Ninety percent of everything you’ll ever read or hear about magic is total bullshit. Only about ten percent of magic is stuff that might actually work.
Of the ten percent of magic that might actually work, ninety percent of that isn’t really supernatural at all. At least ninety percent of practical magic is made up of stuff that could easily be explained by logic, science or common sense – but which is not widely known only because it is unpleasant or taboo.
Occult and esoteric both mean “secret” or “hidden”. Remember that.
Of the ten percent of magic that might actually work, only about ten percent of that (about one percent of all occult knowledge) is actually made up of the genuinely very strange and inexplicable.
There are things about the universe that we don’t know and there do seem to be forces that we can’t explain. Anybody who tries to tell you that they’ve never experienced anything genuinely spooky is either lying or has an extremely closed mind.
On the other hand, anybody that tries to tell you that they can explain the unexplainable is generally full of shit and should be treated with extreme caution. This is where the ninety percent bullshit in magic (and religion) comes from. It’s a combination of outright fraud, willful self deception and half assed attempts to explain and control things that nobody really understands – yet.
A real magician, like a real philosopher, knows what he doesn’t know and isn’t afraid to admit it.
I’ve been dressing up in silly costumes for over 15 years.
I have six different magickal names, one for each occult scene that I move in.
I talk like I am the master of the universe, even though I’m obviously the most insecure person you’ve ever met.
I tell everyone what a wonderful martial artist/mountain climber/pro wrestler/poet/shaman/mystic/etc I am…without the slightest evidence for any of my claims.
I try to stop other people in my various occult scenes from doing anything cool (or even anything at all), just in case they should outshine me.
I blame everyone else’s problems on their personalities, but my flaws are justified responses to evil “magickal attacks.”
Yes. You guessed it.
I am the 90%.
hahaha!
Hmm.
I think there’s an in-between, where we say not, “This is how it is” but “This is what I believe.” or “This is how I interpret my experiences.” or “This is my working model.”
I’m more of a mystic than a magician, but I do strive for precision. At the same time, to not make any attempt to model and interpret what is ultimately unprovable and thus not definitively knowable is to risk losing memory of the direct experiences themselves.
Interpretation is necessary for any kind of progress, even if the interpretation spends a lot of time being wrong on the way to something useful.
I’m not going to condemn people for needing those interpretations to function. I’m just going to pay attention to *how* they cite what they know when it’s ultimately unknowable, and take that into account as I go.
–Ember–