tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6817682567561164198.post5287465221283027143..comments2024-02-20T09:54:37.105-06:00Comments on Talking About Ritual Magick: Lost Innocence and Youthful RejectionFrater.Barrabbashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11689013897789072360noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6817682567561164198.post-82451869831389442352011-05-15T12:47:58.549-05:002011-05-15T12:47:58.549-05:00Reading accounts like this one of the things I rea...Reading accounts like this one of the things I realize about myself compared to many other occultists is that I seemed to have bypassed the whole "Christianity = Evil" thing entirely. Obviously I have a low opinion of Christians who want to force me to believe as they do, but I think equally negatively of anyone who tries to convert me to whatever their religious tradition happens to be. My spiritual path <br />went from Christianity to Hermetic Christianity to Thelema. That's apparently kind of odd too, as my understanding is that a significant portion of Thelemites come from Wicca and Neopaganism.<br /><br />Regarding "giftedness" in magick, I do think that it plays a role in pursuing that particular path and there's more to it than egotism. It's not a "unique" talent, as there have been lots of magically gifted people born throughout the history of the world, but I think that one of the things that draws people to the practice is they realize their thoughts have some ability to influence the world around them. And only people with high levels of aptitude are going to be able to do that intuitively, especially at a young age.Scott Stenwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12389664381513219613noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6817682567561164198.post-16286372980911810292011-05-12T14:31:20.235-05:002011-05-12T14:31:20.235-05:00I followed a similar path to you. I grew up in Sou...I followed a similar path to you. I grew up in Southern Texas, and being "out" there guaranteed some serious pain. It was less a choice for me than it was with you...my father, and to a lesser degree my mother, were both occultists, and to this day my father enjoys a certain notoriety among the Feri community in the Bay Area (my dad is Dragon Spurlock). I was raised mostly by my grandparents, but the town knew about my real parents and rumors were flying before I really understood what they were about. My mother introduced me to paganism and magick to counter my grandparent's extremely lax Catholicism, and the former "took" while the latter didn't.<br /><br />I tried to be on good terms with the Christians at first. I, too, was ridiculously naive, and believed that people would live and act out their ethical and religious rhetoric. Thus I was scandalized when it turned out Freedom of Religion wasn't quite as "free" as the rhetoric claimed, and that Christians are often great sources of hate and violence, as opposed to love and charity. In junior high school, I started being aggressively "witnessed" to, and this was when I declared war.<br /><br />I had no epic illusions about a great religious revolution in the US or the world in general. I just knew that I was going to fight the privileged role of Christianity in our culture every chance I got. I admired the black metal musicians who burnt churches, though I disapproved of their rather stupid rhetoric about it all (I am sure Varg Vikerness just looks back at all that idiocy he wrote in those days and just cringes). I wanted to hurt their power, their assumption of primacy, and their manipulative cries of "persecution!" the moment they didn't get everything they wanted.<br /><br />As time went on, I simply lost interest. The "Great War" bores me. Christians bore me. Attempts to fight the Christians bore me. In general, the whole thing bores me and makes me lament the time I wasted fighting for nothing. This is not because I have discovered some newfound respect for Christianity (I haven't) and it isn't because I have decided to take on the "enlightened" stance so many of my peers and colleagues are affecting right now. I do not believe it's all equal or the same, and I do believe that Christianity needs to lose its societal privilege. I just don't care to be the person who does it. I primarily write fiction, and that's what I want to do...make things up for a living. I don't want to be a religious leader, I don't want to fight a holy (Crowley) war, and I have no interest in having so much of my time and energy be devoted to the very things I hate.<br /><br />Whether you are spending all your time on your knees for Christianity or all your time on your feet fighting against Christianity, you are still spending all your time on Christianity. The best thing we can do is simply ignore them, deny their cultural significance, and move on.<br /><br />I only have so much life, and I will be damned if I am going to waste it on them.Neal Alan Spurlockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16920403080764780317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6817682567561164198.post-19583636478676965532011-05-12T11:09:15.590-05:002011-05-12T11:09:15.590-05:00Reading accounts like this one of the things I rea...Reading accounts like this one of the things I realize about myself compared to many other occultists is that I seemed to have bypassed the whole "Christianity = Evil" thing entirely. Obviously I have a low opinion of Christians who want to force me to believe as they do, but I think equally negatively of anyone who tries to convert me to whatever their religious tradition happens to be. My spiritual path went from Christianity to Hermetic Christianity to Thelema. That's apparently kind of odd too, as my understanding is that a significant portion of Thelemites come from Wicca and Neopaganism.<br /><br />Regarding "giftedness" in magick, I do think that it plays a role in pursuing that particular path and there's more to it than egotism. It's not a "unique" talent, as there have been lots of magically gifted people born throughout the history of the world, but I think that one of the things that draws people to the practice is they realize their thoughts have some ability to influence the world around them. And only people with high levels of aptitude are going to be able to do that intuitively, especially at a young age.Scott Stenwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12389664381513219613noreply@blogger.com