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Fluffy magick stuff for Christmas

06:41 / 29.10.02

Hi folks - I don't very often come down these parts, so be gentle with me.

Just wondered what you hardcore types think of all this fluffy magick stuff that's on the shelves in time for the festive season - you know, Titania's Nice Velvet Covered Book of Magick; beautifully packaged Angel cards and spell cards; and one particularly glitzy one I've got on my desk (they come in as review copies from the companies) which is a teenage girl's guide to witchcraft, with tips on getting rid of period pains and snaring boys.

Are these things silly trifles that belittle true magick via a form of Disneyfication, or are they valuable introductions to the spooky arts?

08:00 / 29.10.02

My personal reaction is they make me want to barf - but then I can see the funnny side. Who knows, if it works? If you get rid of the period pains and get the school hunk, well I can't diss it. It's dealing with teenagers immediate concerns which is good practical magic, I suppose. Because it's possible to read every Crowley (or Chaos) book in the world and still be a complete useless git.

Then again, I did see an "I Ching for Teenagers" last week and my first reaction was "another piece of mass marketing crap.. AAAAARGGH"! And the angel cards - why the pastel drawings of angels? Why are peoples concepulizations of benevolent sprituality so cheesy - like Laura Ashley Occultism. When I think of an angel, I want a terrible scourge of righeousness emanating screaming white light - not pleasent pastel shades.

solid~liquid onwards

09:48 / 29.10.02

magic for the masses?...surely if you want it to appeal to young girls then you make it a fasion accesorry

no doubt most of its just for teenage girls in some kinda phase, trying to piss off their parents or beleive it to be "cool". But out of that, it would be worth it if even a small minority were to take it seriously and change their lives

09:52 / 29.10.02

Yeah I'm along with Stabb on the last part, everyone in there teens has their "own thing" don't they, maybe its music or movies or sniffing glue. These days magick seems to be the new thing but if a few people decide that they want to continue with it when they get older then its a good thing right?

I have nothing against Wicca, some people seem to think that Chaos magick is the one true magick, but well its not. The only problem I have is people trying to cash in with complete rubbish the Disneyfication as you call it Sax.

Quick someone lock the door don't let him out.

10:31 / 29.10.02

Kind you whose to say you couldn't produce a trendy guide to Chaos Magick for all those rebellious teenage boys? Sit well with all the Limp Biscuit records etc.

10:38 / 29.10.02

Very true - I think most teenage boys see Wicca as "female". All we need is someone to make a movie about a young guy who gets bullied and turns to chaos magick with a "thumping" nu-metal soundtrack.

10:44 / 29.10.02

There definitely seems to be a lot of this frothy wicca stuff about - a lot of it by this mother and daughter team, Titania and Samantha Hardie. Are they the witches it's okay to like for the middle classes, then?

The Return Of Rothkoid

10:55 / 29.10.02

At least they're not Fiona fucking Horne. That's all I can say.

11:04 / 29.10.02

Shudder

Not sure if that pic is going to work actually

Yup its all pretty safe which is probably a good thing really.

11:08 / 29.10.02

Above was meant to be a pic from one of "Silver Ravenwolfs" books. I've got a feeling that Silver may actually be a 43 year old business man from Bromley

solid~liquid onwards

11:16 / 29.10.02

in my limited experience, usulally those who takes the magical path seriously and live and follow it are those led to it by synchronicity. i bet 95% of the people who read the afore-mentioned books will have given up within 5 years(yay for number crunching)

that sounded kinda elitist, didnt it...like the chosen ones or something similar...D'oh

i'd love to say magic is for everyone...to an extent thats true... but im sure most of the..i'll shut up now and start a thread as an experiment (howd ya get into magic?) no doubt theres been many before this

19:44 / 29.10.02

On one hand, any magick you can put sufficient belief behind can work. The focus doesn't matter, only the will and skill. On the other hand, Silver Ravenwolfe and the like make me want to barf. But then again, I'm not a teenage girl, so you'll have that.

20:27 / 29.10.02

i bet 95% of the people who read the afore-mentioned books will have given up within 5 years(yay for number crunching)

that sounded kinda elitist, didnt it...like the chosen ones or something similar...

Actually, that's probably about right. Supposedly, 5% of people are deep-trance hypnotics, psychic, natural leaders, &c. I'm paraphrasing Colin Wilson here, who quotes Robert Graves, Chinese POW camp administrators... um, an explorer? I forget the details. A hypnotist, obviously. It's in the early chapters of his book, The Occult. The remaining 95% are just not "important" ("important" being a value dependant on your goals, of course).

Anyway, I think Disnification is bullshit and people ought to knock it off. Diluting the "message" through mass marketing doesn't help attract the 5% you want, whether yr message is about magic or politics or Ponzi schemes or whatever. It's fine for making a buck, but if you're serious about the field, you're likely to attract the stupidest, least imaginative people and drive away the ones capable of really good stuff.

12:18 / 30.10.02

i'm not sure if it is a problem worth worrying about. I've always found it pretty amusing, and anyway those who are 'chosen' to follow this path will get there eventually.

what doea annoy me though is the disneyfication of cultural myths and legends. rendering down a generations old story into an easily consumable kids cartoon (hercules, mulan etc.) seems to remove any point the story originaly had.

i guess thats just the way the western world masss commercial ethic is going. these fluffy magic shenanigans is just another step on the ladder as the beast starts to devour its self.

solid~liquid onwards

17:36 / 30.10.02

im where i am now, mostly by following co-incidences (read the celestine phrophecy...although its made up i liked the synchronicity idea, so whenever something happens, im asked to go somewhere, do something, i'll always follow it up.

perhaps if everyone could just be convinced to follow coincidences...new train of thought. FEAR im sure most of you have read some casteneda... where fear is one of the barriers, something that has to be overcome to advance in sorrcery, and on occasion i have been really scared.

11:21 / 31.10.02

I think there should be more books of overtly evil magick aimed at teenagers. Anything to thin out the numbers of the sad, skateboarding, slipknot-obsessed retards.

Gods, I'm getting really into this 'deliberate evilness' lark...

15:54 / 31.10.02

I've found that my grandiose self-improvement plans were too boring and complicated to continue. But the sigil improvised with a crayon and a symbol I found on a sidewalk, launched by sprinting until my lungs felt like popping, designed to help me through a speech I had to give the next day, worked just fine. So I think fluffiness and practicality are the way to go for the audience in question.

I was going to support Disnification wholeheartedly, as a similar introduction to myths that the exalted 5% would then explore on their own. But then again, it's not clear that most people like researching "the real thing" as much as I'd like.

17:41 / 13.11.02

*thread revival*

So, I came across a Silver Ravenwolf book on Halloween. It's called The Teen Witch Starter Kit or something--it's a used book, so the goodies that came with it originally are gone. Apparently it had a little altar, a couple of pieces of jewelry, a "Yes/No" coin, stuff like that. I was going to buy a Peter Carroll book anyway, so I bought Teen Witch for $6 as well. And you know what?

I really kind of like it.

It's definitely cheesy. Perhaps even barf-inducing for some of you. But it repeatedly errs on the side of simplicity, which is a great thing for beginning magical practice.

So, I'm going to try to work through it in the tradition of Barbelith Does Kraig's Modern Magick. I may not get through all of it, but if anyone's interested in watching the process, I'll put it on my online magic journal.

12:56 / 14.11.02

I think that's a great idea. I look forward to seeing what ensues.

12:59 / 14.11.02

Perfect Tommy you've just earned yourself a cookie!

13:27 / 14.11.02

Hmmm...so there seems to be a "gender divide" in how Magick is marketed to teenagers these days...

It would be interesting to see books on Wicca geared towards teenage males (Horned Gods & Green Men!, or some such title) and books on Chaos Magick directed at teenage females (Do Your Own Thing, Sista!, or something to that effect). I'd bet the interest in such books would spread well outside the intended markets, and they'd make a tidy profit.

15:58 / 14.11.02

Mmmm... cookies...

Badbh Catha has an interesting thought. But the first thing that came to my mind: "How do you market magic to young males without catering to adolescent power fantasies of revenge and getting girls to like you?"

Maybe that ought to be a new thread. I know it's a sweeping generalization, but in my case it was a true one: I cursed a kid who had been making fun of me for a couple of months and he was out sick for three days. At that point, the "This May Be Real" Fairy scared the crap out of me and I retreated into pure rationalism for ten years, but is that the typical reaction?

But then, girls probably have that too, huh? I just naturally distrust boys, being one myself

16:21 / 14.11.02

I dunno. If they could bottle a killer jumpshot, where would Michael Jordan be? I kind of think the occult should stay occult.