Burn this book

[sara_super_id]

Alister Crowley wrote in one of his seminal works The Book of the Law, instructions to burn the book upon completion of reading. Now I think it is a rare thing for readers and devotees to actually do. But what freedom and meaning that very act has for the seeker who reads it. However equally meaningful is refusing the burn the book

Comments

[mageoflamancha]

Thanks for the topic(S), as is so often the case, it helps stir the mind and trigger old patterns to be considered again

[sara_super_id]

Thanks, I strive to only post when I have a question I have been pondering deeply myself and haven't seen discussed a lot. Please feel free to pose questions that come to your mind as well.

I like how you describe how it plays into your own witchcraft to both hide in plain sight and to push the boundaries when it is magically useful or just plain the right thing to do.

I see my teachers, which includes authors on magic, pushing with trickster lessons for the readers to take that first chance, to learn how the power of transgressing feels and therefore how to harness it and hopefully when to use and when not to. Some authors teach by example, others by bad example, don't you think?

[mageoflamancha]

I do indeed. Some authors are so useful, because their stuff is SO good,others because it is SO bad. Douglas Monroe jumps to mind- anyone on the fence about the need for decent research will get push off by this guy.

You may not wind up on the side I'd prefer to find you on, but you'll have to decide whether credible research matters to you or not.

I'd say the biggest area of concern are the bland authors, nothing great, nothing horrid that are a waste of time. As long as they inspire strong reactions growth can happen.

[sara_super_id]

Sometimes I go for stuff that people claim is discredited, but often I find the very reason it was discredited intrigues me or I disagree with the claims against it altogether. For example, I find that Ann Moura is subtly very careful to distinguish when she is telling something her mother and grandmother told her from things that are general neo-paganism or her own creations. Anytime she doesn't say, my mum always said, you can assume she didn't learn it from mum. And anytime she says Green Magic is...you can assume it is her own neopagan ideas. She has a different take on neo-pagan ethics informed by her raising that is interesting. I like to say witches can be karmic retribution--and I think her point of view on it matches when she says not to do magic on other witches--it could really backfire if you do so

[mageoflamancha]

Mythic History is a major teaching tool- I love going back to the cultures that have history that enfolds the mythic and recorded- as well as the modern cultures that work the "what if" game. What if we had a culture that works like "X", how would it look, could we pull it off?

One of my favorite chuckles happened while poking around a local bookshop (big shock.) A women came in looking for Irish Celtic creation tales-no such things, Celtic alteration tales exist here and there, but the basic Irish myths accept that the land was there first- the whole thing of being one of many waves of invasion don'tcha know?
After boiling down rather nicely if I say so myself, she nodded, thanked me, and turned and asked "so do you have any or not?" Myths that still teach are still valid in my nearly humble opinion, and few books or tales are completely worthless, as long as they are given their due, no more and certainly no less. Of course a balanced view tends to be treated as the modern version of heresy.