Ignorance is Good

I’ve done less magic lately. I suppose that is the reason for the many posts of late. If I’m not doing magic, I’m thinking about it.

In my last post, I mentioned the fact that I will be doing more studying. I also mentioned that this will help me reach better conclusions than I could have from a place of ignorance. However, I want to say few words about the value of ignorance.

Ignorance is good. Ignorance is good when it comes to doing magic. At least it is good for beginners that are actually doing magic rather than simply reading about it. The reason for this is that it is easy to delude yourself into thinking your magic is working. It is easy to say, “I met my love because I did a spell,” and you may have but how do you know? Sometimes, especially at the beginning, a coincidence is simply a coincidence.

Other times, a coincidence has meaning.

Suppose a person new to the work performs a ceremony designed to get him in touch with a particular spirit or god and that being relates some information about itself. If the person in question is familiar or, even worse, made a thorough study of that being, the immediate question comes to mind, did that information come from the spirit or from the would be magician’s unconscious or was the subject so well known that the information was already stored in his awareness and memory? Most reasonable people could not conclude that a genuine spirit communication took place from the evidence presented.

Now, let us suppose that the mage in question was completely unaware of the deity. In short, he was ignorant. During the communication, the deity revealed that he enjoys a particular activity or carries a particular tool or the magician feels a certain mental attitude as being emanated from the spirit. Being a diligent magician he writes his experiences down. Later, he reads about the spirit and finds that his observations were correct. While it is impossible to say that the person had never been exposed to such information, it is more likely in this case that the information came from the spirit itself.

The wise student places a question mark after this case. Then he repeats his experiments over time. When the pattern continues, our magician becomes more and more confident. His healthy skepticism has been rewarded with certain knowledge.

Dream

Last night, I dreamt that some natural disaster occurred involving water. I was in charge of responding to the emergency. Someone from work, whom I like but do not feel is competent was in the dream. I gave him some direction.

Suddenly, I was in a New York City convenience store. I was in a debate with someone in the store. Witchdoctorjoe entered the store just as the conversation was over. He said, “These New Yorkers bring too much subjectivity into their arguments.” We walked out of the store. We turned to each other and he said, “Do you feel something weird?” I said yes.

Joe replied, “We’ve just traveled back in time.”

We were still in New York but in the mid 1800’s. Everyone was very well dressed. Joe spoke to a black person. When the conversation ended, another black man asked him not to talk to other blacks because, “We pay a price.” That added a creep factor to the dream.

We then entered a bar where blacks and whites were speaking freely. The atmosphere was relaxed and calm.

I can not recall any prior dream that even had a historical context much less transitioning through time.

Dead Period

This is over. I made the mistake of not sealing myself after I gave the person at Pantheacon a lot of energy. I have resolved that error.