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Goddamn Magick!!!

  
 
Boy in a Suitcase
06:24 / 14.11.02
Write everything you hate about magick here: how it effects you, how it effects the world, what practicing it entails. What makes you uncomfortable. Exercise in honesty and rationality. Go.
 
 
cusm
12:21 / 14.11.02
In the end, its all just in your head.

Except when its not.
 
 
Bear
12:24 / 14.11.02
Ego, that's what pisses me off the most - for a subject that's meant to be egoless there's an awful lot of fighting and argueing over nothing. Oh yeah and the whole anti Wicca thing or anti whatever you don't practice, not on here but in other places.

And the nerds, can't stand the nerds...
 
 
illmatic
12:33 / 14.11.02
Don't know - what I've hate most has gotta be the infighting and bitching like Bear says, but that's just homo sapiens for you...
Using all this suff to blow up your ego, reinforce your insecurities and sense of self-importance, adn slag oter people off..

(and hey Bear, BTW, I am a nerd)
 
 
Bear
12:34 / 14.11.02
Me too
 
 
The_Player
18:11 / 14.11.02
What hates me most in magick is all the posibilities is allows you - and all the self control you have to make to NOT use it over a simple discussion (it always came back bitching and screaming over you, you know).

And all the time it takes (and I don´t have) to work really well...

Player
 
 
penitentvandal
18:37 / 14.11.02
All that 'Aeon of Horus' bullshit we were supposed to believe in two years back. 'Crowned and conquering child'? Hyper-intelligent star-being mutant invisible children of the magick revolution? Have you seen kids today? Have you ever noticed how bloody thick they are? The bastards can't even get their heads around proper Wicca, for God's sake - and may God help them if the stupid fucks ever try to tackle even basic Chaos magic, let alone Enochian or Cabala.

'Peck out the eyes of Christ on the cross?' My arse, you fat junkie bastard. Who are the most powerful political forces in your so-called 'Age of Horus'? A country ran by a right-wing Christian oil merchant from Texas, and a bunch of countries ran by right-wing Muslim oil merchants, currently squabbling over a country ran by a the most ridiculously right-wing shtarker the Jewish nation's seen since around the time of Samson. I mean fuck off. How many times do you see even bad-ass rappers thanking God at award ceremonies - and they're supposed to be all avatars of hip-hop rebellion (and don't even mention Marilyn fuckin' Manson. The man is a tit.)!

Bollocks. There is no big new Aeon of Horus. There is no Age of Aquarius. It's all exactly the same as it was in the middle ages: ignorant, bigoted, superstitious proles ruled by unprincipled, hypocritical robber barons, and that's the way it's gonna stay. Crowley can't save you. Some fucking Egyptian fucking hawk-god is not gonna save you. Dropping ecstasy is not gonna save you, nor is mucking about with trendy ethnic religions like some cultural tourist and imagining you're some hip magician-prophet of the new age,

'...because the righteous truth is, there ain't nothin' worse than some fool, lyin' on some third world beach, wearin' spandex psychedelic trousers and smokin' damn DOPE! and pretendin' he gettin' consciousness expansion. I want consciousness expansion I go to my local tabernacle and I SING!'

Ladies and gentlemen, this public disservice announcment has been brought to you by velvetvandal, the sephiroth of Geburah, and the music of the Alabama 3. Thank you for your attention. We now return you to your regularly scheduled magick...
 
 
solid~liquid onwards
21:04 / 14.11.02
*he*he*
 
 
8===>Q: alyn
21:08 / 14.11.02
vv, that was a public service denouncement, I think. And wasn't it about magickians and not magick?

I don't hate anything about magick, except that I can never buckle down long enough to do it. But that's me, not magick.

I hate myself.
 
 
gravitybitch
02:30 / 15.11.02
I think the two things that bother me the most are:

The way magick seems to isolate me from the rest of the world - my viewpoints no longer match up with anybody's at work and it's far easier to keep my mouth shut than get into arguments that I cannot win, and the fact that I've started this practice seems to be a conversation stopper even with people who know me well.

The way magick brings up an old argument I've been having with myself for years. I decided, way back in highschool, that my main purposes in life were to learn stuff, to have a good time, and to leave the world in better shape than I found it. (In no particular order.) I was raised to believe that any power and privilege carried responsibility and obligations, not only to not do harm to others, but to "do good" (in spite of the lessons from The Mysterious Stranger). Magick fucks with the limits on "reality" and I no longer know where my responsibilities end...
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
08:55 / 15.11.02
The way magick seems to isolate me from the rest of the world - my viewpoints no longer match up with anybody's at work and it's far easier to keep my mouth shut than get into arguments that I cannot win, and the fact that I've started this practice seems to be a conversation stopper even with people who know me well.

I think finding your way around this particular conundrum is probably one of the most useful skills a magician can develop and an important stage in the cycle of development. The term 'walking between worlds' summarises it perfectly. These days I'm quite comfortable spending a part of my time as the local nutter talking with Invisible beings in public areas, and a part of my time sharing and enjoying the more consensual version of reality that most people are familiar with.

I sometimes speculate that this is one of the reasons why 'The Magician' card in the Tarot is also known as 'The Juggler' - he knows how to juggle multiple realities and move fluidly into whichever version of reality is the most appropriate for a given situation.

I think that once you've initially got past the stage of 'coming out' as a magician, and openly talking about this stuff, you eventually get a bit bored with mentioning it to people and having the kind of conversation that frequently arises. I've found that over time I care less and less what other peoples opinions may be on the matter. Everyone is entitled to live in their own version of reality, and although mine might be radically different in certain ways, I can still visit them now and again. I suppose it's part of the often overlooked 'To Keep Silent' bit of the magicians green cross code.

It can actually be quite fun leading a double life where you keep the magick stuff away from people, actively denying any involvement except to close friends and people who can get their heads around it, deliberately taking a skeptical standpoint in any discussion about 'the paranormal' that you find yourself involved in, etc...

If in a given situation, such as an office type environment, you find that an open belief in magick is causing problems for you and making you feel isolated, then it's likely that you're not running the most optimum set of beliefs to be succesful in that particular situation. And knowing when to recognise this and temporarily shift into a more useful version of reality, is all part of the game.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
09:15 / 15.11.02
Crowley can't save you. Some fucking Egyptian fucking hawk-god is not gonna save you

As much as I dislike the thought of sounding like an apologist for Crowley or Thelemites in general - the whole point of 'The Aeon of Horus' is that the Child takes reponsibility for hir place in the universe and starts running things (runnin' tings?) themselves rather than waiting for someone else to come along and save them. It's a case of 'Your parents aren't here to step in and save you - You're going to have to do it yourself'. Granted, this point is often overlooked, particularly where Crowley's 'Aeon of Horus' gets co-opted into the New Age 'Age of Aquarius', but the general principle of self responsibility and self reliance seems fairly sound to me.
 
 
illmatic
10:14 / 15.11.02
I'd second that.

And I'd add if you compare today to the time when the Book of the Law was written, things have (obviously)changed a huge amount. Sexual repression isn't anything like it used to be, the old colonial hiearchies have collapsed and while a lot of people might pay lip sevice to Christianity, most act like secular humanists. Indviduality is a lot higher on the agenda than it used to be, even if it's just expressed through consumption.

I don't think any of the above "proves" the Book of the Law, but I do think Crowley was a prophet of an early kind of indvidualism. When I think of the violence expressed in the 3rd Book, I can't help but think of all the wars that shook the old world to pieces last century.
 
 
illmatic
10:25 / 15.11.02
Having said all that, proclaiming that you live in The Aeon of Horus, or that you're doing "your true will" can just inflate and blow up your false opinions of yourself as much as anything else.

We've touched before on this board on the concept of Aeons being subjective truths rather than historical realities and that's how I see it.

And your post was damn funny.
 
 
cusm
15:43 / 15.11.02
the whole point of 'The Aeon of Horus' is that the Child takes reponsibility for hir place in the universe

Yea, I'll have to add one of my big peeves are folks who completely miss that part. Though really, its almost more Crowley's writings that piss me off as well, for so much is written either in reverse or code that its just a pain in the ass to sort out. And then there are Fundamentalist Thelemites who take the book of the law literally. Sheese. Way to perpetuate the old model of thinking there, isn't it? The topical interpretation is meant to scare off people who won't work at it to figure out what he *really* meant. Fucking Masonic mystery society models. I'm so sick of that shit. Guess what? NOBODY CARES ANYMORE! The Church won't comoe by and burn you at the stake if you say you're a magickian. Welcome to the new age, have fun with your heresies, you don't need to hide them anymore. You're no longer a tool of the devil so much as a novelty for armchair philosophers to argue about in coffieshops and chat rooms. Get over it.
 
 
penitentvandal
18:13 / 16.11.02
Glad people got the joke...To be honest I do get kinda pissed off with the whole milennial version of the Aeon of Horus, but nowhere near as much as that post would make out. I just noticed I was starting to sound like a televangelist and decided to go the whole hog and chuck the D.Wayne Love quote in for the hell of it.

I must admit, though, that I found the headspace of the Televangelist quite amusing, and certainly felt very, well, cleansed afterwards...

And you, too, can experience this cleansing, mah BROTHERS and SISTERS! YES! Just send your money to Cleansing Astral Soul Healing, courtesy of velvetvandal ministries here at the Chapel of Light, Alabama! HALLELUJAH!

Didn't there used to be a thing on the old Chaos Matrix (may it rest in peace) site that was about using televangelist-type shows as a method of obtaining gnosis?
 
 
Boy in a Suitcase
04:47 / 17.11.02
Today I was walking down the street, feeling high on the simple things in life, generally grooving on the basic joy of walking. And a scuzzy homeless guy saw me doing this and said "WEIRDO!!!"

I seem weird to the homeless? I used to be so normal.

That's what I hate about magick.
 
 
Papess
14:40 / 17.11.02
Well yeah, ego is a pain in the spiritual butt sometimes.

I also hate knowing something and not knowing why I know it, or how to explain it to anyone. Meeting people for the first time and getting a "read" on them and ignoring it so I do not "judge by appearances", then finding out I was right anyway. The constant deja vu. The feeling I am just going through the motions in mundane reality, while I actually live somewhere else. The assumption that magick is an instant, magic trick like pulling a bunny out of a hat.

I find it especially difficult when the Powers that Be decide I need to have my life turned upside down in order to learn and evolve.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
18:44 / 17.11.02
People stuff...

Egos. Especially if they're bigger than mine.

The fetid ramblings of overactive (yet strangely unoriginal) imaginations being passed off as "psychic revelations", particularly when I'm the subject of them. (Black clothes do not a %black magickian% make, dearies.)

Magick as self justification-- "I'm a magickian, therefore I am outside your petty and mundane rules, therefore if I act like a complete arse you're not allowed to notice".

Imbecilic credulity passed off as open-mindedness.


Magick stuff...

Confusion.

Intrusive magickal experiences.

Occult indigestion.

Insect plagues.

Headaches.

Hallucinations.

Loki is a pushy git.

Losing items which, yes, have occult significance and yes, the loss of the item conveys a certain message but I still happen to need them in my non-magickal life.

Unduly cryptic omens.

Moths.
 
 
FinderWolf
21:13 / 18.11.02
Interesting synchronicity that you mention months, Mordant -- I had a dream a few weeks back that involved a moth flying into a room where two male Indian shamans were having a quiet disagreement. The room was dark; it was nighttime in a sparse, almost abandoned house, the room illuminated by a single bulb. The moth's fluttering wings cast rapidly-moving shadows all around, like a natural strobe light. They ignored it at first, but after a few moments one of the men said "Look..we have a visitor. With a message for us." That was the end of the dream. I was waiting for the shamans to talk about what the moth's presence there meant.

I looked on the Net for what moths could mean in dreams, and one site said moths are symbols of sorrow.
 
 
ShadowRain
07:58 / 19.11.02
Pet hates about Magic ... there are a couple. As several people have mentioned, it's the 'Oh my God' reaction from people who wouldn't bother to investigate before comdemning you, based on something they've seen in or around you house that they don't understand.

Another thing that bugs me is something that I found quite prevalent on Barbelith (which is not an attack, merely an observation). Many people tend to slate books published by Lewellyn Publishers as uninformed and fluffy without much substance. True though this is for people who have been involved for a while, I wouldn't discount the usefulness of some of the more fluffy books. Part of starting out is to learn what is valid and what is not, and if the books give people a less threatening way of getting their feet wet, it's good. Those serious about magick will eventually start finding that the fluffy books don't delve deep enough and this will motivate them to search for deeper texts on the subject. Personally, I would be highly intimidated if the first book on magic I tried to read was The Greater Key of Solomon. It's a learning process, which in and of itself is important.

Well, that's my two cents worth on the subject.
 
  
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