Criticism
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“We base our entreaties on God Himself, that He may so illuminate your mind and spirit that His profound sciences may be opened to you, and that He may protect and defend you from the conspiracies of the common people and of evildoers, and that you will not reveal any of your secrets to the…
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https://www.coursera.org/learn/magic-middle-ages A friend pointed this out to me some weeks ago, and on a whim I signed up. It’s actually pretty great in a lot of areas. I could pick nits on some minor matters, but I have to admit even I learned some stuff (mostly in the section on alchemy.)
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I usually start my astrological lectures with a version of “everything you know about astrology is wrong.” That also applies to magic to some extent, especially magic which uses astrology as a key mechanism. My friend John Michael Greer says that Eliphas Levi revolutionized magic by distilling it down to two principles; Will and imagination,…
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Scholastic Image Magic is counterintuitive for beginners. You cannot follow your wishes and heart, and also reach any level of competence at it. The process of mastering electional astrology alone requires the employment of rote formulations hundreds and thousands of times until one begins to see hidden patterns, and correlations between stellar cause and terrestrial…
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The most invaluable skill in magic remains an insatiable curiosity.
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A flaw in most forms of magical theory is that they seldom fully account for why magic fails.
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Soapbox: Once a week I pay homage to the ancestors, but I have a pretty loose definition of these. I don’t just include relatives, but also pets, friends who have passed beyond, and even a few inspirational figures. Of the friends who are dancing jigs amongst the stars or in Valhalla or whatnot, a lot…
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That sigil-making app going around? Did it occur to anyone that the labor involved in creating said sigil was the fuel for the ritual? And that said labor is fairly modest? Sheesh. Programs which calculate planetary hours and assorted astrological things are reasonable, but this is not. Why not replace the magician entirely and have…
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Okay, minor gripe. I don’t care how mysterious and cryptic a creative artist is, but that doesn’t automatically make them a magician/witch/sorcerer/shaman. Even if they are rather talented in their own particular sphere. So, I have a lot of respect for Jodorowsky’s work, but claiming he’s a sorcerer seems a wide stretch. I haven’t read his…
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Highly creative persons are no more magicians than they can levitate or raise the dead at will. Occasionally there will be overlap; a practitioner of magic will also be a highly creative professional in another unrelated realm. This is the exception rather than the rule. Yet when you think about it, is it really a big…
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