How Not To Do Magic: Enter the 800 Pound Gorilla

[ecosophia]

Well, the self-proclaimed Magic Resistance just scored another impressive own goal. Today's hex party at a Brooklyn pagan bookstore, dedicated to cursing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh (and everyone and everything else the attendees happen to be upset about), got plenty of advance media publicity -- and thus came to the attention of conservative Roman Catholics. (That's Kavanaugh's religious affiliation, after all.)  As a result, Catholics have broken out their own substantial arsenal of ritual weaponry to protect Kavanaugh: exorcists are performing masses on his behalf, and ordinary Catholic laypeople are fasting and praying the rosary with the same end in view. 

I'm not a fan of the Roman Catholic church, for a variety of reasons. (First among them: my wife is an ex-Catholic, and like nearly everyone else I know who's left that church, she bailed after watching repeated, appalling abuses of power on the part of Catholic clergy and religious, which were condoned and covered up by the hierarchy.) That said, we're talking about the world's largest single religious denomination, which has getting on for two thousand years of experience crafting rituals to deal with hostile nonphysical powers. The moral failings of the Catholic hierarchy, serious as they are, don't affect the efficacy of Catholic ritual forms or the potency that competent priests and devout believers can put into them. 

(This probably deserves a few words of further comment. An embarrassingly large number of people on the leftward end of things seem to think that their magic has to work because they're the good guys, y'know, and the other side is doomed to inevitable failure because they're so eeeeeeevil. That shows the bad influence of cheap fantasy novels on modern thought. One plumber, let's say, can be a perfectly competent plumber and and be a rotten person; another can be a really nice person with all the right opinions, and still do a lousy job of fixing your sink. The same is true in magic. Moral virtue is no substitute for competent ritual backed by a thorough knowledge of magical principles -- or vice versa, for that matter.)

In other words, by neglecting one of the basic rules of effective magic and blathering their intentions far and wide, the Magic Resistance has just recruited an 800 pound gorilla for the other side. You can bet that in the weeks and months and years to come, conservative Catholics will keep a sharp eye out for any other magical working aimed at Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh, or any other conservative targets that attract hostile magical attention, and break out their own well-honed cache of ritual workings to counter it. I doubt the results will be particularly welcome to Trump's Neopagan enemies. 

Comments

yup

[dfr1973]

When I saw this the other day, all I could think is that the self-proclaimed resistance has managed to step into the biggest, freshest steaming pile of manure possible with this. This will be very anti-pretty.

Re: yup

[ecosophia]

That was roughly my reaction. On the bright side, I'll be able to use this whole business for years to come, to teach students all about what not to do when you practice magic.

[(Anonymous)]

It's not just Catholics: I find it rather funny that this is one of the few times where you have large numbers of conservatives Catholics working together with large numbers of members of the neo-pagan movement.

[ecosophia]

Not to mention ceremonial occultists and chaos magicians. It's really quite a motley crew!

Feel good ritual

[deansmith]

JMG,

In a recent article here: https://wildhunt.org/page/2

Michael Hughes acknowledges that the ritual to keep Kavanaugh out of office did not seem to be effective, however he did go on to say that more importantly the ritual made people feel empowered and powerful, and gave them a channel for their anger. To me, the latter point is key. I highly suspect the real point of these rituals for a lot of people -if they realise it or not- is to give them a sense of peace about their hates. I wonder if deep down they don't want to actually do anything at all about Trump, Kavanaugh, et al., because then there would be no outlet for their said hate. They just want to *feel* good about it.

Dean Smith

Re: Feel good ritual

[ecosophia]

Oh dear gods. So it's a good thing to make people feel powerful and empowered while totally failing to accomplish their goals. I think their reality check has just been returned for insufficient funds.

But you're probably right -- they want someone to hate. If that's widespread enough, expect a GOP victory in the midterms...

Pray FOR the Neo-Pagans

[(Anonymous)]

I followed the link, it´s interesting to note that the Catholics (like good Christians - or good pretend Christians) also pray FOR the Neo-Pagans, to convert them to the side of the Light. According to your magical principles, this means that they will get less karmic blowblack...

Tidlösa

Re: Pray FOR the Neo-Pagans

[ecosophia]

That's correct. This is one of the ways you can tell that the Catholic church has a lot of experience with this sort of thing.

[(Anonymous)]

The part of all this that really bothers me is this: when the average non-magical person comes to really believe This Stuff Works they start killing those who use it.

Not just historically, a year or two ago my father-in-law's sister-in-law was accused in rural Africa of uaing witchcraft (evil magic, in local context) and told by police that either she must leave town or she would be put in jail for her own safety. (I haven't met her, but knowing the family, she's probably guilty of being too educated and praying too effectively.)

If you simply must go casting spells against people, shut up for everyone's safety! Because what's going to happen if you've publicised your actions and then something happens to the person? As high profile as these actions are, you have visits from Secret Service as a starting point-did you incite that? Were you involved in plotting? And that's just to start with. What conclusion will other folks come to, after the SS is done talking to you?

Either this magics' practitioners are really short-sighted and/or foolish, or they don't believe what they're doing actually can work. Given what's been said here by several others about the sloppiness of the spells, I'm coming to the conclusion that the soi-disant Resistance does NOT believe magic works. If it doesn't really work, then it doesn't matter if you invoke the wrong powers in the wrong ways, and since it doesn't work, you don't need to worry about getting some stuck on you.

Now, I'm reminded of the story of Balaam's Ass. It doesn't matter what you believe, if you're wrong about it, you'll get consequences. It might be just as well for these magicians and everyone else if their priuses up and start telling them to knock it off with the curses.

BoysMom, annoyed that supposed adults can't think through consequences as well as an elementary child!

[ecosophia]

That's also an excellent point. You may well be right that they're just engaging in dress-up games -- but they could indeed be setting themselves up for some ugly events down the road a bit.

Neighborhood Protection

[(Anonymous)]

Aron Blue here. Do you think there's any negative influence from living in the same neighborhood as these guys? I don't like the idea of all this energy focused on binding magic practices happening in this location ... I practice here too :(

Re: Neighborhood Protection

[ecosophia]

How far from Catlands do you live? If you're at least a few blocks away, regular banishing and protective rituals should keep you safe. If you live right next to the store, you may want to find a new apartment.

Blowback

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG
If say Trump had fired someone unfairly and they did a working to have him fired too, would there be blowback on them?

I agree that the so-called Magical Resistance is a farce and will hasten the end of Neopaganism. It is also another example of the pollution of politics into spirituality. Keep the spheres separate!!

I have just discovered your work - very interesting.

Re: Blowback

[ecosophia]

Every act of magic has blowback. The reason it's always better to aim at building up what you want, rather than tearing down what you don't want, is that the energies you call on always affect you as well as your target. If you're working with energies of blessing, healing, strengthening, etc., you will be blessed, healed, strengthened and so on; if you work with harmful energies you will be harmed by those energies too.

As for the separation of politics and spirituality, agreed. Mixing the two is always a bad idea.

[(Anonymous)]

Is it possible to do an effective working to make the Resistance numb skulls NOT take interest in something? Living in Georgia our normal issues with voter roll purges, throwing out absentee and early ballots, and untraceable voting machines are producing a huge amount of duckspeak in certain media circles. I’m not at all thrilled by the idea of Kemp as governor but if the Resistance publicly takes up for Abrams recent history suggests she’s toast. Is this simply a case where the jammy fingers are too close to each other on the same hand? Will doing a work to shield Abrams from the interest of the Resistance inevitably be contaminated by my own desire to not see Kemp as governor, so they work against him rather than for her? What about trying to make everyone just forget about Georgia for a moment so maybe we can pull off a Maldives?

[ecosophia]

That's something that can be done, but unless you've got a very solid background in operative magic I don't recommend trying it.

[(Anonymous)]

The part I can't understand is how people can possibly be so sure that a) they're on the right side, and b) that that means they'll win. History is full of too many cases where things go wrong for the "good guys", and in too many cases it's hard to tell which side is the good guys anyway....

[ecosophia]

I honestly think these people have read too many trashy fantasy novels and watched too many superhero movies, and they've literally lost track of the fact that the world isn't like that.

[(Anonymous)]

Ahem;

"I call upon you
To bind
Donald J. Trump
So that his malignant works may fail utterly"

It would appear that the magic Hughes has marshaled to further his own malignant works of leading mass hexes has, increasingly, failed utterly. I imagine with some fear how much more utterly he may fail over time...

[(Anonymous)]

I'm an alt-right mage, and I'm gonna be honest: when I read that part of the ritual I laughed out loud. This was a gift of incredible proportions. I then proceeded to break my usual rule and proceeded to consider (and, eventually, cast) a retributive justice spell aimed at that.

Catholic Revitalization

[(Anonymous)]

Add to this the inevitable hyperbolic anti-Catholic smear campaign when Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett (to replace RBG) and the anti-Trump/anti-religious opposition will establish the perfect basis for a magnificent America-centered Catholic Renaissance. One more emerging strategic ally Trump can add to the list. Maybe that's how Trump intends to hold the US together, by indebting all major tribes/constituencies to his dynasty.

Re: Catholic Revitalization

[ecosophia]

You know, that would be a plausible strategy.

Secrecy

[(Anonymous)]

This article makes me feel like I'm just-almost but not quite getting something. If you would be willing to explain, I would appreciate it.

How does the importance of secrecy here work? The Catholic rituals are entirely public--both in this case and in general. What is it that is important about secrecy, but applies differently between the "Magical Resistance" and the Catholics? I feel like I'm misunderstanding the word in this context.

On another context, I'm a convert to the Catholic Church, and entirely get your wife's point; Belloc's comment about "no merely human enterprise carried out with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight" comes to mind frequently.

SamChevre

Re: Secrecy

[(Anonymous)]

The Magic Resistance is being very public, not just with what they plan to do, but how they do it as well. This enables anyone who opposes them to counter it exactly, targeting any and all weaknesses it has.

[(Anonymous)]

Wow... There was a time when reading about the book shop stuff and the Catholic response would have made me laugh... The thought that any of these people could wield any kind of power by doing some weird rituals would not occur to the rational part of myself (although I remember that even at the height of my atheist phase, there was some doubt). Speaking of the Roman Catholic Church as an organization - Being raised highly critical against the Church, for a long time I confused the organization with their god, believes and ritual.

A few questions that came to my mind while reading your post: Every now and then I am wondering why the Catholic Church is such a stable construct despite the long list of abuses and crimes committed and condoned over such a long time. From a magical perspective, does its power stem from the fact that it's kind of an umbrella organization which incorporated (or assimilated?) a large variety of spiritual streams that were and are praying and performing rituals to the same god?

And secondly: How did western occultism manage to survive the continuous presence of that powerful 800 pound gorilla over the centuries?

Lastly (I am still mulling over what to make about that coincidence...) just yesterday evening I stumbled over some beautiful interpretations of medieval Christian music. Powerful. Maybe you and / or the other readers find as much delight in it as I do:

Llibre Vermell - Stella splendens (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lw8nH6dQIo) (Latin and English lyrics in the comments)

A Madre de Jesu Cristo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBP8SuZgETk) (If you enjoy it, the full concert can be found here: Sacred Music From Medieval Spain: The Llibre Vermell And The Cantigas De Santa Maria (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ios-NT0fNI))

Greetings from Germany,
Nachtgurke

[ecosophia]

1) Magical power is not the same thing as moral virtue. The Catholic church is strong because there are tens of millions of people practicing spiritual disciplines that strengthen it. If they put more of their effort into cleansing it of the toxic culture of entitlement that dominates the hierarchy, and the habit of pervasive sadism that afflicts so many of its institutions, they might make it good as well as strong.

2) Secrecy and a superior understanding of magical practice.

[(Anonymous)]

If you haven't seen it yet, Mr Hughes is at it again: https://extranewsfeed.com/blue-wave-a-magical-spell-to-save-america-cfb69721b382.

I now predict that the blue wave shall be a red tide.

[ecosophia]

That strikes me as a safe prediction at this point. Another ineptly designed ritual with a self-contradictory intention, designed with an embarrassing lack of reflection, guided by a state of shrieking moral panic that would make a fundamentalist cringe, and a worldview so pervaded with rigid moral dualism that it would startle a third-century Gnostic -- sure, that's going to help his cause!

The irony is that Hughes admits up front that "Every day we witness the juggernaut of Trumpism rolling forward." Er, what about that mighty binding spell that was supposed to stop him in its tracks? To me, at least, this sounds rather remarkably like an admission of failure...

Social Justice Witch

[(Anonymous)]

I finally figured out what these Magic Fail posts remind me of.

Several years back, the activist wing of my UU church (it was part of the broader "Standing on the Side of Love" movement, a perfectly bland and useless name for a perfectly bland and useless movement) got into a fracas with the minister and associated staff. They schismed away and dwindled to nothing.

When I look back at my memories of the event, there's a strangeness to it all. The fracas was sparked by a minor conflict over scheduling, and somehow ballooned into a tremendous row. No one could explain the hows or whys of this, or even be bothered to notice.
More, in the final showdown between the two camps, there a very strange atmosphere in the meeting room - I cannot describe it to anyone who wasn't there. People came away very traumatized from that meeting.

But reading these posts, it seems to me that we were all operating in an altered state of consciousness.
The leader of the activist is a mainline SJW and a witch. Given the odd events, I've begun to wonder if she did a working of some sort.

If so, I have to credit her with being an incompetent magician as well as an incompetent activist - the group has fractured apart with none of its wounds healed, and no one can stand to be around her for long, last time I checked.

-Cliff

Re: Social Justice Witch

[ecosophia]

I think it's very possible that that's exactly what happened. A lot of people in the Neopagan movement are enthusiastic but inept when it comes to magic, and since the powers of the cosmos don't care about whether you think your cause is just -- they respond to your working, not to what you think your working should do -- the result, very often, is pretty much what you've described.

Fasting vs venting

[(Anonymous)]

It seems to me that fasting and praying, being focused activities involving actual sacrifice, should pack more magical oomph than a collective venting session regardless of how well the hex party was designed. Am I correct here or is this just wishful thinking?

Re: Fasting vs venting

[ecosophia]

You're entirely correct. Fasting and praying is a first-rate way to generate focus and magical power. Attending a party is, well, a way to attend a party.

[(Anonymous)]

Gotta say I’m getting worried about the big blue wave they’re conjuring as I live close to the coast!

[ecosophia]

I'm glad I live well above the flood zone, with a nice steep bluff between me and the Seekonk River estuary.

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe this should wait until tomorrow, but I think it's related closely to this.
The Catholics aren't the only folks who use their masses. Great Classical Masses, particularly Requiems, are a staple of the performance hall. The musicians may or may not believe or even understand the words, but you put three-hundred people-odd on stage for Dias Irae, etc, and there's definitely some power there.
Would the energies from those performances end up at the direction of the Catholic egregor, since the music came from its adherents?

BoysMom

[ecosophia]

That's a fascinating question to which I don't know the answer. You'd have to get a good clairvoyant to attend performances of the music and Catholic services, and pay attention to where the energies go.

[(Anonymous)]

L know nothing of Magic but something of Tarot and I notice Mr Hughes likes to use the Justice Trump (oops - card :). Bad move - She's won't like being called into these kind of emotion laden messes. He should be more careful who he invites to his parties.
But then I suppose Mr Hughes thinks the Tarot are simply useful symbols rather than symbols of spirits of power. In either case - bad move; as C K Chesterton said "Children are innocent are prefer justice, adults ... prefer mercy."
Mark

[ecosophia]

Well, yes. If you're going to invoke justice, and then launch into a tirade that shows that you're serenely uninterested in fairness and justice, the results will not be good.

I think you're quite right about Hughes. He's a victim of the common modern delusion that symbols mean whatever you want them to mean -- in technical terms, that they aren't symbols, just signs -- and so he keeps getting clobbered. It's as though he decided that the words "punch me in the face" actually meant "give me twenty bucks," went around saying those words to people, and kept on being surprised when people hit him!

[(Anonymous)]

I want these guys to cast a spell firmly prohibiting me from winning the megamillion lottery.

[ecosophia]

Hah! I like that.

Red and Blue (Color)...

[(Anonymous)]

One thing I'm beginning to wonder...

I remember looking at many of the old electoral maps (before 1990, or sometime around them) and I remember how the Democrats used to be the Red party and the Republicans the Blue party on the maps. Then, definitely since 2000 the colors were switched – Republicans are Red, the Democrats Blue.

Now I can understand that there's a bit of geographical consistency to the change (Red for South, Blue for New England and Great Lakes...). However, since Red is the color of passion and power (blood) while Blue is the color of calm and peace (sky) I can't help but wonder whether there was some canny magic in the background to change the perception of the colors to give power to the Right.

Re: Red and Blue (Color)...

[ecosophia]

That's true, and rather odd. I wonder who made that decision.

Christians and magic

[ritaer]

I have an interesting example of Christian magic working not labeled as such. My oldest grandson joined the US Marines a few years ago. Each training platoon sets up a Facebook page for the recruits' families to communicate good wishes, reassurances, practical information on plans to attend the Basic Training graduation and so forth. I could guess from Bible quotations and references to prayer that many of the families were Christians--mostly conservative Protestants. The Basic training culminates in a 3 day field exercise called the Crucible that tests everything the recruits have learned. The final exercise is a long climb up a steep hill, with obstacles, that ends with the recruits all facing the rising sun. At this point they are awarded the globe and anchor emblem of the Corps. I noticed that some of the families were posting pictures of the prayer candles they were making--nice glass candles with the recruit's name written on it, the dates, good wishes, Bible verses, etc. I was busy doing the same in my own Pagan way, --red for Mars, dates and times of the exercise, my grandson's name, anointing with oil for his astrological sign etc. I was chuffed to learn that the exercise started at the hour and day of Mars and got up to light the candle at the right time. I found it rather amusing that these good Christians were basically doing a magic candle for their recruit, but calling it something else.

Now I'm wondering if it is coincidence that the Crucible starts at the hour and day of Mars? Huuum? And that run uphill to the rising sun is a pretty nice piece of stage management for an initiation as well.

Rita

St Patrick's Breastplate

[(Anonymous)]

I was looking at my local Latin-Mass church's blog, and saw the below:

http://saintmarthatlm.blogspot.com/2018/10/saint-patricks-lorica-for-protection.html It's the full form of St Patricks Breastplate, and it's really clearly calling on the heavenly powers for protection.

This discussion made it clearer that this is an invocation, so thank you all and especially you, Archdruid.

SamChevre