I never bother with labels, esp when I have to apply it to myself - I find it too limiting. And no, I did not particularly hold the term wiccan to apply exclusively to you. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I was thinking in the abstract, like our hypothetical "sane citizen". I suppose I should have said "the arcane wiccan" or the "ideal wiccan" in order to have made it clear early on. That's the least of the problems! How is our happy wiccan going to ever get anyone to DRINK that! The same goes for all potions with eyes of newt and horns of toad as ingreidients. It'll take some pretty high level culinary skillz (verging on magic, one might say Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!) to make them palatable. Then we'd be deprived of the entertainment! Of coss, as Arafat might say "one man's entertainment is another man's generally disagreeable, occasionally violent gf". Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! The essential question behind all this discussion - ie. How can our ideal wiccan influence external reality? This answer says - "he/she can. But not everytime, not under all circumstances, not in specific ways, not on Tuesdays, not when it's tax season, etc, etc". So the "power of positive thinking" is the real reason why spells/magicks/etc actually work? That would make Dale carneige (or whoever writes those positive thinking books) a more powerful warlock/witch than most ... ;D
Power of Positive Something? To that end, though, the sane citizen is inconsequential. There is no particular need to make that sane citizen believe. It is, after all, about the living result. And, toward, that, such ideas as I've drawn from the Craft in its many forms (including a limited and convoluted contribution from Vodoun, just for a diversity note) become less of a ritual practice and more of a philosophical cornerstone. To that end: Toward the palate in general, that's why I generally work with other media of exchange. Toward the immediate potion, though, two points: • I'm the one who would have to drink the potion • It's as easily done as the more lurid aspects of your imagination might presuppose And to that, I'll throw in a nudge-nudge-wink-wink-a-nod's-as-good-as-a-wink-to-a-blind-bat. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Yes, and the only good Injun is a dead Injun Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Maybe I can make a Fox-network special out of it: Who Wants to Drink the Evil Potion? I don't recall that the Fox Network has daytime soaps. Maybe that would get good ratings: The Witch and the Bitch. Though I fully expect Fox's contribution to the soap parade to be, as Marge Simpson would have it, a shot across the bow in Fox's transition to a porn network. (The Days of our Thighs) Right now it's a matter of faith and documenting weirdness while looking for a trend. Sometimes the magic only makes sense from a specific perspective. Like the time I held off my folks' divorce. No potion, spell, or otherwise would have done that. The medium of delivery necessarily had to be personal. It wasn't a matter of changing reality so much as it was a principled stand on what reality should be. Eventually, the real world conformed, and the only way that came through was by operating through the channels offered by the aforementioned philosophical cornerstone. I learned early in my life that God doesn't give a shite about your prayers. I've never forgotten that. Nor have I expected any greater definitive result of the Craft. I've operated through more magickal means; I could tell you about a simple binding spell I cast once, and the reality of the situation is that for whatever reasons, the source of my frustration, the target of that operation, inexplicably joined the f--king Marines about two weeks later and that was the last we heard of him for years. The bound poppet traveled with me for seven years, as I refused to unbind it without the participation of the other witch who helped me bind it. But after five years without thinking of it, I found it in my closet one day and broke the bind. The difference wasn't particularly blatant. I actually view the difference not as a magickal energy sum but as a release of conscience within the structure of Thelema (as opposed to the Rede) and the Threefold Law. Whatever energy I had devoted years ago to the binding, I was still lending it on a constant basis. I didn't win the lottery or anything, but shortly thereafter I resolved a couple of my nobler moral demands of the world and I will say that one of the obstacles toward that point was a matter of hidden hypocrisy; I could not accept and act upon such principles as genuine until such time as I ceased violating them either symbolically or literally. Here's an example: Somewhere around this forum is a not-too-old but largely forgotten topic about nature and God in terms of pregnancy. Having watched one of the most dishonest people I know end up pregnant by her current mate, considering the dishonesty of her actions, and considering a number of other ill-spoken factors, what we can say in this case is a number of things about what carrying to term means, and furthermore about the woman herself. The statistical likelihood that she will carry to term is not in her favor. Depending on when that miscarriage occurs, the event might kill her--her health is that unstable. Furthermore, everyone who knows this woman can see that this is not the environment to introduce a child. Nonetheless, nobody will advise her toward abortion because everyone she knows believes it to be her decision what to do, and nobody will hope toward that miscarriage, largely out of superstition. In the end, she's keeping the baby only because she's 30 and "may not have the opportunity again" (what, at least sixty more menstrual cycles?) and she is planning around castles in the sky. That superstition is amazing: nobody will light her up the way they need to because there is now another factor to consider, and, not knowing exactly what the outcome will be, nobody wishes to undertake the risk. The endgame is to make sure the child knows it's wanted and loved the moment it hits this world, and nobody really wants to lay the physical stress of upsetting Mama onto it, and nobody wants to lend it a vibe toward the Egg That Would Not Hatch. It is, in the end, a busload of faith in the legitimacy of the human drama. The answer is more like one of consent: both parties have to be in on it. One of the hard things to explain to people about witchcraft is that if you choose to actively disbelieve it, you can. That is, to invoke darker imagery of hexes cast and Jimmy Smits stumbling down the street, moaning of the snakes in his gut ... even if we accept that scene as "real" for the moment to explore it, the only reason it worked is because he believed in the superstition. Beyond that, we need to start looking at mundane ways of getting the snakes there in the first place Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! But witches in the modern day, and especially within Wicca, are taught almost as an ironclad rule that you should not do something to help someone without their consent. Even if I just make a little charm to wear around and "channel my psychic energy toward your wellness", I'm not supposed to do that until I've told you so and you've said it's okay. It is, in fact, one of the reasons we end up resenting it when Christians decide to "pray for us". We don't go throwing our magicks about, nor should they. The Craft is, then, symbiotic to the object of its faith and working. Its result comes entirely from that relationship. And the day I can document a truly magical or magickal result, I'll let everybody know. In the meantime, it's about the result amid the living endeavor. Of course ... not during tax time ... well, it is about state of mind. Of such motivational books ... they are their own little religion. Most of the PPT students seem a little starry-eyed, annoying, and remind me somewhat of Scientologists. But that's just me Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! What prevents such authors from attaining otherworldly power (accepting, for the sake of this point, that such power exists) is that they're poor writers, and leave themselves open to even more vulgar interpretation than the Bible or GOP-styled freedom. When 15,000 Buddhists gather together, for instance, they're all on the same page on a number of levels. When 15,000 PPT fans get together, well ... that would be flat scary because such philosophies cover a broad range of ideas. PPT works just as well when you're robbing banks as it does when you're getting the kids off to school. And blindly stumbling past obstacles, charged by the power of positive thinking, fans of the philosophy seem more interested in page-a-day calendars and the comparative status of the self to others that I am presently lacking any significant indication that pop-psychology is capable of dealing with such stumbling-blocks without classifying the obstacle for convenience, and proceeding on a new a priori. That is, most if not all identifiable PPT fans I've come across concern their positive thinking more with their pocketbooks than with the propriety of their human associations. The Craft, when taken to that level, results in a similar soullessness at best. What few rules exist among the Craft (e.g. Threefold, Rede/Thelema, &c.) seem to work toward avoiding this condition. Or so says me. thanx, Tiassa Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Heh, heh. Witch & bitch. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! So, a witches brew is for self consumption. Unexpected turnaround ... still, not many concoctions can be worse tasting than 'shrooms in OJ. After a long while, (at sciforums) this was finally a discussion with a "theist" where there was no evasion or obsufication, etc, etc. Even tho we must conclude on an indefinite note, without "hard" conclusions on either side, it was a refreshing change. I'm unable to say more. The refs to thelema, etc are beyond my present scope of knowledge, largely because they are not as well popularised as , say, crucifiction, etc.
Thelema It's a matter of a couple of words: • Rede: An thou harm none, do what thou will. • Thelema: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. It's a picky point, to be honest. It's just that Thelema presumes one is already aware of symbiosis. Do what you will. But hurting others hurts the self. Not all brews are to be consumed by the witch. Some magic is as simple as going down on someone and making sure your current lover catches you at it. It was, uh ... well, a really dumb joke. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Shrooms & OJ ... I once had these really cool shrooms in chocolate. They came in mint or orange-chocolate flavor. What was really cool was that the mint suggestion somehow tied into the other chemicals (e.g. MAO inhibitors) added to the mix and brought out the blues and greens in the world. And, yes, the orange suggestion does seem to bring out the red end of the spectrum. But I've pretty much gotten used to my shrooms straight up. So much effort to mask the flavor, but then what do you do when you score the random bag at a festival show? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Kind, kind ... such as thy words. In the meantime, the season's bounty is calling me. Up from the earth, and through the trees ... I can hear her calling me .... Wow, the Kind & the Kind. That wouldn't sell as a daytime soap, would it? In the meantime, it's a hazy hazy hazy hazy hazy hazy (lazy) world. rhythm & smoke, Tiassa Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
which witch is which? oops. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I missed that. On re-read it becomes clearer. Very powerful magic, that one. Works most every time. Let us know which hospital to send the get well soon card (should you go proceed with said action ...) Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! ++++++ What does the Craft say about issues like - Afterlife. (Broomsticks instead of wings?) Mysticism (enlightenment? etc) ...
