The Elephant In The Room
Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2013 6:57 pm
I think something should be said here, about all these posts on the noob conjurers. This is the elephant in the room, and I think we should probably talk about it before any more crockery gets broken, yes?
WE ARE NOT THE CONJURING POLICE.
Conjuring is out of the bag. It's the next big thing. Not only do plenty of people think it's their next step in magickal evolution, but they also recognize that sellers entrenched in the market are making quite good money at a time when a lot of people are struggling. They don't recognize the reasons those sellers are entrenched, but they do recognize the benefits. It's stupid to ignore this particular elephant in the room - honestly the better reaction would be that you may as well teach it to juggle. At least with a frank discussion about the more technical aspects of conjuring, they'd have an ethical teacher who took time to make sure they knew those extra bits - such as, how good is your astral travel, your aim? Are you sure you've got the right realm? Are you sure that what you are conjuring is what it says it is? How do you know? Do you know the energy signature of the realm and the species? How often have you conjured them before? Can you see them clearly, feel them clearly, communicate with them clearly? Honestly, the fact that the actual process, not the fine-tuning, mind you, but the actual process itself, is so easy is a pretty big freaking elephant, and everyone's solution right now is to stick their heads in the sand and tell the noobs, "You're all wrong for learning on the internet!" That's never going to work... the more you tell people NOT to do something.... the more you guarantee they WILL do it.
I conjured my first entities when I was SEVEN. Admittedly the first three, who all came at once, were pretty terrifying to me, and my dad had to rescue me, send them back, and close the portal I'd made in my closet... but I was still seven, and it was still successful. I had conjured my first Monster Under the Bed by the time I was 8. Conjuring is EASY. Binding is a little tricky - you have to know how to open up a vessel and make it absorb the entity's energies - and there's contractual negotiations and you have to be able to make sure the entities or spirits are telling the truth about themselves and their desires... but those, too, are simple. If they don't write it, you can't trust it. I always explain the contract, and specifically say to anything I conjure: "What race of entity are you?; do you wish to be conjured, and bound to work with humans?; do you agree to the contract stipulations we are discussing?; please write your name." If they write no on the mirror to any of that... we're done. Contracts should be simple - Do not ever harm the keeper, or harm anyone on their behalf or at their behest unless their life, their body, or their essential self is on the line. Do not kill. Agree to follow the keeper's house rules. That's not difficult.
Of course, there's the energetic requirements - if you're truly conjuring and not just fooling yourself with crazy pipe-dreams, you better make sure you know how to manage your power - no point in bringing something through if you can't seal the deal because you ran out of energy and your actual binding is crap because of it. You also better know how to seal a binding to protect it. You need to know how to create charging energies. You need to know a few other aspects of magick, such as how to cast a truth spell or something similar onto glass, how to cast a circle, how to call in extra power if you need it, how to open and close portals safely - but honestly if you've had a decent 101 class, or even just a decent book on, for gods' sakes, WICCA, you already know all that - even Ravenfluff can teach you how to ground, center, sense energy, direct it, and cast a freaking circle.
So you see, it's not the actual conjuring and binding process that people need to worry about. That part is a cake walk. It really just takes refinement. It's the identification of location and species that's the sticking point. Don't tell me it's a demon when I know for a fact it keeps drinking my blood and stealing my energy. Don't tell me it's a demon when I know for a fact that you're claiming to conjure from a Celtic underworld that's traditionally associated with dead faeries. Don't tell me it's an entity when I can see the weave and I know it's a servitor. Don't tell me it's an entity if it's a spirit - and if you're going to conjure you better damned well know the difference between the two. Don't tell me you're conjuring anything unless you can guarantee that you know the realm and what lives in it, and you can prove to me that you know what you're conjuring is what you say it is... I'm sure you've probably conjured SOMETHING - there's a lot out there that's bored and looking for a good time, and will come when you call just because they're having a random moment and happened to like the sound of your energy. Also, how do you know the ONLY thing you're conjuring is what you say you're wanting to conjure - that there are no surprise friends coming along for the ride? How have you protected your mirror and your portal? Do you have and use an astral temple with an astral mirror or a fetch, as well as a physical circle and a physical mirror, with which to contact those species and work with them towards creating a contract that is acceptable? How did you BIND your conjure - the specific process you used? Is it really bound, or is it just an attachment? Do you REALLY know the difference? Attachments are not bound to a contract and you should remember that. Speaking of that contract, what IS your contract? THESE are the important questions. Not, "can you conjure?" Anyone can conjure.
The thing is, it IS that easy to find a realm if you know how to travel the astral. It's that easy to, having done so, find a being, chat for a few, agree to some standards, open your mirror, put a vessel in front of it, have them write their answers, and then pull them through the mirror and suck them into the vessel... seriously, and again, I know from personal experience that a 7 year old with the right knowledge can conjure. A seven year old with the right knowledge can bind. It's definitely better that you be able to actually see and communicate with what you're conjuring, but beyond that... the mechanics for the magick is absurdly simple, and yet all these posts about new conjurers act like it's some kind of technical marvel - it's ridiculous. What conjurers do isn't particularly special... and I can point to over 2000 places online alone where people could learn to do the mechanics of it for free.
Of course, you can't teach astral travel and proper sight to people... that DOES take time... but if they've already, really and truly, got that down, and they know how to cast a circle, who are we to tell them not to do it? My whole life has been based around the acceptance of the simple fact that magick is inborn, it's reflex - and you can find easy instructions on how to do just about anything magickal that you could think of, and quite a bit you have yet to conceive of, with the stroke of a few keys on Google. So why keep secrets in that world? It's far better for someone who knows their stuff to be telling people the truth about magick... that it's NOT something they have to work at, that it IS in their blood and bones, and that the only reason it's hard for anyone to do is because they expect it to be. It's harder to move your arm when you really, really think "Move, Arm," than it is to just let go and move it, you know? Almost every post I write about magick talks about that... that people are already seeing, sensing... they just need to realize that they are... and they need to drop expectations because it's not going to be exactly the way they expect it to be. Communication isn't necessarily going to have anything to do with your ears, or even words... stuff like that. The less defined you are about things, the more successful you'll be... I say that over and over... but the people who know ignore it, because they know... and the people who don't know, ignore it because they don't understand what I'm saying at all. This is no different.
If you want to learn conjuring, fine. If you want to sell, fine. If you suck at it, eventually it will fall apart and not be a problem. You'll get a bad reputation and it'll be done. If you get hurt, you get to pay someone more skilled for the cleanup, but that's your CHOICE. I agree with the concerns about all the new conjurers... but at the same time... I disagree strongly with the way it's being handled. Ultimately, conjurers need to adapt to the fact that conjuring is actually easy when you break it down into bits... and that because it is, people who are deaf, dumb and blind are going to try it out... but eventually, because they're deaf, dumb, and blind, they'll either not successfully conjure and they'll stop getting buyers, they'll conjure the wrong thing and it will be safe or unsafe - but either way buyers won't trust them anymore, and maybe a more adept person will get to make some extra money cleaning up the mess... or they'll turn out to be good at it, and not so deaf, dumb, and blind as everyone assumed. That's not a problem - that's called trial by fire. Evolution. The atrition rate of new conjurers will even things out over the long run... and the mistakes they make with their buyers will ultimately bring in more work for the people who do actually know what they're doing, which has the added bonus of getting an even better reputation and being paid for it.
The elephant in the room is not CAN people conjure, or even SHOULD they... the elephant, my dears, is that they ARE... and all we're all doing is saying, "Oh, noes! So bad!" That really isn't working for anyone - by not supporting them in their education, and merely griping about how dangerous it is, we are actually encouraging them to be irresponsible - and we are to blame when someone gets hurt, because we said nothing other than, "That person isn't ready to conjure." We did nothing about it but wail - which actually has the effect of making us look like we want to keep the buyers all to ourselves and we're greedy with both knowledge, power, and money - and we look that way to the buyers and the new sellers. That makes everyone more reactive and more stubborn - the new practitioners become more adamant that they can do this type of work, and the buyers feel like they have to choose sides - essentially this behavior encourages everyone to give up their RESPONSIBLE support networks. Perhaps, instead of offering censorial and dolorous comments about the fate of the buyers and seller... we should also be selling classes so that we can make them, and our buyers, safer.
Just my 2cents
WE ARE NOT THE CONJURING POLICE.
Conjuring is out of the bag. It's the next big thing. Not only do plenty of people think it's their next step in magickal evolution, but they also recognize that sellers entrenched in the market are making quite good money at a time when a lot of people are struggling. They don't recognize the reasons those sellers are entrenched, but they do recognize the benefits. It's stupid to ignore this particular elephant in the room - honestly the better reaction would be that you may as well teach it to juggle. At least with a frank discussion about the more technical aspects of conjuring, they'd have an ethical teacher who took time to make sure they knew those extra bits - such as, how good is your astral travel, your aim? Are you sure you've got the right realm? Are you sure that what you are conjuring is what it says it is? How do you know? Do you know the energy signature of the realm and the species? How often have you conjured them before? Can you see them clearly, feel them clearly, communicate with them clearly? Honestly, the fact that the actual process, not the fine-tuning, mind you, but the actual process itself, is so easy is a pretty big freaking elephant, and everyone's solution right now is to stick their heads in the sand and tell the noobs, "You're all wrong for learning on the internet!" That's never going to work... the more you tell people NOT to do something.... the more you guarantee they WILL do it.
I conjured my first entities when I was SEVEN. Admittedly the first three, who all came at once, were pretty terrifying to me, and my dad had to rescue me, send them back, and close the portal I'd made in my closet... but I was still seven, and it was still successful. I had conjured my first Monster Under the Bed by the time I was 8. Conjuring is EASY. Binding is a little tricky - you have to know how to open up a vessel and make it absorb the entity's energies - and there's contractual negotiations and you have to be able to make sure the entities or spirits are telling the truth about themselves and their desires... but those, too, are simple. If they don't write it, you can't trust it. I always explain the contract, and specifically say to anything I conjure: "What race of entity are you?; do you wish to be conjured, and bound to work with humans?; do you agree to the contract stipulations we are discussing?; please write your name." If they write no on the mirror to any of that... we're done. Contracts should be simple - Do not ever harm the keeper, or harm anyone on their behalf or at their behest unless their life, their body, or their essential self is on the line. Do not kill. Agree to follow the keeper's house rules. That's not difficult.
Of course, there's the energetic requirements - if you're truly conjuring and not just fooling yourself with crazy pipe-dreams, you better make sure you know how to manage your power - no point in bringing something through if you can't seal the deal because you ran out of energy and your actual binding is crap because of it. You also better know how to seal a binding to protect it. You need to know how to create charging energies. You need to know a few other aspects of magick, such as how to cast a truth spell or something similar onto glass, how to cast a circle, how to call in extra power if you need it, how to open and close portals safely - but honestly if you've had a decent 101 class, or even just a decent book on, for gods' sakes, WICCA, you already know all that - even Ravenfluff can teach you how to ground, center, sense energy, direct it, and cast a freaking circle.
So you see, it's not the actual conjuring and binding process that people need to worry about. That part is a cake walk. It really just takes refinement. It's the identification of location and species that's the sticking point. Don't tell me it's a demon when I know for a fact it keeps drinking my blood and stealing my energy. Don't tell me it's a demon when I know for a fact that you're claiming to conjure from a Celtic underworld that's traditionally associated with dead faeries. Don't tell me it's an entity when I can see the weave and I know it's a servitor. Don't tell me it's an entity if it's a spirit - and if you're going to conjure you better damned well know the difference between the two. Don't tell me you're conjuring anything unless you can guarantee that you know the realm and what lives in it, and you can prove to me that you know what you're conjuring is what you say it is... I'm sure you've probably conjured SOMETHING - there's a lot out there that's bored and looking for a good time, and will come when you call just because they're having a random moment and happened to like the sound of your energy. Also, how do you know the ONLY thing you're conjuring is what you say you're wanting to conjure - that there are no surprise friends coming along for the ride? How have you protected your mirror and your portal? Do you have and use an astral temple with an astral mirror or a fetch, as well as a physical circle and a physical mirror, with which to contact those species and work with them towards creating a contract that is acceptable? How did you BIND your conjure - the specific process you used? Is it really bound, or is it just an attachment? Do you REALLY know the difference? Attachments are not bound to a contract and you should remember that. Speaking of that contract, what IS your contract? THESE are the important questions. Not, "can you conjure?" Anyone can conjure.
The thing is, it IS that easy to find a realm if you know how to travel the astral. It's that easy to, having done so, find a being, chat for a few, agree to some standards, open your mirror, put a vessel in front of it, have them write their answers, and then pull them through the mirror and suck them into the vessel... seriously, and again, I know from personal experience that a 7 year old with the right knowledge can conjure. A seven year old with the right knowledge can bind. It's definitely better that you be able to actually see and communicate with what you're conjuring, but beyond that... the mechanics for the magick is absurdly simple, and yet all these posts about new conjurers act like it's some kind of technical marvel - it's ridiculous. What conjurers do isn't particularly special... and I can point to over 2000 places online alone where people could learn to do the mechanics of it for free.
Of course, you can't teach astral travel and proper sight to people... that DOES take time... but if they've already, really and truly, got that down, and they know how to cast a circle, who are we to tell them not to do it? My whole life has been based around the acceptance of the simple fact that magick is inborn, it's reflex - and you can find easy instructions on how to do just about anything magickal that you could think of, and quite a bit you have yet to conceive of, with the stroke of a few keys on Google. So why keep secrets in that world? It's far better for someone who knows their stuff to be telling people the truth about magick... that it's NOT something they have to work at, that it IS in their blood and bones, and that the only reason it's hard for anyone to do is because they expect it to be. It's harder to move your arm when you really, really think "Move, Arm," than it is to just let go and move it, you know? Almost every post I write about magick talks about that... that people are already seeing, sensing... they just need to realize that they are... and they need to drop expectations because it's not going to be exactly the way they expect it to be. Communication isn't necessarily going to have anything to do with your ears, or even words... stuff like that. The less defined you are about things, the more successful you'll be... I say that over and over... but the people who know ignore it, because they know... and the people who don't know, ignore it because they don't understand what I'm saying at all. This is no different.
If you want to learn conjuring, fine. If you want to sell, fine. If you suck at it, eventually it will fall apart and not be a problem. You'll get a bad reputation and it'll be done. If you get hurt, you get to pay someone more skilled for the cleanup, but that's your CHOICE. I agree with the concerns about all the new conjurers... but at the same time... I disagree strongly with the way it's being handled. Ultimately, conjurers need to adapt to the fact that conjuring is actually easy when you break it down into bits... and that because it is, people who are deaf, dumb and blind are going to try it out... but eventually, because they're deaf, dumb, and blind, they'll either not successfully conjure and they'll stop getting buyers, they'll conjure the wrong thing and it will be safe or unsafe - but either way buyers won't trust them anymore, and maybe a more adept person will get to make some extra money cleaning up the mess... or they'll turn out to be good at it, and not so deaf, dumb, and blind as everyone assumed. That's not a problem - that's called trial by fire. Evolution. The atrition rate of new conjurers will even things out over the long run... and the mistakes they make with their buyers will ultimately bring in more work for the people who do actually know what they're doing, which has the added bonus of getting an even better reputation and being paid for it.
The elephant in the room is not CAN people conjure, or even SHOULD they... the elephant, my dears, is that they ARE... and all we're all doing is saying, "Oh, noes! So bad!" That really isn't working for anyone - by not supporting them in their education, and merely griping about how dangerous it is, we are actually encouraging them to be irresponsible - and we are to blame when someone gets hurt, because we said nothing other than, "That person isn't ready to conjure." We did nothing about it but wail - which actually has the effect of making us look like we want to keep the buyers all to ourselves and we're greedy with both knowledge, power, and money - and we look that way to the buyers and the new sellers. That makes everyone more reactive and more stubborn - the new practitioners become more adamant that they can do this type of work, and the buyers feel like they have to choose sides - essentially this behavior encourages everyone to give up their RESPONSIBLE support networks. Perhaps, instead of offering censorial and dolorous comments about the fate of the buyers and seller... we should also be selling classes so that we can make them, and our buyers, safer.
Just my 2cents