Magic and You.

I have a big post coming, but it's not quite ready yet, so we're keeping it quick and snarky this week. I touched upon "fluffy bunny" magic practitioners in my last post, so I thought I'd make a few statements about what I think about magic and people who engage in it for the right and wrong reasons.

Here are some right reasons:

Magic has presented itself to you in one way or another on a number of occasions. You feel called or invited to practice it. You put thought and research into this, and you know how to take what works and leave what doesn't, which does NOT equal "what I like and what I don't like", and you know the difference.

You make a cool and deliberate choice to practice magic because you want to. You do it in a thoughtful, responsible manner.

Here are an assortment of wrong reasons:

All the cool kids are doing it. (And if all the cool kids jumped off a mountain, would you? Ciao, lemming!)

You want to rebel. (Get over yourself.)

You are pretending to rebel in order to fit in. (That's really sad. Here, have a hug. *hug*)

You want to feel special. (You ARE special. We all are. Or we all aren't. Either way, it's okay.)

You REALLY want to feel OMGSOVERYSPECIAL. (No, really, I mean it.)

You want to be eeeeeville and make lots of money at the expense of others. (Go work in finance, asshole.)

You want to be evil because the universe is a RIP and you want REVENGE! (You need a hug. *hug*)

You want to be evil just because. (Get over yourself.)

(Note: "Evil" often equals "even more maladjusted wanting to be special".)

You read some book and OMGITWASSOPERFECTANDIWILLNOWDOEVERYTHINGITSAYS. (Use your brain, please!)

On a more serious note, if you really, deep down, believe that the practice of magic is wrong or (as we prefer accepting types around here) at least wrong for you, you really shouldn't practice it. Sometimes, even if we want to change how we feel about something, we can't, at least at the speed we might want. The bad vibe will mess up everything you do. Keep working on getting past it, or find the path that's right for you.

Conclusion:

The practice of magic is best reserved for emotionally mature and reasonably (we all have issues, people) well-adjusted individuals, who make a calm, reasonable choice to pursue something that is important to them in a realistic, responsible way. The end.