True enough...as I use and perceive it.
I went for a walk and was thinking of some analogous practices that are used to focus ones mind and teach self control.
On the positive end is the meditation practices along the lines of Buddhism. I'm not sure why I can view meditation with more respect-- I don't classify it as "woo"-- than I do magick. Perhaps because I can understand how meditation might physiologically work as a calming, focusing, confidence-boosting technique and I don't quite see how magick works, besides as a placebo sort of effect.
The less flattering comparison that came to mind were various superstitious beliefs and practices, things like 7 years bad luck for breaking a mirror, or wearing "lucky" socks every game to boost your ability.
We have a tendency to believe these sorts of things because we're not very good at distinguishing between simple correlation and actual causation.
Additionally, which is even more apt to the comparison to magick, there is self-fullfilling prophecy and confirmation bias. If you think that the 13th floor is bad luck, maybe you'll sleep poorly in your hotel room simply because you expect to. And then you'll attribute it to the fact that you were on the 13th floor, rather than the more probable cause that you had been stressing about it. Or maybe you hadn't really believed it about 13th floors until you got food poisoning that night in that hotel, and you start to think maybe there is something to that 13th floor thing.
Do you think these may be the case with magick? And if so, does it really matter to you, since it is still ultimately effective at doing what you want it to accomplish in your life?
However, there ARE people who do magick who genuinely believe they can shift weather patterns and do things that most of us "just know" people can't do.
My husband says he once observed some weatherworkers doing whatever they do on a storm that was coming right at the campground where people had gathered for feasting and workshops. The stormfront split and sent dark clouds neatly around both sides of the site. Subsequent reports indicated that there had been heavy rain around the campground but only light rain at its edges.
Now, maybe that was a natural fluke, but he said it seemed to occur in direct response to the ritual workings done by these people. He couldn't conceive of any other cause for the storm to divide as if split by a wedge not far from the campground.
A thirdhand story, so make of it what you will.
Cool story! Though, of course, I find it much more likely that it was a fortuitous coincidence rather than something brought about by human actions.
I have my own story. When I was 14, I accidentally left my Bible at a campground in Florida. I loved that Bible; it had been my mother's before me, and had all my notes and highlighted passages in it. That night, we experienced a couple of those brief, drenching torrential downpours that burst into existence during Florida summers. I prayed and prayed and prayed that my Bible would not be destroyed, before I could rescue it the next day. The next morning, I go to find it. It is sitting right where I left it. The ground around it is all wet to the touch, and you can still see the raindrops on the blades of grass. But my Bible is bone dry. There is not a sign of dampness on its pages.
At the time, of course, I thought God had heard my prayers. He had performed a miracle and protected His Word. There was no other explanation.
But maybe it was magick. Maybe it was a miracle but my prayers had nothing to do with it. Or maybe it was positioned just right under a tree, and the leaves and it's leather binding protected it.
The beliefs we currently hold, or are predisposed to, are what's going to determine which explanation we assign to uncommon or coincidental events. :yes:
