Miscellaneous complaints

[kiya]

The house smells like dead fish. It used to be just the basement, yesterday, but the smell is slowly spreading. I would like it to stop raining in case it has something to do with the water and our not-terribly-weathertight basement. I am burning miscellaneous incense, which means that the house has periods of smelling like flowers, burning strawberries, and dead fish instead, which I think is an improvement. I may have to retreat into the green room at some point (which smells vigorously of all my incensecrafting supplies, 'cause it's where I keep them and my non-shrine). Perhaps I will get around to trying to make incense in self-defense.

My nose hurts. This may seem like a petty little thing, aside from the fact that it hurt so much last night that I did not sleep. Nor did I successfully nap. It's hurting less now; I'm hoping that I'm allowed to sleep today.

Normally we're a healthy system, good communication, minimal lack of continuity, good shared memory. Change front and blend front as appropriate to situation, all that good stuff. Unfortunately, I'm in a situation of stress where it's necessary for the possibility of long-term health that I actively force myselves to dissociate. I didn't quite realise it before last night when the system suddenly asserted good health and thus broke down as it was reconnected to an untenable situation. Darkhawk finds this particular failure state interesting to poke at in an abstract conceptualisation sort of way, so at least some of me is getting something out of it.

Speaking of dissociative disorders, I'm wondering why so many folks who are engaged in magically focused religious practices are so cagy about magical practice. I can see arguments on the basis of, "Well, for most things it's more practical/effective to use these other means", but that's not the same as "spellwork is a last resort". It just seems weird to me to separate it out that way and treat it differently; action is action, whether through means esoteric or exoteric. If the appropriate tool for the situation is magical, then that's the appropriate tool. (Back to 'I believe in what works' again, I am.) I find myself pondering that line that surfaced on rasfc, that went something like "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent; the competent know when to choose it."


On the upside, Witch Eye Nine arrived yesterday, and Mastering Cone 6 Glazes today. I should take them upstairs to the bedroom (which smells of bedroom) and read them.

Comments

[rainfallsautumn.livejournal.com]

I hope your nose gets better soon. No sleep and pain is no fun.

I'm one of those as-a-last-resort types, but I think that's because even though I've had very successful results with the magics I have tried, I'm still skeptical of the whole thing.

[keshwyn]

Whereas I'm a last-resort type because I either get scarily tangible results with the magics (and then, I get an associated backlash as the universe says "I'm not sure that should have happened") or I get no result at all and just feel generally out-of-sorts and screwed-with for several days.

I suppose I should point out that I don't consider kitchenwitchery 'spellwork' per se, because I do that all the time. It's just an intrinsic part of life, as opposed to hauling out a full casting, a plea to the gods, and all the associated 'casting paraphenalia. That's the stuff for when I really need the mojo (or think I do) and am focusing my whole will on the problem.

[artan]

"spellwork is a last resort". It just seems weird to me to separate it out that way and treat it differently; action is action, whether through means esoteric or exoteric

Agreed. I often tend to view spellwork as something to be used often as a first action, sort of a starting point to set mind in a particular direction to achieve clarity for determinig further action, be they magical or mundane. Anything is simpler to deal with if you're actually sure about what you want. Also, I find that many people color their approach to magic through fear or uncertainty - many still have the lingering fear that if they try something and it doesn't work that they'll be karmically thwacked or that it's just not right for them to be interfering. I tend to find that arguement along the standard line of fear of action used by many people in any number of mundane situations where they "want" to do something (usually feel something should be done, but really want things to just fall together for them without any effort), but don't Will it done, so make up excuses.

I think also part of the problem may be that the some of the folks who are engaged in magically focused religious practices somehow seem to dissociate the religion from the magic, forgetting the connection (not all (probably not even most), but those who do so also tend to be the morally vocal). Chaos magicians or other non-specifically-religious types seldom have this problem, seeing spellwork as a practical tool rather than something mystical and out of reach...

Of course to many people who've never used a hammer, that is a mystical tool only to be used in extreme situations.

Action taken is action taken, no matter what its form it will propogate in a method possible for it to work. Of course there is also the converse of this arguement, those who approach magic as the first and only solution, thinking that if they light candles the world will fall at their knees with no further effort. Same problem in a way - they're afraid to really commit to acting on something and take show-actions to convince themselves that something has been done.

[elf]

One of the things I learned from the Feri teacher I first took classes from was, "The hardest thing to remember about magick is to use it."

The more I hear "magick as a last resort," the less sense it makes. Wotdahell is "living a magickal life" if you don't do any magick?

Sidenote, on that whole "k" thingie: I think of "magick" as the Crowley definition: the art & science of causing change in accordance with Will. I can deal with the Starhawk definition: The act of changing consciousness at will.

I think of "magic," no-K, as being an inherent state not having to do with directed will: fairies are magic. Moonlight is magic. Neon lights in the distance and honeysuckle blooms at the window are magic.

Powerful, mystical situations that can cause change and evoke emotions and sometimes Gods... but not created by a deliberate, focused act of Will.

(I don't expect this differentiation to catch on, but I thought I'd mention it.)

[lysana.livejournal.com]

So, just so I have it clear in my head, there's ceremonial magick, natural magic and stage magic in that definition zone, then? Just making sure I have it right, as the idea charms me.

[shaddragon.livejournal.com]

Agreements with elfwreck; I don't remember to use it. Or more, I don't think of ways to use it.

This stems largely from having near-to-no-confidence in most areas of magic-workery. Coincidences? Oh yeah. Insanely weird headspace? Got that down pat. Actually producing results?

That's hard.

I've been playing with simple stuff lately like a nice little toy I found -- basically a 'throw big glary balls of colorful stuff at people and see if they notice,' which I can at least visualize... but whether it's working or not, I dunno.

I just don't see magic as often a practical thing, though I know it can be, and many people do use it that way. It's part of how I live, but it's not... well. How to phrase it? Many thing I do and think are magic, but I don't think of living it as using it; when I chat with the local dragon or go listen to the mulberry out back for a while, or go digging around in my subconscious to see what I've got hidden away from myself today, or even calling on a gremlin or two to give back whatever theyve' stolen? --I don't see that as 'doing magic.' It's just me.

[elf]

Stage magic doesn't go in there at all. It goes in the same general concept as any theatre work: "magick" in the sense of "an act of will done to cause a change", i.e. to create feelings of enjoyment in the audience.

Stage magic was never part of the "k" question; Crowley added the K to differentiate his "real, true, powerful" magic from the stuff done by "those losers at the Golden Dawn who keep missing the point." (My paraphrase. I don't think Crowley called anyone "those losers.")

Ceremonial magick, check. Natural magic, check. (The stuff that just happens, not "magick done with natural ingredients.")

[elf]

Oh, forgot to mention...
WitchEye group at Yahoo is now open.

[larksdream]

What happened to your nose?

[kiya]

Infected pimple inside the nostril.

(You may now cringe and whimper like everyone I've said that to did.)

[kiya]

*goes and peers and reads back entries*

Goodness, an argument already, and I haven't even read the magazine yet.

[larksdream]

*cringes & whimpers*

[kiya]

Thankye for obliging.

[ibnfirnas.livejournal.com]

You know, I think I've realized since our conversation some of why I have my own aversions to using 'magic' unless I have to. Kitchenwitchery doesn't really twig me, nor does moving energy around, but as time goes by, my 'magic' practice is less focused on assertion of my will and power to get a thing done and more about petitioning higher powers-that-be to help me with them. And I'd rather not bother the grown-ups for favors if there's any way around it, because a: they have better things to do and b: owing favors makes me very nervous. I've forgotten enough promised sacrifices, etc., to have learned my edgy lesson. It's not a -disconnect- of craft from religion for me; it's because they're too close, and if I'm busting out a big ritual, I'm usually involving some invocation.
And it bugs me, always asking for things, even from dispassionate faceless Forces of Nature, let alone from Gods.
It's that and the basic owing issue. Even if I'm on my own steam, I feel about magic sort of the same way I feel about using a credit card. I'm sort of taking out a loan from the stuff of the universe, or at least a loan on its elasticity as I bend it a bit. But I can't -see- a lot of the transaction taking place, and I don't -see- the paper money and weighty coins disappear from my wallet, as it were. So, while I see these things as perfectly legit things for people to do, I'm nervous about trusting myself to do them responsibly and I really, really don't like to be in debt.
There's that. The last bit is the sort of vague 'you learn martial arts so you can avoid fights' mentality. If you're living a good solid potatoes-hearty magickal life, you don't really need to -do- magic, or you're aware enough of its consequences to only use it when it is, indeed, the proper tool, which is not, in my opinion, nearly as often as we'd like it to be. It's like my old question about what distinguishes plowing a field and plowing a field religiously. There's magic in my cooking. I don't really -do- it; it's just involved because it's always there.
End babble. Back to research.

[kiya]

*nod* You strike me as having a well-integrated head on this subject, of course. I get frustrated by some areas because it's all "Magic is a special case!" in the ethics and I can't work my way through to why it's got an entire different ethics book for these people except that the working isn't something that they have incorporated into their lives in a sane way.

It reminds me of the "Sex is not a special case!" shouting, y'know?