Magick for materialists

[ciphergoth]

(This is something purplerabbits and myself have thought for a long time, and I just got to writing up in an LJ comment. Copying it here with minor edits 'cos I'm interested to know what people think.)

I think I'm generally acknowledged to be a total screaming materialist and skeptic about magick, superstition, gods and so forth, and as such I'm not sure I see a reason why you shouldn't do a ritual to change the way you feel about something, if you think it might work.

It's not necessarily a step in the question of believing in all that - it's a willing suspension of disbelief, in order to do things to your head from a sideways angle that aren't always easy to do head-on. Our heads are full of irrational things, some of them undesirable, and you can't always make them stop doing their nasty work by saying "stop that, it's irrational!". You can use ritual and suspension of disbelief to turn them into something you can visualise, something tangible, and you can address them on their own territory.

The liberating thing about this, of course, is that you needn't invoke Innana, or Ganesh, if you don't want to - if it will work better, you can invoke John Lennon or Santa Claus.

When Alison and I decided to stop dithering and commit to running BiCon 2002, we did a ritual to mark the occasion - she found two blue smarties and two red ones, and we solemnly ate the red pills together...

Comments

Honest question

[adjectivemarcus.livejournal.com]

I despise obfuscation on such matters I quite agree.

But if one removes the obfuscation completely, one is left with a ritual that can often be simplified and pared down to, finally, muttering "Tsch, I'd better just get on with it then."

At some point in tha decline the event becomes non-magickal, but where..?

Re: Honest question

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

I don't think there's any contradiction.

While doing the ritual, you can be as obscure as you like - willing suspension of disbelief and all that.

While talking about your beliefs down the pub, you'd better speak clearly and straightforwardly if you want me to take you at all seriously...

Re: Honest question

[ruis.livejournal.com]

This is a discussion that should be held over a pint.

Firstly it depends which ritulistic or magical belief system you chose to adhere to and how you define magic and ritual in accordance with that system.

Some groups see a difference between 'high' and low magic. If you define magic as an act of will then any act of will that produces a result can be viewed as magic. Low magic is where you act physically, eg. you want light so you turn on the light switch. High magic would be causing it to be light through will alone without doing something as mundane as using a switch. So in this system any act of will is performing magic.

Ritual can be thought of being a way of harnessing your will to achieve the desired effect. In some cases it can be a practical act, I have a 'ritual' of giving the cats nice food when I am stressed and need things to go right; which has worked every time. Ok so I get happy purring cats to stroke which calms me and lets me deal with whatever is stressing me but they tell me its to do with mystical kitten energy and I need to feed them more often for the best effect.

In my view people who use meditation and affirmations are performing rituals to affect themselves.

I don't feel that it matters whether a ritual works because of magic or not. The fact that something works is all that really matters on a personal level.