I have mentioned one Chirotus Infinitum from time to time.\u00a0 He and I stopped talking over a year ago\u2014over what is beside the point\u2014but we mostly left one another alone.\u00a0 Recently a series of miscommunications culminated in a brief scare that I might find myself in a no-holds-barred fight with a serious, competent magician \u2026 and not just any magician, but one with whom I had worked extensively in the past.\u00a0 A flurry of e-mails ensued, a couple mutual friends were contacted, and it all turned out to be a(somewhat amusing, in retrospect) misunderstanding.\u00a0 We made a formal peace-pact, reaffirmed the bond and nature of our previously shared hospitality (he is a Roman reconstructionist, I a sort of neo-Hellenic type \u2026 the sacred binding power of hospitality is a Very Big Deal to both of us) and the whole thing would only be interesting to our mutual friends except for one point: it got me to thinking on something that I haven\u2019t put serious thought to since before I could drink legally.<\/p>\n
If I were going to go to war, what would I do?<\/p>\n
Since then, the subject seems to keep coming up.\u00a0 I found an essay on Classical magic which focused exclusively on curse tablets and poppets (the essay called them \u201cvoodoo dolls\u201d, proving that the area of study requires attention from actual practitioners).\u00a0 A friend of a friend was talking about the curses and \u201cblessings\u201d her Rom ancestors liked to make use of.\u00a0 A very close friend, in seeking justice for an in-law, almost-but-didn\u2019t-quite-ask Aradia and I to curse the ever-loving shit out of the perpetrator (We didn\u2019t do it: sorry, you have to ask me in clear language for that sort of thing.\u00a0 I can\u2019t just take it upon myself.\u00a0 And you have to help.)\u00a0 I got a coworker fired by reporting his sexual harassment of another employee to management, and there was a small risk that he might swing on me if he found out\u2014at which point, as I told someone only half-jokingly, I would \u201ccall the police and curse his name.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lot of people I know have been fucked over in the last few years, one way or another.\u00a0 And having the knowledge to not just try to raise them up out of the muck, but to smite their oppressors, assailants, and tormentors down \u2026 is awfully tempting.<\/p>\n
This is knowledge which I have actively avoided for a long time.\u00a0 I know myself: I\u2019m a fucking Scorpio.\u00a0 Power tempts me.\u00a0 I would only use it for Justice \u2026 right?\u00a0 Except when I used it for Awesome.\u00a0 And I know better what constitutes \u201cJustice\u201d and \u201cAwesome\u201d better than anyone \u2026 right?\u00a0 Guys?\u00a0 Where are you going?\u00a0 What are those torches and pitchforks for?\u00a0 I\u2019m not the monster here, I\u2019m just doing what you would have if you had the \u2026 <\/p>\n
Oh.<\/p>\n
I know what a slippery slope is, and what it isn\u2019t.\u00a0 Marriage equality is NOT a slippery slope to anything \u2026 except maybe actual civil rights for us queers.\u00a0 Me wielding the power of curses and bindings in the name of \u201cjustice\u201d IS a slippery slope to me using that power in the name of my best interests, ethics be damned.\u00a0 Whether or not this is the Nature of Power is up for debate.\u00a0 But, at just over three decades of being me, there is no debate over the Nature of Me Wielding Power.\u00a0 I know what\u2019s up.\u00a0 I know myself<\/a>.<\/p>\n This knowledge is a sort of power which, if I ever wield it, I must do so only under the most clear-cut and singular circumstances.\u00a0 Because it tempts me too much to trust myself and my motives.\u00a0 I lust too hotly for revenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have mentioned one Chirotus Infinitum from time to time.\u00a0 He and I stopped talking over a year ago\u2014over what is beside the point\u2014but we mostly left one another alone.\u00a0 Recently a series of miscommunications culminated in a brief scare that I might find myself in a no-holds-barred fight with a serious, competent magician \u2026 … 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":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-witchcraft"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kUcm-z","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","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=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}