Hi! I have decided to set a theme for me to "learn" about each year, and this year's theme is protection magic & protection-related spirit work. (Mostly because I think it's safest to start with that... lol.) I am writing a "fiction" book that is also intended to include accurate information about protection magic. Now, I can just research it online, but I don't want to be simply copying someone else's techniques without their permission. So, what I would like is advice from someone (or several people, ideally) who can help me learn this magic for myself, and does not mind if I share what I learn in my book. I can't guarantee that the book will ever actually get published... lol. That's a whole different problem. But I'd like to strengthen my magical practice with defensive intentions.

I am a relatively newbie witch. I have been practicing witchcraft since October 2019, researching it since '17. You should know that anything that I learn will be used to help myself, my family, and my community. I mostly use darker energies. I am not a lightworker, but I don't believe in harming anyone who has not first tried to harm me or someone else. I am an eclectic Chaos witch and not a Wiccan (yet), I do not follow the three-fold law. If there's anything else you need to know before taking me on as a student, please ask.

stargazerjournal wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 04, 2023 1:21 pm

Hi! I have decided to set a theme for me to "learn" about each year, and this year's theme is protection magic & protection-related spirit work. (Mostly because I think it's safest to start with that... lol.) I am writing a "fiction" book that is also intended to include accurate information about protection magic. Now, I can just research it online, but I don't want to be simply copying someone else's techniques without their permission. So, what I would like is advice from someone (or several people, ideally) who can help me learn this magic for myself, and does not mind if I share what I learn in my book. I can't guarantee that the book will ever actually get published... lol. That's a whole different problem. But I'd like to strengthen my magical practice with defensive intentions.

I am a relatively newbie witch. I have been practicing witchcraft since October 2019, researching it since '17. You should know that anything that I learn will be used to help myself, my family, and my community. I mostly use darker energies. I am not a lightworker, but I don't believe in harming anyone who has not first tried to harm me or someone else. I am an eclectic Chaos witch and not a Wiccan (yet), I do not follow the three-fold law. If there's anything else you need to know before taking me on as a student, please ask.

Hi

Although I don't mentor people in magic, I belong to a speculative fiction writers group in the city where I live, so I'm very interested in the writing side of what you've mentioned.

How magic works in the world of a fantasy story is always a key thing. Several things have struck me, both from fantasy fiction I've read, books on fantasy writing by famous authors and writing by the writers group's members, some of whom have been published...

1. Most fantasy authors haven't a clue about real magic - neither from personal experience, personal beliefs, nor from studying historical or contemporary sources.

2. Weirdly, even when fantasy is written by such authors, there seems to be something about the human consciousness, mass subconscious themes and archetypes etc, that the magic they come up with still somehow seems to make some sense. I think this is because, if you look carefully and widely enough, there's a truly rich variety of magical / occult beliefs and practices. Somehow, any trope that can be thought up somehow fits somewhere, in some way. Mining the trope of fairy stories works particularly well.

3. The needs of a story tend to drive what goes into it / what fits in it. Everything else tends to get subsumed inexorably to that over arching need. In my opinion that includes the magic used in it.

In my experience it's far harder to write fiction and try to cram into it things we decided in advance must be in it, than to allow a story to emerge in its own way and see how much of what we want fits well within it. (I struggle with this myself, so I say it with some feeling. In fact what you're talking about trying to do sounds exactly like the way I have been approaching it myself: writing fiction that's accurate in the way it depicts magic. But in the final analysis that's extremely hard to pin down rationally.)

tl/dr: It may be best in the long run to 'listen' to the story and feel what magic it wants to have in it, rather than force fit a story into the confines of our preconceived idea of what magic is and how it works in the real world. (As there's a divergence of ideas on that.)

I'm not yet that experienced at speculative fiction writing but I am very experienced at consuming it and quite experienced at critiquing it.

I hope these comments are nevertheless useful.

double post

Lewk wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 05, 2023 2:22 am

Hi

Although I don't mentor people in magic, I belong to a speculative fiction writers group in the city where I live, so I'm very interested in the writing side of what you've mentioned.

How magic works in the world of a fantasy story is always a key thing. Several things have struck me, both from fantasy fiction I've read, books on fantasy writing by famous authors and writing by the writers group's members, some of whom have been published...

I appreciate your words, Lewk! I know you're telling the truth about writing, because it's pretty much just SF authors who know the term "speculative fiction", lol. I suppose what you're saying makes sense; I hate outlining because I always wind up losing the heartbeat of the story that way. It's better to just see where your creativity will take you. And you also have to trust in it, or else you'll wind up never being able to write the ending to the book!

I have probably just been too worried about trying to do magic the "right" way. Which is silly, if you're trying to be a chaos witch. I am intimidated because it seems like there is so much to be done! So many things to learn! But... mistakes are part of the process. If you can even call them "mistakes".

So, I suppose I will take your advice and follow my intuition.

stargazerjournal wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 07, 2023 2:13 pm

Lewk wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 05, 2023 2:22 am

Hi

Although I don't mentor people in magic, I belong to a speculative fiction writers group in the city where I live, so I'm very interested in the writing side of what you've mentioned.

How magic works in the world of a fantasy story is always a key thing. Several things have struck me, both from fantasy fiction I've read, books on fantasy writing by famous authors and writing by the writers group's members, some of whom have been published...

I appreciate your words, Lewk! I know you're telling the truth about writing, because it's pretty much just SF authors who know the term "speculative fiction", lol. I suppose what you're saying makes sense; I hate outlining because I always wind up losing the heartbeat of the story that way. It's better to just see where your creativity will take you. And you also have to trust in it, or else you'll wind up never being able to write the ending to the book!

I have probably just been too worried about trying to do magic the "right" way. Which is silly, if you're trying to be a chaos witch. I am intimidated because it seems like there is so much to be done! So many things to learn! But... mistakes are part of the process. If you can even call them "mistakes".

So, I suppose I will take your advice and follow my intuition.

Now that you say you're on a chaos witch path, doing that feels like it makes even more sense. In fact, if you can find a post by Vipera aspis atra in which she said - from memory - with chaos magic you get to the point where you don't follow anyone else's prescribed formulae, you might find it useful guidance to bear in mind.

Some of the most attractive characters in fiction and legend for me are those who carve their own path and discard convention.

Lewk wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 07, 2023 8:51 pm

stargazerjournal wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 07, 2023 2:13 pm

[...]

So, I suppose I will take your advice and follow my intuition.

[...]if you can find a post by Vipera aspis atra[...]

This is the post.

post842321.html?hilit=chaos#p842321

stargazerjournal wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 07, 2023 2:13 pm

Lewk wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 05, 2023 2:22 am

Hi

Although I don't mentor people in magic, I belong to a speculative fiction writers group in the city where I live, so I'm very interested in the writing side of what you've mentioned.

How magic works in the world of a fantasy story is always a key thing. Several things have struck me, both from fantasy fiction I've read, books on fantasy writing by famous authors and writing by the writers group's members, some of whom have been published...

I appreciate your words, Lewk! I know you're telling the truth about writing, because it's pretty much just SF authors who know the term "speculative fiction", lol. I suppose what you're saying makes sense; I hate outlining because I always wind up losing the heartbeat of the story that way. It's better to just see where your creativity will take you. And you also have to trust in it, or else you'll wind up never being able to write the ending to the book!

I have probably just been too worried about trying to do magic the "right" way. Which is silly, if you're trying to be a chaos witch. I am intimidated because it seems like there is so much to be done! So many things to learn! But... mistakes are part of the process. If you can even call them "mistakes".

So, I suppose I will take your advice and follow my intuition.

There is no wrong way to practice chaos magick. Anyone who tells you there is a wrong way isn’t really practicing chaos magick. I don’t consider anything as mistakes and anything that doesn’t go as intended is a lesson vs a mistake. My advice is to follow your intuition and experiment to your heart’s content.

As far as protection there are many ways to go about it. Some of mine were set up to protect my mind during meditation.