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!
Beyond the PenUmbra 