{"id":196,"date":"2012-01-21T13:15:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-21T19:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.wordpress.com\/2012\/01\/21\/o-look-a-controversy-re-emerges"},"modified":"2012-01-21T13:15:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-21T19:15:00","slug":"o-look-a-controversy-re-emerges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/21\/o-look-a-controversy-re-emerges\/","title":{"rendered":"O, Look! A Controversy Re-Emerges!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apparently, the occult corners of the internet have recently exploded in controversy.\u00a0 Mostly in corners I don\u2019t frequent, actually, although a few<\/a> of my<\/a> favorite<\/a> bloggers<\/a> have added their two cents (Jason and RO both link to the broader controversy, and also provide a little bit of context).\u00a0 I avoided the \u201cphysical\u201d manifestation of spirits brouhaha on account of I haven\u2019t ever done any conjuration and therefore had nothing to contribute (though I hear that didn\u2019t stop everyone).\u00a0 Besides, it\u2019s an old controversy among those who enjoy talking about the theory of magic as much as they enjoy actually doing it.\u00a0 To my warped mind that gives me leave to comment on the matter of \u201cit\u2019s all in your head\u201d.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, it\u2019s a subject that\u2019s been on my mind. I have, after all, just finished Lon Milo Duquette\u2019s latest book, in which he advocates the vary theory under debate (which apparently I haven\u2019t gotten around to reviewing; I\u2019ll have to fix that as soon as Sannafrid gives it back).\u00a0 The general direction of my thoughts on this matter can be inferred from an old post<\/a> of mine.\u00a0 At the time I was speaking of the particular tendency of some Wiccans and New Agers to gloss over the distinctions between cultures and divinities in favor of their own, alternate, fluffy-bunny reality, but the same arguments apply.<\/p>\n

Aalways, though, it\u2019s more nuanced than that.\u00a0 Fr. SEA discusses DuQuette\u2019s example of the love spell, which doesn\u2019t make someone love you so<\/em> much as it makes you into the person your beloved will love back<\/em>.\u00a0 In the case of the particular example, it makes a great deal of sense.\u00a0 What\u2019s left out of the resulting discussion is how explicitly solipsistic<\/a> DuQuette\u2019s worldview is: at the end of Low Magick<\/em> he explicitly states that he\u2019s not entirely certain there is a world outside himself (quote and citation to come when I get the book back in my hands).\u00a0 It\u2019s also meant to be humorous, because Lon Milo DuQuette is a funny, funny guy.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not forget that Chaos Magick maxim (where did it come from, anyway?): \u201cIt\u2019s all in your head, except when it isn\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0 Magic generally takes the path of least resistance in order to get things done.\u00a0 How often have we been admonished to be careful not to kill Grandma for the inheritance with a poorly-targeted money spell?\u00a0 As Gordon so eloquently pointed out: \u201cMagic has an extremely frustrating ability to give you your desired results in the least convenient way possible.<\/a>\u201d\u00a0 What, by and large, is the least convenient and most energy-efficient way to make change happen?\u00a0 Cramming your own damn square peg into that proverbial round hole, that\u2019s what.<\/p>\n

Now, my own take on this is necessarily skewed.\u00a0 Although I have practiced magic for fifteen years, I spent the first decade devoted almost exclusively to pulling my head out of my own ass, getting it screwed on in the proper direction (forward-facing, but never, ever \u201cstraight\u201d\u00a0 ;p ), and clearing out the cob-webs.\u00a0 It\u2019s only in the last four or five years that I\u2019ve escalated my outward-focused magic from the web of influence<\/a> that puts me in the right place at the right time into actually manifesting changes in the world around me.\u00a0 And while that\u2019s been working out for me pretty damn well and very concretely so far, my experience definitely bears out Gordon\u2019s addendum to that above maxim.<\/p>\n

All that said, Jason\u2019s take on this is very compelling: that some of the larger entities we deal with cut cross-ways through our measly, mortal, three-or-four dimensional understanding of reality, that they are both within us and without us.\u00a0 That fits in perfectly with my understanding of a spiritual reality which is at the very least equally complex as the material reality, and probably more so by orders of magnitude.\u00a0 So, too, RO\u2019s argument that the distinctions of \u201cwithin\u201d and \u201cwithout\u201d are matters of perspective which the clever magician will use as best suits their means and ends.<\/p>\n

Still, I remain skeptical of the idea of a \u201ctop-down\u201d construction of reality, whether it figures the magician or some Absolute Divinity at the “top\u201d.\u00a0 That Neo-Platonic paradigm and all its children are too simplistic for me, intellectually, and fly in the face of the rational conclusions I have drawn based on my own personal experiences.<\/p>\n

Finally, however, I wish to make clear: my conclusions and beliefs are inevitably founded on just that: my own research and personal experiences.\u00a0 All of the stances I have seen so far are well considered and, I assume, similarly founded on years of research and experimentation.\u00a0 Which, if we assume that everyone is operating and arguing in good faith (and I do), only goes to prove that the universe is bigger and more complex than any of our puny, mortal, meat-brains can comprehend.<\/p>\n

Love and light, folks.\u00a0 The blessings of your favorite gods on each and every one of you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apparently, the occult corners of the internet have recently exploded in controversy.\u00a0 Mostly in corners I don\u2019t frequent, actually, although a few of my favorite bloggers have added their two cents (Jason and RO both link to the broader controversy, and also provide a little bit of context).\u00a0 I avoided the \u201cphysical\u201d manifestation of spirits … Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[145,292],"class_list":["post-196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-witchcraft","tag-lon-milo-duquette","tag-weblinks"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kUcm-3a","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}