By the fruits of the tree

[sara_super_id]

Do you take into account when evaluating a magical system shared by an author, the results the system had for the author

Comments

[kuniklos]

I admit I never take 100% from an author. Perhaps, not even half of what they write. Their success doesn't mean terribly much to me because this is so personal that I don't feel you can truly replicate what someone else has experienced. I enjoy their stories, their advice, and I take what I feel comfortable with. If their books are rubbish, I don't buy again. If I felt that what they learned and shared contributed to what I believe and made my experiences a little fuller, then I may return to the author.

[nota_faerietale]

I never take anything at face value. If you aren't questions and reevaluating what you're reading then you're going into things blind

[nacho_cheese]

Interesting question! I've never really considered a spiritual author's personal life on a conscious level before; I'm sure it's crossed my mind at some point with some author, but it's never a deliberate thought.

That being said, I don't think their success (or lack thereof) in their personal, spiritual, or financial lives is a reason to write off an author. (Woo, writing pun!) I don't necessarily think that, if they live their lives a certain way or experienced certain things, their experiences should be a be-all, end-all to that subject. While I enjoy the personal anecdata, I'm there more for my own growth and development, not necessarily to hear an author's sob story or their glowing reviews on their lives.

I hope that makes sense. My brain is rather fried. XD

[gwynethfar]

I don't really think a person's spirituality and how they practice has anything to do with their happiness or success in life.

[sara_super_id]

Do you do magic for tangible? Or is witchcraft only about spirituality for you?

[gwynethfar]

It's about both, however I don't think you can separate spells for something tangible from spirituality. I also feel that to a point, our lives are based on lives we've lived before and lessons we need to learn. So, if I'm meant to be poor in this life, I can do tons of spells for wealth and never achieve results. It might not say anything about the spell itself. The spell might work perfectly for someone else, but I'm not meant to have that result. Do you get what I'm saying? I've taken a load of painkillers today, and I feel like I'm leaving out a really important component of my explanation.

[sara_super_id]

My understanding of magic is that it is taking matters into your own hands rather than leaving it all to fate. Why even do magic if its all fate anyways? Why not just go along with whatever comes your way?

What is your thoughts on it? I am not trying to push my view or debate this part of the question, I am just generally curious, it will facilitate my understanding.

[lupagreenwolf]

A lot of my complaint about fluffy authors has to do with their claims of historical context and other research, not the work itself. For example, D.J. Conway's books are basically generic Wicca-flavored paganism with various things plugged awkwardly into it--Celtic cultures, dragons, animal totems, etc. Plus her research sucks--in Animal Magick she talks about things like how vicious and bloodthirsty domestic ferrets are, among other inaccuracies about various animals.

[gwynethfar]

Yeah, that tends to bother me about most of those authors, too, and more often than not it's not the rituals that aren't sound, but all the other stuff thrown in, because they haven't developed their own rituals, they've taken the framework from someone else.

[lupagreenwolf]

Yeah, that too. I would rather trust someone new who created something from scratch than someone with an older system who didn't make it their own.

[sara_super_id]

I definitely believe in play testing. (nerdy video game role playing reference, he he). So if the author just wrote up a spell added a bit of Celt and a bit of native American so he or she could get her spell quota for the publisher into the book, I am not really going to respect that. However, if the author used that spell a few times to good result, I am more likely to take their teachings into account.