New Pagans – Learn the Basics, Damnit!

 

WARNING: Incoming rant!  You have been advised!

 

The other night I had an interesting interaction with a new occultist.  They professed to be a Christian, but wanted to “receive magic” from a “demon or spirit”  without making a “pact” and losing their “soul”.

There is so much wrong with this interaction that it makes me grind my teeth.  You don’t make deals for magic.  Magic is an inherent ability, a skill that you have to use and hone over time.  You don’t sell your soul to gain magic.  Hell, some people (like myself) don’t believe in the existence of the soul.  Attempts were made to enlighten this person to the idea that you don’t need a spirit or demon to give you magic, but it was water off a duck’s back.

I thought, for the moment, I was safe.  I was so wrong.

Soon after, I was asked to help with a ritual to “evoke a spirit” using a ritual from a book by Konstantinos, since “spirits are there to serve humans” (the hell??).  I was beginning to lose my patience, sadly.  I don’t like it when people disrupt my zen.  I asked if this person knew how to call down the elements, cast a circle, ground, center, and shield.  The response I got was “you don’t need to know those things for this ritual”.

***FLAIL***

You need EVERY one of these skills to adequately perform this kind of ritual, and so few people even KNOW how to do these things.  What happens if you lose control?  If you do it wrong?  If something bad happens?  How do you fix it?  These are the skills necessary to protect you AND those around you from any big bad you might be conjuring!  I don’t understand how people can skip out on the absolute basics of energy work and just jump into the shark tank without a cage.

“If you don’t help me, I’ll do it myself, and if something bad happens it’ll be your fault.”

Ultimatums. Oi.

Ok, let me make this perfectly clear.  I am not responsible for any stupidity you might bring upon yourself or others.  Should you choose to do a ritual or spell that is way beyond your skill level, and it blows up in your face, that is YOUR fault.  You didn’t do adequate research, or didn’t protect yourself properly, or perform the necessary precautions, whose fault is that?  I am not your mentor.  I am not your HP.  I am not your teacher.  The only responsibility I have towards your practice is that which I choose to, and in this case, I wouldn’t touch this mess with a ten foot cattle prod.

Everyone seems to be out for the quick fix these days.  No one wants to put in the hard work and dedication to learn, research, and practice the basics.  Learn to crawl, before you walk, before you run.  It helps to avoid bumps, bruises and broken bones.  I think this is what bothers me about all the magic spellbooks available at your local Barnes & Noble.  People just want to grab a book, flip to the page for their spell and just DO it.  They don’t read the beginning of the book, they don’t read the precautions, they don’t learn how to prepare to work magic before actually DOING the spell.

It’s frustrating.  I want people to be able to practice how they like, but they’re bringing a world of hurt onto themselves if they don’t learn the basics.  Please, for the love of all that’s Holy, try to learn the basics!  It’ll get you out of a lot of problems later!

Modern vs. Traditional in the Digital Era

English: One of the Book of Shadows owned by Gerald Gardner, left in his will to Doreen Valiente, and through her to John Belham-Payne. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So Baron Cimitiere and I got into a discussion recently about modern vs. traditional styles of pagan practice.  The discussion came about because I had decided not to write out my Grimoire by hand, instead typing it on my computer to eventually print out and bind.  He felt that this non-traditional method “takes something away” from the practice of compiling a Book of Shadows or Grimoire.

It is his belief – and the belief of a host of others that I’ve spoken with – that writing your book out by hand imbues the book with your essence, spirit, mojo, whatever you’d like to call it.  If you don’t hand write it, then you won’t have the unique metaphysical bond that only hand crafting an item can give.

My opinion on the matter differs than good ol’ Baron’s.

First the why’s of choosing to type rather than hand write my Grimoire.

My handwriting is atrocious, I can barely read it most days.  Also, I’m enough of a perfectionist that I worry I’ll mess up a nice – and sometimes expensive – blank journal book, or that I’ll tear pages out until I’m satisfied with the results, which is again, damaging a nice and sometimes expensive book.  I like the idea of being able to rearrange pages as I see fit.  I like having backup copies saved to multiple computers as well as thumb drives.

In my opinion – and of course, this is just MY opinion – the act of creation is simply that, the act of creation, whether you choose to do so by analog or digital means.  Creating on the computer can be just as involved and can be imbued with just as much energy as non-digital forms.

I’ve always been a proponent of digital magic.  I feel that with such huge quantities of energy, emotion and creativity that imbues a network as large as the world wide web, they’re a smorgasbord of internet ley lines, a resource just waiting to be tapped into.  Don’t let a sense of obligation prevent you from making your book to the best of your abilities.  Digital, analog, play-doh, whatever.  It’s your book.  Create it whatever way works best for you.  You’re the one who has to live with it after all, not the rest of the universe.

Namaste.

Spookity Textbooks

The “Book of Shadows” is the catch-all tell-tale pseudo-bible of the modern witch. Pshaw.  In my personal opinion, the name “Book of Shadows” is kind of ridiculous, and negative.  Why shadows?  Yes, possibly because they are nebulous, but it also implies a manner of darkness.  A place to hide and be sneaky and deceptive.  An urge to deceive.  I don’t feel the need to give my book of practical magic a spookity name that contributes to a witch’s negative social image.

I do like the word Grimoire.  Dictionary.com defines grimoire as “a textbook of sorcery and magic”.  Well, that’s what it is, isn’t it?  It’s not all woojidy and darkity-dark like “Book of Shadows”.  My opinion might not be a popular one, but as I’ve said before on this blog, it’s still mine.  No touchie.

 

Now, in the 19 years that I’ve been practicing, I have had a book of shadows maybe for the first year.  A year after that, I left the coven that “raised” me, and started on my solitary path.  From that point forward, my ritual and magic workings were very spontaneous, holding to a loosely defined pattern that included calling the quarters, cleansing, smudging, and all the usuals, but not following any particular format or specific rules.  I’ve carried on that way for quite a long time.

Recently, though, it’s come to my attention that I have a lot of information on my hands.  Between books in my library – both printed materials and e-books – I’ve discovered if I need information that I consider important, it’s damned inconvenient to have to rummage around and figure out which book has what in it.  I just don’t have the memory for that kind of thing.

So I’ve decided to write my own grimoire.

Well, not exactly write.  More like type.  It’s the computer geek in me, and the fact that my handwriting is barely legible on a good day.  So I’m setting up the pages with a handwriting font (I am SO cheating) and typing them up on my computer.  I intend to get parchment coloured paper, print out the pages and put them in clear sleeves in a 3-ring binder.  Eventually, I’d like to add a cover to the 3-Ring binder, fabric most likely, or maybe paint the cover.

At this point, I have a cover page finished, three pages of my Sigils for Divination, and I think four or five pages of Numerology.  I think next I’ll start working on some tables of correspondences or something.  Not quite sure yet.  I still have a few more books to go through first.

Question of the day:  Do you have a Book of Shadows or a Grimoire?  Tell us about it!