Well, Isn't This Special

[ecosophia]

Over the last few hours, several people have forwarded this to me: 

Here's the text if you can't read it: 

"NOT for public sharing. Trusted comrades only.

"A Minneapolis comrade has planted a magic "antenna" which can be targeted for sending bad, bad winter storms to Minneapolis, because people who live there know how to Winter, but ICE agents from Florida and Texas and etc. very much do not, and do not have appropriate cold weather gear. 

"Let's show them whose team General Frost is on. If you're not sure what to do, the easiest thing is to print the picture our [sic] (black and white is okay), put a tea light on top, and chant "General Frost, freeze out ICE" over and over until you are too exhausted to do so. Let the candle burn complete [sic] out.

"Don't go rogue unless you know what you're doing."

Under most circumstances I wouldn't worry about this sort of thing, given the very limited success rate of earlier efforts by the self-proclaimed "Magic Resistance," but weather magic is notoriously unpredictable, especially in the hands of the poorly trained. Back in my teen years, when I was hopelessly naive about magic, a friend and I tried to play games with a winter storm for stupid reasons, and had it blow up out of control and cause a lot of damage and disruption.  I would encourage all my readers in the upper Midwest and elsewhere to make sure you're ready for really extreme conditions if this does something similar. Please pass on the warning to anyone who (a) might be affected and (b) might take this seriously. 

I could make a few comments about the brutal cluelessness of those who think that it's okay for them to cause harm to others because they think they're the Good Guys™, but right now the important thing is to make sure that word gets out so that if this blows up, as few people as possible will be harmed by it. 

Comments

[slclaire]

Looking at the date on the forward, maybe there is a connection with the winter storm beginning today that will affect over half of the people in the US over the next few days, all the way from New Mexico and Colorado to New England. I hope everyone has made, or will soon make, appropriate preparations. I'm lucky as it's only supposed to be several inches of snow and cold temperatures here, no ice. Will it affect your move? I hope the remainder of your move is as easy and trouble-free as possible!

[ecosophia]

Oh, it's quite possible that the impending storm has been influenced by this. As for me, I'll be fine -- my arrangements (made using astrological timing) won't be affected by it at all. Stay safe and cozy!

[diletpoly]

That certainly crossed my mind as well. I should be all set, regardless of the volume of snow and ice we get.

Please edit if necessary, I was really annoyed when I read the post

[degringolade]

I suppose that this was bound to happen. I am not convinced that operational "magic" such as this is in the realm of possible, but I certainly don't dismiss the idea (at best I give it a 20% chance of working as advertised, and that is with skilled "operators" not a bunch of asshats on the internet).

So let us assume that their plan works (again, 20% odds), They stir up what appears to be a nasty storm in order to make it life threatening. Here is what I see happening.

1.) The presupposition is that ICE doesn't know how to deal with the cold. I can't for a moment even express my contempt for this. ICE is a paramilitary operation (it has to be in order to do its job), so the idea that they aren't capable of handling cold is ludicrous. I grew up at >5,000 feet in Utah and I handled it as a preteen. What is is is utterly misplaced contempt for an opponent. This has never been anything except a mistake at any level of conflict.

2.) If the weather comes in and is accelerated by the actions described, it will actually force the people that ICE is looking for into a closed arena where they are actually more easily apprehended. This will be the primary effect of this dumbass idea.

I do not support or oppose this or the process it thinks that it will interrupt. But this is as bad an idea as I have seen.

Help us Obi Wan.

Do they not understand unintended consequences?

[teresa_from_hershey]

The blizzard will descend on the good and bad alike; it doesn't care.

Do the people doing this not understand the laws of unintended consequences?

This feels like a video game or larping; it doesn't matter what you do because you will remain unaffected. You won't die. You won't even be inconvenienced.

Good heavens.

[drhooves]

Mankind would probably be a lot better off if there was some sort of confirmation process other than self-appointment to the label known as "Good Guys".

[vitranc]

…has planted a magical „antennae“…
Color me intrigued.
Am I the only one who would like to see the hardware involved.

[ecosophia]

There are a dozen ways, at least, to do this. The simplest is to create a sigil -- probably the one in the image -- and put it on a physical object, then place that in the area to be affected. The more complex ones -- well, I don't propose to discuss them in a public venue, as I don't want to give anybody any ideas.

[vitranc]

I am in a gearhead mood right now, so having a chance to, privately, examine such an „antennae“, maybe with a learned friend for some geeky exchange and commentary would be a blast.
Now if one might in addition to observing such a specimen also tinker with it… I might have a 10 lbs sleadge hammer for some precise adjustments. ;-)

[ecosophia]

Ha! Very traditional of you. ;-)

One other concern I have is that now that the project's opsec has failed, the image and sigil are in circulation, those that are so minded (and have the necessary magical skills) can play all kinds of games with it, some of them quite nasty. I'm happy to be a very long way from Minneapolis right now...

[grandswamperman]

I saw Mark Stavish share this on social media and the first thing I thought was, "I bet JMG would have a few comments on this..."

[ecosophia]

Yeah, Mark's a longtime friend of mine and one of the people who forwarded it to me.

[(Anonymous)]

Looks like ICE's response is to go even harder:

“doesn’t matter. We do the job.”

https://x.com/1776pax/status/2014767802897346923?s=20

General Frost is ... Russian.

[(Anonymous)]

General Frost is originally Russian, isn't he? There's an irony about the people who spent years screaming that Russia was interfering in American politics, trying to call a Russian winter spirit to ... interfere with American politics.

[ivn66]

Each person's taste is their own; to me, I find that every single instance of "magick resistance" and related matters I come across is just, ill-advisedness completely aside, unbearably, well, corny. This is hardly the most egregious example, of course, but it leaves the same taste in my mouth.

[(Anonymous)]

So that's what's been going on with the weather wights! I was wondering. When you get this sort of thing in Florida, to be followed by highs in the high 70s....wow, and good grief.

Have any of these idiots every heard of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice?"


The Grey Badger.

Raspberry Jam Effect?

[(Anonymous)]

Yikes. Truly horrible. How does the raspberry jam effect play out when someone is attempting to practice weather magic? The collateral damage breaks my heart.