Comments on: Reply to Zen Werewolf’s “deconstructing magickal paradigms”

By: zenwerewolf

zenwerewolf — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 23:58:03 +0000

I don’t think what I’m trying to say is that its a stumbling block, but that I’m trying to approach this from an entirely different paradigm

I promise I’ll elucidate my (practically applied) theories soon

By: Fell

Fell — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 01:22:56 +0000

According to Dr Joseph C. Lisiewski, in his Ceremonial Magic & the Power of Evocation, the rituals involved aren’t just of human intent/origin. There are more forces at work in ceremonial magic than just the user, thus there must be an architecture utilized that spans more than one dimension of perception. These systems of symbolism are just that.

I remember when I get into it all, too, and my thoughts were essentially: wtf. But over time, and studying myth and symbolism and et cetera, I found that this can be a language used to transcend borders. This is my guess as to how much of the ceremonial magic that we use nowadays came about.

By: JohnFen

JohnFen — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 02:21:51 +0000

“they become so fixated with the symbolism that they forget what they?re doing in the first place”

Indeed… this is a classic and common trap of all symbol-working, not just the religious-flavored ones. Map & territory are easily confused.

Personally, I dislike religiously-oriented symbology in this context, but primarily for aesthetic reasons. Any symbology that you resonate with can be effective, though, religious or not. Heck, you can even use modern pop-culture symbolism incorporating the symbols of television, movies, and rock music. In fact, I’d bet that for a subbstantial percentage of people, this would be an extremely effective strategy.