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

I:ve thought in this thread before. I mean, really, how many King Arthurs have you met? How many Cleopatras? How many Druids who were at Stone Henge? Cuz I:ve met multiple of all of those. Everyone, if they can do even the tiniest bit of magic, seems to think of themselves as The Shit, The Oldest, The Most Powerful, The One with The Most Past Lives, and it:s kinda scary. When trying to find people in the magic community you have to be really careful when weeding out the Crazy People, cuz there are certainly a ton of them, but which of the 3 King Arthurs I:ve met was actually, potentially anyway, the real one? How can one tell?

But then, I do this too. I:m a member of an elite community because I actually know The Truth. Many people know aspects of The Truth (name a religion and it:ll be an aspect of The Truth), but not many people actually Know The Truth and because I do, I feel priviledged. I look at people who know The Truth as better, possibly more powerful, but at the very least more sane than those who don:t. If nothing else they:re more informed than those who don:t, therefor all of the information given by Those Who Don:t is taken with skeptism, it may or may not be The Truth. But if someone who Knows The Truth tells me something, I:m more likely to just go with it. This is not necessarily a good attitude. But it:s one that:s in my brain, none the less. The sad thing is it wasn:t always like that for me. I use to listen to everyone equally, and then I met some of said Crazies, and I think they jaded me pretty hard . . .

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I put it all together, this way: At some point, we'll all be Arthur, Merlyn, Mordred, and Morgan LaFey.

Everyone. What we actually remember, what we pull from it, as part of the universal collective unconscious, or whatever we want to call it, will depend on Who We Are, at base, our Selves or Souls,

But that doesn't mean everyone is remembering accurately. Or that they're even remembering, yet, at all. So that's not really "helpful," per se.

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The Truth, eh?

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Meh, it is in my brain space, so that's good enough for me. Which is totally snobbish, yet again, isn't it? Because I know The Truth so what everyone else knows must somehow be substandard or not the whole Truth or some how inferior or wrong to what I know. I don't like thinking that way, but then I meet another Baptist. (Horribly chosen for their prominence in the south, I realize that it was a stereotype slur)

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I meant more than I wanted to know Your Truth, if you were willing to share. :)

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Okay, the way I see it Belief shapes the Universe. Basically if anyone anywhere believes in something, it exists. So everyone is right. Bully for them.

Conversely, I also believe in one Almighty Creator who created everyting, including the potential for the other gods, and the other gods and basically everything, this covers what Ryam calls Elders (the name I use too), which are basically the personifications of (you guessed it) everything.

Things get more convoluted from there, and I know that Wolven and Ryam share most of my beliefs, so you probably already know most of them. Some of the things go along personal pantheons and whatnot, past lives (basically, sure, you can say you're King Arthur, but I was there, as someone totally NOT IMPORTANT and shit didn't go down like that so you can say all you want, you crazy person) and so such. That's much more of a rambling conversation that I really want to divulge into on a computer when I'm getting drunk because it was that kind of day.

The main bit of the Truth is about everything existing so everyone being right and nobody being wrong. That's what people get so upset about, when other people tell you you're wrong, you know?

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Magicians, as a whole, tend to be egotistical bastards. It's part of the job.

That said, people do that. It's theirs, so it's more real to them. Add into that the kind of will/ego that does, or thinks it can do, whichever way you want to see it, all that Weird Shit(tm), and you're just asking for dick-measuring contests. And it becomes more about that because community is difficult for people who also tend to be loners.

Like any group/subculture, it takes some time to sift through the bullshit, because the assholes and the crazies tend to be the most visible.

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Word.

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I just want a concerted effort to make it not suck so bad. :\

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THAT is a part of why I am so concerned with the community of it. Not just the creative/groupwork aspects, because I'm still not sure if I'm comfortable with that yet, but just my getting involved. Showing people that no, you don't need to be a pretentious cock to hang out and talk shop.

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morven.livejournal.com

I think the personal evidence that magick works is so hard-earned, (even though in and of itself it is a gift accessible to all) that it is easy to forget that others around us are doing the same things. Ie., just because it took me X years to learn that I am creating my world, doesn't mean I wasn't doing it when I was two. Doesn't mean that others aren't doing it, or that they didn't figure it out sooner than me. But it is such a personal, singular path of discovery. No one else was there in my point of consciousness opening up to each nuance. If you talk about your initiatory experiences of any kind, who else understands? It is rare to make a useful conversation out of it.

Then again, in another fashion everyone is and was there with you... which is probably why this keeps coming up, in general...

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That time frame question is one of which I have to remind myself, all the time. We don't hit the same epiphanies, at the same time.

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plantyhamchuk.livejournal.com

I try not to poke my nose too much in what other people are doing, unless they're directly in my life in some way. If I'm going to be doing Work with them then yes, it's very relevant. If it's just joesmhoe making claims, then whatever, good for them. My focus is internal, making certain I'm doing things up to my own standards.

I'm inherently suspicious of anyone who claims any kind of title, be it Pagan or Magician or shaman or whatever. As far as I'm concerned, titles have everything to do with ego and identity, very little (if anything) to do with actual work. The most powerful people I've ever met don't make any claims to anything, because they don't have to.

I don't think any so-called "magical community" is any different from any other community. The dynamics you describe can be found in any group of people who decide, for one reason or another, to associate with each other, all under the vague banner of something.

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True. Annoying, but true.

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freya-chris.livejournal.com

Dead on, again, wolven, as I so often find you are. I think the same phenomena is not just endemic in the magic community, but in the world as a whole. We are automatically skeptical of anything that smacks of faith, magic or otherwordliness--if someone else professes said experience, we turn our "worldly" mind to it, and try to poke holes into it--yet, when we profess a personal experience, we are hurt and take affront when others turn that same skepticism towards us. I think in a way, it is almost a coping mechanism--we have come to age in a world where you never know where the next con can come from--it's a protective thing--we can't go forth naively with the true wonder of a child, or we will get squashed like a bug. Better to hurt someone's feelings with our skepticism than be taken advantage of--trust me--it's not just in the magic community--it's a sign of the times. If only it weren't so.

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But I have to wonder how many don't recognise the dichotomy, which borders on the hypocritical...

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freya-chris.livejournal.com

I think the number who fail to realize probably greatly eclipse the number who do. I feel the need to say something about mindless masses blindly marching to their death unaware of the magic and beauty that surrounds them, but I am failing to think of a single poetic thing to say...darn trip to Alaska tomorrow has worn all the poetic right out of me...LOL

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the-old-songs.livejournal.com

My cat Lola is the same as my old dog Matty. Matty died when I was 20 and she and I were totally BFF, in the way that you can only really be with a good old dog and not with a person. And anyway a few months later I got this dumb looking scraggly sickly kitten (who was the sweetest kitten on the planet and I loved her immediately, but still dumb looking, sickly, and scraggly...) and one day I was sitting with her, holding her and watching tv, and I looked down at her and she looked up at me, and I started crying and said, "I can't believe you came back to me." I vocalized it before I really thought about it or realized why I felt that way. But it hit me pretty hard. She's Matty. There are some personality similarities. Not very many. Mostly I just know it in my heart, the way you know a good melon.

Is that the sort of thing you mean when you talk about magic? Sometimes I wonder if I helped do it by wanting it bad enough, or if she did it by wanting me bad enough, or if it just sort of worked out that way. Sometimes I wonder if it's even true, or if it's just a nice thought that brings me comfort. Anyway I guess Lola/Matty is more mystical than magical anyway.

Because most of the time when you make reference to magic, I can't conceptualize what you mean. I'm moderately sure you don't mean flying on a broom, although that would be badass, or rabbits out of hats, although that also would be badass... can I have a quick lesson in what you're talking about? I ask this realizing that I am opening a can of worms, but what is possible in the world?

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