The Change of Magic in the Modern Day

reply to post by WaitingWolfpack


To say that rites or spells attract negitive spirits is incorrect. It attracts near everything from the other side. Picture yourself as a spirit or fae folk, flying around, and suddenly you see a beacon of energy brust out from somewhere, your going to want to take a look (heck, I would).

This is why there are so many procedures to block negitive beings from coming anywhere near you while doing a ritual. Any magick user (worth their wand) knows to protect yourself from these beings. Take a long at any proper ritual format. You set up walls, barriers, and call for guards to make sure nothing gets in to your body,work, or home.

My opinion is that magic is not one force, but a collection of psychic energy, divine intervention, technology, art and illusion.

reply to post by Donnie Darko


Very good point, all of those are the energy that magick uses. More so, I think those are all strong outlets for the energy. Kind of seems like a circle in motion. I like your example of art. If I can use the subject of a tarot or oracle card. The art itself brings an energy into the user, then user works the cards and pours his or her own energy into the the cards. Thank you, I never fully looked at it this way before.

Hmmmm...Here are my two cents on the subject.

If I were to try and form a conjecture off the top of my head it would be that somewhere along the way science split from what I would call a "soft path" to "hard path" for lack of better wording.

Let me explain my view a little. The druids, for example, were very learned people. I think is was the case for most magic practitioners of the ancient world. They strived for what knowledge was available. However, there science was a "soft science". By that I mean a science of the mind, of forces of nature, of energies and entities. I use "soft" as a term simply because most people couldn't just reach out and touch these things. Feel them pysically in their hands, or make use of them safely without quite some level of effort and learning.

Then somewhere along the way "hard science" became a more favored path of people. Again I call it "hard" because (espcially in its early stages) the end product was something a person could see, feel, touch, etc. Also, once the process was figured out - many could easliy use the end result. For example, one clever chap figures out how to make a wheel and put it on the bottom of a box and finds it will make moving heavy loads much easier. Well, now most everyone can have a wheelbarrow of their own.

I know I have simplifed things in my above. But this switch from "soft" to "hard" science took place I think over time.

Someone in another post touched on belief and I think it is key. There is a part of my that believes something and it tells me, "Frogs - someday these hard and soft paths will converge". I think this convergence might start in the area of quantum physics (but of course I could be wrong). It may be that the "hard path" rediscovers the "soft path".

reply to post by Frogs

Ye Gods Frogs, I salute you!

That was by far one of the best views on this subject I've ever heard! I think with your example of "hard" path, oddly enough, becoming easier to pratice and the movement of the Roman Catholic church into the areas of the celtics (please note, I mean no offence) that would very much snuff out much of the magick use of the people.

My only other point or thought to what you said was, at the time, magick was much stronger, visual, and tangible. I think it wasn't so much the fact that it was less seen or felt, but that the hard path was accessible to anyone. But thats just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Why would you want to shoot fireballs at people? If magic exists you could use it for better things, maybe like understanding what this is all about.

reply to post by Dragonfly79


Please don't get me wrong, by no reason would I want to. I just use the 'fireball' as my example when talking about this subject. For some reason the fireball is normally one of the first things to come to mind when people hear about magick. By all means, I try to use magick as a usefull or helpfull tool as much as I can. I was schooled with the rule of "Harm none" and if it can't be helped "Throw a fist, not a spell".

Originally posted by WaitingWolfpack
reply to post by Frogs

 

Ye Gods Frogs, I salute you!

That was by far one of the best views on this subject I've ever heard! I think with your example of "hard" path, oddly enough, becoming easier to pratice and the movement of the Roman Catholic church into the areas of the celtics (please note, I mean no offence) that would very much snuff out much of the magick use of the people.

My only other point or thought to what you said was, at the time, magick was much stronger, visual, and tangible. I think it wasn't so much the fact that it was less seen or felt, but that the hard path was accessible to anyone. But thats just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Thanks

I agree with that and I think at one time the soft and hard paths as I called them were closer together than they are today. I think this was often in what were the "great works" of the day.

Just a theory, but I suspect that many of the ancient megaliths were constructed with a blend of "hard" and "soft" science as I called it. Things like Stonehenge, the Pyriamids, etc.

Earlier today I was reading a book on ancient weapons that had a few segments transcripts from early manuscripts in it. Anyway, several of swords, shields and spears mentioned in the early manuscripts were claimed to have been created with what was the cutting edge hard science of the day but also during the process were imbued with spells and incantations to boost their effect. A blending of the paths.

I agree it was much more abundant in the past and that the coming of the Church into areas likely sped the decline.

[edit on 17-4-2009 by Frogs]

[edit on 17-4-2009 by Frogs]

Do you believe in magggiiicc in a young girls hearttt...

Sorry I had to. But to be serious I oftened wondered the same thing. Were always being told "You cant. You cant." And its what keeps us down. If only we were being told we COULD!

reply to post by Jess_Undefined


Well, I suppose that is the big question here. I'm sure that a few hundred years of "You shouldn't" becomes "You can't".

Something else I wanted to point out is how magick is learned today. Next time your in a book store, take a look into the New Age (I shudder at the word) area and peek into a few of the Magick and Spellworking books. Once you skip past the ones that are just bunk, you'll notice they all appear to look like school text books. This can not be the best way to learn the art. I understand not many get proper teachers, but there has to be a better format to teach with.

Magic you see in modern day society could be from those guys on the tele that perform illusions by editing the video before it goes live e__e; or gothic girls in high school that have no idea what they are doing.

Real magic is not what you see in hollywood movies like harry potter or lord of the rings. I believe a lot of healing magic is real but its powered by the human mind and how well you can focus it. Not because your gifted and have a scare on your forehead.

reply to post by VampireZio


Blast you David Blaine! Wait till the Super Best Friends show up! As far as "Goth Girls" if they want to keep the true art alive, I salute them. Nobody knows what they are doing in the beginning, so much of magick and spellwork with the otherworld is touch-and-go. That is why I would like to see it better taught, so no one has to deal with something gone wrong. Trust me, from first hand, if your not careful, it can really bite you in the butt.

You are correct, magick in this day and age is nothing like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. However, look at examples. Gandalf and Harry were very well schooled in the arts. That is my point. With the right schooling and support, who knows what magick would be like. That, and...Harry got a pretty raw deal for being 'the boy who lived' I mean everyone was out for that poor kid.

I've known more chaos magicians than anything more along the lines of traditional druids, for the most part if you ever read any books on chaos magic, it does tend to sound more technicle

reply to post by Gren


Which is very ironic I feel. I've known a few in my time, one was a dear friend no longer with us. Its a subject I'm ashamed to say I know very little about. Druids are very much with the whole balance type, so slightly different there.

reply to post by WaitingWolfpack


Hi, First of all congratulations on spending 13 years in this and becoming a High Druid Priest, it was time well spent, and I know what it would have been like getting through all that.
For your first questions about flying and fireballs. The main reason is that there is currently nobody (to my knowledge) that can do it and thus nobody to teach others how to do it.
As for working with the weather, I can do it (to a limited extend) so it seems reasonable that our ancestors could do it as well.
Crafting living beings seems a bit streched but still within the releam of possibility.

As for being able to teach children to do all that, first of all we need to pick children that would be willing (and able to learn) all this. This is possibly the reason for picking children. And magick is a very very large area, thus it takes 50-60 years to learn it all(or as much as possible).

And yeah the last thing is of course time, I doubt many people would want to dedicate their lives to magick.

If we wish to get back to the level of magick our ancestors could do we need to have schools for it with dedicated teachers and just as dedicated students.

reply to post by kaleshwar


First of, thank you very much. Its been a long run, good and bad, but I've never once regret it. Also, that is a very good point, Its hard to learn something without any sort of teacher or guide.

It would be so hard to train a young child for many reasons, but I do think that would be the surest way to give someone such ability. Futhermore, how does one tell if the young'n has the drive and skill? (and thats assuming mom and dad are fine with handing their child over to dumbledore for school).

Speaking of, I have taken a new student under my guidance about four days ago. She has a knack already with divination. I however, can not divinate my way out of a wet paper sack. My divination is listening to the wind speak every morning. the cards, bowls, and crystal balls gathering dust in my study may have found a proper owner. So, its good she has different skills, because its really making me study arts that I wouldn't have, or know little about.

i think this whole thing is like really interesting.. is there magic in will power?