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Magic in the Maelstrom of Prejudice

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.pagan.magick,alt.religion.wicca,alt.lucky.w,alt.witchcraft
From: Joseph B. Wilson 
Subject: Re: Magic in the Maelstrom of Prejudice
Date: 15 Mar 2003 16:46:13 -0600

On Sat, 15 Mar 2003 21:53:30 GMT, Joseph  wrote:

>catherine yronwode wrote:
>
>> I do too, but i have known some who do not agree and who still
>> consider themselves successful magicians. They tend to state that Will
>> is their tool, and that natural magic, as represented by herbs or
>> roots or minerals ("ingredients"), is not necessary.
>
>Some people sympathetic to the concept consider the "ingredients" to be mere
>fetishistic triggers to help an individual achieve the necessary or desired
>state of consciousness.  While others maintain an inherent desirability of
>certain object to certain ends, usually though not always based on some
>"sympathetic" property that the "ingredient" shares with the goal.

My own animistic view, arrived at as a result of years of journeying
and communicating with those different spirits, is that for the most
part the necessary herbs, roots, and minerals are desireable because
of the particular spirit that they contain, and that the properties of
those spirits is hinted at, though not always revealed, by the
"signature" of the object.  It's the use of states of consciousness
(volition, imagination, emotion) that communicates to the spirit the
desired goal with the necessary force; the contageous aspect of things
which provides pathways for that spirits travel to take place and
bring about the result; and the sympathetic property that acts as a
sort of a roadmap.  Of course this doesn't take into account the other
stuffs which may well have just a non-physical effect similar to a
spiritual chemical reaction. (oils, incenses, saliva, breath, urine,
alcohol, etc) that are used to feed/fix/activate/whatever the
particular spirit(s) and that acts kind of like a jump starter or
defibrillator.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

Joseph B Wilson, Witch Doctor
http://www.josephbwilson.com
http://www.shamanist.net
F-lamers, kooks, and trolls cheerfully ignored.


>
>> > lorax666
>> > providing goods or pre-prepared recipes is legitimate in many
>> > fields of endeavour and acceptable within certain cultures.
>>
>> Yes, within most non-urban cultures world wide, and within some urban
>> USA subcultures (Latin American, German American (Pennsylvania Dutch),
>> and African American, for instance) what Caliban calls "recipe magic"
>> is the major form that magic takes. Even Solomonic magic, much
>> respected in the hermetic urban sub-culture, is essentially "recipe
>> magic," if you look at it without a Rosicrucian or Golden Dawn
>> perspective.
>
>Hmmm.....i would take exception to the "non-urban" aspect, it seems to me
>that most of the "occult shop" or "recipe magic" phenomena would be more
>urban and an aspect of modern city cultures, while the more rural type of
>folk magic would be more likely to find its necessities in its own
>environment.  Often times the city dweller has little choice in the matter,
>not being abel to walk out its back door to its herb garden or lop off an
>almond branch for a wand or have access to a butcher knife that regularly
>slaughters chickens for its dagger.
>
>>    (3) the money-drawing spell kits with a single large lodestone,
>> green candles, oils, herbs, and incense typically used to perform an
>> ongoing money-drawing spell in the African American oral tradition.
>
>interesting i would use quartz crystal, crysoleth and ordinary glass, orange
>and yellow, sun flower, cinnamon, a 6 sided star, all enclosed in locked
>glass.  but that's just me.
>
>> However, i will ask a few obvious questions: If you come from a
>> hereditary tradition in which ritual house cleansings are performed
>> once a year, will the spell only work if you grow all the herbs, mine
>> all the minerals, and harvest all your own broom corn? Will the
>> house-cleansing fail if you buy a spell-kit containing the ingredients
>> in one package? What if you live in a city and can't grow hyssop --
>> should you just give up on magic and pray instead, because prayer
>> doesn't require materials?
>
>as usual you make my point better than i do.
>
>>
>>
>> cat yronwode
>>
>> Hoodoo in Theory and Practice -- http://www.luckymojo.com/hoodoo.html


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