nobeardnocloak-blog

[nobeardnocloak-blog]

open a tear

This is not my best written post. I'm exhausted but I want to write this.

I had a recurrent problem with my computer at work. The IT guys were pretty set on never fixing it, so I did. I don't know what inspired me to try this, but I used my gaze to pierce a hole in the screen. I breathed the system into me, and I breathed hermetic/mercurial energy into the hole. In my vision, an tiny quicksilver Hermes leaves my eyes and passes through the hole. As soon as I release my gaze and the hole closes up, the computer starts working again. If I don't use this technique, the computer doesn't work. If I don't let the hole close quickly enough, it doesn't work. 

The strangest thing to me is that it always works and is entirely necessary. The computer doesn't work without the intervention and always works with it. I subscribe to the idea that magic is all about messing with probabilities, stacking decks and loading dice,but this seems to contradict that hypothesis? Who knows.

I should mention as well that I've developed a relationship with the god by occasional offerings of cinnamon, and by naming my Wi Fi connection 'mercury'. That last one seems terribly anachronistic, but it seems to be appreciated

I've used this technique on other machines too, with much more mundane effects. My washing machine would constantly stop mid cycle, so I used this technique. Instead of any change to the machine, I suddenly realised that the machine would work if it was only half full. This is more like the kind of magic I'm used to: not workings that fix the problem, but workings that gently encourage the problem to fix itself. It also reminds me that magic is a two way communication, and I recall the times I could hear sigils speaking to me, denying a request.

This piercing seems to be incredibly useful tech. 'Piercing the Veil' is a commonly used term for the process of penetrating the illusion of reality, and this is in many ways a reappropriation of this technique. I've tried using it to pierce distance for remote healing and astral travel. I've pierced the veil in a more traditional sense and made a tiny hole in the world to feed the spirits of my sigils through. I've used it in worship, to pierce a hole between me and the gods so that they may better receive my offerings. I've used it to deliver spiritual offerings to corporeal beings at a distance. 

After playing Bioshock Infinite, I couldn't help but compare this technique to Elizabeth's opening of the tears between different quantuum likelihoods, and it made me think that maybe, with this technique and with any other magic, that opening a tear is exactly what we're doing. 

It seems to be an incredibly powerful technique to directly interact with the symbol set of reality, to mess with the source code and change probabilities and directions with thought alone. I'm looking forward to incorporating this into more physical and mental magic.

[nobeardnocloak-blog]

Real Offerings

I've been studying Inominandum's Strategic Sorcery course, which I've found to be an extremely eye-opening process. He has lots of ideas that break magic and spirituality down to core components, giving techniques and concepts that are relevant no matter who or what you believe in. 

It raised a question that came up while reading about working with spirits. He makes the point that we can get much different results dealing with a spirit if we come to it with offerings rather than coming to it with bindings. On the other hand, when we want to influence a living human, the methods seems to revolve entirely around bindings. I wonder why this is? Surely spiritual offering are of worth to humans, even if they're not aware of this worth? Could a white candle be the subliminal carrot to the black candles' subliminal stick? Or is there a fear that an unmasked spiritual influence could spook the target and drive them away? That said, flattery is often shown to work even when they subject knows what the flatterer is up to.

Do you think this could work? If you are a psychically aware individual, do you think this world work on you? Would you respond to an offering and a request, more-so than a black cord and a command?

I'll experiment with this and see where it takes me. 

[nobeardnocloak-blog]

on wanting

I looked back on my life and realised I'd gotten everything I'd ever wanted, and I wished that I had wanted more. 

If magic is real, then we use it to get what we want. Confronted with this, it's surely natural to brainstorm what we want. What we lack. What we desire. It's easy to be suddenly overwhelmed by inadequacies and dissatisfactions. I've never known much about Buddhist magic, but the concept didn't make sense to me. How can you fight to fulfil your desires and at the same time, try to extinguish them? If the strength of your will impacts the strength of your magic, wouldn't a buddhist magician want to both increase and decrease his desirousness? 

So I started reading about the tantra. There seem to be answers this way, but I haven't found them yet. I won't try to explain what I've learned lest I oversimplify, but since I've been reading I've been happier. I still want. I still desire. But for one reason or another I feel more comfortable doing so. Maybe I've found permission to want, and permission to have. I'm not sure if it's had an effect on my work, but things seem to come easier. There's no guilt in magic. There's no shame in getting what you want. 

I think of the Wiccans I used to know who claimed that it isn't about magic spells at all, or at least that they've stopped using them. Could you imagine living in a world where we knew that magic was real, but still didn't use it? Maybe these people have everything they want. Maybe they've used up all the desire that they have.

The people I admire are people that want. Not those who want the most, but those who want to be the most. I know people that have become the best in one field only to push it to the back burner and become the best in another field. I know people who've done this three or four times. They're clever people, but I really think it's their tremendous drive that gets them there, and I wonder if they feel desire stronger than the rest of us. 

[nobeardnocloak-blog]

I believe in magic

In order to discuss magic, we need to define it.

For people that don't believe in it, the term magic is often used to mean 'things that aren't possible'. In this way, the phrase 'I believe in magic' means 'I believe that things that can't be done can be done'. Thinking about it this way, yes; it is a silly thing to believe.

It also permits science to erode at the edges of spirituality. As a phenomenon becomes explained, it's no longer a magical thing, but an explicable thing. In this way, evidence of 'magic' can never be found. It is never proven, but instead removed from discussion. This is how enchantment becomes psychology, and how healing becomes medicine when demonstrated in a lab. Thinking this way, magic can never be found nor argued for.

People who are likely to say 'I believe in magic' are more likely to mean 'I can change my world through my thoughts' or 'I can change my world through indirect action'. Using the words this way, it's hard to argue against. Mental processes affect reality. Thoughts create actions, deliberately or otherwise. Every human event begins as an silent, internal act.

This is a good place to start. We can agree that we believe in magic, then talk about what we believe magic is.