How Not To Do Magic: The Saga Continues

[ecosophia]

Two more tales from the ongoing story of the anti-Trump magicians...

1) On October 20, a Wiccan bookstore in Brooklyn will be hosting a hex party aimed at the newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh. Tickets (already sold out) are $10 a head. Kavanaugh, according to the organizers, will be "the focal point, but by no means the only target, so bring your rage and all the axes you've got to grind."

I suppose that's one way to guarantee a successful fundraiser at a time when rage has become the most fashionable addictive drug, and it's also a good example of the particular return of the repressed I talked about last year on the blog; now that hate has become subject to the same kind of taboos that Victorians applied to sex, people are frantically looking around for excuses to hate and still feel good about themselves. Donald Trump has thus come to occupy a vitally necessary role in the emotional lives of a great many Americans, and events like the bookstore hex party play exactly the same role in today's culture that weekend spouse-swapping parties played in the 1950s. (We're still a few years out from people marching down the street chanting, "Say it now and say it loud, I hate and I'm proud.") 

In terms of magical efficacy, though, Justice Kavanaugh can sleep easy in his bed. Successful magic requires focus; if the 60 attendees at the hex party all bring everything that makes them angry and cast a group spell intended to curse everything on everybody's laundry list of hatreds, each target will get considerably less than 1/60th of a curse -- little enough that any residual effect will be drowned out by the ordinary workings of randomness. Mind you, the participants will doubtless go home smiling and relaxed, and I suspect that's the actual point of it all. 

2) On a considerably more serious plane, Celtic Pagan Morpheus Ravenna has been talking some practical common sense to the anti-Trump magical scene, pointing out that hostile magic is difficult and dangerous stuff that should probably be left to people who know what they're doing, that spiritual hygiene and protection are crucial in that sort of work, and -- most impressive of all -- that Trump is a symptom of a broader problem and those who hate him need to deal with their own contributions to that broader problem. These are excellent points; we're looking at a far more competent and knowledgeable occultist than the ones I've discussed in earlier posts on this theme. 

The problem with Ravenna's work is subtler, though no less lethal. She's smart enough not to give the details of her own working -- another mark in her favor -- but discusses the general focus of it, which is to try to use Trump's oath of office as the basis for a curse, in the belief that he's broken it and is therefore vulnerable. That's potentially a very clever move, except for one thing: Trump hasn't broken his oath of office. 

Here's the oath of office of the President of the United States: 

""I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

That's all. So far, Trump has carried out his duties as President, as specified by the Constitution, and none of his actions have violated the specific terms of the Constitution. Please remember here that the Constitution is a legal document setting out how the US government is to be run and, as amended, giving the citizens of the United States specific rights relative to the government. Nowhere does it contain a clause saying "The Democratic Party always gets its way," or allowing people to insist that additional rights must be enforced even though they're not enumerated in the Constitution. 

The difficulty Ravenna faces here is that the Celtic magical traditions in which she works have very specific warnings about what happens if you curse someone who doesn't deserve it. What happens is that you get whatever you're trying to send to the other person. Since Trump hasn't committed the offense she insists he has, she's in line for a whale of a backlash. 

There's a great scene at the beginning of Bruce Lee's film Enter the Dragon where he's teaching a student how to fight, and he makes a point about the difference between emotional energy and anger. Emotional energy is an important source of magical power, but if you're too deeply mired in an emotional state to think clearly, you probably need to set aside your magical tools until you've calmed down. That's true of any strong emotion, but it's especially true of anger -- and at a time when a great many people on all sides of the political spectrum are basically rage junkies these days, that's worth keeping in mind. 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I find it interesting that Trump has become the lightning rod of so much lazy hate, and that his removal is the silver bullet cure we've all been looking for. Guys a New York huckster who is as shady as you like, but only difference between him and the last lot is his blatantness which is somewhat refreshing. It's way beyond ironic that if for whatever reason he was removed, Pence would be tenfold worse.

Fwiw, the US is not unique in it's levels of hate. Where I live the only difference is that it is directed internally at the self, rather than externally with the caveat of the US being the cause of every wrong in existence, while our own set of clowns do exactly the same bs, albeit on a smaller scale.

[ecosophia]

It's reassuring to know that we're not uniquely hateful here. Thank you.

[(Anonymous)]

And where do you live exactly?