That Ol' Black Magic

Well, it's over.

After work yesterday I went over to CDHSarah's, not really sure of the plan for the evening. The poor Artist had done 3 doubles in 3 days and was hardly conscious once he got home, and it didn't help when LokiKP came up with a semi-smelly tale about having tripped the alarm and frozen the starter on his Jeep. (Since my mom's loaded 2003 Town Car doesn't even use that feature, none of us are really sure about that.) After some stern talk from StarFucksGod, explaining the seriousness and that we couldn't just "fill him in later" on the meeting, he found a ride.

Now, I was in a dither, because DesignSchoolHomie and her husband, and KoreaArmyBuddy and his wife, were at DSH's house, cooking turkey burgers and waiting for me. Those plans had been set long before last Wednesday ever came around, and I wasn't about to let the drama keep me from seeing them, since all of us have been working pretty much without respite since KoreaArmyBuddy came home -- not to mention that he'll deploy very soon, and then we won't get the chance. So, while we were waiting for LokiKabbalist and the Artist, I went over to DSH's place and ate a ridiculous amount of turkey and roasted potatoes.

DSH also gave me an awesome present...a hammer! (It's one of the householdy things I don't have and always need.) I immediately christened it the Malleus Maleficarum.

Once people were trickling in, I headed back to CDHSarah's place, WV 2.0 in hand. I knew I would need something to keep my eyes away from LokiKB and to keep me grounded and centered during the process.

We all gathered in the living room, kind of somber -- not too somber to note that I really like what the Artist has done to his beard, however. :)

CDHSarah started, then StarFucksGod, then the Artist, then myself. Each of us shared our concerns -- the black magic, the constant talk of violence and retribution, the paranoia, the way that ceremonial magic is taking him over, the black leanings of his original teacher and his stubborn refusal to move off that path, the intrusiveness on innocents -- everything that boiled down to "We don't think you need to practice any more, and that means you can't be in the group any more other. Oh, and also, you need psychiatric help." (And we don't like your sexism or the way you judge paths you know nothing about, either.) I spent the entire time smoothing the surface of WV 2.0. She looks beautiful.

He sputtered. He told us we were bullshitters to even dare to claim that he was practicing black magic -- that stopped quick when we quoted the Aleister Crowley definition back in his face. When he conceded any point, he feigned helplessness as to how to stop it. He claimed he couldn't afford a doctor (he has health insurance and is a college student, which means that was a double lie). He claimed. He babbled. He thanked us really insincerely for our concern, then spent thirty minutes easy trying to get us to say we wouldn't do any workings against us, claiming he hadn't done anything against us (blatant lie, that, as he was raising power around himself quite consciously while sitting in the room). Eventually, once everyone had said what was to be said, the Artist volunteered to take LokiKB home, since he was dragging and had to do another double today (and, I believe, had things to say to LokiKB that didn't belong in the group).

CDHSarah and her husband and I were kind of shell-shocked when it was all over, and not a little freaked out, especially since LokiKB had pulled the "I'm not going to do anything to you, so don't do anything to me....right? Right? Because that would be black magic..."

Protective spells abounded, although I won't reveal details here. Instead, let's talk about black magic, what it really is, and how you protect yourself from it.

Black magic is the magic you do solely to benefit yourself, solely to assuage your ego or satisfy your desires, without regard or care for the potential effects on others. Intent informs the "color" of magic, purely speaking -- you can do the right spell for the wrong reason and be practicing black magic. It's complicated and requires a serious introspection on ethics, but here's an example.

I have ongoing permission to visit the Artist during spirit journeying, and vice versa. This is based on our knowledge of one another (and respect of one another's boundaries.) But I will still usually ask, if I get a chance, when I intend to go looking for him while pathwalking, and especially if it's for a specific purpose such as healing. (Sometimes I just show up where he is, a result of the psychic bond, but as I have a standing permission, the "door" is usually open to me. Sometimes it isn't, and that's one "door" I'll never try to force, as that means he has some kind of psychic shielding up for reasons that may not have been made aware to me.) Because I have permission, that action shades from white (done for others, as when I borrow his energy and thus some of his Charismatic ability to lay on hands) to gray, which is the in-between where most magic falls (as well as most ethics in the physical world). It's not black to heal yourself, or to help yourself, as long as it is also done with respect for the greater good and with the Chao (universal will) placed first in your estimation. (One never does a spell "to bring wealth", for instance, without placing conditions on it -- think back to all the fairy tales about too-general wishes and their disastrous consequences -- because you could, however inadvertently, kill your Uncle Fred because there was a bequest in his will that exactly matched your need.)

LokiKB told us last week that he "decided" he "wanted to see what was going on" with a girl he had been interested in, and got a nasty reaction when he "went looking" for her (pathwalking). It's wrong to do that to someone who does not practice. It's wrong to do that to someone without their permission. He tried to slough it off as "but I just wanted to see if she was OK." That serves only his ego, and is done without permission, which makes it black, and disgusting and stalkerish -- people who don't practice are usually almost entirely undefended in their sleep, because they don't believe in or don't know how to set up guards around their psyches while their spirits are elsewhere and minds are relaxed. Even thinking about that makes me shudder. Ugh.

Irina asked how one defends oneself from black magic, or how one protects oneself in general. CDHSarah gave a general outline. Basically it all has to do with intent, again. One can cast a circle of protection, do a visualization of a wall or tree, create an amulet, paint a protective symbol on hand or forehead, bind the person doing the threatening from doing harm, bind oneself from harm....there are a million and one ways to focus that idea. My home is protected in many ways from unwanted influences...I have a ba-gua mirror (the red and green mirrors bordered with the 8 trigrams of the I Ching) with bells on the front door, which serves the dual purpose of alerting me to people entering and leaving, and reflecting bad energy back as well. The bells dispel negativity. Also, there is a red tassel hanging on the outside of the door; if evil tries to enter, supposedly the tassel confuses it. (All this is feng shui based.)

Over the door, inside, there is a Green Man, the nature guardian, who watches over the cats when I am not there. And soon there will be a fiery Cernunnos (now that I have a Malleus Maleficarum to put him up with) on the bathroom door, which is on a line with the front door, to frighten anything that might make it past the ba-gua, the bells, the Green Man, and three cats who are reasonably psychically aware. And I sleep next to my altar, although I'm about to change that arrangement once it warms up a little, and then I will put protective wards on my bed. There's a small altar next to my computer, also, featuring St. Isidore (patron saint of the Internet) and the child-Ganesh. When I start working from home that one will get better. These serve as foci to create the idea of safety, the intent of it, which in the end (when combined with locked doors, as I'm not so hippy-dippy as all that) is what is really required to protect yourself -- the belief that you can, tempered with the intuition that tells you when you are not safe and need to add a layer of protection.

I'm just rambling now, and I'm sure CDHSarah has plenty to add to this. But we are all safe, for now, and WV 2.0 has not been sat upon as far as I know, and all (for now) is well. And tomorrow is Beltane! Happy!