A Short Compendium of Magick Related Knowledge Meant to Stem the Tide of Idiocy

[sushi]

I just want to say I agree with pretty much everyone here.

 

I also tend to avoid this section. A few months ago I signed up to an otherkin community out of curiosity about what they had in common with us, and I left without ever posting because it was like an entire community of the Metaphysics and Parapsychology section.

 

I read a lot of books about this stuff because there is useful stuff in there. Pretty much everything I know about tulpas came from books on magic or the new age. But yeah, a lot of the time, it's like sifting river sludge for gold nuggets.

[Guest amber5885]

Ashmo

 

I've always wondered what kind of cures and discoveries we lost when we decided it was a good idea to go killing doctors and shamans and burning their books.

[shalkek]

Ashmo

 

I've always wondered what kind of cures and discoveries we lost when we decided it was a good idea to go killing doctors and shamans and burning their books.

 

Well, This for one.

 

But in terms of medical knowledge I'm not so sure. The life span of an ancient (5000 BC - AD 600- what I mean when I say ancient) person was generally lower than that of someone living in medieval times.

The whole city off Rome, for example, had lead poisoning from their pipes. When the Ancient Greeks conquered a city, they would execute all the males and babies. There was a shitload of cruelty even before Christianity.

 

After they took over, the knowledge was still there, they didn't stop using modern medicine or anything else just on principle. If it was useful, people would use it. They just killed off all the knowledge that contradicted their beliefs, like the magic shit.

 

But not as well as you might think. Gnosticism survived the inquisitions, most of the local gods simply became saints. So instead of merchants sacrificing to Mercury for a safe journey, they would pray to St. Francis. And a lot of pagan practices survived too. You wouldn't believe how many. It's called religious syncretism.

 

I live in a country with a dominant Orthodox Christian population, which means that little was changed from the days of the schism. You wouldn't believe the weird shit that's done here. You've got the day of Ignat, when people literally sacrifice pigs (and obviously eat them), these women called bocitoare who are payed to cry at funerals, vantoase which are spirits that will kill you if you cross a hill at night, Zgrimitiesh, sanziene, valve, Samca, Mortolea, varcolac, valva, and all kinds of weird shit that Christianity didn't destroy.

 

People blame Christianity for too much shit that happened. It's not like all the violence didn't take place in the ancient world. And it's not like it wouldn't have happened if there wasn't any religion. People don't need religion to kill other people, it's just a good reason. The Greeks killed Socrates btw.

 

So when, Christianity took over, it incorporated a lot of the old stuff in it. Saturnalia became Christmas, killing a lamb and splashing its blood over a great feast became drinking the blood and body of christ from that little chalice (I don't know what that's called in English), Passover became Easter.

 

So what I'm saying is that nothing was lost, it's useless to think of it that way. In History you gain something and you lose something. Little by little. We lost ancient thought and philosophy, we gained it again. We lost peace and we gained it again. We lost the Roman Empire and we gained it again, about three times (it would take me a wall of text to explain that one though).

 

And now we've gained all this shit - technology, modern modern medicine, other stuff, but we've lost fucking happiness.

 

No one believes in shit anymore. The reason why something like chaos magick exists is because no one can muster the least modicum of sincere faith that is needed for a miracle, a magick ritual, or anything else. Half of America is on antidepressants because happiness = belief. Not in anything spiritual if you don't want to. But anything. People can't for the life of them believe in anything anymore. Not god/s, not their government, not magic, not the president, not their parents.

 

That's why forcing is so hard too btw. That's why in those documentaries, those whackos who see aliens every night are so happy. They finally found something to believe in with all their heart. That's why mirfacles don't happen anymore. People don't really believe in them.

 

You know, just a thought.

[Redback Spino]

I might add one more book to the list: Familiar Spirits by Donald Tyson. I dabbled with it a few years back with some decent results. It's basically a method of forcing, but with a more mystical edge to it, and a lot more complexe (it deals with things like making a shrine for your familiar, along with a material link, stuff like that. Still, it might be useful for tulpamancers looking for a forcing method with à bit more ceremony and mysticism to it.

[Quilten]

Hey, I would like to point out that I don't believe in god/gods or magick or anything supernatural. Yet somehow, I manage to live a happy life.

 

Don't say that I have to have belief to be happy. I believe in plenty of things. Not supernatural, magical, superstition. Made my life a hell of a lot better, actually.

[sushi]

I might add one more book to the list: Familiar Spirits by Donald Tyson. I dabbled with it a few years back with some decent results. It's basically a method of forcing, but with a more mystical edge to it, and a lot more complexe (it deals with things like making a shrine for your familiar, along with a material link, stuff like that. Still, it might be useful for tulpamancers looking for a forcing method with à bit more ceremony and mysticism to it.

 

I also read this book a few years ago. I found the historical accounts very interesting. (Assuming I'm remembering the right book.) I should look that up again.