Witchcraft - Would you use it?

by Sirona 106 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  daystar

  Sirona

  No, I know. I was just putting it out there for some sceptics (such as myself ).

  Recently, my opinion on the subject is changing slightly. As I come to more and more of an understanding of the nature of my own Self, as much more an elusive and ethereal entity than I've thought previously, my understanding of such things are beginning to change. I'm still working on it, so I can't really say too much about it at the moment.

  I'd also say that there are influences outside of our own soul's ability or psychology.

  I don't necessarily agree with this. Everything we perceive comes from within. We do not see with our eyes so much as we do with our minds, we do not hear with our ears so much as we do with our minds... We perceive nothing directly, it's all processed through the grey matter and interpreted based upon who we are at the time, our experiences, our knowledge, etc.

  I'd also say that your statement sells our inner abilities and the well from which we draw form into the world of matter quite short. There are mysteries, hidden traits, powers, knowledge, meaning, within our souls that do not require any external influence at all to manifest. Even Crowley's Holy Guardian Angel cannot be said for certain to have arisen from outside of ones' self. It is both "Me" and "not-Me" at once. It is like an alien intelligence speaking to us in our own voice.
• 

  Sirona

  Even Crowley's Holy Guardian Angel cannot be said for certain to have arisen from outside of ones' self. It is both "Me" and "not-Me" at once.

  Yes. I agree.

  I believe in oneness of everything in the "as above, so below" sense (macrocosm = microcosm). However, to attribute everything as being part of us isn't something we can comprehend... like the apple on the table exists as an apple, not as a part of our being (until we eat it). Admittedly our perception of the apple will vary from someone else's (a bit like the matrix, what is real?).

  Whilst I accept that many entities etc we may encounter are projections from within, I don't believe that they ALL are.

  Or is it that it is both at the same time?

  Sirona
• 

  daystar

  Whilst I accept that many entities etc we may encounter are projections from within, I don't believe that they ALL are.

  Or is it that it is both at the same time?

  That is, I think, where my understanding is leading, based upon my current understanding of Self and how I perceive even the most mundane objects.
• 

  MsMcDucket

  Magic, religion, and witchcraft are the same thing. Just depends where you're born.
• 

  daystar

  Magic, religion, and witchcraft are the same thing. Just depends where you're born.

  Incorrect, though understandable that people think this. Magical practice does not have to have any religious overtones at all, though it often becomes a part of religious practice.
• 

  MsMcDucket

  Online outline on Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion

  

  Magic, Witchcraft and Religion: An Anthropological Study of the Supernatural, 6/e James Myers, California State University -- Chico
  Pamela Moro, Willamette University
  Arthur Lehmann, California State University -- Chico

  ---

  Student Center

  Contents:

  Chapter 1: The Anthropological Study of Religion
  Chapter 2: Myth, Symbolism, and Taboo
  Chapter 3: Ritual
  Chapter 4: Shamans, Priests, and Prophets
  Chapter 5: The Religious Use of Drugs
  Chapter 6: Ethnomedicine: Religion and Healing
  Chapter 7: Witchcraft, Sorcery, Divination, and Magic
  Chapter 8: Ghosts, Souls, and Ancestors: Power of the Dead
  Chapter 9: The Changing Spiritual Landscape
  Chapter 10: Religion as Global Culture: Migration, Media, and Other Transnational Forces

  http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072863188/student_view0/
• 

  Terry

  When you look (actively) for patterns you find patterns.

  How you fit them is religion. (Or, Witchcraft....or anything else).

  Rituals appeal to a certain personality type. (Verging on the obsessive.)

  Rituals that purport to grant power fill a need. (Especially when you are powerless.)

  It would be statistically impossible for a ritual to NEVER work!

  Try this experiment.

  Take 100 pennies and shake them up really well in your hands.

  Now, you are going to take a sheet of paper and write either HEADS or TAILS on it. (Let's say "Tails")

  Next, make up a really silly ritual such as rubbing an egg on your crotch and belching three times while saying aloud: TAILS, TAILS, TAILS.....

  Then, Throw the pennies all at once on the carpet.

  Now count the number of heads and the number of tails.

  Why?

  Because, the number of TAILS you get is statistically how many times the ritual you just performed REALLY WORKS!

  40 Tails is 40% success.

  Not bad, eh?

  You see, you can make any damned stupid nonsensical rattle-brained activity meaningful when you attach it to a repetition and a desired outcome.

  40% ain't bad.
• 

  MsMcDucket

  Baseball Magic (Interesting read on rituals)

  http://www.wcc.hawaii.edu/facstaff/dagrossa-p/articles/BaseballMagic.pdf
• 

  daystar

  From the Principia Discordia:

  GREATER POOP: Is Eris true?

  MALACLYPSE THE YOUNGER: Everything is true.

  GP: Even false things?

  M2: Even false things are true.

  GP: How can that be?

  M2: I don't know man, I didn't do it.
• 

  Terry

  daystar:

  From the Principia Discordia:

  GREATER POOP: Is Eris true?

  MALACLYPSE THE YOUNGER: Everything is true.

  GP: Even false things?

  M2: Even false things are true.

  GP: How can that be?

  M2: I don't know man, I didn't do it.

  Thanks for posting that. It reminds me of something.

  Aristotle, bless him, gave the West logic. His Law of the Excluded Middle especially. This says that something either IS or it IS NOT. It cannot be BOTH.

  The East never had Aristotle. They developed without logic.

  The result is interesting on a lot of levels.

  The WEST developed Science and with Science; technology, advancement and prosperity.

  The EAST did not. They developed RELIGIONs which kept them in a kind of "enlightened" poverty.

  When the WEST embraces religion it tosses Aristotle out the window.

  Most ridiculous rituals are very non-Aristotelian. But, very compatible with EASTERN non-logic.