Reading through Forums, I Just Thought to Myself...

[loreleyjacob]

So, erm, what's the difference between "prayer and energy requests" and "spell-begging"? We forumists gladly give one, but become all self-righteous about the other. We don't give out spells. We don't do spells for other people. Not even spells for "good" purposes like finding a job

Comments

[inhumandecency]

warning: this is all relative to the way I see the terms used. YMMV.

This is an interesting perspective and I'd never considered it before. One difference that comes to mind is that when you cast a spell, you're taking responsibility for the results, and your client (what do you call the person you cast a spell for?) is placing an expectation on you. When you send energy, it's more like a nice surprise if anything happens. Also, since energy requests usually come to a community, there's no one person implicated (and no one can even tell whether you did anything or not).

One particular way we may differ is that it sounds like you're describing requests for energy sent to a community of magical practitioners. I frequently see requests for energy sent to communities that include everyone from professional priestesses to total atheists, and the concept is used quite loosely.

I hadn't considered the idea that energy requests are really *requests*, that the requester should take some responsibility for moderating. But it seems quite right. However, I tend to see requests for energy in social terms -- I'd ask someone to tone them down at around the same time I'd ask someone to tone down excessive posting about all the problems in their life without energy requests attached. At least, I wouldn't judge them by exactly the same criteria as I'd judge requests for magical work.