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.