Practical Witchery!, John Stormm [ap literature book list txt] 📗

upon a single aspect of a piece of technology, and another department tech, works upon yet another component and neither will be allowed to know or understand how their components may inter-relate, or be used in the larger project, or even what that larger project might be. ONLY the elite initiates will be privy to that knowledge and above those who lack that knowledge… not by nature, but by their own design.  It has worked for centuries out of hand, to keep their general rank and file memberships, from being aware of the true focus and intentions of their esteemed, but secretive leadership.  As ever it was, it has become the motus operandi, or pattern of all clandestine and "black operations" of their dealings to be hidden from public scrutiny, and judgement.

As I’ve illustrated in the earlier chapters, there’s a premise that if I want to realize a “profit” in my community structure in the long run, that I should educate my people now. By applying myself to this premise, I have broken down any artificial limitations on our people, by not with holding knowledge from them. That means, that ANY person capable of assimilating what I am teaching here, can be as upwardly mobile as they can personally excel in their craft. I am a “master” of my craft, simply because I’ve applied myself to my studies.

I am not master “over” you. I am merely a master of my craft, and I do not hold you below me, but create conditions that allow you to rise freely, to your own best level, without artificial political restrictions. All witches are considered “priests” or “priestesses”, as the case may be. But the patterns in how we hold and accomplish those offices, are VERY different than what you commonly see as the norm today.  But you can see those same patterns in MOST of the aboriginal, matriarchal cultures that still exist about the globe.  A warlock priest stands raised on a platform, and before his congregation. It is not by mistake that they stand between the altar and the people. They make themselves the “middle man” between their “God” and the people.  It is firmly in the minds of their congregations that no one comes before "God", without first approaching the priest.  It may even be preached: "Their is only one mediator between God and man, and that is Christ Jesus,."  But you've also heard that, actions speak louder than words.  And the actions of each repeated ritual has been carefully crafted to ingrain its own indoctrination in their minds.  They understand the drill.

Contrary to this:  Witches meet in circles around a central fire. Altars may be used, but tend to be of a more singular and personal use to them, and not so much as a group, unless ALL are in some agreement as to how it will be used.  A high priest or priestess is chosen, by agreement, for a set period of time to lead in ceremonies and such.  But eventually, all of us take turns as high priest. In a “sky clad”, or nude ceremony, ALL are rendered equal in that there are no dressings or artificial means, to make ANY of us appear to be anything other than what we are: plus nothing, minus nothing. Circles have no beginning or end and no place of pre-eminence in them. We are the magistrates, healers and teachers of our people. The wiser the witch, the more prosperous the community can become. It is NOT for OUR posturing, but service to our people. You see, I’m not here to proselytize you all into witchery, but that who ever you are that you can learn something from me, and be wiser in your own right. That’s my traditional function. This foolish world can stand ALL the wise men and women that we can become, to stand together and apply ourselves to crafting a better world and society for ourselves, and our children yet to come. But I don’t want to wander too far off the point of this chapter as pattern recognition.

Let’s take a look at how pattern recognition precedes the decision to use spellcraft as a problem solving tool. In my example here, I’m going to draw from a very common sort of pattern of a problem as many I’ve seen:

If there’s a bad trait that most witches and wizards tend to share: it would be that we tend to be notorious meddlers. We notice things, that most people never see coming, and it’s hard to resist interfering and changing the outcomes of what we see as potentially bad deals. In this case, there was once a young lady neighbor of mine. She had VERY bad taste in men. She had a thing for the “bad boys”.  This is probably the reason why she took so well to befriending me. Most people take my large hulking frame, long hair and beard, and affinity for wearing black, as an indication or pattern that I must be some kind of badasses biker dude. But the pattern breaks down here, as I don’t even own a motorcycle, and I only drink in moderation. I’m ALL witch, but who in this present day and age, really knows anything about that?

On more than one or two occasions in her life:  This gal had chosen to hook up with a miserable wretch of manhood, that would demonstrate their masculine superiority to women, by beating upon them. She was currently sharing the news with me about her current flame.  Certainly enough, and in keeping with her former pattern: In comes walking a tattooed, greasy haired, beer swilling, picture of testosterone poisoning, with a pack of Lucky Strikes, rolled up in the sleeve of his Harley T-shirt. Do you notice a potential pattern, or stereotye here? I did.

First of all, I should caution anyone about automatically assuming that biker stereotypes, or ANY stereotypes, automatically make them out to be scumbags. Outward appearances, by their very nature, are only superficial.  You could do yourself and your friends a tremendous dis-service by meddling in things, based solely upon their appearances. Superficial appearances can be an indicator of what lies beneath, but a wise witch must look deeper before making any kind of judgement call on them.  People surprise you sometimes. However, it is said: “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks,” and the truer colors of this man’s soul, came out in his speech and how he chose to try and impress me with his “guy talk”. He probably figured me for a “badassed biker” too. And spoke of passing around a few gals at a local hangout with me sometime, and I saw the same old story, coming around for extra bruises on her heart and hide. The pattern is recognized. The need is seen. Now to choose an influence that would keep this pattern from repeating itself.

Just a note for the guys or gals, that tend to find themselves in abusive relationships: It happens to BOTH sexes, and you'll probably hear a lot of excuses and apologies, and think for all too long, that the pattern of bad behavior will change. We're NOT just talking about *physical* abuse, we're talking about ANY level of emotional abuse. Some people just seem to know everything they need to know about hurting others, in all sorts of destructive and creative ways. If you get apologies or remarks like: "It won't ever happen again." You need to understand that, if you ONLY ever hear that once: It is very likely sincere. If you've heard it TWICE: It is suspect, and you need to take steps to make them understand that. THREE TIMES: And THAT is an established pattern. That means that this will likely happen again anyway, no matter how sincere they might seem. They may not have any real control or don't even want to control themselves better, but control YOU. You need to bail out of that relationship NOW, before it gets harder to do. Do anything that you need to, to put a safe distance between you and the abusive other in your relationship.

A “muggle” might simply assume that I will pull out a wand and bring to bear some form of arcane energies to put a stop to this. That is a pattern of thinking that has resulted from strictly compartmentalized ideas of the craft.  These are designed to limit their choices and options, to the point where they must nearly always have their problems sorted out by some appointed authority figure, other than themselves. A witch (wise one) has no such boundaries or limitations to their thinking, and I will demonstrate this by elaborating on my chosen solution to this problem.

My spell components were comprised of a cell phone in my pants pocket, with her home phone number on my speed dial. I set it up to dial, when I glanced at it, when it had notified me of an unrelated incoming text message. My next component was this man’s limited range of understanding, and his inherent fear that drives his need to appear tougher than he really was. When she had to step out of the house to return an item to a neighbor, I dialed her home phone from my pocket, in front of her new boyfriend. Her phone rang, and as I was standing closest to it, and he didn’t seem inclined to want to answer it anyway, I answered it. The “spell” or dialogue went like this:

“Hello?… Yes, this is Tamara’s residence…. Oh, hello doctor! She said she was expecting your call… She’s not here, right at this moment… Could I take a message?…. I know, she said it was VERY important to her about how the testing came out… Okay… she’s certainly going to want to know about that… She’s got a new boyfriend now… It came out positive?… You’re sure?… Nobody else, until she sees you for treatment first?… I’ll be sure to have her call you back as soon as she gets back… Right away… I won’t forget, she was concerned to hear this… good bye, doctor.”                *hang up, and look thoughtful*

If the new boyfriend was a dog, his ears would have been perked up. I thought his eyebrows were going to rise up into his hair line. He started to ask what that was all about, but I cut him off and said it was nothing at all, that I just had to have her call her doctor back. I even looked like I was lying. I was! But to his perception, all that carried quite another meaning. I rubbed my magic cell phone, said a few magic words, and her new found problem found the means to excuse himself and walk out of her life, before any serious damage was done. By the proper definition: It was a period of but a few minutes, where a brutish man’s fears were influenced, to cause him to make choices that would not involve hurting her and passing her about to his buddies.

When you recognize the patterns, you become aware of the next logical progression of a given situation. Instead of letting it all take you by surprise, the proper witch is prepared and waiting for it when it arrives. You learn to recognize what resources, influences, and forces you have about you as “tools” of your craft. To anyone else: “Shit happens.” To the proper witch: “We have the power to make shit happen!” and as funny as that may sound: It’s no joke.