Some Thoughts for the Practitioner of Magic

[azurelunatic]

...I want to put together a little book for myself and for others who follow along in my footsteps, on the proper and improper ways of handling a magical emergency, minor or otherwise.

I'll be collecting little bits of wisdom from here and there and shoving them all in a file on my computer and then organizing them in some form of coherent fashion.

I think it's a handbook that any serious Practitioner would have already gathered up him or herself, and taken to heart, but that any person still learning, especially on their own, could really, really, really use.

Comments

[gucky.livejournal.com]

After being forced to watch "Charmed" last night, I'd say the world needs that sort of resource, lest they think a magical emergency is being attacked by an evil electric demon that can only be vanquished by three sexy witch sisters in belly shirts.

(sigh)

[azurelunatic]

Oh... dear.

Actually the best handbook I can think of that are out there for explaining magical emergencies and how to deal with them would be fiction, Mercedes Lackey's Diana Tregarde books. Granted she's a sexy witch, but there's usually only one of her, and she's accompanied by a motley series of other people, and she wears jeans and a leotard. Children of the Night, Burning Water, and Jinx High are the three I know of so far. I know there is at least one short story floating around, too...

...actually, a lot of Mercedes Lackey's stuff is good, if a little high on the visible special effects.

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

Those *are* the only three there are, and the only three there ever will be. Misty got death threats over that series. ::sigh:: Now she claims, with volume, to anyone who makes even the slightest commentary to her about occultism, that she doesn't know *anything* about it, that it's all fiction, that nothing in her books bears the slightest resemblance to reality, and would everybody please Fucking Leave Her Alone about it. *g* Now she sticks to worlds that are obviously Elsewhere, like Valdemar and its surrounding countries.

And those of us who continue to use, for instance, her description of grounding and centering to teach newbie magick-users, nod our heads sagely and feel sad that she had to dissemble like that.

Plus I have first-hand accounts that the area around OKC actually does feel as she describes it in Jinx High. All I know is that I'm not comfortable there. I drive through it as quickly as I can on my trips to/from KC. I literally feel uncomfortable anywhere near OKC.

And then, too, those of us who identify as Guardians get teased for basing that on the Tregarde books...but I defy them to come up with a better word to use than "Guardian" to describe the job classification. *shrug*

[azurelunatic]

That's sad, and rather discouraging for those who would be writers... *sigh* Diana Tregarde was my hero during my teenage years, and probably the whole reason I am who/where I am today rather than somewhere else and someone else.

I know I've had to look a few things up in those books ... stuff I could find nowhere else...

...in fact, when one of my less mundane friends saw me reading those books, she promptly gave me a copy of Cunningham's Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner.

These days, I recommend them to anyone who wants good fiction on the subject...