Erik Amundsen's Blog, page 80
January 6, 2011
The Grimoire Day 17
Getting this out of the way early. First of all, two news items, one related to last night's post, which isdepressing about bumblebees. Then there is also news of the plight of Romanian witches, for whom I have some sympathy, but given that, if I made more than hobby income (or, in fact 0 income) doing this, I would expect to have it taxed as well, not *that much* sympathy. Also, the second article on the witches has this comment which is made up of pure internets gold.
Spookyland
If they tax witches, it proves that their craft is effective, so this is a government endorsement of the supernatural. Awesome.
On the other hand, paying taxes is a darn sight better than getting thrown into the caschielawis, so it sounds like these modern witches have smaller problems than their predecessors.
If you can't build a bridge out of her, you shouldn't tax her.
#6 • 2:28 PM, Jan 5 • Reply peterbruells in reply to Spookyland
I don't see how this follows. After all, they tax homeopaths and TSA employees, too.
Gold.
Also, there is discussion of wearing the color purple, which sounds kind of cool, and related to something that Kate learned in Tai Chi about looking at red (essentially, they had two people play push hands while one person wore a red t shirt and the other wore blue, and the person who wore the red one usually won, even in really mismatched bouts, because looking at red is not good for the confidence... I'm not really explaining this well; I think the point is that when you are putting a great deal of dynamic effort into something, even factors that seem totally unrelated can make a lot of difference. Also. Wear red when you're fighting.)
So in honor of today's witchy news:
Okay, so time to let the cat out of the bag in really explicit terms:
Magic consists of three steps. They are all very simple steps, but they all require some practice, and the fact that the first and the last steps are really fucking hard is what makes the second step necessary. So think of this as the Justin Timberlake's Dick-in-a-Box school of magic:
1) Decide what you want to happen.
2) Figure out what you need to do in order to make yourself believe that this thing will happen and do it.
3) Make th thing happen.
Most people usually concentrate on 2 when they talk about magic, because that's when the collecting of odd things and amateur theater comes in (and make no mistake, that's what it's going to look like to anyone watching. You need to get comfortable with the fact that some people are going to think you're a silly bastard just because you do these things), but the second only really exists as a bridge between 1 and 3, and the more you can skip that second step, the better off you probably are, unless, of course, you like doing the second step as a hobby, or to remind yourself what you're attempting. The trick is no trick and the goal is to not need this stuff. But magic is more reliable than the force of will of even a strong willed person (which is not talking magic up at all, trust me. Will, on it's own, is pretty much a sham.) and it's fun.
Case in point, I will be visualizing myself surrounded by purple fire all day and see what I can accomplish and how I feel by the end, and I'll let you know.
Spookyland
If they tax witches, it proves that their craft is effective, so this is a government endorsement of the supernatural. Awesome.
On the other hand, paying taxes is a darn sight better than getting thrown into the caschielawis, so it sounds like these modern witches have smaller problems than their predecessors.
If you can't build a bridge out of her, you shouldn't tax her.
#6 • 2:28 PM, Jan 5 • Reply peterbruells in reply to Spookyland
I don't see how this follows. After all, they tax homeopaths and TSA employees, too.
Gold.
Also, there is discussion of wearing the color purple, which sounds kind of cool, and related to something that Kate learned in Tai Chi about looking at red (essentially, they had two people play push hands while one person wore a red t shirt and the other wore blue, and the person who wore the red one usually won, even in really mismatched bouts, because looking at red is not good for the confidence... I'm not really explaining this well; I think the point is that when you are putting a great deal of dynamic effort into something, even factors that seem totally unrelated can make a lot of difference. Also. Wear red when you're fighting.)
So in honor of today's witchy news:
Okay, so time to let the cat out of the bag in really explicit terms:
Magic consists of three steps. They are all very simple steps, but they all require some practice, and the fact that the first and the last steps are really fucking hard is what makes the second step necessary. So think of this as the Justin Timberlake's Dick-in-a-Box school of magic:
1) Decide what you want to happen.
2) Figure out what you need to do in order to make yourself believe that this thing will happen and do it.
3) Make th thing happen.
Most people usually concentrate on 2 when they talk about magic, because that's when the collecting of odd things and amateur theater comes in (and make no mistake, that's what it's going to look like to anyone watching. You need to get comfortable with the fact that some people are going to think you're a silly bastard just because you do these things), but the second only really exists as a bridge between 1 and 3, and the more you can skip that second step, the better off you probably are, unless, of course, you like doing the second step as a hobby, or to remind yourself what you're attempting. The trick is no trick and the goal is to not need this stuff. But magic is more reliable than the force of will of even a strong willed person (which is not talking magic up at all, trust me. Will, on it's own, is pretty much a sham.) and it's fun.
Case in point, I will be visualizing myself surrounded by purple fire all day and see what I can accomplish and how I feel by the end, and I'll let you know.
Erik is Bad at Planning, the Plea:
Um, anyone willing to put me up for Friday and/or Saturday for Arisia?
The Grimoire Day 16
In which I talk about more shit about which I know next to nothing.
In this case, magic animals.
Day 16
I'm not being flippant. Okay, I am, but just a little. The idea here, again, depends on your level of involvement. On a level that I don't operate where anyone can see me (and I won't tell you how often I've operated on that level in the past or if it is ongoing), the idea is that there are spirits that are animals, have animal forms, appear in animal forms (the distinction is important, it's like the difference between Zeus turning into a bull or a swan or something and Bast being a deity of cats, and that is violently over-simplified) that will invest their attentions in you or help you with work when you ask, or it suits their purposes.
On a different level, there is the idea that an animal observed has mental and emotional connections, psychic connections, if you will, to human qualities and behaviors. Big cats do certainly look pretty confident, don't they? Imagining yourself as one, or having the aspects of one, that might help you in a tight spot.
Whichever way you go where spirit animals are involved, when you bring them to mind, they can definitely be quite helpful when you work. Imagine an animal whose characteristics match something that you want to accomplish, and it will put your will in the right place.
Now there is a chance that a person who is interested in using animal imagery in their work is wondering if they have an animal that is particular to them. Some animal to whom they have a really strong affinity. That would not be me; in thinking about this post, I thought of all the animals that are significant to me personally, and whose qualities I've drawn into myself or into something I've done, and the list was pretty long. It was also pretty much all the animals I am likely to see often, less opossums, seagulls and ducks.
For me, it's rabbits more than anything, but that's mostly because I was born in a Rabbit year. Also, I think they look cool, and they run pretty fast, so I think of them as connected to my running.
Though, over time, squirrels have sort of replaced rabbits in that aspect, since I tend to see them often when I run, and I think of them as my friends. It's the endorphins talking, but frankly, the only part of magic that's ever going to be quantifiable and falsifiable is the parts where you trick your brain into helping you do something, so I run with it. The rest of it is what you want to believe, and is unquantifiable and unfalsifiable, and personal. You don't have to defend it, or even share it if you don't want to.
You might be different. You might have an animal to which you feel a very strong personal affinity. If that's the case, you want to know how to find out what it is?
Trick question. You already know. Yes, I know that means if I am right, there are like 7 cat people and 8 dog people for every wolf person out there (largely regarded as one of the most popular animals to have a really strong affinity for [and, in some circles a cause for derision], and I don't blame you, they are cool and smart and social and badly misunderstood for thousands of years). But yeah, that's about it. If you have a really strong affinity for an animal, you had it before you started here. If you didn't and you don't, trust me, I felt left out, too, but that's not how I roll, and I've sort of accepted that. That's not to say you won't develop a really strong affinity for a particular animal archetype that will go on to help and guide you in every working, but if it doesn't, it doesn't.
Okay, now we've gone as far as we can without talking about something I wanted to hold off on. Given that I live in North America with my hirsute, long nosed, blue eyed, pasty Nordic appellated self where it has been, at times very popular for co-chromatic residents of this continent to make a salad bar of the religions of the people we killed in order to live here and whose descendants we continue to be abominable to, there is something that needs be addressed:
If you want to use animals in your work, do it. Make it up as you go and never play it off as something that you did not do yourself in order to grab for witchy street cred. Let your actions speak for you, and if people turn their nose up and what you do under your own steam, fuck 'em.
If you want to use animals, or anything else the way someone else used them in history, ask yourself this: did three of my grandparents do this? If they did, awesome, you don't need any permission from the likes of me. If no, then there's still a chance for you to do it too, but, look at it this way, if you want to do a certain work a certain way very badly, then you want to learn all you can about it. Everything you can find, carefully, as many primary sources as you can find, as many real practitioners as you can find. May take years. Probably should take years. And if, after that, you feel that you can, I'm not in any position to judge you. If you notice a couple paragraphs up, I stole my affinity for rabbits off of someone else's zodiac, in fits-on-a-placemat form. So, yeah, I'm asking you to be better than me. I wouldn't ask you to do anything I don't ask of myself, so don't worry about that.
And yes, we will talk about this more, very soon.
Bonus Thing I Use in Magic:
Bees. At the end of the summer, I can usually find the remains of a bee or two that has worked itself to death. I love bees. I kind of treasure them. When I make things, sometimes, I will use those remains (dried out in the car - the greatest place on earth to dry out anything on a sunny day) in the working, because it's something that I love.
In this case, magic animals.
Day 16
I'm not being flippant. Okay, I am, but just a little. The idea here, again, depends on your level of involvement. On a level that I don't operate where anyone can see me (and I won't tell you how often I've operated on that level in the past or if it is ongoing), the idea is that there are spirits that are animals, have animal forms, appear in animal forms (the distinction is important, it's like the difference between Zeus turning into a bull or a swan or something and Bast being a deity of cats, and that is violently over-simplified) that will invest their attentions in you or help you with work when you ask, or it suits their purposes.
On a different level, there is the idea that an animal observed has mental and emotional connections, psychic connections, if you will, to human qualities and behaviors. Big cats do certainly look pretty confident, don't they? Imagining yourself as one, or having the aspects of one, that might help you in a tight spot.
Whichever way you go where spirit animals are involved, when you bring them to mind, they can definitely be quite helpful when you work. Imagine an animal whose characteristics match something that you want to accomplish, and it will put your will in the right place.
Now there is a chance that a person who is interested in using animal imagery in their work is wondering if they have an animal that is particular to them. Some animal to whom they have a really strong affinity. That would not be me; in thinking about this post, I thought of all the animals that are significant to me personally, and whose qualities I've drawn into myself or into something I've done, and the list was pretty long. It was also pretty much all the animals I am likely to see often, less opossums, seagulls and ducks.
For me, it's rabbits more than anything, but that's mostly because I was born in a Rabbit year. Also, I think they look cool, and they run pretty fast, so I think of them as connected to my running.
Though, over time, squirrels have sort of replaced rabbits in that aspect, since I tend to see them often when I run, and I think of them as my friends. It's the endorphins talking, but frankly, the only part of magic that's ever going to be quantifiable and falsifiable is the parts where you trick your brain into helping you do something, so I run with it. The rest of it is what you want to believe, and is unquantifiable and unfalsifiable, and personal. You don't have to defend it, or even share it if you don't want to.
You might be different. You might have an animal to which you feel a very strong personal affinity. If that's the case, you want to know how to find out what it is?
Trick question. You already know. Yes, I know that means if I am right, there are like 7 cat people and 8 dog people for every wolf person out there (largely regarded as one of the most popular animals to have a really strong affinity for [and, in some circles a cause for derision], and I don't blame you, they are cool and smart and social and badly misunderstood for thousands of years). But yeah, that's about it. If you have a really strong affinity for an animal, you had it before you started here. If you didn't and you don't, trust me, I felt left out, too, but that's not how I roll, and I've sort of accepted that. That's not to say you won't develop a really strong affinity for a particular animal archetype that will go on to help and guide you in every working, but if it doesn't, it doesn't.
Okay, now we've gone as far as we can without talking about something I wanted to hold off on. Given that I live in North America with my hirsute, long nosed, blue eyed, pasty Nordic appellated self where it has been, at times very popular for co-chromatic residents of this continent to make a salad bar of the religions of the people we killed in order to live here and whose descendants we continue to be abominable to, there is something that needs be addressed:
If you want to use animals in your work, do it. Make it up as you go and never play it off as something that you did not do yourself in order to grab for witchy street cred. Let your actions speak for you, and if people turn their nose up and what you do under your own steam, fuck 'em.
If you want to use animals, or anything else the way someone else used them in history, ask yourself this: did three of my grandparents do this? If they did, awesome, you don't need any permission from the likes of me. If no, then there's still a chance for you to do it too, but, look at it this way, if you want to do a certain work a certain way very badly, then you want to learn all you can about it. Everything you can find, carefully, as many primary sources as you can find, as many real practitioners as you can find. May take years. Probably should take years. And if, after that, you feel that you can, I'm not in any position to judge you. If you notice a couple paragraphs up, I stole my affinity for rabbits off of someone else's zodiac, in fits-on-a-placemat form. So, yeah, I'm asking you to be better than me. I wouldn't ask you to do anything I don't ask of myself, so don't worry about that.
And yes, we will talk about this more, very soon.
Bonus Thing I Use in Magic:
Bees. At the end of the summer, I can usually find the remains of a bee or two that has worked itself to death. I love bees. I kind of treasure them. When I make things, sometimes, I will use those remains (dried out in the car - the greatest place on earth to dry out anything on a sunny day) in the working, because it's something that I love.
January 5, 2011
Erik is Bad at Planning: Take 2
Arisia Schedule Boogaloo:
1036 Reading - Amundsen & Berman Hale Writing Fri 11:00 PM Duration: 01:15
Authors Erik Amundsen and Steve Berman read selections from their works.
103 Idols with Feet of Clay Carlton Literature Sat 11:00 AM Duration: 01:15
The late James P. Hogan was a Holocaust denier; Orson Scott Card is a well-known homophobe, and Harlan Ellison is infamous. Is it okay to like the works when you hate the person behind them, or should principles override a good read? What obligation does the author have (if any) to keep their personal views in check in their stories or in public? Can you still read the works of someone with whom you are on opposite sides politically? If not, why?
210 Fantastic Elements That Shouldn't Be Explained Burroughs Literature Sat 6:30 PM Duration: 01:15
Modern readers demand internal consistency, even in their fantasy. Without this, it sometimes feels as if the author is cheating. But magic is not, and should not be, science. Midichlorians made more fans groan than smile knowingly. When should we be satisfied with "it's just magic"? And when is that just not going to cut it?
849 Myth and Folklore in Fantasy Hancock Literature Sat 8:00 PM Duration: 01:15
How do writers use myth in their stories? What are the most common myth cycles drawn from? How does yesterday's traditional folklore relate to today's urban legends? Why is the appeal of these stories so strong, even after millennia?
Need participants with good folkloric knowledge.
850 Retelling Fairytales Revere Literature Sun 2:00 PM Duration: 01:15
Folk and fairytales offer some of the richest sources for story telling. How have people adapted them into novels and films? What are great sources of these tales? Why do they resonate so with readers?
133 Tales from the Slush Pile Paine Writing Sun 3:30 PM Duration: 01:15
Our esteemed panelists describe the worst of the worst that have crossed their editorial desk. Panelists will also discuss ways aspiring authors can avoid being cast into the slush pile.
798 Table Top for the Experienced Young Gamer Fasttrack 1 Fast Track Sun 5:00 PM Duration: 02:45
Have you been playing table top games since you could read the dice? Come and share your skills with others!
That reading looks hella late. Other than that, all Saturday and Sunday, which is not so bad. Of course, it's NEXT FEKKING WEEKEND which is all kinds of bad.
SHIT
That explains why the interface was acting so weird. It hadn't actually deleted anything I deleted. SHITSHITSHIT. I apologize to all those whose email addresses I just accidentally flashed across the internets.
January 4, 2011
The Grimoire Day 15
Day 15
And another couple of things I use when I do stuff.
CT State Quarters - Because they have a big oak tree on the back (you can see the tree, or, at least you could in Ashford, where I used to live back in my college days - I think it is called the Ashford Oak, a contemporary of the Charter Oak which was the reason for the choice of picture). Seems a little weird, since finding actual oak trees in Connecticut is literally as easy as falling off a log (the log was probably from an oak tree), but there they are. I try to use them for significant purchases (or Thursday night Taco Bell). If I need to actually buy something as part of a Quest, I try to find at least one of those quarters to use as payment.
TV Glass Shard - Not a very pointy one or terribly sharp, but it is neat glass, and you can see cool reflections and refractions with it. This is one of my actual Tools (most of the tools I use are ad hoc, because that's how I roll). I hate to use the term athame (partly because I have never gotten a straight answer on how to pronounce it), but that's what it gets used for. To translate: you have a knife you can use in Neopagan traditions to metaphorically cut things - cut a metaphysical connection between two things, cut the area you are it from the rest of the surroundings so you can work undisturbed, hack through thorns and bindings if you're rolling in some otherworld, that sort of thing.
Actually a little more one tools - Again, if it pleases you to get or make sexy, specific tools, by all means. It's particularly good if you are starting out and you want to make sure your attention doesn't wander from the Task at Hand. Cups, Knives, Wands, Staves, Altar-things, Crystals, etc - there are a lot of tools that I picked up from Neopagan days, but the ones I kept were the glass shard (which I found behind the building where I work on a walk one day) and my broom - that because I only have the one. Cups I find useful, but whatever cup is handy works for me (which probably says some alarming things about me, if you look at it a certain way). Altar decorations are pretty, but they are decorations and your cats are going to wreck or lose them on you. Wands, to me, kind of look silly, and if you have a broom, you have a staff that has a useful thing on the end that lets you Clean All the Things.
And another couple of things I use when I do stuff.
CT State Quarters - Because they have a big oak tree on the back (you can see the tree, or, at least you could in Ashford, where I used to live back in my college days - I think it is called the Ashford Oak, a contemporary of the Charter Oak which was the reason for the choice of picture). Seems a little weird, since finding actual oak trees in Connecticut is literally as easy as falling off a log (the log was probably from an oak tree), but there they are. I try to use them for significant purchases (or Thursday night Taco Bell). If I need to actually buy something as part of a Quest, I try to find at least one of those quarters to use as payment.
TV Glass Shard - Not a very pointy one or terribly sharp, but it is neat glass, and you can see cool reflections and refractions with it. This is one of my actual Tools (most of the tools I use are ad hoc, because that's how I roll). I hate to use the term athame (partly because I have never gotten a straight answer on how to pronounce it), but that's what it gets used for. To translate: you have a knife you can use in Neopagan traditions to metaphorically cut things - cut a metaphysical connection between two things, cut the area you are it from the rest of the surroundings so you can work undisturbed, hack through thorns and bindings if you're rolling in some otherworld, that sort of thing.
Actually a little more one tools - Again, if it pleases you to get or make sexy, specific tools, by all means. It's particularly good if you are starting out and you want to make sure your attention doesn't wander from the Task at Hand. Cups, Knives, Wands, Staves, Altar-things, Crystals, etc - there are a lot of tools that I picked up from Neopagan days, but the ones I kept were the glass shard (which I found behind the building where I work on a walk one day) and my broom - that because I only have the one. Cups I find useful, but whatever cup is handy works for me (which probably says some alarming things about me, if you look at it a certain way). Altar decorations are pretty, but they are decorations and your cats are going to wreck or lose them on you. Wands, to me, kind of look silly, and if you have a broom, you have a staff that has a useful thing on the end that lets you Clean All the Things.
Run Blogging
Not a very good time or distance, but today marks the day that, one year ago, I tried running around the building. So go me.
The Grimoire Day 14
I have 14 minutes to post, so here goes.
Day 14
The basic tenets of kitchen witchcraft as I understand them are:
1) Use what's on hand. Market is always kind of far away.
2) Three ingredients and a notion of what you want it to taste like usually works for cooking, so to for magic workings.
3) Throw in what smells right, even if it doesn't feel right.
4) Use whoever is on hand. Make them hold stuff.
5) Let your recipe change to accommodate the realities in the kitchen, cause reality isn't very accommodating.
6) That fish sauce is never going to get any use. Why did you buy that? Did you think you were going to learn how to cook Thai because you bought fish sauce? Well, you haven't.
7) Seven or more ingredients is fine when you know ahead of time what you'll be doing, go simpler when you don't.
Day 14
The basic tenets of kitchen witchcraft as I understand them are:
1) Use what's on hand. Market is always kind of far away.
2) Three ingredients and a notion of what you want it to taste like usually works for cooking, so to for magic workings.
3) Throw in what smells right, even if it doesn't feel right.
4) Use whoever is on hand. Make them hold stuff.
5) Let your recipe change to accommodate the realities in the kitchen, cause reality isn't very accommodating.
6) That fish sauce is never going to get any use. Why did you buy that? Did you think you were going to learn how to cook Thai because you bought fish sauce? Well, you haven't.
7) Seven or more ingredients is fine when you know ahead of time what you'll be doing, go simpler when you don't.
January 3, 2011
Witching Will Have to Wait for the Witching Hour
But do not despair. I'll get something in today.
Run Blogging
In which our hero learns a Very Cold Lesson. Do not go out in just your shorts. They breathe too well to not put the thermals underneath.
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