For my next trick, I&#39;ll need a volunteer...

That poem is AWESOME. Get OUT and Do Something, yes, instead of just sitting on your butt and studying it, reading it, writing it...It's itching in your brain for a reason. You haven't had a decent amount of That kind of release for a while, dear.

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I don't have a decent amount of time, for processing and the like, unfortunately.

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I think you've done TOO MUCH processing, too much long-term, drawn out stuff. You just need to aim, and Fire at something that's in your way, and then get back to work on the same old. Squish it, burn it, make you a new path to something that Isn't your thesis. Moneys? *shrug*

I'm just sayin'. :)

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Yeah, you're probably right, there. And the Money thing would be the proper aim, at present... Hmm.

Thank you.

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Certainly this is part of your own struggle, but I'm seeing the lack of study being just as problematic for others as the lack of practical experience has been for you.

Like what

mechangel seems to be running into, though for slightly different reasons: doubting one's own credibility due to the isolation and lack of credentials that is nearly inherent to the solitary practitioner.

I think the American magical community's bias against academics is as crippling to many people as the academic community's dearth of pragmatic applications in a magical context.

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whoops, meant

mech_angel

sorry, my brain isn't recovered yet.

might never be, i guess.

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Is it ever?

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See, but I don't doubt my own credibility. I doubt Everyone Else's.

And yeah, there seems to be some mutual distrust in the fields.

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Comment the First:

Point Well Taken.
!
`@!@@

Comment the Second:

Of course you do, dear heart. Of course you do.

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Ta.

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Ter.

Salad.

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German? Because it's way too hot, for that.

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Yeah, but I hate the mayonnaisey kind.

Is that a word?

(Seriously, I have good excuse to be a sped lately. It's been a rough month. But I am now a First Degree with the Unicorn Trad. Wheee, Pagan Street Cred.)

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Congratulations on the degree.

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thankee.

i feel all cerebral an shit. or i would, if i had any cerebrum left. Beltane, anyone?

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Not to nose in, but I'm not doubting my credibility due to any lack of credentials.

Isolation, perhaps, and a lack of development of that social skill and being Uncomfortable talking to others and externalising what goes on. I'd like to get over that so that I can at least say I Prefer to work alone or with a select few. But I Don't think someone has to belong to a Named Group and have a little initiation certificate to prove they know what they're doing.

(Nothing against you if I seem overly venomous about it, but that attitude is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. Some people do well and are comfortable in that arena. I do not; I am as territorial about that work as I am my art, or writing, and I dislike collaboration unless you are Very close to me and we work together in a certain rhythm. There have only been two people like this, ever;

wolven is one n the magickal sense, and my best friend Dez from back home is the other, in the artistic sense.)

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Not at all! I was talking about you; it's not nosing in.

I was mainly drawing refering to you with the comment about isolation, but I think where I was going with the rest of it was about the times I've heard you bemoan your lack of a "background." Please correct me if I've gotten the wrong impression, but you seem to doubt yourself sometimes or to feel less credible due to your lack of a demonstrable pedigree (for lack of a better term; forgive me, it's early.) I know it's kind of a leap, and there are several gaping holes in my train of thought, but sometimes I see this as parallel to thinks other solitaries have expressed about feeling somehow less for lacking a demonstrable grounding in one tradition or field or another.

To me, it's kind of like how some poets feel less credible for lack of formal education. It really has very little to do with education...moving poetry is moving poetry, and it certainly doesn't require anyone else to tell you it's good. If your poetry sucks, it sucketh whether you have a degree or not.

HOWEVER...I -do- believe that a lack of education, magickal or poetic, can open the door to an extra handful (or six) of posers. Sure, I've met plenty of people who think they're hot shit just because they've got some kind of formal status as a member/initiate/muckety-muck of something or other...but I've met PLENTY of bullshit artists who think they should be respected for being some kind of magickal hotshot when really they're basing their entire premise on "past life experience" or their own personal mythology (which has them at the top of the heap, naturally) and in truth they're just ignorant posers with a lot of charisma who've read a few comics or seen The Craft and like to seem deep.

I don't think someone has to belong to anything to prove they know what they're doing. I've heard street poets who've made me bawl like a baby. But I do think that the total lack of respect for the intellectual end of the art has led to a lot of blazing-eyed Waffle House preachers with absolutely nothing to back up their rhetoric but a pale complexion and a talent for emoting. This does the legitimate solitaries a disservice in so many ways...

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My entire problem here is with that assumption, which is ironically backed up most times by my own reticence, because quite a few of the ones who would call you on it without learning if they're right first are about as loud and self-righteous as your WaHo Wannabe Witches, and I'd honestly rather not have to loudly proclaim my skill or lack thereof from the rooftops.

...but I've met PLENTY of bullshit artists who think they should be respected for being some kind of magickal hotshot when really they're basing their entire premise on "past life experience" or their own personal mythology...

Do you have any idea how much work it is building your own mythology? It's not All I work with, but at the same time, the idea that something is valid simply because it's been around for years, or centuries, is shite. It's part of the reasons I dropped Wicca like a hot potato some years ago.

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Creating a personal mythology is as easy as denial, and as natural as self-indulgence. We do it every day of our lives, to live within our own narrative multiverse. Everyone wants to believe they're special. No one with any actual personal experience cares about your skill or lack thereof, so there's no reason to feel like you need justify yourself to anyone but yourself.

I only get annoyed when the loud wanna-bes intrude on my personal space, or misuse their charisma to gather flocks of ignorant followers, who will eventually be emotionally scarred by being so ill-used. Of course, that happens quite enough with people who have initiations and certifications, but at least in those cases there's a whole community of responsible witches to get the word out and stop them from hurting anybody.

I think you must not actually have known many (if any) responsible, well-rounded, educated Wiccans, and for that I am sorry. Of course something's age doesn't grant it any particular validity. I can't think of anyone with much education who would try to claim otherwise. Nor does newness. You wouldn't try to say that just because something's shiny and new that makes it right, would you?

Or maybe you would. Either way, it's about what works for you, and as long as you're not hurting anybody else no honourable witch would really care how you choose to roll within your own context. You seem to have some fairly scarring insecurities and prejudices regarding anything remotely connected to even vaguely organised megical practice. The only thing that will heal that is self-esteem, and if you're interested, maybe one day getting out and meeting some responsible practitioners who will treat you like a human being.

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http://community.livejournal.com/magictraditions/43769.html?mode=reply

I'm not going to clutter up D's page anymore; taking this over to my lj.

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raoin.livejournal.com

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