A long time ago, in a galaxy… Oh to hell with it, it was last year, the Grey School linked to my blog.
Thus began a particularly interesting exchange. I’m going to paraphrase, because I don’t have a copy of the mail, and it was before the contact page was really up. I have a love-hate relationship with my contact page, but I generally think it’s a positive thing. People rarely comment on the blog, because I make it easy to get ahold of me. What is particularly enriching about that is that people who normally wouldn’t dare say they practice magic along with people who don’t want to consult a magician (in public) generally write me really heartfelt messages.
I hope people are familiar with the blog at this point, for the new subscribers, I post things which I think are OK for public consumption. Oftentimes I post about once a week to summarize things. I practice more than I write in public form, and those posts are only visible to me. The log here is when I’m speaking to a small set of people who stumbled into this, and sometimes I post videos of hangouts. I’m not really braggy, but I do solicit feedback from people who ask me to do things.
The point is – it’s free. I recognize a need on the internet to help people, and I recognize the need on the internet for what amounts to a free religious sounding board. I don’t charge money, but that also means I’m free to tell people “nope”. I don’t link to any blogs or sell any products. I am my own island, I like it, and oftentimes I neglect posting anything to the public.
Last year, the Grey School linked me. In fact, they linked to a post about the Goetia, which I’ve really come around to the idea that the OTA does it correctly where the spirits themselves bend a knee to the angels. I’m not going to fill it up with philosophical flowers tonight but the bottom line was that the particular post in question made me a bit nervous because out of context from the narrative arc, it could be read as straight up magical warmongering. This was before I had figured out the nuance required to apply the enochian heptarchy correctly and to good effect.
Being able to read only the first post, the effect was “This guy hasn’t had any problems with the goetia, why such a bad reputation?”
OK I could write entire essays on the perception of the goetia versus the operation of the goetia versus why I think it works the way it works and why I believe spirits have objective realities and existences. Starting with the fact that if we truly believe that other magicians have worked with them to no ill effect, why do they seem to generate ill effects when used in certain ways?
They’re all valid questions, but I really felt like I should have a discussion with this guy, and I felt like I should actually make myself available to give some context to the entire discussion. Linking to small snippets on the blog is as annoying as people who quote scripture out of context. I wrote the school a letter saying, “Hey, I saw you linked to me, and I saw the person had some questions, I would love to sit in on the discussion and discuss why I think it went the way it did and how to improve things”.
A few days went by (at the time I was unemployed and doing computer consulting work to make ends meet) and I got an email back. The person didn’t sign it and it was from a generic “info” mail address. They wrote:
“If you would like to join our forums, you can join the GREY WIZARDING SCHOOL by sending a check or money order to…”
Best of luck buddy. I would have done it for free.