectiveness of magic is to get one's hands dirty, but that's not really what I'm after, here. Rather, I'd like to invite 'lithers to detail specific feats of magic they (belive they) have achieved.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
21:50 / 23.05.07
What do I feel I've achieved... hum. Hard to quantify much of it.

Protection: I've always seemed to have a bit of a knack for protection spells, at least where out-and-out physical violence is concerned. I've been in long-term situations (months or years at a time) where I was under explicit threat of violence on a daily basis, with ample opportunity for said violence to be carried out and little risk to the perpetrators; I've used magic to come through those times relatively unscathed. Which is not to say that I've never experienced violence or that I'm going to start walking down dark alleys with my headphones on anytime soon.

Curses: I don't use these often but when I do, they're doozies. My favourite was the guy who ended up having an ingrowing toenail removed right around the time his car was totalled in a freak flood.

Emergency money: I'm only just getting over a strong tendency to suck at money spells. Years and years of indoctrination by magic writers and various family members that money spells = Blaque Magick left me with some real hangups. Even assuming I could psych myself up enough to cast the damn things I'd manage to fudge them, either by just doing a half-arsed job or by including so many clauses and codicils and ifs and buts that the poor things had no chance of getting off the ground. However at the times when my desperation has overridden my programming, I've been able to conjure up something to tide me over. (Of course if I were better at general wealth spells, I wouldn't need emergency money... I'm working on it.)

Healing spells: I'm okay at these. I have Reiki which I'm all right with when I remember to use it, and also do some work with sympathetic magic using poppets, photos, etc. Most of my fixer-upper work is aimed at myself TBH, controlling various conditions which are far too dull to get into here. As I improve and move towards a place of strength, I'm more able to open up and allow myself to offer healing to others.

Then there's the work I've been doing with Gods and spirits. Just over a couple of years ago, I had a very profound experience which set me off on a new track, one that's been difficult but ultimately incredibly fullfilling.

It's a bit difficult to describe what I'm doing; it's "worship" and "religion" but it's also magic, profound and powerful changework operating on myself as well as the world. It's like... by communing with and contemplating the Gods, by engaging with them on a deep, personal level, I'm also engaging with and experiencing the things They embody. Things that are vital and sacred, aspects of Life, The Universe and Everything, given form, personality, consciousness. Big important stuff about the world we live in and the things that make us human. You learn from these contact experiences, you are changed by them. And in your turn, you can act as a connection that They can use to bring all Their good stuff over into our world.

This any help?
 
 
EmberLeo
01:11 / 24.05.07
Healing spells are probably my most obviously successful workings, but of course, since I won't let somebody take the fact that I'm working on them as a reason to give up on traditional medicine (Western or otherwise) I can't promise my efforts are what prompted success. I figure every little bit helps, and when it comes to cancer, the most important thing is that the patient have a strong will to live. I don't care if my efforts are primarily psychosomatic, simply because I'm demonstrating a strong drive to keep them alive, and a huge dose of hopeful give-a-shit, rather than that I'm actually performing any kind of supernatural feat. I'd rather have them heal and for me to never know for sure that it wasn't just psychosomatic than test the theory and find out through failure that it IS essentially psychosomatic, and thus their direct knowledge is essential.

Come to think of it, though, I've worked on one case where I had permission from the parents - via a message given to my parents - to do "anything I saw appropriate" for the girl who was sick. As far as I know she recovered completely, and never knew I was working on her at all. I hadn't seen her in over 10 years, so she probably doesn't remember me at all.

Every cancer patient I have ever done direct healing work for has gone into remission or is currently steadily improving. There have been two cases where I was asked to help when I knew better, or was otherwise prevented from helping. Sure enough, they got worse. One fellow eventually died, but he was one who came to identify himself as Living With Cancer, at which point his final death was pretty much a blessing. In my experience there is a reasonable correlation between how much effort I throw at a healing spell, and how quickly or completely the recipient is helped.

Other than healing and general protection or warding type spells, I actually very rarely put together a clearly defineable spell, per se. I do a fair amount of ritual and/or shamanistic work for spiritual purposes, but very few spells for the purpose of manifesting a concrete result. This is primarily because I usually have what I need anyway, so there's nothing to do a spell for. I live with a fair bit of everyday luck, and I try to stay in balance so that it doesn't go away.

I do find that if I clearly define what my ultimate goal is, and what the perameters are for reaching it, and then accept from there that I'll get what I get... well I can't remember the last time I didn't get what I was asking for that wasn't totally frivolous and half-hearted anyway. If it's at all significant I tend to throw everything I have, both secular and spiritual, at it, provited I'm sure it's what I want. There's really not much that could stand in my way at that point, so I'm extremely careful what I ask for.

--Ember--
 
 
Mako is a hungry fish
08:24 / 24.05.07
What of it? There's nothing to say that it was the hunting-money spell *properly* and not random chance.

Homer: Well, there's not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol is sure doing its job.
Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad.
Homer: Thank you, sweetie.
Lisa: Dad, what if I were to tell you that this rock keeps away tigers.
Homer: Uh-huh, and how does it work?
Lisa: It doesn't work. It's just a stupid rock.
Homer: I see.
Lisa: But you don't see any tigers around, do you?
Homer: Lisa, I'd like to buy your rock.

Much Apu about nothing
 
 
Unconditional Love
13:13 / 24.05.07
Resourcefulness, finding the right premises at the right price for a business run by mental health service users to start, has been going for a year and still going strong.

General trickiness, enough to outwit most systems i come into contact with or the awareness to see how to move around and bend the rules in this way and that to achieve the ends of whatever set of spirits i happen to be employed by at the time.

Reading the religous and spiritual systems of various peoples has allowed me to broaden my perspective on my community, establish points of relation with people from a variety of cultures, and also taught me a few new tricks, once those teachings have been taken into a rigid system based on the ideas of essences.

Resorcery seems to be the area i work best in, bringing the right people or presences together at the right time to make a difference thats required by those involved at that time, i am beginning to learn not to cling to results and the work i put in, and just let go and keep on moving.

In the past i employed the above in negative ways, but i tend to only act on that now as a means of defence against those that mean me harm, as much as it is able to create, being resourceful can bring all the wrong elements together in somebodies life to teach them a lesson. Once they have learnt i let it all fall away.

How do i do this? i cant really explain. Its like championing a cause or some such nonsense.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
13:38 / 24.05.07
Truly, your feats defy explanation!
 
 
*
15:47 / 24.05.07
I note that Raniel said that ze could not explain how ze did those things, not that they were inexplicable; there's a difference. And the abstract specifies "small or big," and does not specify "inexplicable" like the "weird stuff" thread.
 
 
Glenn Close But No Cigar
15:59 / 24.05.07
Thanks to everyone who's contributed so far. In reference to Id's point, small or big results are indeed both welcome, although I'm perhaps more interested in things that might not be achieved through other, non-magical means.
 
 
*
16:01 / 24.05.07
thanks for clarifying.
 
 
Ichtos
17:23 / 24.05.07
I think the real feats are the spells that work smoothly and without repercussions - not just the spells that work.

I've a had a fair amount of success with spells, but also some unfortunate surprises, like the time I did a love spell and found myself married to a very incompatible person 4 weeks later. (I subsequently went through partnership therapy and divorce - all in the space of 3 months after meeting for the first time!). Needless to say, I learned a lesson.

These days I take an almost Roman approach to spells and requests by thinking through the possible consequences and being very specific without limiting the effect too much. I also use divinations to warn of possible dangers.

Part of the attraction of working with benevolent intelligences is that they generally help you avoid the worst consequences, if they decide to help you at all.

One of my better successes was doing my first money spell. 3 days later my stock-options cashed automatically on a highly optimistic standing sell order, my boss announced that they were giving me a generous bonus (they had announced they weren't giving any bonuses that year 2 months earlier) and I recovered an envelope containing $1000 in cash from my mother (related to a transaction that I'd forgotten about). Quite possibly all coincidental, but quite a coincidence.
 
  
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